Another Year of Terra Firma

Here are my final thoughts wrapping up our first year experience program at CU this year...it was a great night of celebration and community...I will miss my 14 folks in my group being together...

TO ALL OF OUR TERRA FIRMA GRADUATES…

I am excited to share with you a story that I hope will encourage you and inspire you as you look forward to the next years at CU and the incredible place and role God has for you in His Kingdom work in each and every place in His world.  The Zambia Project book is a living example of how God is so excited to use this generation of students to change the world, and forever change us all in that journey.  I can't wait to see how God invites each of you to respond to the needs of our global community in the name of Jesus, and I believe God longs to and will use the CU community for remarkable good as together we pursue Him and revel in His love for each of us.  Enjoy the book this summer, dream about what God can do, and we will see you in September ready to experience the next chapter God will write at CU...

With thanks for each of you as we finish this Terra Firma experience,

CHIP for all the Terra Firma Leadership Team

A World Malaria Day Reflection...

Tomorrow is World Malaria Day...and it is a big day for me this year because in two weeks I will be with 13 other CU students and staff members in Zambia...and part of our trip experience will be meeting families affected by malaria and providing bed nets for them that will immediately change their lives...it is a next step for our soccer community and CU campus response to this huge global issue...and it made me recall a reflection I wrote leading up to our big soccer malaria event called Night of Nets...it is posted below on this day:

SOCCER and MALARIA BED NETS...A Perfect Combination

I still remember the first time I went to a village in Zambia...we had waited a long time to meet the people and to see the place where we had raised funds for in order for the people there to be able to build a first school building for their community...and yet to be honest, those first hours were really a bit overwhelming...it was unlike any place I'd been before and there were the usual struggles with language and culture differences that left me feeling a bit like an outsider despite the immense joy I felt and the Zambian people felt in celebrating how God had brought us together in a Kingdom way for Kingdom purposes...

But after some village tours, welcome speeches and dances, and exchanges of thank yous and gifts we walked down a dusty village trail to a 120 yard long by 75 yard wide piece of African dirt where for me everything suddenly became comfortable and usual...we put on soccer jerseys and played a full match against a local village team scoring goals on wood frame goalposts at the edge of a field where the grass grew instantly longer as you stepped off the soccer pitch...this game was something that was familiar and loved by both teams playing and I found myself playing without inhibition and talking to Zambian players without some of the same fears and questions I had been struggling with just minutes before...although I must confess I have never played a game since where someone with a megaphone on the sidelines was screaming out the play by play of the action on the field interspersed with comments like "We will defeat HIV!" and "AIDS has no chance of beating us now that we have education!" in between the announcements of who had scored the latest goal...

Soccer did then and has for several more years connected me in community with friends in Africa in a unique and surprisingly strong way...and I have watched soccer become a vehicle of community and service for people in obvious need and people with plenty of stuff all around them...soccer has allowed me and hundreds of students to help provide AIDS education programs, health care and food and clean water, new shoes and uniforms and equipment, and the chance to share the story of the Gospel in a long term ministry and community development partnership for close to a decade now...

So when some of the coaches and players in the Cornerstone University men's soccer program began to ask some questions about how they could as a program use their sport to help change the world as an outgrowth of what God was up to in their own lives, I immediately thought of an idea our ACTS poverty and justice group on campus had heard about called Night of Nets...the idea was to host an event that would highlight the devastating impact of malaria upon African kids and their families while seeking to raise resources for the purchase and distribution of life-saving and malaria-preventing bed nets to those at great risk of catching the disease from mosquito bites...

We came up with the Night of NETS event where we would invite people attending both the CU men's and women's games to pay a $6 admission charge that would purchase a bed net for a family on the other side of the world...and we ended up creating a website and other opportunities for people to get involved in the cause as we sought to change the lives of 1000 families in Zambia because of the playing of a game that is revered and treasured in the African culture...and as we host this event, we will strangely once again through the beautiful game called soccer experience community with people who we have very little in common with on many levels...and it gives us a wonderful opportunity to use athletics and serving the poor to create a truly community event for our own college community...we are expecting that we might see the largest crowd to ever watch a soccer match on our campus and we hope that students who have never really understood the beauty of soccer and the reality of the health crisis created by malaria can do both on a 120 by 75 yard piece of grass on our campus that day...

It is tough to try and draw people together physically, socially, and spiritually on a campus like ours where so many students are doing so many different things...many live off campus, many have extra jobs, and many come from different economic and denominational backgrounds...but we all desperately long to be part of something fun and significant together...and that's why I think athletics and service are so valuable in bringing us together to celebrate the gifts of those in our community and the power of coming together to share gifts with others outside our community...

And that's why I've had Saturday September 25 circled on my calendar for the past several months as a day I couldn't wait to experience...and to my joy and amazement, many other folks on our campus are feeling the same way...soccer players are inviting old teammates and family members to come see them play; students are planning to sleep under bed nets outside the night before the game to raise awareness; people from other parts of the country are supporting our project; and flyers about this day are literally plastered everywhere you look on our campus...

Only a God like ours could create a game to be a conduit to most perfectly connect people like me with people like my Zambian friend Fordson...and that's why for me Soccer and Bed Nets are a strangely perfect combination...and I can't wait to deliver these bed nets in Africa to villages in May with some of our CU soccer players before we play a match together in the African dirt...and we'll be thinking of the community we represent back at CU and in the body of Christ as a smile creeps over our faces and a tear rolls down our cheeks...and the Kingdom, the community of Jesus, made up of soccer players from both Grand Rapids and Zambia, will break forth in a most beautiful and blessed way...

For more information on the CU Night of Nets event that is part of World Vision's ACTS to End Malaria campaign you can check out their website for this special soccer fundraiser match at: www.cunightofnets.com...

This year's night of nets match will be held on WED SEPT 26, 2012 at CU against rival Aquinas...

What Drives Your Church to Bother? by Lawrence Temfwe

Here is a recent note from my Zambian friend Lawrence who is the director of the Jubilee Center in Ndola, Zambia where I will be heading in 3 weeks with a team of 14 to serve and learn and be moved to response from CU...I never, ever want to stop being bothered...

In the Post Newspaper article of Sunday 8th April Dr. Mannesseh Phiri asked an important question, “What drives a man like Bill Gates to bother about preventing Zambian babies, children, women and men from getting infected with HIV in Zambia?” How many leaders - the prosperous, government and church leaders read this article? How many who in the past were not disturbed, were stirred up to do something because of the question? How many of our key leaders see HIV and AIDS as a threat to our well-being and development? Could our blind pride on some wonderful things that have happened such as the declaration of Christian Nation, growing church population, growing economy, peaceful change of government and an accompanying lack of openness on the challenges of HIV and AIDS be standing in the way of us overcoming the epidemic? One thing is certain: Unless we as leaders soon force ourselves to reflect on this deep rooted question by Dr. Phiri, we are doomed to more HIV and AIDS crisis.

‘The hour has come’ for political, business and church leaders to come together and discuss the leaders attitude and the individual responsibility that has created the problem of HIV and AIDS. It is about time we leaders from all walks of life come together and discuss how we can do more from own resources in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Here is an example of what few committed people can do. Recently, our organization (Jubilee Centre) had the privilege of hosting 11 high school students from the USA who came to learn about the beauty and challenges of our great nation. They were extremely challenged by the needs of orphaned children who are also infected with AIDS. On their return home they shared with their parents about the plight of children infected with HIV and AIDS. With the support of their parents, they raised enough funds to feed 200 children three times a week with nutritious food for one year. In addition, they also raised enough funds to help three churches start income generating activities to sustain the feeding program after their one year commitment.

What made these high school students be bothered about giving hope of long life to the infected children? Children infected by AIDS and lacking food are unbearably tough to watch, and normal people don’t soon forget the dreadful sights of underfed children. The unpleasant situation of these children made their high school counter parts from another continent cry out to their parents to do something. However, most importantly, these high school students are Christians who belong to a local church that constantly give them awareness to have their hearts broken with things that break the heart of God. They get involved because they know that this is what God would want them do.

We may not know what inspires Bill Gates to do something about the spread of HIV and AIDS in Zambia. But like those high school students, Christians are inspired by Christ’s call to loving God and to loving our neighbor. Therefore as Christian leaders we are called to offer leadership strategies to believers in cabinet, to lawyers, accountants and in business to serve passionately with their spiritual gifts. This is what these eleven children did. They offered leadership strategies to their parents on how they can help prolong life to children infected with HIV and AIDS. I pray that as you lead with all your might, skill, and all your faith, you will inspire your members to proclaim and demonstrate the gospel to a world broken by poverty, HIV and AIDS and injustices.

Lawrence Temfwe

Zambia Project Book Video

One of the things I love most about getting to serve and work with college students is seeing them discover passions and then choose to display their gifts in the creative work they choose to pursue...

Recently two students I know at CU came up to me and told me they wanted to shoot a promotional video for my upcoming book release...and of course I said "YOU BET I DO!"

So we put together a little script and they have created something I simply love...it's full of the story in pictures and words...and I even get to wear my favorite orange Africa shirt one of my best buddies who has traveled there as well found for me...

And once again, just like the book and the whole of the Zambia Project story, grass roots work by remarkable students has served to allow others to be invited into God's grander Kingdom story...

Check it out at this link, and enjoy the gifts God has given Alex and Josh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRr8GK_XWrU&feature=youtu.be

CHIP

Easter Reflection

Here's a short reflection I wrote for the Cornerstone Facebook page about the Easter weekend:

Easter weekend is an incredibly meaningful time for each of us as Christ followers and as a university community here at Cornerstone.  It allows us a chance to take a break from the hectic pace of the last weeks of a school as we remember the death and resurrection of our Lord, and it helps us to once again affirm that Easter has remarkable implications for all of our lives.  We celebrate the love of a Savior who was willing to sacrifice in a remarkable way so we can experience forgiveness and freedom as broken people, and we are inspired by the reality that the resurrection of our King invites us to be partners with him in helping other’s lives and all things that are broken in our world to become new, to become whole, to become what God intended them to be in relationship with Him.  That’s the amazing and overwhelming news we proclaim this weekend here at CU.  May the good news of what Jesus has done fill your hearts with peace and joy at Easter…

WRITING A BOOK--My Journey

Here's a little reflection I wrote for the school newspaper, The Herald, this past week at CU...

I did something I always dreamed I might be able to do this past week: I sent a book manuscript to the printer to be published. Now to be honest, I did not major in English in college, have only been published a few times in youth ministry and humanitarian organization journals, and don’t fit the stereotypical writer profile in many ways. Writing a book has been exhilarating, painful, depressing, compelling, and most of all, very difficult. In the process of writing, I have surfaced all kinds of personal fears, gigantic dreams, and lots of internal debates over the last several years. It’s been a pretty remarkable journey for me, and I have a few things I’d love to share with you about what I’ve learned and why I wrote my book as I look forward to holding the book in my hands…

Almost eight years ago I was sitting in a hotel room in Livingstone, Zambia with a dozen college students who first suggested to me that I should write a book. They had helped to start a major community development project in partnership with World Vision in a community in Africa that had been devastated by the global AIDS pandemic. We had just visited the first schoolhouse ever built in the Kakolo Village community and had fallen in love with the people we had raised funds to help for the past 18 months. I blindly committed to pursuing this writing project and started jotting down some initial thoughts in a spiral notebook on the long plane ride back to Chicago. Little did I know that this project and relationship was just beginning, and that it would take me much, much longer than I ever dreamed to write out the story God was writing on both sides of the world.

First, I have learned that so many other people were needed to actually accomplish this personal goal I wanted to pursue. I actually ended up having several former students and even my new friends in Zambia write some of the most compelling sections of the book. I’ve needed content and copy editors to literally save my book from embarrassing me, and their expertise has helped me to share the story in a much more meaningful and effective way. The cover of the book needed the help of a brilliant young designer to draw people to the story, and I need hundreds of family and friends and students to help market the book so people who might benefit from reading it actually know that it is available. I am more convinced than ever of the power of the beauty of the design of the body of Christ’s different strengths and gifts and passions described by the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 12 after truly writing a book together in community.

Second, I think I understand more deeply than ever that I am ultimately responsible for the words I write and speak in my life as a follower of Jesus and leader of various groups of people. I have chosen to write a book where I passionately invite readers to live for the sake of others and to get personally involved in responding to the needs of the global poor and oppressed. But, as I finished the final chapter, I was left with an overwhelming sense that I have to live like what I am writing in order for this book to be the authentic narrative I long for it to be in bringing change to how we see the world as the next generation of Christ followers. The big idea in Donald Miller’s book A MILLION MILES IN A THOUSAND YEARS I have all incoming students read calling us to live rather than just write or speak or dream a great story for our lives imbedded itself deeply as I wrote thousands and thousands of words that now demand my obedience because they are in print for others to see.

Third, writing about this fairly extraordinary and transformative life experience has caused me to believe that God wants to write another big story in my life and the lives of the people all around me. I used to think that this almost decade long project caring for the medical, educational, water and food, discipleship, housing, and emotional needs of the Zambian people was a truly once-in-a-lifetime deal! But as I wrote this book, I was left with the clear notion from Scripture and the Spirit of God that it might not have been so abnormal after all. The same love of Christ and power of the Holy Spirit talked about in Ephesians 3 that could do so much more than we could ever ask or imagine has not left the building; it is still alive and moving and doing crazy things in individual lives and the life of the church. What if the Zambia Project story is the norm rather than the exception for those who have experienced Christ’s love and believe in His plan to have the Kingdom of God forcefully explode in our world today? I don’t have another book idea ready to pursue, but I am convinced that He wants to keep writing incredible stories, even in and through our remarkable community here at CU.

To be honest, I am terrified and overjoyed to let others purchase the book I have written. I know I was provoked by God to write it, but still can’t believe it is good enough to be liked and approved by the very smart and discerning readers who will pick it up to read. I am praying that it will inspire and educate and encourage, but doubt that it will change the world like I dream it will as its author. Yet, I wouldn’t trade this experience, for in the midst of writing a book I discovered anew more of who God wants me to be and what He wants me to do as one who desperately wants to make a difference in the world because of what He has done to change me. I am excited to read the book one of you writes someday and chat over coffee about the journey it takes you on…

THE ZAMBIA PROJECT: The Story of Two Worlds Flipped Upside Down will be released this spring. There will be a pre-book release celebration on Wednesday April 25 at 9 pm in the Corum at CU. You can find out more info at: www.zambiaprojectbook.com