You Bring Restoration

I have a new prayer for this summer's trip to the land of waffles, chocolate, beer, and Stromae. It has been rolling around inside of me for a bit, slowing coming together and become more clear as the Lord has had me pray over it.

The "Ah-ha!" moment came to me Sunday, after I spent Saturday evening at a Catholic prayer service and then hanging out with different Religious Orders - Franciscan Monks, Sisters of Life, and a couple of others. It was a lot of fun, praying with my friends and then going and learning about a church that I haven't been exposed to regularly in the past. How did I end up at a Catholic prayer service/fellowship time? Well, one of my friends is a faithful Catholic, but he comes and prays with some of my other friends during the 9am service. He invited us to attend the service with him. And since we all love the same Jesus, know that it is not our works that save us but rather the faith in Christ given to us by God, and all want to see His name made known, we overlook the areas of the theology that we don't agree on and try and restore some of the Catholic-Protestant good will (I'm looking at you, Ireland).

The Catholic church and the Protestant churches share an issue, an issue that is deeply ingrained in all humans. We seek to save ourselves by earning our way into God's good graces, attempting to bargain with God using the very things that He has created - our loyalty, our lives, our stuff, our emotions. We like to think that if we do all the right things, then we're good. God, in a sense, owes us. It looks different when carried out in practice, Protestants using the church attendance and business, the fact that they don't swear or smoke or cuss, and the fact that they haven't committed a "big sin" to claim a spot in heaven. While I am not as familiar with the Catholic church or its practices, I have had conversations with people who are practicing Catholics who say that their prayers, their offerings, and their following of the Sacraments are what save them. Both check-lists. Both taking away from the Gospel of Christ and, essentially saying that Christ's death on the cross was not enough. Both wrong.

Matt Chandler, in his sermon on Sunday over Galatians 4:8-20, said something that has stuck with me and rattled around in my brain for the past 24 hours: "Once a practice moves from sanctification (helping us mature as Christians) to justification (what saves us), you are serving demons, not Jesus Christ." This trick, the lie that takes a practice that is good and that moves us closer in our relationship to God, but transforms it into something that we think we HAVE to do in order to see heaven, is one of the devil's most clever ones he has devised. As someone living in the "belt buckle" of the Bible-belt south, I have seen how destructive this lie is. We tend to busy ourselves with lists and things and commitments, then wondering why we're exhausted, unfulfilled, and trying to figure out why God feels so far away. The reason is simple: we haven't been serving Him, we've been serving our own interests. It is incredibly difficult to reach people who know how to talk like Christians - what to say, when it say it, what to do, etc - because they already think they know Him. In a sense, it is easier to talk to someone who openly acknowledges the fact that he/she doesn't believe in God or doesn't believe the Gospel. At least there is a starting point.

Going to Belgium is similar to doing ministry in the south. According to joshuaproject.net, the country is 67% Christian, 28.8% non-religious, and 3.7% Islam. Of that Christian 67%, 87.7% of those people are Roman Catholic, meaning the Catholic church is a very strong presence in Belgium. The best schools tend to be Catholic; the healthcare is affiliated with the Catholic church; there are Catholic worker unions;Catholic churches are on every corner (much like churches in general in the south); and the largest and one of the best universities in the world is the Catholic University in Leuven, found in our home base for the summer. After two years of traveling to Belgium, making friends, and asking questions, I have learned that for most people, being Catholic is because that what society expects. You go to Mass on major holidays and the only other time you step into a church is for a wedding, baptism, or funeral. When I share the Gospel of Christ, people look at me like I have three heads and then tell me that they have never heard this before. Ever. People who have grown up going to Mass their entire lives. Sounds eerily familiar to conversations that I have with my athletes here in Texas.

I don't know the state of the Catholic church in Belgium, nor do I want to come off as if I am criticizing the church as a whole. But I do know that something is not right, just as it is not right here in the south. The church has been diminished to something you check off your list, its practices into tools to bargain with God. Having come to see this makes my life both easier and somewhat challenging. Easier because I'm comfortable with this type of ministry - trying to speak the Gospel into a culture that already claims to know Him. But also challenging because I don't know very much about Catholic practices. It is my hope to learn about the Catholic church and its practices so I can, with the Lord's power and direction, help restore the practices to what they should be - tools to help deepen a person's relationship with God, not be the thing that justifies a person. I know Catholics who love the Lord and have these tools in their proper place. It is my prayer that I can see and understand what makes the practices so special and how it deepens their faith. I don't want to reinvent the wheel, especially when there is a perfectly good one available to me. It just needs to be spiffed up before it can be used again.

You bring restoration, You bring restoration...

2012 Update

It's been a while, but I'm back with a quick update about the trip!

Our Team
We have had some roster changes since my last email update. As it stands right now, we have six cemented to come, and one who is on the roster but may end up not coming. It is myself, Jodi, and Nate on the leadership side, then Jennifer, Andrew, Madison, and Ashley competing. There are a few athletes that Jodi is praying about contacting, but right now we could really use some guys.

Support Raising
The Lord has brought in $1,100 of my $3,600 goal. Praise His name!

Prayer Requests

• That Jodi and I can connect with athletes, specifically male athletes.
• That we won't worry about roster size (upside: easier to travel).
• That the Lord would continue to provide financially for me and  the rest of the team.
• For the people that we will be meeting this summer. 
• That I have time to plan meals for our time there. The added wildcard of me now being gluten-free (and a vegetarian, but I'll eat meat when I'm over there) is going to make meal planning a little more thought-intensive. 

Standing Still

In the past as I have blogged about the trip, I have written primarily about feeling like Moses at the Burning Bush - not at all qualified for the task at hand and scared out of my mind to go stand before Pharaoh. But this year is different. This year, I am ready to strap on my armor and go head first into battle, the Lord leading the charge and me following Him. This year, I'm feeling much more at peace about everything. I know our team will come together; I know our budgets will be met; I know that traveling with a fifteen-foot long pole vault case will be no problem; I know that the Lord has this thing under control. Which is a much better place to be in, compared to the posture of a terrified Moses. Praise God for how He has continued to mold me, shape me, and bring me one step closer to the finished version of me that He has planned.

This year, the verse that the Lord has given me is really beautiful. It's Scripture, so of course it is beautiful, but the beauty is deeper and more personal because I know that this is a promise of things to come. The verse that the Lord has given me is:

Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the LORD will do before your eyes. - 1 Samuel 12:16

Two things stand out at me. The first is "stand". I am by no means a Biblical scholar (as proven to me each week as I ask the Lord to write the lesson for our weekly Northwood AIA meeting), but I do know a thing or two about standing.  I do a lot of standing. If it's a baseball double header, I stand in the dugout for eight hours on solid concrete. Standing hurts. Standing is active. Looking at it through a sports medicine lens, standing demands prolonged periods of active muscle work and stabilization. Hips are fully extended, your butt is "on", knees are extended (with a soft bend) and slightly externally rotated, shoulders are depressed and externally rotated, scapulae (shoulder blades, for those of y'all that don't have an anatomy background) are retracted and depressed, the neck is in a proper neutral position, and the abdomen is drawn up and in. Muscles are ready to move, to be active, and to be used. It is in this position that the Lord has called me, has called us, to be. I am not to be sitting, I am not to be reclining, and I sure as heck am not to be sleeping. I am to be ready. While I may not be actively be doing anything, I am actively ready for something. The Lord has already said that He will be doing great things. I am to stand.

The second thing that stands out is the word "still". I really appreciate the fact that the author included this word here. It may seem redundant to include, as standing usually means don't move, but how many of us truly practice that? How many of us, when we are standing, fidget or sway? Do you shuffle your feet, look for something to lean on? How quickly after you start standing still do you pull out your phone? Is being consumed by social media or online phone games really being still? I would argue that stillness requires a certain kind of concentration or awareness. Stillness requires a level of trust to just be.

That is what I see the Lord telling me to do - be ready, to be still, and above all else, to trust Him. He has promised great things. He wants me to see these great things. If the sanctification process currently happening in my life right now is a sign of things to come, then the Lord is going to be showing off in ways that I couldn't even dream of.

Lord, please help me stand still and see the great thing that You will do before my eyes.

Je Cours

May I present to you the unofficially-official song of AIA Belgium 2012. It is from the same artist who brought us last year's song, "Alors on Danse." 

"Je Cours" - Stromae

Translation: I run. Perfect :)

ROUND. THREE.

It is official - AIA Belgium Track & Field is happening this summer.

Four weeks of living out of a suitcase in a hostel.
Four weeks of training with my favorite Belgian track & field club: Daring Club Leuven Atletiek (DCLA).
Four weeks of living in Christian community while simultaneously "doing life" with those who have yet to trust Christ.
Four weeks of Belgian ice cream, waffles, and Speculoos (or just ice cream if your autoimmune system doesn't like gluten).
Four weeks of sharing the Gospel on planes, trains, buses, hostel living rooms, track & field stadiums, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and markets.
Four weeks of shopping every day for a team of hungry athletes.
Four weeks of zipping through traffic on a rusty bike (and trying to not abuse the bell).
Four weeks of learning more about how to use your sport as a way to both glorify God and tell the world about Him.

July 2012, please get here soon.

A of All...

Ten points to the first person who can correctly identify who the title of my blog is referring to. The person to whom I am referring can't play. That wouldn't be fair.

Anyway, I've had some trouble deciding on the best way to share all that God has done. I've processed through a lot of it, but since this is the internet, I prayed about what exactly I will share and how much. After much journaling and prayer, I've decided to lead off the post-trip posts with the change that happened to me while in Leuven.

I can say with 100% certainty that I am not the same Rachel that I was four-ish weeks ago. I don't know exactly when the change occurred, or how, I just know that it happened. I feel a lightness, a joy, a childlike approach to life, and a freedom that I didn't feel prior to the trip. I feel like, for the first time, I am resting - truly resting - in the peace of God that comes when you really do trust Him.

I'll use a real-world example to show the change that has happened inside of me. The university that I work for is expanding the number of athletes from 160 to 200. Currently, I am the only certified athletic trainer for our athletic department and our training room is straining to accommodate all of our current athletes. When I left for Belgium, I was told that we would be adding some storage, rearranging the layout of the training room, have a job post up for a new assistant athletic trainer so I could start sifting through resumes while I was overseas, doing some much needed repairs to the training room, and that my pay would go up so that it would be closer to what I should be making for the job that I do. I come back to find that none of the promises have been denied (but they didn't take my assistant), and I actually lost a sizable chunk of my budget that I use to bring in extra help. Needless to say, there was some frustration and disappointment when I was told this news.

Now, old-Rachel would have freaked out. I would have been stressed; I would have gotten really, really angry; I would have panicked; I would have been bitter; I would have bottomed out. But, I'm not old-Rachel any more. I'm new-Rachel. So, while there was frustration, disappointment, and feeling a little overwhelmed, I was alright with it all. Because I know that my God is a God who is bigger than a university. My God has carried me through life up until this very moment and I know He won't drop me now. He has made it very clear that I'm supposed to stay where I am for right now, so I know that He will make sure I have all I need to do the job well. I just need to keep returning to Him, trusting in what Christ did on the cross, and not try and do it on my own strength. My strength will fail, as I have seen it do before. Sure, things may work out for a bit, but at the end of the day, I will go down in a spectacular, fiery crash. While God sometimes uses flames to refine me, they are meant for good, not evil destruction.

I would appreciate prayers, though. There has been a lot of coach turnover this past year, and I am one of the few staff members remaining this year. It's going to be a tough adjustment year for everyone, and I pray that I can shine my light and point everyone toward the Anchor that keeps me steady and grounded.

Tot Ziens!

Here it is... my least favorite part of the trip: the end. I'm not too sure how coherent my thoughts will be because I didn't go to bed last night until after two and it is currently 4:56am as I sit here and type this.

My heart breaks as our time here as a team comes to a close. This team is so much more than a team, we are a true family. I will miss each and every person with every part of my being, and it makes me sad to think that we all live so far apart (with the exception of my fellow Texan). The Lord has used every person on this team to speak into my life, be it with wisdom, encouragement, or a revelation about His character.

Not only will I miss my new-found family, but I will miss all of my new friends that I have made. I will miss the accents, the questions, the different lifestyles,  and the conversations. I will miss listening to the Dutch/Flemish language. Of course, I will miss the silly things - Speculoos, ice cream, and waffles, but they are just the added bonus of the ability to do life with some truly amazing people - both believers in Christ and non-believers.

I am truly thankful for the opportunity that God has given me to travel to Cinque Terre, Italy for the next four days. While I am a little hesitant to travel alone, I am also looking forward to having that time with no laptop, no large group, and really have some quality time with God. I worship Him through food, so the thought of having Italian food, some good wine, and the chance to sit with God, praying about all that has happened on this trip is something that I am looking forward to. When I'm honest, I really think that I need to take the next four days and be alone, because if I had the distraction of others, I wouldn't really properly work through all that has been done through me, in me, around me, and goodness knows what other prepositions could be used regarding Him.

This post is not the last post that I will put up about this trip. I have much to share, but I can't properly share it all right now because I cannot articulate what exactly God has done. Over the next few weeks, as He slowly walks with me through the mountain of experiences that have occurred, I'm sure He will reveal what He wants me to blog about. Which is where the title of the post comes from. "Tot ziens" means see you later. I know that I will see this family again. We will be able to connect in person, not just online. This isn't good-bye by any means, but merely a, "See you later!"