The second was that Cornerstone Church gathered at the Bred Pub in Opelika with about 35 people. The building looks distinctly different and the crowd was different, but we worshiped the same Jesus.

All of us equally broken and in need. All of us rescued by the same Christ.

One gospel that has breathed life into us.

As I drove home today, and passed by what I think was the Highlands third service dismissing, I celebrated again as I felt the Spirit say to me, “Look at what I’m doing all over the place. All over the world, in large gatherings, and in small gatherings, in beautiful buildings and in secret rooms I’m building my kingdom. This is the one Church that I promised to build and that I will sustain by my hand forever.”

I’m thankful that I get to be a part of the story he’s writing.

This phrase gripped me this week. The context it was spoken in was about a thought that in some ways has had me bent out of shape recently: How do we raise our children to love Jesus? When Mike spoke these words, lightbulbs and buzzers started going off inside. It’s not that the idea is so profound that I had never thought about it. It was just that in that moment, the way it was said, the Holy Spirit finally shook me a little to say, “Just do what I do, and then he’ll imitate you.”

Thinking back to my childhood, that’s all I wanted, was to be like my dad. I couldn’t wait to shave, I couldn’t wait to shoot the gun, or drive, or grill, or operate the lawn mower or start the fire. Much to the chagrin of my parents, I tried all these things, often a little earlier than I should have with occasionally disastrous results. But the motivation was pure. I wanted to imitate my father. All I needed was a moment where I could think that through. If I want my son to be like Jesus, I just need to look to Jesus and imitate his life for my son. He will be the same way I was, always ready to imitate his father (hopefully).

So, am I living in such a way that my son should imitate? That is a powerful question. It is profoundly convicting and challenging. Is my life open to taking in and feeding my neighbor? Am I loving deeply people in my life that are broken, hurting? Are we generous with our resources? Does my language and action when we’re at home as a family teach him to lift up others or to tear them down? Does my life teach him to think of others more highly than himself or to look down his nose at others?

What I tell him is vitally important. But how I live in front of him will shape him forever.

If we continue to play this out in our own spiritual lives, what have we provided for those we point toward Christ? What have we given them to imitate? Our spiritual sons and daughters? The question asked of me this week is: “Is my life worth imitating? Is my family worth imitating?” It’s a strong and bold question. But it’s helping me clarify pieces of my life and it’s bringing me back to the gospel.

One of the things we do is read to him out of The Big Picture Story Bible. It takes you from the beginning to the end of the grand story of God, Genesis to Revelation, in a way that a child can relate to, but that often helps me hear the story in a fresh way and reminds me of my place in the story.

We don’t force it, but it’s a part of our nightly rhythm after dinner and bath time, during the final bottle and right before pass out phase (which doesn’t last long). Sometimes we get through many pages in the story. Sometimes we get through, “Noah built a big boat,” and then someone get’s too distracted to pay attention. But this is one way we are trying to answer the questions above. We don’t put an extra weight on ourselves to speak to his heart. We let Holy Spirit do that. It’s only our part to share the story. It’s a part of our rhythm: Knowing the story, so we can see understand our place in the story, so we can live the story.

Monday through Thursday, under the leadership of Dr. David Olive, these men will be giving vision tests to as many people from the community as they can, from children in the sponsorship program of which we are a part all the way up to community council members. In the evening they’ll be spending time with men in the church, sharing their stories and encouraging each other on their own journey with Christ.

The team will also be working in Bwerenga, another community that Cornerstone has begun to invest in over the course of the past year. We hope to continue to strengthen this relationship and engage all of our teams in Bwerenga throughout the coming years.

When the team returns, we will work quickly to make glasses that match every prescription. In February another small team of three will be traveling to Uganda. This team, made up of Cornerstone’s musician and production teams will be working with worship teams in Uganda, learning from each other, writing music together and also distributing the glasses made.

Which brings me to the vision for 2013 in our partnership with Uganda. Throughout this year, we have a goal to send an average of a team per month that accomplish specific things in community transformation in Buloba, Bwerenga and those places where God leads us in the nation of Uganda. Theses teams are made of teachers, doctors, students, architects, researchers, coaches, business men and women, moms, dads, you name it. We’re excited about the year ahead, the trips we have planned, the people that have committed to go and that the gospel will be proclaimed.

So let’s pray for Richard Meinert, Jason Frye and David Olive this week as they build relationships and give these vision checks. And, pray for all the teams that make this journey in 2013, that God would advance his kingdom through their willingness to share how he has changed their lives.

Trying to process a whirlwind of a trip is difficult. I think only time will give me the space to really understand all that Jesus has spoken to me in the past week. From the ride to the airport with Dav and Frye, I knew that this would not be an ordinary trip (though nothing really is with those guys).

If I had to wrap it in a few words it would be that I’m more aware than ever of the evil fighting against the hope that we as believers are trying to bring to the darkest places, but I’m also more convinced than ever that God is at work in all those places and he cannot be defeated. It is finished it is done. He is victorious, but that does not mean we should back down from the fight for one minute.

Sometimes we show up somewhere thinking we’ve got the answers and we’re now going to bring a solution or conquer a great problem and Jesus is saying, “Oh great, you showed up. I’m so glad you’re here to join me now.” It doesn’t matter if it’s in the deep places of brokenness or the joyous places of worship. The ever present truth on this trip that I’m reminded of is that God is ever present and everywhere present, we just get the privilege and the honor to join him wherever that is.

This morning (as I mentioned in the previous post) we had the opportunity to go to one of the rougher facilities that the organization we partner with has worked in for the last few years with some children in some tough places. I heard later today that compared to the other facilities, this one is currently the worst, though this changes between the facilities depending of many different factors. It’s difficult to put into words what you see. And for various reasons I can’t thrown specifics onto a blog. But I can say that there was a flood of emotions that involved inappropriate words, sadness, anger and compassion. All I could see were beautiful faces longing to be loved while fighting the environment that imprisoned them and a lack of hope that is everywhere around them. They’re connected and they know that.

There may be worse places on earth, but I wasn’t at those places today. I was at this place. And I saw pain and suffering. But I saw people bringing hope in the midst of it all. I saw a soccer ball reveal a whole bunch of little white teeth. I saw healing in the hands of some nurses and some interns. I saw excitement on the face of a director who saw a little hope at the prospect of primary teachers coming and working with the children in this place.

Pain and hope sitting side by side. I don’t specifically know what God has for us with these places, but I know you can’t see what we’ve seen and not be broken for it and long to just be there if only to hold a child or drop a soccer ball or bring some love and hope if just for a few minutes or hours…and smile and nod a lot.

The afternoon was quite the shift as we gathered together again with the pastors in Bwerenga. Before our last session, I got up with a guitar and we all sang a couple of songs about the holiness of God together. And for one of only a few experiences in my life, we were all singing together with English, Luganda and Swahili ringing out. You cannot beat that moment when you have multiple languages worshiping God at one time. And I know that all over the world, at the same time, there were other worshipers doing the same thing. We were joining our voices into the chorus of the angels. Holy are You God.

I couldn’t help but think, in the midst of the suffering I had seen, the places that we visited, God was still being worshiped. He is still in control. He has not forgotten those places. He has not left them. He is not very far away. He knows them by name. If they are on our hearts, then you can believe that they are fully on his heart and it is breaking for them. And I know that he hears the cries of the oppressed just as he heard the cries of the Israelites in Egypt and in captivity, in the same way he heard the cry of humanity calling for freedom from sin and death.

My ear has now been trained to hear the cries of children in a different way. It is painful to hear a child cry, especially when you are so far away from your own. And I heard one of those cries today. It was the cry of what appeared to be a six year old little girl. She stood in the middle of an open space just looking around with tears streaming down her face. She looked lost and afraid and just wanted someone to hold her.

God spoke to me today. I hear your worship and it is beautiful, but I hear her cry and it is painful and I must go down to her and you are the vehicle. We are the ones who see the need and must respond with love. We must be the freedom bringers. It is our role to physically play out his love to those who do not know it.

This passage from Isaiah was burning in me today:

“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.

And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.

And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.

The Scripture was not written to sound pretty and to be read in front of large crowds so that we nod our heads and make ourselves feel righteous. It was written to be lived.

Today we are going to head to one of the more difficult facilities that our team was able to visit last October. I have great anticipation about playing with kids and seeing Jesus in them. I know it is not necessarily a place where the Light may clearly be seen as “shining the brightest,” but it is place where the light is shining if you have eyes to see it. And today five pastors from the US and Ugandan with a deep love for his nation get to hang out and sing some songs…and smile and nod a bunch, and I’m praying he helps me see Him clearly.

After that, there will be much tweaking in anticipation for a different sort of session as I teach this afternoon. Apparently, according to one elderly pastor, an hour was too short. I know that these are not days I will quickly forget. But an echo from last night. I hope that what I’m learning is to take my time in my own home to listen and see as he is helping me do here.

prayerfully heading into a new day where I know I am going to be stretched
b/

This morning, one of our partners took us to experience a remand facility for childre(details must be spared). These places are designed to hold children while they go through the court process for crimes they may have committed, though sometimes this can many months, or you can be like a couple of the kids I talked to who have no idea how long they will be here because they system lost their papers, and their parents have no idea where they are.

We worshiped together and then hung out and talked with the kids, heard some of their story and then prayed together. The truth that I know is that prayer is powerful. It changes and shapes our hearts, it brings us in to line with what God desires. But I can tell you that in a moment when a 13 year old is asking for just a little more food and that he wants to go home to his parents or just go back to school, you feel fairly helpless. God is bigger than my helpless feeling though. Tonight I have faces and the names of N, KJ, KR, AG, WT and KC to pray over. I kept thinking about the Israelites crying out in the wilderness and throughout their captivity and remember that God hears the cries of the oppressed and the broken-hearted. He is a God of justice and a God of mercy and he is not far from the kids at this facility. Though they long to be free, many know the God who can set them free.

This afternoon was spent with pastors from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzani, Congo, Uganda, the U.K. and the U.S. Again there was a time of worship and I was overwhelmed at what a picture of the kingdom I was seeing. Nations, tribes, and tongues coming together to worship Christ. There is a sense of renewal in that which you cannot find just anywhere. While not everything clearly came through in translation, you could feel a cohesive sense of submitting ourselves to God’s word and letting it shape us new.

I’m a doer, a go get it done and see the results sort of person. But you don’t do that in warm-climate cultures. You take your time. It’s more about the process than the ending or the result. One of the biggest things I’ve been working on is letting the Holy Spirit help me slow down, enjoy the few minutes I have with a thirteen year old or be encouraged by a 50 something year old pastor.

On to the next day.

Over the next few days I’m going to be spending time with pastors from Tanzania, Rwanda, Congo and Uganda (and maybe some other places) at a small pastors conference with one of the churches we work with here in Uganda in a little community called Bwerenga. I’m looking forward to learning a lot from these guys and hearing the story about what the Kingdom of God looks look like in the different nations and cultures. They all worship in their unique ways and it will beautiful to see it come together. I will also be sharing just some practical things in my own life that I hope will be of some encouragement to them.

But the plane ride…there will be posts coming about that. It was long and frustrating at points and the Delta delays and ridiculousness were expected (no offense to you Delta diehards, I fly it every time, but some things you just come to expect), but the conversations I had were well worth every minute of it and the two books I finished have done something to mess with me. I don’t think I’ve captured the full weight of it all yet, but I know that Jesus is speaking to me and I think there’s going to be some wrestling matches coming up. More on this later.

I’m looking forward to seeing Jesus at work over the next few days. Updates to come.

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Give to everyone who asks you.
Be merciful.
Don’t judge.
…etc.

I love that line and I’m being challenged to let it be more than just a line that I like. Jesus’ words are a subversive way of thinking and of living.

Nothing long here. Just pondering on how I love people differently because of what Jesus said and not what my feelings are telling me.