Pan Dulce

Dimensión Juvenil (Youth Dimension)

This week I had the privilege of meeting Abel Mendoza who serves as youth pastor at Mundo de Fe and president of Liderazgo Juvenil Internacional (Youth Leadership International). LJI will host three conferences this year in Dallas, Mexico City, and Managua, Nicaragua for over 5,000 youth pastors and leaders.

I felt like I have known Pastor Abel all my life. I guess that is because we have so much in common. We both grew up speaking English and later learned to speak Spanish and learned about our Hispanic/Latino heritage and culture. Abel is an amazing visionary with a simple and straightforward plan to make a difference in the lives of youth. While denominations and institutions talk about curbing the Hispanic high school drop out rate, Abel is doing something about it. He speaks in high school assemblies through LJI and has been contracted by several ISD’s to speak.

On September 11th-13th he will host a Training Conference in Carrollton at his Church, Mundo De Fe drawing about 1,500 youth leaders and pastors from across the nation for several days of intensive training. He will do the same thing in Mexico City later in September and in Managua, Nicaragua in December. Abel also offers skills training for parents in apartment complexes throughout the DFW area and has co-authored a book on parenting skills.

Approximately 50% of Hispanic youth drop out of high school each year. While I was at Baptist University of the Americas I championed this concern and thought that Texas Baptists with 9 univeristies and 5,500 churches could and should do something about this. We have about 10,000 youth among our 1,200 Hispanic churches affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. About 3,000 of those youth gather annually at the Hispanic Youth and Singles Congreso. According to the trends for Hispanic High School completion in Texas, 5,000 of those 10,000 youth will graduate from high school; 3,200 will enroll in college, and 800 will graduate with a BA degree. Less than 300 of those 10,000 will earn a graduate degree.

This is not good news for the Texas economy. By 2010, every other Texan will be Hispanic and there will be more Hispanics in Dallas than there will be in San Antonio, a majority Hispanic city. The workforce of the future in Texas will be under-educated and under-skilled. What if Texas Baptists figured out a way to change that future for Hispanic youth in our congregations? What if we only tried to solve that issue for the 10,000 youth affiliated with the BGCT and its institutions? What would be a reasonable goal to set for High School completion among this part of our family? What if we too had a zero tolerance among our Hispanic youth regarding dropping out of high school? The news media would be all over this rather than reporting what we are against. Abel is not a Baptist but he is a brother in the Lord and he is doing something about Hispanic youth. More on this on Thursday.

Missions Strategy in the 21st Century

Back in the mid-1990’s I began learning about the 10/40 Window, the area of the world between the 10th and 40th Latitudes…a swath of geography that covered North Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia. I learned that this region of the world hosted the highest number of un-reached peoples groups. In 1998 I led a group from the church we had started in El Paso to visit the 10/40 Window to learn about this region and discover ways we might serve in this area of the world. This region of the world was said to have the poorest of the poor on the planet as well. Phillip Jenkins, in his landmark book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, underscores the reality of a shifting Christianity moving to the global south (Latin America, Africa, and Asia) by 2050. My own observation of this movement is that it is already happening. So what are the implications of this movement for American Christianity with all our resources?

I have returned from my second trip to this region of the world. North Africa and the Middle East. While I was there I was reading a book for a doctoral seminar I am doing in “Leading Change.” The book is written by Darrow L. Miller entitled Discipling the Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Cultures. I was so encouraged that I finished this book. I began writing a summary of the basic ideas and came across a concept that helped frame all that I was experiencing on this trip. Miller says that “any strategy to reach those unreached with the gospel must also be a strategy to reach the poor.”

Most of my ministry has focused on missions, evangelism, and church planting. My doctoral studies in Missiology helped me learn about strategies to get this work done. It was an excellent education. However, I was not prepared to contend with a missiological strategy that faced the issue of poverty head on. My business education and experience help me to look at poverty from a systemic perspective and causes me to wonder how church planting, evangelism, and missions strategy can blend together with humanitarian efforts to serve the poorest of the poor.

My visits to Egypt and Palestine bring these issues to the fore. Are we really using our resources wisely when it comes to reaching the poor? How would we invest in these places where the need is the highest? As one of my colleagues reminded me of my own words: What would good news look like for the poor in Cairo? Ram Allah? Or pick any country in the 10/40 or global south. For that matter, what would good news look like for children in Dallas who are poor?

Here is my point! Those interested in church planting and evangelism in the 10/40 window can look to Buckner as a leading collaborator for these areas. In fact, we met with Pastor Chip Riggs of Las Vegas who has developed a network of churches who want to impact Egypt with the gospel, the whole gospel, over a long period of time.

We are developing Economic Development Strategies for use in the 10/40 and the Global South. Stay tuned…

Transforming Lives…That’s the Point

In the last few days I have been impacted by the idea of working toward transformed lives as the end of our work at Buckner. This idea has come up in several conversations recently.

On our last day in Palestine, Dr. Ken Hall (click here to read his blog) presented a devotional thought focused on Hebrews 11. He pointed those who had made the Hall of Faith and commented on the absence of Daniel in that list. He pointed to the fact that when the list was made there was no reference to buildings, memorials, or permanent fixtures that point to artifacts of faith. You only find a listing of normal, regular people whose lives were changed because of their faith in God. He closed his devotional presentation with the idea that our work is about changed lives, not anything else.

Then this week I visited with Bobby Dagnel, pastor of First Baptist Church during lunch and he brought up, almost as an aside to the conversation, that his focus is on lives that are changed and transformed.

For the second time in a few weeks that theme popped up in daily conversations. This idea resonates with me. I think of Paul saying that he was not ashamed of the power of the gospel to change lives.

This week I presented a few comments a reception held in Lubbock to celebrate My Father’s House Lubbock and Buckner Children’s Home as well as our Foster Care Program into one web of resources for children and families in West Texas. We introduced Dr. Jon Hogg as the new Director Team Leader for Lubbock and the West Texas Area. The focus of my comments was aimed at the potential for life transformation for children and mothers with children through these ministries.

It is about changed lives. That is the point of our work. Our struggle is related to how best to use our resources to impact as many lives as possible through our ministries both in the USA and around the world.

So where are the poorest of the poor? How should we manage our resources to meet their needs? On Friday I will write about reaching them.

Throwing Rocks Can Be A Good Thing

On our last day in Palestine, we took a trip to the Dead Sea and visited Masada (Hebrew for Fortress), a fortress built by Herod the Great about 37 BCE and later occupied by Zealots who were determined to rebel against Roman occupation and domination. Masada is an awesome place. We saw how the Roman Army engineered a ramp to penetrate this fortress over a period of six years. Are you thinking what I am thinking? Inch by inch, anything is a cinch.

About 70 CE, Roman Governor Flavius Silva marched the 10th Roman Legion against Masada. The Romans built an incredible ramp made of 1,000’s of tons of stone and gravel creating a pathway right up the wall of Masada and overthrew the Jewish Zealots and took over that strategic fort next to the Dead Sea. The Romans brought with them about 1,000 Jewish prisoners of war and used them to build the ramp. I wonder what it would have been like waiting for six years as your enemy built a bridge to you?

Visiting Masada and the Dead Sea was a treat. You really do float in the Dead Sea. I waded my way into the water up to my knees but some of my companions got all the way in. This is a “once” in a lifetime experience. Imagine pouring salt on an open wound. The Dead Sea and Masada were fun but not as fun as watching the boys we brought with us from the Home of New Hope in Ramallah. Some had never been to Masada or the Dead Sea. It was fun watching them get excited about the trip. It was fun watching them have fun. I was reminded of the trips that I have taken with my boys.

On the way back our Bus broke down for the first time in two weeks. It just gave out. We were on the highway back to Palestine. We pulled over and just waited for another bus to come and pick us up. This was a nearly picture perfect day but then the bus broke down. We got out of the bus and sat on a pile of rocks (there are a lot of rocks in the Judean wilderness and in Israel in general) waiting for our bus. The boys looked bored and restless so I did what any dad would do to buy some time and keep the boys out of trouble.

I found aluminum can by the pile of rocks, filled it about ¼ full of dirt and placed it on another pile of rocks about 30 yards away. You probably know what happened next. I walked back to the group of boys, picked up one small rock and motioned to one of the boys, pointing to the can. Then I threw the rock at the can, and of course, missed it. Then the first boy tried his hand at hitting the can, then the next and the next. Soon about 9 boys from the Home of New Hope at Ramallah were trying to see which one would hit the can first. About 15 minutes passed by with everyone trying to hit the can when the substitute bus showed up. We had a hard time getting the boys back into the bus. And yes, finally one of the boys hit the can. I don’t remember who did it but does it matter? This was a good time to throw rocks.

This was a good day! A group of men from the United States traveled to Jericho, Masada, and the Dead Sea to hang out with some boys from Ramallah. It was a good day to throw rocks. I think we made a difference in their lives that day. More about this to come…

Arabs, Palestinians, and Christians in the West Bank

This past week I was in the Palestinian West Bank in the Middle East and had the privilege of preaching at the Ramallah Local Church, an evangelical church in the West Bank. Pastor Munir Kakish made room for me during the Thursday night Bible Study to bring a word from the Lord.

We worshipped, sang (I mostly listened since the words were in Arabic); Randy Daniels presented words of greeting from Buckner. I preached about the Micah Mandate from Micah 6:8. The title of my message was borrowed from a framework Thom Wolf provided in the past called “Weeds, Deeds, and Seeds.” Micah 6:8 in the NIV says: He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

To act justly is to pull the Weeds of injustice wherever we find them. Pulling weeds the right way means you have to pull them by the roots to get rid of them. Followers of Christ are compelled to identify, expose, and stand against unjust acts and situations wherever we find them. Zaccheaus, after hearing from Jesus personally, that it was better to give than to receive and the stealing was not part of Kingdom behavior, returned four times what he had taken from those he had cheated. Jesus responded by saying “Salvation has come to this house.” When we pull Weeds we provide Hope.

To love mercy is to do deeds in the name of Jesus. Some people call this mercy ministry when we give a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan did for the wounded man what he was not required to do but out of love took his own time and manner to help a stranger. When we do Deeds we demonstrate Love to those around us. Buckner probably does this best in Texas, the USA and around the world. We provide shoes, hugs, families, and other mercy ministries to make life better for orphans, children at risk, and families.

To walk humbly with our God is to plant Seeds that reflect the substance of who we are. Wherever we go we call people to Faith through our words, actions, and way of life. Paul uses the word “walk” in Ephesians 4 to describe our way of life. Rather than anger, malice, greed, envy, jealousy, brawling, slander, stealing, lying, and a whole list of vices, we walk in the opposite way, the new man.

So this was my message: Weeds, Deeds, and Seeds which correspond to Hope, Love, and Faith (Faith, Hope, and Love). Pastor Kakish came to the pulpit after my brief message and contextualized what I had to say to the congregation and invited them to make a decision. After he prayed we were presented with a plate with the Lord’s Prayer written on it in Arabic. Next, we moved into the fellowship hall from a brief time of fellowship and then to Pizza Inn for a birthday party for the Pastor.

This felt like the kind of Baptist fellowship that I have been used to all my life. My point? These Palestinian, Arab background friends are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Geo-political tensions aside, these friends are family to us. What a blessing!

The Children of Palestine

Today we met with the Minister of Interior of the Palestine National Authority to consider ways Buckner might be of service to the children in this region. We also met with the Director of Interior Affairs along with the Buckner Delegation. Later that morning we met with the Deputy Mayor of the City of Ramallah and his staff to ask the same question of ministry opportunities in this 500 year old city.

Pastor Munir Kakish arranged these meetings. He is a pastor of two churches and director of a children’s group home here in Ramallah and has been serving in this place for over 30 years.

We also met with an independent consultant who described the needs of the Palestinian people in terms “soul maintenance.” She described the dynamics of people who live in confinement in the West Bank. She pointed to the need to maintain the soul of the people and the community with attention to issues such as coping mechanisms, domestic violence, hope-seeking efforts, and a host of community programs that would add hope to the people who live here.

I am certain that we have ministries that mirror this kind of context, at least in some ways. One program comes to mind at the Wynnewood apartment complex in Dallas. Johnny Flowers runs a Buckner ministry that offers a wide array of services that bring hope to that community. However, redemptive hope lies only in the person of Jesus Christ. We offer hope to families who participate in our family place programs across Texas but lasting hope only comes through a personal relationship with Christ.

So do we propose telling the gospel or doing the gospel among the children of Palestine? Yes! We do both. We come here to do the Micah Mandate: To act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly before our God. To act justly is to pull the weeds of injustice wherever we have influence and opportunity. To love mercy is to do deeds that demonstrate the love of God in practical ways. This earns us the right to tell about the good news of salvation among people who want to know the reason of our coming. To walk humbly before our God is to plant seeds with the way we live and the words that match our testimony.

We are working hard each day to listen, to ask questions, to consider possibilities, to pray for resources, to think creatively, to think about what it means to live in confinement, and to consider ways we can offer hope to the souls of children and families who live here in this very hard place.

Pray for us as we sort through all we are learning. Pray for wisdom to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Water and the Most Important Thing

The last few days I have written about water such as the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. It is amazing how precious this resource is to the survival of the Middle East. People everywhere have water tanks on top of their homes to access water needed for daily life. I am told that access to water in the West Bank is restricted.

One of the most impressive experiences this week was a visit to Tel Megiddo. This city was occupied and conquered 25 times over the years due to its strategic location on the Via Maris. From this site I was able to see Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and toward the ends of the earth. I was able to view Nazareth, Mt. Tabor, Mt. Carmel, and the Mediterranean Sea. Deep below Megiddo was a passage way (183 steps down) to a spring outside the city gates. The trip from the bottom of the cistern was over 80 more steps back up to the surface of the outside of the fortress. I know how many steps this is because I climbed it twice. During times of siege King Solomon covered up the entrance to the spring from outside the walls of the city and was able to access water for his horses and his army living inside the Tel. Water was crucial to their survival.

We also visited the place where Jesus was born. There is a church or several churches built upon that spot. To get into the church you have to bend over to get through a door called the “eye of the needle.” This was not there when Jesus was alive but the church built the entrance that way to point to Jesus’ use of this metaphor and with the idea that when you enter to see Jesus’ birthplace you have to bend your knees and humble yourself to get inside. I saw people enter this place with extreme devotion and reverence. As we stood in line to pass by the manger, I saw devout believers go to their knees to kiss the place where Jesus was born. A silver star with 12 points sits on the spot where Jesus is said to have been born. The 12 points represent the 12 tribes of Israel.

With all due respect to those devoted followers, what is more important is the Jesus that was born to redeem us over against the place where he was born. I suppose we could build a church over the well at Sychar where Jesus met the Samaritan woman and offered her the kind of water that would quench her thirst. But there are things more important like telling all those in her circle of influence to come and meet a man that told her everything she had ever done, to meet the Messiah.

Just like it is easy to miss the point of the Jesus who came to live here in the Holy Land, it is easy to miss the point of why we are here. Yes, the Holy Land is beautiful and there are many things to discover and reflect on. My preaching will probably never be the same after visiting these places. We have come to explore ways that the Jesus who came here would use us to do the whole gospel among children and families who need hope.

Pray that whether we are serving in Egypt, Palestine, Texas, Missouri, Washington, Tennessee, Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Russia, Latvia, Romania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Guatemala, Mexico, the Borderlands, or Peru, we will not miss the point, the most important thing.

The Jordan River

On Monday we visited the Jordan River and several members of our team chose to be baptized in this river. The river looked much like the Guadalupe River in South Texas. Rich green water stocked with pretty large catfish. Several members of our team commented on the similarity of the Jordan River with the Guadalupe River.

In fact, the word Guadalupe has a connection to this region. Guadalupe comes from two words in Arabic: Wadi and Alyupe. A Wadi is a creek, brook, stream, or river and Alyupe means love. When you put these two words together you get River of Love. So the word Guadalupe, not only used for the River near San Marcos, Texas, but also used to name Latino children, both boys and girls, means River of Love.

There are about 21,000 words in Spanish that have Arabic Roots and 7,000 words in Spanish and Arabic that are pronounced identically. I have heard some words in the last few days (mainly in Egypt but also in Israel spoken by Arabs) that sound just like words in Spanish. Just yesterday I heard the word Roz in a restaurant. This is the word for Rice. In Spanish it is pronounced Arroz. There have been a number of times when I have recognized words in Spanish that are being spoken in Arabic.

On several occasions I have experienced Arabs speaking to me in Arabic because they think that I am Arab as well. Most people guess that I am from Syria. But, of course, I am from Texas. In some ways, this region feels like El Paso and San Antonio.

This region seems so compressed and small. I can see how Jesus was able to travel to Jerusalem, Nazareth, Tiberius, Capernaum and other places. One thing is for sure. Jesus walked a lot. If Mount Tabor is truly where Jesus was transfigured, he walked a long way up a steep hill. He lived a simple life in a small area but he impacted history with his example of sacrificial living.

Even today, the world is indeed small and children who are abandoned or left to fend for themselves in this region are not different from children who need help in Egypt. From this area I have been able to watch CNN or Fox News and I have been able to keep up with the winning streak of the San Antonio Spurs.

On Tuesday we visited Mt. Carmel, Megiddo, and Bethlehem as well as the West Bank. We will continue to explore ways we might be of service to the children of this area. Please continue to pray for us and the children we will meet. Pray that the Lord will develop the resources we need to respond to the needs we will encounter.

The Sea of Galilee

On Sunday we flew from Cairo through Jordan and arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel. We boarded a bus and drove to Tiberias in Golan Heights to our hotel right off the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Tiberias is a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee founded in 20 AD and named in honor of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. The Sea of Galilee is a spring fed fresh water lake as well as water from snow in winter and is the water source for the region of Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Iraq and is about 8 miles wide by 13 miles long. It is hard to believe that I am in the Holy Land with our team from Buckner.

The Sea of Galilee lies on the ancient Via Maris which linked Egypt with the northern empires. The Greeks, Hasmoneans, and Romans founded flourishing towns and settlements on the lake including Gadara, Hippos, and Tiberias. Much of the ministry of Jesus took place on the shores of Galilee. Jesus came to this place to enlist four of his disciples: Simon and his brother Andrew, John and James. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was delivered on the hillside facing the Sea of Galilee as well as the feeding of the five thousand.

We met with Pastor Jay Abernathy and Steve Jenkins from First Baptist Church of Palestine, Texas and we have been joined by Rev. and Mrs. Munir Kakish of Ramallah Christian Outreach and Home of New Life, a home for orphan children in Ramla, Israel. We arrived on Sunday at the end of the Passover Holiday.

On Monday we visited the Mount of Beatitudes in Capernaum, Cana where Jesus turned the water in wine, Mount Tabor, and Megiddo and later in the week we plan to visit the Home of New Life to consider ways Buckner might be of service to this ministry. We ended the day with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.

When I was a teenager I helped my younger brother, Fred, memorize a verse for a play he was in at church. This was the verse: “What manner of man is this that the wind and sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41) This is the verse following the account of Jesus calming the sea. I was on a boat today on the same sea that Jesus calmed.

We saw several sites that are allegedly the places where the Holy Spirit spoke to Mary, the place where Jesus turned the water to wine; the place where Jesus preached the sermon on the mount and fed the five thousand; the place Jesus told Peter “Feed my sheep;” and the place where Jesus grew up in Capernaum. It was intriguing to see these sites and to see the Holy Scriptures come alive.

I was also intrigued by the multi-national and multi-lingual crowds we ran into every where we turned. The wind and the seas still obey him. Pray that we will obey Jesus when we are confronted with the opportunity to serve children.

Once You Drink From the Nile…

In one of our meetings this week, one of our Egyptian hosts said that they have “a saying here in Cairo.” Ready? Here it is: “Once you drink from the Nile you will always come back again.” This does not make sense unless you realize that the Nile River is the water supply for the entire region. So if you drink water in Cairo, you are drinking from the Nile. My hunch is that we will be back.

Once again I sat by in a restaurant this evening to share dinner with our travel group and was reminded about a key phrase that was mentioned in our meeting with a group of Evangelical businessmen and women: “We can talk about God’s love in this context.” The word “God” is the name for the redemptive Lord of history. This is a multi-religious faith context where Christians (Evangelicals, Coptics, and Catholics) as well as Muslims and Jews have freedom to worship. Work here in Egypt will require specific efforts at contextualizing our approach to augment the magnificent work that is already being done by Egyptian Christians. We are being invited to supplement the work here and fill gaps that exist. We are in the preliminary stages of working through the process for beginning work here in Cairo. We have already passed the Ideation stage and are almost at the end of the exploratory visit to this region. Next, we are moving through stage of proposal and commitment phase followed by structure, and eventually launch. We are on our way.

The Lord has been preparing a network of churches that span Nevada, Atlanta, and Dallas. These churches have come to the conclusion that they are being called by God to invest heavily in Egypt over the next few years. They have been waiting patiently for two years to find a partner who they can connect with for Egypt. Enter…Buckner International. The network’s hub is housed out of Hope Baptist Church in Las Vegas, Nevada. Chip Riggs is the lead pastor in this project. He and two other friends, Mike and Kim Stickler from Nevada and Ric Drudy from Florida traveled with us.

One of our strategies when considering work in a new country is to line up resources before we begin. When the Lord puts resources in front of you it is hard to not see that as a sign that the Lord is leading us.

I will wake up one more time with a view of the Nile and then fly to Israel. This is an amazing sequence of events. I am reminded that Moses was placed in this very river and then was adopted into the house of Pharaoh. The Lord would raise him up some day to become a leader for the nation of Egypt and the nation of Israel. My vision for this region is to serve the children who will become leaders that will serve God’s purposes in this generation years from now. Developing Kingdom leaders from my circle of influence to the ends of the earth is my life mission. That is what I am doing here. Pray that the Lord will guide and protect all of our new relationships for the future of our work here.