The Power of Pilgrimage

Last Time I was in Whistler - David on the far left

It was April 2012. I had just graduated from seminary in March and Mandy was due with our first child in May, so it felt like I needed to do something grand to mark and celebrate these two occasions. So my best friend, David, and I took an epic road trip – mountain biking, rock climbing, and disc golfing from Seattle to Moab and back. It was a fun trip, but an exhausting trip. It was a time of incredible connection and amazing memories. But more than anything, it was a spiritual trip…a pilgrimage.

And now, four years later, David and his wife are about to have their first child and he asked me to join him on another adventure as we mark the commencement of a whole new season in his life. Here in July (perhaps as you are reading this), I will be spending 4 days in British Columbia, riding mountain bikes at one of the most amazing mountain bike locations in the entire world, Whistler. Another fun, but exhausting trip. Another time of incredible connection and amazing memories. But more than anything, another spiritual trip…another pilgrimage.

The art of pilgrimage has been an essential piece of Christian spirituality for thousands of years. There is something significant that happens when we get away from busyness, unplug from normality, turn off the technology, and allow ourselves to simply be. Scripture is laced with stories of journey – of being sent from one place to the next, with the expectation of encountering God along the way. And we have this same spiritual opportunity available to us – the challenge to go and encounter – to see God’s presence in new and transformative ways.

So I’m trying to seize the spiritual potential of pilgrimage, and I’m encouraging you to do the same. Find opportunities for spiritual journey this summer. Find ways to get away. Find places to go that will refresh and encourage your soul. Find good people to do life with – people that will leave you better than when they found you. And I’ll see you when I get back – with my spirit in a better place than when I left.

Our Africa Photo Album...Finally

If you will remember, Mandy and I traveled to Tanzania last February to visit our dear friends Brian and Nicole. Immediately upon returning we began talking about turning our trip pictures into a photo album using Shutterfly or iPhoto. It took us a year (and a free coupon from my sister-in-law), but we finally got around to making our book. Shutterfly gave me the option of embedding the book on a blog, so I thought I would share my creation with you. Enjoy!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo books are the perfect gift for any occasion.

Preparing for Pilgrimage

The Google Map For Our Trip

 

2700 miles in 10 days. Crazy. Fun. Awesome. Epic.

The week of my road trip has finally arrived! Some of you probably already know of my travel plans, but for those who do not, I thought I would clue you in to what the next 2 weeks will hold for me. My best friend, David, and I have been talking about taking a road trip together for years, so it seemed like now was the perfect time. This pilgrimage is incredibly important to me as it will serve as a marker of the end of one adventure (graduate school) and the beginning of another (having a baby). And I'm so glad to be making this journey with David.

We are leaving Seattle this coming Friday, April 27, and will be gone for about 10 days, arriving home again on Sunday, May 6. Our furthest destination from Seattle will be Moab, Utah, before meandering home through California and Oregon. We will be in Boise, Idaho for about 24 hours, mountain biking and rock climbing with my cousin Nathan, before heading on to Utah. We will spend about a day at Joe's Valley, one of the greatest bouldering spots in North America, and then will head on to Moab. Neither of us have been to this area of the country, so we are eagerly anticipating great weather, epic mountain bike rides on slickrock, amazing desert bouldering, and fantastic views of God's incredible creation, especially within Arches National Park.

After Moab we will begin our long journey home with a brief stop in Salt Lake City and a night's stay in Reno, NV. The next day we will arrive in Bend, Oregon, with prior stops at Larsen National Park and Mt. Shasta in California. We will mountain bike in Bend for a day, followed by a morning of climbing at Smith Rock State Park, before heading home to Seattle. And while David and I are both really looking forward to the mountain biking and climbing we will do in some of the greatest places in the country, we are, strangely, almost more excited about the incredible amount of disc golf we are going to play along the way. There are 16 courses that we have mapped out that are potential places for us to play, and I would guess that we will actually play at least a dozen of them. While I definitely feel a little nervous about leaving my very-pregnant wife at home by herself, this is a trip that I just need to take, and I can't wait.

2700 miles in 10 days. Crazy. Fun. Awesome. Epic.

A Crazy Couple Weeks

The past couple weeks have been incredibly busy. Two weeks ago we flew out for Bismarck, ND to see our family. Mandy's sister just had another baby, Savannah Grace, so we were excited to spend a few days getting to know her. We also spent 2 days up near Winnipeg, celebrating with my sister-in-law at her college graduation. It was so great to see her school for the first time, to see the place that she has spent the last 3 years.

We flew back to Seattle last Wednesday and were instantly inundated with Holy Week. We traveled out to Maple Valley on Wednesday night for choir practice, Thursday night for the Maundy Thursday service, twice on Friday for Good Friday services (which I preached at), and again on Sunday for Easter. Crazy. When you add in that I spent most of the day Thursday mountain biking in Bellingham, WA and all day Saturday rock climbing at Gold Bar, it makes for a crazy couple weeks. While I do get a bit of a break, it doesn't last long seeing as though I am attending a conference all day Friday and Saturday and preaching again at church on Sunday. Wow.

Leaving Town for the Week

Tomorrow is my last day of class for the semester, so after I turn in some last-minute assignments I am a free man for about 2 weeks. The first week will be spent in North Dakota and Canada. Mandy's younger sister, Kathy, is graduating from college this weekend, so we are flying out to see her big day. She goes to college near Winnipeg in Manitoba and we have never had the chance to go visit her, so this will be our last chance.

We will also get to see our newest niece for the first time. Mandy's older sister, Summer, just had her third child in January, Savannah Grace. We are excited to meet her and to hang out with the rest of Mandy's family. Needless to say, I probably won't be blogging for a few weeks as I will be busy traveling. I will be reading Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry and Free for All by Tim Conder during the next few weeks. I'm excited to finally be able to read whatever I want. Talk to you all soon.

More of My Journal from our Journey, Part 2

The following is the conclusion of my journal entries during our trip to Tanzania. Most of this is from our time on safari in the Serengeti.
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Sunday, February 20, 2011

Friday was great.Yesterday sucked. Our travel on Friday was pretty minimal. We took the dala dala to Dodoma where we caught a bus to Morogoro. It was hard saying goodbye to Chamwino, and especially to Pastor Daniel and Nasson. They have been with us every day in Chamwino and are great new friends. We will miss them dearly.

Our time in Morogoro was short, but amazing. We have an acquaintance in Seattle named Yonah, and we stayed the night at his mother's house. She is a college professor and is quite wealthy. Her house was immaculate. We had a great meal, a nice bed, a clean bathroom, and we all got to sit outside and enjoy a fantastic lightning storm. Couldn't have been a better night.

Yesterday was not good though. We had a 10 hour bus ride on a terrible bus. There was no leg room and it was incredibly hot. The bus company had said there would be AC, but it just blew out warm air the whole trip. And worst of all, once we got to Arusha, we realized that gasoline had spilled all over our bags that were under the bus. Now our bags smell awful and most of our clothes are stained and smelly. Looks like I will be wearing the same shorts for the next 6 days.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Well, our 3-night, 4-day safari is over, and was a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience. Absolutely incredible. On Sunday we took off for the Serengeti. While we were driving all day, it wasn't tiring or boring because we were seeing animals for most of the trip. After driving past the Ngorogoro Crater, you enter the flat lands of the Serengeti and start seeing more animals than you ever thought existed. We would come to areas where there were thousands and thousands of zebras and wildebeests, stretching as far as you could see. Truly awesome. We also saw a lot of giraffes. At one point we got off the main road onto some side trails. We didn't know where we were going, but what we would see was incredible. We drove over to a tree, and under the tree, basking in the shade, were 2 cheetahs, no more than 10 feet from us. After leaving the cheetahs we saw a bunch of jeeps sitting by another tree. Underneath was a lion that had recently killed and eaten a zebra. She still had blood all over her mouth and was stuffed to the gills with zebra meat. That night we camped out in tents in the middle of the Serengeti. AWESOME!

Monday was the day for lions and elephants. We got up early to be out driving as the sun broke the horizon. Soon after, we came across an area of rocks where 9 lions where hanging out. That was so awesome. Two were male and 7 were female. Some were walking around, some were sitting up tall, and some were laying in the sun. Then a really special thing happened. We drove a little ways down the road and came across the head hauncho, the king of the jungle. Perched about 15 feet up on a rock, sat a massive male lion, overlooking his kingdom. He was enormous, with the big, round mane surrounding his face. He looked so majestic and regal upon his throne. This might have been the coolest thing I saw on safari!

After lunch we started heading back toward the Ngorogoro Crater. We had been seeing elephants here and there, but when we got to the rest area at the border between the Serengeti and Ngorogoro, we got to see elephants up close and personal. There were about 10 elephants hanging out at the rest area, no more than 100 feet away from the people. It was so fun to watch them up close, and to get some great video of them. Since it was really hot, the girls decided to go sit in the shade by the bathrooms. All of a sudden the elephants decided to move, though, so they took off running toward the bathroom. Mandy and Nicole had their backs turned, but heard a rustling and turned just in time to watch the elephants run by just 10 feet from where they were sitting. They were scared in the moment, but now have an experience they will never forget.

That night we camped on the cliff overlooking the Ngorogoro Crater. It was a stunning view. After dinner our guide pulled us aside to show us something breathtaking. Right outside the cooking area was a large water tank for the camp to use. To our surprise, a giant elephant was drinking from the tank. He was no more than 20 feet from us and I think us and our guide were the only people in camp who knew he was there.

Tuesday we woke up to a beautiful sunrise, and again, after breakfast, our elephant friend visited the water tank. It was cool to see him so close again, this time in the light. He didn't leave right away after he was done drinking, though, but chose to wander around camp a bit. A dog at camp didn't like that, though, and began barking to chase him off. The two animals started a little battle where the dog would try to scare the elephant, and then the elephant would chase him down a bit. One of the times the elephant charged, Nicole was sort of in his path and she got spooked. But she was pretty proud of having that story to tell in the future.

The rest of the day was spent in the Crater. Most of the animals were ones we had seen a lot of already, but it was really fun to see a rhino, which we hadn't seen yet. That afternoon we made our way into a small town where we stayed in a crappy hotel for the night.

Wednesday was our fourth and final day of safari, but was pretty relaxed. We spent about 4 hours driving around Lake Manyara. It was fun to see the animals, but most were repeats. It was fun to see a ton of baboons, though, and to see a lot of hippos actually out of the water. We made our way back to Arusha that afternoon, had a great meal at a nice restaurant, talked with Brian and Nicole in our hotel room for hours, and then hit the sack.

Today we had a ten hour bus ride from Arusha to Dar es Salaam. The bus was the nicest we've ridden so far, but it was so hot out that we were still miserable. I'm now writing this journal entry from a great hotel in Dar. It is nice to have a great shower and a clean room. We are going to spend tomorrow laying on a beach on the Indian Ocean. Should be a nice, relaxing way to spend the end of our trip. This may be my last entry of the trip, since we just have a few relaxing days left, followed by 20 hours of plane rides. We have a 5 1/2 hour layover in Amsterdam, so we will probably leave the airport to quickly see the city. See you soon!

More of My Journal from our Journey, Part 1

The first week of our trip to Tanzania we had pretty consistent internet access, so I was able to post my journal entries almost daily. The second week, however, we were away from electricity, internet, and most modern conveniences, so I was unable to update you all on the details of our trip. Now that I'm back in the States and sort of adjusted back to normal life, I am finally getting around to posting all of these entries. Here are my journal entries from our second week in Africa, where we were primarily traveling and going on safari. I hope you enjoy reading about our incredible adventure.
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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Yesterday started off normal and uneventful, but ended with a bang. We didn't have much scheduled yesterday, but we ended up dead tired by bedtime anyway. We had breakfast at Mama Pendo's hour, which was really good. Mama Pendo is the moth of the Pendo that we know well from Seattle, who is married to Kedmon. We first met Mama Pendo in Seattle a year ago, so it was good to see her again and meet her husband.Our next scheduled activity wasn't until late afternoon, so we came home and hung out for quite a while. It was really great to have some in-depth conversation with our great friends. We miss them so much and can't wait to have them back in Seattle in a few months.

After a few hours at home we headed back to the church for a concert by all the choirs from the church. Music is a huge part of the culture here, so this one church has 5 different choirs. Some of them just sing, while some play drums and other instruments. Some of them play and sing more modern music, while some only perform the traditional music of the Gogo people. The music was so amazing, something I will never forget.  It was truly a worshipful experience to hear their music. I captured a lot of it on video, in hopes of never forgetting.

In the middle of the last group performing, something crazy took place. There is another girl named Nicole living with Brian and Nicole for a little while until she gets her VISA to re-enter Zimbabwe, where she has been living. She woke up feeling awful yesterday, so had been at home sleeping. She wanted to see the music so she came a little late to the concert, but got up to leave because she wasn't feeling well. When she got outside she started getting dizzy and then passed out. Within seconds the concert had stopped and the crowd had rushed out to see if she was okay. Eventually we took her to the hospital where she got an IV and was tested for Malaria. Fortunately she tested negative and was able to come home and not stay in the hospital overnight. By the time we all got home, we were exhausted and went right to bed. While the evening didn't quite end the way we planned, all-in-all it was a great day with great food, great music, and great friends.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Yesterday was probably that best day we've had here in Chamwino. We started out with breakfast at Pastor Numbella's house. He was the man who translated my sermon, and has been very kind to us on our trip, so it was great to see his home and meet some of his kids and his wife. They have 10 kids; 8 boys and 2 girls. I am continually amazed at the generosity of the people here, as many of them have very little money but provide a feast for their guests. I am truly humbled.

After breakfast we went to the primary school for a short time to see how the schools operate. The classroom we visited, Mwalimu (teacher) Nora's class, had about 75 students in one room, all sitting on a concrete floor, with one teacher. A little different from America. The students sang for us and asked us questions about ourselves and America.

We then went back to Brian and Nicole's house for lunch. On the way, Brian and Nasson stopped by the hospital to pay the bill for Nicole's time there, her IVs, and the medicine they gave her. Altogether that came out to 7,500 shillings, which is less than $7 in USD. Unreal how inexpensive it was, or how expensive our medical care is in the States.

At 4pm we were scheduled to hear one more music group at the church, a traditional Gogo group with full Gogo attire and traditional instruments like a Gogo guitar, a zeze (violin-ish), and a marimba. Before the concert, Mandy had a short music lesson with Nasson. He is very talented at music, but has no formal training and cannot read music. If he could, he would be able to teach his choir many more songs than he can now. The concert was AMAZING! Their song and dance was spectacular. Afterwards, Mandy and I sang a few songs for them, which they really appreciated. Then, we spontaneously began dancing with the musicians as they continued to play and sing and dance more informally. It was so fun to try to keep up with the dancers. They kept changing their styles so we would get to try dancing to each style they use. So fun.

Last night we had a really special dinner at Pastor Daniel's house, with all the elders from the church. They presented us with some gifts, shared some beautiful words of thankfulness for us visiting, and invited us to share words with them. It was a very special time, a night I will never forget. I will definitely miss the people here when we leave today. I will especially miss Nasson. He has been so kind to us and has a fun, infectious personality. He has taken time away from his other responsibilities to be with us all week, and its hasn't gone unnoticed. Thank you for everything, my friend. We are leaving for Arusha later today, the start of our safari. We will stay in Morogoro tonight, Arusha tomorrow night, and start our safari on Sunday.

Infamous Quotes from our Africa Trip

One thing I try to do when we travel is to keep track of the funny, random quotes that come out of people's mouths. Every trip involves plenty of one-liners that are fun to look back on years later. Our trip to Africa was no different. The following is a brief list of some of the crazy things that were said during our time in Tanzania, most of which had us doubled-over in laughter. I realize that some of these may not be funny to anyone who was not there, but it's my blog, so I'll share whatever I want to share!

1. "Hello Snickers. Welcome to my mouth." - our friend Nasson said this just prior to eating his first Snickers ever
2. "I've basically been wearing pajamas for 8 months." - Nicole said this about assuming she would be out of fashion when returning to America
3. "You just threw a watermelon at me." - Mandy, when I threw a tiny little watermelon the size of a walnut at her
4. "I have private parts." - Brian (I can't remember the context here, but funny nonetheless)
5. "Shut up! If Mohammad were alive, he would tell you to 'shut the hell up, I'm trying to sleep.'" - I said this on the 3rd straight morning that the Islamic prayer service was blaring over loudspeakers all over town at 4am in the morning (not my finest moment of cultural and religious tolerance!)
6. "I told you he had blue balls." - Nicole, about the Velvet Monkey (aka the Blue-Ball Monkey for apparent reasons)
7. "Boo! Where's the giraffe porn?" - I said this when the girl giraffe rejected the guy giraffe's advances for the 2nd time

A Day in Dodoma

Yesterday we spent the day in Dodoma. Dodoma is a pretty big city about 25 miles from Chamwino. After getting ready for the day and eating some ugi (porridge) for breakfast, we headed out to catch the dala dala to Dodoma. The dala dala is basically an old, crappy van which seats about 10-12 people. The only catch is that they usually shove about 20 people in. Each seat is cramped, in and of itself, but gets way worse once you throw in twice as many people as your should.

Our first stop in Dodoma was an ice cream shop called Alladin's. It was really fun to get an American treat after days of eating rice and beans. We then spent time walking through their open-air markets. After running a few errands that Brian and Nicole had, we went to a restaurant called Wimpies to have lunch. I ordered a "beef burger," but what came was far different than a hamburger. It had a hamburger patty and some of the fixings of an American burger, but was smothered in a strange, bright pink sauce. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea, so I ate about half of it, finished my chipsi, and called it a meal.

When we got back to Chamwino we got to be a part of a cool experience. Nicole's dad is a 4th grade teacher in Colorado, so once a week his class will Skype with a class here in Chamwino, and that happened last night. The kids loved asking each other questions and singing songs for each other. The American kids have been learning a few Swahili words and the Tanzanian kids love getting to practice their English. What a great cross-cultural experience!

Last night's dinner and conversation was interesting because it happened in the dark. We lose power here pretty often, and last night was one of those times. We cooked spaghetti over a propane stove and ate by the dim light of a kerosene lantern. It was actually fun, though,  and reminded me of all the luxuries we have in America that we probably don't really need.

Experiencing the Village Life

The last 2 days were great! Sunday was amazing. We woke up early and went to church where they placed us up front to sit in the seats of honor. I preached my sermon, with Pastor Numbella as my translator, which seemed to be well-received by everyone.

After church we had lunch at Nasson's house. Nasson is one of Brian and Nicole's best friends and biggest helpers here, and is an amazing man. He does incredible things for Chamwino and the church. His wife, Mama Jenny, made some incredible food for us, the best we've had thus far. Mama Jenny's actual name is Julia, but all the woman here are named according to their first born. Julia's firstborn is Jenny, so everyone knows her as Mama Jenny.

That night we came back to the church to have Sunday school with the kids. It was so fun to sing and dance with the kids, the watoto. I would guess that about 30-40 kids came out to Sunday school, and they are all so excited to learn the Bible, learn English, and sing together.

Yesterday we had breakfast with Rahema (Mama Pendo) and her husband. They made us a feast of lots of different breads and tea. They made us chipote, which is a flat pancake that you put sugar on. Their house and yard were awesome. The house was really well built and clean, their yard was taken care of well, and their crops were health, which is pretty rare. They have built irrigation to most of their crops, including their pomegranate tree.

After breakfast we walked around the market to see where Brian and Nicole do their shopping. We bought a bunch of fruits and veggies. Next we went and met with the chairman of the village, Joseph Segange. He functions like a mayor does in America, but is much more connected to his people on a personal level. He speaks no English, so Nasson, Brian, and Nicole had to interpret, but he was very nice. He told us all about the history of Chamwino and showed us the memorial and museum for the first president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere.

After our time with the chairman it was time for lunch. We went to this place to get chipsi (fries) and meat shish-kabobs. It was such a treat to have that meal. After an afternoon resting at Brian and Nicole's house we ended the night with dinner at Mama Baraka's house. Her house does not have electricity so we basically ate in the dark, with only the light from one, small kerosene lantern. It was a pretty fun experience.

An Amazing Start to the Trip

I can't believe I'm in Africa. This is crazy. I never though I would be on a trip like this. And yet, here I am, sitting on the porch of our house watching the beautiful, much-needed, life-inducing rain fall on the Tanzanian village of Chamwino.

Yesterday was a long day. I woke up in Dar es Salaam after only 5 hours of sleep. We hung out at a house at the University of Dar es Salaam for a few hours, ate a small breakfast, and then left for the bus station. Talk about a crazy area. There are tons of bus companies and hundreds and hundreds of people. Since we were the only white people, we were the center of attention and everyone was trying to sell us bus seats and other things. We already had our tickets so we made our way to our bus and got our bags loaded. Then the waiting game began. Buses typically don't leave until they are almost full, so we waited an extra hour past the time we were supposed to leave. The worst part about that was that it was ungodly hot yesterday in Dar (like every day) and incredibly humid, so we were pretty uncomfortable, sweating like crazy.

The actual bus ride wasn't too bad though. It lasted 7 hours, which was pretty long after our previous 2 days of flights, but it was really awesome to see the Tanzanian countryside. So beautiful. We stopped for food once during the trip, in Morogoro. Unfortunately, a torrential downpour started about a minute before we got there. So in just running from the bus to the food, we got drenched. About 3 hours later we arrived at the Chamwino Junction and were ushered into the village on the back of motorcycles (piki pikis). That was the best, most fun transportation we had so far. We were greeted by Nasson and Pastor Daniel, hung out with them for about half an hour, ate some food, and hit the sack. What a day.

This morning I was awakened by a series of rooster calls. So fun. One of them has a messed up voice box, so he sort of sounds like he is coughing or choking each time he crows. Funny. We are going to have some breakfast and then head to church. I am preaching this morning, so I'm a little nervous. It will be strange to use a translator. Should be a good experience though. I'll let you know how it goes.

Christians & Fanny Packs

These two nouns can best summarize our time in airports over the last few days. I'll say more in a minute. We started out flying from Seattle to Amsterdam on Thursday afternoon Seattle time. The flight was 10 hours long and incredibly tiring. The entertainment technology on planes today has gotten to be pretty awesome, though, as each seat has their own little tv and you have the choice of watching tons of new movies and tv shows as you fly. So I watched a few movies and did a bunch of reading. A few people's first question for me when they found out I was going to Africa was "Have you read The Poisonwood Bible?" I had heard good things about that book, but had never read it. So I used about half of that first plane ride to start making a dent in the 500-page text. It was morning when we arrived in Amsterdam, which was strange because it felt like midnight to us. Let the jet-lag begin.

The title for this blog post became apparent once we arrived in Amsterdam and made our way to the gate for our flight to Nairobi, Kenya. It seemed that nearly every person in line at our gate was either a Christian on a mission trip to Kenya or wearing a fanny pack en route to going on safari or climbing Kilimanjaro. While initially the site of so many Christians was endearing and brought me back to my time in youth ministry leading similar trips, I also felt a bit embarrassed that there were so many teams. I guess I'm just a bit torn.

On the one hand I can see the beauty of Christ followers wanting to go be a blessing to the world. That is a great desire. At the same time, a lot of abuse has been perpetrated on Africa at the hands of Christians with 'good intentions.' While we may not be colonizing African lands any longer, it seems that we can still try to colonize African culture and religious practices. Plenty of American missionaries to Africa are coming in with 'all the answers,' pedaling a health-and-wealth prosperity gospel that ends up hurting Africans more than helping. I simply found myself hoping that the missionaries I was seeing were actually interested in building long-term relationships with the people they would meet, offering them respect and dignity, trying to converse instead of convert.

My Sermon for Sunday

Mandy & I are heading for the airport in about an hour for our trip to Africa, so I thought I'd blog one more time before I left. We are really excited about the trip and know that it will be an amazing experience that we will never forget. We will have internet access during our first week there, so I will try to blog some while we are in Chamwino.

I am preaching on Sunday in Brian and Nicole's church, so I thought I would share my sermon with you. I was pretty nervous about what to preach, so this was a really tough sermon to write. I wanted to make sure that there were no hints of colonialism in my words. I don't want to seem like the educated superior from the West coming in to share my wealth of knowledge. So I basically spent my words thanking the church for being who they are. I realize that this is like 6 pages of reading, but here is the sermon. Enjoy.

My Sermon

In It Together

Text:  Multiple Texts

Good morning everyone. It is so great to be here with you this morning. My name is Jason and my wife, Mandy, and I will be with you all for the next week here in Chamwino. We are very excited to be able to meet you and experience your life and culture during our time in Africa. I am currently in school preparing to be a pastor, so I greatly appreciate you allowing me to preach here this morning. It really is an honor.

After being asked to preach by Pastor Daniel, I really struggled knowing what to share with you. It is hard to preach to a group that you barely know, especially since I will only be with you for one Sunday. I think the best direction for me to go is to simply thank you. I am sure you hear plenty of great sermons that help you understand the Bible in some new and exciting way, so this morning I simply want to celebrate who you are and thank you for the gifts that you offer the world.

Reasons to be Thankful

Thank you for all you have taught, and are teaching, us in the West about how to live like Jesus. We Americans often think we are the ones who should be teaching everyone else how to do everything, but we have so much to learn from other cultures and people, especially all of you. As I began to think about the ways in which you can help us in the West learn to live more like Jesus, a number of things began to surface.

            The first thing that I want to thank you for is the importance you place on community. Living closely with one another in intimate community is at the heart of being Christian, but my culture has begun to lose our sense of community and connection. We have become a culture where everyone takes care of themselves and no one needs any help from other people. This is obviously not a good way to live. Thank you for reminding me of how important it is to be connected to others.

            The Bible is very clear about how important community is. The writer of the book of Hebrews encourages us saying, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day [of the Lord] approaching.” Jesus’ disciples also understood this need to be in community and take care of one another. Acts 2 says, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.” Americans can easily forget how important it is to be with each other, so I thank you for reminding me of the goodness and blessing of community.

            I also want to thank you for being people of incredible love for others. I have experienced that love through the people from Chamwino who have visited America, like Kedmon, Pendo, Nasson, and Pastor Daniel. I have also seen how you have all loved Brian and Nicole while they have been here with you. You have taken care of them and helped them as they learned about your culture, language, food, and so much more. Thank you for loving my friends while they have been away from us.

            Love is such an important part of being a Christian. Jesus sums up all of the law of God by saying that you should ‘love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind’ and that you should ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ First John 3 says, “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.^”  Thank you for being people who love well.

            While I am speaking on the theme of love, I want to thank you for loving strangers and guests. The Bible is constantly encouraging us to love everyone, including strangers, guests, and our enemies. Deuteronomy 10 says, “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Thank you for caring for everyone who enters into your community. Thank you for welcoming everyone you meet with open arms and open hearts. Thank you for caring for those whom no one else is caring for. We have already felt your incredible love, and we have only been here one day.

Worshiping a Global God

And finally, I want to end our time with the reminder that we all worship the same, huge, amazing God. Mandy and I were having tea with Kedmon and Pendo a few weeks ago and I asked him what I should preach about this morning. He told me I should remind you all that we worship a big God who is in charge of the entire world. In many ways, you and I are very different from one another. We live so far apart and our cultures are very different. It is amazing, however, that we all worship the same God. This morning my brothers and sisters in the United States are meeting together to sing and learn and celebrate just like we are here.  They are reading the Bible and listening to a sermon, just like we are here. And while they may be worshiping in a different language, we are all worshiping the same God.

The way of Jesus has a way of breaking down walls of separation. We are good at creating division and difference, but the way of Jesus is a journey that unifies the world, that builds bridges between those who were once separated. I am reminded of the Apostle Paul’s words in Galatians 3:28 when he says, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” In Christ we are one; we are family. As Christians we must learn to be aware of our differences and celebrate the things that make us unique, but we must not let these differences divide us from one another. May we learn to partner together in bringing the good news of Jesus into the world; a message of hope and love; a message of healing and wholeness; a message of peace and forgiveness.

I will close with a beautiful verse from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Paul says, “Whatever happens, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel.” It has been so encouraging to hear about this church from Brian and Nicole because I know that you are beautiful people who live out your faith in the world. I am so encouraged by worshiping with you this morning, because I have now seen your faith with my own eyes. When I leave Tanzania in a few weeks, I will leave knowing that even though I will not see you all often, you are still ‘standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel.’ You have been a blessing to me already and I thank you for that. May we all continue to be a blessing to the world. God bless you all. Amen.

Our Africa Itinerary

With our trip to Tanzania only a mere 3 days away at this point, I thought I would let you know what our itinerary will be during our time in Africa. We are pretty excited about the experience we are going to get during our time there. We have always wanted to go to Africa, but did not want to simply do the tourist-y things and stay in resorts. We will be going on a safari, but that is about the only tourist-y thing we will be doing during our time abroad.

We will be spending most of our trip in a small, rural village in the center of the country called Chamwino. Despite staying in one of the nicer houses in the village, we will still be living very modest, simple lives. We will wash our clothes by hand, bathe from a bucket, and often use non-Western toilets. Even on the safari we will be sleeping in tents out on the Serengeti, as opposed to staying in nice lodging. That to say, however, I am incredibly excited about the experience we will get.

 Trip Schedule

Thursday, February 10

• Fly from Seattle to Amsterdam (leave at 12:45pm & arrive at 7:45am on Friday)

Friday, February 11

• Fly from Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya (leave at 10:25am & arrive at 8:30pm)
• Fly from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (leave at 10pm & arrive at 11:15pm)
• Stay with some friends of Brian & Nicole that night

Saturday, February 12

• Catch a 6 hour bus from Dar es Salaam to Dodoma
• Get shuttled into Chamwino on the back of motorcycles

Sunday, February 13

• Attend church, where I am preaching (with a translator)

First Week of our Trip

• Hang out with Brian and Nicole and their friends
• Get a chance to see how they have been spending their days
• Experience the Chamwino culture, food, language, music, etc.
• Various activities will include: helping teach English in the school, visiting a local farm, singing with one of the church choirs

Friday or Saturday, February 18 or 19

• Leave Chamwino for Arusha and the Serengeti
• 14 hour bus ride to Arusha

Second Week of our Trip

• Stay in a hotel in Arusha for the first night of our safari trip
• Spend three nights in tents camping on the Serengeti
• Spend another night in a hotel in Arusha at the end of our safari
• Travel from Arusha to Dar es Salaam
• Hang out in Dar es Salaam on the beach and in the open-air markets

Saturday, February 26

• Fly from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, Kenya (leave at 7:40pm & arrive at 8:55pm)
• Fly from Nairobi to Amsterdam (leave at 10:55pm & arrive on Sunday at 5:30am)

Sunday, February 27

• Hang out in Amsterdam for a few hours
• Fly from Amsterdam to Seattle (leave at 11am & arrive at 12:25pm)

Two Weeks and Counting

Two weeks from today, Mandy and I will be boarding our first plane en route for Tanzania. I cannot believe this trip has come so quickly. It seems like so long ago that Brian and Nicole left for their year in Africa and we began deciding whether we would be able to go visit them. I'm glad the answer was "yes."

I thought today I would tell you about what our transportation will be like during our trip. Needless to say, it is going to be extremely long and strenuous. It will take 3 separate flights just to make it to Tanzania. We will first fly non-stop from Seattle to Amsterdam, a 10-hour flight. From there we will take another 10-hour flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya. And finally, we will have about a 2-hour flight from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Brian & Emily heading to Chamwino

We will arrive in Dar es Salaam at 11pm on a Friday night, get a hotel room for the night, and then early Saturday morning we will board a bus, with Brian and Nicole, for our 6-hour bus ride to Dodoma. Dodoma is a pretty big city of over 300,000 people that is in the center of the country and is about 20 minutes north of Chamwino, which is our final destination. There are no good, paved roads from Dodoma to Chamwino, so the best way to get into the village is on the back of a motorcycle, which is exactly what we are going to do. I'm actually really excited about this part of the journey. I think it will be a fun, quirky way to travel, complete with our luggage strapped to our backs.

Our return home is roughly the same trip, just in reverse. We will have some additional travel, however, in order to get up to our safari. Evidently there are two ways to get from Dodoma to the Serengeti. One way is 14 hours, but takes you on good, paved roads the entire way. The other route is only 10 hours but is on the highway from hell, a completely unpaved road that is supposedly horrendously bumpy and dusty. Let's just say I hope we opt for the former.

While this trip will exhaust us with the strenuous travel and jet lag, I am incredibly excited about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This is going to be amazing!!

Africa Is Drawing Near

I'm sure this will be the first of many posts in the coming weeks about our trip to Africa. For those of you who did not know, Mandy and I will be in Tanzania from February 10-27. Our dear friends Brian and Nicole are living in the village of Chamwino this year, so we are going to spend a few weeks with them. We will get to see how and where they are living and experience what they are experiencing. We will work with a school where they have been involved and I will get to preach at their church, which will be an interesting experience since I will need a translator. We will also get to go on a 4 day, 3 night safari, where we will be camping out in the Serengeti each night. Needless to say, we are incredibly excited about that opportunity.

We have been planning this trip for months, but it is just now beginning to feel like it is really going to happen. We just got all of our shots this past week so that made the trip feel imminent. Tonight we are having coffee with Kedmon and Pendo, two friends of ours who are from Chamwino. They are living in the States right now as Kedmon works on his doctorate, and Brian and Nicole are living in their house for the year. It will be great to ask them questions about what we can expect during our trip. They are full of wisdom and will undoubtedly increase our excitement for the trip.

As more details get ironed out regarding the specifics of our trip, I will be sure to let you know about them. We would greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers for us as we prepare for this trip, and especially during our times of travel.

Home Sweet Home

As you may have noticed, I have been absent from this site for quite some time now. It isn't that I've been purposely neglectful of my blogging desires, but simply that I have been out of town. I was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for 10 days, was home doing laundry for about 4 hours, and then whisked away to Raleigh, North Carolina for another 4 days. Needless to say, while both trips were incredibly fun, I was glad to finally be home in Seattle.

I was in Sioux Falls for the wedding of my best friend, David. He had been in Africa all summer, so it was great to finally see him again and to stand beside him as he married Michelle. What a blessing! It was also great to see my great friend Nate, as I stayed with him and his wife all week. We don't see our friends from Sioux Falls very often, so it was nice to have some time with a group of folks who have been highly influential in my life.

I was in North Carolina for a conference called Big Tent Christianity. Many of my favorite authors were speaking there, including Brian McLaren, Peter Rollins, Phyllis Tickle, Greg Boyd, Shane Claiborne, Tim Conder, and many many more. These authors have helped shape my life and worldview immensely over the past 5 years, and it was incredible to have them all together at one conference. It was also great to travel with my friends Matt and Jev and to get to visit the Duke campus (including Cameron Indoor Stadium). As a lifelong Duke basketball fan, my pilgrimage to Krzyzewskiville and Coach K Court was quite memorable.

Of course, part of my hope in writing this post is that I will once again fall into regular routine of blogging. Blogging has been an essential piece of my transformative process, and I hope it continues to be so. Here's to a great year of growth, fun, and abundant life!

A Few More Days & I'm Done

After quickly glancing at my latest blog post, I am realizing that this will now be 2 straight posts where I am informing you as to my insane amount of writing I have to do before an impending deadline. By Tuesday I need to have another 5500 words written for my class on the book of Romans. Once this one major research paper and 3 small reflection papers are written I will officially be finished with my second year of seminary.

Mandy and I are leaving for our cabin in Glacier National Park next Wednesday, where we will be hanging out with both of our families for a week of needed vacation. I can't wait to relax all week, do some hiking and rafting, lay in the hammock, and sit by the campfire. Sounds like heaven. But for now...back to writing.

Be Back Soon

Hey everyone (the few of you who actually check in here). I realize its been forever since I've written on here and I am finding myself missing the blogosphere. The last few weeks have been amazing as I am on a break from school between my spring and summer terms. I've been rock climbing, disc golfing, camping, mountain biking, and all-in-all just loving life...so sorry if I haven't found myself to the computer too often.

In about 2 hours I get on a plane for Washington DC and will be there until Monday for a pastor's conference called TransForm. I am incredibly excited about learning from this group of people who passionately care about breathing new life back into the church. Two of the keynote speakers are Brian McLaren and Peter Rollins, both of whom I have an incredible amount of respect for as men, authors, and prophetic voices for the church. I can't wait to hear what they have to say. And to top it off, my friends Jev, Isaac, and I get to hang out with Brian and Pete!!! Awesome!

My return to Seattle on Monday will mark the beginning of my summer term where I will be taking the classes Romans, Leadership, Theology & the Artistic Impulse, and Philosophy II. Should be a good term. I also look forward to being more active in cyberspace, more regularly sharing with you the things I am thinking and dreaming about. And with that, my ride to the airport is here and I must depart. Grace and peace.