Tent Making

I have long been intrigued by the possibility of sustainable ministries - that is a ministry that can run without any outside donation. It started with me having a bit of an uneasy feeling about the whole idea of having to raise support to go to places like Nicaragua. I just felt a little bit funny about asking my friends for money to go to one of my favorite places in the world. Many people, especially non-Christians, will rally hard against the idea of monetary donations for one person to spend all that money on expensive plane tickets flying to remote places in the world. Others see it as a biblical mandate - to support those that have been called to go. In the world of ministry there seems to be a line dividing two types of people. On one side there is the Missionary and on the other side is the Supporter. One person makes money and the other person receives donations to do the work of God.

So, with my 1.5 semesters of seminary under my belt I have tried to look at this issue theologically and see what the Bible has to say. The most clarifying verses that I have found have been some from the missionary Paul.

Read: 1 Corinthians 9

I'm not going to do a thorough exegesis because it probably wouldn't be that good, and if anyone one is reading this it would probably be beneficial to look into it yourself. These are the conclusions I have come to through this, and other, reading.

In order to effectively and graciously minister to the body of Christ and spread the gospel:

• All followers of Christ are called to live missional lifestyles.
  
• Some are called into full time ministry that requires the financial support of the Church.
• Some are called to be tent-makers, supporting a life of ministry by their own vocation.

What I get really excited about, not because it is the only way of ministry, but because it seems to make a lot of sense in our current culture, is the idea of business as mission. Also called Mission Based Entrepreneurship, it takes a corporate (not as in corporation, but as in the opposite of individual) look at being a tent-maker. Mission Based Entrepreneurship takes many tent-makers and puts them in a secular for-profit business that has a gospel driven mission. It creates solid products and brings in money from the secular world to support Christ's mission of transforming lives and giving hope to a lost world.

I recently visited a Church that is driving this movement, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for it.


Click here to check out their website and watch a video explanation.

I miss this.

I never thought I was a huge fan of little kids until going to Nicaragua. Now I realize though, that there may be no other thing in my life that is more relaxing, encouraging, and uplifting than hanging out with some of these little kids. Their joy for life flows out in ways that I can not even express. This little clip is of one of my favorites - Yaya - saying thank you to her sponsor.

Homework

It is such a bummer when I have to spend lots of time doing homework here in Nicaragua. I just spent the past three days straight trying to decide if I was an Arminian or a Calvinist. Theology is cool, but sometimes it just makes your head hurt. Especially when it is a debate like this one is. I want to be a Calvinist because I like all of their dead people, and I like a lot of living authors who are strong Calvinists. I just can't disagree with Piper, he is the man! Maybe someone can help me make sense of unconditional election, but at this point I just can't wrap my head around it. So I guess I'm an Arminian, or maybe a 3 point Calvinist. Anyways I'm really tired of trying to figure out if a triangle is yellow or blue so I'm going to take a little rest from it.

This is what it looks like when I am sitting down at the computer trying to do work or add a new blog.



If you want a little sample of some of the work I am doing for school and feel like taking some time to read a long paper you can check out a paper I wrote that stemmed from a Nicaragua porch time: Secret of the Poor


Tim

Nicaraguan Disneyland

The answer to the question: What exactly is Hertylandia?



Off to Hertylandia for the day! Adios!

Rainy Afternoon

Nicaraguan Rain


The rhythm of the pouring rain

in waves its force makes power known.

A power which comes hither by

a sovereign King upon His throne.


To quench his land of mighty thirst,

a well dug deep in to hard ground

yields baths and drinks and healthy crops.

The rain sings praise; a glorious sound.

Placticando

Like everyone else, I have officially become a bad blogger. I guess my only excuse is that time is precious and I haven't had much to spend blogging.

OrphaNetwork just got some of these sweet little video cameras so this is my first attempt at a video. It's not great, but it gives a little insight into what some of our downtime around here looks like. Living at an orphanage is actually a really cool experience. By no means is it living with a normal family, but it is an opportunity to have many brothers and sisters and a staff of people who love you and want to take care of you.

These are some awesome kids, and hopefully as time goes on I can get some more of their stories on here for you all to see.

"He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 18: 2-4

Bluefields!

pictures from Cole Bingham

Scary Stuff

I don't even know where to begin. In the past week this is the first minute I have had a breath to even think about posting on my blog. The first trip I lead was just plain crazy. 100 high school students, paired up with 1oo kids from around managua just about every day. There is no way of describing it so I will just give you some fun moments.

Going to a foreign country means stepping out of your comfort zone, and every once in a while it is a little bit scary. Here are some of my scariest moments in Nica thus far rated from 1-10 with 10 being the scariest.

Scary Rating 3 - For me to get internet I have to walk from one place on the orphanage farm to the office about 1/4 of a mile away. It is pitch dark and it feels like you are in a jungle in the middle of nowhere. Walking by yourself gets a scary rating of 3.

Scary Rating 6 - I lead us into one of the most epic Onet fails ever. Nicaragua always wins. We tried to take a trip to hike a volcano with a caravan of 4 school busses and 200 kids. When we got near the volcano we had a guide to tell us where to go, and well our guide was awful. We had to take a detour and before you know it we are pretty much stuck in a jungle. The trees were so thick in the road that the busses couldn't pass. So what did we do? We bought a machete off of a farmer for two bucks and went to work. Fast forward half an hour of machete cutting and we have barely gone any farther when a group of locals walk towards us. There were about 8 of them. All had machetes, one had a chainsaw, and at least two others had machine guns slung over their shoulders. They walk straight past me without saying a word and start cutting down trees in front of us. But for those few minutes while they walked toward me and by me without saying a word, I had visions of bad movies and I was freaking out.

Scary Rating 4 - Lightning striking less than a football field away.

Scary Rating 3 - Home alone in a giant cement house without any real doors or walls in a city I have only been in for a day. Power is out, its storming, and its night time. Lots of people hollering in the streets, no idea when my host will return.

Scary Rating 2 - Flying on the smallest commercial plane I've ever ridden on. Pastor Ed told me I came in on the biggest airplane the airport uses. Can't wait for the ride home...

I feel like those are rated pretty low because with this country I'm sure I can do better. More serious updates to come. Love and miss you all.

Nicaragua Always Wins

To anyone who has been on an OrphaNetwork trip you are familiar with the phrase:

Nicaragua always wins.

It is a simple mantra that we live by here, and it means exactly what it says. Somehow, with all the planning and praying we do, Nicaragua always seems to win. This country doesn't like to play by rules, and our trips here are constantly affected by different twists of fate.

This week Nicaragua has already been winning, to the point of not even letting half of the group into the country. As soon as we got to the airport a huge storm started raging outside, and the television screen detailing arrivals and departures told us only a piece of the story. As the groups plane was about to land, the storm picked up and started tossing the plane around. Right as they were coming down for a landing they were mere feet from the runway and the pilot made a (possibly miraculous, but slightly annoying to us) decision to push the plane forward with all of its might and jet back into the air and to San Salvador for the night.

So 65 of our 100 kids had to wait an extra half a day to get to Nicaragua, but we are all here now and ready for a great week. Nicaragua- you always win, but we still love you.

Adios estados unidos!

I leave in about 7 hours for a country that is actually only 2200 miles away from Denver. Yet for some reason no one knows where Nicaragua is, or has any idea that it is the 2nd poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Right now though I am pretty sad to be leaving the richest country in the western hemisphere. I'm not sad to leave it because of all of the things I have here, although I am sure that I will covet the good air conditioning of this country all summer, rather I am sad to leave because once again it means change.

I hope that one of the characteristics of heaven is some sort of constancy. I'm pretty sure that it will be. God is unchanging, his love is unchanging and unending, so a perfect relationship with Him in heaven must have some constancy. I don't want boring. I just want to be able to continue to enjoy the blessings that he gives without having to deal with time and change.

I'll see you all on the other side. -tim

O-HI-O

I grew up in a massive suburban sprawl. Pretty cut green yards around house after house after house.



Huge neighborhoods and enough strip malls to make even a non-hippy, non-whole foods shopper go crazy. I just came from my cool Denver lifestyle back to this suburbia land where I spent 18 years and now am about to head off to the the second poorest country in the western hemisphere. So I started thinking about how many things are already determined in your life by the circumstances that you are born into. (The Calvinistic vs Armenian ways of looking at this statement in general would differ, but that's a conversation for another day.)

Anyways, the main idea that I was pondering today as I was driving was how birth circumstance affects a person's world view and their picture of God. Everywhere I go people have such a naturally different mindset in each place - and for each person it is completely normal, natural, and is likely the mindset that they believe everyone else should have. To many of the poor in Nicaragua God is a liberator, one to set the oppressed free. But growing up in suburbia a person might never think of God like that. One part of me just wants to dive into theology and do word studies and lexical analysis and figure out exactly who scripture says God is so that I can tell all of the wrong people. And while I was at it I would probably figure out exactly how to live the right life and set all the wrong people straight on that too.

But instead I think I am going to try and embrace differences, learn from people who grew up differently than me, and figure out what they have to teach me.

right click picture to listen in a new window!

Music is one of the best expressions of different points of view. Today I learned from a good ole boy who grew up in farm country middle of nowhere Ohio. The simple thesis statement in the song People are Crazy by Billy Currington actually resonates with me quite well. I don't think I am anything like this guy - but we would probably kick it if we ever met, and this song is catchy!

Feet washing and see you laters.

Tonight was my last night in Denver before heading to Cincinnati for a bit and then off to Nicaragua. Leaving this place is really hard. I've been here for 7 months now, and the community that I have been apart of here has been the biggest blessing I ever could have asked for in this season of my life. I am so happy that tonight all that I had to do was say, "see you later." One part of this community that I have been blessed with is my fellowship group from church. Less than a year a go not a single person knew another person in our group that now meets every week. Tonight my good buddy Stu read an excerpt of a book that had impacted him, and that he wanted to share with our group. He read about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples the eve before he was crucified. The night that he had to say his 'see you later's.'

¹It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.^a]">² The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. ³Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. - John 13:1-5

As soon as Stu started reading this my mind went straight to Nicaragua. Almost exactly a year ago I was on the edge of a volcanic lake with 60 high school kids who I barely knew and a middle age Nicaraguan bus driver who happened to be one of my best friends there. And the whole group of us were in tears, having just spent an hour in a slow procession of washing each others feet.

I don't cry too often, but that night I let loose. I think it was because it was one of those moments where I truly felt the beauty of what Jesus did for me. Jesus was so upside down about everything he did. The King of all, our Lord God, bore the ultimate humiliation through death on a cross. The night before, he told all of his disciples - people who would betray him and run from him - how much he loved them. And he told them by becoming a servant of all servants, the lowest of the low, and washing the dirt off of their feet. What a beautiful picture. What a beautiful truth.

In all matters I pray I can learn from the example of Christ. Tonight I pray for all of my friends in Denver, whom I love. You have served me and loved me since I arrived here; you have been the body of Christ in this present Kingdom of God. You have loved a stranger in an upside down way. I can't wait to see you again soon.

Casa Bernabe

Here is a slightly cheesy video that does a great job explaining OrphaNetwork and the Casa Bernabe orphanage.

Note: My boy Jonathon has an appearance at 1:22; he is one of the main reasons I keep going back to Nicaragua.

Lost fans: Does this kind of remind you of a Darma Initiative video?

Click picture to load video.

What's in a name?

The name 'The Upside Down Secret' probably deserves a bit of explaining.

The upside down secret is:

A. A secret; so I can't tell you too much about it.

B. The idea that when we search for things in life we often find out that they are quite backwards from what we first thought, or on a vertical axis, upside down.

C. A picture of the Kingdom of God, already here but not yet realized. More to come on this in later posts.

Think about Jesus' discussion with his disciples in Mark 9:33-37 about whom is the greatest. All the disciples are trying to figure this one out; they truly want to be great in Jesus' eyes and they just want to figure out how to go about doing that. But how does Jesus respond? He says,

"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." Mark 9:35

This is one of my favorite examples of Jesus flipping the script. Think about things upside down he says, and you might start to understand. One of my favorite tweed wearing pastors puts it like this:

"Jesus recognizes in his disciples' quest for greatness a good thing that has become ugly and distorted by sin. And instead of destroying the whole distorted thing, he describes a pathway on which the distorted and ugly pursuit of greatness will be radically transformed into something beautiful. So Jesus doesn't condemn the quest for greatness. He radically transforms it. Go ahead and pursue it, he says. But the path is down, not up."



I'm starting to love the blog world already. More to come about Nicaragua, the theological basis for Piper wearing clothes from Savers and Driscoll staying trendy, and other things secret and upside down.

Bienvenidos

I have never been much of a writer. It is probably because I am a little bit judgmental, and I don't want to have to think that my own writing sucks; I would rather not write in the first place.

So this blog is a test of sacrifice. I have come to realize that there is a possibility that God may may be teaching me lessons that would be beneficial to others, even through the vessel of my sub-par life speculations. Today my sacrifice means actually trying to write in order to share with others and together learn more about God and this life He has given us.

The main reason I am starting this blog is to stay in conversation with all of those who have faithfully listened to my ramblings about Nicaragua and who are supporting me with prayers and encouragement. It is a blessing to be surrounded by all of you and I hope this blog will keep us together while I am away.