Greetings from Thailand

I have been traveling for more hours than I care to think about--and I'm doing great! I was reminded today how much I love to experience new cultures as I landed in Seoul, Hong Kong, and Bangkok.

I am acutally sitting in the Bangkok airport right now getting ready to jump on my final leg of the journey to Pakistan--a five-hour flight to Islamabad, Pakistan's capital city. I am playing a psychological game with myself by telling my mind that it was just last night that I jumped on a plane versus a couple of days ago. It seems to be working because I feel like my biological clock is ticking in the right region of the world. In other words, by the time I land in Islamabad tonight, I will be ready for bed.

We have been laid over in Bangkok now for eight hours. A group of guys from my team and I decided that we wanted to grab a quick tour of the city. Instead of opting for a regular bus tour with a guide, we chose to jump on a boat in the river and experience it from that perspective. It was amazing to drift through little canals and see how people here actually experience life. I felt like I was in a Nat'l Geographic film as I watched men and women paddle out to meet our boat in their little boats to sell us bananas and chicken kabobs. I was tempted to taste, but decided not to.

God has already answered a huge prayer. My team is tasked with hauling over ten 100 lb. pipe bending machines to aid in the building of the structure that we will be building. We weren't sure that customs and then the airplane co. themselves were going to let us to it. We have been praying for a long time (I'd try to put a number to the hours or days, but I'm so confused right now that I'd get it wrong anyway) and just found out an hour ago that they have been cleared all of the way to Islamabad.

God has big things in store for the next two weeks. Keep praying, though, because it just started to snow in the Himalays where we'll be and several people (nationals) have been hospitalized due to hypothermia.

I'm not sure if I'll get to write again before I return.

2-week Prayer Challenge

As I am going into a Muslim nation, I want to ask you to join me in an unusual prayer experience. In the Muslim faith, it is their custom to bow and pray five times a day. Would you consider doing this for me, my team, and the people that we get the opportunity to love?

Prayer time 1: For physical strength. My body isn't at 100% and we will be working hard long hours and sleeping on the cold, hard ground.

Prayer time 2: For the people of Pakistan that we will see. Pray for the love of Christ to reach deep into their souls as we serve them. Pray especially for those who won't see love.

Prayer time 3: For emotional strength. We will be seen as the only hope by many.

Prayer time 4: For safety. Pakistan isn't the safest place to be right now. Pray for protection and genuine relationships to develop between us and the Pakistanis that we will be working with and near.

Prayer time 5: For spiritual strength. I want to see the people of Pakistan like God sees them.

I can't wait to hear your stories of what this experience was like. Please write your prayers on the comment column so that I can read them if I ever get internet acess.

Until I return,
I remain Unconventional

Alex's Perspective of the World

I met a homeless guy named Alex today in the Tenderloin.

He and I ate breakfast together and spent some time talking about why the Colts were going to win the superbowl this year.

We then spent some time cleaning the shelter we were in. I had a bottle of Formula 409 and he had a rag. What a time we had scrubbing the steps of a stage, the top of a ping-pong table, the edges of a pool table, the top of a piano--anything that we could find to scrub--we scrubbed!

When we were done, someone asked us if we could scrub the walls with bleach and a new rag. While we were waiting for the bleach we were looking at a floor rug that looked like the earth that was hanging on the wall. It was a bit of an abstract image of the earth, but you could make out specific continents.

Soon we had the bleach in hand. Alex had the bottle and I was scrubbing by now. When we got to where the earth-rug was I said, "Be careful that you don't get any bleach on the world."

He said, "That's what the world needs--a good bleaching."
I agreed.

Light Meat or Dark?

I was just in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco over the Thanksgiving Holiday with a couple of high school students and about 40 people from a church that is actually concerned with the "least of these." Our desire was to prepare a home-cooked meal to bring to the homeless instead of preparing it in some church building somewhere and inviting them "in" to ours.

Here are some snapshots...

I saw a little boy (2 years old) of an affluent family playing tackle football with a homeless little boy (2 years old). Unlike I had ever experienced before, I watched as two people couldn't care less that one was affluent and the other wasn't. I watched two little boys love each other and speak the love language of physical touch (along with uninteligable grunts and giggles). I watched a mom with tears in her eyes and a proud dad get it.

I saw families serving together. For these families, no longer is spiritual formation being outsourced to the church. Instead, they are taking the responsiblity of spiritual formation back into their homes. Is there anything more powerful than kids watching their parents follow Jesus?

I heard the inhabitants of Hippie Hill become inspired by a rag-tag group of Jesus-followers.

I watched tears form in homeless people's eyes as they were asked, "Light meat or dark?" and actually got to choose.

I'm Going to Pakistan

I leave on November 27th for Arizona. They'll train us for a day and then we fly to Isalmabad by way of Hong Kong.

I'll be there until the 11th of December. If I have the chance to get to a computer while I'm there, I will update my blog instead of trying to email the stories to everyone. If I do not have computer access, I will upload the stories after I get home.

During the interview between this service organization and myself, they asked me the following question:
What are you doing to prepare emotionally, physically, and spiriutally for this trip?

I answered:
Emotionally--How do you prepare emotionally for seeing the devastation of a 7.6 earthquake that leaves 3 million people homeless in the mountains? I guess I'm sharing the story with my communities and asking them to help me prepare.

Physically--I run, cycle, and swim a lot. I'll keep doing that. I'm also pretty comfortable in high alpine situations.

Spiritually--God has been preparing me for this for 25 years. If I just started to prepare now, I'd be in big trouble!

Conisder this: What will it be like to offer a hand of friendship, brotherhood, and compassion to those that the American media would identify as our enemy?

Let this story be told!

Decision Time

Read my post entitled "Cylcing through a Chaotic World" for the beginning of this journey. That will frame the conversation for today.

What do you do when you find you heart continually breaking because of something that is happening in our world?

How do you handle hopelessness--the sense that there is nothing that can be done?

Can love really speak an international, multi-"religious" language?

I am faced with an opportunity to go to Pakistan in the next couple of weeks. The project would be to hike to the mountain villages, find people who are trapped and build shelters for them. They might survive the winter.

Pakistan is a closed country to foreigners, yet they are throwing open their boarders because they can't not. Is it possible that Jesus-followers could go into the heart of the Muslim world--in the neighborhood of where Sept. 11, 2oo1 was likely planned--and love people?

Pray for me--it's decision time.

Give Me Your Thoughts...

God is mysterious.

I was riding the other day and came to a stop light that prohibited me from going anywhere. This cracks me. You're in a rhythm, you're clicked-in, you don't want to have to stop (sometimes you don't).

I stopped.

There was another cycler there, waiting patiently to proceed when I pulled up. He looked at me (more specifically my cycle because it is a lot more attractive than I) and said, "Don't I know you?"
I said, "I'm not sure."
He said, "Yeah, I think I recognize your Giant" (the brand of my cycle).

The English language is an interesting thing isn't it? He asked if he "knew" me but what he was acutally asking was, "Haven't I seen you riding on this path before? I recognize your bike."

It makes me wonder how many people we actually "know" or that "know" us. I'll save that for another day.

We begin to cycle together. Usually conversation goes from how incredible the day is to how long we've been cycling. Sometimes it goes beyond small talk and you begin to learn about the person that you're cycling with. That's what happened with Chris....

Our conversation started with the small talk but quickly went to a place that suprised me. We started to talk about when we take our weekly long ride. He took his on Sunday and wanted to know if I wanted to join him this week.

How cool is that? We had just met and already he invited me to share an experience with him that he was passionate about.

I told him that Sunday's are usually busy days for me.

Here's the tension: I have found that because I happen to work in a church, it often disqualifies me from relationships with people. Thus, I have found ways to be in their lives for an extended period of time before they know. If they can get to know me and experience Jesus loving and serving them through me before they find out I'm a pastor, I have earned the right to continue as a friend in their life. On the flip side, if they find out I work in a church first, the relationship doesn't have a chance.

Why is that?

He asked me why. Here it comes---"I'm a pastor," I say.

"Oh, I don't believe in organized religion," says he, "But I do believe in God."

"Huh," I say, "That is what you and I have in common."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I hate religion. I think God hates religion. I don't think that Jesus came to bring a new religion, but instead, he came to bring a new Way of life."

"You know, I agree!" says Chris. "Why is it then that the church is about religion?"

Isn't it crazy that in our post-Christian/post-congregation world, people are interested in God and Jesus, but not church. If it hasn't already, this should make us think long and hard about the reality of North America's church!

The conversation ended by Chris giving me his number and asking about what kind of church it is that I am a pastor of. He said that he and his family would be interested in a church that followed Jesus and made a difference in the world.

Reflect with me:
Would you have the courage to have that kind of conversation with Chris or are you more interested in "converting" him on the spot?
What if the church Chris and his family are looking for looks nothing like what you go to on Sundays?
What if the church that the new world needs looks nothing like what you go to on Sundays?
What would that church look like?

Learning How to Live

One of my best friends is 66 years-young. He lives in an unconventional reality--one that has been breathed into him through life...and death.

He desires to honor his World War II buddies even though he didn't go to war. He has.
He has a vision to celebrate his friends on his birthday. He does.
He wanted to have live Jazz music at his wife's funeral and celebrate her life. They did.
He bought me golf clubs because he thought it would be a great way for me to get in the lives of other guys. It has.
The name of his very successful company is PTLA (Praise the Lord Always). They do.
He heard an African American Jazz singer at a club one night and decided that he was going to help make this man's musical dreams come true. They are.

Jesus becomes real to people because of him. He doesn't invite them into an institution or a religion. He invites them into a Way of life that is better.

I get the privilege of watching this man live--I follow Jesus better because of him.