September 21st, 2011 by Joe

John 15:19 says “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of this world, because of this the world hates you.”

Do you find it a struggle in this world? I do…many times I feel completely disconnected from the world as we know it. I feel like I cannot share what the Lord is doing in my life because the name of Jesus can be so incendiary in our culture. In a way, I am outcast from many due to my faith, but that faith is what carries me through.

Not that I long to be in this world! On the contrary, what we are embracing here continues to astound me – the degradation of family values; the abandonment of traditional morals, and a loose interpretation of law bordering on lawlessness! How people can justify this is beyond me. As I travel to our West Coast (as we call it, the “left” coast), I am struck by the lack of any interest in finding Christ, yet I am accosted by all the other causes – Global warming, Greenpeace, Gay marriage, etc. If people would seek the truth and the risen Lord with the same vigor, how much different the world could be….

As the kids say…”Just sayin….”

July 26th, 2011 by Joe

26 July 11

Reenter: To participate in once more; resume.

Reentry: The return from outer space into the Earth’s atmosphere of an earth-orbiting satellite, spacecraft, rocket, or the like.

I am sitting on a jet, flying from Washington, DC to Atlanta, then I will catch a flight to Charleston, SC to miss the funeral of my father-in-law today by about 2 hours. In the last 48 hours, I have had my flight from Budapest to NYC delayed by 10 hours, many flights oversold (due to cancellations yesterday), had to taxi from JFK Int’l airport to LaGuardia airport to fly to DC, then Atlanta, and then Charleston. My body screams at me for sleep, and I feel like I am moving about half the speed of everyone else. My spirit resists the pull of the world around me; begging me to stay in a slower pace, yearning to remain close to God.

Re-entry has special meaning to me. As a boy, I loved the space program and followed every flight. The interesting thing about re-entry is that it is an exponential process – at first the tendrils of gravity tug gently on the spacecraft, pulling it toward the earth. As you near the earth, the force of gravity strengthens, and you accelerate further. As the spacecraft enters the atmosphere, it becomes critical to maintain the proper attitude – too shallow (pointed away from earth) and you skip back into space forever. Too steep (toward the earth) and the heat builds up so quickly that you end up incinerated…turned to ashes.

The same is true of reentry from a missions trip – the world begins to gently tug on you the day before you fly home. You begin to repack your bag, think of the friends and family you will visit, and what foods you miss most (yes; it is true…!). By the morning of your departure, you are thinking through travel arrangements and getting ready to communicate with the outside world in a degree that you have not experienced for the duration of the trip (most second and third world countries do not enjoy the phone/internet service we do in the states). As you fly toward home, you begin to think more of people and activities at home than you do the things you have just experienced. Your spirit grieves as you miss devotional times as a team and alone time with God.

As you get closer to home, the pace quickens – and if you don’t watch out, you can get caught up in “life” again to a degree that you “burn up” and lose the momentum you had on your trip. Some people cannot go back to the world; so absorbed they become in the Lord that they never re-engage the world, skipping back into space, if you will, and never quite making the most of what has happened.

The key is a balance – keeping the discipline of the routine you started on the trip, forsaking the trappings of the world (TV, newspapers, texting, video gaming, etc.) which can rob you of precious time with Father God. This softens the reentry phase, and results in a more stable return to life; even strengthening your walk from this point on.

Therein lies where I am right now – as an airline pilot, I can appreciate all of the ease of travel, but the pace of racing from airport to airport and airplane to airplane is already burdening my soul with a distance from the Lord. I miss knowing a ministry opportunity awaits me each day (as we had scheduled concerts everyday in Hungary), and that I will now have to look for the opportunity each day to minister instead!

July 26th, 2011 by Joe

I always hate re-entry; the process of coming back in country. I am sitting in NYC at JFK Int’l airport…fighting crowds, watching others push and jockey for seats, etc. I sit waiting for a seat on a “bereavement status” due to my father-in-laws’ death. Still cannot get on a flight as they are all oversold. There is a part of me that hates this part of life – our lives are too busy doing things that have no meaning instead of investing in activities that build into each other in Jesus’ name.

Putting the guitar down for a few days grieves me somewhat, but I will welcome the time with my family – I look forward to reconnecting with them, then returning home by Sunday.

July 23rd, 2011 by Joe

Tonight my father-in-law died. He died at 12:20 EDT, which was while I was eating dinner before our concert. I didn’t know he died until after the concert, but I preached a message during the concert which I felt challenged everyone there. I don’t know whether in the final moments Allen knew the Lord and trusted him or not; we may never know what he thought or did before he died. That is the tragedy of not publicly accepting Christ; it leaves us all in limbo. It is imperative we not only persist in spreading the Word of God, but that we insure our loved ones know where we stand. In the book of Ezekiel, chapter 3, verse 18, the Word warns us that the unsaved blood is on our hands as well (those that we have not warned). If we have told them the truth and they choose not to believe, then it is their choice alone and we are free from blame.

July 23rd, 2011 by Joe

What I looked at was distinctly human; arms, legs, etc., but contorted at an almost grotesque angle. I realized this was indeed a person, very much alive, and this was our ministry opportunity today. My emotions screamed at me – the Spirit telling me to love and pray for these souls, while my flesh wanted to run and hide, maybe that it would all go away. There was a whole ward of folks with incredible disabilities; missing limbs, mental and physical handicaps – plus an entire building of orphaned children with various disabilities. Today, we would worship with them as we played our concert set here.

The building, in Dunaalmas, Hungary, had a Soviet-era look and feel; almost depressing as we walked around – except for the rooms that had been remodeled (and the intent is to have it all remodeled, praise God). My soul felt almost hopeless…deeply saddened that these young men (over 100 of them) are almost never visited by family or any outsiders, except those, like us, that come to minister to them. As we got closer to our performance time, my emotions got the better of me, and I broke down, sobbing like I have only done twice before in my life. I felt a deep compassion for these young men and cried out to God to help me lift their spirits, if only for today.

As we began playing, they began to dance – air guitar-ing, air drumming, and jumping with the joy of the Lord. It lifted all our spirits to see them dance for the Lord! Over 1 ½ hours later, we finished, and they were overjoyed with our time. It blessed me to see our dancers and bands members interacting with the boys and men, and knowing we were honoring “the sick…the least of these…”. Our singer’s wife shared a scripture the Lord placed on her heart – Matthew 25:40 which confirmed our purpose there tonight. When we came back to the training center where we stayed the night, many of the band members shared how deeply this trip is impacting them…life is not the same for them, and they can never go back to the life they had before. In a way, this is a praise, but also a prayer request. Re-entry, as it is known, is a deeply challenging time from a truly deep missions trip. Even though we are a band “on tour”, the performances are secondary – ministry is the reason we are here, and as we do it, we pray with each other and spend more and more time with God daily.

When we go back to the US (or whatever country we come from), life vies for our attention, and we do not want to give up the discipline of spending time with God and prayer. The struggle for some is enormous. My own life has been “wrecked” by this every year as we do these tours; each year we cut back further on the trappings of life to try to give more to God, and each year the enemy entices us with other distractions. This trip has me thinking again about where I am leading my family and how it will end up. There are many possibilities; only the Lord knows where we go from here, and I must seek His face to find out.

July 23rd, 2011 by Joe

We arrive at a reformed church youth festival in Tata. There are around 1500 young Christian adults here for the festival, and all in high spirits. We pray it up big time, and are rewarded with an incredible time of worship. Everything works perfect and we flow with the Lord and each other. What a great night! The crowd loves our time together and we are greatly encouraged.

July 23rd, 2011 by Joe

Well, sometimes these things happen. No matter how much you rehearse, you cannot prepare for technical problems! The PA arrives very late to the gig, the amps keep cutting out during sound check and we just cannot get dialed in. It feels like we are fighting to get a good sound the whole time, and we come home wounded and with our tail tucked squarely between our legs!

July 23rd, 2011 by Joe

I send Paul and Geoff off; changed forever by their experience, and Bill Drake and the rest of the touring team show up. We share time together, and enjoy a devotional. It looks like a fun group.

July 23rd, 2011 by Joe

16 Jul 11

Today we make it back to Budapest, and head to Castle Hill, up high on the north side of the city. With so much foot traffic, we decide to do some street evangelism. Paul and Geoff set up the steel drums and guitar while we hand out tracts. The country has just passed a new law prohibiting music in the streets, but we ask a few local musicians that are apparently ignoring the law, and they assure us we would not be in trouble. In fact, they point out a nice pavilion nearby for us to go play (Hmmmm).

Shortly after we start, a very angry man marches up to us from across the street and begins to angrily demand to see our permit. He is visibly upset and rants at Paul and Geoff in Hungarian – not that they speak it at all – but our translator gets involved and soon we find out that while the man enjoyed the music, he was trying to sleep and has been awakened many times in the last two weeks by musicians. I also notice a police car about 50 yards away, and motion to the guys to start packing up! I happily see the musicians that set us up are packing up and getting out of town as well. In the end, a few tracks were handed out, but we never got to really do the evangelism thing! We enjoy some sight-seeing instead. It really is a beautiful city!

July 15th, 2011 by Joe

Today was really cool. I took two instructors about ½ mile down the road and had them set up steel drums and an acoustic guitar. While they played, I handed out tracks to passers-by. I have to tell you I was waaaay out of my comfort zone! I attended one of the guitar classes today and was able to encourage the students somewhat at the end of the class. All of our instructors were able to plug in with various Hungarian instructors and contribute to their classes. It was very exciting for all involved!

The director of the camp asked us to lead worship tomorrow morning, and the team voted it down. We have never played together at all and there are serious concerns about the ability to lead worship to a high level without rehearsing. We took a vote – I lost; we move on. The reason we have come here was to work with the instructors and pour into the children; I feel like we did that in a big way. It has been a great time today and I really feel like we built a bridge between our academy and the worship camp! I have realized that when God takes us out of our box, we finally step into HIS box!