I expected last week’s mission trip to Monterrey to provide a break from school, a chance to have some fun, and an opportunity to see God do some things in my students’ hearts. I didn’t, however, expect to be changed, especially in such a humbling way.

First, I was reminded of the joy that comes through pain. We worked hard down there … on one day alone we hauled over 3,500 buckets of concrete onto the second story of a new building in 100˚ heat. My injuries ranged from a ripped up hand to a nasty eye injury, and just keeping ahead of twenty four fourteen-year-olds (and a language I hadn’t spoken in years) only sharpened the sensations.

But through it all, I felt alive … gloriously breaking and growing and stretching and bleeding. That kind of joy has been hard to find lately, and I sincerely feel that I need to begin actively seeking out ways to sharpen both my body and my mind through “painful” experiences. The deep sleep, the momentum, the leathered skin … it’s just so good.

I was also reminded about how important it is for me to surround myself (and yoke myself) with those who love to serve, with everything they have. This is something I not only value deeply, but also expect to be doing for the rest of my life. And frankly, I think that it’s bad stewardship for me to be investing a lot in people who don’t have the same mindset or focus … it sucks the life out of me and distracts me from doing what I’ve been created to do!

You might say that my vision was replaced by His, both physically and spiritually. Now comes the challenge of walking it out!

I just read a very insightful New York Times article that looks at evangelicals in an entirely new light.

The article touches on some of the deep prejudices that exist towards people of faith … most of which are completely understandable, given some of the ridiculous stances and statements the church and its spokesmen have made in the last century. It also exposes some of the unique and surprising things that are being done in the name of Christ.

Scorning people for their faith is intrinsically repugnant, and in this case it also betrays a profound misunderstanding of how far evangelicals have moved over the last decade. Today, conservative Christian churches do superb work on poverty, AIDS, sex trafficking, climate change, prison abuses, malaria and genocide in Darfur.

If you have a minute, it’s worth a read!

When I saw this graphic (see it larger), I was pretty surprised. I guess I had never really seen the breakdown of where each denomination is geographically located in our country.

Have you?

This morning my church did a unique outreach … at the beginning of the service, we asked for volunteers to go out to a local shopping center and give away 100 ten dollar gas cards.

We returned before the service was over and wanted to show some clips to the congregation, so I had about ten minutes (during the car ride back) to import the footage and create this video. It was a tight turnaround, but it went off without a hitch!

Last year, I discovered that China was a very secular society … the only churches were in big cities (there were none in Loudi), and those that could be found were government-sponsored and tightly-controlled. As a result, I spent an entire year without the fellowship, corporate worship, and public teaching that comes from being a part of a healthy church body.

At first glance, this would seem to most Christians like a terrible thing for my spiritual growth and well-being. I found, however, that it actually allowed me to clear away the “drivel” that is associated with the Church and instead focus on the deeper elements of my faith. I wrestled with real life more, confronted the juxtaposition of mortality and the Eternal, tested my convictions, spent much more time communing with my Father, and generally felt like I finally had a chance to grow down.

Since returning to America, however, I’ve found that my faith has been tested in a very different way … through my re-immersion in the Church!

To be honest, it’s been quite a lackluster and frustrating experience for me. I don’t really feel like I understand what’s going on there and why it’s happening … and after four or five weeks, I’m having trouble figuring out both what I think about it and what I should do with it.

After a lot of thought and prayer, however, I think I’ve identified a few reasons why things might feel like this.

1. Now I’m an outsider. I’ve spent my whole life going to church and being deeply involved in Christian “stuff”. It’s always been a really comfortable place for me where I could relate to the people, understand the backstory and rationale for the things that happen, and generally feel like I “belong”. But after a year of absence, I definitely don’t feel at home … I’m a visitor, someone who’s walked in from the street and isn’t really certain about how I fit in to the Christian bubble. I suspect that it’ll eventually be really good to remember this feeling, but for now it kinda sucks.
2. It tastes like applesauce. I feel like almost everything that’s been presented in church has been prepared for babies … it’s bland, watered-down, and spoon-fed to the congregation. I’m not really a toddler anymore … and it really doesn’t help me to sit there stagnantly while blatantly obvious spiritual truths are spelled out in detail. I need meat.
3. I’m not a good consumer. As an outsider, I feel like I’m almost always the “direct object” of the things that happen at church … I’m listening, receiving, absorbing, and retaining. But this passive and sedentary role really doesn’t suit me … I’m a creative person who learns and grows through experiences, relationships, and the creative process itself. So if I don’t take the step of getting involved in some sort of leadership or service role (like I can freely do at school), I’m stuck simply consuming things, one after another. And that’s not a good place for me to be.
4. I just want to worship. This one’s really simple … my heart and soul just want to cry out with others, to celebrate and surrender and lift up the God of the Universe. I want to sing at the top of my lungs and dance for joy … but the opportunity to do this freely (for more than a couple of songs, at least) still hasn’t presented itself at church, school, or with other believers. And I’m beginning to understand, more and more, how immensely big of a problem that is.

I could probably talk (or type) forever about it … but in the end, you’d find that I really don’t have it figured out. And I want to be clear … this is not really a critique of my church, but an analysis of my current relationship with the Church. I notice the same dynamics throughout my experience at the Christian school where I teach and even in the circle of friends that I have. And I know that for now, I must simply be patient.

Hmm.

Every fall, we take the entire CHCA sixth grade class to a three-day overnight retreat at PVM, the summer camp where I work. It’s a blast … the students get to worship in outdoor chapel services, explore the creek and pond, do team-building exercises, zip down the 500 foot zipline, see birds of prey and reptiles up close, do bible studies, climb the 40 foot rock tower, spin around on the orbitron, and generally have a good time.

The theme is treasure … how God values each of us, the worth He’s placed in His creation, how we can value those around us, and the difference between earthly and eternal treasure. It’s pretty amazing how it hits these sixth graders right where they’re at, digging down deep into issues they tend to confront at this fragile age and ultimately giving us teachers and parents a unique way to connect with their hearts and minds.

Sure, it’s a lot of work to put together … but it’s worth every minute. There’s nothing like blending together two of my greatest passions in life, teaching and camping. And I love giving my beloved students a chance to experience a very different kind of learning … in God’s classroom!

Check out this video from the 6th Grade Camp two years ago … it should give you a pretty good idea of why I love doing what I do!

“If someone prays for patience,
do you think God gives them patience
or does He give them the opportunity to be patient?
If he prays for courage,
do you think God gives them courage
or the opportunity to be courageous?
If someone prays for family to be closer,
do you think God zaps them with warm and fuzzy feelings
or does He give them the opportunity to love each other?”

– Evan Almighty (a terrible movie)

This is the first Easter that I can remember spending without any church service or family activities. In a way, it’s a little sad … I am used to celebrating with other people, reflecting together on the awesome gift that was given to me through Jesus’s death and resurrection so many years ago.

But in another way, it has been calmly reassuring to be alone with God during this time. In so many ways, I’ve had a chance to center my faith this year, to focus on what’s really important and weed out some of the religious drivel that had clouded my heart and mind in the past ten years. It’s almost like I’m able to experience the reality of Easter in a much more meaningful way this year, like I’ve taken off the shades and my eyes have adjusted to the warmth and the light!

I hope that you too can find this solitude sometime today … that you can seek out a place to quietly reflect on the mercy and grace of Jesus, the ultimate expression of God’s love for you. He was the Word that was spoken to heal you, to connect you with Something beyond this dirty and broken world. And He did this by becoming dirty and broken Himself, becoming death itself so that you might become the righteousness of God. That’s what Easter is all about!

I like to stay fairly informed about what’s going on in the world, even here in China, where information is controlled pretty tightly. In the past couple of years, that has meant lots of talk about Iraq, its people, and the usually terrible things that they’re doing to each other (and their “visitors”). Most of the violence and hatred, it seems, is happening between two groups of people … the Shia and the Sunni.

But if you’re anything like me, you really don’t know the fundamental differences between the two, let alone why they hate each other enough to do these terrible things. If that’s so, I suggest that you take a couple of minutes to read What’s the Difference: Shia vs. Sunni.

It’s a short and sweet breakdown on, well, the “breakdown” between these two warring factions … the religious history, the geographic details, and some of the current beefs that they have with each other. I actually find the comments below the article to be even more interesting, especially those with firsthand experience:

As a Shia, I too have no beef with Sunnis. We believe in the same stuff. Now just because we believe the successor was different doesn’t mean we should kill each other. Muslims embarrass me because instead of uniting like the other religions do, we are stuck kicking our own butts. Like a dog biting its own tail. Instead of trying to unite and take on Israel and the U.S.’s bully asses, we are still killing each other.

– Amir

As a practising Muslim myself I am ashamed at the politicizing of these issues. When you look at the common man, shia or sunni, they are all the same. Unless you are madly indoctrinated the common man doesn’t have a problem with sunni or shia. We are all humans, we all breathe air, drink water, and eat the same food.

The root cause of sunni shia fighting and unrest relates to a much bigger problem, the prevalence of fundamentalist elements motivated by power, money and weapons. This does not apply to Islam alone and we can see this in different forms in other religions too, though we muslims are condemned as fundamentalist and violence prone.

This is not helped in any way by the preponderance of violent radical imams and fundamentalis wahhabi strongholds preaching extremes and violence against everyone else. Unless we address this problem at the root, it is going to end in a very very bad way.

– Sulaiman

I transcribed the following from an interview that Alive in Baghdad conducted with Hanni Essa, an Iraqi priest at Al-Hikma Church in Baghdad. It’s quite eye-opening, if you ask me.

I believe that it’s incorrect to think of the West as Christian, especially when we talk of the occupation forces, which have shown many examples why. Religion is used for other ends, the historical evidence shows this.

As for Western police and occupation forces, I don’t think they care for religion, or Christians as Christians. They care for their interests, for capitalistic thought. They have the idea of globalization, which is not for Christians or religion. With their idea of globalization they want to unify the world on one scale. All should wear jeans and eat hamburgers. The media connects different parts of the world but we shouldn’t obliterate the characteristics of other societies whether Muslim or Christian. As a result I don’t see the West as Christians. I think they have capitalistic intentions, but use this Christian image, they use this religion for different reasons, for their goals I think.

I wish that even if there is strife we all remember we have one valuable country. In a garden, you can see a lot of flowers, with different colors, and the more colors in the garden, the more beautiful it is. Our nation has many colors and many flowers. but I don’t think flowers fight one another saying, “I am better and more beautiful than you.”

[rick and nicole, by Rachel]

Nicole Lynne Bodjanac, 22, went home to be with the Lord on February 26, 2007. Nicole was a 2002 graduate of Norton High School and a graduate of Radiography School through Akron Children’s Hospital. She was a member of Norton Apostolic Christian Church.

Nicole loved people and always had a smile on her face. She had a strong faith and always believed “Either way, I win!” Through her illness, she wanted others to come to know Christ.

She was preceded in death by her grandfather, Robert Dolfen and is survived by her loving and devoted husband Rick; parents, Paul and Cindy Webel; brother, Paul (Sarah) Webel, Jr.; sisters, Renee and Danielle Webel; grandparents, Reinhardt and Arlene Webel and Betty Dolfen and many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

Friends may call at Bacher Funeral Home (map) on Thursday, March 1, 2007 from 2 to 4 and 5 to 9 p.m. Funeral services will be held on Friday, March 2, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. at Norton Apostolic Christian Church (map) with Pastor Jeremy Jivan officiating. Interment will take place at Greenlawn Memorial Park.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to:

Stehlin Foundation for DSRCT Cancer Research
1315 St. Joseph Parkway, Suite 1818
Houston, TX 77002

Cancer free, at last. It was strange to be so far away for an entire chapter in my family’s story … but even from here, it was hard to miss the beauty and grace and significance of it all. You can read Nicole’s story for yourself at her blog.

Nicole always brought out the best in everyone around her, and I was particularly prone to being infected by her laughter. It will be good to see her again one day.

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

– 2 Corinthians 5:1-8

Want some inspiration? Then check out this video!

I just saw two very interesting programs on CCTV9, China’s International English station. Like the rest of the Chinese media, this station is owned and controlled by the government … as a result, the programming is usually quite politically correct and biased towards China’s “world dominance”. These two programs, however, went against the grain … speaking of some “unspoken” issues in China and even criticizing the culture and messy history.

In the first program, Dialogue, a commentator was criticizing the corruption and bribery that is common in this country (video). He compared China to the rest of the “developed world”, where he said that bribery of any sort, whether it be $10 or $1000, is considered a crime and is looked down upon by society. In China, though, he claimed that corruption is just a way of life. It is common, widespread, and accepted not only with leaders and rich people, but also among common people. Finally, this commentator bravely claimed that this must change as China moves ahead in the global community. Now that would be sweet.

The program was followed by another called Rediscovering China: The Churches of China (transcript, video). In the program, an American reporter named Laurel Bennett highlighted some interesting architectural and historical tidbits:

• According to legend, the Apostle Thomas took the gospel first to India then in 61 A.D. (shortly after Jesus’s death and resurrection) to Xi’an, the ancient capital of China (where I visited last week).
• A missionary named Olopen came to Xi’an in 635 A.D. to spread Christianity … his visit is recorded on an ancient stone tablet.
• Christianity mostly disappeared at the end of the Tang dynasty because the Han chinese supressed the minority cultures who practiced it with some pretty extreme intolerance.
• The famous Yuan dynasty conqueror Khubilai Khan’s mother was a Christian … he even ordered a mass to be held for her funeral (in the 13th century).
• In 1601, after 18 years of living in China, an Italian priest finally met the emperor and told him about Jesus. He brought many gifts, including a clock that kept breaking (and could only be fixed by the priest). His persistance eventually won him the ability to build Beijing’s first church. Now there are four churches surrounding the emperor’s palace … north, south, east, and west.
• The earliest work of western architects in China were all churches. Shanghai’s St. Ignatius, a massive church that seats 2,500, was the first completely western building in China. It was built in 1910 in the shape of a cross.
• Since then, most churches in China have been built, destroyed by fire, rebuilt, knocked down by national disaster, rebuilt again, destroyed by war, rebuilt again, invaded by the Boxers, and rebuilt yet again. Many that have been built in recent days, especially during the cultural revolution, were disguised as homes and built with traditional Chinese facades, covering domes with pagodas and courtyards with Chinese gardens.
• The program also claimed that although few new churches are being built in China, Christianity is growing exponentially among both foreigners and Chinese citizens. It ended with this statement: “Jesus told Apostle John, ‘Write the things you’ve seen, the things which are and the things that will take place after this.’ The message of Jesus Christ has truly been to the end of the earth, as these words have been inscribed on the walls of the churches on the oriental nation as well.”

I’m a little confused. Is this the free speech of a few selected journalists, or is it just a clever attempt by the government to remain in control of some impending national dialogues? Sometimes it’s hard to tell how intentional or organized things like this are in this chaotic but tightly monitored country.

Either way, it’s just refreshing to hear some honesty, truth, and tolerance!

[Zhang Jinming, by lance webel]

This man, Zhang Jinming, is a Christian artist who carves and prints Chinese bible verses and poetry. I “accidentally” found his shop in a side alley in Yangshuo … and his art was perfect for presents for some of my closest friends and family.

When I posted this photo to Flickr, Rachel keenly asked how this possible in a “public” venue in China. Here was my answer:

Technically, Christianity isn’t illegal here in China. The government proclaims a policy of “freedom of religion” … in fact, there are even government-sponsored Bibles published right here in the country!

China does, however, have a history of really bad things being done in the name of Christianity, so the Powers-That-Be are very skeptical of any group gatherings, religious solicitations, or potentially subversive activity. As a result, only government-sanctioned churches and officially approved functions and groups fall into their good graces. The vast numbers of underground churches and witnessing activities in China today are all, as far as I understand it, against the law.

I don’t think that Jinming is technically breaking any laws by selling his artwork, as long as he’s not trying to “convert anyone” or holding underground meetings in his store (though, from my research, the laws are mostly unwritten and extremely open to interpretation). Realistically, however, he is a remarkably brave man who is living on the edge … it’s very likely that his business and even his family’s peaceful existance could be abruptly halted by any number of authority figures with a distaste for Christianity or an uninformed fear of his art and business.

There are, of course, many more variables and a whole lot of dramatic and terrible and life-changing stories about Christianity in China. And I’m in no way an expert … but this year has, if nothing else, been eye-opening.

“Jesus, we are on bended knee. The entire world was stuttering the day you entered the world. The mountains were groaning, the poor and the hurt were coming to life, and you were lying in a manger, surrounded by third world countries and death threats. We are still stuttering. May our lives be one mispronounced word that sounds out in the pursuit of what you are.”

– Bobby, Scott, Joe & Mark of This Holiday Life