Relevant Relationship

First off, I want to start by saying I completely suck at blogging...just found that out. It has been almost a month of nothingness on my blog. So I apologize for that. A lot has been going on in real life though. Lots of running around downtown and hanging out with people...all on a gimp leg. (I sprained my ankle playing basketball @ the local university) It seems like that the longer that I am here, the faster the days fly by. I am not sure if it is because I am busy, or if I am just taking days for granted. Either way, I want to slow down, step back, and look at what God has done and what is left for him to do here. But as I have been reading through the first couple books of the New Testament, God has really been showing me things about Jesus that has really changed my relationship with him. Probably the foremost thought that God has pounded me with, is the whole concept of Jesus' life.

Its hard to imagine someone being fully God AND fully human. For me, I have always understood that he was fully God. How else could he have risen from the dead? Performed all those miracles? Prophesied his butt off? But the big thing God has really been showing me lately is how "fully human" Jesus really was. He got hungary (Matt 4:2) and thirsty (John 19:28). He loved to have fun (John 2:1-12). He experienced love and compassion (Matt 9:36). He cried because he was sad his friend died (John 11:35). He needed to sleep because he was tired (Matt 8:24). He had to choose to be obedient through the things that brought him suffering (Hebrews 5:8-10). Satan tried to break him down and tempted him with the greatest earthly stuff (Matt 4:1-11). All of these things are what we experience!

The fact that he went through these things makes our relationship with him even more relevant. We have no room to say "Well, he talked a good game...but he never really proved it. He doesnt know what this is actually like." He faced the same things we do. Yes, the times have changed and we have things now that they didnt back then...but that does not make what he did any less significant. We are tempted everyday. He knows that food, thirst, and rest are very important. He knows how much fun....fun really is!! He knows how much it hurts when you love someone and they dont love you back. He knows how hard it is to be obedient even when everything is going wrong. He processed those feelings and set the example for what we should do! Which means that if we have a hard time with any of these things, all we have to do is look at what he did. We have the answers to our questions at our fingertips!

But the more and more I look at Jesus' human characteristics the more I see his true motive for being crucified. I feel like the #1 reason is because he was being obedient to what God told him to do. There is no way that Jesus would have preferred that he be the sacrifice. Especially when he did nothing wrong. To be totally disconnected with his dad for no reason would be the last thing that he would want. Who wants their dad to turn their back on them? The only reason that he wanted to do it is because God wanted him to do it. And yet again, I cant imagine the "human" emotions that he went through while hanging on the cross. But God had everything in place, and had the perfect plan to overcome sin. All he needed was his perfect sacrifice to obey him.

Decisions Decisions

So when we were in Bongolo, we had to decide what type of ministry here we would plug into and do the rest of the summer. I was between Hope House, Medical clinic, Church Plant/work projects, or work in the SNI clinic. So, we went around the circle saying what we thought God was leading us to. I honestly didn't really know what he wanted me to do but I knew he would lead me either way. So we had to choose at least one and somehow I went last. But as people around the group kept answering, only 2 things were being said (Hope House and Medical Clinic). About 3/4 around the circle, everyone had pretty much said the same thing. And I couldn't help think to myself, what about the church planting? That takes soo much work, time, and lots of people. And no one is saying it! But I said I have NO CLUE as to what I would be doing (Tim didn't really dive into the description/I have Zero experience) But I really felt like God was telling me," since when do you not like doing something that you know nothing about? You have no idea what your doing and that is perfect cause now you are really going to have to rely on me" So I thought "oh, poo he's right (again)" and so I will be heading up building projects to put a roof on a church, making a concrete gate thingy around the Hope House, and totally redesigning a storage shed into a full blown guest house! I am the only one who decided to do this, but another intern is joining me since he picked other ministries to start other than those four. Also, Tim Kelly is a beast at stuff like this, so he is helping me through things. Again, I have no clue what I am doing, and have screwed up a couple times already. But I am kind of excited because this is an opportunity to really grow in certain areas. Woot Woot for cluelessness!

Bongolo

I just got back from 4 days at Bongolo Hospital. It has an insane history dating back to 1930 something and has grown a lot since then. Through those years they have had to overcome some crazy circumstances. For example, they tried to get a bridge to cross over the river when they founded the place. People would come for help, travel for days, only to end up on the other side of the river where they couldn't get help. Sometime traveling 4-6 days just to die 100 yds from the hospital. The strange thing about it, is that the bridge wasn't allowed to be put in until around the 90's! I can't imagine how many people got to that side of the river, only to find out that they missed the fairy (which was insane-o dangerous anyway) and have to WAIT for an emergency situation to be dealt with the next morning. But, since the bridge has been put in, the hospital has grown like crazy. In most African countries, you would have to travel to the capital city to pay and outrageous price for whatever you need done. But in Gabon, you have to go to the middle of no where, practically in the heart of the jungle, 12 hours away from the capital city to pay 1/16 of the price!! How great is that!?!? (Please feel free to compare and contrast haha)

Although this is all crazy awesome stuff. There are still needs. There always will be. But, prayer is the key to fulfilling needs. Because unless it is God's will then it is not going to happen no matter what we do. Continuously looking to God to fill the need instead of us "solving the problem." If he does it, it's so much easier and done 100% awesome. He Is Faithful.

So I leave you with one last story...

One of the nurses there, took us on a tour. When we went into the maternity section she told us the procedures they have to go through. She told us when a mother has a premature child, as soon as it comes out, that nurse has to RUN about 50 yds outside to another building where the incubators are. Because of certain things, the hospital was not able to put the incubators in the same section as where the babies were being born. Can you imagine if this was how it was done in America?

Snow

Today, in the car I was kinda struck by and idea. The idea was that people in Gabon will most likely never see or experience snow. Don't ask me why I thought about that, but it all of the sudden hit me. What would I do if I saw snow for the first time? I would go bonkers! Can you imagine all your life without ever seeing, touching, smelling, and hearing anything about snow? Not that snow is that great but I think we take simple things for granted sometimes. Snow is not even one of our possessions and we take it for granted.

So as I was thinking about all this, I was looking out the window, and started to get this big grin. Because I couldn't imagine introducing any one of the people here to something like that. Something that would just totally boggle their mind. Prior to that moment, that certain individual could not even think of something like that. All they would have known is rain and fog. But now that they have seen and experienced snow, their whole outlook on LIFE has changed. They would expect new possibilities for situations. Why couldn't snow come here? Could we bring some here? How could I use my new knowledge of snow to help people realize that there are somethings on this earth we just can't explain?

It's the same thing as introducing God. Everything changes! New things are possible! And their mind would be boggled! Only because most of them have never imagined anything like him.

The First Days

Well, I am finally here. It took 31 hours, crossing 8 time zones. At first it didn't hit me but then when I layed in bed I finally realized that I was in AFRICA. Tim and Merideth met us at the airport and we immediately got down to business roll starting the van! haha A couple of people in the group were not sure if we were going to have to work the first day or not. I wasn't sure but I was hoping we wouldn't. Sure enough, all we did was go to the beach for a while. SO CLUTCH! First day was just coping to the time change and stuff. Second day we had our orientation in the morning, then going around town to the ministries they have going on here. We met a lot of people, shook a bunch of hands, and butchered the word "bonjour" a ton!!

In orientation, we were talking about how some people go to certain places and expect their schedules to be full and to be exhausted by the end of the day. It is quite the contrary here. The Brokopp's try to connect us with certain people and not necessarily getting things done. Because, for one, doing a lot of work and stuff is impersonal with the people and the culture around you. Second, when you are thinking about getting stuff done and focusing on not being tired, you might miss things that you would not normally get to see/hear/taste. NOT that we are not wanting to get things done. WE WILL DO WORK. But, it is so easy sometimes to think that we are here to DO things and not here to BE here. We should be more focused on being instead of doing.

Being in like...

Today, I found out that I don't like God. Im in love with God, but I don't like him. Our worship leader explained it like this: You know how there are those people that you just look at and you want to like them. And you go out of your way just to hang out with this person just because you think that there is something cool about them that you can't explain. Once you actually start to hang out with this person then you realize that they are as cool as you thought and you talk about them all the time. For example, this pastor said that he genuinely likes his wife, but also loves her. He said that some people that are married love each other, but don't like each other. They drive each other crazy but the only thing that keeps them together is there love.

I realized that my relationship with Jesus was like this. I loved him and everything he does for me, but all the praying and reading and all the other stuff drove me crazy. It seemed like so much work and I was just flat out not interested.

But from now on, I want to like God more. I want to go out of my way to hang out with him, and even look forward to spending time with him. When I do this, I wouldn't be able to go a day without talking about him to other people. Because the time that I spend with him will be the time I am looking forward to and planning around. Not only the most important time, but my Favorite Time!

In the midst of all of this, the thing that blows me away is that he already likes me! That he would give up so much and go out of his way to hang out with me for just 5 minutes. Because he knows that I am one of those people that he will want to like. And when I give him that time, he thinks to himself," I knew he was as cool as I thought he was." The bottom line is that God and I just want to chill with each other more often!!

Pam Pam..thank you ma'am!

Today Drew, Bethany, and I arrived in San Diego at 10:30 am, which would be 7:30 am back home. We are jet-lagged and have taken 2 naps already. The original plan was to go out on the town and look at stuff, but we are so tired that we cant even muster up enough energy to go farther than 700 ft to get something to eat. Which brings me to my first story. When we arrived at our hotel, our plan was to nap, then eat, then nap some more. So when we woke up from our first nap, I looked up some local places to eat. I found this place right across the street called Pam Pam's that also had 2 reviews. Curiosity got the better of me and I had to read one of them. The one I clicked on was written by this one guy who thought he was Julia Childs or Emeril Lagasse. It was literally 6-7 paragraphs, double spaced, with a works cited. (There actually wasn't a works cited but I was looking for one) He went on and on about the service, good prices, and wonderful atmosphere. He also explained that the reason that he was even there in the first place was because his kids fell asleep in the car. Random! Anywho, so based of this marvelous review we had to go. To make a long story shorter, the food didn't quite meet up to "the professinal's" standards. But lunch/dinner/linner was filling, but then again, if you hadn't eaten in 16 straight hours you would eat just about anything too.

By the way, if this isn't that funny/doesn't make sense...see sentences 1-3