Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Executive Pastors and Swaziland

So this morning we started at 8:30, which is a little bit earlier than my liking, but it was good. We started out with prayer, which was so awesome. God's been turning my eyes back to prayer which has been awesome, but I'll share more about that later.

Today we met with Rick Klapp, the Executive pastor of Vanguard. I hadn't ever heard that title until now, or at least not that I can remember, so I didn't really know what I was in for. We began the morning by watching a video the church made about their commitment to Swaziland, because that's where a lot of Rick's story starts, or at least his more recent story. Three years ago God put Africa on his wife, Laura's heart kind of out of the blue. That same time Rick was offered an opportunity to visit Swaziland with Children's Hope Chest, and so 3 weeks later he was on a plane to Africa where his heart was changed. This was the beginning of Vanguard's vision for partnering with Swaziland, and that is a big part of what Rick does. We now have a care center there for orphans that provides 2 meals a day (totalling 320,000 meals so far), a preschool, and 3 churches. Vanguard's vision is to plant 5,000 churches in 40 years, and we're in year 12. Rick and Laura have also recently adopted two of the cutest kids ever from Swaziland. It was AWESOME hearing about his heart for that. It is something Rick is really passionate about. Right now he's in the process of helping them start a rose-geranium farm. Rick really enjoys micro-financing, so this is something he is also passionate about. Rose-geraniums are what produce the oil that is the base of every perfume and frangrance produced. Rick's hope is to provide the people there with 200 jobs within the next year. He wants to help the economy but also make the care centers self-sustainable, so as not to rely on other people giving all the time. It sounds so awesome. I loved hearing about it.

Sustainability is something I've been hearing about a lot since coming to Vanguard. In the Church so much of what is done passes so quickly; clearly not the things that God does on people's hearts, but the way we do ministry is not often sustainable. It's usually based around a person, a fad, or a concept that's principles just aren't sustainable. We often don't think that far ahead to ask the question, "Is what I'm doing sustainable without me?" I think thats a question often overlooked. I know I don't think about it a lot. I just think about the quick fix, and what can be done right now to best serve the situation. But here I've been challenged a lot about legacy and sustainability. How can we do things that will last? How can we run a ministry in a way that is based on biblical principles and is sustainable so that it won't die out after time. I have so much trouble looking ahead at things. When people ask questions like, "Where do you see yourself in 20 years?" I have so much trouble finding an answer. I don't know if I'm just scared to look ahead, or if I'm in a good place that I don't have everything all planned out and that leaves God room to move more. I don't really know but I've always struggled with that type of question. So when I'm asked that, or when we're thinking about a ministry in that context, man that's hard for me. That's something I'm going to need to put more thought into. Sustainability.

Along with all of these things that I've been rambling about, I really did learn a lot about Rick's role as executive pastor, and I also learned that I don't think I would be very good at it, nor would I really enjoy it. I would not enjoy creating or maintaining the structure of the church. I also would not enjoy pouring into the business/financial side of things. Alan asked Andy and me what parts of the job we clicked with and which parts we didn't click with. The only part I really liked was that he would meet individually with the staff regularly. That's the only part I liked. BUT I think Rick is AWESOME and was super encouraged hearing about his story and being challenged by him when he asked what my strengths are and what I'm passionate about. I'm finding that I need to think through that a lot more.

So that's my Wednesday so far. I've got worship practice, awwww yeah! I'm really excited. And then KlopStop!!!

Thanks for the prayers!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Welcome Back!

Okay, so I wrote on this a long time ago and I'm finally writing again! Things at Vanguard have been awesome so far! It has been exhausting and trying, but so good and full of sooooo many blessings too! The family I have been living with is AWESOME, and they are finally back from Puerto Rico today!! They've been gone for two weeks so it's just been me and Roxanne hanging out. Which has been so great! God has blessed me so much through my relationship with Roxanne. We clicked from the first day I was here and it has been awesome ever since. It has been so good to have her as encouragement, someone to listen to me, someone to pray with, someone to do ministry with and someone to have fun with! I cannot wait to see what God will do through our relationship this summer! And now that the whole family is home I'm super pumped to get to know them more!

Things have been great in the ministry aspect of things too. I learn something from Alan every time he opens his mouth, which is both overwhelming and awesome at the same time. Andy and I have been getting along pretty well too, considering Zach isn't here to even us out. Zach is in Nicaragua for 2 weeks and will be getting back Sunday, so we miss him too! Andy and I have been working well together and have fun too, so that's been great. I LOVE the students at Vanguard and getting to know them more. I can't believe how much I've learned about them in the short time I'm here, so it'll be sweet to see what God does through those relationships.

One of my favorite parts of my week is when we talk through "In the Name of Jesus" and when we meet with people from other ministries. This morning we talked through the book and it was so good. Alan has questions that go along with the reading and they are really challenging and have helped to give me great insight into myself. I would love to write more about that but I have to run off to Palmer Park to have some Godtime so I can get home to see the Gonzalez family since they're finally back! Love you all!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Tired out of my mind

I can't believe how tired I feel. I think I've been more tired every day this week than I have ever been any other week of my life. Maybe that's not true, and it's probably not, but I'm definitely more tired than I am in a typical week. I just get so tired. And today I wasn't just mentally and emotionally exhausted, but I was physically exhausted too. I spent the day painting a woman's living room and dining room, and I also helped move boxes into her house. We worked from 9-5, and then I cleaned up the paint tools until just before 7. I am just not used to a day packed with manual labor like that. Even though it was tiring, it was good to be helping someone like that and good to be using my body more than my brain for a day. Plus I got to make $!! : )

The reason why I worked today was because it is something we do with the students every other Tuesday. We do landscaping, moving, painting or any other handy job someone might ask us to do. It's such a great idea. We charge $10/hr for each person working, and we usually have 5 people at each sight. We do these work days so that students can raise money for their mission trip to St. Louis. It's a pretty amazing idea. It has so many purposes and great things that come from it! Not only is it a fundraiser, but it also helps people out, builds character in the students, teaches them good work ethic, and helps them gain practical skills for life. It's such a good idea. Alan makes sure the students work hard all day, with only a few 3 minuteish water breaks and a lunch break. Something else that I really appreciate Alan doing is the way he meets with the students beforehand to talk about the purpose of what we are doing. That's something I was challenged on a lot in my Evangelism in Youth Ministry class this past semester. So often we do things without explicitly sharing our intentions and motives behind what we do. That all too often leads students into participating in things that they don't actually know the purpose of. It's so important to help students to start thinking about what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how God might want to move in it.

At 8 this morning, we met with the students and Alan talked about why we have these work days. Then he told them he expects them to work hard all day. Then he asked them why it is important for them to work hard. It was great to hear their responses and you could see that our discussion started their brains working in a new direction that would more benefit them throughout the rest of the day.

After thinking, talking and writing about the importance of guiding students towards the purpose of everything we do through discussion, it was awesome to see it played out.