finally a reason to run

If you were to call up my BFF right now and ask him my take on running, he would probably throw out one of two answers: Jeff hates running, or that the only good reason to run is to get away from someone trying to kill you.  That's been my lifelong take on running.  I still hold to the first part, because I do hate running.  But I have finally found a reason to run other than someone trying to kill me.  I ran (and walked, and climbed, and crawled) for clean water in Uganda in June. Below is my Active Water profile, because I am now I'm going to run for clean water in Cambodia, which is one of their projects.  Please take the time to read it, and pray and consider donating to the cause.

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I am raising money for Active Water's Cambodia project by committing to run in the Traffic Stop 5K on August 25, 2012. To learn more about that run and its purpose, check out this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/286732001368113/. I really do not like running - or more specifically, I do not like how hard it is for me to breathe when I run - but sometimes it's good to hurt a little bit for others. So what about this cause makes me want to run? I think it's good to work towards clean water for people everywhere, but this Cambodian project moves me. Cambodia borders Thailand. During the dry seasons, families send their children to retrieve water from a large river bordering Thailand, making them susceptible to human trafficking. The idea of young children being kidnapped and forced into sex slavery or other types of trafficking rips my heart. And it is amplified for me, because these children are Asian. My wife Sarah was an Asian little girl at one point in her life, and the thought of her being kidnapped and forced into that kind of life brings up emotions I cannot express. God used her parents, who adopted her, to protect her from dangers like that. I hope He can use my running to protect some young child who otherwise might suffer that fate. It's important enough to me to get me to run two to three times a week over the next two months to train for this race, which I hate doing, and I'm not asking you to do anything I wouldn't do. In fact, I am my first supporter on this page. I ask that you would pray about joining me in supporting this mission.

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If you'd like to donate to toward the cause, go to the following link: http://www.active.com/donate/ActiveWaterAsia/jeffselph

Thanks!

cause taping naps in your own bed stinks

Jakob isn't very interested in taking naps, and he's not afraid to say it.  Even when he's asleep, if you ask him if he wants to take a nap, he scrunches his face, shakes his head, and emphatically tells you, "no."  It's cute and hilarious.  When he's awake, when we ask him if he wants to take a nap, he will either tell us that he doesn't, or he'll ask if he can sleep in our bed. That's what he asked yesterday, so I said he could.  But then he wouldn't sleep.  It was family nap time, since Sarah and I both wanted to sleep, but Jakob kept getting up and moving around.  It was quite disruptive to sleep, so I sent him to his bed.  With great objection, he went.

When I woke up, I went in to check on him and give him a hug.  Only I didn't see him anywhere.  I went to make sure the door was shut and locked, as it should have been, and it was.  He was somewhere inside.  I just had to find him.

[caption id="attachment_1481" align="aligncenter" width="540"] No sight of him when I walked in the room.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1482" align="aligncenter" width="540"] His empty bed. Still no sign of feet sticking out anywhere.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1483" align="aligncenter" width="540"] I think I see something back there.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1484" align="aligncenter" width="540"] There he is! Cuddled up between the head of his bed and the wall.[/caption]

I guess he really meant it when he said he didn't want to sleep in his own bed. All options were better.

how I want to spend my Father's Day

I love Father's Day.  It certainly has its perks for me.  It's the one day when I'm lauded for my many contributions to the life of Jakob, or something like that.  So how do I want to spend Father's Day?

I want to go to church.
I want to eat lunch quickly.
I want to get home and take a nap.
I want to keep my pajamas on after I wake up from my nap.
I want to eat again.
I want to do as close to nothing productive as possible.
I want to be Garfield for Father's Day.  Somebody better warn my dog not to stand too close to any ledges.

the new intern

If the only person you're developing spiritually and in leadership is yourself, you're not doing anyone any favors.  You have to understand that you can and will eventually be replaced, and when you grasp that idea, developing someone who can do that just makes sense.  It's a scary idea to me, because I have trained people before in ministry, as God has directed me, and then God moved me along shortly after.  So when God put it on my heart to start developing someone again, I laughed.  I actually laughed out loud as I was praying and listening to God, because I thought, "Here we go again."  But I don't think I'm going anywhere for a long time, especially since God gave me a unique, young guy who doesn't want my specific job anymore than I want to give my job up.

[caption id="attachment_1468" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Chris signing his internship agreement[/caption]

This is Chris Johnson.  Yes, he is related to my boss, but no, that's not how he got this.  How did Chris come to be the Student Ministry Intern?  Well, he has been serving as a youth leader since my second Sunday in charge.  On my first Sunday, I sat next to him on a hayride and asked what grade he was in.  He gets this a lot, and from I can tell, it's not his favorite question to answer.  He informed me that he had graduated over a year ago, so I asked why he and his friend Brandon were there.  "We're just hanging out."  I let them both know that they would not be, as high school graduates, coming to YG to hang out.  As adults, they could come and be involved, or they could stay home.  Either way was fine.  They both chose to be involved.

Chris has been serving as a middle school small group leader ever since that time.  I can probably count the number of times he has missed youth group since then on one hand, and he's never just no-showed.  He comes early, talks to the middle school students, gets involved in everything.  He's just excited about youth ministry.  Two years ago, he taught one time.  He was nervous and a little shaky, but he wanted to teach, and I let him.  He didn't ask again, though.  Earlier this year, I had been praying about who I could get to teach, and I talked to him.  I asked him if he was willing to start teaching more, and he was.  That's also when he told me that he was actually praying about going into youth ministry.  He hadn't decided yet, but now he has, and he'll be attending Grace Bible College this fall to pursue that.  I'm so pumped for him.

So as he has been faithful in youth ministry for two and half years, and he is going into youth ministry, I asked if he wanted to meet regularly to discuss ministry.  He could ask whatever he wanted, and I would also share lessons with him that I have learned along the way.  He jumped at the idea.  Then I went and talked to his dad - my boss - about taking him on as an unpaid intern (unpaid because we cannot afford to pay him, not because he isn't great).  It had to go to the elder board, which should help to eliminate any accusations of nepotism.  They agreed to the idea of training a young leader who is pursuing ministry, and we took him on.  The goal is that he will be the Student Ministry Intern for one year and transition into a new role.  After one year, I would mostly let go of the reins and have him run the middle school for me.  Why?  Because the real goal is that when he gets done here, he would be able to take a youth ministry job at any church and be fully prepared to lead.

So what exactly will he be doing?  Well, this post is long enough.  You can ask him, or you can wait till the next post.

 

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.