A few days ago, 22 year-old Hannah Luce was in a small plane with four guys flying to a Teen Mania conference. Something went wrong with the plane and they were forced to crash land in Kansas, skidding across a field and hitting some trees.

 

Three of the men in the plane died on impact. Only Hannah and 27 year-old Austin Anderson, a marine who had done two tours of duty in Iraq, survived. Austin got free, but he could see that Hannah was trapped as the plane caught fire. Somehow he got her out of the plane, exposing himself to the flames in the process.

 

Austin suffered burns over 90% of his body, but he and Hannah were able to get to a nearby road and get help. Not long after, Austin died from his burns, but he saved Hannah's life.

 

This morning, after reading their story, I was scheduled to speak to a group of our long-term missionaries who are here for training. I spoke to them about Austin's heroism - about how he gave his life so that Hannah could live. And I said, "The world needs heroes like Austin. Around the world, people are trapped in horrible, hopeless situations. They need someone to brave the flames and come rescue them."

 

In many ways, our long-termers are doing just that. Roberto Calderon has seen the young women trapped in the sex trade in Cambodia. Justin and Erin Cron feel the call to help the more 90% in Andhra Pradesh who have never heard someone tell them who Jesus is. Others feel called to respond to the poor in Africa.

 

But as much as something inside us longs to see heroism in ourselves and others, there seems to be a backlash against heroes today. Helping hurting people in Jesus' name is seen as cultural imperialism. Better to let them alone - talking to them about your reason for hope is presumptuous. We're happy to be advocates for social justice issues, but few are prepared to go and bring justice. It's too messy and too costly. And our coffee shops and American ways are too comfortable.

 

We need more heroes. We need people whose world view is not so filled with paralyzing ambiguity. People who will rush into the fire and rescue those who are caught in a cycle of pain.

I can't imagine being faced with the choice of giving your life to save another person. But that's what heroes do. Austin Anderson's selfless example will continue to speak for years to come. We need more people like him. I think we're called and can choose to be like him. The question is, will we respond to the call?

The book Generation Ex-Christian by Drew Dyck (as summarized here by David Mays) depicts a scary future for anyone who cares about the Church in America.

Young people are dropping out of church at a rate five to six times the historic rate. And partly because adolescence is so much longer, don't expect them to come back like earlier generations.

 

Postmoderns process reality in a profoundly different way. How they feel in a particular moment trumps any previously made commitments. Nothing can be absolutely true for everyone. Experience is the key to finding truth. Rationality and logic don't fit in their spiritual arena.
 
Broad proclamations of truth are seen as arrogant dangerous. Homosexuality is not about right and wrong but about dominance and oppression. When people believe something very strongly, they are apt to try to force that belief on others.
 
Postmodern thought believes a literary text can ultimately have no fixed meaning. This has moved from literature to life, so that there is a radical skepticism toward any truth external to oneself.
 
Postmoderns are also very concerned for the marginalized. Postmoderns often condemn the church for being insensitive in this area, even pointing back to the Crusades and the Inquisition. Moral relativism and a low view of truth are clearly irreconcilable with a biblical worldview.
 
Many have negative childhood experiences of pain and abuse. It is difficult for children to differentiate between their abusers and God. If abuse is not acknowledged or done in the name of God, it shakes the foundation of faith. And of course many other human failings sour people on faith. Many leave for emotional reasons and find intellectual reasons to support it. "Often disbelief is only a smoke screen, a reflex of recoilers to mask deep disillusionment and pain."
 
 

The young people most likely to remain faithful are those whose parents modeled a dynamic faith and those who established their own personal devotional lives.

John Hearn led a group of world racers that Karen and I coached. When we'd rendezvous with the squad in some obscure place in the world and ask how he was, his transparency was refreshing. He'd say something like, "I'm a hot mess."

 

And he was. Working through his understanding of  who Jesus is and his own culturally-defined identity was hard work.

 

Having been a church pastor, John had seen enough of American Christianity to struggle with the contrast he saw overseas. I've excerpted some of his final blog (and a rap). To see the rest of it, go here.

I'm not going to lie...being back in the States is hard.  Like a vampire exposed to light, I'm finding it difficult to adjust to my new surroundings.  I feel blind at times as I carefully feel my way around this unfamiliar world.

Life is different after The Race.  America is different after the race.   People have changed. Heck, I have changed.  My dog has expanded in girth and my mamaw has decreased in height.  Friends have new husbands, new wives, new babies, new lives.  Familiar faces have passed away and strangers have entered the picture.  I feel more homeless in my own bed than I ever did sleeping on a bus station floor in Asia.  

My world has changed.

It's no longer acceptable to wear the same clothes 4 days in a row.  
I have actual choices as to what I'm going to eat for dinner.
I am overwhelmed by the luxuries of America.
I have to work harder to find peace.  
I no longer have orphans tugging on my clothes.
The war against mosquitoes has ended.
I no longer like my Jesus.

There I said it.... I DON'T LIKE MY JESUS....

After living in the bush, loving on orphans, befriending prostitutes, and baptizing the nations, my Jesus has been UNVEILED, DIVULGED, EXPOSED....

My Jesus is a FrAuD...

After returning from the race it was my revelation, that I worshiped a God with a false reputation.

The truth is that Jesus is like nothing I heard, in fact everything above is completely absurd

I was worshiping a Jesus that man had created - a Jesus that was dead and completely outdated.

I put him in a box, a prison of his own, and knocked my King down from his heavenly throne.

The Jesus in the Bible is not to be confined by pages, as he has continued to save throughout the ages

He came down from heaven to this earth we are in, and defeated the enemy we know as sin.

If he walked into your church on this very day, I'm sure some of you righteous would shew him away

To most Christians he would appear as a total stranger, maybe raise some red flags as you think you're in danger

Because he wouldn't be adorned in His Sunday best - that suit and that tie with that outlandish vest

His smile sports dirt, dust, and a little mud, you better protect your carpet before he stains it with blood

You can't categorize him as black or white, and no matter how much you wanna be right

Jesus is not a man who chooses one over another, because he loves us all regardless of color.

This man known as Christ is not bound to a church, instead he's out continuing the search

Because safe doesn't describe Jesus by any means, because the REAL Jesus redefines the American Dream.

 

Nila's mom's condition worsened and two years ago, she died.

 

Now Nila and her dad work 12 hours a day making bricks to pay off the loan. Nila dreams of going to school and one day becoming a teacher. "I am not able to study, but I want to spread education among other children who are not able to go to school," she says (see the video below).

 

No child should have to live like this. I'm sharing this in hopes that some of you will put Is. 58:6 into practice, "To loose the chains of injustice."

 

Cost to Free Nila: $1500. The brickmaker has agreed to settle her debt for a reduced rate. If you're interested, please contact me and I'll put you in touch with my accountant, Tara. Tara is in touch with Emmanuel who oversees the process (more here).

In America, we are a nation born out of rebellion declaring our independence. We tend to struggle with authority of any kind. This can make it hard to trust. When someone says "you need to trust authority," we are likely to ask "why?" I know I do, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

 

I'm not saying that you blindly trust a discipler. Nor am I saying that as a discipler you can tell a disciple, "Just do what I say." What I am saying is that until you settle this issue of "do you trust me?" you're not likely to help a disciple to make significant change. For example, look at the difficult things Jesus said about forgiveness, worry, and treating people who wrong you. He's basically saying, "trust the people who have done you wrong." But how can I as a discipler encourage you to do that if you haven't really figured out if you trust me yet?

 

It sounds harsh to our modern ears. But read the sermon on the mount (Matt. 5-7). Jesus asks for radical, non-common sense type behavior from his disciples. "If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it." What? Who does that? To move to that standard of behavior takes trust.

 

And I admit, I have only rarely been able to appeal to trust with my disciples. I can't ever recall saying, "Do it because I said so." That just doesn't fly in our society. What happens instead is that I reason with them and line up my rationale and then they pray about it and consider what they're going to do. 

I was talking to a friend who is discipling a young lady. Her advice is brilliant. But my question was, "So what? Will she follow your advice or is it optional?" When you can ask a disciple to take hard advice and she does so, you've got authority in her life. Jesus had authority and he used it. He gave it to his disciples and he wants to give it to us. But we have to use it.

 

Settling the "Is your advice optional?" question requires asking another: "Who am I to you?"

Spiritual gifts can be wonderful and confusing - connecting us deeply to God and simultaneously dividing us from our brother. Whole denominations have sprung up focused on certain gifts. Churches frequently split over gifts.

 

The problem is not the gifts themselves, it's just the way their used. That's why after the gifts are described in 1 Cor. 12, they are prioritized in the next chapter and then given "operating instructions" (doesn't every good gift have some kind of operating instructions?) in the chapter after that.

 

God tells us that gifts are to edify ourselves and others - "to equip his people for works of service." (Eph. 4:12) But you can take a spiritual gift and misuse it in a number of different ways. Here are three of them:

1. Elitism- A sense of superiority or elitism can come to characterize those who have discovered how wonderful those gifts are. The very same behavior that causes fights between children in the playground can afflict church members as well.

 

 

3. Over-spiritualizing- Not every conflict is spiritual warfare. Yes, the devil wants to kill, steal, and destroy. But sometimes folks just lack people skills. Sometimes they make bad decisions that lead to painful consequences. You can assess the reality of a given gift by the fruit it produces. If people feel diminished by a gift, if it is bringing division, then perhaps God is not in it.

 

Because we're all broken, our ego needs can get in the way of a gift's expression. We need help in understanding how to use them. God rarely gives gifts to us fully formed. We know from experience that as we exercise faith and practice using a gift, we become adept at using it. My first efforts at teaching were pitiful. If God has given me a teaching gift, it has grown through use.

 

Given the mess that some spiritual gifts can create when they're misused, it can be tempting to just shrug and remain indifferent about them. But Scripture tells us to "eagerly desire spiritual gifts." We need to press into the mess.

 

Jonathan Little gave me the details on an opportunity yesterday that I thought I'd share on the blog. Some of you may know a young person who would benefit from it. It's a 40-day discipleship journey into one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

Something happens to you when you're out in nature for an extended time. The poisons that have built up living in this world that seems stuck on fast forward get purged. The noise that fills our brains begins to fade.

 

And if you stay away from civilization long enough, you can begin to hear God speak about some of the questions that you've asked but never answered.

 

Questions like: "What is my purpose in this world?" and "What is God's will for my life?"

 

God inhabits creation and speaks to us through it. He has the answers, different and individual for everyone. Our heavenly Father so desires to know us, and be known by us. He want's to be pursued as he pursues us.

 

Knowing this, three leaders at Adventures decided to organize a 40 day wilderness expedition with a focus on discipleship this summer. It's for a small group of young people age 19-25. So far eight (half guys and half girls) are signed up. Three more spaces are available for two guys and one girl.

 

They're calling it "Journey into the Deep."  The hike is in the canyon lands of Utah, costs $1600 and leaves June 24.

 

Here is how they describe it: "A study of Jesus' life will show that he often withdrew to a lonely place to hear from the Father. Journey into the deep is an opportunity for you to find your "lonely" place and learn how to hear from the Father. We will be hiking the  by day, and sleeping under the stars at night.

 

Cut off from the world's distractions, you will be challenged to focus on eternal things. The leaders will help create a safe environment will be created that will allow you to find what intimacy with the Father looks like for you.

The leaders

I can vouch for these guys. They've gone extensive wilderness expedition leadership experience (check out their last one here). They know how to help people grow in their walk with the Lord.

 

Jonathan Little has a passion for discipling  people in the Lord and leading them into a true communion and intimacy with the Father. He has extensive experience leading young people in wilderness experiences. The Lord has blessed him with a desire for  the  Kingdom of God to be revealed and lived out among the Body of Christ.

Miles Tiegs' love for Christ is evident in all he does. Miles has an amazing heart for wanting to know the Father more and to ignite that desire in all around him. His trust in the Lord is something that anyone around him can't help but notice and want more of. He has a passion for bringing true freedom in Christ to people who are searching for it.

 

Anna Woods has led multiple mission projects. She and another team member are strong worship leaders. She loves young people and the out-of-doors. She lives near Atlanta.

For more information, go here or call 800-881-2461 and ask for Ann or Jonathan Little.

If you had the money and could buy a child's freedom from slavery for $1500 would you?

 

If you're like me, you'd want to know more details. Slavery from what? And what kind of life would he have afterward? And what's to prevent the adults who enslaved him in the first place from doing the same thing to other kids?

 

In Pakistan and India, it's common practice to use children to make bricks. In yesterday's post I detailed Sharjeel's situation. His parent's died in an accident and he was left to pay their bill.

 

At just ten years-old, Nabeel is in a similar spot. His father died a couple of years ago, leaving he and his mother to pay of their debt. Every day she watches him work in the brick factory with her while other children go to school. She'd do anything to make it possible for him to not have work 12 hour days and get an education instead. Paying the loan off and then sending Nabeel to school would be a dream come true.

 

But you have to ask questions before you try and help. When does this sort of thing stop?  How many other children are there to take their place? And what's to keep corrupt men from taking advantage of our compassion and bilking us of our money?

 

This kind of situation is sadly common. With the help of those of you who responded, we are in fact paying off Nabeel's debt and sending him to school.

 

But without our trusted partner on the ground, Emmanuel Sadiq, we would be an easy mark for those without scruples.

 

Compassionate Americans often play right into the hands of men whose ethics don't prevent them from using small children to make money. And in some situations, our naivete can actually perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

 

For example, you have to ask, is there a difference between Nabeel's situation and the so-called third world sweatshops where employees are free to quit if they don't like the wages their employers are offering?

 

Every time we seek to help someone like Nabeel, we have to do the due diligence to ensure that we're not being played for fools. It's a harsh environment, and it's important to be able to verify that people are who they say they are.*

 

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*Sadly, there are hundreds of children like Nabeel working 12 hour days in the brick factory. If you'd like to help them, please contact me and I'll put you in touch with Tara and Emmanuel, who are working to free them.

Sharjeel's parents had a hard life. They were brick makers in Pakistan and indebted to their employer.

 

To make ends meet, they had Sharjeel work alongside them.

 

Then a terrible tragedy struck. Sharjeel's parents were in an auto accident and died.

 

What does it feel like to be sold into the sex trade as a young girl? I can't imagine the horror of a 12 year-old girl being forced to leave home and then be sold to a brothel and then to strange men. Think about it. Put yourself in their shoes. What night terrors must they face? How would they even begin to process the pain?

 

Amanda Howard, a World Racer, helps us get a sense for what it must be like:

 

We walked through the market. A young boy quickly caught my attention. He too was selling flowers. He too was being seasoned. He too was a slave; a soon-to-be sex slave, and no matter how he felt, his identity would soon be stripped and he would be transformed into a "ladyboy", sold as a woman.

The sound of the girl sobbing brought me back to my senses and I realized that I was staring. Most of my team was further ahead, but they had stopped at this point as well.

Her world had just come crashing down. I wondered if it was her first time. I knew it wouldn't be her last. Even if it was her first experience, I knew that she would be sold as a virgin yet again. They would send her to the doctor, stitch her back up, and resell her like she was new, just to make more money off of her. This process would continue as long as her body would allow.

She wore her hair long. It was beautiful and dark and flowed down her back. She looked so young, so innocent, so heartbroken, so hopeless. She stood in the arms of a woman next to a man on a motorcycle and she was sobbing hysterically. The woman wrapped her arms around her, but she had a smirk on her face and the other women simply snickered in the background. They got their money out of her, and they knew that it was only a matter of time before she would become accustomed to the business. She hid her face in the woman's arms, but he continued to speak to her.

"Are you okay? Are you feeling any better? I hope it doesn't hurt too bad. Well, at least you can go home now."

I wanted to run back, grab her out of their arms, and throw any amount of money at them just to save her. I wanted to scream and tell her that she was loved.

"You are precious! You are beloved! You are NOT alone! You are still pure! You have a heavenly Father that has NOT abandoned you, so don't give up hope!"

I choked back the tears and kept the prayers flowing from my lips as we continued to walk down the street."