Well, here I am in Armenia. In Asia. A new country with new food, new customs, new alphabet, new transportation system… Getting here was an adventure, we had two planes which were both delayed, much time waiting at the airport. We left our house in Budapest at 3:00 Sunday afternoon and arrived at our house in Yerevan about 6:30 Monday morning. After two delayed flights, Hannah waiting in line to fill out a missing luggage paper, and a crazy taxi drive with luggage on our laps, we walked through the door to the apartment we will call home for the next almost 5 weeks. As we plopped on the couches our eager new leaders from here spent thirty some odd minutes filling us in on all kinds of information that I am sure not many of our minds actually absorbed.
It took a few days to get use to the time chance considering the fact we slept the entire first day, but we are pretty use to it by now. Our contacts here are a young couple working with YWAM themselves. She is from Armenia/Bulgaria and he is from Norway, both speak excellent English. We have yet to find other Americans. The Armenia people do not speak English, some of the students do, but many of the refugees, those from Iran, they speak English.
We have traveled the city a little, by taxi and ma-shoot-ka. The latter word I am sure is not spelled correctly, but is for those of you who need the phonetics. A ma-shoot-ka is a 12 passenger van, more or less - that is able to hold 20-25 some people. First come first serve get seats, then more people squeeze in, then 5 are sitting on a 3 person seat, then more squeeze in, then arms are around you holding on to things. You get at little closer to people that you would want. It is not a place for people that get Closter phobic or if you are really tall. But it is a fun experience none the less.
The appearance of the city is much like our other traveled locations, a post communist city with ugly apartments, garbage everywhere, cigarette butts every half step. The people are quiet, not many seem to smile, but we have yet to do too much with the actual Armenian people. Needless to say, I am here, I am safe and I am looking forward to an interesting and hopefully beneficial last leg of my trip.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
Athens
A quick update on this end, in case anyone even reads my blogs. God is amazing still. He is taking this time that I am away from home ... to teach me to rest in Him. Something that I feel I could do at home, but never had - that is why he had to bring me practically as far away as I could physically get. We do ministry in the evenings and I am stretched. I am never pushed, but the opportunity is always there for me to reach out, to speak, to better myself. My leaders will never force me to do anything, but encourage me to step out. Pray for me, that I can step out more. Now is the time to work on things in my life, to better myself, to overcome fears. Now, that I am in the time I have set aside and am surrounded by people who are as family to me.
I have been pouring my time over Proverbs 31, working on memorizing that chapter. I am learning to let God speak to me even more through his word, letting him mold me into who HE wants me to become, not into the person my mind thinks I should be.
Last week, I was on top of Mars Hill. That is the hill that Paul preached from. You can see for miles in every direction, but in one direction is was just nature, just trees and grass and rocks. That would have been the same view Paul would have seen. It was a crazy moment to stand there and read the words that he spoke, the people of Greece are still idol worshipers and running from God. It is almost sureal being here. I love it!
I was looking at a map (one that I take with me everywhere) and I put my finger on Oregon, then a finger on Greece, the distance is huge, i have entire bodies of water and land masses between me and the place I want to call home... I mean, this is the big ol' world that I use to lay in bed and look at and dream about, here I am. Some days I have to let that sink in, other days I just get it, this is just a day in the life of me - and I LOVE IT!
I have than two months to go before returning home - yet I feel the best is still in store. The height of my journey is yet to come. God has so much more to teach me.
I have been pouring my time over Proverbs 31, working on memorizing that chapter. I am learning to let God speak to me even more through his word, letting him mold me into who HE wants me to become, not into the person my mind thinks I should be.
Last week, I was on top of Mars Hill. That is the hill that Paul preached from. You can see for miles in every direction, but in one direction is was just nature, just trees and grass and rocks. That would have been the same view Paul would have seen. It was a crazy moment to stand there and read the words that he spoke, the people of Greece are still idol worshipers and running from God. It is almost sureal being here. I love it!
I was looking at a map (one that I take with me everywhere) and I put my finger on Oregon, then a finger on Greece, the distance is huge, i have entire bodies of water and land masses between me and the place I want to call home... I mean, this is the big ol' world that I use to lay in bed and look at and dream about, here I am. Some days I have to let that sink in, other days I just get it, this is just a day in the life of me - and I LOVE IT!
I have than two months to go before returning home - yet I feel the best is still in store. The height of my journey is yet to come. God has so much more to teach me.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
During my first week of lecture phase back in September, we had a teacher come and teach upon a brand new subject for me. He opened up the bible and said that there is something that we have all missed. He was so excited, he literally was on his toes. Laughter was pouring forth from his mouth and joy pouring from the movement of his hands. To see his passion made me tune it, it caught me almost hypnotized as my eyes followed his every step. My mind was on a crazy ride, but despite my notes and attentiveness… I ended the week more confused than I began. Now, over two months later, I get it. I understand what he was teaching. Now I am the excited one, I am the one flipping through the pages of my Bible faster than my eyes can read them. I am the one that wants to share this crazy message. Its about the Kingdom of Heaven.
We have all heard about it, we all have had teachings on the Beatitudes from Matthew and know the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven.” But, if you are like me, you have always overlooked this phrase, or maybe you thought you understood but you thought that it was talking about Heaven, or maybe you have already understood this, if that is so I would love to hear from you and how you understand it. But this is what I have learned.
The Kingdom of Heaven is the first thing that Christ preached on. Right after he spent 40 days with is father in the wilderness. “From then on, Jesus began to preach, ‘Turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:17)
It is the first and last of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3 and 10)
When he teaches the disciples to pray he tells them to say “May your Kingdom come.” (Matthew 6:10)
Parables all through Matthew are trying to help us understand what the Kingdom is.
When he teaches about worry, he says “and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.” (Matthew 6:33) He tells us to make it our primary concern. That means it is the most important.
In Mathew 11 he teaches all about the Kingdom he says in verse 12 “ And from the time John the Baptist began preaching and baptizing until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people attack it.”
This is what Jesus was trying to teach us! The Kingdom of Heaven is not Heaven he was not trying to describe what heaven will be like - he is describing earth. When he said in 11:12 that the Kingdom has been forcefully advancing, that is showing when it started. It started when John began preaching. We are suppose to make the kingdom our primary concern, we are suppose to be persecuted, we have to realize our need for him, we have to be like salt and light. Christ wants his kingdom on earth to advance. He wants us to live in him now.
Do you want to be more passionate? Do you want more to live for? Life in Christ is not all about the cross, we have been forgiven, now we are called to increase his kingdom. Just think, we are living in his Kingdom now! We are in eternity if you are in Him!
I challenge you to look through the scripture for yourself, study the Kingdom of Heaven. Read Matthew with new eyes, read the Bible with new eyes. This is not a little piece to the puzzle, it is the missing piece to my puzzle. The Kingdom is talked about all through the Bible, it is prophesied in the Old Testament, it is talked about in Acts. In Acts 1 the apostles ask Christ if he will now restore their Kingdom (they were thinking in physical terms.) But Christ responded with “But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere…” That was his response to the Kingdom. That is what we are suppose to be doing. There is more to life than living in his grace - we must tell the world and see his Kingdom advance! So what are you doing about the Kingdom? What will you do to advance it? To make him seen on earth and to make his name shine? This is our job as Christians - to spread the Kingdom of Heaven.
We have all heard about it, we all have had teachings on the Beatitudes from Matthew and know the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven.” But, if you are like me, you have always overlooked this phrase, or maybe you thought you understood but you thought that it was talking about Heaven, or maybe you have already understood this, if that is so I would love to hear from you and how you understand it. But this is what I have learned.
The Kingdom of Heaven is the first thing that Christ preached on. Right after he spent 40 days with is father in the wilderness. “From then on, Jesus began to preach, ‘Turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:17)
It is the first and last of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3 and 10)
When he teaches the disciples to pray he tells them to say “May your Kingdom come.” (Matthew 6:10)
Parables all through Matthew are trying to help us understand what the Kingdom is.
When he teaches about worry, he says “and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.” (Matthew 6:33) He tells us to make it our primary concern. That means it is the most important.
In Mathew 11 he teaches all about the Kingdom he says in verse 12 “ And from the time John the Baptist began preaching and baptizing until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people attack it.”
This is what Jesus was trying to teach us! The Kingdom of Heaven is not Heaven he was not trying to describe what heaven will be like - he is describing earth. When he said in 11:12 that the Kingdom has been forcefully advancing, that is showing when it started. It started when John began preaching. We are suppose to make the kingdom our primary concern, we are suppose to be persecuted, we have to realize our need for him, we have to be like salt and light. Christ wants his kingdom on earth to advance. He wants us to live in him now.
Do you want to be more passionate? Do you want more to live for? Life in Christ is not all about the cross, we have been forgiven, now we are called to increase his kingdom. Just think, we are living in his Kingdom now! We are in eternity if you are in Him!
I challenge you to look through the scripture for yourself, study the Kingdom of Heaven. Read Matthew with new eyes, read the Bible with new eyes. This is not a little piece to the puzzle, it is the missing piece to my puzzle. The Kingdom is talked about all through the Bible, it is prophesied in the Old Testament, it is talked about in Acts. In Acts 1 the apostles ask Christ if he will now restore their Kingdom (they were thinking in physical terms.) But Christ responded with “But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere…” That was his response to the Kingdom. That is what we are suppose to be doing. There is more to life than living in his grace - we must tell the world and see his Kingdom advance! So what are you doing about the Kingdom? What will you do to advance it? To make him seen on earth and to make his name shine? This is our job as Christians - to spread the Kingdom of Heaven.
Christmas Day
Every church we attend we get the same type of amazing acceptance. They are all poor people, with big toothless smiles, wanting to hear your word. They are at church all days of the week… because they want to, not because they feel burdened by some program. There is such joy here. Terry (our leader) said to the church today “I wish I could take you all home to my church in England so that you might minister to them.” What a crazy event that would be. Why don’t we feel this presence so strongly at home? Why are our churches not alive like they are here?
At the Christmas service at the mother church we sang lots of Christmas carols. Never before had any of us seen Jingle Bells and Feliz Navidad sung as a worship song. But people had their hands lifted and shouted Hallajuah when the songs finished.
Our beautiful Christmas meal consisted of two desks made into a grand table and a compilation of food from the past two days. We had bread (made my the Gypsies from yesterdays church) and peanut butter, and kiwi, and one slice of ham each. It was amazing. None of us were really hungry, so we sat around and just held fellowship. We laughed about what we had thought Christmas would be like and how although we were once worried, we were now so blessed.
At the Christmas service at the mother church we sang lots of Christmas carols. Never before had any of us seen Jingle Bells and Feliz Navidad sung as a worship song. But people had their hands lifted and shouted Hallajuah when the songs finished.
Our beautiful Christmas meal consisted of two desks made into a grand table and a compilation of food from the past two days. We had bread (made my the Gypsies from yesterdays church) and peanut butter, and kiwi, and one slice of ham each. It was amazing. None of us were really hungry, so we sat around and just held fellowship. We laughed about what we had thought Christmas would be like and how although we were once worried, we were now so blessed.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Christmas Eve - not that far away from home
On our outreach team I am in charge of Journaling, this is an excerpt from our best day by far...
Its Christmas Eve and after a good Christmas service we loaded into the bitter cold cars to return to the wonderful hostile for some maybe merry festivities. But on the way back, our caravan seemed to be heading in a new direction. After we saw a sign welcoming us to a new city, we knew that we were not just following our leader to a quick errand. 25 minutes of driving in pure darkness through white Bulgarian country side, thoughts of question filled many of our minds.
“Where are we going? Seriously.”
“Maybe Palman (our guide) forgot that we were following him.”
“Maybe his car was hi-jacked.”
“Maybe it is a surprise for us.”
“Well, if it were a surprise it would be nice if we had known, we are going to run out of petrol (gas).”
It was about 45 minutes later when we arrived at our destination - wherever that was. Climbing out of the car we were all really wondering what was going on.
“Jarrod, get your guitar, we are leading a church service.”
Unprepared was an understatement for what happened next. We slid up an icy hill and found ourselves outside a building that must be a church assuming upon a lit cross. As cold as we were we quickly shuffled inside, only to find a packed room of gypsies jumping to their feet out of joy. They squeezed closer together, some sitting on laps, just so that we could sit on the benches in the front. I wonder what we must have looked like to them the moment we looked around and realized exactly where we were. A gypsy church in Bulgaria had been waiting for us and were waiting to hear what we had to offer.
This was one time when the word “schedule” did not exist, they held the mic out and the leaders were in as much shock as the students. So we did the only thing we could do - we preached the gospel, we sang songs, we gave testimonies. One by one we got up and shared from our hearts, a little fearful maybe, but full of faith, wonder and excitement. But the Lord had more in store for us then we had for ourselves.
The phrases “divine appointment” or “being in the right place at the right time,” they don’t do justice for the opportunity laid out before us like a great feast at a table. We asked if anyone wanted prayer, hands shot up like rockets all over the room. It was too packed for people to come to the front, so we worked our way through the crowed laying hands on every person who grabbed us to do so. The presence of God was as strong as a think blanket of snow - it covered everyone completely.
As we got in the cars once again, shock still covered us. “Why us? Why would God allow us to experience this?” We may be away from home, but this year, for Christmas eve - we were filled with the spirit of God in a way that none of us shall ever forget.
Its Christmas Eve and after a good Christmas service we loaded into the bitter cold cars to return to the wonderful hostile for some maybe merry festivities. But on the way back, our caravan seemed to be heading in a new direction. After we saw a sign welcoming us to a new city, we knew that we were not just following our leader to a quick errand. 25 minutes of driving in pure darkness through white Bulgarian country side, thoughts of question filled many of our minds.
“Where are we going? Seriously.”
“Maybe Palman (our guide) forgot that we were following him.”
“Maybe his car was hi-jacked.”
“Maybe it is a surprise for us.”
“Well, if it were a surprise it would be nice if we had known, we are going to run out of petrol (gas).”
It was about 45 minutes later when we arrived at our destination - wherever that was. Climbing out of the car we were all really wondering what was going on.
“Jarrod, get your guitar, we are leading a church service.”
Unprepared was an understatement for what happened next. We slid up an icy hill and found ourselves outside a building that must be a church assuming upon a lit cross. As cold as we were we quickly shuffled inside, only to find a packed room of gypsies jumping to their feet out of joy. They squeezed closer together, some sitting on laps, just so that we could sit on the benches in the front. I wonder what we must have looked like to them the moment we looked around and realized exactly where we were. A gypsy church in Bulgaria had been waiting for us and were waiting to hear what we had to offer.
This was one time when the word “schedule” did not exist, they held the mic out and the leaders were in as much shock as the students. So we did the only thing we could do - we preached the gospel, we sang songs, we gave testimonies. One by one we got up and shared from our hearts, a little fearful maybe, but full of faith, wonder and excitement. But the Lord had more in store for us then we had for ourselves.
The phrases “divine appointment” or “being in the right place at the right time,” they don’t do justice for the opportunity laid out before us like a great feast at a table. We asked if anyone wanted prayer, hands shot up like rockets all over the room. It was too packed for people to come to the front, so we worked our way through the crowed laying hands on every person who grabbed us to do so. The presence of God was as strong as a think blanket of snow - it covered everyone completely.
As we got in the cars once again, shock still covered us. “Why us? Why would God allow us to experience this?” We may be away from home, but this year, for Christmas eve - we were filled with the spirit of God in a way that none of us shall ever forget.
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