Shout out to Pastor Trent

The success of our recent El Salvador trip was due in large part to the efforts of Pastor Trent. He shouldered a huge part of the preparation work, got plane tickets reserved, made sure that everyone had their money in and their passports in hand, and interfaced with Convoy of Hope. He did all of this while he was also juggling the logistics of youth camp, intermediate camp, the startup of middle school ministries and national fine arts. He did all of this without getting testy or snippy. Don't forget, he also has a new baby at home.

So, for valor, courage, determination and committment above and beyond the call of duty, this shout out goes out to Pastor Trent Smith!

Welcome to Ministry

Well, I'm back to the real world of ministry. A few days ago in El Salvador I was Pastor Randy. I was asked to preach, pray for people, and was expected to sit on the platform during services. This morning I returned to real life. Today is an election day and our church is a polling place. As I walked into the church this morning one of the ladies from the election board stopped me and my first conversation went something like this. "Do you work here?" yes. "A toilet in the ladies room has overflowed and you need to get a mop in there. Now." yes ma'am. i'll be right there.

No please. No thank you. No smile.

So I mopped the bathroom.

Welcome back to real-life ministry, Pastor Randy.

Safely Back

We made it back safe and sound with no one injured, sick, or out of sorts with someone else. (People wonder why I like going with the young people.) I am processing my thoughts for future posts about Convoy of Hope and my friends who do their ministry there. For now, let me just give some facts about Convoy. Although they are known primarily for disaster relief, they are doing some really interesting things in El Salvador in the area of nutrition, water filtering, commuity development, and basic hygene education. I'm processing a post on the missiological aspects of this type of ministry for a future post; most likely on the On My Mind blog. But suffice to say, I think that this is the future of missions, particularly in the nations which are closed to the straightforward missionary evangelist/church planter model which worked for so well for so many years. I have seen in my own limited missionary experience that people who are resistant to the gospel message are more open to listen when they see that we have an interest in meeting a real need in their nation, community, tribe, etc. I can see down the road, if Christ delays His coming, that the methods and models which are being developed in El Salvador will be a large part of a new paradigm of reaching the most resistant countries. The easy countries have national churches in various stages of development. Those which remain will take a new level of creativity and openness on our part to penetrate the legal/social/religious barriers that do not allow a frontal assault with conventional missionary techniques.

Okay. Too long. More later.

We`re Coming Back!

Well, time has flown by and we are heading home in the morning. We have to be in the hotel lobby at 4am ready to go to the airport. El Salvador to Miami, Miami to Dallas, Dallas to Oklahoma City and we are home Monday night. It has been a great trip. Tonight we shared our impressions as each one answered these four questions- What was the funniest moment, what was your WOW moment, what will you take home with you, and who would you like to give a shout out to. If one of your kids was on the trip, ask those questions. I promise that tonight each was ready to answer them and answered them with passion.

See you soon!

We´re still here

After the first couple of ministry days in Zacatecoluca we moved to San Salvador. In San Salvador we worked for two days in a school in a barrio called Candelaria. This is a inner city type of neighborhood where there is a lot of broken homes, poverty, violence and crime. The children in the school responded to us in a really heartwarming ways. Our team of young people played with them, we fed them, and gave them vitamins. We did dramas and shared testimonies. We were able to stay with them a long time. Some just wanted to sit on my lap or to ride piggy back around the schoolyard. The youths in the school were slow to receive us, but our young people stayed with them and slowly broke down the barriers separating them from relationship. The teenagers at the school are facing pressure to join gangs and take drugs. There is a lot of violence in their neighborhood, so they have to develop a hard shell. However, some two dozen of them accepted Christ due to the ministry of our young people.

Our team has done so well in adapting to strange circumstances and keeping a positive outlook. They are ministering in a powerful and effective way and bringing credit to Lakeside and to the kingdom of God.

Today (Friday) we will be ministering in a refugee camp where people who were displaced by a volcanic eruption are staying. Tomorrow we will minister in an orphanage. Continue praying for our ministry to be effective. So far no one has gotten sick or hurt and energy levels remain high.

When we pray

When we pray, we need to pray with:

Integrity- Psalm 24:3-5 Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.

Intensity- Psalm 20:1-5 May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offering. May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will llift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests.

Authority- Psalm 18:31-36 For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me: you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.

Here in Zacatecoluca

We made it to El Salvador. We are working for a couple of days in Zacatecoluca and today we were in a school all day. We are now waiting for supper and I have a few minutes. Everybody on the team is doing great and we are having fun and working hard. I just wanted to take the opportunity to post from Zacatecoluca because I don´t get to do that very often.

Every Day

Every day is an eventful day. Every day is the day where someone completes something they have been working on for a long time. Every day is payday for someone. Every day is someone's birthday. Every day is the anniversary of the death of someone's loved one. Every day is the day that someone's divorce is finalized. Every day is the day that someone receives good news from his doctor. Every day is the day when someone receives bad news from his doctor. Every day is the day when someone's team wins. Every day is the day that something happens to someone that permanently alters the landscape of her life. Every day is the day that someone dies.

Every day each of us know someone who is celebrating a victory or enduring a trial. Community is about being there to rejoice or to grieve with those someones that we come in contact with every day. Every day, each us us has an opportunity to show the love of Christ to someone.

Every day.

Off Again!

Saturday Carole, Pastor Trent and I leave for El Salvador with some of the most incredible young people in the universe for a short-term mission with my good friends at Convoy of Hope. When we get off the plane we will be greeted by Matt Wilkie and Rick Ryan, who work at Convoy, and we will also be greeted by Allison, sister of Bethany and valued member of our youth group.

It will be hot, humid, and awesome! For most of the young people, it will be their first international experience and for at least one, it will be the first airplane ride. They will return realizing that they serve a much bigger God than they ever realized. They will make new friends, be in a minority situation language-wise, see new things, and experience new things.

Please be in prayer for our effectiveness in ministry and that we will have our receptors tuned so we can be sensitive to the God-moments that occur on trips such as these.

Oh yeah, the parents want you to pray for safe return.

I will try to post from El Salvador, depending on the availability of internet access.

Sometimes Bad Things Happen

I visited with a friend the other day. As long as I have known him, he has desired to live a life pleasing to God. For years he was successful in business and he attributed his success to God-given business acumen and the blessings of God. A few years ago, however, he experienced some reversals, broken relationships with business partners and financial disaster. He is now in bankruptcy.

Did God withdraw His blessing on my friend? It depends on your definition of God's blessing. If blessing means uninterrupted bliss and prosperity, then yes, obviously he is not being blessed in that way. But if blessing means resting in the knowledge that Christ died to forgive sins and give eternal life, knowing that the peace of God which surpasses knowledge will sustain, knowing that God will supply all our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus, knowing that His grace is sufficient, and knowing that if we seek His kingdom and His righteousness everything we need will be supplied to us, then he is as blessed as ever.

One day, one event, one season; any of these can change our life. No day, no event, no season can ruin our life if we rest in our relationship with God. He never leaves us, never forsakes us, never lets us out of His sight, and never allows anything that we cannot survive. That is not a slogan or a trite saying. That is Truth. Gritty, strong truth you can live with when times are tough.

Special Benefit for Blog Readers

You've been reading my blog for a while, now. It's about time that you get some benefit for it! You get to hear some breaking news before regular people get to. Are you ready? Okay, here it is. You've been asking for it, and here it is. We will be having Guy Night III on Tuesday evening, August 19! We will go to see the perenially almost competitive Oklahoma Redhawks duke it out with the mighty Omaha Royals at the incomparable Bricktown Ballpark. We have 40 premium seats reserved behind the third base dugout (roughly where we were last year). The cost is only $10 per ticket, which includes transportation on Lakeside's own luxury motor coach. We will leave the church at 6:15pm and return to the church after the Redhawk's glorious victory (or the end of the game if the Royals cheat their way to a win).

Matt Stomprud is the evil mastermind of Guy Night III. Sign up quickly, because seating is limited. BE THERE!!!!!!!!!!

Teen Challenge

Many of you know that I serve on the district advisory board of Teen Challenge of Oklahoma. Most of you have heard of Teen Challenge, either through The Cross and the Switchblade, or you have been to one of the services when students come and give their testimonies of God's wonderful transforming power in lives that are really messed up. Many don't know, however that there are now four Teen Challenge centers in Oklahoma. The first and best known is the men's program located at Cache, Oklahoma, called Sonrise Ranch. There is an adolescent boys program near Jay, Oklahoma called Brush Creek Ranch, and there is an adolescent girls facility near Disney, Oklahoma, called New Life House. But the newest news is that after years of praying and waiting, Teen Challenge of Oklahoma now offers a facility for women in Sapulpa.

We also have a new state executive director here in Oklahoma. You know that Bill Everitt, who founded Teen Challenge of Oklahoma went to be with the Lord last fall after a battle with cancer. Wayne and Mischa Gray, along with their two boys moved here from Orlando, Florida, where Wayne ran a men's center for many years. We are blessed to have them here in Oklahoma.

Please join me in prayer for Teen Challenge of Oklahoma. They are reaching out in love and changing lives through the life changing power of Christ. They have quite a few financial hurdles ahead, but as we say at Lakeside, "My God will supply all of Teen Challenge's need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Yesterday

Yesterday, (Sunday) was a great day. First, our missionaries, Kevin and Eunice Tyler, through a disconnect between calender and thought, ended up at the wrong church and made it to Lakeside about three minutes after the missions window. I had already "thrown them under the bus" by telling the story of their mixup, and many of you were gracious enough to bring it up to them. We still got to go to lunch, however, and had a great visit with them. Of course, Pastor Darren's series on Another Great Awakening continues to be thought provoking. Then last night we had a baptism service, and that is always awesome. The dessert auction raised a good amount of money for our youth to go to Fine Arts, and I get to eat Tres Leches cake. All in all, a good day.

Our Missionary Family

We will have a missionary guest with us tomorrow morning. Kevin Tyler is the Eurasia coordinator for Global Teen Challenge. He and his wife, Eunice, live in Kiev, Ukraine, but their responsibilities cover a huge portion of the globe. Teen Challenge is growing in influence and effectiveness in the former Soviet Union, in large measure because of the faithfulness and hard work of the Tylers. You will enjoy meeting them.

My New Blog

As I promised in a previous post, I have begun a new blog. This one is for newsy, goofy, or shorter bible teaching posts. The new one, called "On My Mind" is the one I will use for longer posts of a more serious or thought provoking nature. They will take much longer to read and will not be of interest to everyone. My first post "On My Mind" deals with is the subject of Church Governance. I won't post there as often as I do here, but I didn't want to run off you who read this blog by posting something that could be mind numbingly boring to you. If you want to check it out you can get there at rwhitlow-onmymind.blogspot.com.

Lakeside Guys T-Shirts

Lakeside Guys T-shirts are now available! I ordered them for each of the guys who went to Arizona, and I knew that other guys would want them as well. I have them in size L, XL, 2XL, and 4XL. They are $10 each, which is about what they cost. Remember, GUYS stands for "God Uses Your Strengths". See me to get one! They won't last long.

Camp Meeting

Last night I went to camp meeting for the annual missionary commissioning service. It is always a moving time for me when a particular field is described and the question is given, "Who will go?" Then the new missionary who is going to that field responds, "I will go!" As the missionary and family step to the platform, I can't help but get tears in my eyes as I realize the job they are taking on. This year there are three new missionaries. One, a single young lady is going to Thailand. Another, a single young man will be the Chi Alpha campus pastor for the University of Oklahoma. The third is a family with three beautiful little girls who are going to work in a children's home in the Philippines.

We heard a report that new missionaries are going to the field at a higher rate than veteran missionaries are retiring. That is good news. But what kept running through my mind is that we need to be partnering with these new missionaries. There are other missionaries who depend on the Oklahoma churches for their support that we do not yet support. Help me pray that God will show us how we can increase our involvement in supporting our missionaries.

We're Waking Up!

Pastor Darren's series about the next Great Awakening has me thinking about many things that have been rattling around in my head for the past several years. I do feel that the US church in general and Lakeside in particular are beginning to awaken to the prospects of what true Christianity looks like and how it is lived. It is so much more than a weekly gathering with our friends to sing songs we already know and listen to sermons we've already heard. It involves so much more than just complaining about how bad the world is getting and how we need to just stay around "nice" people like us.

Christianity isn't "nice". It costs everything and it is worth everything. True fulfillment comes only through true Christianity. We are just beginning to awaken to this reality at Lakeside. As it unfolds, it will be scary and wonderful. We will see our influence increase in our city not because of the solidarity of our voting bloc. We will see our influence increase because we will be living out the only real and lasting thing on earth. We have the message of life. They will see it and believe it when they see us living it as though we believe it.

Procrastination

I'll write about this later.

Arizona Reflections Revisited

The Arizona trip was good on many fronts, but there are two that I want to focus on.

First, we had eight men, and for 5 of them it was their first mission experience. They ranged in age from their 20s to late 60s. Only one had substantial construction experience. But they all were willing to do whatever they could and were willing to learn new skills to accomplish the task. At the end of the trip they all recognized that hanging and trimming doors, caulking and painting, and just being available to do whatever was requested was real ministry. Gradually we as a church are realizing that ministry is not something that we hire a professional to do. Rather, we are seeing that ministry takes on many different forms and each of us has multiple ministry responsibilities, all of which are important to building the Kingdom of God.

Second, I saw mentoring going on, old to young as well as young to old. As guys who may not have known one another very well prior to the trip, this week gave them an opportunity to get to know one another at a level that would not have been possible during conventional times of gathering at church. Each of the guys has at least one person who now is known much better and is now a potential source of help or advice in coming years.

We're doing it again next June. Plan now to be part of this great experience.

Arizona Reflections

The entire experience of going with the guys to Bylas, Arizona was really positive. First, an overview. We left early Saturday morning and drove the entire 975 miles in one long day. Sunday morning we went to morning services at the church we were helping. After lunch, I don't know what the other guys did, because I took my Sunday afternoon prayer nap. We went to Sunday evening service and were in bed early because there was no television, no computers with internet, and no where to go. Town was 30 miles away, so we did our own cooking.

Monday through Wednesday our guys worked hanging doors, trimming doors, caulking and painting doors, building shelves, tearing down an old sound booth, and generally being helpful. The church rewarded us on Tuesday night by making us real Indian tacos with fresh fry bread. It was incredible.

Thursday morning we left Bylas and went through Holbrook, AZ to see the church we worked with last year. We were disappointed that no one was there and we didn't get to go inside, but it was cool to see how nice it looked. Then we headed for Canyon de Chelly in northeast AZ for some sightseeing and rock climbing. We made it to Grants NM that night. Early Friday morning we hit I-40 and drove relentlessly, arriving back in OKC at 5:30, tired of the inside of the van, but glad we went.

More tomorrow.

Freedom Fest Thoughts

I was impressed by two things about Freedom Fest.
#1- The number of people I have never seen before who were having a good time. That tells me that getting the word out actually brought people in.
#2- The number of people in red Lakeside T-shirts that I didn't know. That tells me that the folks that are new to Lakeside are getting involved and going to work to help build what God is doing at Lakeside.

Both impressed and blessed me.

God is good!

Random Observations

I am really ready to begin blogging again. I really got out of sync with my blogging schedule with the Arizona trip and Freedom Fest and the myriad of things I was behind on when I returned to the office. I really like blogging and I especially like it when you respond and a conversation ensues. Since I don't have a regular outlet to share with groups, blogging has given me an outlet to release some of the "pressure" that builds up inside me.

I usually restrict the length of my posts because I know that the casual reader (like me) wants to read something that can be read in under a minute. This is good because it means that I must know what is the most important thing I want to say, but it is frustrating some times because some thoughts need more space to develop. I'm thinking of setting up a second blog to post those essays (or diatribes) and those who are okay with reading longer posts can read those post on that blog. I'll let you know when that happens.

But in the meantime, this blog will continue to be used for these newsy bits. I'll be blogging about Arizona and Freedom Fest for the next few days. I've got a lot of thoughts about both.