Well we are off to World Mandate (last years photo) tomorrow morning at 3am! This will be the fourth year in a row I have attended the conference. Each year God totally opens my eyes to what he is doing throughout the earth; God's vision for his church is so much bigger than mine. Last year it was Steve (our church planter going to Buffalo NY) and I, but this year there will be 26 of us going to Waco Texas. Antioch church, who hosts the conference started it as prayer meeting for the nations and it grew to being an international church planting/missions conference. I am eager to see what God is going to do with those we are bringing. They vary from new believers, to older Christians who have attended church without vision, accountability, and community, and mature Christians who want God to ruin their lives at any cost. Everyone from the Santa Cruz church plant is going and I hope we catch the vision of what is possible through the local church (Antioch has planted close to 45 communities worldwide). We are going early to attend their prayer meetings, since a move of God doesn't come through anything else than deep, desperate prayer.

1 Cor. 1:27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Well I'm halfway through my graduate degree in Inter-Cultural Studies (missions) and stumbled upon something really funny.
I have to write about 35 pages per class and most, if not all of this is double-spaced. Yesterday I found out I have written all of my papers 1.5 spaced not double-space. I did the math and I have written, on average, 9 extra pages for each class. I do enjoy writting, but I had to laugh at myself yesterday when I realized my "foolishness;" thank you God.

Reading Jean Vanier's book Community and Growth has been awesome. Jean founded l'Arche, which is a community for handicapped people. He often comments on how much he learns from those he is taking care of and when he serves them he comments, like Mother Theresa, that he is actually serving Christ. He says many challenging and inspiring things. Here are some comments about the poor: "Jesus calls his disciples not only to serve the poor but to discover in them his real presence, a meeting with the Father. Jesus tells us that he is hidden in the face of the poor, that he is in fact the poor...The cry of the poor is threatening to the rich person within us...The poor teach us how to live the Gospel. That is why they are the treasures of the church...Our job is to stay. It is too easy to come and live among the poor for the experience, to exploit them for our own spiritual ends and then to leave." He says this concerning pride, "Inside each of us is a little tyrant who wants power and the associated prestige, who wants to dominate, to be superior and to control. We are frightened of criticism." I hope I can be as bold as Jean Vanier in reaching out to those people who are not like me; reaching out to people who are not naturally included in my life. "God, please challenge and change my comfort zone to include those normally outside of it."