Supporter Saturday: Featuring Cat Lovers (Ewww! Gross!)

Today's supporters, Jon & Susan Menton,  come to you from Fresno, California, however, I met them in Davao City, Philippines while their church teamed up with Convoy of Hope and Family Circus Children's Ministry. They are secretly missionaries just like myself, they just masque it with their day jobs.  They're great supporters and have helped me out many times over the last few years of knowing them. BUT, they're SERIOUS cat lovers, I mean, like it's a stretch for us to be FB friends, they take offense to all my, "I hate cats!" statuses (Which I think I'm due for one lest anyone forget!) and I take offense to them blowing up my wall with "look at my cute cats" photos, nonetheless, our love for Jesus and sharing His love around the world supersede this serious flaw that they have!

They've recently be trekking all over the world sharing the love of Jesus through community development. I'm going to tell some of their most recent story in their own words and pictures, it'll give you great insight to who these great people are.

Did you know that....
More than 1,800 children die every DAY of preventable water-borne diseases and nearly 800 million people worldwide do not have safe water?

Jon & Susan know this, this is why they have teamed up with www.lifewater.org  recently going with them to southern Ethiopia a beautiful land and beautiful people surrounded by ugly water and ugly sanitation issues.

Jon & Susan GET IT! Some people cast stones and say, as Christians we shouldn't be out doing all this humanitarian aide non-sense we should leave that to the "World" we should be worried about souls not water and rice, they'd say. I'd like to encourage those people to go without eating tomorrow and maybe  walk several miles in the heat, gather up some dirty water from the river, tote it home, drink up, and then find a place outside somewhere to spend their day of diarrhea and then let me know how their soul is doing! (Those were my words not Jon & Susan's!)

They're nicer missionaries than I am, Jon & Susan would probably say, "Come along with us and see what you think should be done." And take them to the ends of the earth where the above statistics are true.  They'd teach the WASH curriculum (Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene) and train the nationals to dig and repair their own wells and pumps, and how to utilize Bio-Sand filtration, so that the work is sustainable and owned by the people there!

They're really good at Micah 6: 8:

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

I'll close out this tribute to great missionaries and great supporters of other missionaries with a quote from them: "What do you think God wants for people?"they were asked. Their reply:

  I believe God wants all people to know and to love Him and to share that love with others (the two greatest commandments).  One way to begin doing that is to empower people with the knowledge they need to transform their lives and communities.    God is the one who can truly save people, but he wants us to love and care for one another while we are here on this earth.  Something Lifewater does very well.

In hindsight, this totally would be my response to the humanitarian aide haters! Thanks Jon & Susan for being great supporters and great missionaries.

The 100th Blog Post: Keep on Trucking Because this is True

Picking up the Change made it's appearance 7/30/2009 in hopes of documenting life lessons learned the hard way (because that's evidently how I like to roll!) Possibly saving others a few steps and bringing a chuckle or two at both my literal and metaphorical clumsiness! And maybe, just maybe, encouraging someone to take the narrow road because it leads to true life, adventure, and a bit of insanity, but all COVERED by the One who cut the path for us in the first place. 

Although writing the 100th blog post has been on my to do list for a couple of months now, I think it was meant to be written this weekend. Easter weekend. The weekend that over 2000 years ago He went before us one foot in front of the other, a path filled with thorns, accusations, nails, loss, abuse, injustice, lashes, betrayal, great cost, humiliation, alone, carrying His own cross, pain at every level with every step. He sacrificed all, so we could be free.  "It is Finished," He exhaled. And 3 days later, He arose and gave us the following instructions and promise, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age."

One by one the disciples walked the path He had cut for them, each one gaining followers as he went, one behind the other.

In the early 1800s a man by the name of Adoniram Judson chose to join the line and obey the instructions Christ gave over 2000 years ago to GO and make disciples of ALL nations and he became the first missionary to the Buddhist people. In 1813 as he stood on the hills of Pagan in Burma overlooking thousands of vast temples and pagodas and erected idols, he is quoted to have said, 

"Perhaps we stand on the dividing line of the empires of darkness and light.  On shade of Arahan, weep over your falling temples. Retire from scenes of your past greatness.  But you smile at my feeble voice.  Linger, then, your little remaining day.  A voice mightier than mine, a still, small voice will before long sweep away every vestige of your dominion. The churches of Jesus will soon supplant these idolatrous monuments and the chantings of the devotees of Buddha will will die away before the Christian hymn of praise."

Judson didn't live to see this come to pass.  Over 170 years of missionary effort later "Buddhism still looks as strong and impregnable as the fortress of Jericho appeared to the Israelites in Joshua's time.  The Christian impact on Buddhism seems like small cracks in solid, immovable walls." - Elizabeth Wagner.  (But we all know what eventually happened to the walls of Jericho!)

Almost 200 years exactly after Judson stood and made his claim on the hills of Pagan I sat in Bangkok, Thailand with a group of missionaries who have been obediently walking the path for several decades already. Statistics were given of our beautiful nation still only 1% Christian even after Judson and those that came after him, and after decades of service by those I sat amidst. It's overwhelming to me.  I left the meeting a bit depressed and walked outside to self medicate (to get a coke from the 7/11.)  

There's a field that separates the building we meet in and the 7/11.  Rumor has it  from veteran missionaries that when they braved it many years ago it was quite a dense jungle of a field and home to python or some other unbelievably large man eating snake. Just a few months ago it was still a decent lil forest that I would brave the thorns and thistles and critters to get to my coke.  Today there are no trees just rocky ground, brush, and garbage and the outline of a forming small foot path. The path isn't yet clear and far from being "paved" but it's visible, faintly. 

After my 7/11 trek I went to my room to enjoy my coke and my AC and to sadly think about the "impregnable fortress" that surrounded me. In that moment God began to speak to me about the path. He said if we will continue to walk the path, it will become more and more visible to others and others will be curious about the way, about where it leads, and begin to check out the path for themselves and find out why we take it, they will be led to the truth.  Jesus, the disciples, their followers, Judson, the Hosacks, the Johnsons, now us, and whoever follows, we're moving obstacles out of the way, we're stomping down the garbage and the dangerous stuff, we're clearing the way and what was once keeping the path hidden is no more because we all walked it time and time again.  Sometimes begrudgingly, fearfully, not even knowing what we were doing because we can't see it yet, we just were/are putting one foot in front of the other in a dense and dangerous jungle, not even realizing that each step was and is clearing the path for those that would, that WILL follow. 

That weekend I sat in church among a room full of Thai believers and listened as they sang in Thai, Our God is greater, Our God is stronger, Our God is higher than any other, Our God is healer, Awesome in power. Our God. All because of a sacrifice made over 2000 years ago, all because  disciples that got to see the risen Lord listened and obeyed, all because others chose to follow and Judson stood on the hills of Pagan, and the Johnsons and the Hosacks packed up their belongings and moved to Asia, all because every one kept putting one foot in front of the other even when the walls showed no sign of giving way and chorus of "Our God is Greater," could not be heard, they kept/keep going. 

I know this Easter weekend many of you have been faithful Christ followers for many years and the journey has not been easy and when you look in the pew beside you there are still people missing.  People, family, entire nations, communities, you have been on your knees for for so long yet,  and the walls around them don't show any sign of crumbling, keep putting one foot in front of the other. With every step and every prayer you are removing obstacles, you're stomping down the garbage and the dangerous stuff, you're clearing the way; you're being obedient. It is finished. The light will come. One day we'll stand in the light together till then, keep on trucking. 

God desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. I Timothy 2:4. 

Thank Him and Praise Him and Remember ever step that was taken to get to you so you could get to Him. Sing at the top of your lungs this weekend, Our God is greater, Our God is stronger. Our God is higher than any other. Our God is healer. Awesome in power. Our God. Our God. Because this is true.