No Rights. Journal of a Christ soldier.

Sending Disciples...

In two words, our mission here at SIUC is this: "Sending Disciples". Everything we do is directed to that end. Every student will eventually graduate and go out to "infect" and "affect" this world in one way or the other. Our goal is make sure that our alumni will leave this university as fully devoted disciples committed to the mission of God where ever they may find themselves.

The following is a mission update from Leann, one of our alumni. Currently, she is on a mission project in the slums of Manilla. She is a great example of our goal!

                                

Life in the slums of Quezon City is always an adventure. This past week we went to the 711 down the street and ran into some of the street kids we know. Usually we get them a snack or something to drink, but that day we decided to invite them all to lunch at our place. These kids work on the streets begging or parking cars. They are all under the age of ten and most of them don't have parents, or their parents have abandoned them. They all came to our small place, and it was a party. Kids were everywhere, jumping around on everything, and having the time of their life's. They all took bathes and we sewed up the holes in their tattered clothes.

Something about those kids struck me, in a way I would not have expected. They are the poorest of the poor in this city. They have no place to lay their head, and they toil day and night just for a meal of rice. I imagined them being gaunt and gloomy. I imagined that there could be no hope left in their hearts. But somehow they have been preserved from the world. It is almost as if their situation doesn't bother them all that much. They enjoy life when it is good and plentiful, and they endure when times are hard. They survive these streets, not by the charity of a few people, but their community with each other. Street kids have got to be the most communal bunch I've ever met, and they have to be. Without each other they would never survive. Here in the Philippines people measure their profit and wealth in the number of friends they have.

I am learning a lot from street kids about how to do mission. If God sends us to those hard places, and he asks us to suffer, which He will; we cannot go alone. Just as God exists in the Triune community, we must exist and do mission as a part of a community. Seeking after God and the kingdom cannot be an individualized endeavor.

Another recent event that has shaken my worldview is the story of Dimples. Dimples is a little girl about the age of 4 who was abandoned by her parents. And when I say abandoned, I mean dropped off in the slums right outside our place and left. She was left because her mom and dad could not support her. Now my initial reaction would be to go hunt down the parents and send them to jail, but that is not how it works here in the slums. A small family that lives downstairs from us decided to take the girl into their home and family. They unofficially adopted her. This family also has a 4 year old daughter named KiKay. Her and Dimples instantly became best friends, or I guess sisters. I found out that this is pretty common in the slums. Everyone is taken in and cared for, especially the helpless like Dimples. I am so struck by the family that adopted Dimples, because they already have a hard time feeding their family. We often feed KiKay and Dimples because their family is so poor. So even in their lack of funds and resources, they took in an extra mouth to feed. And this is when it hit me, the family does not consider their financial poverty as a life or death situation, and they don't consider Dimples as just another mouth to feed. They see her as their daughter, as KiKay's sister, and as a person that cannot and should not be abandoned. They see her as God's creation. So often in the West, we look out for ourselves, and only ourselves. If our family is barely making it, then we are definitely not inviting others over to eat, else we might go hungry. But that doesn't seem to be an issue here in the slums. Everyone is welcomed because they also want to be welcomed; and everyone is treated as more than just a mouth to feed. They are treated as the great currency of joy and relationship. That family saw that it would be better to add a daughter and a sister to our family, even if it costs them a full meal everyday. I think Jesus sees us in this same way. Jesus looks at me and you and sees a hungry, lost, poor, abandoned child; and says it would be better to add you to my family even if it means that I will have to die for you. This love is unselfish, and full of compassion.  This love is how people survive in the slums.

The last thing I want to share is about the nightly Bible studies that have been happening among the youth in Damayang Lagi. We have been studying some of the main stories in the Old Testament. We gather together some of the most unlikely kids. I never thought that I would lead a Bible study with street kids, drug dealers, drug users, homosexuals, and homeless guys. Our house is full of the most unlikely people. I look at these young kids and I can only imagine that Jesus would have picked these same guys to be his disciples. Just the other night we went around asking some of the D-town boys to come to Bible study, and they declined cause they had been using crack, but promised to come next week. One of the guys in our study is usually drunk, and half of the guys sleep over after Bible study because they are homeless and usually sleep on the street. I'm not even sure how we attracted these kinds of people haha! But I know Jesus is after them, furiously seeking to save them. After all these experiences, it has become more real to me that the gospel truly is good news to the poor, and a stumbling block to the rich. 

Thank you all again for your prayers and support!

Leann
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Saving the next generation...one disciple at a time.

Everybody knows that the college campus is a dangerous place for your faith. Everyone has heard the grim faith dropout statistics. The need for campus ministry has never been clearer than it is right now.  The question is: how do we reverse this spiritual drop out rate? How do we save this next generation of believers from checking out before they graduate? New evidence suggests that the best answer to this how question is really nothing new. In fact, the answer seems to be a very old one: Discipleship.

New evidence about the Millennial (or Mosaic) generation provided by The Barna Group points to some common myths regarding church dropouts. (Five Myths about Young Adult Church Dropouts) One of these myths relates to the college campus. The prevailing thought has been that the college experience itself is one of the key factors influencing dropout. However, evidence shows that many are disconnected from church before they ever reach college. And for those that aren’t disconnected already, they are not well prepared for the challenges of college. David Kinnaman reports, “The problem arises from the inadequacy of preparing young Christians for life beyond youth group.” He goes on to say, “only a small minority of young Christians has been taught to think about matters of faith, calling and culture. Fewer than one out of five have any idea how the Bible ought to inform their scholastic and professional interests.”

I do not believe that this evidence is simply pushing the blame back to the youth groups all across America. (However, I do believe there is a challenge to youth groups here.) Rather, I see this as a challenge to rethink how we disciple young adults while they are in college. It isn’t that the college campus is a kind of spiritual kryptonite. The problem is that young adults need help adjusting to life beyond their youth groups. Kinnaman suggests this very thing. He says, “most (young adults) lack adult mentors or meaningful friendships with older Christians who can guide them through the inevitable questions that arise during the course of their studies. In other words, the university setting does not usually cause the disconnect; it exposes the shallow-faith problem of many young disciples.”

The answer is discipleship. Older Christians meeting with younger Christians: studying scripture together, praying together and helping them to grow to meet the challenges of their environment. Sound familiar. It should. This is exactly how Jesus passed on the faith and raised up leaders. Jesus invested his best time and teaching into 12 disciples. He gave even more to Peter, James and John. Paul followed Jesus model in his ministry as well (most notably with Timothy). Discipleship is what the next generation needs. They don’t need Sunday school programs or sermons or choirs or church buildings. First and foremost, they need someone to walk with them and help them grow into their faith, modeling for them what it looks like to be a Christian in an unstable, constantly changing world. All the church marketing in the world cannot replace discipleship. No matter how great and hip your worship music is it cannot build faith like discipleship. The message here is clear. We need to stop trying to “reach” young adults with what we do at church and start sitting down with them at the local coffee shop to study the Bible.

Turns out Jesus’ way of raising up faith is best after all. I knew there was a reason why I love discipleship so much!