Rice Field

Our friend Peter’s front door is right outside Naomi’s bedroom window. Naomi likes to yell his name out her window and press her face up against the screen. Peter laughs at his view of her from his porch that I never get to see. The other day he documented her faces through the screen.

I share the photos with you here.

Naomi and Daddy, walking toward the waves

Holding on to Daddy's hand when the current is strong!

On Tuesday nights, about 15 of us gather as a community in Golden Hill to study about topic related to “missional life.” For the next 8 weeks we’re going through a workbook called, “The Tangible Kingdom,” written by a group of CRM folks.

The book begins by describing God’s call and purpose for all of us who follow Jesus as a call to be “sent.” The term “missional” basically means living as “sent ones.” A paragraph stood out to me that I wanted to share with you here. I hope it inspires you and encourages you as you live out the Kingdom of God in tangible ways in your own neighborhoods.

“Sometimes GOING will require a 30-second email to encourage a friend, a five minute walk across the street to help a neighbor, or the willingness to give up a quiet evening with your spouse in exchange for inviting some friends over who don’t know Christ. Other times, GOING may require a week-long commitment, a large chunk of money, or even a lifelong commitment to leave your city or country to serve God.
Whatever the case, the word GO will cost you something. It will require that you creatively look for the opportunities that God provides you to leave what’s natural and self-serving in order to extend love to others.”

Recently we had the opportunity to help deveop a group of young people as they prepared to go on a ministry trip in Arizona. This group was putting on a 10 day English learning camp for Bhutanese Refugees.

Derek led the group in worship through music and scripture reflections for their 5 day training. He also helped the group form as a band to teach songs to those they were gong to serve.

Christiana did a 3 hour teaching on “Culture and Worldview,” helping the team learn what it means to be cultural listeners and ultimately trust God to communicate beyond their barriers.

Naomi enjoyed being a part of the cultural training.

Derek and the team.