I shared these today at Calvary, but I thought I would post them here for posterity sake.  In reflecting on my time in Peru this summer, there are several lessons I learned and several aspects of the Peruvian culture that I fell in love with.  Here are 10 of them…

10. The Schedule. Every day we awoke to a rooster crow, usually around 3:00 am, which a touch earlier than what I am used to getting up, but I loved rolling out of my hammock around 4:00 or 5:00 and heading to work.  Generally we worked from 6:00, or so, in the morning till 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon.  Then we had our afternoons off to go swimming, hang out with the villagers and build community, or just take a nice siesta nap until the evening service.

9. Pastor’s Who are Hungry for God. We worked with two pastors along the Itaya river who were just as passionate about reaching their villages for Christ as the pastors at Calvary are about reaching our community.

8. Kid’s Can Use the Restroom on the Church Floor and No One Cares. It didn’t matter if it was a kid who couldn’t behave quite right, an old man who smelled a little odd, or if it was someone who was just a little “different”, people were just glad that others were able to be at church….even if they make a little mess on the floor.

7. I Learned I Can Live with a Lot Less. I realized that I really don’t need my iPhone, my computer, or even that new Kindle I really want.  The people of Peru live without running water, electricity, and a whole lot less than what I have.

6. No Need to Go to Gym, Because Just Getting Through the Day is a Workout. Just getting from point “A” to point “B” requires expending a ton of energy…and sweat.

5. The “Downtown Square” of Every Village is a Soccer Field. Enough said.

4. The people of Peru are Very Family Focused. It didn’t matter if they were cooking dinner, eating breakfast, going to work, going to church, or just hanging, out the people of Peru do everything as a family.

3. Everyone has a Place of Ministry in the Church…Including Kids. I love being a part of a church that values kids, and it was great to see that same value in Peru as well.  The kids were a part of the church services, especially when it came to the music.

2. Hospitality on a Completely Different Level. When the people of the second village we visited found out we were coming they actually built bridges to make our 2 or 3 day stay easier.  They don’t use bridges.  They just walk down the hill, through the creek, and up the other side.  But they didn’t want us to have to do that, so they actually went through the trouble of building us bridges to use.  Just one example of their amazing hospitality.

1. There are No McDonalds…so I Lost 11 Pounds! We worked so hard that sometimes I didn’t really even feel like eating, but when I did eat it certainly wasn’t McDonald’s.  Fish and rice made up the majority of our afternoon meals.

I normally don’t just reprint quotes, but this one by John Piper from God is the Gospel is so good I couldn’t resist….

John writes, “The critical question for our generation-and for every generation-is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?”

I’ll admit I paused to think about this question….and I have my answer….no.  But what does it say about someone’s relationship with Christ if they answer “yes” to this question?

Until you run around a soccer field with kids for a few hours, it is easy to forget how out of shape you actually are.  This week during our church’s Mega Sports Camp, I realized that I am very much out of shape.

This year was our best year yet at Mega Sports Camp yet.  We introduced baseball for the first time, and we also had our traditional basketball, soccer, archery and sports swords for the kids to participate in.  I think all the kids had a great time, and I know for sure I did.  A few things I love about sports camp….

1. It gives me the chance to get to know some kids I haven’t met before from Calvary, and the community.

2. It is a great event for kids to invite their friends to, as almost everyone loves sports.

3. It is a great mix of having fun with sports, and having fun during the coaches huddle times (devotional times).

4. It get’s me out of my office and staff meetings for the week 🙂

In fact, I love sports camps so much that we are probably going to be offering some more soon.  So keep an eye out for some upcoming sports clinics.  We will probably be offering archery again in the fall, and then baseball in the spring.

What a week.  Most missions trips expose you to another culture, a language other than English, perhaps some different kinds of food, but my time in Peru exposed me to a a completely different way of life.

I traveled with 15 people from Calvary 6 hours up the Itaya River into the jungle outside of Iquitos, Peru.  There we visited two villages, both having less that 100 people in them.  No electricity (except by generator), and no running water.  We slept in hammocks, ate fish (head attached) that we caught out of the river, traveled by boat, bathed in the river, purified our own water, and used machetes as construction tools to build 2 churches.

I am sure I will write more on my experiences in Peru later, but for now let me just show you the 2 churches we built.  We intentionally left the front of the buildings open so that the people of the village could finish the church themselves.  Hopefully this will give them a sense of ownership having completed the last bit of work without our help.

An amazing week.  Kid’s camp is full of all sorts of fun….canoeing, swimming, field games, rock climbing, team competitions, and so much more.  My favorite part of camp though is the kids.

It is always great to see kids be able to get away from their regular environment for a week and focus on God.  In many cases they leave their less than desirable home situation behind, they leave their regular friends behind, they leave their TV’s and Wii’s behind and just get the chance to spend a week with God.

This year we 15 go with us from Calvary, and I think that every single one of them had an awesome week.  It was great to see so many of our kids around the altars each evening, praying for the various circumstances in their lives, and praying for their own relationships with God.  I know for certain that many of our kids were touched this week, and I pray, had their life courses altered for the better.

For those of you who are interested in seeing some of the footage from our time at camp, just search YouTube for “SNED Kids Camp 2009.”

You’ve heard the story before.  Jesus goes to visit Mary and Martha.  Martha, because of her love for Jesus, wanted to be sure everything was just right for His visit.  So, Martha, spent her time tending to the many details that she felt needed to be taken care of. Mary on the other hand, because of her love, sat and visited with Jesus, being sure to enjoy His company. The story continues with Martha getting upset that her sister is not helping out with all the work and is just sitting around talking.  Jesus rebukes Martha by saying “only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen what is better”

Here is what I notice about this story…Jesus said only one thing was required.  He didn’t say that 10 things were required, or even just a few important things, but one thing. Jesus was apparently not too impressed with Martha’s attempt to get lots done.

I love to do lists, shopping lists, priority lists, lists of core values, and lots of other lists and checklists.  I’m a list nut…a Martha by nature…always on mission, always a list of things to get done.  My lists help me keep a lot of things in focus, things that my brain would otherwise forget.

In the story of Mary and Martha, Jesus shares that there is only one main thing to keep in focus, and that one thing is Him.  Or to put it another way, it’s not the things on our lists that matter most, what matters most not forgetting the reason we are doing them in the first place…to serve him, to worship him, to simply enjoy his company.

John Piper reminds us, “The opposite of wasting your life is to live by a single, soul-satisfying passion for the supremacy of God in all things.”  A single, soul satisfying passion. A passion for God.  A passion like Mary had just to spend time with Him…just to focus on Christ.

I need to apply the story of Mary and Martha, along with John’s thoughts, to my life.  In the business that life presents, I need to remember to slow down and focus on the one thing that matters…Him. Both Mary and Martha loved Jesus, both had the right intentions, but only one did it the right way…the one who focused on Him.

20/20 vision means you have 'perfect' vision.  You can have better vision, but 20/20 is the standard when it comes to having good eyesight.  I don't know that it will ever become the standard of devotions, but I have recently adopted a new approach to my devotional time.  It is the 20/20/20 approach (yes this idea I took from someone else).  The idea is for me to spend 20 minutes reading my Bible, 20 minutes journaling on one verse from my reading, and then 20 minutes praying about how to apply that verse to my life.  One hour, broken down into three equal, 20 minute, sections.

Here is my entry from my 20 minutes of journaling this morning.  Not terribly profound, but it is what I wrote.  My reason for sharing is not to enlighten you with some great truth I found in scripture, but to show you my recent approach.  That way if you want, you can take and use it as well.

Oh yeah, one more thing, you have to read the title in a cheesy television infomercial voice.

title// double your learning capacity in one easy step!

scripture// whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.  proverbs 12:1

observation// a short verse, but a powerful truth.  being open to correction gives us opportunities to grow and mature that we otherwise would not have had.  being defensive and not open to listening to the instruction of others does not allow us to learn from our mistakes, and limits our opportunities for growth.  solomon, the author of this proverb, realizes if we are to 'grow in knowledge' as much as we should, we need to be open to correction.

application// someone smarter than me once said, 'if i can learn from my mistakes as well as my successes then i will learn twice as much in life.'  i would love to be able to say i always do this…that i always try to learn from my mistakes, and the correction, i receive.  the reality is though when someone addresses an issue with me i usually slip into defense.  i try justify my actions, or deflect the blame to someone else.  i am not sure why i do it.  insecurity….perhaps.  a need to always be right…probably part of it.  whatever the reason, it is certainly true that i do not 'love' correction.

prayer// GOD help me to be open to correction.  i realize that correction is one way i grow as a person and in my relationship with YOU.  help me to not justify, rationalize, or cover up my mistakes, but to learn from them, and the correction that comes with them.  help me to love correction, so i can learn twice as much in life.

For me picking out toothpaste is absolutely overwhelming.  I know it seems like such as small choice, but hear me out.  As I walk into the grocery store I have one item on my checklist…toothpaste.  I head to the personal care items, find the toothpaste section, and then attempt to find the toothpaste I want to purchase.  The problem is I don’t know which kind to get.  There are so many brands to choose from.  Brands like Colgate, Crest, Ultrabrite, Sensodyne, Rembrandt, Listerine, and even something called Tom’s of Maine, cover the shelves.

Then there are different types of each brand.  Types like regular, whitening, tarter control and some for sensitive teeth.

Some come in regular tubes, some come in fancy pumps.  Some come in small containers, and some come in big.  All of them seem to be “recommended by dentists everywhere”.

When I see all these options I am overwhelmed and I don’t know which choice to make.  I usually end up calling my wife to get her opinion.

This reminds me of a study I was made aware of that took place at Columbia University.  Here is the short of what they did.  In a grocery store they had two displays setup that gave people the opportunity to sample some jelly.  At one display they gave people 24 samples to try out.  At a separate display they limited the samples to 6 types of jelly.  At both displays they gave those who sampled any jelly a $1 coupon towards the purchase of any of the flavors of jelly they would like.  Here is what they found out….

1. It didn’t matter whether there was 24 or 6 types of jelly, the average person who stopped at both displays tried an average of 1.5 types of jelly.

2. Here is the more amazing/counter-intuitive part – Of those who stopped and sampled jelly where there were 6 options, 30% ended up making a purchase.  On the other hand, of those who stopped at the table with 24 different samples, only 3% ended up making a purchase.  The bottom line – Having four times as many options, reduced the amount of sales from 30% to 3%.

I think the jelly samplers were feeling what I feel about purchasing toothpaste.  They got overwhelmed with the options and decided not to make a decision.  (Thankfully for those I do talk to on a daily basis I do call my wife to figure out what type of toothpaste to buy, and just don’t walk out of the store, but I think you get the idea.)

I wonder if the same type of dynamic happens in churches.  We overwhelm people with options, with having to choose between prayer meetings, home care groups, ministry opportunities, missions trips, men’s conferences, women’s events, and on and on, to the point where people just get overwhelmed and walk away from getting involved at all.

Your thoughts?

(If you are interested in reading notes from the study you can find them at http://www.columbia.edu/~ss957/whenchoice.html)

Last night was a great night.  Yesterday I was ordained at the Southern New England District Council.  Throughout the evening I took several mental snapshots and made quite a few observations, which I hope to remember for life.

Probably the most vivid snapshot I took was when I was charged to "preach the Word" and handed my ordination Bible.  As I ponder what it means to "preach the Word" I am again drawn back to the book of Nehemiah.

In Nehemiah chapter 8 we see Ezra open God's law and read it to the people, and then in verse 8 there were some who, "read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read."  Part of the preaching here in Nehemiah involved making the scriptures understandable.

I pray that I can do the same.  I hope that I can be someone who always communicates God's Word in a clear way, so that people can understand and so that their lives can be changed.  The result of the clear explanation in Nehemiah was that the people celebrated because they understood (8:12) and the people repented and worshiped God (9:3).  I pray that the result of my teaching and and preaching be the same.