What is the Real Story?

British Author and Missiologist Leslie Newbigin once wrote “The way we understand human life depends on what conception we have of the humans story. What is the real story of which my life story is a part? That is the question which determines what we believe to be success and what failure.” (The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, pg 15)

The story we believe will radically impact our lives. Our beliefs about the over-arching narrative that our lives are part of will inform our identity and it will shape our ‘worldview’. This will certainly affect the way we live and what we think our life’s purpose and meaning are.

Newbigin continues; “In our contemporary culture….two quite different stories are told. One is the story of evolution, of the development of species through the survival of the strong, and the story of the rise of civilization, our type of civilization, and it’s success in giving humankind mastery of nature. The other story is the one embodied in the Bible, the story of creation and fall, of God’s election of a people to be the bearers of his purpose for humankind, and of the coming of the one in whom that purpose is to be fulfilled. These are two different and incompatible stories.”

In one story we are cellular, biological machines, our very existence is basically random and accidental, and in the other one we are image bearers of the living God of the Universe created to live in relationship with him. In one of them, we are where we are here at the top of the food chain because of how we, or at least our ancestors have clawed, evolved and survived. In the other we’ve been purposefully put where we are by an infinitely powerful being! Two totally different stories! And different implications.

If we are simply animals, it would make sense for us to go thru life striving to survive by “clawing” and “biting” those around us and attempting to evolve into the most dominant creature that we can But if we are image bearers of God, we should serve, and care for those around us and steward the gifts and abilities for the blessing and benefit of others.

What is the real story of which your life story is a part?

Also posted at: www.cornellcru.com

Kicking off the Year

Classes start to day at Cornell. We kicked things off in a big way yesterday with the annual Christian Fellowship fair BBQ. At this event we join with all of the other evangelical campus ministry groups to host a large outdoor picnic event. Each ministry sets up a table and we serve tons of free hamburgers and hot dogs to students who are walking by.
The main point of this is to give new students the opportunity to connect with the Body of Christ on campus. That is why for the past two years we’ve hosted this event in a prime location up on North Campus where all of the freshman live. The second reason is to have fun! Our hope is that this event brings a sense of fun and community to the opening week of school.

Though not every student readily admits it, I think the first weeks of school here are pretty overwhelming. Most students show up here not really knowing anyone. It’s not like a typical state school where you see people whom you at least recognize from your high school or some state wide athletic event. Cornell students are from all over the world, so adjustment here is hard and community is not a plentiful commodity.
I’d estimate that we fed around 600 students. It’s pretty hard to get an accurate count, but we consumed 740 pieces of meat! We ran out, so if we had more we probably could have fed even more, but overall it was a great turnout.

The weather was amazing, and we were praising God for that! The past few days before, a lot of opening week activities were being canceled or seriously hampered by the rain! We were praying for clear skies and sun, and the Lord gave us a dry day!

Our older students were able to meet and get to know a lot of freshman and hopefully they can connect them with our small groups.

On another note……Last year I built some cornhole tables. Cornhole is a game that’s basically like Horse shoes or Ladder ball –it’s one of those games you can play in your yard with one hand while holding a drink in your other hand. It’s not hard, so it’s great for getting to know people. Cornhole is basically a bean bag toss and the bags are filled with feed corn. The game is super popular out in the mid-west for sure, but it does not really want to fly out here! We’ve been hauling our tables to events for the past couple of years, and it seems like our kids are the only ones who are getting into it! It’s a riot. But yesterday –at the very end of the time –there were 6 or so students playing corn-hole! It was great and I thanked them for putting our boards to use for once!

Here's a funny video about the game of Cornhole.

Ruby turns 1

Ruby turned 1 on August 12th. It is hard to believe that a year has passed so quickly. We celebrated early while we were in Colorado so that some family could be there. We chose a “berry” theme because it was her “Berry First Birthday.“ We had pink cupcakes decorated with strawberries and several cousins to help eat them. On her actual birthday, we celebrated with our second family of good friends from church. Among those dear friends, was Sonia Needs, who helped deliver Ruby and is about to give birth to her own third child.
One Year Ago ……It was a Tuesday afternoon. I remember so clearly going to a tea party with my friend Sonia. Later that night we had a BBQ with other full time campus staff and I was having very mild contractions. We got home and about 9:00pm they were pretty regular. We put the kids to bed, and about 11:30, we headed to the hospital. I labored on my own for a couple hours. About 1:30 we had the midwife Molly break my water and 20 intensely painful minutes later she was born. We did not know the sex ahead of time and I remember being in shock for about 24 hours that she was a girl. I just kept saying, “I can’t believe it’s a girl. J, can you believe we have a daughter – that sounds so weird.’’ I remember all three boys parading into the hospital room with a small bouquet of flowers for me, and a bag of bean burritos from Taco Bell for dad. They were so excited to meet and hold their new baby sister. We were completely unprepared for a little girl so we did not have a name picked out. We left the hospital early, baby nameless. The next morning on our way to her 24 check-up, we decided on Ruby Brooke. She has been our little jewel ever since!!!

Summer Project 3

(this post was written a few weeks ago.)

Yesterday we left Crested Butte Colorado. Our summer project is now finished and we are currently in Santa Fe, NM visiting familia.

I am annoyed with myself for not posting on this thing more frequently. The internet signal at our place in Crested Butte was definitively terrible, and we didn't have much time to spend cruising the net anyway.

Stephanie and I ended up serving for 3 weeks with the all girls group. Gina, Julia, Jessica, Sarah and Nicole were awesome. Week 1 was backpacking. Week two we spent 3 days white water rafting. The water level in the Arkansas river goes down all summer, so you want to raft as early as possible in the season. All of the groups got to go rafting, but since we were the first week, we had the best (craziest) water.

The week after that we took the group rock climbing. The climbing was fun, but the programs were even better. Since the group had been together for three weeks already, they were really able to connect with each other and to dig deep as we processed the material. The best program of the week focused on 2 Corinthians 12:9, 10 where the apostle Paul iterates Jesus' words to him saying "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul continues saying, "therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Paul's words are amazing, radical and totally counter-intuitive! He's talking about boasting in and delighting in weaknesses yet we typically don't even want to acknowledge our shortcomings! The emphasis out on the rocks that week was on facing our weakness and imperfection, being real about it and experiencing the grace and Glory of the one who alone is perfect and strong.

The population in Crested Butte (CB) peaks on the 4th of July weekend. That's when we had our biggest outreach event. Over the course of the summer, we cultivated a close relationship with the CB Chamber of Commerce. This enabled our students to serve in the community at different events including the 4th of July parade. We were the official "parade marshals".

After the parade we partnered with one of the local churches who was hosting a big 4th of July BBQ in the park near downtown CB. I helped run some of the kids' games while our students hit the crowded streets to engage people in spiritual conversations. They used the tool we call "Soularium". It's a 'tool' designed by staff and students at NYU and in Spain and it uses pictures to get people talking about what they believe. By fostering open dialog we get to communicate the good news of Jesus in a very relational way.

On the 2nd to last day of the project we attempted to summit a 14,000 ft. peak called "Red Cloud" The weather turned on us, so only a few of the fastest hikers made it up the hill. That was a bummer, but it was good to hike and have some final conversations with some of the students.

Summer Project 2

The specific emphasis on this summer project is personal growth. The goal is to create a safe place where students (and staff) can experience the power of the gospel in a way that changes their life. We talk a lot about cultivating a relational growth environment of grace and truth. Grace is the free gift of unconditional love and acceptance. Truth is reality and righteousness. Jesus embodies them both.

Last week we divided the 16 students here on project into 3 groups. There are only 5 guys on the trip and so they got placed in two of the groups while one group remained all girls. Our first weeks activities included 3 days of backpacking. I worked with fellow staff Adam, Chris, John and Lindsay and we took the all girls group out.

On the trip we had programs that addressed topics like teamwork/trust, leader/group dynamics, and defense mechanisms and their affect on relationships. The most intense program was the one that addressed "responsibility" and what happens when we don't follow thru.

Several weeks before the project began the students were instructed to read a certain book. Upon arrival, they were asked whether they had actually finished reading the book or not. Some had, some hadn't. On the first day of the backpacking adventure, after lunch we introduced the program where those who had read the book had to carry the packs for those that had not read the books. (In addition to our own packs.) The lesson was meant to illustrate the way that our lack of follow thru or responsibility usually affects others in an adverse way. We may think we are getting off easy, but it probably means someone else is carrying the weight of our laxity. After hiking about 3/4 of a mile or so, we sat down to debrief the experience allowing the students to reflect on different areas of their life and the choices that they make etc.

Yesterday we embarked on our first outreach. We all drove 40 minutes down the hill to Gunnison Colorado to attend what was supposed to be a raging fiesta in the middle of town. Their was a large cycling event in the area and there was supposed to be a lot happening at one of the local parks. We were going to hang out at the bash and engage people with a Gospel sharing tool called "Soularium." Soularium uses a set of pictures combined with a short questionnaire to start conversations with people about God and their spiritual beliefs. We've used it at Cornell, and at Big Break in Florida. Unfortunately, no one attended the big party! I don't know if we should blame it on spiritual warfare or bad sloppy joes, but that place was a complete nothing-fest. We waited for a few hours, but literally, hardly anyone was showing up!

Next week there is a big mountain bike festival here in Crested Butte, so we are hoping that will turn out better!

Summer Project....fresh snow in June!

Fresh Snow!

We started our summer project here in Crested Butte, Colorado last Saturday. The weather was warm and amazing all week and then yesterday it got cold. In the past 48 hours we've had wind, rain and a fresh dusting of snow on the beautiful peaks surrounding us here. Sunshine has broken thru at random times, so we've been able to hang outside still.

We are on the Rocky Mountain Lifelines summer project. Lifelines is the 'outdoor and experiential learning' ministry component of Campus Crusade for Christ. This project focuses on leadership and character development. We will be helping students to experience the Christian life and grow in the context of relationships where we help each other to understand the grace and truth of the Gospel more completely.

This past week all the newbies like ourselves were trained in the programatic ways of lifelines. We learned how to incorporate Biblical truths into educational outdoor experiences. It was sort of a crash course lead by our awesome coaching team.

As part of it all, I got to go on a one night backpacking trip and Stephanie got to do some rafting. One of the best things about this project is serving alongside our friends Adam and Tracy.

Yesterday, the students showed up. We have 16 students on this project.

Man I hate computers! It doesn't matter where we are, it seems like computer/technology problems follow me and harass me like a playground bully. Our internet situation here should be good to go, but for some reason it only works about half the time we need it to -and only on one of our computers! This has made checking our e-mail and updating this blog quite difficult! We'll do our best to keep you updated!

Life on the road 1

I’d like to start out this post with the lyrics from Five Iron Frenzy’s song “Superpowers”

Bacon bits and jalapenos on my polish hot dog....half a pound of potato chips, and a beef jerky log.

I press my face to the window. A wrapper sticks to my shirt. Eight people in a stinky van, a couple more couldn't hurt.

Eat some food off the floor. I've developed a taste for bread mold. Ride around in a van, don't take a shower for six weeks and...

We’ve been on the road for the last 8 days. Living out of our van and staying in different places on our way to our summer assignment in Colorado. (Don't worry, we take showers!) The truth is we like travelling in the summers. It’s a part of our job that certainly has it’s difficulties, but we honestly think it’s pretty awesome!

We spent the first few days of last week finishing up our packing and moving out of the house we’ve been renting for the past couple of years. We got a late start out of Ithaca last Wednesday and travelled on I-80 til Kearney, Nebraska. We spent last weekend there. It was a great time there as usual visiting friends, ministry supporters and the Kearney E-Free Church. We stayed at Joe and Mishelle Maul’s house. Always a 5-star set up!

While in Kearney, we got to go to the new children's museum/play place. Jack and Joe got to dress up as Firemen.

On Monday we arrived here to Windsor, Colorado. Stephanie’s parents recently moved here to work and be closer to Steph’s family who have been here for years
We’re staying at Steph’s Aunt and uncle’s house which is always a blast. Yesterday, the kids got to ride some horses and a little pony after uncle Don and Grandpa John finished roping.





This is a great place to be for our kids as well since they get to hang out with all of their (2^nd) cousins. Scotty, Will, Zach, Lilly, Molly and James are great!

On Friday we’ll head farther west to Crested Butte for six weeks to staff the lifelines summer project there.