How God answered my Crazy Prayer

OK - so my husband and I are living as full-time Christian workers in New York City.  We will be working with immigrants, teaching English and teaching Bible Studies and sharing the love of Jesus in any other ways that will serve an immigrant population.  I wanted to take a moment to chronicle our journey.

Prior to 2012, my husband and I had been feeling a tugging, a gentle calling from God to work for Him full-time.  This tugging has been there on and off for many years.  In fact, from 1993-1996, my hubby went to seminary to prepare for this calling.  After seminary, we felt that the Lord wanted us to wait and not go into ministry full-time.  

So we waited, and waited, and waited.  

Around 2010, we started sensing that the wait was coming to an end, but what does that mean?  What did the next step look like?  How do you jump into full-time ministry?  What are we supposed to do?   work at an orphanage?  work for a Christian relief agency?  go overseas?  work stateside?  

So, we prayed, and prayed, and prayed.  

And this is what happened:

January 2012:  I called my friend Maya and asked her to pray with me that the year 2012 would be the "Year of the Breakthrough"!  What I meant by this, is that serious steps would be made to enter into full-time Christian ministry.  My husband was working a full-time gig as a graphic artist and he was the part-time Outreach/Evangelism Director at our church.  I asked her to pray with me that my husband would get laid off and that he would get a severance package that was comfortable enough for us to live for awhile without a paycheck.  

Crazy!  Right?  Well, let me explain:  We were living a nice upper-middle class life.  We don't know how that happened, we sort of woke up and there it was.  2 kids, 2 story house, 2 car garage, 4 bathrooms etc.  Those things can be hard to walk away from.  But what is even harder to walk away from is a secure job.  Especially when the news is constantly reminding you that the economy is bad.  So, I felt that the only way we would have the courage to walk away is if God FORCED us to walk away by taking away the paycheck so that we could seriously look at other options.  So, I asked Maya to join me in my crazy prayer.

January-July 2012:  Maya and I prayed that my hubby would be laid off.  We prayed for a severance package.  We prayed that if God wanted our family in full-time ministry that he would make it crystal clear by taking away secular employment.    

July 27, 2012:  MY HUSBAND GOT LAID OF!!!!  The exact same day, Frederick County schools calls me and offers me my choice of three Spanish teaching positions.  (I had not called them, I had not contacted them, they had my name on file from me teaching for them 3 years previously.)  This job was only 20 hours a week, but it included full medical benefits.  God was providing for all of our needs and we both sensed that the Lord was up to something.  And instead of panicking, my husband was at peace.  "I think God is up to something," he said.  It's not every day that a man gets laid off and his wife gets offered a job that she never even applied for in a job market that is abyssmal.

August 2012:  I say yes to the teaching position.  My husband gets a very generous severance package.  I find out that I have 2 weeks to get certified in Spanish if I want the medical benefits.  The only certification test available is geared at native speakers.  More crazy prayers.  The Lord helps me pass - miraculously!  I am now a certified teacher in the state of Maryland!

September 2012-December 2012:  I am teaching.  My husband is still running the Outreach program at the church - working 8 hours a week.  We begin seriously looking into all sorts of mission agencies and Christian organizations.  We find out that most mission agencies will NOT send you overseas if you have teenagers.  OK, so I guess we are supposed to stay in the States?  But we have a heart for cross-cultural ministry and for taking the gospel to people who have little chance of hearing about God's love.  Can we do that in the states?

Then Hurricane Sandy hits New York City and my husband organizes a trip to do relief work.  18 of us head to the Big Apple.  We stay at a Baptist Mission House.  In that short trip, my husband and I both walked away impressed with the work these people were doing in New York CIty. Not just hurricane relief, but church planting and outreach among peoples of all nations.  The Baptist Association in New York has churches that speak Spanish, Creole, Vietnamese, Filipino, Hindi, Ethiopian etc.

December 2012:  My husband is on the New York Baptist Association's website and finds out about an organization that is working with immigrants to New York who are from countries that don't readily let Christian missionaries in.

January 2013:  Our family goes to New York for a long weekend to check out the work that this group is doing.  My husband and I both love it!  We pray and feel like this is the group for us.

February 2013:  We get assessed to determine if we can be missionaries with this group.  This assessment included psychological testing, personality profiles etc.  It was intense.  And we were approved to be missionaries!

March 2013-May 2013:  We start raising support to move to New York for one year of training.  In only two months, the LORD provided enough funds for us to live in one of the most expensive places in the whole world for an entire year!  Absolutely amazing.

And so here I am, sitting in our teeny-tiny, incredibly expensive (but newly renovated) apartment in the Upper West Side.  3 blocks from Harlem.  5 blocks from Columbia University.  3 blocks from Central Park.    On one end of my street is a Dominican neighborhood.  The other end seems to consist of Jewish old timers and yuppies and college students from places like China and Saudi Arabia.  I buy fruit from a lady from Bangladesh.   I speak Spanish almost every time I leave my house.

I am living among  the nations, praying that my light will shine.  And I love it.  

And I am so thankful that God answers crazy prayers.

10 Reasons Kids Leave Church

I found this article interesting: http://marc5solas.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/

Miracles!

"Why don't we see miracles today, the way they did in the Bible?"  This question is often asked by both believers and skeptics alike.  What people mean is not the miracle of salvation - but miracles like what we see in the Bible - the lame walking, the blind seeing etc..  As I get older, I am starting to beleive that we d see miracles every day - we just don't take note of them or remember them.  So, I a starting to take note and I want to document a few of these miracles.  

1.  Last November, my mom had a suspicious "spot" on her mammogram.  The doctors were concerned and scheduled and biopsy.  Everyone started praying hard that this would not be cancer.  When she went in for the biopsy, the doctors spent a long time before even cutting her.  They looked perplexed.  They rechecked the film that showed the spot.  They looked again at her current reading.  "We can't find the spot," they exclaimed.  It was completely GONE!

2.  My friend Nancy was infertile for 20 years.  During that time, she and her husband adopted 7 kids!  At age 41, her closed womb suddenly opened and she was pregnant and delivered a healthy baby boy!  Everyone was amazed by the miracle.  Then, at age 43, she got pregnant again and delivered another healthy baby boy!  Everyone was even more amazed.  Then last year, at age FORTY-SEVEN, that's right 47, she got pregnant and delivered another healthy baby boy!!!!!  This after being completely infertile for years.  As you know, most women with a history of good fertility can't get pregnant at age 47!

3.  Twice in my life, I have had the honor of praying for people and see them healed - immediately.  Once in a Brazilian favela (slum).  Another time, when a lady at my church had baffled the doctors for 2 years.  They couldn't figure out how to treat her debilitating illness.  But, God healed both of these people.

What about you?  Can you document any miracles?  THINK and remember.  It can be so easy to forget and not recount they times that God has intervened.  It can be so easy to see a miracle and then go on with life as usual.  Let's remember the times when God intervenes. 

Really?

After yesterday's post, I have found myself asking - do I really not care about people?  Am I really that selfish - or did I exaggerate to try and make a point?   In my heart of hearts, I care about the needs of others.  I even give to them.  I think that what struck me about the passage in Acts is the sacrificial element of the early disciple's giving.  Selling possessions for others?  That's pretty wild - and inspiring!   

Really!

Challenging the staus quo

"So, when was the last time anyone here sold something so that someone in need could eat?"

That was the question Steve asked as a group of us ate dinner together last month.  He was referring to Acts 2: 42-47 which reads: 

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.  They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

 When Steve asked this, we all just stared at him and finally someone replied, "Never".  Someone else said something like, "I don't even think I have given up a luxory so that others could eat".  Ouch.  We all grimly agreed.  

I have been thinking about all of the excuses I make for not following the examples of the early Christians.  You know things like:

"It's a different time now"

"Didn't Jesus say that the poor will always be with you?"

"I mean I would end up poor if I gave it all away?"

"Be careful - you don't want to become a Communist!"

"Doesn't Jesus want me to have some happiness?"

"I worked hard for this possession!"

As Americans, we are the RICHEST people who have ever lived.  If you look at things from a global scale, evangelical Americans are among the wealthiest demographic in the world.  If this is true, why are their still children growing up on trash heaps in the Philippines?  Why are their still people dying of famine?  Why hasn't Haiti been rebuilt?  I know that the answers are complicated.  I know that some countries in the world have government structures that make it hard to give.  I know that there is corruption in many parts of the world.  I know that it's hard to know who to give to.

But I still think, that as a Christian, I can do more do help others.  I think that the real reason that we are not doing more is that we just really don't want to help people .  OR We are too consumed with our own  lives to really think about giving so that others can eat, have shelter/clothes etc.  

Here is a quote from Stephen Colbert - I don't agree with everything he says and I don't even know if how serious he was when he said this - but I think he is on to something here:  “If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”

Mr. Colbert is talking about us corporately as a nation - and I am looking at giving on an individual/voluntary level but I think he's right about something -  I don't give  because I am selfish.  Although I have dreams of being some sort of Mother Teresa - the truth that my budget often proves is that I want my best life now - even though the tenets of my faith teach that Jesus and HIS heavenly home are my reward.

Pushing Books

My friend Mary is a Book Pusher.  Some people push drugs.  Others push agendas.  Mary pushes books.

"Hey, Tammy, I got something for you,"  she'll say as she thrusts a book into my hands.

"Is it good?"  I ask - already knowing the answer.

"It's good - it's real good,"  she says and walks away to pass out books to some other bibliovore wh can't wait to sink their teeth into some juicy, thought-provoking words.

The thing about a book pusher is that you can NEVER outdo them.  You can NEVER pass them a book because when you try - they tell you that they have already read it or just got it and are about to read it.

But, I LOVE books - so this arrangement is fine by me.  This relationship is working really well.

Another cool thing about Mary is that God has been whispering to her about the same issues He has been whispering to me about:  How do we as American Middle Class Christians live authentic Christian lives that really show the love of Christ rather than just be a voting block or a subculture that is sequestered from the rest of the world?  How do we live lives that are consistent with the WHOLE counsel of God - not just some portions of it?

If any of you are interested in these topics, then I would like to give you a booklist of some of the great books that I have read.  Basically - I would like to push on you some of the books that Mary has pushed on me.....well, maybe, some of them I discovered on my own - but I am SURE that she has read everything on my list....I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

Grab a hot cup of tea and enjoy!

Challenging you to engage the world with radical love:
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
Radical by David Platt
The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearn
The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of our Calling by John Stott

Biographies by people who have stepped out of the middle class bubble to make a difference:
Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis (18 year old who moved to Uganda and did AWESOME things)
Same Kind of Different as me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore (homeless shelter work in Texas- amazing story)
Seven by Jenn Hatmaker (middle class mom who starts changing her lifestyle/outlook)
Risking Everything by Sarah Courson (missionary in Bolivia)
Always Enough by Heidi Baker (missionary in Mozambique)
Bruchko by Bruce Olson (Amazon missionary)
Insanity of God by Nik Ripkin (I just started this - but it's good - so far....Mary bought 10 copies if that tells you anything......she hasn't read it yet either but she always can spot the good stuff.....)

Social Justice:
A Generous Justice by Tim Keller (my favorite Christian thinker)
The Good News about Injustice by Gary Haugen (He started the International Justice Mission to fight human trafficking/slavery)

Helping the Poor without enabling them or humiliating them: (balancing out Social Justice causes so that you are really helping people and not just alleviating your own Western guilt)

When Helping Hurts by Corbett and Fickert
Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton

The wonderful life or The Road Less Traveled?

A friend of mine is a missionary in another country.  Here is a conversation she recently had with a young lady:  

(young lady) "Why would you leave America and your life to come live here?"

(my friend) I smile and my unprepared answer seems to come from your prayers. "You know, in America," I begin, "I have a wonderful life. I have a nice house, a nice car. I have everything I need and want. But Adelina, I have learned that those things can make you happy for a little while they are not the things that satisfy the soul. They cannot bring significance to your life."

She is looking more intently at me now.

"When my life is over, what will it be about? Will people say, 'Oh, she had nice hair, she had a nice house and a nice life'? Is that what I want my life to count for? I am a follower of Jesus. I believe God is the one who has given me so much. I don't know why He chose to give me this life and not one in another country, but He did. And He gives it to me so that I could share my blessings with others."

  

This friend of mine really is giving up a good life.  A good, temporary life.  Although she was raised with typical upper middle class values, she is not grasping onto that lifestyle.  She knows what's more important.

I am so thankful for friends like her.  We can talk and we speak each other's language.  We both struggle with the same things,  But she is purposefully choosing the Road Less Traveled over her "wonderful life".  

As I talk with different people, there seems to be a growing restlessness with the American Dream as we know it.  This generation - that is probably one of the wealthiest and most pampered generations that have ever lived - sees the emptiness of the frivolous life.  Many are scared to act on their restlessness in a dramatic way - but, I believe,  even small changes can have a huge impact.  

Anyway, I hope that we will all see that, many times, the Road Less Traveled is actually better than "a wonderful life" and that our actions would follow accordingly.  

The gymnastics of life

If life is like a gymnastics routine -
Is this your routine?

Singing Louder

“I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust. I considered myself a Christian. We heard stories of what was happening to Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it because what could we do to stop it. A railroad track ran behind our small church and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance, and then the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars. Week after week the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews in route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us. We knew the time the train was coming, and when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.”

Last night, I remembered this story and it caused me to think:  What are some of the ways that I "sing louder" today?  Are there ways that I ignore the hurt in this world because getting my hands dirty is inconvenient - and messy?

I sing louder when I change the channel whenever I see a documentary on starving children (out-of sight, out of mind).  I sing louder when I know that a lot of goods that I buy were produced by slave labor, but it's too much research and money to buy things that are fair trade.  I sing louder when I essentially ignore the hurting because I am "too busy" to get involved.  By "busy" I mean things that I want to do - but that won't really matter even a year from now.  I am so tired of singing louder.

But, why do I sing louder?  I think sometimes I sing louder because it is easier.  I think sometimes I sing louder because I don't know where to start.  I think sometimes I sing louder because I have convinced myself that the things that I am  busy doing are really important.  I think I sing louder because I think that I can't make a difference.  I think I sing louder cause, "Jesus doesn't want me to feel guilty, does he?"  (often by "guilty", I mean any unpleasant emotion - like, just feeling bad for others - which is technically a form of compassion, rather than guilt).

My Savior didn't "sing louder" over me.  He sacrificed Himself for me.

As a Christ-follower, I don't want to sing louder anymore.  

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Happy 2013!

This is a typical New's Year's Day post.  There are probably a million blogs that have been written this week about reflections on last year and resolutions for the upcoming year.  Because of this, I resisted writing one.  But, a new year really is the best time to look back and look forward.  Sometimes things can be unoriginal and still be a good idea.  So, here goes!

Looking Back

Significant events of last year include:

• planning a mission trip to Miami and going there as a family along with 30 other people.
• celebrating David's 11th birthday at Uncle's Tom's house at the river.  (good time with my brother and his new wife, Kristin, and our kids friends, and Uncle Tom and Aunt Debbie)
• my husband getting laid off
• having the county school system call me "out of the blue" on the same day as my husband's lay-off and offering me a Spanish teacher job WITH full medical benefits.
• getting my teacher certificate 
• praying for my husband while he was in Haiti
• doing hurricane relief work in NYC
• seeing my kid grow and mature
• being thankful for my husband
• investigating opportunities to do mission work on a full-time basis

Looking forward

Things I like forward to this year:

• watching how life will unfold
• eating well (and healthily)
• seeing my kids grow more spiritually and academically
• enjoying my husband
• loving God more
• loving others more in real and practical ways
• living a less frivolous life

Lord, please be with us this year in an obvious and powerful way.

Amen.