Journey to Sam

I love to struggle. I love difficulty. I love to suffer. I am happier when things are hard. I wish God would teach me some things the hard way. I like pain.

No sane person says things like this. No one without complicated issues asks for suffering or seeks out struggle. By nature we want things to be simple, easy, pleasant. We just don’t like pain. Does that make us weak or worldly? No. It makes us humans. It makes us like 6 billion other people. But as we experience life most of us can say that struggle comes, whether we invite it or not. Pain itself does not define us or make us into anything. It is what we do with it. It’s how we respond in those seasons that determines who will come out on the other side.

Most of you who were around iGo this summer know that Charity and I traveled to Kazakhstan to adopt our son, Sam, this spring. We left in early March and returned on May 31st after three months out of the country. It was not at all what we expected it to be, and we missed a lot of things here in the process. We missed the team leader/JSI retreat and College Base Camp along with lots of other things in other areas of life.

We arrived in the middle of a pitch black Kazakh night to a little man, O, who greeted us at the airport in Russian. He spoke Russian and Kazakh, but very little English. He took care of us for those first few days in country. He got us settled in our little hotel room 30 minutes outside of town, got us to the baby house to meet a bunch of little people, and helped us get moving in our process.

Meeting Sam was an overwhelming experience as we were introduced to eight children in one day and asked to choose our child by the next day. We saw so many things in the children that we were not ready for, and the whole situation was more than we were prepared to handle. Walking through this emotional process also brought so many things to the surface in our own lives: thoughts and attitudes that were ugly, petty, and so selfish. Not only were we scrambling through the “child matching” process, we were being confronted with some very deep-seated issues of our own that had to be dealt with.

charity-samWe were eventually matched with Sam, though, and began the next couple months of waiting, paperwork, interviews, court dates, more waiting, travel documents, and more waiting. We basically visited Sam at the baby house twice a day and waited for other people who we did not know or understand to do things that we did not know or understand. We just went where they said to go, did what they said to do, and went back and forth from blank stares to confused grimaces.

April 29th was Sam’s “gotcha” day, which means the day we took him home from the baby house. We still lived in Kazakhstan for another month, but Sam lived that month with us, eating shashlik, hanging out around the Linen statue, and going grocery shopping every other day.

Looking back on it all, the best way to sum up our experience and our lives as a result of it comes from Proverbs 20:21: “An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed in the end.”

What we see spelled out in scripture and have learned from experience is that when you labor and wait and struggle for things, they are so incredibly valuable. Our journey to Sam and with him since is something we will never forget, and the images and smells and people still seem so vivid, but we have learned so much more about faith and about the author of faith through this than we could ever have read or heard.

claytons-couch-reading

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Aaron Clayton, November 19th 2009 | Posted in AC, Insightful

Prayer

By Jami Lee Gainey

Romans 12:12 reads, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

Many of you have heard Kent teach from Psalm 139 concerning God’s sovereignty. I agree with Kent that even though I don’t fully understand the sovereignty of God, He works when people are faithful in calling out to him – he works on those prayers, and they are powerful.

You iGosians know how we stress during training time that prayer is not “just something we do when there’s nothing else to do”; it’s what we should be doing first and foremost. It’s the groundbreaking work to any type of ministry we do. Before seeds can be sown, the ground needs to be plowed and broken up with prayer.

I saw this truth come to fruit in my life in a new, joyous way this past summer. This past June, my father was diagnosed with cancer and told he had less than six months to live.

Soon after learning of Daddy’s diagnosis, my husband, Nick, and I went to Silver Cliff with our youth group, where we prayed together each morning concerning Daddy. We prayed, as Jeremiah 31:12 says, that others would see us as “radiant over the goodness of the Lord” – and be drawn to God because of that. We prayed specifically for my aunt and uncle. I learned a week later that this was a prayer that Daddy and Momma were also praying.

Approximately two weeks after his diagnosis, my father spoke at his home church on a Wednesday night. Instead of talking about himself and his present suffering, Daddy challenged his church family to be intentional about praying for and witnessing to friends and family members who were not living as Christ would have them live (obviously my aunt and uncle were on our minds). He told them – “Don’t wait until you have six months left before you feel the urgency…start now. Persevere, and don’t ever give up praying.”

On the morning of August 10, 2009, Daddy went to heaven. As they carried his body out of the house, my Aunt stepped outside with my grandmother, and told her these words: “I’ve found Jesus.” Two weeks later, my Aunt and Uncle came in front of my parents’ church – my uncle to declare a new commitment he was making to Christ, and my aunt to share her new decision as Christ being the Lord of her life. God answered a prayer that some had been praying for over 35 years.

As Beth Moore taught in her last simulcast, beneath the desires of our heart, is the heart of our desires; and, only when destiny or God’s glory is at stake, will God make us patiently wait instead of answering our prayers concerning the desires of our heart. The desire of my heart was that God would heal my father, and allow him to live for much longer than he did. However, God knew that His Glory was at stake – and that His Glory was truly the heart of my desires. So he answered according to that, and now I know I will not only see my Daddy in heaven, but also my aunt and uncle, and who knows how many others because of testimonies of the Hope that God provides for us.

So as Romans 12:12 says, Rejoice in the hope we have, be patient during tribulation – when you are waiting for God to answer the desires of your heart – and be constant in prayer, knowing that God will answer understanding the heart of our desires, and in accordance with what brings Him the most glory.

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Jami Gainey, November 10th 2009 | Posted in Insightful, Jami

Thoughts from Sally Waller

Sally served as a Jimmy (office intern) with us this past summer and below is a story about iGo she wrote for one of her classes this semester.

There is exactly one Sonic, one Subway, and one little hole-in-the-wall Mexican food restaurant (named La Flor) in Lavon, Texas- a town that serves more as a spillway for Rockwall residents than anything else. There is also exactly one shopping center in Lavon, Texas, where the Dollar General is the premiere fixture. Behind this Dollar General and next to a smelly patch of land that connects to the local Post Office, there is a small and rather inconsequential office building. 695 Main Street Suite 400: iGo Global headquarters.

It is not the land of Harry Potter where everyday objects lend themselves to strange, magical transfigurations. The inside of the building is exactly like the outside: normal. The office space contains the same desks and computers found in any office across America. The copier and printer perform the same tasks any copier and printer would perform. Business transactions are the same: money comes in and out; and the post arrives everyday at 4 o’clock.

Upon closer examination, however, there are little oddities that make this office space unique. Who would have guessed, for example, that the control for the air conditioner seems unable to attach itself to the wall because of a football that very often goes haywire through the halls when the stress of the job becomes too much? Or that the six inches of Scotch tape covering the light switch in Kent Jones’s office is there because he works better under lamp light? (Naturally). There are these little things that make this little office its own.

Physicality aside, the office is also distinctively marked by its people- even though, at first glance, they are in uniform with their building. The people that inhabit the building on a daily basis are normal. They are not powerful businessmen in expensive suits that drive powerful sports cars. They are normal dads and wives and friends in all respect but one: they are dreamers who believe in a faith that is radically encompassing.

iGo Global is an organization that was founded nine years ago on the dream of two men, who had a vision to engage high school students in the ancient and ongoing work of God across the world. Driven by the dream to “Make Him Famous,” the organization exists to provide a vehicle for students to learn to live a missional lifestyle that first and foremost brings glory to God. And that is the difference, which is what makes this ordinary building with ordinary walls and floors and ceilings the container of something extraordinary. This little building has had its identity altered. It has been changed because its ears have heard prayers of pleading for a generation to take their place in advancing the Kingdom, prayers of tried hope when finances are uncertain, and prayers of thanksgiving when Jehovah Jireh proves (as He always does in some form).

To date, over 2,000 students have been mobilized, and all of the planning and the organizing and the business transactions have happened out of the tiny office in Lavon. While in so many ways the typical white, sheet-rocked walls and generic brown carpet of this office are exactly that- typical- they have seen things that are in direct contrast to the morals and standards of our culture. The office has seen men and women and high school students who are driven by a bottom line. But not a monetary bottom line that asks, “How much profit can I make from this?” Rather, a bottom line that states: we are created for His glory alone.

The truth is that out of this inconsequential office space, in a simple shopping center, in an unknown town, lives are being changed and the face of the world is being altered. Out of 695 Main Street Suite 400 there is a collective voice rising and saying, “Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts” (Isaiah 26:8).

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Emily Martin, November 2nd 2009 | Posted in Insightful

Banquet Story

n34416386_34893891_44929071Jordan E served in the middle east for six months this year. She shared the following story at the banquet this past Saturday:

I remember the day we met. Suhair came to our house to teach Renae and me our first language lesson. She was very shy and had very limited English, but I knew from that first day that we would grow to become close friends. With each lesson, she began to open up more and more. We began spending Saturdays together, sometimes cooking at the house, sometimes going out to eat, or going to the mall. The more time we spent together, the closer we became and the more her English improved, which obviously made communication easier.

One day during lessons we were going along like normal and talking about our names. When I told her that my middle name was Elizabeth, she immediately said, “Oh, I read this somewhere.” After asking her where she read it, she responded by saying the Arabic word for the Bible – the “Injeel.”

That was the first day we found out that she had been in the word. Apparently, she had been reading it at her uncle’s house. She would say things like “I love the stories of Isa” (the Arabic name for Jesus). This was obviously encouraging, so we began asking her often if she was reading the Injeel and what her favorite stories were. We had no idea how much time she was spending in the word, when one day she informed us that normally she would read the Injeel for three hours at a time. It was obvious Father had been at work in her.

Suhair has an illness considered very “shameful” in her culture, which usually results in her being very stressed out, worried, and depressed. Suhair informed us one day that it was through reading the Word, and listening to Christian music on an iPod I gave her, that she had peace. By this point, we had become very close and Suhair was sharing everything with us about her sickness…things that she wouldn’t tell anyone else. She would repeatedly tell us how we were her closest friends and how much she loved us. There was no doubt in our minds that Father had placed us three together, even if all we did was encourage her and provide a shoulder for her to cry on.

Renae and I explained to Suhair multiple times about who Isa was and why He came to earth; but, she never seemed able to bring herself to believe it. In her mind, she was Muslim…and that could never change. We shared with Suhair how she could be a Muslim and follow the teachings of Isa, how it’s a matter of heart rather than label. She was always open to talking about it, but was hesitant to surrender to it.
On April 30 she came over to our house to do our language instead of going to the office. We all seemed a little unfocused that day, and kept going off on random topics. Suhair picked up my book “Crazy Love” and started reading from a random page.

She opened her mouth and read the first sentence that her eyes landed on: “And this is how we know true love, that Jesus Christ died for us.” To hear those words come out of her mouth - even if she didn’t know exactly what it meant - was amazing. We read a little more out of the book and then asked her what her favorite story was from the Injeel. She told us it was the story where Isa healed the women who touched his cloak. After asking her if she thought Isa could heal her today, she responded “Yes, but I don’t know how.” After encouraging her to ask him through prayer, she said she didn’t know how to pray. Rene explained to her some of things she says when she is praying for Suhair…things like peace, rest, understanding, and (of course) health. Suhair’s face lit up. It was as if she realized that those were the same exact things she had been experiencing in her life.

We asked her if she believed everything in the Injeel and she replied, “Yes I believe – no, I know, that everything in the Injeel is true.” Although we were pretty sure we had a new sister, before we could respond, Suhair proceeded to tell, “Some people believe Isa die go sky…these are Muslims. I believe Isa die, 3 days wake up, go sky, sit right of God. Before come Jordan and Rene no read Injeel, after come Jordan and Rene, give me Injeel.” She then leaned over to me and said, “Thanks by the way,” and continued with her thought. “I read Injeel and know that what it says is true.”

We couldn’t believe what we had just heard. Our hearts were filled with joy and were in complete awe of Father. We asked her what she thought about the Quran and she said “I am Muslim but I believe the Injeel, if I say anything bad about the Quran my god will be mad at me.” So we explained to her that as long as she followed Isa and believed everything he said then God would not be angry with her. Finally, Suhair concluded, “Okay, Injeel is true, Quran is false. My name is Muslim, but my heart believes Injeel. ”

Suhair began to tell us stories about people she knew who had been killed or persecuted because they were raised Muslim and eventually became followers of Isa. It was obvious Suhair was afraid to tell anyone because she thought she would be killed. Renae and I tried to address some of her fears, and we encouraged her to tell her Uncle Achmed, who is a believer with a vision for his family. Suhair expressed how she was even afraid to tell him, predicting he might be angry for some reason. She finally agreed to tell him, but said she would wait for the right time.

Father is truly amazing. We have a new sister because of Him and Him alone. There is nothing that we could have done to convince her that the Injeel was true. Father totally used his word to change her heart. There is a clear difference in her. Before - she was always tired, worried, and depressed. Now - she has a glow about her. Now, for the first time, she looks really happy. Before, she would say, “My god gave me a bad life.” Now, she says, “I have real life.”

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Emily Martin, October 16th 2009 | Posted in Banquet 2009, Insightful

The Gospel According to Noah

I, along with other iGo staff members, have been learning a lot lately about finding Jesus in the Old Testament. Special thanks to author Tim Keller for pointing us in the right direction. I taught this lesson a few weeks ago at church using Noah.

The 6th chapter of Genesis tells the story of God resolving to destroy the Earth with a flood because the earth was “corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11). However, God chooses by His mercy to save Noah and his family from the destruction.

The flood is obviously an act of judgement and a demonstration of holy wrath from a righteous God who “will by no means clear the guilty” (Numbers 14:18b). Noah was spared from God’s wrath why? Because he “was a Righteous man, blameless in his generation” (Gen. 6:9).

Noah of course was not free from sin, since “all have sinned…” (Rom. 3:23).  However, there seemed to have been a very real, very practical holiness in which Noah walked. And because of that, he found favor in God’s eyes, and was spared. So in this story, the righteous one (Noah) is saved while the unrighteous (everyone else) were destroyed by the flood of God’s wrath for their sin.

Peter found a connection between the waters of the flood and the waters of baptism. “God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Baptism which corresponds to this, now saves you not as removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 3:20-21).

So what is the connection between the flood and baptism? I think we find it a few verses up in 1 Pet. 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” When the flood came upon Noah, the unrighteous were destroyed and the righteous one was saved. However, when Jesus came, the unrighteous (us) were saved and the Righteous One (Jesus) suffered under the flood of God’s wrath.

This is Amazing! Jesus is the new and better Noah who, though Righteous, suffered under the flood of God’s wrath and spared the unrighteous.

Not only that, but after suffering under God’s wrath, Jesus rose. That is why we get baptized. Jesus, through suffering under the flood of God’s wrath and being resurrected, made a way for us to be cleansed and have a new life. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4).

The flood waters served two purposes: Wrath (The flood was God’s wrath carried out against the unrighteous) and Cleansing (The flood was God’s way of cleansing the earth). Similarly, the baptismal waters represent the wrath of God (which Jesus suffered under on our behalf) and cleansing (our old life was washed clean because of Jesus’ death, and through His resurrection, we have new life.)

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Ky Martin, September 22nd 2009 | Posted in Insightful, Ky

Living Missionally?

Summer has ended and now you are back home and back into your daily routine. For some of you, this might feel like a relief, but for some of you it doesn’t feel right at all. You miss the pace of ministry you experienced this summer. You miss the smells, the food, the people, and especially your like-minded team. Regardless of how you feel, your mission hasn’t changed. God hasn’t changed. His work has not been put on hold. He is still building His church and He is still gathering people from the “four winds” TODAY. So, how do you stay in tune with the Spirit and on mission even though your surroundings have changed and you may “feel” different?

Paul gave a young preacher dude named Timothy some great advice and caution in 1 Timothy 4:16. You are probably familiar with verse 12 “Let no one despise you for your youth…” but I think the most potent advice from Paul comes in verse 16…”Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

“Keep a close watch on yourself…”

If you “feel” like your summer trip has somehow magically transported you to a new level of Christianity that few others can obtain, then you are in for a serious crash. A crash that will hurt, confuse and discourage BOTH you AND those around you. Paul wouldn’t have told Timothy to keep a close watch on himself if he didn’t think that Timothy had the potential to be HIS OWN WORST ENEMY!  Throughout Scripture we see this phrase, “Guard your heart” or “watch yourself”. You can’t trust your feelings or your emotions. You CAN’T trust YOU. And the Bible tells us that the only way to guard your heart is with Scripture and with the people of God – the church.

Let others hold you accountable, whether they are one of your team members or someone at your church. Ask other Godly voices in your life questions like:  “Do you think I am walking humbly with God?” (Micah 6:8),  “Am I thinking and seeking the kingdom before my own wants and desires?” (Matt. 6:33),  “Do I seek justice for those around me that are oppressed?” (James 1:27),  “Do you ever hear Scripture out of my mouth and do I seem to have an appetite for the Word and for others to know truth?” (1 Timothy 4:13). If you are finding it difficult to stay on mission or if you are having trouble re-engaging your campus…WATCH YOURSELF.

“…and on the teaching.”

We threw a lot of teaching at you this summer. You were given a survival guide and some of you even took some notes - which is good because half of you were too hungry, angry and frustrated to hear much of the teaching!  All of our teaching during Base Camp was drawn from the Word. Do you remember ANY of it?  Time for a refresher course on what you learned?  Look back over the verses in your survival guide. Read them and study them again and again. If you don’t “keep a close watch” on what you’ve been taught, you will forget it and drift from it, guaranteed. Just because you sat through the teaching times without falling asleep (well, at least most of you), doesn’t mean that it’s a part of your life.

“… you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Keeping a close watch on yourself and what you’ve been taught, not only grows your faith in God and His Gospel, but it impacts those around you. Be careful to watch yourself. Be careful to remember what you’ve learned. And don’t let this summer’s experiences end with YOU. Let it pour out onto others and be ready to humbly explain what you’ve learned and what you’ve seen this summer. Be intentional and live missionally.

It’s always such an encouragement for us to hear from students, year after year, how the Core Values finally dawn on you – sometimes not till November or March of the next year!  Keep us updated on how the Word and your experience this summer have changed you at home. And for those of you that lost your survival guide, just call us and we’ll get you a new one…a replacement is only $49.95, you can make the checks payable to Brad Cardwell.

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Brad Cardwell, September 16th 2009 | Posted in Brad, Insightful

Welcome to Cucumbers & Tomatoes!

Has it happened yet? Now that you have been back in school for a couple weeks it is bound to happen. Maybe even when you least expect it. It might take place when you are in chemistry lab wondering why your teacher assigned you these yahoos as lab partners. Or it could kick in during trigonometry as you daydream about the good old days when letters never found their way into math problems. It could even sneak up on you during English as you ponder why Shakespeare didn’t know how to write in English very well. What language did he speak anyway?

And then it hits you. A longing for all things iGosia rushes over you like people trying to get into a Tokyo train at rush hour. You find yourself wishing that as you exit class into the hallway, 25 screaming iGosians would be waiting to convince you that you need a purple bus ticket. At breakfast you wish your brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts could have a side of cucumbers. And actually solving a calculus problem reminds you constantly of the Bottom Line. Face it. You miss iGosia. You miss the market, customs, food, and the teaching. We know. We’ve just been waiting for you to admit it.

So this blog is for you…the true iGosians. It is a place for you to connect with the mysterious and wonderful land of iGosia. It is a place for you to be remember the teachings, the core values, the ridiculousness, and to hear from our staff. Check it out. Check it often. Tell your iGosian friends. The place to be on the world wide web is here. Cucumbers and Tomatoes.

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Lance Shumake, September 10th 2009 | Posted in Insightful, Shu
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