Camp C.U.M.O.

This past week, as most of you know, the youth group went down to Cincinnati OH, to work for a week at a camp for inner-city children. The camp is, for the most part, run my teenagers from two different youth groups (with organizational help from Lee Porter and Mike Gulley, the Youth minister for the other group).
Now usually when one thinks of camp, they think of a relaxing time sitting next to the water, maybe with a fishing pole in hand. This week was not like that. There was some fishing, to be sure, but peacefulness was not exactly in great supply this week. Here are just some of the activities we had during the week:
Fishing
Zip Line
Volleyball
Kickball
Bean Bag Toss
Tetherball
Classes
Meals (and snacks and canteen)
Cincinnati Zoo
Musical guests
World-class Juggler
And more!
I would like to take this time to thank all the teens who volunteered to work on this mission, not only did they have to do all of these activities, but they also had to chase down unruly kids, run through torrential downpour to retrieve clothing from broken tents, deal with kids who refused to go to sleep, convince 11 year olds that they really DID need to take a shower WITH soap, and put up with a general noise level of about 100 decibels.
No, this past week wasn't exactly a walk in the park, and if you ask the teens who went, they won't be shy about telling you that, but they will also tell you that what they did was a great thing, something that brightened the lives of 30 inner-city kids, and they even found some fun while they were doing it.
~Phil Travis

Invisible Children

What would it be like if there was a civil war in your country for over 20 years?
What would it be like if children between 8 and 14 years old were abducted and conscripted to fight that war?
What would it be like if your children were so afraid of being abducted, that they no longer felt safe at night… in your own home?
What would it be like in a nation where the children travel miles by foot, every night, to the city, to sleep where they feel safe?
What if no one outside of your country knew about it, or even seemed to care?
It would be awful.
It IS awful, and it's happening right now in Northern Uganda.
There is a Civil war going on in Northern Uganda and it has been going on for over twenty years.
The Lord's Resistance Army, or L.R.A. is a religious army which has perverted the ideas of God and the Holy Spirit and has been waging a war in Northern Uganda.
The L.R.A. led by a man named Joeseph Kony, kidnaps children to continue his mad war and literally forces them to fight a war against their friends, family and other loved ones.
To Escape the L.R.A. thousands of children sleep together, packed together with each person having just enough room for their body, if they are lucky.
Now all the children ask for is for the war to end.
Three Young men went to Uganda to see the story they had heard about and to capture it on film. What they recorded is a heart wrenching story.
They brought back their video and started a movement called "Invisible Children", an organization whose purpose is to raise awareness and end the war in Uganda.
They are not content with allowing such atrocities to continue.
They are not stopping until something changes in Uganda and the Children are no longer Invisible.
So what can you do to help? Do you want to? The first thing you can do is find out more information on www.invisiblechildren.com. There are many ways to get involved which can be found on the website. For you tech-savvy folks, the entire "Invisible Children: Rough Cut" is on Google video (there are plans for a full-fledged theater release of the documentary) get involved. Show the Ugandans that Christians do care.

Eustace's Baptism

One of my favorite authors is C.S. Lewis, his fiction in particular (except for his science fiction) speaks to me. I operate in the realm of stories, and so I can much more easily read a story about a man who travels to heaven than I could read a highly technical paper on what Heaven might be like. Some of C.S. Lewis' most timeless books are "The Chronicles of Narnia". If you've seen the movie "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" then you know that this series portrays very Christian themes and stories in rather unusual ways (like talking Lions). It is within this world which Lewis creates a narrative where the redeeming work of Christ is shown.
In "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" Lewis tells a story about a young man named Eustace, a rather "beastly" boy from England. Now remember, these stories take place in a fantasy realm, so when I tell you that Eustace, after sleeping on a pile of Dragon's gold, thinking "dragonish" (read: selfish, greedy) thoughts, finds himself actually turned into a dragon, try and stay with me. So Eustace is a dragon, and surprisingly enough, finds it unsatisfactory.
One night as he is lamenting about the pain in his arm (caused by an altogether too small bracelet he had put on as a child) a lion came and told him to follow him. The lion led the dragon to a bubbling well which would certainly ease the pain in Eustace's dragon leg. The Lion (who is, of course, Aslan) tells him that before he can go into the water he must first undress. So Eustace scratches the dead skin off himself (much like a snake) revealing fresh, clean skin. Seeing that he is fresh and new Eustace goes to get in the well, but sees in the reflection, that the new skin has become hard and rough just as the old skin. Eustace peels this layer of skin off, and the next, but he cannot stay clean.
Finally Aslan tells him that Eustace must allow him to undress him. Eustace when retelling the story later says:
The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off.
Aslan then threw Eustace into the well and while Eustace was swimming he realized that he had returned to his former, human self. He came up out of the water and Aslan dressed him in new clothes and Eustace became a kind and gracious person.
Think about it.

Honesty With God

I have a few friends that are always, always, smiling. Now I have a pretty positive disposition, but I can't even begin to understand these people! I think that if they were told that their right arm and leg had to be amputated they would smile and say "Praise God". Now I'm all for praising God and all that, but if I were told something like that, my response would be one of anger, confusion, and disappointment. I wouldn't just be angry with the situation, either; I would definitely direct that anger at God. I would be livid! How unfair! Now, I'm certainly not trying to criticize people who may have a better outlook on life, maybe the first thing they think of is their opportunities for ministry which have just opened up for them due to their lack of appendages. If that's the case, that's amazing and they are much more spiritually minded than me.
However, I would like to caution those of us (yes me too) that have a tendency from time to time to think that we need to put on a happy face to be Christians. I suppose the whole idea that if you follow God, you will be blessed (and vice versa) originated early on. We can see evidence of this in the book of Proverbs, as much of it's theology is based upon this worldview. For example, Proverbs 11:5 says "The righteousness of the blameless keeps their ways straight, but the wicked fall by their own wickedness" (NRSV).
So it's easy to see where this theory that God blesses those who follow him came from, but there are other things we should consider. The book of Job chronicles a short segment of one man's life who, for some reason unbeknownst to him, is suddenly struck with affliction and disease. Job hasn't committed any sin and he believes that he is being treated unfairly. Job accuses God of acting un-Godly and insists on taking God to court. God appears to Job and tells him in no uncertain terms that God's ways are unknowable and that he is God no matter what he does. In the New Testament Jesus deals with some of his contemporaries who believe that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. In John 9:3 Jesus says "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him" (NASB).
Sometimes life stinks, it's tough and it's not fair. It's not a sin to express anger or disappointment with the circumstances in your life. The key is that you remember that God is a powerful God who has done many things for each of us in the past, and that he is faithful.

Seeking the Heart of God

We've all been there: a Youth Retreat, a Revival, or a Sunday night church service. It's hot and a little stuffy in the room and the preacher up front asks that question, you know it, you've heard it before "How many of you have read through your whole Bible?" Hands slowly go up (we have to be humble after all). There are a few who have done this but then the preacher gets a little gleam in his eye, and asks another question, the one that usually confuses me: "Including Leviticus…?" Well, with that, hands tend to fall like Autumn leaves, but then, the preacher was expecting that, and usually goes on to say how Leviticus is such a boring book. Well, I won't claim that I have ever sat down and gone through a plan to read through the whole Bible, but I can say that it does confuse me that so many people find Leviticus to boring. Maybe I'm weird, but I find it to be fascinating. Maybe we tend to shy away from Leviticus because it is a book all about rules, and since we are living under the New Covenant we figure rules were just for people like David and Joshua. Or maybe, we just don't care about grain offerings and the reasons why the camel is unclean. Fair enough, but perhaps before we discard Leviticus, we might want to think about why God created the Law in the first place. Now, I'm not claiming to know the thoughts of God, but I'm pretty sure that he didn't make rules just to fowl the Israelites up, for example, I'm pretty sure he didn't find out what all their favorite foods were and then decide that just to make things difficult, he would outlaw them just to make it difficult to follow him. Rather, he made the laws because they illustrate his very nature. God didn't make lying a sin because he knew that humans had a propensity for lying, rather, God is truth, so lying is anti-God, therefore it is sin. So how does this relate to Leviticus? Well, amidst the laws concerning sacrifices for various things, and rules about which animals are clean and which are unclean, there are several times when God gives the Israelites these little nuggets of gold. In Leviticus 19:9-10 for example, God reminds the Israelites that they are not simply supposed to be amassing wealth for themselves, but they are supposed to be taking care of the needy and the stranger, the LORD tells Moses "Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of you vineyard; you shall give leave them for the needy and the stranger. I am the LORD your God" (NASB). This awakes Israel's social consciousness, and shows us God's heart for community. Later, in 25:1-55, God gives the command for the year of Jubilee. This again confirms God's heart for community, but also illustrates God's graciousness, and that everything on this earth is owned by God and we have no claim on it. So I encourage you to read Leviticus. It is not simply a book of rules; it is an illustration of God and an outline which describes what to do to please him. Are you ready to look to the laws of God for his self-portrait?