An Ordinary Guy

The past couple of months we have been studying 1 Corinthians. It has been really good to see it from a fresh point of view and so re-learn some things and see some of issues Paul was facing…
Looking at the letter I see Paul fighting to maintain unity and trying to change the things that the church was doing to cause the dis-unity!
In the military chapel environment, teamwork and unity are second nature, however, getting the followers of Christ to be integrated into the body fully is difficult due to the transient nature of the military family and the work schedules of some units and specific jobs that may work shifts.
Folks see them selves as part of the Church, just not as part of the local church sometimes, meaning that out of love or duty, the attend week after week but don’t tend to socialize with others in church or be part of the local community other than attendance to the services. It is typical and natural I assume but I wonder the things that could be accomplished if everyone was part body like In 1 Corinthians 12. What if we really lived “suffering when others suffered and being glad when other parts are honored”?

I found this article from Don Miller.  I really enjoyed Don’s books and really like the way he handled what he had to say about Pat Robertson’s comment… I think he did it with Grace and Humility as well as being unafraid to speak the truth… in love

We enjoyed a great Sunday morning service at the chapel. I was then invited to preach at an orphanage that we have been visiting and supporting. The orphanage is for mentally handicapped folks. There are young kids, grown ups and a few physically and mentally handicapped orphans. We were blessed to be invited and were blessed even more due to the generosity of the food-court manager and his folks who donated and made 50 double cheeseburgers for the orphans!

The orphanage makes some money from serving as a day care for the mentally handicapped. They allow “drop-offs” of handicapped family members who can’t stay home alone and allow the family to work or go to school.

The pastor of the orphanage has been there with no government support for 16 years! He is a wonderful and patient man.

Our guitar player/worship leader came with us and led in song for a few minutes. All I know is that those kids love God, they sang with their whole hearts, some family members were present at the service and apparently the joy and enthusiasm we were witnessing was not the usual. Through the joy and the excitement, i heard sniffles and looked to see the family members crying… not the sad tears… the happy tears, they were crying because they too were witnessing their loved ones engaging in a celebration of our Creator!

The short sermon that I was honored to deliver was from 1 John 3:1-2, from which I stated we are God’s children no matter what we talk like or look like, and that I was blessed and honored to be their brother and to call them my family! Which was answered by some amens and some more tears from the family members!

For some Koreans, having a handicapped family member is a cause of embarrassment so for them to be there and remain when outsiders were present was a positive step. What I think caused them to cry was the joy that they had not only through their loved ones joy, but that they didn’t have to be ashamed of the joy, cause we were singing and clapping and laughing and dancing along with everyone else.

We went to serve, but we were ministered to by the love of those orphans.

When I got here a year ago I noticed some folks passing out tracks to the soldiers coming out of the gates. I watched for awhile as they nearly forced the tracks into the hands of the folks coming out to do some shopping, get a meal or whatever.

As I was watching the people passing out the tracks, some of the bar girls that “work” in the local bars near the base, were walking down the street on their way to work. The folks passing out the tracks literally turned their heads and refused to even say hi to the girls.

That is what started the desperation in my heart to show these girls that they are loved by God!

After months (well a year) of praying, planning, pleading, convincing, dropping hints, enlisting confederates… we finally got the resources and the plan to give Christmas treats to the girls.

The assembly line.

The cups are filled with candy, candy canes, cookies and such and the Joy to the World thing is a Christmas Tree Ornament that tied to the bow.

On Christmas Eve. after the church service we took hot coffee and hot chocolate out along with 7 or 8 ladies to pass out the gifts. The coffee was for anyone… and the gifts we took to the bars.

You should have seen the joy on the faces of the girls, some could not believe that a stranger would give them something for free!

I think the greatest impact, the greatest change was in the lives of the ladies who delivered the treats their interaction with the girls and bringing joy to their lives ultimately brought joy to their own.

NOTE: We DID NOT include any advertisement of our church! (Our advertisement was the love of God)

Showed some pics of our church community’s trip to an orphanage home for handicapped folks in church yesterday! We had a great time the pastor doing that ministry has been the for 16 years!!! Anyway we showed some of the pics with the song “how to save a life” oh man I was crying but it was supposed to be a happy thing… I turned around to the congregation and a bunch of them including soldiers were crying… is that a God thing or what

Some of you may not have noticed but there is a huge blogosphere firestorm over a two year old book called Deadly Viper Character Assassins: A Kung Fu Survival Guide for Life and Leadership I tried several times to weigh in at one of the blogs that started the storm here but believe it or not my comments never were allowed to be posted!

My comments were about how as an inter-racially married person my family experiences racism from both races and that my Amer-Asian son was teased by the full blooded Asians and the Caucasians sometimes mercilessly.
that post never made it…

Another comment I made was in reference to this reply to a post on Rah’s blog where Kathy Khang wrote: “As a Christian Asian American, I have grown weary of reading Christian leadership and character development books that are written solely through the eyes of Western/American majority culture.” I replied to Kathy that a Western/American author can only write through their own eyes, just like an Asian can only write from their own point of view.  We cannot no matter how hard we try, write, create, speak or interact with others from any other point of view.  We can sympathize, empathize and even understand the other person’s point of view but we can never not be us.

I also pointed out the the United States is predominately Caucasian, meaning Caucasians are the majority, so if the majority is Western/American Caucasian, the majority of the books written will be from them… the majority.  So when you walk in a bookstore there are going to be more books from the majority race as compared to the minority races.  I currently live in Asia, Kathy’s point would be like me going into a bookstore here and being upset that there weren’t enough books written and available from my race, language and culture.  It was a nice way of telling here that she was being ethnocentric and was not seeing it from a realistic vantage in that its really all about the numbers of peoples in the US.

That comment didn’t get posted.

So I asked the Professor, as he likes to be called, which is a stereotypical way of addressing Koreans, by title… why my posts weren’t being allowed.  He probably won’t answer…so does that make him a racist?

How did faith (Christian) ever come to be defined as accepting Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior?

How is faith defined biblically vs faith defined culturally?

Are you a Christian by Faith/Religion or a Christian by culture?

For Americans the line between the two is thin and probably indistinguishable.