“The work of the Spirit can be compared to mining. The Spirit’s work is to blast to pieces the sinner’s hardness of heart and his frivolous opposition to God. The period of the awakening can be likened to the time when the blasts are fired. The time between the awakenings corresponds, on the other hand, to the time when the deep holes are being bored with great effort into the hard rock.

To bore these holes is hard and difficult and a task which tries one’s patience. To light the fuse and fire the shot is not only easy but also very interesting work. One sees “results” from such work. It creates interest, too; shots resound, and pieces fly in every direction! It takes trained workmen to do the boring. Anybody can light a fuse.

…the Spirit calls us to do the quiet, difficult, trying work of boring holy explosive materials into the souls of people by daily and unceasing prayer. This is the real preparatory work for the next awakening. The reason why such a long period of time elapses between awakenings is simply that the Spirit cannot find believers who are willing to do the heavy part of the mining work. Everybody desires awakenings; but we prefer to let other do the boring into the hard rock.”

- O. Hallesby, Prayer (1931)

I came across this quote recently (and remembered that I have this book and haven’t read it yet…). It gives us a helpful image for understand the importance of prayer in relation to evangelistic or church planting work. Of course we all want to light the fuse and see the explosive results! But how many of us are willing to do the difficult part, the heavy part, the part that takes place long before the blast is fired? How many of us are willing to be the one working behind the scenes. Quiet, difficult, trying work. That’s what it is to faithfully and consistently intercede for an unreached people group. This is the real preparatory work for the next awakening.

In reading this and thinking about it, two things take place in my own heart. First, I am reminded of the importance of praying consistently for our focus people, and trusting that as I do we are drilling deeper and deeper into the very hard rock so that the blast can be fired at the right depth. Secondly, it makes me even more grateful for those who partner with us in prayer. I thank God for those who make the time to pray for us and our focus people, even in the midst of their own concerns and busy schedules. Most of the people who partner with us in prayer have never met and likely never will meet anyone from this ethnic group that they pray for. This makes it even more remarkable that they commit to pray for them and faithfully appeal to God for mercy for these people they’ve had no contact with. Many people pray for us as they think of it, and we are grateful. There is a small group of people who have committed to lift us up for a certain amount of time each week and we consider them a crucial part of our team. We know that some pray for us and our people daily and we struggle to communicate how necessary that is.

There are some who get to come on prayer journeys and see the people they pray for, even if only just for a week or two. They get to spend some time praying on location, in areas where His name is not yet known and in villages where he has never been proclaimed, interceding for people where there is currently no Gospel witness. They leave here having seen and experienced more of what life is like for them and better able to continue praying for them when they’re back in an environment and routine that is very different from those they are praying for. Even if on a very small scale, they have shared in a bit of their life.

Either way – whether from the other side of the world or while sitting on the floor and drinking tea in the home of our focus people—we recognize the power and importance of prayer and we are grateful for those who partner with us by doing the difficult and quiet task of drilling deep into the hard rock. May we all get to see the day when the blast is fired and the awakening comes!

The concept of “face” in Asian cultures can be a source of endless wonder for Westerners coming to live here. Recently a local friend and I took some people out for a meal and coffee to thank them for helping me when I had traveled to their province. He knew one of them already, so he called and asked if they could help me out when I made my trip. They did, and then when they were passing through our city it was a good gesture to take them out and thank them. I get that, so far so good.

The interesting part for me came at the end of the meal when we got the bill. He had called for the check so the waitress brought it to him. I pulled out my wallet so I could contribute. Actually, I had come to the evening prepared to pay for everything, since he had also been helping me out. I asked for the check so I could pay for it all, but he wasn’t having that, so I started asking if I could contribute and for him to let me see it so I could chip in, etc. He wouldn’t even let me see it.

We went across the street for some coffee and to talk for a while longer. When we were finishing up I told him to let me get this one (not a fair trade, but at least let me take care of one of the checks!). He refused again and went and paid the whole thing himself.

As we stepped outside we got a taxi for our friends and sent them on their way. Then, as we crossed the street to get back to where we had parked he told me, “I’ll let you know the total of both bills and you can pay me back half of it this week.”

Aaah, now I get it. He needed for them to see that he was treating us all. Well, sorry I protested and tried so hard to chip in, but it probably helped firm up the appearance that he was taking care of all of us. I wondered about all that was taking place beneath the surface here:

· Was it more a case of him not wanting to be shamed by letting me pay,

· Was it standard operating procedure that because he made the invitation he was responsible to pay,

· Was this a “debt” that he owed them for helping me out on my trip and he had to do this to settle accounts,

· Was this going above and beyond the “debt” that he owed them so that now the debt had shifted and they might even owe him, so that he could call in another favor sometime…

It was mildly frustrating at first, but the more I thought about the more I simply became entertained by it and intrigued about the way life works here.

We have been pleasantly surprised by reports that we’ve stumbled upon of some local outreach efforts that are focused on the people that we moved here to pursue. We knew that some things were happening, and even now it is still far less than what they need, but it is nice to know that we were wrong and that there are some local believers who see the need and are acting on it. Even as recently as the last few months we know of several hundred who have heard a clear presentation of the Good News, some of whom have put their faith in Christ.

We are thrilled that there are local Christians who are also reaching out to our focus people. One of our prayers is that that would happen more and more so that our role here would be unnecessary. At the same time, we also pray for a few things to change as these groups continue to reach out to them.

· Many local people seem convinced that there is no need to reach out to our focus people in their own language. We are praying for a work that presents the Gospel in a contextualized way and results in a truly indigenous church.

· One of the challenges to the Body of Christ in this place is the temptation to be possessive and protective. Of course people need to be careful, because some of the church networks are not sanctioned by the government and it is a risk to partner with anyone. This can be taken to extremes, though, that are not always helpful. It also can create a temptation to be very possessive and speak of people as being “mine” or “our believers” as opposed to someone else’s. This has sparked a lot of reflection in my own life, and a desire to be very careful with the terms I use that would ever indicate that some movement or some group of believers belongs to me. Any results belong to Jesus. Period. Any believers belong to Jesus. Period.

Anyway, back to the positive note on which this post started…

There is more to the story than we were aware of and for that we are thankful. May that continue to be the case as we become more established here. May we find that He has been at work in many hidden corners without our knowledge.

Week 1

Philippians 1:1-6

1. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:

2. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,

4. Always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,

5. Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

6. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Some Reflections or Responses (Not everything, not exhaustive, not very cleaned up or even necessarily well-thought-out):

· Saints and servants: this is the double identity that is ours when we are in Christ Jesus. Though still sinners, we are also saints (always a sinner, yet just). But we are also called to be servants or slaves. This is not an easy one to swallow, but it’s true nonetheless. He came not to be served but to serve, and calls us to follow him.

· All the saints…who are at Philippi: I wonder what exactly this looked like. Various groups meeting in multiple homes, perhaps. It is good to think of the Body of Christ of a certain location being made up of all the believers in that city, to have a view that includes all the members and understands the importance of unity between these different groups. So, when I think of the saints in this city, or the Body of Christ here, it includes people from different backgrounds and different forms of church, some of which are suspicious of each other.

· Upon remembering people is it my default response to pray for them? To thank God in all my remembrance of them? I want my initial reaction to be prayer for them upon hearing their name or seeing them.

· Working on memorizing this passage has made me think repeatedly of those who partner with us in the gospel (not just those who have partnered since our first day, though). It has helped me do a better job of praying for them.

· I have been praying for local friendships that are also gospel partnerships, both with local people and with other foreigners like ourselves. It has been a lonely season and we’ve needed good friendships right here, especially the kind of friendships that are also gospel partnerships.

· Lastly, verse 6 has been a great source of encouragement, to be reminded that the good work he has begun in us will be brought to completion. This has been helpful in developing the patience that we need so badly. Of course, the greatest work of all that he has begun in us is that of conforming us to the image of Jesus, and there have been plenty of instances of seeing that the work is not yet completed. But, it’s not done yet and we have to allow it to be a process. We want things so quickly, but we’re learning to wait and be more patient as he does the good work that he wants to do both in us and through us in this place. Neither are as fast as we’d like them to be, but that’s okay. It also brings hope for areas in which we’ve felt stuck or stagnant and are in need of a breakthrough. He will do it!

"Once we serve God surely we must go the way of the cross, so I will not quarrel against the Lord for what has happened."

These are the words of a pastor who has suffered much at the hands of the authorities. His home and church headquarters were demolished, and he was knocked unconscious when he tried to step in to prevent some students from being arrested. This is the fate of some of those who counted worthy to suffer for the sake of His name. This pastor continued to say, "Once the government tries to use violence it means they are defeated already."

Pray for him and others who suffer in order to make Him known. Pray that the seeds of their lives, having fallen to the ground and been crushed, will not fail to bear much fruit.

During a time when preaching the Gospel meant automatic imprisonment, he continued to proclaim Christ. Knowing the risks he refused to back down. This is part of the way that grace transforms us. His boldness was his ticket into the fellowship of those who have suffered for their faith. Three and half years in prison. While there, he continued to preach Christ and God saved some of the other inmates. Today he has been released and he continues to serve God, and God continues to use him to bring others into a relationship with Jesus. Meeting with him recently I felt very humbled. Humbled by my lack of faith and my concern for my own comforts. Humbled by his willingness to suffer and the fact that so many of our friends and supporters think that we sacrifice so much to be here. Humbled because I was visiting with someone whose very life and story reveals that faithful obedience to God is more valuable than comforts and freedoms and even life itself. This has helped spark a lot of other thoughts related to suffering for the Gospel that I will try to come back to soon.

On the first day of the year we started working on memorizing Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Today begins week seven of a plan that divides the book up over sixteen weeks, with the hopes of memorizing it all by Easter Sunday. Thus far it’s been quite an encouraging and fruitful experience. We made these little notebooks with the memory verses on the lefthand side of the notebook and blank pages on the right hand side to write down our reflections or questions on the passages we were working on that week. It’s neat how it all came about.

Around Christmas I was spending some time coasting through the blogosphere, reading some articles and blogs and then following interesting links to new blogs which led to new blogs, etc. I usually don’t do this because of the amount of time that can be spent. My preference is to use an RSS reader to follow the blogs that I’ve decided to read, and to only open the RSS reader on Saturday. That helps me to not bounce from site to site, and when I limit it to one day per week I’ve found that I’m much more selective about the ones I take the time to read. If I opened it up daily, there wouldn’t be too many new posts and I’d be more likely to read them all. By letting them stack up for a week each time, the list is much longer and I’m better at skipping over those that I’m not actually all that interested in. Anyways, that’s not the point of this. I ended up on a post that someone wrote a couple years ago, about this method (with the notebooks) that someone had used to memorize Ephesians. They had the templates to be printed out and taped into the notebook already and it seemed like a great thing. I was thinking about going for it and trying to memorize Ephesians this way.

Before I did, though, I started thinking about Philippians. This book has been one that I’ve spent a lot of time in since last October and had already been benefiting from and resonating with. Why not use this method but switch to Philippians? Of course, I would have to through and divide up the passages and format them to print them at the right size, but that would be alright. Then, the next time I opened up my blog reader there was a post inviting people to memorize Philippians this year, using this same method. It turned out to be from the guy whose blog I had landed on after following a long string of links just days before. He was the one who had memorized Ephesians and blogged about it back in 2008. He had recently decided to do this again with Philippians and was encouraging others to join him, and one of the blogs I subscribe to had posted his invitation. It was just perfect. So, all that to say, he did the work of dividing it into sixteen chunks and formatting it to fit in the notebooks that we’ve been carrying around and referring to countless times a day for the past six weeks. We’re both memorizing it together and there are hundreds or thousands of others around the world who are doing it too.

After months of not updating I’m sure there won’t be anyone that reads this for quite some time. It wouldn’t be fair for me to disappear for months and then expect you to reappear just because I came back. This post is just to say that we’re here and that I do, in fact, intend to keep this blog going.

Not long after arriving in our new location, things started to unravel. It’s hard to choose the right phrase to describe the struggles we faced because it’s so hard to capture the challenge of what we were facing without sounding as if I’m questioning God’s control of the situation. What I mean is, if I say things started to unravel I am, of course, speaking of our experience of the situation. At the same time, we know that from God’s perspective nothing ever “starts to unravel.” He was not caught unawares or unsure of what to do. But we were; and it took a lot out of us.

Looking back, I wish I could have done better of recording the experience here but many times just making it through the day and keeping up with the responsibilities of life was enough. I captured a lot of it in my journal, but I don’t think I’ll go back and post any of it here. We’ve moved into a new season and it’s probably better just to move forward for now. I might go back and post some things as of the start of the new year – but that would mostly relate to new activities since the turn of the year or things I’ve been reading or thinking about since then. So anyways, here we are. I hope to establish a regular routine of sharing about our experiences here (as much as is possible, given the sensitivities of our context) and my reflections on this life to which we’ve been called.

We’ve had a rough time recently, which is part of the reason we’ve done such a poor job of keeping this updated. We still have the goal of getting a weekly post up here. The last few weeks have been very difficult, though, and it’s taken all the strength we have just to keep up with life, let alone our blog.

One passage from Scripture that’s been particularly alive to us recently is Romans 5, particularly vv 1-11 – and especially vv3-4: Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Some important thoughts, related to these verses:

· We rejoice in our sufferings, not in spite of them. We do not deny the difficulty that we’ve faced or pretend it’s not there.

· We rejoice in our sufferings, not because of them. We obviously don’t enjoy them, or they wouldn’t be sufferings. We don’t rejoice because we like them, but there’s something beneath the surface happening here and for that we rejoice, even while suffering.

· There have been many instances in the past few weeks of us longing for hope of some sort. It jumped out at me this week that the hope that’s mentioned in this verse comes after perseverance, and after our character is strengthened. We’d prefer to have the hope now, thinking that would make it easier to persevere and then our character could be formed that way. Instead, it works differently. We need to hold on, be patient, stay put, endure (i.e. persevere) and through that process our character is transformed.

· As with every passage, there is context. This one puts these thoughts of suffering into their place in the greater Story of our justification with God, the grace in which we now stand, and the hope of the glory of God. It’s always helpful to zoom out a little bit and see things more broadly. Our present sufferings are only one scene in a much longer Story.

· Us having hope, feeling like we can make it or that our prayers will be answered, etc., is not the only piece of this. God is out to transform our character, and that takes time and friction. Like an artist setting out to carve a masterpiece out of a giant slab of stone, there has to be some cutting and chiseling. His aim in this (because it’s his aim in all things) is to conform us to the image of his Son. Though we don’t enjoy the pain or the sufferings, we do want this to be fulfilled, which brings us right back to where we started: we rejoice in our sufferings…

We’re still very new in this place – trying to get the lay of the land. Learning about the culture is one area of focus for us. There is a progression from observation to participation that takes place. At this point, with very little language ability, we are primarily observers. We watch, we try to listen, we pay attention. To what? Well, everything. At first, we don’t know yet what will turn out to be significant, which means that everything is significant. We have to develop the discipline of paying attention, of noticing: Noticing the way people address one another, and how people dress, and the way people drive, and when and where people congregate, how things are carried and on and on the list goes.

When we see things we jot them down, then categorize and file them. It’s a way to keep us proactively working toward understanding this place and these people. We have lists of topics and themes to explore, some of them broken down into weekly assignments, but we also try to always be alert and learn from whatever is right in front of us.

Any attempt to cross a culture is a long process, but approaching it in this way can help speed it up, can open us up to learning things we wouldn’t learn otherwise, can lessen the effects of culture shock, and can enable us from day one to start recognizing things about us that will need to change if we are going to become participants here, accepted and active in the community.