My Own Tsunami

 I spent 20 minutes this morning watching this video about believers in Japan who are dealing with life after a massive earthquake and tsunami. God used it in a powerfully convicting way for me, hitting me with a force similar to that of a tsunami, as I listened to these men cry out to God in terror, in hope, in faith, in awe of the One they know is their only satisfaction and strength.

I've often wondered what would prompt a psalmist like David to say some of the things he said to God. There are Psalms where it seems he is crying out in anger, and I've thought a lot about what righteous anger means. There's a man praying in this video with that kind of anger. He shouts his prayers in a way that would create an uprising in many of our churches, but watching him grow weak and weep at the conclusion of the prayer, it made sense.

"I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eye wastes away because of my grief; it grows weak because of all my foes." (Psalm 6:7)

This guy knows what that feels like. He's experienced those very things, and he doesn't understand why God has allowed this kind of grief. His heart cries out that emotion to God, but in a way that expresses clearly that he knows the Lord hears and cares deeply for His children. He's angry at the sorrow that his church is experiencing, and yet God remains the only One to Whom he can turn. God alone can rescue those people in their distress and in their sin. It's a powerful testimony of one who has lost everything and yet has never lost faith in His Creator.

An Easy Choice?

We read Proverbs 11 as a staff today, and I have to say, I love how clear the Proverbs make it for us sometimes. This particular Proverb presents a choice, and rather than leaving us to make a blind decision, the writer answers every question we might ask when making such an important selection. Let's take a look.

Righteousness v. Wickedness

1) A false balance is an abomination to the Lord. A just weight is his delight. (1-0 Righteouness)
2) Pride comes with disgrace. The humble get wisdom. (2-0 Righteousness)
3) Integrity guides the upright. Crookedness destroys the treacherous. (3-0 Righteousness)
4) Riches do not profit. Righteousness delivers from death. (4-0 Righteousness)
5) Righteousness keeps the blameless' way straight. The wicked fall by their own wickedness. (5-0 Righteousness)
6) Righteousness delivers the upright. The treacherous are taken captive by their own lust. (6-0 Righteousness)
7) Wicked dies = hope and wealth perishes. (7-0 Righteousness)
8) Righteous are delivered from trouble. Wicked walks into trouble (8-0 Righteousness)
9) Godless man destroys his neighbor with his mouth. Righteous are delivered by knowledge. (9-0 Righteousness)
10) Righteous does well = city rejoices. Wicked perish = shouts of gladness. (10-0 Righteousness ... people are cheering for them now)
11) A blessing of the upright exalts a city. The mouth of the wicked overthrows a city. (11-0 Righteousness)


...that continues throughout the entire Proverb! A spoiler for you, Wickedness never scores a single point. It's such an easy choice! There should be no competition, and yet for some reason (sin), we always think the underdog might really be the better choice. NEVER!

Choose Righteousness!!

The Cycle of Misery

You know how there's that one Sunday school lesson that sticks with you for years? I've got one. I don't know why this is the one that keeps staying around, as there wasn't anything particularly meaningful about it at the time, but I think about it often.

It was "the cycle of misery" lesson.

I just finished reading through the book of Judges this morning. It's probably the first time I've actually made it all of the way through on schedule, and doing so made that cycle of misery stick out. Take a look:

2:2 - "But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done?"
2:4-5 - "the people lifted up their voice and wept...and they sacrificed there to the Lord"
2:11 - "and the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals"
2:18 - "the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them"
2:19 - "they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers"
3:9 - "when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel"
3:12 - "the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord"
3:15 - "then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer"
4:1 - "and the people of Israel again did what was evil the sight of the Lord"
4:3 - "then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help"
6:1 - "the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord"
6:6 - "the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord"
8:33 - "the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god"
10:10 - "the people of Israel cried out to the Lord"
13:1 - "and the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord"

What a sad, sad cycle to be in! I find myself asking the Israelites - "Why? Why would you forsake a God over and over Who has been SO gracious to you?" Why do continue to go back to your own ways when He's proven time after time that your sole joy and satisfaction is in Him?"

Every time I ask those questions, though, I find the Israelites almost screaming back at me from the pages of the Word. "Why do you do it, then? It's the same God, gracious and full of compassion, the One Who continues to show you that He is your sole source of joy and satisfaction. Your sin is no less than ours. Why?"

It's a good question, and I wish I had a good answer other than my own pride, selfishness and sin. I am thankful, though, that Jesus Christ has redeemed me from the eternal curses that my sin deserves. I am thankful that even in my cycle of misery, I have a Savior.

Reverse Culture Shock

It happens every time after I return from a mission trip, and it doesn't matter if it's an overseas trip or if we stayed state-side. There's a culture shock that hits me a few days later right at home when I least expect it.

This morning while worshiping with the body of UBC, I was standing in the choir loft singing my heart out, when I looked around and felt my heart drop. I was enjoying a fellowship so sweet, and yet I had just spent a week with people who would fall into one of the following two categories:

1) They desperately long for a family to worship with each week like that
2) They have no idea of the joy that they are missing

Why do we often treat our blessing of this gathering so casually, when there are millions of people in the world who are longing to share in it? Specifically, why are we meeting without passion when 98.4 percent of New England needs that fellowship?

As I was working through those thoughts, we started singing O the Blood, and then we sang In Christ Alone. I started having faces flash through my mind of those we met and talked with this week. So many people who could not sing the words of those songs honestly, and in many cases probably don't even have a head knowledge of what they mean. I thought specifically of Sham, who when asked how he viewed God, said, "He is gracious." We sang these words:

O what love, no greater love. Grace, how can it be? That in my sin, yes, even then, He shed His blood for me.

THAT is what grace really means! My heart longs for him to know that, to experience that grace in his life, and to fall on his face and worship his Prophet, his Priest, his King! Our own hearts need to be continually gripped by that truth. Our hearts need to deal with that reverse culture shock every day - because this world is not our home. We are living in a foreign culture every single day, and we should live as radically as that makes us feel.

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part VII

It's a late night tonight as I write this, but it has been a full and fruitful day. I'm typing this as I watch the Kentucky basketball game with Ryan, so if there are typos, frequent lapses of focus are the reason. :-)

As I mentioned yesterday, we spent the entirety of the day with Russell and Cynthia again today. They have been so gracious in giving of their time to our team, and we have definitely bonded as friends and in Christian fellowship over the last two days. Russell drove us this morning to a community called New Britton, which is a few minutes southwest of downtown Hartford. There, we toured the campus of Central Connecticut State University. The students there were on Spring Break, so there weren't many people to talk to, but we did find a few student employees working the information desk that were able to give insight on the campus. This is a university founded by members of the Jewish community, and many Jewish students attend here. Naturally, then, there are several different Jewish organizations on the campus.

Central Connecticut State University

The girls at the desk here told us that while there is great outflow from the university to the community through internships, jobs, community service, etc., there is not much of a presence of the community itself on the campus. We asked some leading questions to determine the reason for that, specifically related to the presence of a church or a Christian organization, but they indicated that there is not a great need for that because the university itself provides so many resources to students. Pray that the Lord would raise someone up to penetrate this campus with the Gospel!

After spending some time in conversation with Russell and then prayer walking a bit of the campus, we drove to Storrs, Connecticut, home of the UConn Huskies. The small rural community of Storrs is where Russell and Cynthia live, and they were gracious to invite us into their home for lunch. It was so nice to have simple homemade sandwiches after eating out for a full week!

CCSU Campus (the building on the right is meant
to resemble a lighthouse)

Following our lunch there, we drove to another community called Willimantic, Connecticut. This lower-to-middle-class town is the home of Eastern Connecticut State University (we've covered all but the north and west this week!). Again, the students here were on Spring Break, so we only took time to drive through the campus in order to make some general observations about the surroundings. As was the case yesterday, many of the areas we saw today looked much like Fayetteville, and all three campuses were laid out and had a feel very much similar to the University of Arkansas. If only we could get the temperatures to look the same right about now! Really, though, we've been blessed the last two days with sunny skies, and while still very cool, it's been much more pleasant than it could have been.

The whole day was building our excitement to see the University of Connecticut, and especially for Ryan and me because of the fame of its basketball programs. :-) Before our hosts would take us on campus, though, they forced us to have some of the agriculture department's dairy bar ice cream, which was some of the best I've had. Forced could perhaps be the wrong word here!

Best ice cream in Connecticut!

Russell and Cynthia showed us around the Alumni Center, which is where their church plant, The Bridge, meets every Sunday night. Because this is largely a commuter school, they have found that more students are in town on Sunday night than would be Sunday morning, though they do host a Bible study on Sunday mornings in the Student Union. They have been meeting for three years, and have grown to having 30 attenders on a consistent basis. Russell and Cynthia will be leaving this church at the end of the semester, though, so pray that God would raise up another leader to carry on the work here.

We spent some time seeking out conversations and prayer walking on the campus before heading back to Russell and Cynthia's house, and debriefed with them for a while before dinner. They had invited a few of their church members to join us, and five of them were able to come. We enjoyed so much getting to share with them about how God is leading us as a church, and to hear their hearts about this church and community as well.

A graphic representation of the religious diversity
of the UConn Campus

University of Connecticut

Ryan and I were particularly blessed to share in a few extra moments tonight with Russell and Cynthia, as they gave encouragement to us as a couple in the joys and struggles of a ministry marriage. We were blessed to pray together with them for God's guidance in both couples' lives in the near future. Please pray with us to that end as well.

We'll meet as a team of six tomorrow morning for brunch and a final debrief before leaving Brant and the Northeast as we return home. It's been a great week, and we're eager to see how God works through this team and through UBC as we proceed forward with church planting. Thanks for reading along with us this week! I doubt that I will post anything tomorrow night, as we'll be arriving back in Fayetteville late, but keep watching the blog for future updates on the life of this project and in the life of the Martins!

PS - The Kentucky Wildcats are now in the Elite Eight . . . makes for a very happy ride home tomorrow!

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part VI

Hartford, Connecticut

Today felt like one of our best days yet here in New England. We woke up to enough snow to make the ground pretty, but nothing was on the roads by the time we left at 10:30 - Praise God! With a good deal of rest and renewed energy for our final days here, we set off for Hartford, Connecticut. New Haven was about two hours from Providence, and Hartford is only about 45 minutes from New Haven. The short drives have allowed good opportunity to view the areas surrounding each of these cities, and have provided insights into what a church planting team would encounter while living here (aka - lots of traffic).

Upon arriving in Hartford, we met up with Russell and his wife, Cynthia. They are former IMB missionaries who are now leading a small campus church at UConn. They spent the rest of the day with us, driving us into the downtown area and guiding us on a tour of the close surrounding areas. We found that the downtown area of Hartford differs from Providence and New Haven in that it has more of an upscale look and feel, and it doesn't seem as compact as the others did. You'll find parks and "green space" in the Hartford downtown, whereas the other two cities had much more of an industrial feel. That, combined with suburban areas being closer to downtown here than at our previous stops, made Hartford feel more like Fayetteville to the group.

As we drove through town, we quickly drove through St. Joseph's College (a Catholic campus), and also spent some time at the University of Hartford. The U of H feels very much like the U of A, though on a bit of a smaller scale. Our team paired off in groups of two to prayerwalk the campus, and to seek opportunities for conversation. God graciously provided each team member with at least one of those opportunities, for which we are all very grateful.

The University of Hartford Campus

Personally, Ryan and I were quickly able to meet Sham, a Muslim student from Pakistan. He was reading a pamphlet about the Muslim faith when we met him, which provided an instant opportunity to have a spiritual conversation with him. He shared his beliefs with us openly, and then listened attentively as Ryan shared the Gospel with him as well. Sham is very intelligent and quite knowledgable about his beliefs, but he has no knowledge of the One True God. Please pray that this Truth would be revealed to him! He allowed us to pray for him before we left, and gave Ryan his phone number, so pray also that they will be able to have continued dialogue, and that he will be prompted to think about the things that were shared with him this afternoon.

From that campus, we went to Trinity College, which is a few miles away. This was founded as an Episcopalian college, although the congregational church at the time of its founding forced the college to establish that it would not impose its Episcopalian beliefs upon the students. This holds true today, but the college architecture is full of Catholic-looking symbols. The chapel itself is very beautiful on the outside, but the inside is almost Gothic in appearance and is far from a welcoming place of worship. The students here were on Spring Break, but Brant and Jennifer were able to meet a sophomore rowing student (Chris), who recently became a believer and is desperate for a place to find discipleship and growth in his walk with the Lord. He and Brant also exchanged information, so pray that a relationship can be developed there, and that Chris would find a place to worship with other believers.

Trinity College Chapel

Trinity College Campus

Beautiful architecture at Trinity College

The whole group then met with Joe Fisher, who is in the process of planting a church in the downtown area. He is currently leading a group of about 20, with plans for a more formal initial gathering on Easter Sunday. He shared more valuable information about the community as a whole, and about what church planting would look like in Hartford. From he and all others we have talked to, we have heard that the traditional southern church-planting model just would not work here. Planting a church takes relationships, time, involvement in the community, time, support from your sending church, and time. Pray that this is something that we will be able to clearly communicate to the body of UBC upon our return, as we seek how the process would look for us.

The site of Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon:
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

Tomorrow, we will spend another day, our final full day in the Northeast, with Russell and Cynthia, who have been so gracious to give up their time to host us here in Hartford. We will spend time in some outlying cities, as well as visiting the UConn campus and meeting some of the members of their church, The Bridge.

Thank you for your continued prayers!

Our Adventure in the Northeast - Part V

New England Water (seen through the fog)!

We are now a team of six! Our group is experiencing some new life now that Brant has arrived to join us for the rest of the week. We're grateful to have another guy to round out the team and that he was able to make it safely, considering some of the roads in the Northeast are gathering snow, sleet, etc. On that note, please pray that the conditions won't affect our travel in the morning. As of right now, we should be fine to make it to Hartford, but there could be more significant accumulation overnight. We're allowing ourselves a few extra hours to rest and get ready in the morning, so hopefully a later time of departure will help us as well.

We had our earliest morning yet today, as we met for breakfast with Tim, a Connecticut church planting strategist and pastor. He was able to give us some significant on-paper information about each of our Connecticut areas that will be useful as we look to the right neighborhood in which to plant a church. He spent some time driving us around the city, showing us the University of New Haven and the surrounding suburban areas.

The entrance to Yale

After that, Lauren & Kailey went to survey the Yale campus area, and the rest of us went to the public library in hopes of striking up conversation with locals. God was gracious to provide each one of us with beneficial dialogues with residents of the New Haven community, and we were able to learn much about the spiritual climate of the city.

For lunch, we met with Andy, who is the Director of Collegiate Ministries for the New England Baptist Convention (quite the title!). He shared more specifically about ministering to campuses, which is something we have really focused on as we look to plant another "University Baptist Church," or at least a similar model by another name perhaps.

Yale University Campus

As the day transpired, I was connected through various Facebook avenues with Sarah, who lives in a New Haven suburb with her husband and two children. As it turns out, her in-laws are actually members of UBC, her mom led in Bible Study Fellowship the same I did, and her family is very close to the Brills, who I work with at Lightbearers. Sarah and I were blessed to speak on the phone for quite a while this afternoon while the rest of the team debriefed, and she was able to give a perspective that we hadn't found yet. Again, God has been so gracious to provide timely appointments with specific people who will all be used to direct us toward that place that He has already set before us. What a privilege for us to be a part of that!

Southern Connecticut State University

As another day ends, I continue to ask you to pray for our team. We have now finished our time in two of the three cities, and already we have noticed extreme differences between them. Pray that God will use those differences to make it clear to the Body of UBC where He is preparing for us to be a part of His work. Begin praying, too, for the team that will travel to Boulder, Colorado, and Palo Alto, California, in May, as they survey an additional two cities. As we talk to more and more people, the need is revealing itself as more and more significant. So many we have met openly declare that they have no view of God at all, and that breaks my heart. These people need to have knowledge of a Savior - and not just knowledge - but they need to have a true, lived-out relationship with Him. This task matters!!!