1 Año

Today I celebrate 1 year in Monte Plata - 1 year of countless smiles, 1 year of countless tears, 1 year of unimaginable difficulties, 1 year of unimaginable joy, and 1 year of innumerable moments that have shown me more of Jesus and His Kingdom than I ever thought possible. 

Today I celebrate a million lessons learned. 

I celebrate the ongoing battle of me trying to manage my life and my ministry here on my own and God lovingly, yet forcefully, teaching me that I am not in control and will fail miserably without Him. 

I celebrate the limitless power of prayer that has so clearly been demonstrated in my life here throughout the past year. As John Piper says, prayer is a "wartime weapon," and it is the only weapon I've ever seen bring beautiful, restorative peace when used. 

I celebrate the lesson of thankfulness and the new discipline of thanking God for every piece of every difficult, stressful, and stretching situation. Ann Voskamp wrote "The feeling of joy begins in the action of thanksgiving." In the most trying and darkest of situations, in the depths of loneliness, and through the demands of work that seem unfair or to go unnoticed, I celebrate the way God reveals more of Himself as I chose gratitude and, in turn, chose to joyfully trust.

I celebrate God's people. I celebrate the team of 80 friends who have faithfully supported me financially in this Kingdom work over the past year. I celebrate the hundreds more who consistently lift me up in prayer. I celebrate the hundreds of sponsors who enable our school and orphanage to function each day. I celebrate our little North American missionary team in Monte Plata (James, Rebekah, Alex, and I) and the much larger group of Dominicans who selflessly and sacrificially run our programs every day. I celebrate the groups and individuals who have visited us in Monte Plata and poured love, resources, and time into our ministry and into our kids. I celebrate Dad, Riley, Vicki, Paige, and Tricia getting to visit me from home and experience firsthand the great things God is doing here. 

Today I celebrate God's provisions and pray for more of His Body - the church - to answer His call to care for the poor, the outcast, the orphans, and the widows. I pray for more of His Spirit to fall in Monte Plata. Extreme poverty, lack of clean water, lack of medical care, and lack of access to education are real threats that seriously affect real people here in this city that I love. I think of a kind and obedient little boy who lost his life in a river while out gathering wood for his family's cooking fire and I mourn the unavoidable fact that if his family had owned a simple, inexpensive, gas-powered burner, he wouldn't have been out by that river. I pray for His Spirit to bring hope, opportunities, and life-change here. I ask that you join me.

Today I celebrate Jesus in me. I celebrate that He is the only good thing about me. I celebrate that His life, death, and resurrection are the only things that make everything I do worth doing. 

I celebrate that I get to do this all again. As of today, year 2 begins. New lessons, new battles, new prayers, new reasons to give thanks, new people, new provisions -  Same Jesus. 

Specific Ways to Pray

The following is an excerpt from The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. Our team of summer interns here in the Dominican Republic read and studied this book together. I highly recommend it. At the end of the book, Richard gives hands-on, practical ways for Christians to combat the extreme poverty (and it's ensuing side-effects) that exists in the majority world today. As Christians who are called to fight for justice, equality, and care for the orphan, the weak, the afflicted, and the destitute, we need to raise our own awareness, to share stories of the plight of our brothers and sisters around the world, and to pray. I challenge you to read the list below, to discuss it with your children, your small groups, your Bible study classes, and your friends, and then to actually pray. 

When you take your morning shower, pray for families in poor countries who do not have access to clean water, forcing mothers to spend hours collecting inadequate and dirty water and causing children to suffer and even die from water-related diseases.

When you pack your lunch or your child's lunch, pray for the one billion people in the world who are chronically hungry in the world today.

As you commute to your school or your job, pray for the adults around the world who can't find consistent work to feed their families, or pray for the millions of children forced into harmful or exploitative labor.

When you drop your child off at school or arrive at school yourself, pray for children around the world who cannot get an education because of poverty or discrimination.

As you take a vitamin or medicine, pray for the families without adequate health care, leaving them and especially their children vulnerable to preventable diseases.

When you arrive home after work or school, pray for the children and families who are homeless due to poverty, conflict, or natural disasters. 

As you tuck your children into bed, guide them to pray for the millions of children who have lost their families around the world - especially the 15,000,000 AIDS orphans, many of whom must survive without guardians. 

This is one of my favorite prayers, a Franciscan benediction. Reflect on the message of hope contained within:

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, 

so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, 

so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people. 

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, 

so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really can make a difference in this world, 

so that you are able, with God's grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

And the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator, 

Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word Who is our Brother and Savior, and the Holy Spirit, 

our Advocate and Guide, be with you and remain with you, this day and forevermore. Amen.