God’s Love for our Enemies

Don’t believe that you know on your own how to get along with other people, or how to deal with enemies, or what good and evil are, lest humankind devour itself completely. ‘Never be conceited’–rather look to God’s way with us, with our enemies, that way, which Scripture itself calls foolish, the way of God’s love for our enemies, which God demonstrates to us by sending God’s Son all the way to the cross. The best wisdom is recognizing the cross of Jesus Christ as the insuperable love of God for all people, for us as well as for our enemies. Or are we of the opinion that God loves us more than God loves our enemies: Would we believe that we are God’s favorite children? Were we to think that, we would show ourselves to be of like mind with the Pharisees, we would have stopped being Christians. Is God’s love any less for our enemies, for whom God just as much came, suffered, and died, as God did for us? The cross is nobody’s private property, but belongs to all; it is intended for all mankind. God loves our enemies–the cross tells us that. God suffers on their account, feels anguish and sorrow because of them. God gave the beloved Son for them. That is the whole point every time we encounter enemies we remember at once: God loves them, God gave everything for them.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Christ’s Love and Our Enemies,” A Testament to Freedom, 285

God Searching for Man

“Religion is man searching for God. Christianity is God searching for man.”

2011 Year End Update

2011 – what a year it’s been! It was filled with: settling back into life in the states, community with the people we love, leading a trip of high school students to Ireland and capped off with a call back to Ireland long-term. Here’s a peek into this past year:

ADVENTURES IN MISSIONS

2011 has been quite a year for Adventures in Missions! Our work there has allowed us the opportunity to be involved with mobilizing the next generation to go to the nations with God’s love. It’s been so encouraging to be a part of an amazing organization and to be under solid and trustworthy leadership.

Here’s some of what happened this year at Adventures (Thanks to my fellow teammate Sara Choe for these statistics):

• One day, in April, we sent out our 90,000th missionary; we’ve sent more since then, upping the total to 96,000.

• One day, this summer, in southern Africa, eight of our Racers prayed for about 200 people and over 100 were healed.

• One day, this summer, one of our Passport teams was part of the miracle of food multiplying.

I CALL IT MONSTER

On April 27, 2011 while visiting Bekah’s family in Tampa, we watched the state of Alabama get hit by the worst outbreak of tornadoes in 80 years. Category F4′s hit several small towns and an F5 ravaged the northwest portion of the state. In reference to the tornadoes, some people we quoted saying, “I call it Monster”.

We visited Pratt City and Phil Campbell so we could see the damage firsthand and hopefully capture some of the people’s stories.. We were not prepared for what we would see.
Click here to read more

AMBASSADOR TRIP TO IRELAND

This past summer, we took a group of high school students to Ireland. We helped a local ministry (Elemental) set up and establish a youth drop-in center. Their vision for each center is to create a safe place in a city where youth in the area can come and enjoy a positive environment. There are several drop-in centers around the country, and we were there to help establish one in the beautiful city of Dungarvan.

We needed a place to host the drop center, so we partnered with an amazing local church, Dungarvan Christian Fellowship. Initially, there was tons of work to do (create a logo, decorate, set up furniture, talk to youth in the area and hand out flyers, etc) so we jumped right in!
Click here to read more

PIZZA IN THE PARK

This past year we continued to help with the local Birmingham ministry, Pizza in the Park. It was great to get involved with this ministry again after returning from Nicaragua last year. While we were gone, it grew and now serves around 70 people from the Southside area each week. In addition to the normal weekly pizza, we pulled together and served a big Thanksgiving dinner as well as a Christmas dinner this year. We had so much food that everyone walked away full and we still had food left!

I can’t explain how special this ministry is to us. This year we saw several people that we hadn’t seen since we started it in 2006. They shared with us how much the ministry has meant to them and we were reminded of why we do it. What a blessing it is to see familiar faces and to know that each week God’s love is being shown to his people… one pizza at a time.

If you’d like to be involved with this ministry, email us at aheartforthenations@gmail.com for more information.

IRELAND OR BUST (WE’RE MOVING TO IRELAND!)

About 3 months after our trip to Ireland, we were presented with a long-term opportunity to go back and lead a team of youth workers. After lots of prayer and meetings with leadership from Adventures and Cornerstone (the church in New Jersey that we’re partnering with), we have officially accepted the position and are moving to Ireland!

Our goal to be fully supported by July 2012 and while all of this is very exciting for us, accepting the opportunity is only the first step. Please join us in prayer as we prepare budgets, start raising support, and making all of the thousands of little decisions that go into an international move.
Click here to read more

THANK YOU!

Looking back at 2011, there’s so much to be thankful for. We’ve grown so much in the past year and God continues to show us guidance and provision each step of the way.

Because of the selfless gifts many of you gave, we had the opportunity to serve God’s people for another year. We’re excited to see what God has for 2012! Until then, thank you!

SUPPORT

If you’re interested in joining our ministry, here’s some ways to get involved:

• Prayer
• Financial support
• We’re looking for people who will partner with us as we prepare to move to Ireland. You can give online by clicking here (mail-in support instructions included as well)
• Would you or your small group like to learn more about our initiative to Ireland?
• We are beginning to book dates with people who are interested in partnering with our ministry in Ireland.
• For more information or to set a date, please email us at aheartforthenations@gmail.com
• Share this post with your friends
• Post this URL to Facebook or email it to your friends to help us spread the word: http://www.aheartforthenations.com/ireland-or-bust/

Ireland or Bust

We have some very exciting news to share with you! As most of you know, after we returned from Nicaragua, Frank accepted a full-time position with Adventures in Missions working with the marketing department to help mobilize a generation to go to the nations. Not only has this time been very fulfilling for Frank as he uses his skills and talents for an organization we believe in, but we have both grown spiritually and have become deeply connected with the community at Adventures.

This past summer we led a 3.5 week trip to Ireland (you can read about it here) made up of 6 high school students and another awesome leader. To say this trip was life-changing would be an understatement. We took an amazing team and partnered with another amazing team, to help start a youth drop-in center in Dungarvan Ireland. The centers create a safe place for the youth in the city to come and hang out in a place that is safe and positive. While there, our team built relationships with the Irish youth while they served coffee and tea, played card games, listened to music and hung out. It truly was an incredible experience!

Our trip to Ireland was the first time Adventures had partnered with the youth drop-in center ministry. Since then, the relationship has grown stronger and the partnership is moving to the next step. One of the directors from Adventures approached us with an opportunity to build a team and go back to Ireland long-term to serve not only helping running the current drop-in centers, but also establishing new drop-in centers in every county of Ireland (the big vision). The opportunity not only fulfills our desire to grow into leadership, but it would put us back on the mission field full-time.

After lots of prayer and meetings with leadership from Adventures and Cornerstone (the church in New Jersey that we’re partnering with), we have officially accepted the position and are moving to Ireland!

Our goal to be fully supported by July 2012 and while all of this is very exciting for us, accepting the opportunity is only the first step. Please join us in prayer as we prepare budgets, start raising support, and making all of the thousands of little decisions that go into an international move. Please know that we are humbled daily by the ways you have invested into our journey thus far!

Stay tuned for more updates!

Our immediate needs:

• Prayer
• Financial support
• Give online by clicking here (mail-in support instructions included as well)
• Hire us
• We run a creative agency named D2L Studios. By hiring us to design a logo or help build an online presence for your company, you help us remain on the mission field. Stop by and check out some of our work or get in touch with us to see how we can help you!
• Can we speak at your small group about Ireland?
• While details are still begin ironed out, we are beginning to book times when we can come and speak to your small group about partnering with our ministry in Ireland.
• For more information, feel free to email us at aheartforthenations@gmail.com
• Share this post with your friends
• Post this URL to Facebook or email it to your friends to help us spread the word: http://www.aheartforthenations.com/ireland-or-bust/

Mistakes

A passage from Forgotten among the Lilies by Ronald Rolheiser:

“If the Catholicism that I was raised in had a fault, and it did, it was precisely that it did not allow for mistakes. It demanded that you get it right the first time. There was supposed to be no need for a second chance. If you made a mistake, you lived with it and, like the rich young man, were doomed to be sad, at least for the rest of your life. A serious mistake was a permanent stigmatization, a mark that you wore like Cain. I have seen that mark on all kinds of people: divorcees, ex-priests, ex-religious, people who have had abortions, married people who have had affairs, people who have had children outside of marriage, parents who have made serious mistakes with their children, and countless others who have made serious mistakes. There is too little around to help them. We need a theology of brokenness We need a theology which teaches us that even though we cannot unscramble an egg, God’s grace lets us live happily and with renewed innocence far beyond any egg we may have scrambled. We need a theology that teaches us that God does not just give us one chance, but that every time we close a door, he opens another one for us.”

Holy Heroes

History is filled with subversive “holy heroes,” such as Oskar Schindler and Harriet Tubman, and even Hollywood tells their stories in moving films like Schindler’s List and Hotel Rwanda. Sometimes we just have to discover the stories that we are in danger of losing, stories that don’t always make the news. Sure, it’s to build a memorial than to build a movement, and we’re always better at sculpting our saints than following them. But we have to remember the stories of people who have lived and died well. – excerpt from Common Prayer, A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals

Recently, I began starting each day in this book, reading the prayers, scripture and notes that it lays out daily for the reader. It has been a great practice to implement in my life and I have been encouraged by the notes that the authors have chosen to include with each day. They mostly coincide with US holidays so this past Monday (Columbus Day), they included a section titled, “Note for Columbus Day: We Need New Heroes”.

In this section, the authors convey their thoughts about how sometimes it’s the unlikely ones that become heroes and they use the examples of Paul Rusesabagina, Harriet Tubman, and Oskar Schindler who saved thousands of people from genocide and slavery. These people never sought out being heroes but when the opportunity presented itself, they took action at the risk of losing it all.

[image source]

We are in danger today of losing the stories of heros like Schindler, Tubman, and Rusesabagina. Take time today to pause and research the stories of some “holy heroes” from your generation. Then pass those stories on to others.

Resources:
Fox’s Book of Martyrs
Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals
Harriet Tubman
Oskar Schindler
Paul Rusesabagina

The Drop

Last month during our trip to Ireland, we helped a local ministry (Elemental) set up and establish a youth drop-in center. Their vision for each center is to create a safe place in a city where youth in the area can come and enjoy a positive environment. Elemental has several drop-in centers around the country, and we were there to help establish one in the beautiful city of Dungarvan.

[photo courtesy of Adam Bending]

We needed a place to host the drop center, so we partnered with an amazing local church, Dungarvan Christian Fellowship. Initially, there was tons of work to do (create a logo, decorate, set up furniture, talk to youth in the area and hand out flyers, etc) so we jumped right in!

The center would be open 6 days a week from 2-5pm and then from 7:30 (Irish “half seven”)-10pm. After setting up, we anxiously waited after we opened the doors for the first night. One by one, youth from the area came and hung out. After about a week of this, something beautiful began to happen…

…deep bonds and relationships were formed between our team and the youth in Dungarvan. So much so that the last night we were there was filled with 2 hours of sniveling & snotty teenagers (and some “not-so teenage” leaders) saying painful goodbyes.

We saw our team personally grow and press in to what it means to live in community with other people. Each one of them showed us that this generation is serious about living out a better story. They’re serious about their dreams. They’re serious about transformation and authenticity. They’re serious about their faith.

The bonds we formed while in Ireland are deeply etched in our lives and will not be forgotten. The Elemental team was truly an amazing group of people that showed us what authenticity, grace, and love looks like in action and I personally can not wait for the day when I get to see them all again.

Ireland Bound!

Today is being spent packing for a week of training camp in Georgia (which should be around 100 degrees) then packing for 3 weeks in Dungarvan Ireland (which should be around 60 degrees). Needless to say, this has been quite a packing experience!

We will be in Dungarvan Ireland for 3 weeks with a group of high school students. Please pray that God gets great glory from our time there and that we would serve the local church selflessly and wholeheartedly.

The trip is being led by this fearless bunch:

We’ll post some updates about the trip when we return but for more on the day to day, you can follow the trip’s blog here.

Summer 2011 Update

Kids from our family stop by at random moments during the day and we’ve had 90+ degree weather for over a week… it must be summertime!

The past few months have been great as we hosted friends we made while we were in Nicaragua as well as some of the crew from Kingdom Dreams! Here’s some of the other latest news from the summer:

Mobilizing with Adventures: Update

Adventures recently celebrated sending out it’s 90,000th participant on a trip so the team has been coming together on some really great campaigns. It’s incredible for me to reflect back on the countless hours that people have spent and how God has allowed us all to be a part of helping mobilize a generation to go to the nations to spread the gospel.

Ministry: Update

On June 26th we head to training camp in Gainesville, Georgia to lead a trip of 9 high school students on a journey to Dungarvan, Ireland! We will spend nearly 3 weeks in the city helping spread the word about a new youth ministry that is starting as well as building up relationships with the youth in the area. It looks like we will have lots of opportunities to share our faith with people in the city so please pray for us as we prepare to go.

** We will have a blog set up soon for Ireland that you can follow

Last month, we lost two of our closest friends from “Pizza in the Park” due to an apartment fire. This has been very difficult for us to process because they had become such good friends over the past 4 years. Please pray for the family and loved ones of Susan Willcutt (pictured center) and David Howe (pictured left):

If you would like to join us, you are more than welcome to come to come to Brother Bryan Park in Southside Birmingham every Monday night at 5:30pm. If you have any questions, please contact us at aheartforthenations@gmail.com.

** Pizza in the Park is now on Facebook!

Personal: Update

With all the good sunshine lately, our garden is growing fast! Check it out:

Support: Update

I still need $1,440 in monthly support in order to be fully supported. If you feel led to help me do this, click this link to give online or you can print off this support card and mail in your support (with “Frank Burder” on the memo line) to:

Adventures in Missions
P.O. Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470

Prayer Requests

Please join us in prayer for:

• Blessed lives of those involved with “Pizza in the Park”
• God to continue to glorify himself through my ministry with Adventures
• The 9 high students that we are leading to Ireland in 2 weeks!
• Financial provision to be fully supported to do ministry with Adventures