Breaking the Missional Code

A few days ago another church planting pastor, and a friend of mine, Joe Thorn posted a link to this article on his blog (www.joethorn.net). What drew me into reading it was that Joe was actually quoted in it and I wanted to see what he said.

After reading the article however, I thought that it was worth posting in my own blog because it is so closely related to some of the struggles that our church plant, Shadow Cross, has experienced and is going through.

You can read the article ‘Breaking the Missional Code’ Sees Churches as ‘Missionaries’ here.

Mark Kelly, the author of the article, explains that Southern Baptist churches have lost their effectiveness in outreach and are now, “struggling because their evangelism techniques no longer connect with communities whose culture has fragmented and radically changed.”

Kelly suggests that “Southern Baptists need to adopt the process used by their missionaries in seeking to be an incarnation, loving presence of Christ on their mission fields.”

Quoting from Ed Stetzer and David Putnam, the authors of the book, Breaking the Missional Code, Kelly writes, “The missionary studies the culture, looking for ways that God is already revealing Himself to the people. When that ‘bridge’ is found, the missionary can express the eternal truth of the Gospel in a way that is indigenous to the culture. People respond with joy and the Gospel spreads like wildfire through the network of their relationships.”

Stetzer and Putnam explain that “a missional church is one that acts like a missionary it it’s community.”

The problem, as Kelley continues to explain is that most North American churches do not view “missions” as something that happens here. Missions is takes place overseas.

In my opinion, if North American churches are going to recapture the attention of our lost communities and cultures we must become missional, gospel-centered, embody Christ, and discover new ways to connect with our Post-Modern, Post-Christian North American world.

The strategies of 50 or 100 years ago have not evolved with the changing worldviews of those we are trying to reach. It is not that they are wrong, per se, they just no longer speak the language of a Post-Modern worldview.

When we send missionaries to Africa or China surely we don’t expect for them to use the same model that they would use here in the United States. We don’t go to a foreign country and teach them English so they can read the bible and understand what we’re saying. We learn their language, and their culture and their worldview in order to reach them with a biblical worldview.

Kelly quotes Stetzer saying, “It’s funny we require international missionaries to do the very thing we often forbid North American churches – to contextualize their approach to their culture.”

Stetzer says, “It’s time for us to stop thinking attractionally –- ‘Come see our show’ --– and start to think incarnationally -– ‘Let’s go among them and tell them of this Savior who transformed our lives.’”

I agree...

God’s Plan: Part III

 

I had an amazing thought the other day one that probably most Christian’s know already but being a newly minted Christian struck me as profound.  To state it as simply as possible, everything that happens God can use for his greater glory.  Take a moment and think about the implications of that.  No matter what happens God can use it for his greater glory. 

 

We as imperfect human beings have a tendency to assign a label to the events that unfold in our lives.  When we are stuck in traffic or our train is late we have a tendency to get annoyed or frustrated.  It was not until I learned to take a step back and look at the bigger picture that I began to see God’s work in every aspect of my life.  It is so easy at times to get caught up in the day-to-day things that have a tendency to steal our attention away from the Father.  It is imperative as Christian’s that we grow to see God in everything.  I am not perfect, in anything, especially in this but I try everyday.

 

This is part three in what I had originally thought would be a three part series on God’s plan for my life.  I would like to amend that now and say only that it is part three and add that as my life continues to unfold before me so does God’s plan for that life.  It is my heart’s strongest desire that I continue to grow and move closer to Him in service for His greater glory.

 

For anyone who has not read part one of this series I will try to bring you up to speed as quickly as possible.  I was born with a rare genetic condition known as Ectodermal Dysplasia.  Basically it left me with few teeth, few sweat glands, thin hair, and a deformed face.  When I was 15 years old I had my jaw surgically broken and realigned.  When I was 17 I was fitted with a complete front bridge across the upper top and a set of precision fit dentures for both the top and the bottom that attached to the 7 or 8 teeth that I did have.  It was for all intensive purposes the first complete set of teeth that I had ever had.  At 19 I went in for reconstructive surgery on my nose, cheek and jawbones. 

 

The precision fit dentures that I had been fitted with during the spring of 1992 had lasted just over ten years when the upper denture had broken in the summer of 2002 just before my marriage to my wife Rebecca.  I had basic dental insurance that covered repairs to these dentures for a cost to me of only $26 dollars.  So I paid to have them repaired.  They broke a few weeks later so I once again paid to have them repaired.  I was told that a new denture would have to be built because the dentist that I was with simply refused to keep repairing them.  The cost of a new upper denture was roughly $126 dollars and while I really did not have that kind of money just lying around I was able to find it and pay for it.  In my mind it was a small amount to pay for a new precision fit denture that would probably last me another ten years.

 

When the new denture arrived I was a bit disappointed.  It was a standard denture.  For anyone who does not know the difference between a standard and a precision fit, I certainly did not until this happened, the precision fit dentures fit into grooves that had been cut into the teeth as well as a special cut piece of metal that had been built behind the front bridge.  The standard denture fit around the existing teeth.  I saw this as a problem because my front teeth on top were not teeth at all but a permanent bridge.  The other problem was that when I wore the precision fit partial and smiled no one could tell that I was wearing dentures unless they knew to look for the false teeth.  With the standard denture I had two metal hooks that wrapped around my front bridge.  I was 27 years old at the time and did not relish going through the rest of my life being self-conscious whenever I smiled.  For the first 17 years of my life I had been teased relentlessly for my thin hair and lack of teeth.  When I was given my first smile it was like a new door had opened for me.  It seemed to me, at that point in my life before I became a Christian, that the door was closing if not completely at least a little.  I expressed concern about the standard denture attaching only to a porcelain bridge upfront and that the stress on that might cause it to break.  I was told not to worry about it because the bridge was getting old and if it broke that would be an ideal time to get it replaced.  So with that comforting thought in mind I left with my new denture.                 

 

On April 15, 2004 I was sitting in a staff meeting at my job when I put my teeth together and heard a loud snap followed by a crunch.  In my mouth I felt my upper teeth on the left side give way.  Nobody in the meeting seemed to notice and I did not feel anything loose in my mouth.  I ran my tongue around the front of my mouth and did not feel anything out of place.  When the meeting adjourned I went to the restroom and removed the top denture, along with the left tooth of my front bridge.  My fear of the front bridge broken from two years earlier had come to pass.  At the exact spot where the standard denture clipped onto the front bridge had broken exposing a section of the cut metal behind it.  When I closed my mouth the exposed metal cut into the side of my upper lip.  I was able to fit the upper denture back in but it had nothing to attach to on the upper left side. 

 

At this time I was seeing a different dentist that was located closer to where Rebecca and I had moved.  I made a quick call to him to set up an appointment.  The earliest he could get me in was two weeks later.  The next day I was in so much pain I called and was able to move the appointment to the following Monday.  I remember over that weekend talking to God and asking him why.  Why did this have to happen to me now?  I was in pain and I was upset.  I had only had these teeth for ten years, no one had ever told me that they would break down and need to be replaced.  I had just finished grad school and gotten married.  I was probably as poor as I have ever been financial as well as spiritually in my entire life.  I of course did not see it at the time but God had things in control and it would not be until later that I caught a glimpse of the depth, complexity and greatness of his plan.  

 

I got in to see the dentist and was told that he could build a complete bridge across the top of my mouth that would go from one back molar all the way around to the other.  Unlike the denture this would not come out.  The cost, out of pocket for us, would be $3300 dollars; dental insurance would cover the rest.  We simply did not have the money.  I went back to God and prayed.  I told him that I was lost and did not know what he wanted me to do but I put it in his hands.  A few days later I was online and decided to visit the website for the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasia.  I thought I might be able to find something that would help.  I ran across a part of the site that I had never seen before that was in regard to a treatment fund they had set up to defer the cost of treatment for Ectodermal Dysplasia.  To apply for the funds you had to prove that you had the condition, have your dentist fill out a treatment plan and take an X-ray if it was applicable and send it in.  The foundation would review the case and determine how much money would be given to help with the cost of the treatment.  The next review was set up for June which gave us just over two months to get ready.

 

I called my dentist and he agreed that this was a great idea.  The next day I dropped off the forms the dentist would need to fill out.  My dentist, at the time, told me that he would need two weeks to complete his end of it.  With two months until the deadline that would be fine.  I started working on my part of the paper work.  Two weeks later I called the dentist to see how the paper work was going and was told that he would need another week to complete it.  No problem I told him I would call him in a week.  A week later I called and was told that he had completed the forms but that his printer had run out of week and he would pick a new ink cartridge up over the weekend and have them ready on Monday.  We set up a time to take the X-ray that would complete the proposal.  I told him that I would pick up everything I needed when I came in for the X-ray. 

 

When the day for the X-ray arrived I took the day off from working thinking that I would get the X-ray taken, the dentist paperwork and send it all off that day in plenty of time for the deadline.  When I arrived for the X-ray at around noon or so I was told that he did not really have the proper X-ray machine to take a full picture of the mouth and that he had not filled out the paper work yet.  He recommended that I see an oral surgeon who was a friend of his to have the proper X-ray taken.  He had basically been lying to me for the past two months about the paperwork he had not even looked at it.  Here I was a patient of his, I was in pain daily and desperate to get this taken care of and he simply did not care. 

 

I was furious.  I questioned God again why this was happening to me and again asked for direction.  The deadline was a week away and I just did not know what to do.  I contacted my dental insurance and changed dentists.  I then put a call into the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasia for a list of doctors, dentists and oral surgeons in my area who were familiar with my condition.  I was tired of explaining the condition and wanted to find doctors who not only understood the condition but also had treated people with it before. 

 

I got the list a few days later with an encouraging note attached from the foundation wishing me the best of luck.  On the list an oral surgeon at a local Chicago hospital was highlighted so I called his number first.  At this point I figured I had either better get used to the pain or get an appointment with an oral surgeon who knew the condition so that we could get the paperwork complete before the next deadline.  I explained my situation to the nurse who answered the phone.  She listened and when I had finished suggested that I talk to the doctor.  I’ve been around the medical profession since I was born and had never once spoken to a doctor over the phone.  The doctor came on the phone and we talked for a good twenty minutes.  It was during this call that he stated something that had never occurred to me before.  It was like a door had swung wide open.  The doctor had said that dental insurance would never cover the full cost of anything but that because Ectodermal Dysplasia was a medical condition, even though I was seeking treatment for my teeth, medical insurance should be petitioned for payment.  He told me that whatever dental insurance did not cover medical would pick up in most cases. 

 

It was late July by this time and I had been dealing daily with a broken front bridge since mid April.  I set up an appointment with my new dentist and because my insurance was an HMO I would have to talk to my primary care physician and convince him that I needed an appointment with an oral surgeon for my teeth. 

 

My new dentist was truly sent from God.  She offered suggestions for limiting the amount of pain I was in as well as offering several treatment options for correcting the problem.  When I asked if she would submit my case to dental insurance she responded enthusiastically.  I met with my primary care physician who was a bit puzzled over why one of his medical patients would come to him with what to him seemed like a dental problem.  I explained the condition to him and pretty much refused to leave until I had the referral in my hands for an oral surgeon.  I fought hard to get the oral surgeon that had told me that my condition was a medical condition and should be covered by medical insurance but it was not to be.  I did get the referral but because the doctor I wanted was not in the network it was to a different oral surgeon. 

 

In early August I arrived for my first appointment with the oral surgeon.  When we checked in we were told that the referral, which looked like a bunch of nonsensical words thrown together to me, did not mention anything about an X-ray and that they could not do a proper consultation without one.  I was nearly in tears.  The receptionist smiled at me and said, “Let me see what I can do about this.”  We had arrived half an hour early to fill out new patient paperwork.  In twenty minutes the staff at the oral surgeon’s office had my primary care physician fax over a new referral which gave them permission to take the panorex X-ray they would need for the initial evaluation. 

 

The oral surgeon met with my wife and I.  We explained the situation to him.  I went to get the X-ray taken and ten minutes later we were looking at it.  The realization of just a part of God’s plan hit me like a tidal wave.  The X-ray revealed that the broken front bridge was the least of my problems.  Due to my lack of teeth and the fact that I had been wearing dentures for the last ten years of my life the bone between the roof of my mouth and the bottom of my sinus’s had worn away to the point where it was as thin as an eggshell.  Had I gone with the first dentist and gotten the complete bridge built I would not have known about this problem until the bone had shattered which would have put me in worse pain than I had been in when the bridge had broken and would have opened me up to the possibility of a nasty infection.  God had known that from the start and had put in place the events and obstacles that had led me to his point.  I had questioned God when all of these things had happened instead of just trusting in him.  I made the choice right then and there to give it all to God and trust that he was firmly in control of everything that was happening from that moment on.

 

The oral surgeon had me set up an appointment with a dentist in the clinic and explained that they would work on my case together.  They would come up with a plan for treatment and write a letter to my medical insurance provider.  He recommended that I write a letter as well. 

 

A few weeks after that first appointment with the oral surgeon I sent my first proposal to my insurance carrier for treatment.  Three weeks later I got a letter back from them rejecting my proposal for treatment they stated that they did not pay for dental treatments of a cosmetic nature.  A few days after this Rebecca and I were having dinner with a friend of ours whose husband used to work for a medical insurance provider.  The topic of our medical insurance providers rejection came up and we were told that most insurance carriers, except in cases of life and death, reject the first proposal for treatment across the board.  I took that as a sign and drafted a letter appealing the letter of rejection the next day.

 

I began to look into the laws in Illinois regarding medical insurance and how it operated as well as studying to gain a better understanding of how my medical insurance worked.  I called my insurance carrier to ask for a copy of the benefits that I was entitled to under my medical insurance provider.  I went back to get all the dental records I could lay my hands on.  I found out that in Michigan, where I grew up, the medical professionals were only entitled to hold on to records for seven years and that all of mine had been destroyed.  I was able to get in touch with the pediatrician who had made the initial diagnosis of Ectodermal Dysplasia back in 1974 and she agreed to write me a letter regarding the fact the I did have Congenital Ectodermal Dysplasia.   

 

Three weeks after my second letter was sent I got my second rejection letter.  A few days later I had an appointment with my new regular dentist, not the one from the oral surgeons office, rather the one who replaced the dentist who suggested the bridge for $3300 dollars and then strung me along for two months.  When I told her about my rejection letter from medical insurance she told me about how she had taken a job with an insurance carrier after she had completed her dental boards and was waiting for license to arrive.  She stated that she could not start practicing until she had gotten her license but that she had completed the schooling.  When she was asked where she wanted to work in the insurance company she had stated that because of her background she felt she could be of help in the dental claims department.  She was told that it was not the policy of the company to put people with experience in a particular area in that area.

 

When I picked my jaw up out of my lap I went home and wrote a third letter to my insurance carrier appealing the latest rejection.  It was early December when I got the third rejection letter.  I guess they had gotten pretty sick of hearing from me because along with the rejection letter was a page from the benefits manual, that I had been trying to get a copy of for four months, underlined in bold black marker where all the reasons why my claim was being rejected for a third time.  They simply did not cover medical expenses of a cosmetic nature.  I re-read the rejection letter and it clearly stated that I should not write again because my claim would simply be rejected again.  I happened to know by that time that I could appeal to a medical board and my case would be reviewed by a team of doctors who would hopefully know what the condition was and why I was trying to get medical insurance to pay for it.  I honestly had no idea who had reviewed my claim up until then.  It did not make sense to me that a medical claim for insurance would not be looked at by a doctor until it had been rejected three times. 

 

I was preparing to appeal to the medical board and was rereading the single page they had sent me from the benefits manual with the reasons for rejection underlined.  I noticed that there was writing on the back of the page.  I flipped it over and saw a few more things the plan refused to cover and then about halfway down the backside of the page was, except in cases of congenital conditions in which case all expense are covered.  Congenital conditions are those that are given to us through our genetics.  Ectodermal Dysplasia of course is a congenital condition.  I drafted my fourth letter to my insurance company and after making a copy of it circled with the biggest fattest red marker I could find the except in cases of congenital conditions in which case all expenses are covered.  I sent off the letter and waited.

 

In mid-January of 2005 I got a letter from my insurance carrier.  It was a single sheet of paper that stated simply that my medical insurance provider had decided to pay all expenses in relation to my claim.  It had only taken seven months.  I honestly could not believe it.  I was reminded at the time of two bible verses that I now have attached to my computer screen as I write this.

 

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  ~ Philippians 4:13

 

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the Glory of God?” ~ John 10:40

 

I had been fighting for so long to get the funding approved that I had not really given much thought to what it was that funding would provide.  I was going under the knife in a big way.  The procedure would take place at the hospital.  I would be put under I would have the floor of my sinus cavity raised what is known as a sinus lift.  I was told at the time that it was an extremely painful procedure with a high risk of infection.  After the sinus lift they would take bone from my hip and graph it into the pocket that was created.  In time that would fuse to the eggshell thin bone that was already there and allow the doctor to place titanium implants that would act as an anchor for an entirely new set of permanent teeth.  The bone had to be built up because it was way too thin to begin with but also because the implants would need to be anchored in solid bone if they were going to last for any length of time.  While all this was going on the oral surgeon was also going to place five implants along the bottom of my mouth providing there was sufficient bone there to put them.  I understood the procedure pretty well because twelve years prior to this I had had part of my hip graphed onto my cheekbones in order to build them up.  I thought about having a tee shirt made that would have said my sinus’s are very hip now but it just did not seem that funny at the time. 

 

My biggest concern was the recovery.  I had undergone a number of procedures when I was in my early teens and had always recovered quickly.  I was now in my early thirties and while still young I was not as young as I had been.  I did not look forward to a long painful recovery.  At some point prior to the procedure I read the following; if God brings you to it God will bring you through it.  I just gave it to God and trusted that no matter how long the recovery took or how painful it was God would bring me through it. 

 

The day of the procedure came.  My parents drove to Chicago to be there for Rebecca and I.  In all honesty I was more concerned for them.  I would be on the operating table for about six hours.  For me it would pass instantly.  They would give me the happy juice and I would slip into a deep sleep only to wake up a moment or two later feeling worse off then when I had gone to sleep.  For my wife and my parents it would be six hours of worrying and uncertainty. 

 

I told them not to worry about me that I would be alright, that God was in charge and I had no doubt everything would turn out fine.  I was wheeled in to pre-op.  My left arm was taped down to a board so they could start an IV.  The tech tried starting the IV and had a rough time with it.  While the tech was trying to start the IV a resident came and taped a large towel to my head.  I was doing my best to be supportive to the tech was really doing his best but after five minutes of probing I found myself getting nauseated.  I thought to myself with everything they are going to be doing to me if I throw up I could almost guarantee that would cause major problems.  The tech apologized and called over a female tech and she got the IV started on the first jab.  She announced that the other tech had been going to deep.  I remember thinking where were you five minutes ago.  I was still nauseated but a quick prayer reminded me of when I had given blood back in high school.  The nurse who had taken my blood had told me that if I was nauseated to try and cough which would clear up the nausea.  A quick cough later and the nausea cleared up at once. 

 

I got a quick shot of the happy juice in my IV a morphine Demerol mixture.  Once I was out they used a bit of liquid cocaine around my nose and inserted a tube up my nose that went down the back of my throat.  I was rolled into the operating theater at around 2 in the afternoon after arriving at the hospital around 8 that morning.  Like I said for me it was an almost instant trip.  One minute I was getting the shot and wishing anyone within earshot a great weekend the next I was in recovery listening to a tech speak too loudly about what he was going to do that weekend.  I remember thinking that they must staff recovery with people whose conversation could wake the dead just in case something went wrong during an operation.  I reluctantly opened my eyes to light that seemed too bright and was eventually wheeled to my room. 

 

I must have looked a sight.  I had a vent in my hip to pull blood away from the site they had taken the bone for the graph from along with 14 surgical staples.  I had two IV’s one in each arm.  A tube up my nose that went down the back of my throat that would take care of any blood that might be bleeding down the back of my throat and my face was swollen and bruised from the trauma of the experience.  I was out of surgery around 8 that night and had an hour to visit with my wife and parents before they had to leave.  My throat hurt every time I swallowed due to the tube down the back of my throat.  I was told that it could not be removed until morning.  I was told that during the procedure the hospital staff took great care of Rebecca and my parents.  The oral surgeon had even called them several times during the procedure to update them on the progress they had been making. 

 

I was inclined at a 30 degree angle, had the tube up my nose that went down my throat and was required to keep ice packs on my face to keep the swelling down.  Such things do not make for a very restful night of sleep.  I was hooked up to a morphine IV that gave me a shot of morphine every six minutes if I hit a button.  I really was not in much pain despite everything I had been through.  The hardest part of that night was the fact that it was the first time in our marriage that Rebecca and I would be spending the night apart from one another.  The pain, the tubes, being inclined and the ice was no big deal but being away from Rebecca was tough. 

 

I was up all night.  I did not have my glasses so I could only barely make out the shapes of objects around me in the darkroom.  There was a clock on the wall across from me but I could only make out the fact that it was a clock.  I started talking to God and did not stop until the next morning.  I thanked him for everything, for my wife, for my parents for my making it through the procedure.  I asked him to watch over Rebecca and my parents to let them get some sleep and not worry about me.  I prayed for everyone I could think of.  I prayed for the guy in the bed next to me whom I had not met but I knew was in a great deal of pain.

 

At 6:00AM the next morning the Residents, many if not all, had probably been involved in the surgery the day before showed up to check on me and get me ready for my first walk.  It had been almost exactly 10 hours since I had rolled out of surgery.  The first thing we did was pull the tube out of my nose that had been causing me so much discomfort.  When I swallowed it was as if my sore throat had miraculously healed.  The Resident asked if I felt up for taking a walk.  I told them that I felt like I could fly.  One of the Residents smiled and said that it was probably the morphine while another said that we should just try to walk halfway down the hall and back.  I had not taken a shot of morphine in almost six hours it was a natural high I was on.  I was happy to be alive and happy that the worse was behind me. I was given a cane and instructed on how to use it.  They draped a second open in the back gown around me backwards so that no one would be able to see my backside.  It took four Residents to take me for a walk.  One was there just in case I started to fall.  One had the IV that was in my left arm.  One had the IV that was in my right arm.  The last resident led the way occasionally looking back to make sure that I was not in too much pain.  I was sore but it really was not bad.  We walked halfway down the hall and then back to the room.  

 

When Rebecca and my parents arrived a little later in the morning I took a few more walks going farther each time.  At times my nose would drip blood due to the sinus surgery but I did not let that deter me.  I felt good really good.  At around eight that night the doctor was able to see me.  He recommended that I stay another night in the hospital but when I expressed to him that I felt like going home he gave his consent.  The nurses on the floor I was on were great they found a 24-hour pharmacy near the apartment and wished me luck.

I was off work for the next three weeks but because I worked for a college they had a great health plan and I was fully paid for the time I had off.  I was not happy at the job all the time but I had always felt that I was there for a reason and this was probably one of them.  We had to return to the hospital the next day, which was a Sunday, to get the vent taken out of my hip.  I was about as pleasant as it sounds but I really did not care.  Over the next few weeks Rebecca was awesome.  She truly showed her love for me in everything she did.  For the first week I required someone to be there whenever I showered or went anywhere really and she was always with me never once complaining.

 

At night I was required to sleep on a 30 degree incline which was uncomfortable as all get out for me and I tossed and turned a lot.  Rebecca would wake up and realize that I was awake and ask me if I needed anything.  God was there as well.  After the second week I was well enough to go back to work.  I stuck it out for another week at home though just to make sure that I was okay.  It was a fast recovery considering everything that had been done to me. 

 

Over the next few months we let the implants heal and I had several more placed in under a local anesthetic.  In November I had a total of 10 titanium implants placed in my mouth five upper and five lower.  It was also in November that Rebecca and I started attending First Baptist Church in Wooddale.  We had never felt so welcome in a church before.  We could not make it from the front door to the pew without being greeted by ten people.  What struck me the most was how comfortable I was there and how authentic everyone was.  Insurance had dropped the ball so we were waiting for them to get their ducks back in a row. 

 

When January rolled around we were told that the dentist wanted two teeth extracted and two more implants put in.  The teeth needed to be extracted due to the fact that the enamel had worn off of them.  It had been thinned by the Ectodermal Dysplasia and when they had been ground down for a more normal appearance and had the grooves cut in them for the lower dentures they had about had enough.  The problem however was that the oral surgeon who had done the operation back in April had left his practice in Illinois and gone out to California.  I would need a new oral surgeon and it would take several months to get in to see him because not only was he taking on all the patients of the former oral surgeon he also had his own practice.  So I figured I would trust in God’s plan and God’s timeline and just leave it all in his capable hands. 

 

Also around this time a seminary student was returning from Texas with his wife.  Jamie and Cherron had returned to plant a church in the most un-churched city in America.  Rebecca and I had been attending a bible study on Thursday nights, which during the holiday had become bell-ringing practice, which we had also done and now at the start of the New Year 2006 we were attending Shadow Cross.  Rebecca and I both found ourselves inspired by the message and mission of what both Jamie and Cherron had been called to do.  God was starting to become more and more of a visible presence in our lives.

 

On March 16, 2006 I rededicated my life to Christ.  On May 21, 2006 I was baptized at First Baptist in Wooddale with Sally another member of the church and of Shadow Cross.  Shortly thereafter medical insurance once again fell back in line and a timeline to the completion off all the work that had begun back in 2004 was finally set down on paper. 

 

The extractions and the implants went off without a hitch and I was in very little pain.  Two weeks later I went in for another procedure.  This one was a bit rougher than all the others.  They had to graph some of my upper palate unto the bottom of my mouth to fill some gaps that had formed after the front implants had been placed.  They needed to cauterize the top palate and what should have been a one hour procedure turned into a three and a half hour procedure.   Towards the end of the procedure the Novocain was wearing off and they could not get the bleeding to stop.  They sealed the upper palate closed with a pressure bandage of sorts and told me to gently remove it that night before I went to bed.  Rebecca and I went home both of us worn out and exhausted from the ordeal.  When I removed the pressure bandage that night the bleeding started again.  I packed my mouth with gauze and reclined for an hour praying to God that it would stop.  If it had not we would have gone into the emergency room.  An hour later we removed the gauze and happily found that my mouth was no longer bleeding.  The next day my mouth began bleeding again and I thought here we go.  We packed my mouth with gauze again and an hour later were relieved to see that not only had the bleeding stopped but also my mouth had not bled as much as it had the day before.  On the following Wednesday I had awoken at 2:45 in the morning and was not able to get the bleeding stopped.  After over two hours of trying Rebecca ran me into the emergency room.  It was scary but at the same time I was at peace.  I knew that God was with me and everything would work out.  

 

This last procedure happened on July 21, 2006.  It has not been as easy as the other things that have been done.  I don’t think that I have had a full night’s sleep since the procedure.  At times it has been down right scary.  After a meeting of Shadow Cross, on the Thursday after the procedure, as I was getting ready to lie down for bed I began praying to God.  I just gave him all the anxiety, the fear, the pain just everything.  I told him that if his will for me was to wake up bleeding than I would wake up bleeding.  I might not be happy about it but I would be filled with joy that I was a child of God.  I woke up several times that night and the first thought in my mind each time was praise God.  I was not in pain and I was not bleeding which was a welcome change but even if I had been the first thought in my mind would still have been praise God. 

 

I have reached a cross roads in my life.  My sole desire is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.  I do not know what the future will hold for me.  Whatever it turns out to be I know that it will be so wonderful I will be smiling all the time because God would not have gone through all of this to restore my smile if there were not something worth smiling about.  In all honesty though I think I have already found it and that is a closer more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and the Father.         

God’s Plan: Part II

contributed by Adam T.

 God has blessed me by putting some truly amazing people in my life.  There have been so many times in my life where if I wanted to see God working in it I only had to look as far as the person standing next to me.  This is part two in what I hope will be a three part series.  I wanted to use this particular one to share with you some of the people God has brought into my life and how those relationships have enhanced my life.

 I could not have chosen a better set of parents to be born to.  Their faith, strength, compassion, love and humor have been a source of inspiration from the very beginning.  My father is a pharmacist with a brilliant mind and a wonderful sense of humor.  He once caught a doctor’s misplaced decimal point on a prescription that would have given a patient ten times the dose he was supposed to have had.  It would have killed the patient had my father not caught the error.  I went to a private catholic school for a number of years when I was growing up.  Every once in a while I would have to hand-deliver the tuition check to a nun in the office.  When I was in the third grade my father had given me the check to drop off and told me to hand it over to the nun and ask then her if I was catholic now.  I just cannot look back at the memory without smiling.  My mother has more strength then anyone I have ever met.  She has worked as an oncology nurse for a number of years.  The work is difficult and at times heartbreaking.  In order to treat people with cancer they have to literally poison them in hopes of killing the cancer cells and not the patient.  There are times when no matter how hard they try it is just that patient’s time.  I have had the opportunity to briefly watch my mother work at her job.  I have never seen such warmth and compassion in another human being as I have seen in my mother.  No matter the situation she always has a warm smile and a kind word to those she is interacting with.  I have spoken to some of the patients that she has treated and the families of patients.  The thing that kept coming up was they would tell me that my mother had been an angel in their time of need.  I believe it. 

 When I was growing up and going through some of the more extreme procedures my parents were always there.  They made sure that I had the best doctors and nurses.  A lot of children who go in for surgery are scared of the hospital because they are not familiar with it.  I was so comfortable whenever I went in for a procedure.  It was not unfamiliar or scary to me it was just where my parents worked.  When I was 15 years old and had my jaw surgically broken and wired together the first people I saw when I woke up in recovery were my parents.  My mother had made sure that I had everything I needed and my father was there with a poster that had two penguins on it.  One of the penguins had it’s head completely swallowed by a large fish that stuck up in the air, which was about how I felt at the time, the penguin without the fish on his head was saying, “Relax God’s in Charge.”  They are one of the many blessings that God has given me in this life.  The foundation of their example and God is what I have used to build my life upon.

 I met Brian my freshmen year in college at Michigan State University.  It was difficult for me to make friends because I was so shy.  In high school I had only two close friends Dave and Greg.  I had my first set of dentures less then a year before I headed off for college and still saw myself as the kid who was constantly teased growing up.  The first two weeks of college I only left my dorm room to go to class, go to work and go to the cafeteria to eat.  I was so afraid of people and what they might say or do.  I did not talk to anyone unless I absolutely had to.  I had a job at the bookstore in software and supplies it was there that I found myself working beside Brian.  I believe that there are times in our lives when God just opens doors for us.  I walked up to Brian and found all the fear just drop away.  My lack of self-esteem just dissolved and I was instantly put at ease around him.  We started talking and at some point I had asked him what he was going to do that weekend.  He told me that he had a math class on Saturday but after that he was just going to hang out.  Brian then asked me what I was going to do that weekend and without hesitating I said, “Oh I’m going to sacrifice something nasty to the god rodan.”  It was a joke and not very funny but Brian could not help but laugh.  I was in shock.  I did not talk to people as easily as I talked to him and I never joked around new people ever.  I was just at ease and God had opened that door for me. 

 Brian was the first authentic Christian I had ever met outside of my parents.  I was brought up in the Methodist church and had found myself surrounded by hypocrites.  People who would say one thing on church on Sunday and then go out the rest of the week and do the opposite only to return to church the next week and repeat the cycle.  They did not see anything wrong with this behavior and I did so I left the church and turned away from God.  At that time in my life I figured if God could let this happen in his church I did not want any part of it.  God however would not turn his back on me.  Brian is a sinner but he never pretended that he was not.  He taught me so much about having a personal relationship with God separate from the church.  Along with this he taught me the importance of fellowship with other Christians and that the two, God and religion, were separate entities.  God was not religion and religion was not God but they worked together quite well. 

 Brian has such a strong personal relationship with God and I could see it in how he lives his life.  Brian never tried to force his beliefs on me and he never once looked down on me or judged me because I was not a Christian at the time.  He saved me just by being in my life and being the Christian that he is.  We have known each other for almost fourteen years and have been the best of friends for that long as well.

 Towards the end of my freshmen year in college I lost a good friend from high school, Greg, to suicide.  I was 18 years old and had never dealt with anything that difficult in my entire life.  I leaned on Brian and was never let down.  Brian prayed for me continually during one of the roughest parts of my life.  Fall of that year I was supposed to be getting ready for another surgery and I was anything but ready.  I had dated a girl over the summer back in my hometown and she had broken up with me a few weeks after class started.  I was still trying to cope with Greg’s death and found myself in a state of depression.  Brian dragged me into the weight room one day and we started lifting weights.  The next morning he got me up early and dragged me into the weight room again.  I hated lifting weights.  I had never done it before and I hurt afterwards for days.  Brian would not take no for an answer and kept dragging me down there to lift before we had to leave for class.   I was less than enthusiastic about it and was shaken awake a number of times when I would doze off on a weight bench.  Brian never complained about my lack of enthusiasm and he never got angry with me when I would argue about not wanting to work out.  He would just stand there until I worked it out of my system and then we would head down to the weight room. 

 We hung out all the time that fall and winter and would just talk late into the night about God and life and anything that came to us.  Sometimes we would leave the dorms and walk up to Grand River Avenue and the thirty-one flavors for ice cream not saying more than a few words between us.  I never told Brian that I was down and I never told him that I was hurting.  He just knew and he knew exactly what I needed.  When it came time for the surgery that winter I was in the best shape of my life and I was mentally prepared for what was about to happen.  The surgeon who performed the operation was amazed at how quickly I was able to recover from having a section of my hip removed and graphed on to my face.  I was up and walking the next day with help and little pain.  I owe all that to Brian and to God. 

 I saw a quote the other day that said, “A friend will help you move, a true friend will help you move bodies.”  Brian is a true friend and over the years we have been there for each other through the good times as well as the bad.  If you are wondering we have never moved bodies for each other.  God had brought the perfect person into my life at the perfect time.  Brian brought me back to God just by being the wonderful person that he is.  He was the example and the brother that I needed right when I needed him the most.     

 I met my wife the first time I had ever been drunk in my entire life.  As a rule I do not drink.  I had my first sip of beer when I was almost 22 years old.  I just never saw the attraction to getting drunk even when I was not a Christian.  So my tolerance for alcohol is nonexistent.  When I moved to Chicago to start film school Brian got a job in the area and we shared an apartment.  It was the summer of 1999 and I was preparing for a film that I would be shooting that October.  The script called for a half bottle of Jack Daniels and the store did not sell half bottles of Jack.  So I had purchased a $15 dollar bottle and being the frugal student that I was I did not want to pour half of it down the drain.  So Brian and I decided to drink half the bottle.  I started out with 90% Cola and 10% Jack.  At that rate Brian had told me that it would take us until October to get down to half a bottle.  So then it was a 50/50 mixture and by the end of the night we were doing straight shots of gentleman Jack.  I tottered off to bed and lay down only to find that the room would not stop spinning.  I realized that if I lay there for much longer the Jack Daniels I had ingested was going to make a second appearance so I got up and decided to find someone online to talk to.  I just wanted something to take my attention off the fact that the room was spinning.  I signed on and did a search for someone who liked to read.  I love to read and thought it would be a great thing to talk about until I sobered up a bit.  I ran across a screen name that had sunny in the title and figured that since it was the middle of the night I could use a little sunshine.  So I sent an instant message and said something like hello.  Sunny responded back and we started chatting online.  Sunny was of course my future wife Rebecca and we spent several hours just talking.  She was impressed that I was not hitting on her.  I always joke with her and tell her that it was because I was holding on the desk trying not to fall off the earth.  I explained to her that I was drunk, the reason why I was drunk and the fact that I had never been drunk before.  She was okay with it and surprised that I would admit such a thing.  Had I not been drinking that night we might have never met.  I think though that God would have found another way to bring us together. 

 Over the next few months we chatted online and exchanged e-mails.  A few months later we had our first date and met face to face for the first time.  I have never seen anyone so beautiful.  A week later we had our second date and our first kiss.  From the start of our relationship I had told Rebecca that I did not want to get married until I had finished film school.  A year and a half after we had met I was preparing to shoot my thesis film.  The time had just flown by.  Rebecca was such a kind and supportive person and we just fit together.  We took a walk in the woods where we had shared our first kiss.  Rebecca was talking about how nervous I must have been.  I was thinking about how nervous I was at that moment with the engagement ring burning a hole in my pocket.  We reached the spot we had our first kiss and stopped to share another.  I told her that I needed to tie my shoe and dropped down to one knee.  I pulled the ring box out and opened it.  After which I waited for her to look down.  Eventually she looked down to see what was taking me so long thinking that I was getting the knee of my pants soaked with water and saw me looking up at her.  I asked her if she would marry me and she said yes.  I had told her that I did not want to get married until after I had finished school but what I did not tell her was that I did not mind a long engagement. 

 That summer I shot my thesis film in Michigan.  I was having a horrible time on the shoot.  I was away from Rebecca and everything that could go wrong did go wrong.  It was August and about 98 degrees in the shade.  The first day of shooting took place in a lobby that was about fifteen degrees hotter than everywhere else it was like standing in a greenhouse.  After 10 hours of shooting we drove over to the hotel that we were staying at and found out that they had set up our stay for three years from the day we had requested when we had made the reservation.  I found myself crammed into a single room with the entire crew and not enough beds to go around.  When I called the front desk for a cot they told me they would send one up when one became available.   While this was going on the police surrounded the hotel and shot and killed a fugitive they had been hunting for who just happened to have a room down from us.  After the ambulance crew rolled the body out I watched in horror as they rolled the cot out of the room past the yellow police tape and to our door.  I had serious thoughts about canceling the production and heading back to Chicago to rethink the whole project.   

 Rebecca showed up, as I was about to pack up and leave.  She had rented a car and drove all the way to Michigan to surprise me.  She only stayed for a few days of what would be a ten-day project but everything just turned around once she arrived.  Rebecca was so supportive and it just made me love her all that much more.  I completed the shoot on time and under budget, which had never happened to me on a film shoot before.  The following summer I finished editing the film and was awarded my graduate degree.

 In September we were married after being engaged for a year and a half.  At that point we had known each other for three years.  Our wedding was one of the most incredible events of my life.  I had been told ever since I had asked Rebecca to marry me that the wedding was going to be an insane event that would cause so much stress.  I have never been so calm in my entire life.  I woke up the morning of our wedding in a state of complete peace.  When I saw Rebecca at our wedding ceremony it was like seeing her again for the very first time.  I felt God’s presence at that moment stronger than I ever have.  I felt that us getting married pleased God so much and that his love happiness was everywhere. 

 I had imagined growing up what the person I would marry would be like.  In my wildest imagination I never dreamed of anyone as close to how wonderful Rebecca is.  I cannot image my life without her.  God brought us together and I see his glory in our relationship each and every day.           

 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the Glory of God?”  John 10:40

 My life has been filled with the love and glory of God.  I just never realized it until I began to actively seek him.  His love for us is infinite.  How have the people God has brought into your life enriched it and have you told them lately how much they mean to you?