journal : : field notes
Menno Simons on 'True Evangelical Faith'
"True evangelical faith cannot lie sleeping.
For it clothes the naked,
It feeds the hungry,
It comforts the sorrowful,
And it shelters the destitute.
It returns good for evil,
It serves those who harm it,
It binds up the wounded,
And it seeks that which has been lost.
True evangelical faith cannot lie sleeping."
[Donate to the Moser family's mission in Vancouver! Click
HERE to give online.]
To my church...
I made a very difficult/very exciting announcement to my church on Sunday. Here's an excerpt:
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I stayed up most of last night trying to figure out a good way to say this, but I couldn't find one. Bekah and I have made the very difficult but necessary decision to enter the mission field in June of this year. This is necessary because we firmly believe that this is the Lord's calling upon our family. This is difficult because that call involves leaving our church family, and my role as associate pastor of this church.
We'll be working with an organization called Nieu Communities, and will spend 10 months in Vancouver, Canada, in their missionary apprenticeship program, using that time to be trained in sharing the Good News of Christ to those who have not heard. This time will also help us discern what our future role in God's mission field is.
Again, this has been (and continues to be) a very painful decision for us; one that is very bittersweet. We have felt so very loved, supported, and encouraged here at Archbold Evangelical Mennonite Church, and it has been an absolute privilege to serve here. If you have any specific questions about this, I would be more than happy to talk to you. Please pray for Bekah and I, and our young family, as we prepare for this transition...
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There you have it. I told you that 2008 is going to be a big year for the Moser family! We are very, very excited about this transition, but it's been a rough week telling the people we love that we are leaving. Yesterday was very hard, and I'm glad it's over. I'll soon share many more details about our future work in Vancouver, some of the amazing things God has done to pave the way for this, etc. Stay tuned...
Great Idea #2
It all started with a fun adventure. A small band of college buddies got together and decided to spend 6 months in Nepal after college graduation in the summer of 2002. They trekked, they drank tea, played chess, and enjoyed a simple life on the other side of the world.
What they didn't expect was the impact that the people of Nepal would have on them. Warm, caring, loving, and [many] in desperate need. The result?
Tiny Hands International.
This small band of men are my college buddies. While I didn't join them on this journey (I got married, which was its own adventure), I did wear a pashmina scarf from Tiny Hands to the office this morning.
From selling fair trade products, creating loving orphan homes, fighting the sex trafficking trade, to job skill training, it is absolutely stunning to consider what Tiny Hands has become in less than 6 years.
But it all started with a bunch of ordinary young men, through whom God has done extraordinary things.
Check out ways to help
HERE. What's great about Tiny Hands is it's goal to be a self-sustaining non profit. Until it fully reaches that goal, you can
sponsor a child. You can also get your hands of one their awesome scarves, and become part of their
scarf volunteer program here.
When ordinary people dream big, God moves. . .
What are you NOT doing?
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
One big 'Phew!'
For the luddites and hermits who haven't heard the news spreading 'round the world', our adoption has been APPROVED. We've been on this journey for over 19 months, and it feels oh so good to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Bekah explains how we initially heard and processed the news
HERE, along with the final steps over the next few weeks.
It's difficult to express how relieved, overjoyed, overwhelmed, and just plain excited we are to finally be able to bring our daughter home. And the timing? Well, we wanted her here 10 months ago, but it looks like things are lining up to have her home just in the nick of time, right before Moser baby #3 leaves the womb and enters the chaos that is the Moser family. The timing is also great in some other ways [but we'll get into those later].
However, we could use your prayer.
- Bekah won't be able to make the trip down to Guatemala, due to being so far along in her third trimester. I won't be flying solo [be looking for an intro to the '3 amigos' in a few weeks], but to go down and pick up our 15 month old daughter without Bekah is a bit scary. Ok, I'll admit: at times it's down right terrifying.
- Also, Bekah is due in 9 weeks, and the plan is/was to induce in 8 wks [I'm presiding over a wedding on 3/22, and Ben is the ring bearer!]. Current projections from our point in the adoption to actually traveling to Guatemala is 6-8 wks, though our agency told us our case should be more like 4-6wks. We need it to be 4-6, so I can be back in time for the labor and delivery.
In other words, things appear to be lining up to work out great. Just pray that all goes as planned. Thanks! Or, shall I say....Gracias!
Great Idea #1
Today I'm going to start a mini-series on social entrepreneurship businesses/non profit organizations that are doing some amazing things with very simple ideas and very large hearts. Bekah and I have personal connections with most, so they're very dear to our hearts. This world is in desperate need of creative, innovative, passionate followers of Christ who are ready to take a simple, yet brilliant idea and use it to love others.
Today, I wanted to highlight one of the most radical, impossible ideas out there:
peace in the middle east. Some actually believe in it to the point of standing up against the tidal wave of violence, negativity, oppression, and apathy in the Israeli/Palestinian crisis.
One such organization is
Shevet Achim. Shevet Achim exists because they believe that it is a beautiful thing for Jews and Arabs to love one another. They arrange for Arab children who need life saving heart surgeries (but can't afford them) to have those surgeries paid for.
Oh, did I mention the surgeries are performed in Israel?
In Israeli hospitals?
By Israeli doctors?
Peace is a much more powerful force (yes, force) than we realize. Go to
Shevet's website and sponsor a child. Shevet's database and hospitality manager, Martha Berg, is a woman very dear to our hearts. Support her work as well.
You can also support the work of Shevet Achim by buying a pair of 'klash's'. What's a klash? This is a klash.
It's a handmade (each shoe taking hours of work), Kurdish shoe made by families (for centuries) in northern Iraq (what many believe should probably be called Kurdistan). A cool organization (featured in the
recent issue of
Relevant Magazine) called
Buy Shoes Save Lives sells them for $100.
At least $50 goes to a Shevet Achim child in need of heart surgery; the rest goes to the Kurdish family who made the shoe.
Buy some shoes. Save some lives. Simple. Powerful.
Foster the crazy notion that we should love our enemies
to the point of giving of yourself to save their lives.
That's a novel idea, isn't it?
(hint: it's Jesus)
[breathe...don't gasp]
Ever pondered the difference between a walk, a jog, and a sprint?
A walk is slow...often encompassing the range of 'mosey' to 'brisk'. [I prefer to mosey. Bekah leans toward Olympic speed walker.] When you walk, you usually aren't in a huge hurry. If you're in a huge hurry and your walking, you need to check your methods. But on a walk, one can converse, think, absorb and observe. Walking's nice. A Sunday afternoon stroll through the park on a warm sunny day is good stuff.
A jog is the middle ground. You do it for liesure, exercise, stress-relief, but it's intentionally fast movement. Purposeful, but measured. I jogged this morning. It was exhilarating, somewhat tiring, good for me, and yet I don't have the urge to do it again anytime today. A 25 minute jog is good. An hour long jog is ridiculous.
A sprint? Well, a sprint is running without inhibition...usually because you MUST. I mean, c'mon; nobody heads out the door and says, "Honey, be right back. I'm goin' sprintin'!" My high school football coach always said that sprints are good for you. I beg to differ. I always feel closer to puking after a sprint than I did before. The cumulative effect my in fact be positive. But sprints are meant to be short bursts, not long races.
We're 9 days into 2008, and I've been
sprinting for 9 days. It's all a blur thus far. Not a healthy start.
So, consider this post an 'I quit'. No more sprinting. I'm stopping, so that I can catch my breath.
Think back (to many: way back) to the last time you sprinted. At the end, you don't exactly feel like life to the fullest is flowing through you. Instead, you're gasping just to keep from passing out.
I don't want 2008 to be about breathing to survive. I want 2008 to be about breathing because living is so damn good.
I could do the obligatory Christmas letter-esque blog post where one brags about all the amazing things one did in the previous year. I won't. I had an amazing 2007; full of blessings. I also had a difficult 2007; full of trial and tribulation.
So, 2008 is going to be less about an arms-pumping, legs-driving, heart-racing suicide sprint. Because I'm beginning to realize more and more that there's stress in life that you can't control, and stress that you
can control. People get consumed so often by stress they can control. I won't (try to).
2008 is going to be more about:
- Smelling the roses, in spite of the thorns...and the cliche.
- Truly responding to my son tugging at my shirt, rather than tell him daddy has another meeting to go to (meetings suck).
- Saying 'no' when I need to, and thus making my 'yes' more meaningful.
- Sinking my teeth into texts, not just ripping the necessary info out of them.
- Embracing the interruptions, rather than getting annoyed by them.
- Sipping and savoring my coffee, not gulping it for the caffeine rush.
- Worrying less about my glass being half empty/full, and more about what's being poured in and out of the glass.
- Treating my wife like I did when I was passionately pursuing her in college.
In other words, while life around me is speeding up this year, I'll be slowing down. Unrealistic? Perhaps, but I'm just naive enough to try. Because when one sprints, she/he only cares about the finish line. When one strolls, she/he is able to notice the little things; and stop to take deep relaxing breaths, not short gasps.
2008 is going to be a make or break year for the Moser family. Check that. 2008 is going to be a
make year for the Moser family. (without the 'or break', it doesn't really make sense, but you know what I mean).
Big things in store this year. Big things. Stay tuned, and check on me every now and then to see if I'm taking slow, comfortable breaths, or desperate gasps.
[And now you're done reading this, take a minute. Just one. And
breathe.]
*Mom, sorry for the sort of-swear word. But, in context, it fit. I think...
