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When faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live.

E.M. Bounds

Sometimes the most impacting stuff professors say are on rabbit trails. Here are a few nuggets from Dr. May’s Issues of Missiology class last week.

. . . on praying for others:

Prayer is me getting to invest in your life. Prayer is me standing beside you in the spiritual realm to help you fight the battles going on in your life.

. . . on repentance:

Repentance is a life of continual course correction towards God.

. . . on faith:

Faith is trusting in his blood for forgiveness and his Spirit for empowerment.

. . . Prayer can easily become formal and functional like an out-of date phone, when it’s meant to be enjoyable, intuitive, surprising and expansive. Prayer isn’t just a way of getting things done and making stuff happen (a healing here, a heavenly memo there and a parking space at Wal-Mart on a Saturday afternoon). Prayer is the heart and soul of any dynamic, colourful, intuitive, intelligent, fun interaction with Jesus Christ . . .

I had the privilege of leading a prayer room on “Missions Day” at MABTS a few weeks back. For obvious reasons, my room was focussed on Peru. Check out the video I put together for it. For more info on the SAM Region, go here.

Peru from Ryan Bush on Vimeo.

Wow. I forget. I forget what life is all about way too often. This morning we got a letter from Anthony. He lives in Kenya and is 10 years old. We help make sure he gets enough to eat and a chance to go to school through Compassion International.

My favorite part reads:

During the holiday I visited my grandmother and helped her fetch firewood.

I’ve got a binder crammed full of letters from Anthony and our other little girl, Betzabeth.

We have their pictures up in our apartment, so Sophia sees them all the time. She’ll say their names and point to them. So I’ll pick her up and she’ll examine them more closely. Then, I’ll say “Let’s pray for them. Will you pray with me?”. She’ll fold her hands and close her eyes.

Jesus, please give Anthony and his family enough food for today. Protect them from Aids. Help them escape poverty. And, Jesus, you’re welcome to use us to do it. Amen.

I pursue you, Jesus, so that I may be caught by you.
I press in so that I may know your heart.
I stay close so that I may be like you.
Loving Lord, grant me:
purity of heart,
humility of soul,
integrity of life,
charity for all.

Richard Foster, Prayers from the Heart

Jesus,

I study your life and see how profoundly you lived out justice. My vested interests are challenged! I am rebuked in my rugged individualism and selfish hoarding. I see that I am invited to be the kind of person in whom justice and compassion flow freely. Let it be so.

- adapted from Richard Foster’s Streams of Living Water.

I feel like a jumbled mass of motives and wants and intentions all pulling me in a different direction. My life feels messy. I guess that’s probably just how life is. Just like a big bowl of spaghetti.

Sometimes I think following God equals being in solitude, saying prayers, and thinking only of ‘heavenly things‘. But, that’s not it at all. Not by a long shot. God is so much more organic and creative and messy than that. Far from the monastery I am. Instead of solitude I live in a house full of voices and feelings and emotions. Instead of ‘heavenly things’ I am obliged to think about dirty diapers, hurting teenagers, and hot dogs on the grill. Instead of long, deep-voiced prayers my conversation with God usually amounts too “Help me God!”.

My life is messy. Yet, through all these things I am with God and he is with me. He is speaking to me. He is teaching me. He is shaping me. All of that happens by means of the things he has me doing everyday . . . not in spite of them.

Toni Blackwell is asking that this message get to as many as folks as possible:

I JUST RECEIVED A CALL FROM DAVE HUGHEY REGARDING AUDRA HINSON. AUDRA IS ONE OF THE MAIN PEOPLE SCHEDULED TO LEAVE ON THE PERU MISSION TRIP TOMORROW. HOWEVER, SHE IS VERY ILL AND WILL BE GOING TO THE DOCTOR AT 1:40 P.M. TODAY. DAVE SAID TO PLEASE GET EVERYONE WE POSSIBLY CAN TO PRAY FOR HER NOW!!! PRAY THAT THE DOCTORS WILL FIND THE PROBLEM AND THAT SHE CAN GET OVER THIS QUICKLY. THEY DESPERATELY NEED HER ON THE TRIP.PLEASE PASS THE WORD TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

THANK YOU,

Doyle Moore

Sophia and I made it to Crossett on Thursday after an uneventful 3 hour road trip.

Truthfully, I’ve never experienced the death of a close family member. The closest would be my granny, who died at age 95 while we were in Peru.

But, no one that I’ve ever been around on a fairly regular basis and that I was really close to has died. Neither have I been involved in a situation like that. I never really knew Nemi very well, but this family in Crossett is as close as any and for the first time I am seeing on a personal level what such a devastating loss can do to a family.

The Jordan family is absolutely heartbroken. And being here with them has caused my heart to ache for them. They are broken and confused and angry and all the things that go along with a losing someone like this.

But, the amazing thing is that they are turning to Jesus with their pain and sadness and anger. God truly is bringing good from this horrible event. It is making me love him more just to get to witness their response. Imagine that . . . through Nemi’s death I am being drawn closer to Jesus.

And that is really just the tip of the iceberg. People are asking for forgiveness from one another, relationships are being healed, hearts are turning back to Jesus, and hearts are yielding to Jesus for the very first time.

“Jesus, please bring good out of this situation. May you be glorified in this situation” is a prayer that you might pray when something like this happens (I did.) but not really have the slightest idea of how it could come to pass . . . . “the situation is too horrible, no good can come of this” is what the practical side says.

But, 5 days after Nemi died that is exactly what is happening.