Where is God?

Where is God? 
In the wake of yesterday's tragedy in Newtown, CT, "Where is God" is a natural question. 
I have seen many attempted answers to this question on social media and heard many attempted answers on TV. 

It is natural to want to point a finger, to place blame, and to figure out what would motivate someone to do such a horrific act. 

It is easier to vilify someone like Adam Lanza and write him off as evil than it is to try to identify and have compassion for the struggle in his life.  The more evil we can make him out to be, the less "like him" we feel.  The reality is that we are all broken and in need of God's love.  Some folks brokenness is just more visible than others. 

I admit, the heinous acts of Adam Lanza angers me greatly.  I think of those 20 young school age children shot down and I just want to cry.  My heart breaks for the families that are dealing with the loss of their loved young children.  I think of the adults that were lost and just feel helpless and saddened.

But I also recognize this is not a time for mudslinging.  I have seen some very angry, rude, and frankly just unloving post on Facebook.  I read these post on social media and John 13:35 comes to mind..."Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."  If we as Christians are known by our "love", it is not shocking that Christianity often has such a bad reputation among non-Christians. 

As Christians, now is not the time to mud-sling, to place blame, or to grab our children and retreat to our homes to home-school.  Now is not the time to retreat and hide from the broken world.  Now is the time to run into the broke world and show them love.  Now is the time to recognize our own brokenness and not try to just cover it up. 

Now is the time for taking responsibility for the brokenness of the world, and not a time to try to separate ourselves from this brokenness. 

The number one "reason" I see people posting for this tragic event is that "God was removed from schools."  Honestly, this statement angers me almost as much as the act of Lanza yesterday. 
I believe one of the greatest threats to the church today is the lack of ownership of one's faith.  We quickly blame our "lack of faith" on the pastor or church staff.  We blame our work schedules or school schedules.  We shift responsibility to others quickly, but rarely acknowledge our own laziness in our faith journey. 

The reality is, as long as there are Christians in schools, God is in the schools.  Government may be able to legislate how much God is in the curriculum, but they cannot regulate how much God is in our hearts.  They may be able to legislate how much teachers can talk to students about their faith, but they cannot legislate how loving the teachers are to their students. 

Government simply cannot remove God from schools.  If God is not present in the school, it is because Christians are not showing that God is within them.  That is an area we cannot put the blame on others, and must take ownership and responsibility ourselves. 

Matthew 18:20 tells us that "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”  As long as Christians bind together to show love to others at school, at work, in our neighborhoods and communities...God will be among them. 

I personally find peace in the belief that God was present with each person who lost their life yesterday.  I do not believe God stayed out just because our Government said God wasn't allowed.  God is not bound by our government.  I believe God is present with the families who lost loved ones.  I believe that God is present with the Lanzas as well. 

The reality is that we are all given a choice.  God granted us the gift of free will.  When it comes down to it, this free will is the ability to choose between having a relationship with God, or a life rejecting God.  Many folks do not see this as a gift.  Many folks see this as God's greatest "mistake". 
I believe it is very much a gift.  I believe that God understood that love and relationship cannot be forced.  If relationship is forced, it is not real. 

Lanza made a choice yesterday that had an impact on many lives. 
We also as Christians have a choice to make.  We can choose to share God's love with others, or we can choose to run, hide and sling mud at others for their choices. 

Government and places of work may be able to legislate what you can "say", but they cannot legislate the way you live your life. 

Oliver Goldsmith once said that "You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips." 

Our words have power, social media can attest to that.  However, our actions (often our actions through our words) can have a greater impact. 

Choose to live your life in a way that shares Jesus with others.
Recognize your own brokenness and do not be afraid to let others see that brokenness. 
Be careful what you say on social media, recognizing that people often take the words of Christians as the words of God. 

And remember, in Hebrews, we are told that "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you." 

So where is God in times like this? 
God is within you.  God is wrapping God's arms around those who are hurt, broken, and struggling. 
God is devastated just like the rest of us. 
God did not cause this to happen yesterday, but God is very much ready, willing, and longing to be shared through this tragedy. 
God is present in YOU...and you are present in this world.  So if God is "missing" in this world, then ultimately that means YOU are "missing" in this world.  

Do not point the finger at others, but take some ownership of how you can help prevent this from happening again.  Keep your eyes open to those around you that are hurting and broken. 

Ultimately, "Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words." 

Slide Show From Youth Mission Trip

Final Day

We had a great final day with great weather! 

You'll find a wrap up of each job site below!
We will be getting up and we'll be out of here by 7 am tomorrow!

Its been a great week, but an exhausting week as well.  
We did not finish all of our jobs, but we had a few that were basically impossible to finish in a week.  The poverty level here is simply mind blowing. 
I believe all the youth have had a great week, but I think many of them are also ready to be home and back to their cell phones as well!

See you all soon!

Brian and Karen’s Group

Today was a very productive day; we completed our goal for the week, which was to finish siding on three sides of the house. Everybody worked really hard to try and get the work done. For our homeowner we gave her a picture frame of our picture in it and we all signed it. We noticed she had many pictures hanging up in her house so we thought that would be something special to her. We also took two pieces of wood and nailed them together to make a cross. We painted it blue and put all of our figure prints on it in white. We thought that would be a good way for her to remember us. We had a very good week full of working hard and having fun. We were very happy with what we completed and glad we got the chance to work on this house.

Tony and Kim’s Group

Today we arrived, tired out from our week’s toils, but ready to offer comfort to Mrs. Sarah and her two grandsons (Payton and Kenneth). We arrived, however, to find the boy’s other grandmother watching them while Mrs. Sarah visited her daughter WHO HAD ONLY A BROKEN TOE in the hospital. (Miracles of God!)  We started off our day with a devotion telling us to hang in there for the last day and to lean on God for our strength. Then we gave the grandsons their gifts, a football for 11 year old Kenneth and a Frisbee for 7 year old Payton. They immediately ran outside to play as the rest of us got to work cutting wood, caulking windows, and hammering nails. Payton and I finished making and painting a “table” for his mother, who ended up being able to come home that day! We were packed up; almost ready to go when their car pulled up and let Mrs. Sarah out. We hurried in and she loved our gifts as we presented them to her. She went on and on about how blessed she was and how blessed her daughter was to be as fortunate as they were. (Note: without iPods, cool phones, reliable Internet—she felt BLESSED! I almost wish I grew up like her!). We ended up with her crying for joy (Mya with her), before we all hugged her goodbye and headed off in the vans to Randy’s worksite where we moved some materials around and returned back to the settlement.

Randy and Liz’s Group

Today was our very last day at our work site. It was a very hard and productive day. Even though we did not finish we still worked really hard. We started off the day with barely any of the siding on the front finished and the back wasn’t even started. By the end of the day, we finished with most of the back and front completed. Today we also gave our homeowner a gift. We gave him a fruit basket, a picture, and a toy for his dog, Duke. He seemed overwhelmed, but you could really tell that he really appreciated all we were doing for him. Coming into this week, we didn’t really know the people in our group very well, but as the week progressed we really bonded and became a big family! We have had an amazing trip and we feel so blessed to have had this opportunity.

Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head

Here is the update on the job sites from some of the youth.  You can tell by their writing that they are having fun and are getting a bit loopy as well.  :-)  We had a great day overall.  Our youth did an amazing job this morning leading the whole camp in devotions.  The group decided to sing "Come Thou Fount" and "Light the Fire"  It was great to be able to just be "in the crowd" and have the youth lead.  They came up with the whole devotion on their own.   Hank did a fantastic job imitating his Dad by giving the message!  

Tomorrow is the last work day!  We will not finish all the jobs, but the youth have worked very hard this week.  Unfortunately, the weather has not been on our side this week. 

Karen and Brian’s Group

            We worked. Hard. Really Hard. Like we were amazing. We put up two sections of siding and had a great, fun, and bonding experience. We didn’t see the homeowners, but hopefully we sent out a wave of passion and self-love. We turned the experience into one where great bonds were built by singing country music as we worked.   I love Alex!  We just decided her new nickname is merp.  Merp Merp Merpity Merp Merp Merp.   Kevin accidently cut the homeowners telephone wire but he was forgiven because that is what good Christians do.  We got a lot done and we are beyond excited to get as much work done as possible tomorrow.  We’ve had a ton of fun so far and we hope to reach our goals of getting the front of the house done.   

Kim and Tony’s Group

We are almost done with the windows. 

We made some great progress today, until something unexpected happened. The daughter of the lady we were working for was in a severe car accident. Someone hit her head on while driving on the highway. Her children were staying at their grandmother’s house (the lady we were working for.) The children were upset to the point of crying. We comforted and wept with them like Romans 12:15 says to do. But the response of the lady we working for was particularly inspiring. Her faith and trust were among the strongest we’ve ever seen. She was obviously upset but had complete trust that God would pull her through. She kept saying that everything would be all right and that it was in God’s hands. She even said if her daughter died that it would be ok because she knew her daughter would be with God. This woman has been through so much. She has lost her husband, lost her leg two years ago in a car accident with her own son, and now is going through this. A lot of people would take this and question God saying “Why me?” But she looks at it as even more reason to trust God. She says that when we go through tragedy, it’s all part of God’s plan, that it might have happened so someone else could know Jesus. She asks who else is there to pull us through it besides God?

Liz and Randy’s Group

Today we started putting up the siding, the weather wasn’t so nice but we dealt with it because we wanted to get our house done for our homeowner. We have been working on the house for almost a week and it has been very fun. Our homeowner Eric is a very nice man even though we don’t see him much. He has the cutest little dog named Duck; he is so cute. I didn’t think we were going to get done with the house in just 4 days but its really starting to come along. I think God put our group together on purpose because we all work well together and we still are ready every morning to go to Eric’s house. Today our group was ready and came prepared a long day of work (we had bandanas on with our names on them and we had put on some war paint under our eyes to make us look tough). I really hope that our group leave a huge impact on Eric’s life.

Day off

Mission Trip – Day Off

Brian and Karen’s Group

Today we went together to Wal-Mart, and we bought a picture frame for our family. We have been helping them with their home and fixing it. We ate at the original KFC and it was so fun and tasty. Then we went to the water park and it was very moist, we swam in nice cool water and had a lot of fun. There where two water slides a blue one and a yellow one. The yellow one oooh it was so slow and dark but that was okay. The blue one you had to use a tube it felt like you were going to fall but it was really fun you should really try it out.

Tony and Kim’s Group

The lady our group is working for revealed that her favorite Bible verse is John 3:16. So, today we went to Wal-Mart and bought her a picture frame with two picture slots. In one of them we’re going to put a picture of her with our group, and in the other will put a picture of a rainbow that we saw driving down the road today above John 3:16. She also has grandkids that are very important to her. Bubbles are a fun and inexpensive toy that can be enjoyed by kids of all ages. We thought it would be a great gift. One of the kids is named Kenith, is 11 years old, and proved to be very helpful on the worksite. He was extremely eager to help, and very talkative. He told us that he played football, and so we bought him a new football and a pump. Lastly, at our worksite yesterday we took two spare pieces of wood, and nailed them together into a cross. Tomorrow we will paint it and write on it all of our names.

Liz and Randy’s Group

Today, the day off it was fun but it was kinda strange not being at the work site and sleeping in. The day was filled with hours of really exhausting fun starting at our journey in Wal-Mart finding the gifts for our families from there we headed off for lunch at the historic and interesting Original KFC (Sanders Café,) from there with bellies full of delicious chicken and sides we ventured to the fun “small” water park where we played, swam, laughed, and so on till we were tired. After we went to dinner to the all known Taco Bell not all went some to Wendy’s, weirdoes. After that we went back to Henderson Settlement tired and full. On the way back we road through a rainbow and saw two others.  It was quite interesting as we went through it started to rain but it rained side ways . After the long ride back we all were strangely filled with more energy and took pictures for the families in the strangely bright orange shirts.  

Special Picture Update

There will be a written update in a little bit, but first I'm going to post some pictures from the last few days!  The youth are currently in their family group devotion times at the moment, and then some will be writing their updates for their family groups!

 Mission Biscuit Checking in to HS the first day.

 Randy and Liz's group project

 Mission Biscuit Helping out

 Enjoying the Jobsite

 Working Hard?!?!

 Mission Biscuit helping out at Karen and Brian's site

 Youth working hard

 Sanders Cafe (Original KFC)

 The chicken had odd effects on some youth.

 Enjoying the water park

 Pausing for a picture

 Group chat time!

 Fun in the wave pool

 Enjoying the lazy river

 Horsing around

 Our morning view during devotions

 One of the rainbows we saw (None of us had actually ever seen the "end of the rainbow", but we literally drove right through it)

 Liz and Randy's Group

 Karen and Brian's Group

 Tony and Kim's Group

 The whole clan

 Our group is leading the morning camp wide devotion tomorrow, so we were practicing the songs)

 Everyone, including Mission Biscuit resting after a hard day's work

 Tony and Kim's jobsite

 Walking to the store for a snack

Brian sitting with the Colonel 

Updates from the eyes of the youth in a few minutes.  Then its time to hit the bed (its already passed lights out)

Culture Clash

 Today was a gloomy "wet" day, but we were still able to get lots of work done.  One weather page said it was going to be clear early afternoon and rain the rest of the day.  Another weather page said it was going to rain early and be clear the rest of the day.  Luckily they were both right on parts and wrong on others.  It looked like it was going to rain all day, but only really rained before breakfast and during lunch.    

Each team is progressing nicely and working hard.  We may not be able to finish all of the projects we came to start, but it is clear the youth can tell that God is using them to bless the families we are working alongside.  

Brian and Karen's Group

Today was quite interesting.  We got there in the morning and got right to it. We got a lot of work done in the limited time we had before lunch.  We were worried that we might not be able to go back after lunch but God cleared up the weather for us to be able to make it and get even more work done.  We were very proud of what we accomplished. The job we had was putting insulation and siding on.  Hunter, Jacob, and Austin took ownership of the back of the house and are determined to finish it on their on by the end of the week. 

Kim and Tony's Group

Today went real well. We got lots of work done. Today my group replaced three more windows, and we painted four. The gentlemen work hard hard and installing the windows, and worked at finishing the windows (trimming, painting, caulking). The girls also played a lot with the babies!  The babies were so cute.  There is also a "pet goat" that hangs around our site!  Max and Andrew W. basically took on a window all on their own and installed a window completely by themselves!  Our group may be done Thursday afternoon and get to go help another group finish up their project! 

Liz and Randy's Group

Today we have started to build parts for the house, the siding mostly.  There was a killer load of hornets. I think we are slowly impacting and changing the homeowners’ lives with every small action at a time. Our group has become more connected, we’ve even given each other nicknames and a team name. Elijah is buzz, Alex is ladder trauma, LT for short, Andrew is baby face, Paige is pip, Justin is blue, Destiny is biggy smalls, Ja’Niya is squeaky, Randy is superman, and Liz is named lucky. WE ARE THE WASP WARRIORS!!!!!!

 

 Tonight we had a bit of a culture clash.  There was a local bluegrass/gospel band that played for the camp.  They played "old time" bluegrass and there were lots of blank stares from our youth! :-)  They were very talented musicians...but in the opinions of most of the youth, many songs "sounded the same".   It was a good "cultural" experience for our group.  

It's a short post tonight because we are all tired!  

We'll check in tomorrow!  Depending on the weather, we'll either be bowling or at the water park!