Christian Materialism

As the days disappear and my 'big move' quickly approaches, I've begun to think about what things I'll take with me, what things I'll store, and what things can be gotten rid of. As I look around my apartment, I feel a sense of pride for the decor I've added and the 'stuff' that makes my apartment home. It's sometimes hard to think that I'll have to part with my cute lamps and wall decorations, and even my comfy bed. I don't want to give up my 12 piece, nonstick Pampered Chef pan set, and I don't want to leave my plates and silverware that are just my style sitting in a box for 2 1/2 years.

Then, I read Operation World, and the conviction comes rushing over me. I read statistics that inform me that 2.8 billion people live on less than $2/day {less than $730/year) and 1.2 billion people live on less than $1/day {less than $365/year}. That's less than I make each pay period as a teacher here in the US. I think of a dear Peruvian friend that lives with her teenage daughter in a 3 room house smaller than my apartment without a proper bathroom.

I read these statistics on a Christian blog that I follow:

• If you have any food in your fridge, any clothes in your closet, any small roof, rented or owned, over your head, you are richer than 75% of the rest of the world. We are the Esthers living inside the palace.
• If you have anything saved in the bank, any bills in your wallet, any spare change in a jar, you are one of the top 8% wealthiest people in the world. We are the Esther’s living inside the gate.
• If you can read these words right now, you have a gift 3 billion people right now don’t, if your stomach isn’t twisted in hunger pangs, you have a gift that 1 billion people right now don’t, if you know Christ, you have a gift that untold millions right now don’t.

Suddenly packing in 2-3 suitcases and a carry-on doesn't seem so bad. 

Remember the story of the Rich Man in Mark 10?
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

I firmly believe that the church in America (and around the world) is allowing materialism to slip in. Our churches keep getting bigger. We have more lights, sounds, and entertainment in churches than ever before. Prosperity theology {the health and wealth gospel - If you follow God, He will make you wealthy and keep you healthy} is being preached from the pulpit around the world misleading multitudes of people. We have fallen into the belief that bigger is better and all of our 'big' things are blessings for our good faith.

Satan, is lying to you and he's lying to me. Our earthly possessions are by no means a direct result of how strong our faith is. What about Christians in the deserts of Africa living on $1/day? If you believe your material possessions are a direct result of your faith, then you also must believe your African Christian brother who lives on $1/day must not be giving God his entire self. Do you believe that's true? I certainly don't. In fact, while working with people in living in poverty in Peru, I've realized that some of those people have stronger faith than I do, and they live with a whole lot less than I have.

Satan wants us to believe that bigger is better. He wants us to think that our possessions are a result of our faith in God. If he can get us to focus on our material things, then he is successful at taking our focus off of Christ and the cross. Isn't that exactly what Satan wants?

On the flip side, I believe that God has blessed each one of His followers rich and poor. I do believe that I am blessed, and my material possessions are a blessing. I believe that God has blessed me so that I can be a blessing to others. Each year when I go to Peru I take money I have saved with me, and I use it to bless those I encounter. I take a friend out to a meal she may not be able to afford for herself and we share life together over dinner, I've used it to buy clothing for a family in need, I've been able to support a family business by buying some of the product.

I also believe that my Christian sister living in poverty is a blessing to me. Her passion to serve the Lord and the depth and honesty in her prayers brings a tear to my eye. I want the faith she has, I desire to be as dependent on God as she is. Another friend has taught me what it means to trust God's plan while living in a home with a drunk father and absent mother. Even on the tough days, he admits that God has blessed him and he seeks to look for the good in everything rather than complain.

Life isn't about having money and things, and bigger definitely isn't better. Sometimes having an abundance of things is daunting (especially when it comes to sorting and packing everything to store or get rid of). Next time I start to think about what I'll take with me to Peru, I will choose not to complain about the limited weight and space I can carry with me. Will all of my favorite kitchen utensils, children's books, and clothing fit in my suitcases? Probably not, but I will choose to thank God for the things I do have room for, and I'll silently stow away the things that I don't.

The Questions Everyone's Asking...

The Questions:

Are you excited? 

Are you stressed?

How are your plans coming along? 

When do you leave? 

The {simple} Answers:

Yes!

Not really...
As good as they can be.

August 5th.

These questions seem to be conversation starters with me recently. I don't mind them at all since they give me reason to share my excitement about moving to Peru without bringing it up on my own. However, I feel like I bore people with all of my Peru talk, so stop me if you desire. I won't be offended I promise!

And for all of you who aren't bored to death with my Peru talk, read further for the more explained answers to the daily questions I've been getting.

Q: Are you excited?

A: I am most definitely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, absolutely, positively excited for my upcoming move to Peru! There are some nights recently I haven't been able to sleep because my mind just gets going. I'm excited for authentic Peruvian food. I'm excited to live near the ocean. I'm excited to actually spend time with and really get to know friends that I've only met and known for months at a time. I'm thrilled to finally have this chance to follow through with this dream and desire God placed on my heart as a teenager. 

Q: Are you stressed?

A: Did you read the second sentence in the answer above {the one where I mentioned not being able to sleep some nights}? I think deep down inside I am certainly stressed, but on the surface I'm feeling great. I'm trying to take one day at a time and get done what I can while also working in time to run, read, and soak up hours with family and friends. I don't want to miss any opportunity to be with those important to me, so packing for Peru and all that jazz is of least importance at this point. I still have a month before I have to be out of my apartment, and I've got 44 days before I leave the country...plenty of time!!

Q: How are your plans coming along?

A: Now this is a complicated answer to say the least. God's plans are falling into place, while my plans are irrelevant at this point. I feel that I've done and am doing everything I can possibly do. I have my visa, I'm reading through the curriculum framework I was given, and I'm in prayer daily asking the Lord to guide me and direct me. Like I said in the previous answer, I'm just taking one day at a time. I don't know where my permanent residence will be in Peru, I don't know what my budget will look like,  and I have no idea how to even begin to plan for teaching since I don't know my daily schedules or even how the framework actually works in a real setting. However, my confidence lies in the fact that the Lord has provided up to this point, and I firmly believe that He isn't going to leave me hanging now. Thankfully, I do have a place to stay for the first few weeks I'm in Peru, I will be bringing home more money than I am currently making and the cost of living should be less, and I will be co-teaching the first semester so I can learn the programs and curriculum firsthand before being thrown to the wolves.

Q: When do you leave?

A: My flight is scheduled for departure at 11:55 a.m. central time on Monday, August 5th out of Chicago, and I'll need to arrive at the airport around 9:30 or 10 a.m. Considering the drive is about 2 1/2 hours from where I live, we'll need to leave for the airport at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. If you want to get technical that is 44 days, 7 hours, and 38 minutes from right now. I don't think I'll actually believe that this is really happening though until I'm on the plane, and then I'm sure it will hit me like a ton of bricks. {I will be home for Christmas though, and every time I say it I start to sing it in my mind.}

Prayer cards will be mailed out tomorrow. If you would like one, please let me know so that I can get one in the mail to you, also. I plan to send my first prayer warrior newsletter mid-July, so if you aren't on the email list for that and would like to be, please let me know that, too!

Thank you all for your prayers and support. <3

A Night to Forget

"Boooooo!!!"

Do you hear that?

That's the sound of mockery my dear friends.

I've heard it in the presence of sporting events mostly, until just recently that is.

When I heard the boo-ing, I couldn't help but remind myself of the popular quote I had hanging on my door during my teen years, "What's popular is not always right. What's right is not always popular."

What had I been doing to have this mockery directed at me, you might ask. The reality is that the answer is quite complicated.

I was at a party. A party in fact that I didn't want to go to in the first place, but I went because I was visiting a friend in her hometown, and she wanted me to meet her friends.

What else was going on?

I was seated in a circle with the crowd, but completely disconnected from them while playing games and reading my Bible via the app on my phone in effort to avoid my surroundings of drinking, smoking, cursing, and other inappropriate, unsettling conversation.

No one knew what I was doing aside from playing on my phone, but I know they noticed my discomfort. Yet, even my good friend didn't seem to care.

Later in the evening one guy started chanting shots, and the discussion of everyone doing tequila shots sprang up. He went around asking everyone who was in. Of course, they all said yes. Except me that is.

And that's when the boo-ing began.

"You can boo me all you want, but I'm not going to do a shot," I demanded.

I wasn't sure if I should be hurt or peace.

Hurt because for one of the only times in my life I truly was absolutely unable to camouflage into my surroundings. I didn't fit into any part of the evening. Not the activities, not the conversations, not even the show on television in the living room was appropriate to engage my interest.

My tattoo was even mocked during a discussion on tattoos. "The Bible scares me," one girl said. As I tried to ask questions, she said she didn't want to talk about it and went back to the conversations on pornography, graphic novels, and conspiracy theories.

I felt hurt even for these people, including my friend, who are so far from understanding the grace and peace that only Christ can provide. I hurt because even when Christ was brought up by a fellow partier, the discussion quickly died in fear.

Then I felt a sense of peace.

Peace because I have faith that God loves me despite what these mere humans may have thought. Peace because I have security in the cross and death and resurrection of my Savior. Peace because I know that His plans for this world are far greater than the conspiracy theories I heard discussed that evening.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm thankful that I have a Savior who comforts me in times of hurt and frustration. I'm thankful that God gives me wisdom to make choices and strength to go against what the popular choice might be. I'm thankful for friends and family that I could talk to later who stand by me in trying times.

The only one I'm here to impress is the Lord, and I will stop at nothing to satisfy His calling upon on my life. 

In ALL Things GOD works for the GOOD of Those Who Love Him!

Despite frustration and annoyance, I can’t help but believe that today was a day completely designed and planned out by God himself. I learned yet another lesson in patience, flexibility, determination, and God’s overall provision. After a mechanical issue on my first flight and sitting longer in South Bend Airport {boring}, rebooking for a later flight which would reroute my entire trip, finding out that flight was also delayed until further notice, another rebooking, and 6 hours later than originally planned I arrived in San Antonio tired but full of energy and excited for a great vacation with my high school best friend.

Some of you may be saying, “How in the world would you consider the multiple flight changes God ordained?” At first, that’s what I thought, too. However, having had time to reflect, that’s the only explanation I can comprehend. I’ve flown multiple times and only once been delayed just slightly but without interference to any connecting flights. I’ve not lost luggage, and I’d never been on a plane that’s had known mechanical issues. {Knock on wood, right?} Today all of the above happened – except the luggage - Praise the Lord I didn’t check a bag; it’s hard telling where that might have ended up.

While sitting in South Bend this morning, I noticed a teenage girl hugging good-bye to her mother as we boarded the first flight {the one with the mechanical issue}.  I also observed her mom talking to another couple that seemed to be a family friend. {I love people watching in the airport.} Once on the plane the girl was seated by herself across the aisle from me, and the “family friends” were rows in front of us. We sat on the plane for about 20 minutes waiting for the mechanic to give us the final go {mind you, we’d already been delayed an hour}. After those 20 minutes, it was determined that the mechanic servicing our plane didn’t have the knowledge to fix the error, so we were told we had to get off the plane. I heard the teenage girl across the aisle ask the family friends what she should do, to which they responded that they were just going to go home. I hesitated, but then felt that I should see if she needed help. It was friendship instantly!

We waited at the check-in counter for an hour and a half together talking and sharing similar interests in Christianity, missions, and outreach to the spiritually poor and brokenhearted while also trying to figure out what our options were – she was flying to Philadelphia to visit her biological mom. They booked us on separate flights mine at a later time to Atlanta, and hers still to Detroit but at a later time as well.  Her mother ended up returning to the airport {which I later learned was her foster mom}, and she offered to take us out for lunch.

We left the airport and headed to Subway and Starbucks. Through conversation I learned that my new friend is technically from Liberia, and she moved to Philadelphia with her mom in 2007. In 2008 she was placed in foster care, and she has been with this family since then. Her “mom” is the principal at Elkhart Christian Academy and a former 3^rd grade teacher, so we were able to swap school stories and talk about church and other such things.

Upon returning to the airport for our new flights at 2:30pm, I learned that mine had been delayed to 7pm, and I would then miss my connecting flight out of Atlanta with the next flight to San Antonio being tomorrow morning {my original flight was scheduled for 10:20 this morning and was set to arrive in San Antonio at 5pm}. I immediately went to the ticket counter to see if there was any possible way I could reschedule on an earlier flight. While waiting in line, we learned that Musu’s flight, too, had been delayed.

Long story short, the broken plane from this morning had been fixed, and there was room on it for both of us to fly to Detroit if we left immediately. However, the flights from Detroit were all being delayed due to weather, and we weren’t given departure times for our connections to our final destinations. We arrived in Detroit hoping to find flights to Philadelphia and San Antonio. God is faithful, because we both ended up on flights leaving shortly after 8pm only 9 gates away from one another. {Detriot is huge, so this was a blessing.}

We sat together in the airport for 3 hours, had dinner together, and then parted ways. I’m so thankful that God provided a friend for the day because it would have been a L.O.N.G. day by myself. I’m also glad that I was able to help her out. {I could tell her mom was a bit hesitant putting her on a plane to Detroit with no for sure plan once she got there.}

While I wasn’t thrilled to be delayed, cancelled, late, etc. I do know that in all things God’s plans are best, and I’m sure that today was no exception. I’m now here in San Antonio with Cassandra ready to enjoy the next 4 days together! God is good!! 

Let's hope my trip home is slightly less complicated! :)