In my last blog post, I shared a bit about my dad and where he is on his journey today.  It just so happens that yesterday my brother on his web site, ttp.tv, just posted an interview of my dad telling how this journey began. It’s the first in a series, but gives you a picture how a heartfelt cry of wanting to know if God is real opened up a better road for him to travel on than the one he’d been on.  

Though he expresses his story in terminology I wouldn’t use today because it can so easily be misinterpreted, this will give you a great picture of my dad and the legacy from which my life springs.  I often tell people who are as yet unsure that God exists or that he is a loving Father in the way I’d describe him, to ask God himself.  “If you’re real, would you show me who you really are?”  It’s a prayer he answers.  Not necessarily overnight and not necessarily by the expectations we’d want to lay out in front of him.  But in the way that will most grant us access to him and to his heart, he will make himself known.  

Life in Jesus is a revelation, not a bunch of rules and rituals to follow.  

I visited my dad this weekend.  This is not an easy time as my mom is in a nursing home after suffering what we assume were a series of strokes that has robbed her of mobility and affected her capacity to process life going on around her.  I have always respected my dad as a rock in this world—his decades-long passion for God, his care for others, his honesty and integrity even at personal cost, and now the way he gives up his life every day to make my mom’s a bit more pleasant in the twilight of hers.  I would have to tell you more history than is appropriate to help you understand the depth of what my dad is going through in this the sixty-seventh year of their marriage, but trust me I am undone by the sweet and tender way he attends to her every need when there is little coming back to reward him for doing so. 

One morning he told Sara and me that God had spoken to him as he woke up and confirmed to him that he was in control of every bit of this process, that he was drawing both of them into a greater season of dependency.  “As painful as this is, I wouldn’t trade it away for the depth of connection it is giving me with God,” he told us choking up.  God also assured him that he was at work in Mom as well, deeply below the surface shielding her in the pain and drawing her closer as well even though it isn’t so visible on the surface.  It reminded me of what we wrote about Missy in THE SHACK, that God was in the truck with Missy, even as the abductor sped away.  Our fear for others (and for ourselves) always removes God from the situation as we assume people at the extremes are all alone in their suffering and pain.  I love being reminded that they are not. 

Every day he goes down to the nursing home to spend the day with my mom in the middle of circumstances he no longer controls.  Every night he returns home to take care of all the details of their lives and prepare for the next.  He takes her food every day because it isn’t so good where she is.  It is a lonelier life now for sure, and their isn’t much happiness in the circumstances he bears.  But my dad was on the front in an infantry division in World War II in the northern reaches of France and thinks this is still far easier than that was.  So he soldiers on every day determined to make each day as sweet as possible for his bride at this stage of her journey. 

So now he is leaning into God’s reality each day more than he ever has.  He has no idea how long this stretch of the journey is so he takes one day at a time and simply does what is before him.  And I treasure every moment I get with both of them, Mom in the narrowing space of life, and Dad in his deeper touch with God.  It’s easy to understand why we all hope for “the good life,” and think of it as circumstantial ease that allows us to enjoy life on our own resources.  It seems that only in times of extremity are we reminded that we weren’t created for this broken age and that we cannot endure it alone.  Our hearts long for another reality, and then we discover again it is right here with us. 

Jesus said as much.  “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.”  (Matthew 5:3, the Message)  The more disconnected we are from the kingdoms of this world the more drawn we are into his.  In a world that lots for amusement and easy it is so easy so easy for us to complain when our temporal joy is disrupted with brokenness and challenge.  I love the legacy my dad is giving to my brothers, our children, and our grandchildren.  This world and its “joys” are ever-fleeting, but a live lived in love—the Father’s extravagant love and the love we pass on to others who may be able to do little for us in return—draws us into the space that is far more real and far more enduring. 

The trust that goes deeply into God when life deals you challenge and pain, is a rare and precious treasure.  I have a front row seat for one example of it right now.  My inbox if full of many others who are being swallowed up by the pain of this age. Trust me, there is a place deeply in him that can set a heart at rest even in the midst of great extremity.  I pray you find it too.  

I’m going to lump a number of things into this update, since so much is going on.  The TellitCon event scheduled for June 20-21 in Visalia, has been postponed due to a lack of enrollment for that date.  Bummer!  I was excited about some of the things on my heart to share with young storytellers, but I figure there is a better time and place ahead.  We’ll see. Perhaps a podcast if nowhere else, eh?  

Also, I’ve gotten some new pictures from Kenya of the walls going up at the school.  Wow do these dear folks work fast!  

Check out the scaffolding.  Pretty sure that wouldn’t work here in the States.  I hope they are all being careful.  The work on these buildings is all being done by volunteers who have come up from the Kitale area to help.  Such amazing generosity!  

Along with the pictures came this report:  “Greetings in Jesus name, sorry for not being in touch for sometime it is due to running their and here inclusive to make sure that we put things in order, some of the license I was so needed to sign it. For every process, I thank God that everything is ok in Northern parts project, the drilling water company are ready to start the work on Tuesday, they will be travelling on Saturday, well equipped and ready to drill water. Expects updates report from entire of the week. Concerning the dispensary and the school, the work is going on well done and the roofing will start also next week. Our volunteers have done wonderful work and some of them are going to rest for some days while the new others will take on for the completion.  We appreciate your involvement in every steps.  Thomas will be updating in every steps including pictures from the ground.  I am now familiar with the people of Northern Parts.

Finally here are some podcast updates.  This week and next John Lynch (BO’S CAFE, ON MY WORST DAY) is my guest on The God Journey. He shares quite openly from his journey and his passion to help others find a home in the Father’s love and affection.  

Finally, for the past two weeks I have been a guest on the Dustin Daniels Show talking aboout HE LOVES ME.  You can find those interviews here:

Show 72: What Really Happened on the Cross?
Show 71: He Loves Me – Learning to Live in the Father’s Affection

All for now.  Life is good.  Fullness amidst challenges.  What could be better?  Fullness without challenges, I guess, but I seem to suspect that the fullness I get to live in today has a lot to do with the challenges God has met me in in times past.  A blessed weekend to you all. 

I subscribe to the Daily Dig hosted by the Daily Plough and get a short tidbit every morning from some amazing saints whose seasoned lives point down the road to a more vibrant, transforming faith.  This morning they posted this quote from a twenty-three year old, written in the 1500s from a dungeon where he had been imprisoned for his faith:

Love is like fire – When it is first kindled in a man, small troubles and temptations smother and hinder it; but when it really burns, having kindled the man’s eagerness for God, the more temptations and tribulations meet it, the more it flares, until it overcomes and consumes all injustice and wickedness.  (Love is Like Fire by Peter Riedemann)

This image could apply to a lot of conversations I had over the weekend in Phoenix.  Living in the Father’s love is a growing reality and as we’re growing to engage that love, it will help if we have an honest sense of how strong that love is in us at any particular time.  In the early days it can feel fragile as it succumbs easily to religious condemnation, gets challenged by events in our lives we don’t understand, or can even be swallowed up by our own distractions and indulgences.  Like a small fire in the wind, it may be difficult to sustain and it may be true that we’ll have to avoid some places and people where love in us is challenged or thwarted. 

But as we grow in the reality of a Father’s affection we discover that his love in us is the strongest force in the universe like a raging wildfire where the wind only makes it stronger.  Now it consumes the same influences that it sought to avoid so that we can be in those same places, or hang out with the same people.  No longer feeling challenged by their brokenness or judgment, we are free to love them as love finds its way toward justice, truth, and joy.   I used to think love was such a weak way to live in the world, and discovered that there is nothing stronger and nothing richer.  

So let love grow in you.  If you need to be careful for a season of those places where it is challenged, do so. But watch as that love begins to grow how free you’ll be in those settings that used to challenge you the most.  

What a powerful view of love, and a powerful observation by a twenty-three year old!  How I wish that were the predominant  heritage of the Anabaptist tradition from which Peter Riedemann came rather than their rigid theology.  I suspect most of our traditions had rich beginnings in people who came to discover and live in the depths of Father’s affection, only to have subsequent generations miss that reality and give more effort to systemitizing their beliefs than propogating his love.   Sad isn’t it?  Since it is only the ferocity of God’s love that changes a world, not all our doctrine or rituals.  

The intervention in North Pokot is well underway.  A couple of months ago our friends in Kenya discovered 120,000 tribal people who were being wiped out by a prolonged drought. Their economy has collapsed. They had no water and their unsanitary living conditions had allowed disease and death to run riot through their families.  No government services or NGOs have dared to go into this area because the need is overwhelming and the costs to transport supplies into that region too costly. 
Yet teams of volunteers from IGEM have gone there to build schoolrooms so the people can be educated, a dispensary for needed medications to be available to the sick, and to drill three wells to put water within a short walking distance of the people.  (If you want to read the details of their plight please see my earlier blog.)  Their compassion for their fellow countrymen amazes me and I’m blessed that through the contributions of many of you we were able to empower them to make a difference in so many lives.  Four schoolrooms are being constructed so their children, who have never had an education, can begin.  Uniforms have been donated and teachers have volunteered to go into that region to teach the students. A dispensary is rising that can provide needed drugs to the sick and infirm. They also hope eventually to get a van that will be able to take the medications out to people who are too sick to travel.  A pharmacist from Australia has volunteered to help in set up the dispensary and train the workers.

A geologist has identified three sites for wells and they are drilling now in hopes of putting a well within a short walking distance from the population.  One man in Texas donated $135,000 for all of that to happen as I reported earlier.  The pictures below document the process they are making.   But there have been cost overruns with a truck breaking down and other expenses of getting building materials into the region.  They will also need some ongoing funds to pay teachers and provide food for the schools, so the need continues.  

Your prayers are most welcome for the people in need and the volunteers who are in Pokot right now.  If you can and want to help financially you can direct it through Lifestream as contributions are tax-deductible in the US.  As always, every dollar you send goes to the need in Kenya.  We do not (nor do they) take out any administrative or money transfer fees.  If you would like to be part of this to support these brothers and sisters and see the gospel grow in this part of Africa, please see our Sharing With the World page at Lifestream. You can either donate with a credit card there, or you can mail a check to Lifestream Ministries • 1560 Newbury Rd Ste 1  •  Newbury Park, CA 91320. Or if you prefer, we can take your donation over the phone at (805) 498-7774.

The bricks arrive

The digging is handwork by volunteers

The footings are almost ready for the dispensary

The new foundation is complete

The geologist finds the best place to dig the wells

The drill truck arrives

The children were excited to get the new uniforms donated by Kenyans in Kitale

These pictures were taken more than a week ago.  I will post more when the team returns, hopefully with good news about the drills finding water and school starting in a place where they’ve had no schools before.  The people from IGEM in Kitale, whom we have been working with for more than seven years now, are making a profound difference in the life of this remote region and sharing the gospel to hungry hearts who have never heard about Jesus.  Awesome!  

I don’t know if I’ve ever booked a trip this late, but it’s been one I’ve been in discussions with for some time.  Well, it is finally happening the weekend of May 29-June 2.  There are a lot of personal engagements during this trip that I’m excited about and have been trying to schedule for some time.  

Over the weekend we’ll have two events that are open to anyone who would like to join us and meet some other folks who frequent the Lifestream or GodJourney websites:

• On Saturday we’re going to hold a couple of conversations about Living Loved, one at 2:30 pm and one at 6:30 pm.  In between we’ll be having a BBQ dinner and fellowship time.  
• On Sunday, I’m just going to hang out at home for a day of more personal converations between 10 am and 4 pm. Drop by any time if you want to connect. For those there around noon lunch will be provided.  

These will be at a home and possibly a park across the street if we need it in Gilbert, AZ.   You’ll need to RSVP to come so they can be prepared for you all.  My hosts are  Greg and Kim and you can get all the details from them.  You’re more than welcome at any or all of these proceedings!    

Our offices will be closed for the next week as Sara and I take a long-planned week away to celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary.  So there may be some delay in answering emails or filling orders during that time. We apologize for any inconvenience that might cause.  

We are really looking forward to this time away.  The last two years have brought continuing transformation to our love for each other and spending some time celebrating that will be fun.  I have so treasured the gift God gave me in Sara and could not conceive of navigating the past 39 years without her love, wisdom, integrity, and partnership in the life of Jesus. In every way she makes my life more—more joyful, more gracious, more engaging, more beautiful, more focused on Jesus, more settled in what’s real, more complete with wisdom and wonder.   I’m so glad that we arrive at this season of our lives in growing excitement in knowing each other and still learning what it means to love another person the way God wants them loved.  Marriage is a great place to learn that, because you cannot pretend to be what you are not when you’re together all the time.  And when you truly find that the one who knows you best loves you most, you no longer have to be guarded.  

When two young college kids fell in love over forty years ago neither of us could possibly imagine where life would have taken us and where our spiritual journeys would have gone.  Every anniversary is a reminder of how much further we’ve come on this journey and what grace God has given us to keep tracking together.  

I got an email the other day that expressed this joy of recognizing progress in her life by reading one of my books:  

Wayne, I just read the Jake book again for the 3rd time and realized how far I’ve come on this journey, without even realizing it. The 1st time I read it as someone who felt stuck in the institution, not knowing there is life outside of it. 2nd time was more of a lonely time in our lives, thinking our we doing it right? Maybe we were wrong for leaving. Doubting ourselves every now and then. I read it for the 3rd time this past week and realized we are now on the other side of that, confident in this path that God has taken us on. And realizing it’s only going to get better, even with all the ups and downs of life. Thanks so much for writing and sharing what God puts in your heart! Our lives are changed because of it!

Isn’t that a great journey.  First she recognizes the pain of disillusionment and feeling stuck not knowing how to find life beyond it.  Then she read it during a time of transition where you’ve left what’s empty but comfortable unsure of what lies ahead. Finally she read it when her and her husband are finding life in the new creation, confident of God’s work in them.  The journey to gratefully dislillusioned needs all those points.  Waking up to the emptiness of negotiating life our own way or with religious systems is painful.  Breaking out of that and watching people you love mistrust your heart for God only adds to it.  But then finally you come into a wider space and realise that it has alll been worthwhile.   Having some touchstones that recur in our life enough to help us measure our progress are incredibly encouraging.   

I have that with Sara, over the past 39 years.  I also have it with Scripture.  Because I have read it constantly for the whole of my journey I ca

n see progress in my own life when I see how differently I perceive Scripture than how it was originally taught to me.  Passages that used to confuse make more sense inside the new creation of his love, and Scriptures that used to destroy my trust in God now expand it.  It has been a joy to learn to read it as a story of God’s redemption and not as a rule book for self-effort.  (If you want to know more about that, don’t write me, check out The Jesus Lens.  It’s free!)

I hope you, too, have some familar places that help you see what God is doing in your heart.  It helps to see progress and know that he is moving in us even if that seems slow and the circumstances that surround us are a mess.  And if it feels like you’re not making progress, don’t be discouraged, just lean into him.  You’re probably trying to do too much on your own, which doesn’t help.  Ask him to show you how to find his grace and his pace in your heart. 

Since I’ve come to see the church as an expanding set of relationships that share the life and love of Jesus, Sara and I have put all our eggs into the relational basket.  Instead of building things, we’ve connected with people and watched as he continues to knit together friends and friends of friends throughout the world.  I’ve simply trusted that all God wants to do in my life will grow out of the simple relationships he has given me with others.  I’m really amazed how far-reaching God’s work through relationships can go.  This has been a big affirmation of what God can do out of those relationships.  

I’ve been told so many times that if we don’t have large mission organizations, we wouldn’t be able to respond to the needs of the world.  But I’ve tried to get many to help us in the last couple of weeks with provision and wells in that region and have discovered that most are not looking for opportunities to help.  They are already overrun with them.  What they want is money to do projects they already want to do.  I also have so many emails from peope who’ve worked in the field or on staff with those organizations only to see how much money gets sucked up in fundraising and administration and how much they are hamstrung from really helping people by rules and demands from the home office.  

Who knew that eight years ago when we got involved with people in Kenya, that they would eventually come across a forgotten group of 120,000 tribesman in the northern reaches of Kenya that would need to be rescued from a severe drought?  And who knew that I knew enough people who would give over $62,000.00 in two weeks to bring food, water, and medicine to those people?  And who knew that our Kenyan brothers and sisters would be moved with compassion for these people and would want to return to build classrooms, a pharmacy, and dig some wells to help them build a more hopeful future for them and their children?  And who knew that at the time they connected, these people in Pokot would be fully disillusioned with praying and sacrificing to their ancestors who have not helped them from beyond the grave and would be open to finding a God who loves them? And who knew that I knew a man in Texas who would have the ability and the compassion to give $135,000.00 on short notice to fund those classrooms, pharmacy, and wells?  

I guess God did!

By the time I was able to relay the news to our friend in Kenya, they had already gone to bed and did not know of this gift last night.  This morning I received this email from Michael after they awakened.  

My brother since we left North Pokot, our intercessors team, all over IGEM territory, East and Central Africa, they have been praying, fasting and interceding towards our brothers and sisters in this region and even, the pastors who got the bicycles are among the team who are interceding for the Lord’s visitation to this region, since the Lord created the world, they have never seen, the miracles as the Lord did through medication, food, water and other things. So we appreciate God, through Lifestream for opening the heart to the oppressed community.  Many white missionaries, there are thousand in Kenya, but none who cares to reach the place like this.  This is amazing God and since I visit myself, I was really touched and even because of this region, even I forgotten to present Forkland school the slum where I have ministered the whole of my life but in order to present the need of brothers and sisters in this region.

So my Brother what is happening, is that the Lord has answered the prayers of our brothers and sisters in this region, because it will bring a shame to the god of Mountain Kadam and Mudeo, from now they will believe the God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac and it will remain the live testimony and God be Glorified forever. The time I read this email, I was shocked….for what the Lord is doing, this is God’s provision, and the Holy Spirit convict me to read Isaiah 42:7-8-12, Jeremiah 29:10-11-12-13. These are the verses which I believe the Lord will be glorified to every creature.

Concerning yesterday, since I had to prepare the volunteers to go, you know what I shared with them?   That everybody needs to go to prayer and search the answer from God and provision and in the morning before I checked the Mail one volunteer rang to me and said, “My Brother Michael, the Lord has confirmed that he has provided all necessary need for this people, and not very long God will give us a surprise answer.”  After I got the message , I prayed and check the Mail, and I jumped out and immediately Thomas called that his wife has delivered a child in the night.  We came together in the office to lift the name of Jesus higher.  This is God’s doing, and Thomas called her daughter Sarah, for this kind of great love.

The geologist will be travelling from Nairobi, along with his team and the machine for detecting water underground, I thank God that, he will confirm. And the process needs to start soon as possible you will be informed.  About the school and dispensary, this work need to be started very quickly, I have again called the engineer this evening to tell them what the Lord has done and he has already communicated with the volunteer to arrange the trip next week as well as planning to purchase materials, ready for work, soon as the money indicate, so Brother the work will be well and every step you will be informed by writing and picture, for any step I would be consulting you along with Thomas for the better team work.   Send our greetings and appreciation to the brother who gave this support.

My heart is overwhelmed at this unfolding story and how God has brought so many things together for just “such a time as this.”  This is why my heart wants to keep encouraging people inside a relationship of affection with this Father, to connect with others in love, and participate together in the ways he works in the world.  I can’t wait to see how this story continues to unfold in days to come. I’ll keep you posted.  

I don’t ever want to stop being amazed. Some people think that faith sets our expectations with such certainty that we should not be surprised when God does something incredible.  I’m not personally partial to that tack.  I like praying and following my heart as it looks through a darkened glass trying to sort out what’s God’s purpose and Wayne’s preferences.  And I enjoy being constantly amazed with wonder and visceral gratefulness every time he makes himself known through moments large and small.  This day has pushed me over the edge with such awe and thankfulness that I am completely undone!

I recorded a podcast this morning (for tomorrow) and during part of it I update people on what our friends in Kenya hoped to do for the people in West Pokot that have been dying because of drought and unsanitary conditions. We helped finance a team to take relief water and food to them last month for $62,000.   But they came back with a vision on their heart to build four classrooms and a dispensary (pharmacy) there to help those dear people.  The cost of doing so would be $41,000.00.  They also wanted to drill three wells, with solar-powered pumps to provide water for them at a cost of $93,000.   I thought the $62,000 was a big deal, I had no idea how God would find us $135,000 for these projects.  

Two days ago I returned a phone call to someone in Texas who had called while I was on the east coast.  He asked me what I needed for Kenya and I told him about the classrooms and dispensary for which I already had a budget.  He said he would send me the money for that.  He asked what else we needed and I told him about the wells they wanted to drill, but I did not yet have a plan of how to do that or the costs involved.  He said let me know when I did.  Today he called me to tell me he and his wife wanted to pay for all the wells and would be sending me $93,000.00  

Before I was even able to make that need known, God had already supplied for it!  As I type this I am exploding with gratefulness at God’s provision for the people in West Pokot. The amount was overwhelming and my heart hurt for those suffering.  This gift will change their lives forever, saving many from certain death and carving out a hopeful future for them.  This whole process has opened them to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus.  If you haven’t read about it, check out the blog here.  

Generosity is a conduit for the kingdom, whether it means being able to give $135,000 to provide education, needed drugs, or water to 120,000 forgotten people in the bush of Kenya, or simply buying a $5.00 meal for a homeless person and offering them your friendship or volunteering to watch a distressed mother’s children while she takes a break.  Freely you have received, freely give.  The size is never what matters, only a heart that will put someone else’s need above my own preferences.