Who would have ever thought flipping pancakes could make heaven come closer to earth?

Well, it’s true. On Saturday mornings, people in need of medical assistance in Shepherd Community Center’s neighborhood can come and get assistance from Grace’s health care ministry. While they’re waiting to be seen by our medical team, another group of Grace volunteers is in the kitchen serving up some delicious-pancake-goodness for breakfast.

The volunteers serving through Saturdays at Shepherd prepare and serve a nutritious breakfast to Shepherd’s neighbors in need of medical assistance. It really is a beautiful thing…friends, small groups, families, kids all serving together to bring the kingdom of God here. Today.

If this sounds like something you’d like to do, check out the registration page for Saturdays at Shepherd. If your serving plate is full, would you consider praying for Saturdays at Shepherd this week?

There’s definitely a buzz in the air since our ongoing serving opportunities are back in full swing. Join us in this Kingdom momentum if you haven’t already.

Have you ever wanted to make a difference in someone’s life? Be Jesus to someone? Teach someone something that will stay with them forever? Change the future?

Starting today, you have that opportunity.

Shepherd after school tutoring kicks off for the fall semester today at Shepherd Community Center. Volunteers from Grace tutor every Monday and Wednesday afternoon from 4:00-6:00 p.m. and preschool helpers assist with Shepherd’s preschool program every Friday morning from 9:00 a.m.-noon. If you answered “yes” to any of the questions above, this may just be for you. Click here for the logistical stuff.

If you are already involved or don’t think this is for you, will you pray for tutoring at Shepherd this week?

What always floors me is that I approach serving opportunities like this after answering “yes” to all of the questions in the first paragraph, and those things do happen, but here’s what happens to me (and you):

We aim to make a difference in someone’s life, and then God makes a profound difference in ours.

We aim to be Jesus to someone, and then we see Jesus in them.

We aim to teach someone something that will stay with them forever, and then their story becomes part of ours.

We aim to change the future, and ours is changed.

Dive into serving this fall. You won’t regret it.

So here’s the thing.  Grace sends out people on our summer short-term trips, and they come back different.  Changed.  Transformed.  Whatever you want to call it.  They are different.  Here’s an example.  Our middle school worship director.  Craig Boyer.  Only it’s not him anymore, it’s someone different.  Changed.  Listen to his own words:

“Sitting in my favorite starbucks, corner table, surrounded by people engrossed in conversation.  Quad skinny vanilla latte warming my soul, music over the loud speakers are shaded out by the music in my ears; explosions in the sky.  My macbook is powered up… every other moment I will look around and observe… my thoughts go back to where God has crushed me one again: Japan.  

When will people ever understand what God is doing there?  How can I get them to understand, or even appreciate to a higher level how God is moving through this church and ministry in Kurume.

This was my 5th trip to Japan… and after what took place, it will never be my last.  I have more fire in my soul for Japan then ever before.

In the US, roads are bigger here, dishwashers are bigger here, they have refills here, washer machines hold more than 4 pairs of shorts and 4 t-shirts, servings are bigger, cars are bigger, hallways are bigger, parking spaces are bigger, cell phones are however bigger in Japan, stores are bigger here, shopping carts are MUCH bigger here, microwaves are common here, tables are bigger here, restaurants are bigger here…

bigger does not always mean better…

I miss everything about it… but mostly, the souls of people that are encased in their own heritage that clutches their neck with a death grip on the ideology of a relationship with the one true living God.  Empty vessels walk the streets and populate trains.  A friendly greeting is typically reciprocated with an awkward glance.  I hate awkward.

But it is what I miss.

I miss a room that is empty one minute, then filled with the curious laughter of Japanese children longing to be held or played with.  I miss the Mom’s engaged in worship.  I miss the Dad’s hanging with their children and walking them to the classroom.  I miss seeing my team.  I miss Brandon and Aprils voice as it would seep through the thin walls… I miss their laughter when they would mess up.  I miss the chaos of the transitons… songs starting and stopping when then shouldn’t.  I miss the high fives from my teammates on successes… I miss the high fives when we mess up and move on.  I miss Taizo and Kim.  I miss the stability of Darlene and Steve.  I miss the stories of the team at moments when they are completely crushed.  Believe it or not… I miss Brandon embarrassing me (sort of).  I love that guy.  I miss watching Mikayla and Baylee gleening from other high schoolers in Japan.  I miss our team lunches.  I miss the volunteers.

I miss the worship. I miss the paint. I miss the smiles. I miss the burps. I miss my bff in Japan, it’s one of my favorite J’s.

What is it about the experience this year that exceeds other’s in the past?  It could have something to do with the Mom who was in tears as she ran up to me asking, “do you remember me from last year?”.  ”Of course I do”, i responded. How could I have forgotten a woman whose story broke the hearts of last years team. She was in the midst of a divorce, marriage falling apart, and a Mom who never set foot in a church because she afraid of offending the gods.  It’s because of BEK and the ministry of the church that her Mom came to the church to see her granddaughter in a program that she now knows who Moses is, and the faith Daniel had the brave heart David had.  Mostly, she knows about a God that loves her.

It could also be how a little boy referred to the program as ‘sugoi’ which means amazing in Japanese.  It could be the visitor off the streets who never set foot in a church before.  She wanted to come and see the americans play with the children. She heard about this through some people affiliated with KCC. It could also be the kids singing, “Jesus is my superhero” using all the motions on their own.  It could be the children retelling the bible stories to their parents.  It could be the children remembering me from last year.  It could be the volunteers. It could be the stronger bond between us and the church. It could have beenthe team prayer at the buddhist temple.

It could be… it is.  It is all of those things and so much more.  The ministry is the important thing… touching them with special dose of love and laughter.  Who knew this would happen… well, God knew.  He just needed willing hearts and the rest He would take care of.  Thank you all for your part in this trip.  Amazing team and an wonderful partner in Kurume Christ Church.  God Bless you all.”

Over the next week, I plan on posting several stories from the summer of 2010, another summer of ordinary Grace folks doing extraordinary things in God’s kingdom.  The first story comes from a Grace team that spent one week putting on a camp for young adults with special needs in Ukraine.  We work through one of our incredible partners, Mission to Ukraine.  This story is about a grandmother, Baba Luba.

She brought a smile to every face when they saw her in

action: Hugging, kissing, and crying, as she blessed anyone and everyone at

Good Mansion’s camp. Granny Luba came to camp with her 12 year old

granddaughter Alena, a beautiful dark hair teenager with the biggest, bluest

beautiful eyes with cerebral palsy.  This was Alena’s second time

at camp, but the first time for her grandmother. Baba Luba had been so

blessed by the beauty she saw there that her eyes were filled with tears of

joy every time she raised her voice to thank someone for providing such an

experience for her and her grandchild.  She marveled at how Alena’s

counselors took care of her by wiping her face or pushing her wheelchair,

propping her back up again or taking her to shower.

For the first time in her life, Grandma Luba took a hot shower at

the camp facility, and she whispered ‘I am so happy, I am ready to die’.

After a while we heard this saying from her on the day of the Parent

Group Spa. Grandma Luba received a facial treatment for the first time in

75 years! She smiled as she sat under a cloth covering her steaming bowl of

scented water. Oh, the needed relief camp brings to so many families with

children with special needs! When would she ever receive such attention?

But one day, camp ended and the time came for Baba Luba, Alena, and all the

others to return to their broken lives in small towns and villages surrounding

Zhitomir. The tears shed could fill the ocean blue. Baba Luba’s story is not

much different from so many.

She lives in a small village in a place where alcohol continues to

destroy homes and families. When Alena was picked up for camp her

alcoholic parents were fighting against the believers who had come to take

her and her grandmother to camp.  The scene was gruesome, but time at

camp relieved the pain of what was left behind. When Baba Luba was

returned to her home with Alena, they were brought to Grandma’s home,

where Alena could be free from her parent’s alcohol-induced rage.

However, this rescue is possible only for a short time. Grandma is too

weak and sickly to even lift Alena into her wheelchair. She is dependent

on friends nearby who can lift her.  Although she has a garden, goats, and

grapes, she has only her small pension to live off and to provide for her and

Alena’s needs. She dreams of a place where her granddaughter could be taken

care of, where she could have enough food and stay washed and clean.

A recent visit to their village home came with bags of bread, meat,

noodles and cereals. They greeted their guests with such joy and pleasure

as again our favorite Grandmother blessed everyone for their care and

concern.

We’re happy to be able to share our most recent justice seminar, Justice in the ‘Burbs, with you via the wonders of the internet. You can go to Grace’s website by clicking here and listen to and download the three sessions of Justice in the ‘Burbs, with Will Samson. Feel free to share it with anyone who you think would appreciate it.

Enjoy!

This is a post sent from Andrew Miller, who is one of the trip leaders of our current team in Haiti. You can read all their updates on their trip blog by clicking here.

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It’s hard to believe, but we’re nearing the end of our trip! Today is our last day in Chambrun, so we’re hard at work finishing several projects.

Half of our team is building the NVM hospital. Our guys have been up and at work at sunrise each morning, and they’ve made some major progress. By the time we head out, they’ll have laid pipe for all the plumbing and prepared the foundation so future teams can lay concrete. With the help of future teams, NVM hopes to have the hospital finished by December.

The rest of the team has been hard at work as well. Many have been busy painting the NVM school and medical clinic. When we first arrived in Chambrun, these buildings were a dull, concrete gray. Now they are a welcoming white and blue that our team (and the people of Chambrun) are proud of.

The three nurses on our team have been seen hundreds of patients. Haitians from the surrounding area start showing up at the clinic at six in the morning–almost two and a half hours before it opens! Many patients wait for hours in the oppressive heat, so some from our team have brought smiles to those waiting with coloring books, toys, and love. We’ve seen the clinic waiting room transformed from a place of boredom and suffering to a haven of smiles and joy.

There’s some great pictures and stories about all we’ve experienced at www.graceinhaiti.wordpress.com.  Make sure you check it out! We’ve had some powerful encounters with God, and these posts and pictures capture them well.

So that’s what we’ve been up to. At our team meeting last night, we summed it up by saying we’ve been doing lots of little things with love. But anything that we’ve done or accomplished comes second to what God’s been doing and accomplishing in us. He’s taken a team of 20 complete strangers and transformed us into what feels like a family. He’s broken our hearts for the people of this country, and none of us will ever be the same.

Most of all, he’s showed us that the kingdom breaks into Earth not through our strength or productivity, but through a community of Christ followers who rely on His strength to love fully in the little things. We’ve learned that no matter how bleak the situation seems (and here in Haiti it can seem very bleak at times) there is hope, because God is at work. He’s working through his body, the church. He’s building hospitals, painting buildings, healing sickness, holding children, transforming hearts, and changing lives.

How great is our God! And what a privilege it is to serve Him! Friends, family, and church back home, let’s keep being faithful to love in the little things. That’s how his kingdom is breaking in, here in Haiti, back home in Indy, and all over the world.

This is a post sent from Andrew Miller, who is one of the trip leaders of our current team in Haiti.

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One of the first things Pastor Pierre told our team during orientation is that we would need to be “fat” on this trip – and he wasn’t talking about the massive amount of calories we’d need to consume each day to have energy in this Haiti heat! He was talking about about being spiritually fat: F (flexible) A (available) T (teachable). Two days into our trip were definitely getting fatter. And we’ll have another opportunity to get fatter as we grow in flexibility today.

Today our team will be moving to a different location. Instead of staying with Pastor Pierre at his guesthouse, we’ll be moving to a dormitory in Chambrun. Our team is excited about the move for several reasons. Living in Chambrun itself will enable our team to get to work first thing in the morning while the temperature is still cool. Right now were about half an hour from Chambrun (but half an hour can seem like an eternity if you’re stuck in the back of a pick up truck in a Hatian thunderstorm and traffic jam! You can read all about that and our other Day 2 adventures at www.graceinhaiti.wordpress.com)

The other positive to the move is that it will  enable us to share a deeper connection with the people in Chambrun. We’ll have more time to interact with the school children and the people of the community. We’re hoping this will make our ministry here more like Jesus ministry to us. He left the comfort of heaven and moved into our neighborhood, so we’re excited to move into the neighborhood of Chambrun.

The only downside of the move is that we’re not sure how often we’ll have access to an internet connection. We’ll try to keep the blogs updated  as best as we can. If we have internet access updates may be more readily available on Bryan’s blog: www.graceinhaiti.wordpress.com. Again, you can read about all of our Day 2 adventures there!

Thanks for your continued prayers and support!

The Team

Twenty of us departed from Grace Community Church at 3:30 am, and our journey began. Our flights from Indy to Chicago, and Chicago to Miami were really non-eventful, except for the fact that they airport people stole all of Bryan’s Pratt’s Peanut Butter and Nutella…and the fact we got to see the sun rise from an awesome view!

“I see your face in every sunrise. The color of the morning is in your eyes."-Phil Wickham

Our flight from Miami to Haiti was one that I will never forget. As soon as we finally saw our destination out the airplane window we all got excited and couldn’t wait to see what God was going to show us.

God’s eye view of Haiti.

When we finally got to the airport it was complete chaos….well chaos is a bit of an understatement! We “misplaced” two of our members (Steve and Wes–but they found us soon), and had to find 40 checked bags plus half of our carry-ons in a mass of people who were all trying to do the same thing. It was CRAZY!

So once we got through customs we thought we were in the clear… hahaha yah right! We got outside and were greeted by a sea of “Red Hats”. “Red Hats” are people who lost their jobs during the earthquake and swarm the airport in hopes of being able to assist you with your luggage (for payment of course).

Chaos at the airport!

We finally were met by Pastor Pierre and most of our fears ceased to exist. This godly man has a way about him that just spoke of peace and serenity. He guided us through the chaos to the safety of the Nehemiah Vision Ministries Bus. Somehow we got all 40 bags onto the bus, and started on our way to where we would be staying.

We finally make it to the Bus!

Most of us thought the plane rides and exhaustion would be the hardest part of our day. Well, we were wrong. As we drove through Port Au Prince we saw so many things that broke our hearts. We will never forget some of the faces we saw today. The heartache and hopelessness in their eyes was haunting.

The tent cities were everywhere. Few buildings were functional because of the earthquake’s devastation.

When we arrived at Pastor Pierre’s guesthouse we were met with a big surprise. We knew we’d be joining another team of 25 from a church inPennsylvania, but we had no idea Pastor Pierre’s guesthouse normally only accommodates 30. Our team plus there’s made almost 50, so for a while we weren’t sure where some of us would be sleeping.

Fortunately, our fearless leader Chris Shore had a solution: our own IDP camp (Indiana Displaced People Camp) – right on the roof of the building where we’re staying! Our team leapt into action. The 6 girls found rooms and beds inside (despite the crowdedness) and started organizing and preparing meals.  The guys headed up to the roof and started setting up tents, but they had to work fast. It’s the rainy season here in Haiti, and ominous thunderclouds were rolling in over the mountains. The guys finished setting up the third tent just as the rain began to pour.

Our own tent city on the roof of Pastor Pierre’s.

After setting up we enjoyed a modest meal of rice, beans, and tortillas. Our host Pastor Pierre helped set our expectations for food when he welcomed our team, saying, “The Bible says God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but it is also true that here in Haiti rice and beans will be the same yesterday, today and forever.” He also had a poem for us to keep in mind: “Where he leads, I will follow, what he feeds me, I will swallow.”

Pastor Pierre did a wonderful job welcoming our team. After sharing a few laughs with us and giving us a tentative game plan for the week, he shared his personal testimony and the story of how he started Nehemiah Vision Ministries. It’s an incredible story, and we hope to share more of it here on the blog later this week.

Pastor Pierre sharing his story.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers! We’ll do our best to keep you posted throughout the week!

p.s. Several of our team members will be blogging throughout the week. Today’s post is a combination of their work. You can check out Bryan Pratt’s blog at http://graceinhaiti.wordpress.com for stories and updates. We’ll be linking to his post throughout the trip. We’re also working a way to load our best pictures to Facebook or Flickr. We’ll add this link as soon as we have it up and running.

We had a great Justice Seminar this weekend, with guest speaker Will Samson raising some challenging questions about how we ought to live as people following in the way of Jesus. About 80 people from all over the Indianapolis area gathered in the north auditorium to discuss and learn about the definition of biblical social justice. Thanks to everyone who came.

Our next Justice Seminar will be in January 2011…we will post audio from Will’s talk sometime this week on Get Compelled.

Today was a “beach day.”  I have not had this experience of Haiti before, and frankly I was not super excited about it.  But after having lived this day, I see the wisdom of NVM in sending teams to this kind of experience.  One of our team members admitted that he had lobbied at least three people (me included) to not do this day, and he found out he was wrong.  I did too.  We were able to see a lot more of Haiti on the bus ride, we were able to slow down a bit and start to think about heading back, and we were able to do some shopping to get some keepsakes for ourselves and others in a safe and controlled environment.  But more than the stuff we did, we were able to participate in the vision of NVM in a totally different way.   It was a very different day and it was a good day.

Tuesday Stories:

Countryside IDP camp

Haiti isn’t all disaster.  In a way, we got to see a glimpse of the potential that NVM is trying to realize today.  On our way out, we passed by the largest IDP camp in Haiti.  It was different from the ones in Port-au-Prince in that it was spread out all over the countryside.  There were thousands living in it however, and it was vast.  We stopped at a market near Cabaret and got some fresh mangoes for lunch.  You can buy about six mangoes for a dollar here, and they taste amazing.  We arrived at the beach and we began to see the beauty in the blue water, the majesty in the mountains, and there was even a waterspout/funnel cloud of sorts across the water by La Gonâve.  Haiti isn’t all disaster…and frankly the disaster only made worse the poverty that was already here.   But there is great potential here, in the people and all around.

Market where we bought mangoes on way to the beach

Funnel Cloud

It ended up being a great team thing as well.  We had some time to think about what we had experienced.  We were able to swim together and play volleyball together.  We shopped and saw a huge crab and some large lobsters that were for sale.  And we even bonded in pushing the bus together.  That story in just a minute.  We talked about our day today first in our evening team meeting, and God did all kinds of things in our team.

Race for the Cure

Secondly we talked about what it will be like to enter back into our “normal” lives after an experience like this.  It will not be easy.  When you have smelled poverty, it leaves a lasting impression that can make our suburban life a challenge. We believe this is a good thing of course, but we are all praying we can wrestle well with God in what he would have us be in coming home.  One team member actually summarized well.  He was reflecting on how he had a  major business waiting that was worth a lot of money, and in comparison to the work of hanging a door with a couple other guys…it seemed to hold little value.  The question he was wrestling with, and the rest of us all heard and are wrestling with to one degree or another, is: What has eternal value? Hanging a door seemed to have great eternal value.  Lots of what we did this week seemed to.

The End of the Bus Saga

Did I mention that I didn’t have one issue with the bus when I drove our medical teams around in February/March?  Sigh.  Today was the longest distance and time I have driven, and it was without incident, until we were rolling into town.  The engine started to sound different and I was suspicious we were out of gas.  We were still going along, and I was asking our translator if he thought it was the gas…and he did.  We were right next to a gas station that didn’t look like it was in operation.  Come to find out it was, it just had about 100 Haitians standing under the covering because of the rain.  I had already driven by when I decided there was no way we were going to make it to the next station, so I quickly pulled a U-turn where there was no U-turn to be had.  Lots of horns honking, but we rolled up into the station and promptly ran out of gas about six feet from the pump. We ended up pushing the bus the last little bit.

Amazingly enough, we saw the police officers that showed up at church on Sunday.  Did I mention there were four police officers that came to church per Pastor’s invitation?  Anyway, we felt very safe as they immediately recognized us and were so excited to see us.

One windshield wiper

So we are driving home, it is raining, and because of no action of my own, other than I turned the windshield wiper on a good 45 minutes prior, the wiper flies off.  It just flew right off.  We happened to be dropping our interpreter when it happened, so Thomas jumped out to try and fix it.  He declined my offer to have him ride on the hood and manually wipe it for me, so instead I peered through the one inch line the former wiper was clearing.  Ahhh…I’ll miss this bus.

Thomas in the rain

The team sure had a good time recounting all of my adventures with this blue beauty.  Thomas drove the bus for a little while tonight, and for some odd reason the team became really nervous when they saw him take over . I thought they would be relieved!  Thomas did a great job, and I took us home through the city.  Have a mentioned I will miss the bus?  I am thinking the team may not have the same feelings.

We leave bright and early tomorrow (Wednesday) for home.  God is so good to us!

Team minus Thomas & Nathan