two grueling weeks

This past Sunday, Amie from Active:Water came to our youth group and talked about the world water crisis.  She shared some pretty staggering statistics, one of which is that right now, around 750 million people in our world do not have access to clean water.  That number is down significantly over the last several years, even as the population of our world grows, and a big part of that is Christians stepping up and answering the call.  Organizations like Active:Water, Blood Water Mission, and Living Water International (who we're partnered with for this year's mud run) have rallied people around this cause.

At the end of her presentation, Amie challenged our youth group to be a part of the 2-week challenge.  During the challenge, you only drink tap water.  You can't have any pop, juice, milk (even with cereal), or even coffee.  You can read that as you can't drink any caffeine. This is nuts!  I had prayed over this for a couple months, as I knew they were coming.  I wanted our kids to step up, and they did.  Every single teenager that was there on Sunday night took on the challenge.  We're all going through this together, and at the end, all the money we would have spent on other drinks will be collected and given to Active:Water for their Cambodia project.

Why would you go through 2 grueling weeks without any other drinks?  Well, you can do it for a blessing from God.  The Bible says in Matthew 10:42, "And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded."  Or you could do it, because this crisis is real.  750 million people without drinking water and you know it?  How could you not do something, even a small something, about that?  James 4:17 says, "For him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin."

Would you pray about joining us?  What if everyone at Kalamazoo Community Church inconvenienced themselves for two weeks, saved their money, and gave it towards clean water in Cambodia?  That would make a significant, dynamic impact on the world.

I'll admit that it's not easy, but it's really not as hard as I expected.  Amazingly, as I've leaned on God, He's helped me through the last four days.  As with any other fast, you rely on God to sustain you and replace the thing you're fasting from.  Without caffeine or much sugar - because I consume most of my sugar through drinks - I thought I would be exhausted.  But you know what?  I'm not.  I am falling asleep earlier, which causes me to wake up earlier, and by mid afternoon, I'm fine.

my first time skydiving

[caption id="attachment_1455" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Putting on a brave face before the jump.[/caption]

I wanted to title this post, "Highway to the Danger Zone," but that would have been an incomplete title.  It would have had to have been "Highway to the Danger Zone While Strapped to Another Man," since I went tandem skydiving this past weekend.  Big thanks to the Sherminator and his family for taking me.  It was a really fun experience.  I was definitely scared, missing out on sleep Thursday and Friday night leading up to the jump on Saturday.  I was scared Saturday when I left.  By the time we got there, I had calmed down most of the way, and as we pulled into Skydive Great Lakes, I accepted what I was going to do and wasn't even fidgeting anymore.

[caption id="attachment_1459" align="aligncenter" width="224"] The plane I jumped from[/caption]

There were two things tied for most uncomfortable part of the day.  First, the leg harnesses were really bad, but the point is to keep you attached to the parachute, so I will forgive them.  They were bad enough when I was strapped into them, but when the parachute pulled, it got really uncomfortable.  It really dug into the legs, but again, it's better than dying, so I'm okay with it.  The second most uncomfortable thing was having to sit on my instructors lap for a couple minutes before the jump.  I really had to pass gas, but I didn't want to offend the man whose life my hands were in, so I had to hold it.  Between sitting on a man's lap for the first time in forever and holding in gas, I was pretty uncomfortable.

[caption id="attachment_1458" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The plane taking off.[/caption]

There were about 10 seconds of being really scared up in the air.  I wasn't the first person to jump, which was nice, but that meant I had to sit in the plane with the door open for a bit. That wasn't too scary, but it reminded me that this was real and about to happen.  The scariest part was when the guy before me went, and we immediately slid over to the ledge.  I was instructed to tuck my feet under the plane, grab onto my chest harness, and arch my back.  For at least five seconds, I was not touching the plane, and I wasn't going anywhere.  I was swaying in the wind, 3 miles in the air, attached to a guy I had just met.  He let me know it was about time to go, counted it off, and pushed off the plane.  We backflipped away from the plane and the free fall began.  That flip and the first few seconds after it took a second to adjust to.  I had to remind myself to breathe, and when I did, it felt like I was under water or had a bloody nose or something.  The air was very thin.

The free fall lasted for about 60 seconds, and when the chute came out, I was simultaneously disappointed that the free fall was over and relieved that the parachute worked.  There's a back up chute that would bail us out if the first chute didn't work, but I didn't want to experience that so much.  The rest of the fall lasted for a few minutes.  I got to steer - and I feel like a kid who sat on his dad's lap driving through parking lot just saying that - and I got to assist in a downward spin.  It was like a crazy roller coaster for a moment while I twirled in the air.

It was a great experience.  I would like to do it a couple more times, although at this point, I have little desire to make a solo jump.  Maybe some day, but for now, I'm content flying through the danger zone strapped to an experienced jumper.

Here's the video, shot from the ground.  It would have cost too much to have them film it in the air, so Hayden filmed it on my phone from the ground.  I'm the second person to land in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqAt46nfJ58

just get them to Jesus

Life isn't always easy.  Not for you, and not for me.  Sometimes, it can be downright miserable.  Even being in full time ministry - which you no doubt know is week after week of sunshine and roses - there are days when you just throw your hands up and wonder, "Really, God?  How am I supposed to deal with that?"  Those days most commonly happen for me when I encounter someone who is hurting, and I know you know I'm  ill-equipped to help.  When someone is in pain, and they look to me for help, and all I can muster is "I'm sorry," and inside I'm thinking, "I have no idea what to do," I start to feel overwhelmed, inadequate, and weak.  I'm sure you've been there.

Lately, I feel like I've been stuck in just such a season.  It's not been a day here or a day there.  Week after week after week, I've been faced with something that is out of my league.  It's gotten to me.  I've had to ask God what I'm doing here, and why He's letting me be in ministry.  Last Wednesday, after Celebrate Recovery, I pulled Todd aside and talked to him about how I was feeling.  After talking for an hour about all the messiness in our world, I went home feeling still empty.  I prayed about it, and I felt drawn to 2 Corinthians.  When I got to chapter 12, this is what I read:

“"My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

I'd been hard on myself for being weak, for not being strong enough.  And here Paul confesses his weakness, and how happy he is in the fact that he's weak.  We cannot do everything, and that's fine, because God's not limited in His power.

I shared this with a group of youth ministry friends, and Scott from Youth for Christ shared something in response that has resonated with me since.  There were men in the New Testament who had a crippled friend.  They brought him on a mat to where Jesus was teaching.  They were so intent on getting him before Jesus that they tore the roof off the building and lowered him down.  They were weak.  They could not heal their friend, and they knew it.  But they knew who could, and they got him to Jesus.  We need to get hurting people to Jesus.  We can't fix their pain.  We can't take it away.  But we can get them to Jesus.