"Wartime Walkie-Talkie"

In 1988 Pastor John Piper* delivered his sermon titled “Prayer; the Work of Missions.”   Even amid a long list of famous messages I’m pretty sure this is one of his most well known.  The sermon is full of great theology, inspiring insights and a powerful exhortation to pray! Prayer is a gift from God -it’s a direct line of communication with our heavenly father and we are missing out on all kinds of help when we forsake it.  ( We try to listen to at least parts of this talk every single year with our student leaders.)

In the sermon, Piper spends a lot of time talking about spiritual battle and unpacks scripture to explain that “life is war”.  One famous punchline in the talk is this: “Until you believe that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for.” He contends that without a “wartime” mentality we will ultimately overlook the vital importance of prayer and miss out on all that God has for us in it and through it.  

Piper compares prayer to a “wartime walkie talkie”.  In the midst of our spiritual battle, it’s a life altering, gospel advancing means of communication with our heavenly father.  When we fail to recognize that life is war, we inevitably don’t pray, or we use prayer as though it were a “domestic intercom” system that we might use in a house to call for more pillows in the den.  We end up self-centered and misdirected, there’s no intensity, and it lacks power in our lives.

At our Ironman Men’s time we play paintball on a course we set up about 8 years ago.   When we host paintball events we try and not only facilitate a really fun time, but also make it as purposeful as we can by having a short ‘debrief’ at the end.  We have the students play different games and in the end we gather up around some food and have a discussion. (We use basic experiential process learning skills.)  The discussions are not sermonic, but they are places where we can introduce spiritual concepts, interact about worldview and hopefully help people to understand the glory of life in Christ more adequately.  

This year, in order to talk more about prayer and the spiritual ‘wartime mentality’  we invented a paintball game we called “Wartime Walkie Talkie.” Through victory in another competition, one of the teams was given an actual walkie-talkie.  Then we placed our intern Scott up in tree in a deer stand right in the middle of our paintball course. Scott is a very good paintball player because he played on the Cornell club team.   Scott also had a walkie talkie.

The team with the walkie talkie was able to communicate with Scott and ask him to shoot guys on the opposing team or provide cover fire as they advanced.  The opposing team was not allowed to shoot Scott -he was invincible. Scott had the ability to survey and see the whole course from his elevated position and was easily able to take out the enemy.  Likened to the way that we as Christians can easily speak to God and ask him for help, the team with the radio was able to take advantage of Scott’s power.

It was a pretty powerful object lesson that one of the teams was really able to benefit from.  Having Scott up in the tree raining down paintball’s a was clear advantage, and when Lucas Raley's team had the walkie talkie they asked Scott for help and achieved victory without even losing a player. Depending on Scott was a wise move! Another one of the teams however -even though they had the walkie-talkie didn't use it at all! It was crazy! Watching it was painful and almost maddening! They had access to this definitively "game-changing" advantage and they were just scampering through the battlefield un-assisted with the walkie-talkie in their pocket!! It was unbelievable -except that that's pretty much how we live all the time!

Josh is a student leader who happened to be on the opposing team and he was also deeply impacted by the situation. The game taught him about having a righteous reverence or fear of God. He said: "It gave me a better idea of what Biblical 'fear of the Lord' is like. I wasn't scared because Scott was mean and unpredictable; I was scared because he was so powerful and could light me up if he wanted to! In the same way, even as God is loving and merciful and just, I should fear Him for how powerful he is." The game provoked Josh to think about what it means to sin against God. Josh said "Sinning is like shooting at Scott -which is clearly a bad idea!" Why do we think it's ok to flippantly and defiantly offend God?

Picture Credit: Christina Thomas

*We really appreciate the ministry of John Piper and we highly recommend his resources which can be found at https://www.desiringgod.org/

Gospel Driven Student Leader

Two summers ago, Kelechi Umoga went back to Nigeria and began building a health clinic in the village of Abuja, Nigeria.  He hopes to go to med school and be a doctor, but he’s already begun to transform  health care in his home country!   

The Cornell Chronicle wrote a fantastic article about his work that you can read here.

Cru at Cornell is literally one of the largest student organizations on campus because of leaders like Kelechi.  He is a very committed leader in our ministry here and what that means is that he’s a contributor who shows up  week in and week out to work alongside others in an effort to serve his fellow students and work in ways that make Cornell more joyful.  To me that’s incredibly important.  I know that Kelechi can bring people together to work on something great in Africa because I’ve seen him do that here on campus.  

As a desk receptionist at Anabel Taylor Hall, one of Kelechi Umoga’s duties includes locking up Cornell’s Sage Chapel on the nights when he works.  A couple of weeks ago when he walked in after 11:00pm he saw a solitary student sitting in a pew quietly staring forward; deep in thought.  Kelechi hesitated a moment, not wanting to disturb the guy, and then politely asked him if he would mind shutting off the lights when he left.  The student obligingly said ‘yes’ and Kelechi was going to leave, but he felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to walk over and engage the student in conversation.   They ended up talking for quite a while and I have no doubt Kelechi was able to be of considerable comfort to this new friend who was struggling over the recent break up with his girlfriend.   In the end, they exchanged numbers and made plans to meet again.    Kelechi is a caring, helpful, compassionate person who makes time for others not just when he’s doing something spectacular, but even late at night when no one is around to see him. 

Kelechi hosts a Community Group, gives guidance to our student prayer team and sings in our Cru Cornell Gospel band. This guy has integrity and it’s a beautiful thing to witness.  When he sings there is a power that flows not just from his strong vocal chords but from the authentic, blood earnest faith that he has in Jesus Christ.  His conviction is evident and there’s just something right about a person proclaiming that “God is good all the time” who actually believes that!   

In the spring of 2013 Kelechi accompanied our group on a service trip to Haiti where we work with an orphanage.  Kelechi is fluent in French which was incredibly helpful and he was certainly a natural with the kids.  I have this image burned into my mind whenever I think about Kelechi of him dancing with the orphans one evening at the house.  He told me once that back in high school he was really into partying and his dance skills were somewhat notorious.  So much of that party scene was destructive and self-promoting and so when he became a Christian he was very cautious about getting involved in that type of scene, and so he really doesn’t dance as much.   But he brought out the moves that night, and the kids were all about it!   And for me, that scene really captures so much of who Kelechi is.   He’s a man in motion, engaging with others, bringing joy and blessing to those around him.   When you think about it, that’s pretty much what dancing is really supposed to be about anyway.  So for me his skills are still notorious! 

When it comes to motivation, drive, initiative and even big vision, you could say that there are a lot of guys like Kelechi at Cornell.  But to me, what sets him apart is that he’s such a team player.  Kelechi has plans that’s for sure, but he’s unusual in that he’s not out there trying to just do his own thing by himself.   He lives life connected with others, and he has good friends.   For any grand endeavor to really work in this world you need capable people who can truly lead others, motivate others and  mobilize their friends.    Kelechi is adept at joining together with others and getting other people involved in whatever he is doing. 

  

Kelechi spent this last summer studying  for his Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and in the end, his score wasn’t that great.  He will need to keep studying and retake the test in order to gain admittance into med school and that was discouraging for sure.   But as long as he feels called to be a doctor I am absolutely certain that he will strive and persevere and overcome in order to achieve that goal.  And even though the scores weren’t as good on this round as he would like, I feel confident that he will make an incredible doctor some day because he already does so many of those things that great doctors must do!  He actually cares for people, he serves others, he lives a life of consistency and conviction.  He passes his classes here at Cornell, so I also know that he’s academically capable, it’s just a matter of time before he improves his MCAT scores and proceeds to med school.  But in the meantime, what he’s going to do is trust God and live his life doing all kinds of wonderful things, and so there will be no time “lost” that’s for sure! 

Either way, Kelechi is planning to take a gap year and  this past weekend, he was with me in Rochester, attending Cru's intern preview weekend.  He is seriously considering sticking with us next year as an intern which would be absolutely incredible!  

In case you haven’t read this article about him, please check it out:

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/01/cornell-junior-brings-change-home-nigeria

Class of 2014

This past weekend, another class of seniors walked across the stage and received their diplomas from Cornell.  We had a great group of seniors this year and of course they will be greatly missed.  Nick Biebel will be sticking around as an intern next fall and Robin Ying will be here for grad school.  Other than that, the students are headed all over the place!

At our last weekly meeting we had 13 of our grads share a few minutes worth of parting wisdom.  Over the next few days, I'll include some quotes from each student. 

Joana Choe talked openly about the difficulties she encountered throughout college related to finances, family, academics and future career.  She was involved as a leader and connected to our ministry through all 4 years at Cornell. I personally appreciated the great insights that she shared about how hard it can be to lean on God when struggles last a lot longer than you would ever imagine they would!  

"Don’t let the bad situations and people who hurt you shape your view of God. Don’t allow you’re your heart harden towards God because of it.  Be aware of when this is happening, because it happens slowly and without you realizing it.

Remember why you first decided to give your life to God.  Remember his goodness and how he has worked in your life.  And if you feel that you have become distant to God, he is waiting for you, and you can come before his throne, confident of his grace and love towards you.  Persevere, pray, endure, and love.  Trust in the Lord, and hold fast to his promises."  

Hanny Chrysolite has a real missionary heart. We were hoping that she could go and serve with Cru overseas next year, but it didn't work out because she isn't an American citizen at this point. Bummer. She had some excellent encouragement to share. "Praying with someone else regularly. I can’t stress enough how praying with my roommate twice a week has been really a huge blessing and a highlight of my time at Cornell. To have someone praying for me regularly and checking up on me serves as a reminder that I am not alone in my spiritual journey."

Tenacious Spirituality

 

This Ivy League Rookie of the year is intense –not just about wrestling, and academics but about Jesus.   Nahshon Garrett has been making news all season long -including this past weekend at the NCAA finals, but I want to talk about his faith.  If you run into Nahshon on campus, you will be blessed, you’ll probably have some sort of spiritual conversation, and you’ll typically end up praying together! 

I’ll be honest; I’ve seen countless athletes living luke-warm lives,  sort of ‘naming the name’ and only talking about being a Christian when they come to church on Sundays.  So I wasn’t too sure when I met Nahshon this past fall if his passion was gonna last.   He had recently given his life to Jesus, and although I was certainly hopeful that he would remain gung-ho,  I wouldn’t have been too surprised if he faded out once the season got going.  

But by God’s grace he’s even more pumped up right now!  It has been unbelievably encouraging to me and to everyone in our ministry to see the ways that God is working in and thru Nahshon!  This guy is berserk!  So many Cornellians (and others!) can be  driven, diligent and intentional in almost every area of their lives except their spiritual lives –but not so with Nahshon.   His faith is authentic and his zeal is contagious.   This guy is sold out thru and thru; there isn’t that disconnect that you see so often.   

  

Cornell’s wrestling program is absolutely top notch.  Hometown sensation and Cornell senior Kyle Dake just won his 4^th NCAA championship –each of them in a different weight class –without even taking a redshirt year.  What he’s accomplished is unprecedented in every way! 

Like Dake, Nahshon is triumphant on the mat. But like Epaphras in Colossians 4:12, he is also one who wrestles in prayer.  He cleaned out a small basement boiler room to make a quiet time space for himself in “The Wrestling House” –the home he shares with over 30 of the guys.  Every day he’s spending time down there reading his Bible and praying for his team mates and friends.  

Nahshon is constantly talking about the Bible and repenting of pride, dying to self and yielding our lives to the Holy Spirit.  Only then can we experience God fully and be used by him powerfully.  He’s always on the lookout for an opportunity to share the good news of Christ, encourage others and speak blessing into people’s lives.  

Nahshon at the Cru Fall Retreat

More than once, I’ve been talking to a student in our ministry and when I mention Nahshon, they immediately recount to me some incredible and unusual story.   The other day the Cornell baseball team was practicing indoors because of the weather.  While running laps, a junior player named Zach who’s involved in Cru saw Nahshon walk into the gym.  (Zach is also a passionate Christ follower on campus) They waved at each other.  When Zach came around again, it appeared Nahshon was kind of gesturing for him to come over.  Even though, they were practicing, Zach jogged over to see what was up.  Nahshon greeted him and said –“hey man, you want to pray together real quick?”  Not sure exactly how the coaches would feel about him skipping a couple of laps, Zach somewhat uncertainly said “Yeah, let’s do it!”  And so the two of them proceeded to pray for each other right there in the gym. 

Right when they were done, Zach got back to jogging, and he told me he was thinking:  “What just happened?.....That was awesome!!!”  His spirit was tremendously encouraged and his mind was focused on the Lord! 

Nahshon has a real way of doing that for people! 

A couple of weeks ago he was talking to a guy on campus.  Friendly and engaging as always, he was just getting to know him a bit.  The guys wife came along to meet him for lunch and so they said “goodbye, nice to meet you” etc.   But, the Holy Spirit had more in mind, and Nahshon was struck with a burden to pray for the guy.  So, while the couple walks away, he jogs back over to them and asks him if he can pray over them.  They guy’s wife is kind of thinking “uh….did I miss something?”   But they bow their heads together and Nahshon just prays for their lives in Jesus’ name.   Such a blessing! 

When they finish, they part ways, and as Nahshon is walking away, he sees a couple of Asian students –who he has never met before-sitting there praying together at a table.  Fired up and always ready to pray, Nahshon walks right over to them, puts his arm around one of the guys and joins them in prayer right there.  One of the guy’s kind of opens his eyes and is no doubt thinking “uh…did I miss something here?”  They wrap up their prayer time and afterwards they spent some time talking about life and the Lord on campus.  I can pretty much guarantee as Nahshon walked away the guys were encouraged and even more focused on the Lord. 

I have other stories, that I don’t want to write because they involve many different people.  But, I just love Nahshon’s tenacious spirituality.  God has already and is now redeeming him from a life spent striving after satisfaction in alcohol, promiscuity or even fame and success.   Nahshon’s compassion for those separated from Jesus compels him to engage others lovingly.  He’s always trying to find ways to help others know the incomparable love of our savior.  

Proximity is key

I want to ask you to pray for us this week as we work to raise some new financial support.

This summer we are going to be moving to a different house -a house that is very close to campus.  It is literally only about 200 meters from North Campus.  As we work to put the gospel within arms reach of every student we see a lot of benefit in living close to the students.  Back when we served in Nebraska we lived 2 blocks from the student Union building.  It was awesome for our family and our students to be so near to the school.

Proximity is a key ingredient in everything we do.  We are constantly coaching our students on how to be present on the campus both physically and emotionally so that they can engage their friends and classmates with the Gospel.  Jesus came close in order to reveal himself and demonstrate his love to mankind; thru his humility and sacrifice he made a way for us to be reconciled to God.  As Christ's ambassadors, we must get close to people in order to serve as he did and point people to him.

Living close to campus has many advantages.  First, it will enable us to host students at our home more easily.  Jesus did so much of his ministry while eating meals with people -we want to do the same.  Hospitality is one extremely effective way to serve others and demonstrate God's grace.  Living close to campus will enable Stephanie to meet with more women leaders.  Just this week, as things were coming to a close, we were trying to organize our schedules to be able to catch up with many students before they leave for the summer.  It is hard to coordinate taking care of our kids and meeting up with some of the girls.  But when we live right next to campus,  Stephanie will be able to meet with them at our house even while our kids take naps!

The university is our mission field and living within walking is going to be amazing.   But the financial cost is high.  Living near to campus costs more money and so we need more faith-filled partners to help make this happen.

The semester has been busy and we are heading out to our summer project next Monday, but in the short meantime we are working to raise $1,000 in new monthly support.  That's a lot of money to raise in one week, so we are praying for 10 new partners who will give $100 per month.  Right now, two people have stepped forward to join our support team, so we only need 8 more!

Please pray for 8 more people to join our support team this week!

Still Looking for a place to Live

As we get ready for next fall, we must find a new place to live. The home we rent now is in a great location, pretty close to the campus. We have adequate space, a yard for the kids to play in, a great land-lady and a very reasonable price! We have been so blessed to live here for the last couple of years.

But we've gotta find a different house because our land-lady is going to be moving into this house. I want to ask you to please pray for us because we are having a hard time finding a house in our price range anywhere near the campus. As we have been looking around town and praying for a place to live we have looked all over the place. Every neighborhood or section of town has it's pros and cons.

Ideally we'd like to be near campus, nearer to our team mates and not too far from the Lutheran preschool where the boys go. But so far every lead has come up short. Yesterday was discouraging as we visited a house. It was pretty close to Cornell and it was in our price range but it was right off the highway and it was totally destroyed. There are a lot of houses we would feel comfortable living in, but this one was absolutely nasty. I call it the "bombed out death shanty". It's obviously been rented to college students in the past, and they have used and abused it!

Please pray that God would guide us to the right place.