northpoint notes

You can’t see it but Siegfried can see. Eagles’ Wings is a ministry of Operation Mobilization in Uruguay. It is a fruit farm that is being transformed into a conference center for ministry to teens. Right now, when you drive onto the property, you see fruit trees to the left of the driveway and a couple of new buildings to the right. There are more than 30 acres of land – some with peach, plum, and lemon trees – some with various other kinds of vegetation.

That’s what the average person sees. Siegfried is the director of Operation Mobilization in Uruguay. He sees much more. When you walk with him through the property and listen to him describe it, you can almost see it, too. Dorms for teens to stay, picnic areas, soccer field, conference center, a bakery and more.

Siegfried has a passion to stem the tide of teen suicide in Uruguay. His focus is not about suicide prevention but about helping teens find a personal relationship with Jesus who gives hope. The name for the property and ministry comes from Isaiah 41:30-31a:                                                     

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall: but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles:

When I listen to Siegfried, I become excited – not because he is such a great communicator (he is good) but because I think it is a God-sized vision that can only be done if God is at work. It is just one of the places God is working in Uruguay. Imagine what could happen if a generation of teens found new hope through Christ.

Asado – Uruguayan barbecue – it’s an experience. One of the proud traditions in Uruguay is their barbecue. Unlike North American barbecue’s it isn’t about the sauce. It is about the meat and their meat is great.

This picture was taken at a restaurant in an old train station. Beef, chicken, and sausages all cooked over an open flame. The aroma is fantastic and the food is just as good.

As I rode and walked around the city, it seemed that nearly every home had a built-in barbecue in their back yard or small courtyard. A frequent question asked of visitors is if they have had asado. It is the what you do when you have guests – you barbecue.

Our first day in Uruguay ended with a barbecue (asado) at Eagle’s Wings a ministry of Operation Mobilization in Montevideo. Beef and chicken slow cooked over an open fire and then served family style. My wife asked what was served with the meat and I honestly do not remember. The meat was the main course.

As I reflect back on the evening, of course I remember the wonderful meat but I also remember something else. I remember the conversation, the dialogue, the laughter around the table. That’s what made the evening special. Barbecue was simply an excuse to be together. The meat gave a starting point to the conversation and provided periodic punctuations as we commented on how good it was but the real event was the chatter around the table.

There are numerous stories of Jesus eating meals with various people – disciples – publicans – tax collectors – sinners, etc. It was never about the meal. It was about the people. I think sometimes we are so concerned with the presentation of the meal that it becomes the center of attention instead of guests and conversation with them.

As I interacted with my Uruguayan friends it was obvious they like their barbecue but it was even more obvious that they like to be together with friends. It’s what Jesus would have done.

The trip to Uruguay was not without a few challenges. The team arrived at that local airport in good time (perhaps the only event that was on time). Our plane was delayed an hour – we waited in the plane on the tarmac. We were a little nervous about making the connection in Chicago but continued to encouraged each other that there was time.

The connection was close in Chicago but we didn’t miss the plane. In fact, it was late. By the time we finally left, we were two hours late leaving Chicago with little or no possibility of catching our late night flight out of Miami for Montevideo. The plan had been to leave Wednesday and arrive in Montevideo Thursday morning. Now we had a problem. American Airlines only flies to Montevideo every other day – meaning there would not be another flight until Friday night which would get us to Montevideo on Saturday (two days late).

We decided to check with a partner airline (LAN) and found a flight that would leave Thursday and get us to Montevideo on Friday (only a day later than planned). By the time we made all the changes it was 2:00 AM Thursday. The airlines had given us hotel and food vouchers so we headed for the hotel (a very nice hotel near the Miami airport). Since we hadn’t eaten, we looked for a placed to get some food. The only place open was a Burger King (not high on our list but we had no other choices)

We arrived at the Burger King around 2:03 AM – They were closed. They close every day from 2:00 AM to 2:15 AM to do their banking. We had arrived during that brief closing time. Since we had few options, we decided to wait. Promptly at 2:15 a worker indicated they were open. We all lined up to decide what we wanted. Before we gave our orders, the server said, “let me tell you what we have.” They had 1 chicken sandwich, 2 fish sandwiches, 1 whopper, 2 hamburgers and a couple of other sandwiches. Instead of deciding what we really wanted, we had to decide who was going to eat which sandwich.

We finally got to the hotel at 3:00 AM. A short night and back to the airport to make certain we had seats on the LAN flight which would take us from Miami to Santiago, Chile to Montevideo.

Thursday night we boarded the plane for Santiago and then on to Montevideo. We arrived late in the morning on Friday – tired, feeling grungy but thankful to be in Uruguay. However, we arrived without luggage. It finally came Saturday evening (we hadn’t seen it since boarding on Wednesday).

The trip was full of delays, waiting and inconveniences. Something happened in the midst of all confusion and delays – a team began to form. Some of us had not known each other before. The hours in airport lines, dealing with disappointments and delays helped us become better acquainted.

We have shared experiences and therefore shared stories. Had we been on time, we would have immediately begun our agenda in Uruguay without the time to build the team. It was great to see how this team of men dealt with the inconveniences; how they responded to each other and to airport employees even though they were tired and grungy.

From the time we left home to the time we finally arrived in Montevideo, we thought we were waiting on airplanes and luggage. What we were really waiting for was relationships to form.

Delays are great opportunities to slow down and get to know a friend – and we did.

I had hoped to write during my recent trip to Uruguay but the schedule was full and computer access somewhat limited. Over the next few days I will share some reflections of the trip – perhaps a few stories.

This was my second trip to this very European country tucked between Argentina and Brazil. I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity and feel blessed by the people I met and the team I traveled with. I have been privileged to travel to places like Brazil, India, England, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay. Uruguay is obviously the freshest in my memory and I have very warm feelings about the country.

As I reflect on each of those countries, my memories always go to people I have met. My visit to Brazil was 40 years ago and though I remember some of the sights and sounds and aromas, my most vivid memories are of people.

I can’t tell you much about visiting England because it was primarily a sight-seeing trip through London. I didn’t meet people. It’s people that make the stories.

I traveled with a team of 8. It was a great team and we have our own stories – some will likely appear here. In Uruguay we met another team – two couples who have moved to Montevideo to look for ways to be a blessing to that country.

I also had the privilege of interacting with numerous residents of Uruguay. I was blessed. When I think of Uruguay, I can remember sights, sounds, barbecues and landmarks but what I will remember most are the faces of people because each has a story that in one way or another blessed me.

In running lingo, it’s called negative splits. It means that the second half of the race or training run was faster than the first. It is a desirable outcome. It suggests that you planned well – conserved enough energy to still have enough stamina to finish strong.

I ran my usual five miles this morning – the same (although relatively new) route I have been running. Understand that I am not a fast runner but any time I can run the second two and a half miles faster than the first, it is a good day. The difference was only 32 seconds faster but it was faster.

I am clearly in the 2nd half of my race of life (unless I live well beyond normal expectations). The second half seems to be moving faster than the first and their are times when I would like to slow the pace and move the finish line a bit further out. However, as I run this second half, I want it to be better than the first – that is not to say that the first was bad. It was good.

So I have been thinking about some things that would make the second half good:

• Growing deeper in my faith
• Keeping my eyes and heart open to new things God is wanting to do
• Not resting on the past but always looking for opportunities to touch lives
• Spending more time with people and less on programs
• Continuing to take myself less seriously – being less concerned with the approval of others and more interested in the smile of God
• Continuing to learn to be a better husband, father, grandfather and being less concerned with the expectations I may have of others.
• Listen more to God instead of telling Him so much
• Listen more to others instead of insisting on being heard.

Those are just a few random thoughts as I run this race.

I love new faith – the uninhibited, fresh, believing, expecting faith. I am leading a small group. Some are relatively new believers and others are growing believers. Last night we shared answers to prayer.

The week before one of the men shared about a friend whose husband was/is addicted to pornography and it is destroying their marriage. We prayed for him. Last night the report came back that the man had gone to his church leadership to confess his addiction and ask for help. The wife is hopeful for full restoration.

Another in our group was concerned about her sister’s marriage. We prayed for the marriage and for a week-end visit that our group member was going to have with her. There were numerous praise points from that week-end.

Another in our group has started a ministry that she wants to see expand. She prayed last week for another leader. This week a lady came to the ministry who had been involved in the same ministry in another city and is interested in getting involved and leading.

One of our newer believers shared about a friend whose 17 year-old daughter has a number of tumors that are likely to take her life unless God intervenes. Some of the tumors are in her brain. We prayed for her. At the end of our time together we prayed again for several needs. This new believer prayed for the first time in our group – he prayed for his friend’s daughter. It was great to hear his prayer – brief (I like brief prayers), full of hope and confidence.

Answers to prayer are building this new faith. It is great to see the excitement and hope.

I leave this Wednesday for a return trip to Uruguay. There are feelings of dread and excitement mixed together. I dread the long flight, deciding what to take and what to leave at home, time away from my wife.

I have taken other long trips but not frequently. I spent a summer in Brazil as a college student; nearly 30 days in India with a group of college students nearly 20 years ago; 10 days in the Dominican Republic in 1998; and two weeks in Uruguay last October. Each trip has special memories. I have never gone back to Brazil, India or the Dominican Republic. I am looking forward to returning to Uruguay – to meet with some of the same pastors we met before.

I will be traveling with a team – a different team from last year. Last year’s team included men and women – pastors and laymen. We were primary a prayer team – praying for God’s blessing on Uruguay and praying for churches and with pastors.

This year’s team is mostly pastors and all men. While I assume we will spend time praying, it is more of a strategic team – a team trying to decide how we can partner with ministries already established in Uruguay. We will visit most of the places we visited as a prayer team last year. We have been asked to be prepared to preach on Sunday and to share how God has blessed our lives.

While the preparation includes making certain my wife’s car is tuned; details are covered for next Sunday at church; clothes are packed; the primary preparation includes times of reflection and asking questions: How can I be an asset to the team? How can I be a blessing to the pastors we meet and churches we visit. It is putting aside some of those personal dreads and thinking about those on the team and those we meet.

These past few months we have been inundated with messages about change – political change to be specific. Every politician claims to be an agent of change and promises that the things they change will all be for the better. There is, of course, an assumption that what we have is undesirable. There are several challenges with the whole idea of change:

• Change doesn’t guarantee better, just different
• Change doesn’t eliminate problems but creates a whole new set of problems
• There is no such thing as a simple change, because one change leads to another.
• Change creates conflict and resistance – some would rather deal with the problems they know than to risk dealing with unknown problems that will arise with change.

This doesn’t mean that we should never change. The Bible is full of instructions and even admonitions regarding change. God spoke to the Jews through Jeremiah and told them that if they changed their hearts they could stay in the land.

Jesus said we must change and become like children if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven. The Apostle Paul told the Romans not to be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. He told the Corinthians that we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ.

Even this change – this being made new in Christ is met with resistance. We like the idea of the end result – being Christ-like – but the process of change is not easy.

I am not fond of change (unless I’m in charge of it). This is the problem, the change required to become like Christ requires giving up being in charge. Allowing Him to be in charge of the change. I already know that He doesn’t want to just change a few things. Each change opens the door to more areas that need to be changed.

Being like Him doesn’t eliminate problems. It just opens the door to new challenges. Though I know the changes He wants to make are good, I will continue to resist so that I have to walk through uncertainties and perhaps unpleasantness in order for the change to take effect.

It would be nice if changes were easier – less painful – but I know of no other way.

But I’m changing.

Flip Wilson (I’m showing my age) made popular the phrase, “The devil made me do it.” It was a light way of diverting personal responsibility for sinful behavior. The Church is quick to attribute good things to God and anything that is inconvenient, destructive, disruptive or sinful to the devil.

If we plan a baptism and a storm moves in, it is not uncommon to hear someone make a comment like, “we must be doing the right things because the enemy is certainly fighting against us today.” If the weather is nice we give thanks to the Lord for blessing us. What is of God, what is of the enemy and what is simply the course of nature?

The questions are prompted a bit by events of this past Sunday:

I went to the church early for my usual prayer time before others arrive and then went through my normal routine to prepare for the service.

• First problem – the computer could not find my sermon notes. It said there was an error, that the file was corrupted and that it couldn’t be accessed. Panic! With help from our tech person who arrived just after I discovered the problem, we we able to recover the file. I reviewed the notes along with the PowerPoint and everthing was fine.

I met with the worship team and others in ministry for a prayer time before the service. We prayed for God’s presence and blessing and for a couple of specific needs brought by some on the ministry team.

• Second problem – about 10 minutes before the service I began to feel like there was a cloud over me. I went to the office to pray but it did not lift. Panic! – I am usually a bit nervous before a service but this was different. There were feelings of dread.
• Third problem – the service began – the PowerPoint was off for at least two of the worship songs (which happened to be new songs). The worship team struggled. Practices had gone well but team members were missing intros and some struggling to be on key. (And of course we had visitors)

When I got up to preach, I expressed to the church the cloud that I had felt and we had a time of prayer.

• Problem four – I really felt the sermon did not flow well. It was as if I had to work really hard to communicate the message.
• Problem five – about half way through the service, I was sharing a story about a ministry opportunity to a neighbor. The sound went off (its a brand new system). Our sound man said he could not figure out why but that it cut out at the beginning of that story and did not come back on until the closing prayer.

Was it just “one of those days?” Was the enemy at work in all of those? How do we discern what is of the enemy and what is a natural occurrence?

I remember a professor,commenting on the 12 disciples, reminding seminary students that in any group of 12, one will betray you, another will deny he ever knew you existed and the rest will desert you. He said it light-heartedly and yet with a point that people can, and will, disappoint us. (It is important also to be reminded that we also disappoint others).

Early in Jesus ministry, He was cautious about the faith people expressed in Him (But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. – John 2:24-25).

In spite of these realities, Jesus taught us to love others (our neighbors) as ourselves and the Apostle Paul frequently (22 times, if I recall correctly) described how we are to relate to one another. What Jesus and Paul taught is that loving others has nothing to do with being loved in return. Jesus loved the 12 knowing full well that they would desert, betray and deny Him – and these were the ones who “loved” Him.

Because we are by nature self-centered and we live in a culture that values and promotes the idea of serving self, we typically approach relationships by looking for what they are going to do for us. When our needs aren’t met, we move on, looking for more satisfying relationships.

In the context of a group, if everyone is there for what they can get from it, the group will soon be drained. BUT if everyone who comes to the group looks for what they can contribute, there is life and energy and a sense of fulfillment.

Will we ever catch on to Jesus’ concept of selflessness – of truly loving as ourselves?