Over the course of this year, I've learned...

• Not everyone loves peanut butter (I'm with you… it's shocking!)
• God is more alive and at work in real, tangible ways than I or the generally apathetic American scene will ever know
• White water rafting is 100 times more fun when your guide is not necessarily concerned about your safety
  

• If you haven't jumped in two minutes, step away from the 50-foot cliff.  You're just going to hurt yourself (you really should jump, though, because it's freakin' awesome!)
  

• Always have a few days of Cipro pills with you when you're in a foreign third-world country.  It seriously might save your life
• Brokenness is a state that makes us afraid, hurt and confused because most times, we don't choose into it… but it's the place where God reveals Himself in the clearest way--giving us a view of Him that motivates us to follow Him closer.  In the end, brokenness is the state that will change your life and you'll look back at it as if it was the best time of your life because all you'll remember is how God worked through it
• Rats are the size of puppies in most cities of the world.  Oh, and they don't hesitate to crawl on you as you sleep (week 2 of my World Race…awesome :/ )
• Real love is hard love.  Yeah… think on that one for a while before moving on.  Are you allowing yourself to give people real love?
  

• I will never poke fun of or judge someone from a different country for being unaware, ignorant or not up-to-speed with customs or norms because I have pulled the same card (on purpose, usually) and feigned ignorance in every country I've been to.  It's an extremely useful tool.
• The Coca-Cola and McDonalds brands are devastatingly more successful than the message of Christ throughout the world
• If I were a farmer (of any kind), I'd be dead or homeless within a year
  

• Prayer.  I don't know what it is… I don't know how or why…  But it works.  In humility, honesty and intimacy, we need to be in constant conversation with our Father (to do MORE than just ask for things… praise His name above anything!)
•  Always carry a roll of TP with you when you travel.   If you're traveling internationally, bring along some loose change as well because it's going to cost money to use the toilet/rest room/wash room/comfort room/water closet/squattie potty/whatever they call it where you're at.
• “What kind of meat is this?” is a question that should never come out of your mouth in third-world countries.  If it tastes OK, just slap a smile on your face and go with it. 
• A full, unkept beard and shaggy head is actually a very distinguished look despite what others may say or think.
  

• Contrary to my previous mindset that being a Christian is boring, “Following the Son” is the most exciting thing I could've ever done with my life (now and into the future)
  

• This may be an obvious one but for a genuine cultural experience, stay away from any touristy spot.  Step one: lock up your cash; Step two: go down a side street and get yourself lost; Step three: it's different every time (precisely the beauty of it)

• It takes at least two weeks to feel and be treated like a local.  Therefore, that vacation or service trip you've been thinking about should be at least three weeks long if you want to get the full experience. 
• Offering yourself as a human jungle gym is by far the easiest way to make friends with a kid under the age of eight.
  

• After living in multiple other countries, remembering the local currency and exchange rate will get extremely confusing.  I may or may not still think of prices in terms of Malawian Kwacha… which is 150 to 1 USD.
• Every parent should put aside their protective instincts and encourage their children to go abroad either before, during or immediately after college.  The experience will put their entire life into perspective and grow their maturity to a level that's almost impossible to reach inside the hometown bubble.
• The English Premier League is more popular in the rest of the world than the MLB, NFL and NBA combined. 
• There are times when your actions and the plain and simple cross around your neck will say more than what could ever come out of your mouth.  Along with that, you can completely sidetrack someone's view of what it means to be a Christian just as easily.
  

• Americans are generally louder than just about every other culture on the planet. 
• Starbucks is one of the best jobs available for young adults around the world.  They attract the friendliest, brightest and most driven people wherever they are.  In many cases, a Starbucks employee will speak better English than your translator. 
• For some disappointing reason, the rest of the world doesn't really care about chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies or brownies.

• The locals in Asian countries immediately have more respect for a Westerner when they see he or she can use chopsticks properly.
• Updating friends and family on your digestive health in normal conversation is completely appropriate.
• There's no “right” side of the road to drive on… it's just different. 
• America really needs to convert to the metric system.  Seriously… nowhere else in the world uses Fahrenheit, ya'll!
• Motorcycles are the most convenient form of transportation EVER.  No traffic, minimum petrol and tons of fun.

• General rule of thumb for international travel: If you're in Thailand, eat Thai food.  If you're in Ireland, eat Irish food.  Good American food is rarely duplicated and will, more often than not, just disappoint you.  Besides, why would you rob your taste buds like that?!
• And finally… Don't become a missionary and expect to find that you've got it all together in your life and faith.  On the contrary, be prepared to realize how desperate you are for Christ and how much more you need of Him.
  

Hey everyone!  This month with the guys has been more amazing than I think I'll ever be able to explain.  I've had some really awesome conversations with the other men and learned a lot already.  We've been working hard on our contact's and their neighbors' farms planting cassava (the vegetable used to make tapioca).  They've been working us hard but we love every minute of it.  We've also been working pretty closely with our contact's goat farm (mostly shoveling poop to use as fertilizer in the cassava fields).  To tell a funny story and save a little bit of time, though, I took an excerpt out of my journal and dropped it for you guys below.  It's not as random as you might expect--just read all the way to the bottom!

…Right as we were finishing up, Arun [our contact] started to fill his truck with all the empty water jugs so he could go refill them all.  Joshua and I instinctively got up and started helping him and then went with him over to the goat pasture where their natural spring was to help there as well.  Both of us were thinking it would be a quick trip, which, I guess the refilling part was but it got pretty complicated after that.  First, we helped move the goat herd from one pen by the road to another that was across a small stream and back about another 200 yards or so on the property.  We thought that was it but then there were several newborn babies that needed to be carried from one pen to the other so we scooped up five of them--Joshua with three and me double fisting the two smallest that still had their umbilical cords, they were so young--and walked them over to where the other goats were.  After that, Arun needed a little help holding one of the females still as he drained her milk because her baby died at birth and she was still lactating. 

That's about the time a huge thunderstorm moved in and completely drenched all three of us.  This wasn't just a little rain shower.  This was a Thailand rainforest downpour.  Joshua and I went back to the truck to keep somewhat dry (like little pansies, I know) and wait for Arun to finish up and take us back.  That plan didn't quite work out, though.  We noticed that there was a lone goat that wandered off and didn't make it over to the other pen.  Joshua bit the bullet and got out to chase her back over to the others while I stayed under the camper cover in the bed of the truck away from the rain.  Then, the woman who normally watched the herd full-time out in the pasture--a real, modern day shepherd--found a baby goat that had been hiding as she cleaned out the first shelter by the road.  I watched her find it and realized that my attempt to stay out of the rain was about to fail.  She motioned for me to come get the baby from her and then pointed to the other shelter and I reluctantly got out of the truck.  My shirt and athletic shorts were already soaked from before so I didn't have much reason to be upset, I guess.  Before she handed the goat to me, though, I saw her pick up a straw hat.  For a second, I thought she was being nice and giving it to me to keep my head from getting wet (wetter) but then I realized she meant it to be used to cover the baby goat.  She set the hat down over the baby, handed it to me over the fence and I was off.

It was something straight out of a movie or something--me sloshing through an intense thunderstorm--through a stream and past several tall trees that I was convinced would be struck by lightning as I ran underneath them--just to bring this cute, snow-white little newborn goat to its mama at the other pen.  I had the goat in my right arm and the straw hat in my left protecting it from the rain as I made my way over to Arun and Joshua at the far side of the property. I felt like I was back on the football field doing agility drills trying to sidestep stumps and not fall flat in the mud.  When I finally made it to the other pen, I handed the crying goat over the gate to Arun and looked up at Joshua.  He was laughing hysterically at me.  He got a good kick out of watching me run like a soldier storming the beaches of Normandy through the rain.  Instead of a rifle and helmet, though, I was carrying a baby goat and a straw hat...not for me, but for the goat.  I still find that extremely ironic.

On the way back to the house with our jugs and trash bins full of water, I turned to Joshua in the bed of that truck and said, “You know, the fact that I don't see anything too crazy about what just happened says a lot about what our life is like right now.” 

Right as he let out a little chuckle, Arun drove over a bump in the dirt road that launched both of us a few inches off the trash bins we were sitting on.  When I crashed back down onto mine, it cracked at the bottom  and the water gushed out the back of the truck for the rest of the ride back to the house--Joshua laughing at my confusion and disbelief the whole way. 

I couldn't help but laugh, myself, when I thought about how for so long, I refused to give God control of my life--refused to stand up for Jesus to the world, which He clearly tells us to do--because I was convinced that my life would turn boring if I did.  From what I knew about Christianity, there was no adventure in it.  And I didn't want to have a boring, monotonous life--not until I had a family, at least, and had kids to make sure I set a good example for.  I thought that was the only reason to ever settle down and become the good Christian that I knew I wasn't just yet.  Being good had this automatic boring connotation to it for some reason. 

“What lies!” I thought. “That was probably the main, underlying excuse I used to convince myself of why I didn't want to be a strong, Christian man and yet, here I am.  I'm in Thailand right now.  I've been in nine other countries and done incredible, crazy things that I would have never been able to do--even in my old life!” 

It was just one more misconception that God was proving me wrong about.  True Christianity--a life that involves earnestly seeking and following Jesus--is exciting!  There's actually nothing boring and monotonous about it.  God is a big God.  We live in His creation and He wants to show it to us.  He wants to use us to help and bless each other, regardless of the distance between us. 

Now, even when I have a family, I don't want to have a boring life just to “set a good example” for my kids.  They need to know how exciting our God is, too, so they won't have the same misconceptions I had about what a life following Him is like.  I want the true God leading my family all over the place just like He was leading me around on the World Race.  A little more stability would be nice, obviously.  I mean, I don't know how well it would work to pack up my family and spend a year abroad, only one month in each place we go, but you get my point.  It's about more than just going to the same building two or three times a week and considering yourself to be an “active church member.”  The real title we should be pursuing is “Jesus Ambassador,” which involves way more than the same, predictable drive down the road a few times a week.  To be an ambassador for Jesus, that means we're out in the world like He was, acknowledging Him to fellow believers and wayward strays alike.  That life has adventure written all over it.  It will be filled with amazing stories of blessings and excitement because God will always make sure a life lived for Him is better than a life that is not. 

That term, "better," might mean different things to different people.  Sure, there are adrenaline junkies out there and people who have boo-koos of money and can do anything they want but those people, if you talk to them, are probably not as happy as we might suspect.  "Better" to me means fulfilled... happy... blessed.  There's a joy that comes with knowing and living with God that is impossible to have in a life lived pursuing something worldly like money or self-acknowledgment.

I struggled to find something inspiring or emotional to post as my last blog entry before going into China so I decided to keep it short so I wouldn't force anything that wasn't genuine. 

Simply put, we're all going to be intentionally doing without Internet for the month so as not to interfere or put our ministry in danger.  Our eight month debrief is over (I got to jump off a 50-foot waterfall today, though!) and it's time to pour out to the nations again. 

The February ministry in Mindanao was awesome, by the way.  We lived at an orphanage and worked with the kids, yes, but also with many other ministries.  Construction projects, prison ministry, college discipleship and basketball ministry (yes, there is such a thing) were among them.  The Lord kept us safe the whole time we were on the island and I want to thank you for your prayers.  We never saw any real evidence of the guerrilla war that's going on there. 

Please, if you have connections with my family, encourage them and pray for them as well.  I know they will rarely ask for it but appreciate it immensely.  What can I say?  I'm just so loved and they worry when they know I'm in such a place where they can't find out how I'm doing. 

Love you all!  As you pray for me (more so the ministry we're in), know I'm still fighting for you as well. 

God recently taught me a lesson that I think is extremely valuable, which is why I'm going to share it with everyone who is willing to read this blog post.  Please take your time reading it, though.  I've condensed a lot of thoughts so it's shorter but that doesn't make the message any less important. 

First of all, I don't know about you but I have many reasons and justifications (both biblical and logical) to think that God doesn't only hear our words- He feels our emotions.  One such justification is that words change from society to society and have always been man-made but emotions, like love, are universal and created by God.  Because of that, I designate emotion as the official language of the spiritual realm and the purest form of communication to God. 

So, that being said, I'd like to pose a question: 

What elements of your faith life have become habitual?  By this, I mean what have you begun to do only out of habit rather than doing it intentionally?  This could be words you use in your prayers that you started saying because you thought they sounded poetic and so you say them habitually now...could be a ritual that you grew up doing or saying a certain way and so you keep doing it that way because you've never done it any other way.  I'm talking everything... leave no stone unturned in your self-examination.  Ask yourself if you have an intentional reason behind everything you do for and say to God.  Are you allowing yourself to not only do or say these things but letting your emotion--your spirit--get in on it as well? 

My inspection turned up several alarming habits like saying "In Jesus' name" before I end every prayer simply because I felt like it made for a smooth ending and also walking through Communion with my mind on things other than telling Jesus I accept His sacrifice.  Even simple words, I found, I was using without putting my emotions behind them.  Words like grace, mercy, savior, glory...even love. 

I could go on for days about this but the lesson I ended up with after all this was to do everything with an intentional spirit.  Don't do anything simply because that's how you've always done it or that's what sounds the best.  Let your spirit feel your prayers first... then find the words behind them.  If it's the same words you used before, fine, just put the emotion first because that's God's first language.  Before you do those same old rituals that you've always done in church again, remind yourself of the reason why that ritual is done and make it intentional rather than something you do because the pastor said to or that's what the hymnal tells you to say.  Everything we do in our faith life should have a reason behind it that is rooted in our emotions. 

Do you close your eyes when you pray?  Do you fold your hands together or raise them in the air or maybe hold hands with your neighbor?  Great... but do it for a reason.  "Amen" translates to a formal way of saying "I agree," so use it intentionally when it makes sense but don't be afraid to end your prayer in another way, either... a way that actually means something to your heart!

Here's a challenge for you.  This is something that I did and actually got a lot out of it: write out the traditional Lord's Prayer on the top half of a sheet of paper and then rewrite it in your own words on the bottom half.  Think about what each line means to you and work in words that have full emotion behind them.  Make it "Your Prayer" by customizing it to your life and your relationship with God.  A relationship is what God has made possible between He and I... and relationships are meant to be personal and intentional, not habitual.  

It's pronounced “buy a donkey” but, no, I'm not telling you to go buy a donkey (although that would be really funny).  That's how you say “thank you very much” in Afrikaans and I can't say it enough right now to all the people we've met and been blessed by in Cape Town.  This place has so much to offer, so much to do, and the way God blessed us through the Jeremiah Project and Amazing Grace Ministry has redefined my idea of hospitality all over again. 

We stayed in a suburb of Cape Town called Elsies River�"a place that outsiders make sure they don't wander into without a very good purpose because of how much crime and violence goes on there.  Our Jeremiah Project hosts, whom we lovingly call “Maw” and “Paw,” made us part of their family as soon as we walked in the door.  They have dedicated their lives to the kids and families in their neighborhood.  Their house is on a cul-de-sac and next door to a large playground and has become a place of safety for kids all over Elsies River.  Let me just run through all the things we've seen Maw and Paw do this month:

•          Hosting an after school program for about 100 kids Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (honestly more like 5 days a week)

•          Serving a meal for those kids at least twice a week

•          Running a small tuck shop from their front door so the kids don't have to walk across the neighborhood just to get a snack or a sweet

•          Traveling to one of Elsies River's shanty towns to serve a meal and hand out clothes to hundreds of people once a month

•          Putting on a “Friday Night Live” concert in their cul-de-sac, which brings in several very talented local bands and gives the kids an opportunity to show off their talent through song and dance once a year

•          Help friends and family who are struggling by giving them a place to stay in their three-bedroom house that has only one bathroom

•          Making special visits to local primary schools to talk about Christ calling us to be servants

•          Prayer walks and visits to pray for sick neighbors

I've learned a lot about how to talk and relate to kids about very serious issues such as violence, drugs, relationships, sex and leadership.  We've seen kids accept Christ, straighten out their paths and even start to volunteer their time to become a leader of this community through serving after some pretty heavy discussions. 

Everything Maw and Paw do is for this community and it was such an honor and a blessing to be a part of it for a few weeks.  This is definitely one of the places we've been where I will fight to come back to.  There's just so much to do here…both in ministry and in just plain fun.  This blog wouldn't be complete if I didn't go through all the awesome things we did on our days off. 

•          Two nights at the Waterfront�"the downtown attraction of Cape Town

•          A hike up Table Mountain (took us about 8 hours to go up and down)

•          Visits to several local beaches, including Hout and Camps Bays

•          Tour over to Seal Island to witness thousands of seals basking on a rock no bigger than three acres

•          Stood at the very bottom of the African continent, Cape Point or “The Cape of Good Hope”

•          Were invited to a few family dinner parties

That's acting as if we didn't have the time of our lives doing ministry.  What made this month so amazing weren't our days off.  It was the days where we got to be a part of these kids' lives.  God lives in this place and I've received more than a tan while being here.  I've received a calling to return.  Any one wanna come with?  I'm thinking we should stay for a month, minimum.