Our day began with cultural immersion at the Portland Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church. Jacob, Lily and Kaitlyn had prepared the song "Ya no soy esclavo del temor" (I'm no Longer a Slave to Fear) as special music. Our Sus Manos team was to arrive by 10:30, but these three wanted to practice with the sound system and piano before the service. I told them the sanctuary would be in use from 9:30 till the worship service began and I presumed they would just wing it. But when I arrived at 10:20, the deacon told me he was surprised to find the three teens waiting by the door when he came to open up at 9:15. Their song was beautiful and their dedication to serving well got them a mention during the church service, too.
After church, we very regretfully skipped the delicious smelling potluck to return to Portland Adventist Academy for sub sandwiches and an afternoon of Bible study and preparation for our trip. We focused on Ephesians 4, which tells us why preparation is important for doing God's work.
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)
Over the years I have thought a lot about the summers I spent as a teen on my church's Youth Witnessing Team. Our church had a newly minted college grad youth pastor who put the team together. He was energetic and visionary. He told us stories about his teen years, when he and friends would go out to share the gospel for fun. He studied the Bible with us, showed us thought-provoking Christian movies and took us to visit other teens in their homes, teaching us how to give Bible studies. When a theological question confused our group, Pastor Dan had the head pastor come to our youth meeting and give us a candid Bible study. Our youth group white-water rafted and camped in the summer and skied in the winter. As a result of his hard work, love and passion for sharing Jesus with us, our group grew to be "the happening place" with 50-80 kids showing up for vespers and mid-week worship. Our church bought us a big old house on the same block as the church where we could pack more in for enthusiastic singing and serious study. It was a golden time.
One summer we decided to put on an evangelistic series, with us teens as the speakers. I remember sitting at Pastor Dan's kitchen table, crafting my sermon about salvation. Quoting something I had read that seemed clever to me, I penned: "Heaven's not just pie in the sky by and by. There's some on your plate while you wait." Pastor Dan looked at my paper. "That's trite," he decreed. "Write your own thoughts." I valued and respected his opinion and I took his criticism as a favor from a friend who had just saved me from saying something dumb. I rewrote the sermon. I've often looked back at that simple incident as a guide for how I want to treat my students: build relationships of love and respect and help them stretch themselves to be more and do better.
This afternoon, as we worked in our Sus Manos journals, we looked at 2 Timothy 2:1-2.
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
We wrote a spiritual timeline in our journals: Paul ---- Timothy --- Faithful men/women --- Others
At each step of the way, people are trained SO WELL that they are able to pass it on. Although many people have been part of strengthening my faith in Jesus--my mom, Bible teachers, Sabbath School teachers, pastors and perhaps especially friends who have encouraged and inspired me--I think of Pastor Dan as the "Paul" that really set me on the path of following and sharing Jesus. I asked my students who they thought my faithful men and women were. I answered my own question: "It's you." And I mean it. I pray that God will help me pass on the faith in Jesus that was given to me as a teen and that I will do it so well that they will be able to pass it on to others.
I got a text this week from Pastor Dan. He was in Portland for a wedding and wondered if we could meet up. So it was poignant that just a couple hours after meeting with my faithful young men and women, I had the amazing surprise of seeing my Paul--for the first time in nearly 45 years--and reminiscing about those summers when we were both so young. He told me that, as a 21-year-old, he didn't have a clue what he was doing, but our senior pastor took him under his wing, taking him out to give Bible studies and training him how to pass on the good news of Jesus. I suddenly realized that my Paul had his Paul, too. I pray that my faithful ones will be a Paul to another Timothy one day and continue the chain of multiplication, so that this can be true soon: And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end [and Jesus!] will come. (Matthew 24:14)
After church, we very regretfully skipped the delicious smelling potluck to return to Portland Adventist Academy for sub sandwiches and an afternoon of Bible study and preparation for our trip. We focused on Ephesians 4, which tells us why preparation is important for doing God's work.
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)
Over the years I have thought a lot about the summers I spent as a teen on my church's Youth Witnessing Team. Our church had a newly minted college grad youth pastor who put the team together. He was energetic and visionary. He told us stories about his teen years, when he and friends would go out to share the gospel for fun. He studied the Bible with us, showed us thought-provoking Christian movies and took us to visit other teens in their homes, teaching us how to give Bible studies. When a theological question confused our group, Pastor Dan had the head pastor come to our youth meeting and give us a candid Bible study. Our youth group white-water rafted and camped in the summer and skied in the winter. As a result of his hard work, love and passion for sharing Jesus with us, our group grew to be "the happening place" with 50-80 kids showing up for vespers and mid-week worship. Our church bought us a big old house on the same block as the church where we could pack more in for enthusiastic singing and serious study. It was a golden time.
One summer we decided to put on an evangelistic series, with us teens as the speakers. I remember sitting at Pastor Dan's kitchen table, crafting my sermon about salvation. Quoting something I had read that seemed clever to me, I penned: "Heaven's not just pie in the sky by and by. There's some on your plate while you wait." Pastor Dan looked at my paper. "That's trite," he decreed. "Write your own thoughts." I valued and respected his opinion and I took his criticism as a favor from a friend who had just saved me from saying something dumb. I rewrote the sermon. I've often looked back at that simple incident as a guide for how I want to treat my students: build relationships of love and respect and help them stretch themselves to be more and do better.
This afternoon, as we worked in our Sus Manos journals, we looked at 2 Timothy 2:1-2.
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
We wrote a spiritual timeline in our journals: Paul ---- Timothy --- Faithful men/women --- Others
At each step of the way, people are trained SO WELL that they are able to pass it on. Although many people have been part of strengthening my faith in Jesus--my mom, Bible teachers, Sabbath School teachers, pastors and perhaps especially friends who have encouraged and inspired me--I think of Pastor Dan as the "Paul" that really set me on the path of following and sharing Jesus. I asked my students who they thought my faithful men and women were. I answered my own question: "It's you." And I mean it. I pray that God will help me pass on the faith in Jesus that was given to me as a teen and that I will do it so well that they will be able to pass it on to others.
I got a text this week from Pastor Dan. He was in Portland for a wedding and wondered if we could meet up. So it was poignant that just a couple hours after meeting with my faithful young men and women, I had the amazing surprise of seeing my Paul--for the first time in nearly 45 years--and reminiscing about those summers when we were both so young. He told me that, as a 21-year-old, he didn't have a clue what he was doing, but our senior pastor took him under his wing, taking him out to give Bible studies and training him how to pass on the good news of Jesus. I suddenly realized that my Paul had his Paul, too. I pray that my faithful ones will be a Paul to another Timothy one day and continue the chain of multiplication, so that this can be true soon: And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end [and Jesus!] will come. (Matthew 24:14)