THE JOURNEY SO FAR

OK, I'm 50 years old (for a couple more months anyway.) I've been a Christian most of those years. I've talked to God nearly every day of my life. I must admit that more often than not, it's been to talk with him about something I need. But I'm learning.

I was reading about what happened when Jesus was tempted in the desert by the Devil. (Matthew 4:5-7) The temptation sounded like "step out in faith" and watch God respond. But in reality, it was really more like "step out in presumption" and manipulate God. And Jesus didn't fall for it.

It's easy to presume on God when you forget who he is. I could go on a rant about "prosperity gospel" preachers, and "name it, claim it" Christianity, but I won't. I've been guilty far too often of trying to "manipulate" God to bless my plans rather than "cooperating" with his plans.

It happens when circumstances rock my world, and I want to fix things myself, instead of trying to recognize God's plan in the midst of my circumstances. It happens when I try to avoid the consequenses of my own irresponsibility and try and force God to bail me out.

And so I listen to my prayers more closely now. "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That kind of cooperation with God comes AFTER I recognize who it is I'm praying to. He is my heavenly father. His name is to be respected, hallowed. The more aware I am of his greatness and of my weakness, the easier it is to give up manipulating and start cooperating.

Durand

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Friday, I ended up spending an overnight and most of Saturday with the members of our morning church that help with the worship. The rustic setting was near Colorado Springs in log cabins overlooking the front range of the Rockies (although we didn't know that until morning when the chickens came to visit.)

It was a pleasure for me to find young adults interested in ministry, and wanting to talk about putting their passion for music, graphics and video into service for the King. I had endless times to share about Europe and to encourage them in their ministry locally. There was a great evening of singing, worship and time in the Word as well as prayer in small groups. Then next morning was pretty much committed to prayer and solitude (with a little bit of music thrown in). But most of the time was really aimed at deepening the sense of community they had as a group.

There is a real sense of expectation in the church. At least 20 new visitors come through the doors every Sunday. They'll be adding a third service in a couple of weeks. They baptized 30 people only a month ago. Three weeks ago there was no such thing as a youth group. Now there are 30 young people and leaders who love them. There was a guest speaker today at church that used to work at the church but went to a nearby city to plant a new church. He was awestruck to see that in the room of nearly 200 people he only recognized a couple dozen faces.

We talked at the last session of the retreat about the transition that happens when "spontaneous" service has to give way to "organized" service. Moses couldn't deal with the load on his own, so God raised up others to help. And that's what we're seeing here.

May God grant wisdom and grace to his workers as he draws people to the church.

Durand

When I was growing up they called me scatter-brained. Now they say I'm multi-tasking. I like that a lot better, even if it is the same thing.

These past few weeks have been full of just working away at details.

I'm only a week away from mailing out the Fast Food Fast brochure. One of the nice bits of getting ready has been spending some extra time in the Word. I'm trying to finish up November's Fast Food Fast devotional guide to be put on line November 1. I also created the brochure which will hopefully arrive in the mail tomorrow! I can't wait to get more people focused on praying for and giving to the outreach events of CreativeWorks in Europe.

I've also got a second deadline which is our first "missions conference tour" beginning the last week of the month. We fly to Pennsylvania to the church we where we were married, make a quick trip to see our daughter Emilie in Manhattan, and then back to Pennsylvania for a second conference in Harrisburg. Then we fly down to Huntsville, AL for our third church conference, and try to spend a bit of time with my family before heading back to Denver.

One "little" project has been creating the display and materials for the trip. Whew. I'm officially a frequent flyer at Kinko's and Office Max.

Our Sunday AM church has been hosting Alpha courses on Mondays and I'm there at one of the tables. It's great. I've connected with a couple of the guys at my table. One is really on the verge of making the biggest decision of his life. Pray with me for him. I asked him if it would be alright to have more people praying that God would make it clear.

Tomorrow Ruth and I head to the church's worship ministries retreat. Musicians and technicians who help on Sundays will be gathering for a night and a day away. We're the seniors of the group (maybe they just needed chaperones.) Seriously though, they're wonderful folks and we count it a privilege to be invited along.

Thanks for your prayers.

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Before I tell about the banquet, I want to explain the video I did for the evening. SCUM's neighborhood is one of those corners of the world everyone would just as soon overlook. It's on the main drag out of town, but most drivers keep their eyes on the tail lights in front of them and try not to hit any red lights. But not SCUM. This place is their Jerusalem- the place where they're called to be His witnesses. The video's really just a glorified drive around the neighborhood and a reminder to pray for the ministry.

Now, to the banquet. For a bunch of folks who've done their share of living on the streets, think a black tee shirt is considered "formal wear" and who are more likely to decorate their arms than their tables, the banquet was nothing short of amazing.

The church mobilized and transformed a dull hall into a four-star restaurant. The tables were filled with flowers and candles. The meal was exquisite. (In fact the food vendors donated enough food to treat our homeless friends to the same banquet Sunday evening before service that the guest enjoyed at the banquet!)

The guests came and together with the folks from SCUM there were about 200 people there. Mike Sares, the pastor, introduced two folks from SCUM to share their experiences and what God had done through the church. One was a member of Five Iron Frenzy, the band whose Bible study group transformed itself into what we call Scum of the Earth.

The other was a man whose life was transformed by God through the acceptance he felt at the church and the gentle, non-condemning way he was led to trust Christ with his life.

On that night, $15,000 was donated toward a ministry center for SCUM to meet. The estimated cost of a place to renovate, complete with renovation costs is more like $2.5 million. But like Tim, the administrative pastor for SCUM said, it doesn't matter whether the cost will be 2.5 or 250 million. Both are impossible unless God is in the project and makes it happen.

And so we keep trusting.

Thanks for praying.

Some of you have already heard. In a month we'll be beginning the Fast Food Fast. It's a way that anyone can help provide outreach events for Europe. It has the potential to redirect people, prayer and funding toward that end.

It started when I heard that the average American spends 42% of their annual food budget in a restaurant and frequents a fast food place an average of 4 times a week.

We'd like to mobilize 100 teams to share the Gospel with kids through Imagin'Air, but we don't even have the cash to print up the materials. We're wanting to put on music outreaches and dinner theater outreaches on in Europe. And we're wanting to train Europeans in creative ways to minister. All of this takes visits up front to make sure the venues will work. It takes advertising. And often it takes scholarships because our most creative coworkers aren't always our most wealthy.

Please take a couple of minutes to look at the website. Then tell me what you think.
Just click on the brochure above.

Durand