“In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley.  His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless.  He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself.  Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter.”

Those words, found on the cover of Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, caught my attention.  And, after reading the first full chapter of the book, I was hooked.  I found myself wondering what would cause this kid to walk away from a promising future.  From a family.  From everything, and walk into an abandoned wilderness that would ultimately end up claiming his life.

One letter penned from McCandless to a friend he had made on his journey sheds light into why he made this decision.  McCandless encourages his friend to adopt a similar lifestyle to himself when he writes, “I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been to hesitant to attempt.  So many people live with unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventourous spirit within a man than a secure future.  The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure.  The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.  If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter syle of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy.  But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.”

To be clear after reading the whole book I think there were some flaws to McCandless logic and approach to life, but he was on to something….dare I say, something Biblical.

I am not certain of where McCandless fell in his religious convictions.  Honestly, his adventure to the Alaskan wilderness was probably more a flight from family problems, and disgust with the world, than it was anything else.  Yet, something about this young man’s words seem to ring true with how Christians should approach their world.

“You really should make a radical change in your lifestyle.” Many Christians never change their lifestyle.  After coming to Christ they do the same things, hang out with the same people, engage in the same sins.  The only thing that might change is their location on a Sunday morning.  But Christ hasn’t called us to leave things the same, He has called us to follow Him.  His words to his followers were to leave their pillow, their family, and even their dead behind to bury their own dead.

“Begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been to hesitant to attempt.” Christianity isn’t just about stopping.  It is not all about not smoking, drinking, sleeping around…it is also about doing.  Doing things you would have never dreamed of doing before.  Its about going and serving on a missions trip in the jungles of Peru, or the city of Bucharest.  It’s about not hoarding for yourself, but giving away to meet the physical and spiritual needs of people.  It’s about sharing your time to work with kids on a Sunday rather than watching the football game.  Following Christ is about doing things.   Yet many never really follow Christ, they only sit on a pew in His church.

“So many people live with unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventourous spirit within a man than a secure future.” Christianity is not about safety.  It is not about getting what you want, or living out the American Dream.  It is about laying your life down for the cause of Christ, and risking it all for Him.  It is about surrender.  It is about sacrifice.

“If you want to get more out of life…you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter syle of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy.  But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.” When you are living an authentic Christian life is will first appear crazy to you, and to those around you.  It will seem crazy to give 10%+ your income to your church.  It will seem crazy to give up vacation time to go serve on a missions trip.  It will seem nuts to your neighbors to get up early on a Sunday to go to church.  It will seem ludicrous to give up a weekend on the boat, to spend time serving the needy in the community.  It will seem insane to sell the boat to meet the needs of those in the community.  At first it will seem crazy, but in the end you will see the beauty of living fully for Christ.

What does your life look like?  Is it a safe and secure Christian life?  Or, are you risking everything for the cause of Christ?  Like McCandless discovered, life isn’t meant to be lived safely.  To live life to the full you have to risk it for Him.

Take the time to listen to this sermon.  Go to the site, download it, upload it to your iPod, go for a walk and listen to it.  Or, just take the time to listen to it on your computer right now.

Photo courtesy of ©flickr.com/photos/sunnybrook100/3978965616/

This is one of the best sermons on missions you’ll hear.  Trust me.

Here is the link… http://bit.ly/dcpkPc

I am planning to drive to Panama City.  No, not Panama City, Florida…Panama City, Panama.

Sometime around February of 2011 me and 3 other guys are gong to leave Lynnfield, MA and drive all the way to Mexico….then through Mexico, Guatamala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and then into Panama.

I am not doing this just for a joy ride, but actually to raise awareness and money for a pretty awesome cause.  You can find out more here http://www.4guysinacar.org

I have spotted some self-centeredness  in myself.  It has been on the news for weeks.  Somewhere between 600,000 and 800,000 people have been displaced, now living in tents or worse.  UN Special Envoy’s have been sent to help.  They are unsure what the death toll is.  Yet, even though there has been flooding for over 5 weeks in Pakistan, I haven’t paid much attention.  Sure, I watched a short news clip once, read an article on CNN, and even said a cursory prayer or two, but in all honesty I haven’t really paid attention to the situation.  It hasn’t affected me.

This past weekend something else caught my attention.  Hurricane Earl.  I was in Missouri, but my house was in Massachusetts, which for several days meant it was in the hurricane’s path.  I sat fixated for hours on end in front of the TV, and in front of the computer, watching the news.  Sometimes I watched the weather on TV, while I checked the weather on my computer at the same time.  I wanted all the up-to-date information.  I needed to know whether I was going to make it home before the hurricane, whether I needed to have someone go board up the windows to my house.  I needed information so that I could take care of my family, my property and my life.

In the end Hurricane Earl ended up doing nothing next to nothing where I live.  I don’t want to belittle what other people went through, because I do know that there were several people who were affected by the hurricane, but I wasn’t one of them.  I wasn’t even one of the few hundred people in the state who lost power, or saw some minor flooding, or even had my travel plans affected.   In fact, I did make it back to Mass before the hurricane, and when it came through that night I slept right through it.

In looking at my response to these two events, I can’t help but think how self-centered I’ve been.  When it didn’t affect me personally, I barely paid attention.  When it did concern me I could hardly think about anything else.

I’m fairly sure I didn’t live out what Christ said was the second greatest commandment, to “Love my neighbor as myself.”

I wonder if I am the only one?

I love my home care group.  We have some amazing times praying together, learning together and laughing together.  Although it is nice to change up the routine a bit, a part of me hates when we break from meeting during the summer.  So, I always look forward to starting back up again in September.

This fall my group is going to be working through a new series called “Life’s Toughest Questions.”  We are going to look at some of the difficult questions life posses such as:  Does God care?  Is there a hell?  Is Jesus the only way?  Is faith nonsense?  These are difficult questions, and quite often we don’t get satisfactory answers to them.  In this next series we are going to grapple with these challenging and meaningful topics.

You’re welcome to join us.  We meet on Thursday nights @ 9 Parker Drive in North Reading.  The series kicks off on September 16th @ 7:00 pm.  For more info or directions shoot me an email.

I had the opporunity to do something on my recent missions trip to Greece that I have never done on a missions trip before, baptize some of the team members.  While we were touring Philippi the team stopped at Lydia’s Pool, where I was able to baptize/re-baptize Dave Ruff and Justin Evans.  If your not familiar with Lydia’s story you can find it in Acts chapter 16.  Lydia after hearing the Apostle Paul speak, opened her heart and became the first convert in Europe and was subsequently baptized.

Here is the video of Dave and Justin being baptized.  If you are having trouble viewing the video click here.

Lydia’s Pool Baptism from Jamie Booth on Vimeo.

I just returned from a 10 day missions trip to Thessaloniki, Greece.  12 of us from Calvary went to work with Tony and Jamie Sebastian (www.becominggreek.com) and their ministry there in the city.  Although we were thrown a few curve balls, we had an amazing trip.  In fact, the curve balls opened up the door for us to do a lot more kinds ministry than we were expecting.

In addition to doing some work on the coffee shop Tony and Jamie are opening within the next few months, we also worked with the A21 Campaign (www.TheA21Campaign.org).  A21 works to fight human trafficking…the second largest organized crime in the world.  The ladies on our team had the opporunity to spend a fun filled day hanging out with several girls from the A21 shelter who had been rescued out of human trafficking.  The entire team spent one morning passing out free water and literature in different parts of the city to raise awareness of A21’s presence.

Our team also checked out a young adult’s group called Connect. There Pastor Brigham was able to share some insights on ministering to young adults.  Pastor Brigham was also able to speak at a local church on Sunday morning as well.

The whole team was a part of reaching out to a local Gypsy camp.  In the morning we did a VBS style service, and in the evening we hosted a mini-Carnival for the kids.  In fact, we did the carnival twice, the second time on a different night for another group of kids back in the city.

On top of all this we did a lot more, including some street evangelism.  I think the entire team found it much easier than they expected to simply walk up to a complete stranger and start a conversation.  Two team members ended up having an hour long conversation with someone they met that night!

All of this to say we had an amazing week! I was certainly glad to catch up with Tony and Jamie, who are two good friends.  To meet their boys, Brady and Mac.   To also meet Andrea Britton (http://andrea-britton.com/), who serves as a missionary associate to Tony and Jamie and coordinates the study abroad program (http://engage-greece.com/).  And to meet Rachel Lojovich (http://www.rachellojovich.blogspot.com/) intern, and our faithful guide from Athens to Thessaloniki.

I am sure there will be more pictures and thoughts on the trip to come, so stay tuned.

In less than 1 month I, along with 11 others from Calvary, will be heading to Thessaloniki, Greece. The 12 of us will be working with two very good missionary friends of mine Tony and Jamie Sebastian (pictured above with their two boys).    Tony and Jamie have some pretty amazing goals for Greece. They will be starting a study abroad program, founding a coffee shop, assisting and developing the local church in Greece,  and much more.

While our team is in Greece we will be assisting the Sebastian’s with the coffee shop (some light construction), working with the A21 Campaign (which is an organization that fights human trafikking), serving the local church in several ways, and more.

Before we leave we have a few tasks to check off the to-do list including: purchasing team supplies, packing, purchasing train tickets from Athens to Thessaloniki (it was cheaper to fly into Athens and take the train, than to fly straight through), and a few other items.

One of the bigger logistical challenges we still face is that we still have a few people who are struggling to raise their last bit of financial support to be able to go on the trip.  If you would be interested in supporting one of these individuals, you can give simply by going to http://bit.ly/cAf7KJ and donating.  It’s that simple.

If you are unable to support our team financially, that doesn’t mean we don’t need you.  We would still love to have you partner with us in prayer.  Please pray for our time of preperation, and for our team as we travel and minister between August 13th and August 22nd.

I’m looking forward to August and being able to go and bless some missionaries…it is one of my favorite parts of my job.

If you are interested in checking out Tony and Jamie’s website, or the A21 Campaign site, you can find them here….

http://www.becominggreek.com
http://www.thea21campaign.org

Super proud of two of the youth from our church, as they are making huge strides towards achieving their Gold Medal of Achievements.  The Gold Medal of Achievement is the Royal Rangers (our Sunday night ministry to boys) equivalent to an Eagle Scout.    Most recently these two, Josh Fodera and Timmy Parsons, completed their service projects.

Josh led a community wide donation drive to collect items for our church’s food pantry, which we call our Blessing Room.  Josh went  to local businesses, organizations, and people to raise support for purchasing and collecting food, that the church is now able to turn around and give to those in need in our community.  Single moms and dads, the unemployed and underemployed,  and people who are just going through a tough time, can all come and take the food that is now available.  Thanks to Josh, and the effort of those who supported him, there will be people who didn’t have anything to eat, that will now have a whole meal to sit down to.

Timmy, who is a diabetic, did something I am pretty sure no other Ranger has done before.  Inspired by his own life circumstances, Timmy worked with several companies and donors to create 50 diabetic kits.  These kits are going to be given to My Brother’s Table in Lynn, MA, which serves the homeless.   Facing diabetes by itself is challenge, but imagine being homeless and having to face it without proper medical care.  Because of Timmy, 50 people will not have to know what that that is like.

Again, I am super proud of these boys!  Looking forward to them receiving their Gold Medal of Achievements this Summer!