Update on Our Progress

There is a great little book called Serving as Senders that walks communities through what it means to be called to support cross cultural missionaries.  It contains the following diagram (which I incorporated into another presentation):

See that little ziz-zag line in the C area?  That's where we are.  Some days excited and motivated, some days overwhelmed and dragging -- but always moving forward, and that by God's grace alone!  And weekly we receive varying kinds of confirmation that God is faithful to his call and promise to send us to Uganda.

I (Travis) work from home now, spending my mornings in particular writing emails, creating proposals for churches, calling folks and communities on the phone.  In the afternoon we're trying to switch, and I focus on home/kid care, and Leslie steps into Partner Development mode.  It's a new rhythm of life, and it is taking a while to catch the beat.

November and December will be a bit of traveling for us.  We're visiting several different churches on the weekends in November.  Early in December the whole family will be spending a week in South Carolina visiting churches that have joined with us, and inviting others to do so.  Then, within a week or two after that trip, God willing, we'll begin our move to Texas!  More on that in a future post.

It is a difficult season for inviting people into partnership.  Not only does the recession challenge folks, but so many of the churches in our Anglican network must take into consideration present and potential litigation.  We also are growing in communicating a call to authentic partnership.  We want so much more than just getting individuals, families, and communities to send checks so that we get sent to Africa.  We really want to find ways of being in genuine relationship with our partners, and ways of facilitating relationship between them and our future community in Kabale.

I've been spending a lot of time in the earlier chapters of Hebrews recently, and am reminded again and again of the promise of God's presence and provision -- especially in fulfilling the things he has promised!  So pray for us that we remain faithful, that we return to a place of believing in the presence and provision of the Trinity in every circumstance, resting in Jesus who is knows what it is like to struggle the way we do, and who promises mercy and grace to help in our time of need.

For Reflection on All Saints' Day (Part II)

(Image from http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/images/thumbnail1.php/8a9674e9.jpg)

"On All Saints' Day, it is not just the saints of the church that we should remember in our prayers, but all the foolish ones and wise ones, the shy ones and overbearing ones, the broken ones and whole ones, the despots and and tosspots and crackpots of our lives who, one way or another, have been our particular fathers and mothers and saints, and whom we loved without ever knowing we loved them and by whom we were helped to whatever little we may have, or ever hope to have, of some kind of seedy sainthood of our own." (Frederick Buechner)

The image above, by the way, is by the Ugandan artist Eria 'sane' Nsubuga.  I'm just discovering his work.  He graciously gave me permission to use this piece on my blog.  Here is what he writes about the above piece, titled "Colud of Witnesses iii":

"This picture is based on Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders..." Uganda is a very poor country whose people are spiritually tuned to God, because unlike the West where wealthy people long declared their independence of God, we need a spiritual tonic for our very mortal existence. After all, in the words of Henry Mujunga, Africans live their lives 'in the valley of the shadow of death'."

For Reflection on All Saints' Day (Part I)

I got the following quotation from my father-in-law (Robert Montgomery) who got it from Kendall Harmon who got it from Eugene Peterson in his book Subversive Spirituality:

Because an appetite for God is easily manipulated into a consumer activity, we need these wise, sane friends as guides and companions. There are entrepreneurs among us who see the widespread hunger for spirituality as a marketplace and are out there selling junk food. The gullibility of the unwary who bought relics from itinerant monks in the Middle Ages - splinters of wood from the true cross, finger bones from the saints, a few pieces of thread from Jesus’ seamless robe - is more than matched by North Americans in matters of spirituality.

We are trained from the cradle to be good consumers. It is understandable that we seek to satisfy our hunger for God along the lines in which we have been brought up. But it is not excusable, for we have clear counsel in the Gospels to steer away form this consumer world: “Blessed are the poor. … Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. … Love not the world nor the things that are in the world.” And our Lord’s counsel is confirmed and expanded in numerous ways by our wise evangelical ancestors in the faith.

Spirituality is not the latest fad but the oldest truth. Spirituality, the alert attention we give to a living God and the faithful response we make to him in community, is at the heart of our Scriptures and is on display throughout the centuries of Israel and the church. We have been at this a long time. We have nearly four millennia of experience to draw upon. When someone hands you a new book, reach for an old one. Isaiah has far more to teach us about spirituality than Carl Jung.

According to Plan...

(image from http://www.architecture411.com/common/notes/1/plans.jpg)

 My first visit to East Africa was in January 2005.  The first major hitch in my plan was that I my original contact in Kenya seemingly had dropped off the face of the earth (or maybe into the Rift Valley), and I therefore had no one to pick me up at the airport -- and I was in London about to board a plane.  I quickly tapped out an email, shot up a prayer, and hit send.

When I deboarded in Kenya, there was a missionary woman waiting for me.  She was the mother of the former roommate of a cousin of a friend of a friend of mine.  Here are the first words she spoke to me:

"Are you Travis?  You've just learned your first lesson about Africa.  Plan A won't work.  Neither will Plan B.  And you can forget about Plan C."

My brief time in Kenya and Uganda confirmed her words, as have many missionaries and East Africans since.

But you know what?  I realized last week that it's not so different here in the States.  All I wanted on Thursday was a haircut (and a Cafe au Lait from that great little French place in Sewickley). I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say my hair is longer today rather than shorter, so obviously plans A-G didn't work.  Driving home frustrated I began thinking about  this at each of the 4 stoplights, and for some reason I kept hearing the refrain in my head, "...slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13.8).

As I reflected on the surprising connection between a frustrated haircut and an apocalyptic text, I had the following thought: God is outside time.  (Hardly original, I know. ) Right from the foundation of the world, according to Scripture, the Lamb was slain.  This event is the center of gravity for all of humanity's history.  Yet, from our perspective as linear, time-bound beings, it didn't happen until the 30's AD.  However, we read of the crucifixion and its outflow happening at the creation of the world. Since God exists eternally and in eternity, his plans don't necessarily follow a linear path.

And there's the rub.

As a follower of Jesus, I live according to God's plan, not my own plans.   I'm quite linear, as a human living in time.  God is not. That's why I'm often frustrated; that's why he isn't.  Underneath my frustration about my foiled haircut attempt is the fear that I'm running out of time.  Time isn't an issue for its Creator.  He is focused on a deeper work in me, in my family, in our communities, in our world -- his plan.

For just a moment, at the third stoplight as I thought about all this, I was able to be present to that greater work, that plan.  And I was at rest.  By the time I pulled in my driveway, of course, the stress began to build again.  These past several days, however, I've tried to make a practice of returning the third stoplight.

Hoisting the Sales

We cannot create the wind or set it in motion, but we can set our
sails to catch it when it comes; we cannot make the electricity, but
we can stretch the wire along upon which it is to run and do its work;
we cannot, in a word, control the Spirit, but we can so place
ourselves before the Lord, and so do the things He has bidden us do,
that we will come under the influence and power of His mighty breath.

(Streams in the Desert, p. 181)

(Photo from djpd's photostream)

This quotation summarized what we were hearing from God in early June of this year. We didn't know when the wind would blow -- when the Spirit would finally send us to Uganda -- but it was clear it was time to ready ourselves in a more radical way.

Now, almost 4 months later, we're seeing a stirring in the sails.  Our support steadily trickles in, more people and churches are expressing interest, I've left my work at Trinity, Leslie has started packing up our house, we're preparing to have a Yard Sale to say goodbye to most of our things....  We're living like we're leaving!

Because we are.

Here's a snapshot for those who are just joining us in our story.  In 2005, God made it clear he was calling us to Uganda.  What started as a small desire for our family to be shaped by East African Christians has grown into a vision for joining that African family in raising up a generation of Ugandans to reach the world for Christ!

(Baluka is one of those East Africans!)

So, four years later (and four years later than we had planned), we're going to be joining the faculty, staff, and students of Bishop Barham University in Kabale, Uganda.  I'll be overseeing their computer lab and teaching biblical studies, and all of us will be cultivating relationships in this wonderful community.

We'll also be joined by the Morrow family, a wonderful gift from God!  (Check out their bravescaredwarrior blog.)

 

(Yep, their kids -pictured here - look a lot like our older three.)

(see what I mean?)

  

While teaching, working in the computer lab, and working in the hospital (Morrows) will be our primary roles there, at the heart of our work is this vision of raising up a generation of East Africans to reach the world for Christ. Uganda has been doing this for a long time already, and the Christian community in Kabale has been a significant part of this work.  But there is more to be done, and they and God have invited us to join them.  We have lots of ideas, but we'll begin simply by living, learning, and loving with them.  And, as we go, we're being prepared, shaped and sent by Global Teams, who consistently reminds us that we are to be yearning toward "seeing the heart of Christ in the skin of every culture."

 

So, the wind is beginning to blow.  There is a lot between here and there, and the seas seem pretty chaotic and choppy to us at times.  That's why we're grateful to be following One who walks on water and hushes waves with a word -- and that's why we need you with us.