Gettin' it done!

I'm in Maryland right now anxiously awaiting the opening of this weekends play, Charlotte's Web. Why you ask? Well, because I was brought in 2 weeks before the opening to get it done! The original director was pregnant and delivered a healthy baby 12 days ago which obviously hindered her ability to be at the rehearsals. Things were a little chaotic, but are beginning to settle down and everyone is looking forward to a great show! After leaving Maryland this summer to work in Michigan I had mixed feelings about not being able to be a part of a production. God answered my prayers, in an unusual way, (which I like about Him) and gave me the opportunity to come back to the D.C. area to direct and produce the show. I see this as ministry that God has given me. Sure, I go overseas to third world countries and work, but I'm ministering to kids in the States right now and that is just as important. They need to know Jesus, develop a Christ-like character, and be loved. And that's what I'm up to!

Siberia, February 16-25, 2007

My first trip to Tyumen, Siberia was quite an adventure! The purpose of this trip was to lead worship at our host church, train and encourage Siberian pastors, and host conferences for widows. I was also planning on filming the trip to use for upcoming videos. Our team was made up of 7 people. My parents, a drummer, a worship leader/guitarist, 2 vocalists/pianists, and a violinist(me!).
We flew out of Detroit on Friday, Feb. 16. Our flight was delayed 2 hours so we missed our connecting flight in New York. We had a pretty rough time getting our tickets reissued, but 2 hours later we were given tickets for the next night to Moscow. We arrived a day late in Moscow. We went to pick up the luggage and only 4 of our 10 bags had arrived. Four gift bags for widows, my personal suitcase and one other personal suitcase were lost. I stood in line for 2 hours to report the problem. Our team then took a bus through Moscow to the domestic airport. We had several hours to pass before our evening flight left. We sat at a little cafe and shared with one another.
We arrived in Tyumen, Siberia at 1:30 am and were greeted by several of the pastors from the Christian church. They drove us about 30 minutes into the city and we moved in to our hotel. The hotel rooms were narrow, single rooms with a small European bathroom. Very clean, but very cold!

On Monday we drove to the church to set up for a 10am worship service. The service lasted about 2 hours. It was great! We played several praise and worship songs, shared testimonies and my dad preached. The rest of the week we held the 10am services. As the week passed, the numbers grew. By the end of the week, we even had a Russian bass player!
The services took up our mornings, but we had the late afternoons and evening to do ministry as well. Following the morning service we ate a homemade lunch at the church. The lunches consisted of rice and chicken, homemade noodle soup, beet soup, perogies, fruit and chi(hot tea). We did not want for food! My dad and the two men on the team would stay and minister to a small group of pastors through teaching, prayer and answering questions. My mom, the two other ladies and I would prepare for the widows conferences.

We had 7 widows conferences in that week. A few of them were out in the villages. A typical widows conference includes teaching, a meal, prayer, giving gifts and some music. I was able to play my violin at most of the meetings. It was so sweet because as soon as I finished playing my first song, Amazing Grace, the ladies would start requesting hymns and then start singing as I played. One group of ladies even took out their Russian hymnals to follow along. One particular evening we were holding a conference at the Baptist church and our translator was running late. Well, none of the ladies spoke English so we were trying to communicate with our hands and smiles. I decided to get out my violin and play for them. That is when they took out the hymnals and began to sing. I love how God made music a universal language! At the end of the worship time, one of the younger widows raised her hand and asked to speak. (Our translator had arrived) She said that recently she had been dealing with doubt and insecurity, but when she heard the music she felt the Lord comforting her. That was such a blessing to me!

Day 7 arrived and I still did not have my luggage. The communication between the Moscow airport and ourselves was not very clear, but God answered our prayers and that night I got my bag. Unfortunately, no other bags arrived. We were still missing 5 bags! The excuse that customs gave to us was that we had "tools for measuring and drilling oil and gasoline". Now, that's a joke! Fortunately, we were able to pick up our bags in Moscow on the way home.

Even though I did not have my bag for seven days, the Lord extended the battery life on my video camera so that I was able to capture some great footage. That was another answer to prayer!

The trip was another reminder to me that I have Christian brothers and sisters all over the world. We believe the same things and in the same Lord! We worship together and don't let the language barrier stand between us. Praise the Lord! I can't wait to go back!

Nicaragua, January 13-20, 2007

I led my first official START Ministries trip a week ago. It was awesome! I had been planning for months and coresponding with the missionaries in Nicaragua just as long. Finally the day arrived for me to step on the plane in Detroit and step off into a different culture to proclaim God's good news.
5 team members flew out of Detroit and we were meeting up with the other 4 in Houston. Once the team was complete, I felt like we gelled very quickly!
The plan was to fly into Managua, Nicaragua, spend the night and leave early the next morning to catch an "in-country" flight to Bluefields. Our ministry was to take place in Bluefields.
If you are not familiar with Nicaragua, it is compareable to the size of New York with about 5 million+ people living in the country. Managua is on the west coast and Bluefields is on the east coast. Bluefields is known as a "black water city". The city received it's nickname due to the allowance of outhouses and bathrooms being placed directly over the water. You can only imagine the pollution and smell. As I sat on the balcony porch of our motel the first night and looked out at the water it made me so sad. What could have been an absolutely breathtaking view of the ocean was the view of a disgusting, murky, brown ocean. As I continued to reflect on this, the thought occured to me that this is how our hearts are before we know Jesus. Even if we are incapeable of changing the water in the city, we are not incapeable of sharing the love of Christ. Each murky heart can be cleansed with the blood of Christ. That gave me hope for the week!
The plan of action was kid's camp. We had three days of supplies and lessons prepared. We held two camps a day in two different locations. The morning camp was held at Verbo Church and the afternoon camp was held at Verbo school. The school was next to the dump so the kids were more underpriveleged who came. The camp consisted of singing songs in Spanish, acting out a Bible story, teaching a Bible verse, making a craft, eating a snack and playing games. The first day we had a total of about 100 kids. That was really good, but we were praying that God would double our numbers. So don't be surprised when I tell you that on Tuesday we had 200 kids! And then of course our prayers continued to be answered when on Wednesday we had over 400 kids!
On Thursday we purchased food for 15 families who lived in the dump. There is a young lady in the Verbo church who is ministering to these families on a consistent basis. Our team wanted to support her ministry and be an encouragement to her. We provided flour, salt, sugar, beans, rice, milk, 2 boxes of matches and oatmeal for each family. When the women of the families came to receive the food one of our team members presented the gospel to them.
Several of the children who were listening to the gospel message gave their lives to Christ that day! Praise the Lord!
I found out later that day that our team was the first group to support this young girls ministry. When I spoke with her after the food was distributed and she was given extra supplies for the upcoming weeks, she was in tears. She couldn't believe that someone would care so much about such a small ministry. I told her that no ministry is small in God's eyes. I continue to pray that God will supply her needs as well as the needs of her new ministry.

Urbana Missions Conference

START Ministries made its first appearance at the historic Urbana Missions Conference on Dec. 28, 2006. We had a team of 5 working at our booth. There was never a dull moment with 22,000 attendees roaming around! We spoke with hundreds of high school, college, and young adult aged people who shared our vision in proclaiming the gospel. There were over 200 people who signed up showing their interest in being part of a short term missions trip.
The widow's ministry was also blessed! We had several ladies who were very interested in learning more about how they can get involved in the ministry.
We had several serious invitations to come work with other ministries. One was to India and the other to Nepal! I love how God networks people!
I do have to share a little about my "booth neighbors". You can see a bit of their booth called, Synergy, in the picture above. The ministry is based in New Jersey and let me just say, I love them!! They are computer geniuses and business professionals who volunteer their time for organizations like ours as well as to third world countries to help enhance and advance technology.
As a result of Urbana, new ministry friends were made, potential short term trips were formed and we at the START booth were blessed by the teaching seminars and encouraged by the others who share our similar vision. I am so glad God provided the way for me to go!

Nigeria Trip Daily Journal

I decided to enter portions of my handwritten journal from the Nigeria missions trip I just went on. Since we had no internet access there, it's a little late, but there are some great stories of God's faithfulness that I cannot leave unwritten!
Thursday, 10/12/06-10/13/06
We left the Detroit airport on a red eye. Things were going very smoothly. Our team had arrived early, checked in, and boarded on time. As we taxied out to the runway, the captain came over the speaker and said that a warning light had appeared on the computer and we needed to return to the gate. So as we slowly taxied back the long stretch, I took a look at my ticket. Our connection in Amsterdam allowed us 1hour and 45 minutes, but we were set back 50 minutes. We we arrived in Amsterdam we RAN to terminal "D" which was NOT next to terminal "E". We all made it on board. I am now sitting on a plane in Lagos, Nigeria. I just pray our luggage made it.


We arrived safely in our hotel. It was quite an experience! First of all, after landing and moving through immigration, I felt like I was in a sardine can when we went for our luggage. You could not move. It took a while for us to get all of our 9 bags, but once we had them, we made our way to the exit. A guard questioned my father about the contents of the bag and looked suspicious about the number of bags we had brought. I thought my dad was going to have to pay him off, but when he said, "we are coming to bless the widows of Nigeria", the man said, "ok, please pass through."
As we continued our walk outside it was such a vast difference from my previous experiences from other countries in Africa. Much dirtier, many more bodies and cars going in literally every direction, at each other, and beeping every 3 seconds. Once we hit the doors, our host pastor met us there with his team. I wasn't surprised by the constant propositions for money from beggars. We waited about 15 minutes for the cars to come pick us up and then drove on to the hotel. We are going to spend the night here in Lagos and fly out in the morning to Onitsha.
SATURDAY 10/14/06
Well the third leg of the trip was definately interesting! We woke up early and met Pastor Tony in the hotel lobby. We rode over to the national airport. This was much different from yesterday. It seemed like we were at a sea port...let me explain...this airport is used heavily for exporting goods so while we waited for Pastor Tony to purchase our tickets, I saw many large boxes and bags go through "security". After about 1 hour, we went into the waiting area. It was very crowded. After a few minutes a seat opened up between two Nigerian women. I sat down and began to read a book. A man selling jewelry came by and offered a look to the ladies. The older lady threw a packet on my lap and declared it to be fake. I simply nodded my head. She then asked me to watch her seat while she went to the restroom. When she returned we struck up a conversation. This Nigerian lady turned out to have her PhD from Howard University and had lived in Greenbelt, Maryland. What a small world! As I explained our ministry in Nigeria, she asked, "But what are you doing? That is not enough." It was like I was talking to a brick wall after that because she wouldn't really listen to what I had to say. I prayed and asked the Lord to soften her heart and see that we just wanted to share the love of Christ. I ended up talking with the lady for an hour longer than expected since our plane was delayed. When we walked out to board our plane we had to identify our luggage before they would put it on the plane. It was an easy 50 minute trip from Lagos to Enugu.
Once landing in Enugu we saw a Nigerian Air Force plane with red carpet rolled out. We learned that the President of Nigeria was leaving the area. When we picked up our luggage we waited at a belt but it surprised me to see a pickup truck driving in our bags. Quite humorous actually.
The next leg(what # is this?) was for us to drive about 1 hour to Onitsha. When we arrived, the Widow's conference had already begun. Some of the widows had been waiting since 7 am for the noon conference. We didn't arrive until 1:30pm due to our delayed flight.
On arriving at the church, I was overwhelmed at the greeting they gave Mama Linda and me. It seriously felt like walking down a red carpet with everyone touching you and wanting you to smile and touch them back.
The conference was wonderful. Mama Linda spoke, the Pastor's wife, Hepsibah sang and led worship, and we handed out gifts to every widow. When it was over, we went back to our hotel and took a nap. Talk about jet lag!!!!
I desperately needed to shower...the pollution and dust here is unbelievable. And the driving....there are no lines on the road-and most of the roads are dirt. People just drive anywhere on the road. If you want to pass, you simply honk your horn. The motorcycles definately make it fun because they weave in and out driving the right and wrong way. Anyway, when we arrived at the hotel, owned by Christians, I went to take a shower and there was no water. So I used the bottled water and watched as the water turned a brown color draining out of my hair.
SUNDAY 10/15
Church this morning was great! We left the hotel at 9am and sat in a 6 hour service. Yes, you read that right! 6 hours. It actually only felt like 2 or 3 hours. I love how the Africans don't worry about time...no one checks their watches, the service isn't moved by the clock on the back wall, but by the Spirit!
MONDAY 10/16
1. We went to the market place today. There were mainly men at this market place since it was tools, tires and machines that were sold there. We set up a sound system and people from the church choir sang, the team evangelized and many were saved! One thing I learned (that wasn't spiritual) is not to drink water before going out on the field....you guessed it, I had to go to the bathroom...I had to have 2 men from the church escort me about 1/4 of a mile through the marketplace to a "bathroom" which I had to pay for...I never felt so white and so stared at in my life. I think I got a little taste of the tables being turned.
2. After the marketplace evangelism, we drove about 30 minutes to the police headquarters of Anambra State, Nigeria. We saw the top 6 officers, an SSS director(like our CIA/FBI) and several other police men and women. The American police officer who was with us, Bob, made a presentation from the State of Michigan greeting them and congradulating them on a job well done. They were overwhelmed! Later in the week, we each received a plaque that greeted us and thanked us for our work here in Nigeria. How cool!
3. We then drove to another town about 1 1/2 hours away. I thought that our driver said it was 10-20 minutes away--I was in a car, the widows didn't roll down and I was in the back and the roads were terrible.....I got sick, really sick. We finally arrived at the little town and held the inagural conference for this chapter of the widows. There were approximately 70 there in a tiny room. Of course, I had to use the bathroom again so when the lady took me to the "bathroom" I thought I was prepared...but this time it was a banana tree! Ha! I met some children there and couldn't communicate in words, but actions and smiles meant the world to both of us. I love how God gave us multiple ways of communication!
4. We drove back in to Onitsha(I was in a car with windows that worked) and I had pineapple, papaya and banana for dinner then we rushed over to the church where the first evening of revival services were starting. My dad preached. It rocked!

Reverse Culture Shock

I have been on over 20 foreign mission trips, but none have affected me on the return trip like the one I just got back from. I traveled to Onitsha, Anambra State, Nigeria in Africa this past October with my parents and two other men from Michigan. I was only there one week, but I cannot get the pictures out of my head. That's not a bad thing...it's just tiring because it's so consuming.
I'm sitting at Panera Bread right now watching others eat their meal with the electricity on and wonder what the reaction would be if we lost power. Would we immediately pray or praise God for His power because that is all we need? Or would we freak out? In Nigeria we lost power at least 30 times while we were there. It wasn't always for a long period of time, but it would go off and on every few minutes and it could have become very annoying. But instead I chose to praise God. To thank Him for flashlights and batteries. And when the batteries died, praise Him for the moon that He made.
Another picture that runs over and over in my mind is sitting in church on Sunday morning....which rolled into Sunday afternoon. We had a 6 hour church service! Now, most reactions would be 'what! that's sooo long' or 'there is no way I'd go to a 6 hour church service'. But I never looked at my watch or thought about the time. God was present and no one was rude enough to leave. Schedules and football games did not preempt time with our Maker. Then why do I sometimes continually check my watch when I'm sitting in church in the States? Why do you?
Since I have returned from Nigeria, my challenge to myself is to see God how I saw Him there. He is no different. He never changes. His love is unfailing. I didn't waste time on petty things. We don't have that luxury...that's not why God created us. We have work to do. I have work to do. Here and in each country God calls me to. Take off the rose colored glasses, put away your palm pilots and let God be your eyes and your pilot.