Just like a phoenix from the ashes....

. . . or that funk from the disposal; the C-mail is back!

A few orders of business before the business. You are receiving this because either you were on the C-mail (Cameron's (the tall red headed guy (don't worry, I forget who I am too)) general update email) list for the global urban trek to Lima, Peru this last summer, or you were on the global urban trek to Lima, Peru last summer, or I figured you would want to get this update for one reason or another. If you don't want to be on this list, just let me know. There should only be one more of these in the immediate future, but I don't want to clog your inboxes if you don't wish it. Second, if this is not your primary email and you'd like future updates sent there, let me know.

Alright, here we go: First the brief facts numbered list style for those on the go and then the random thoughts/musings at the end.

1. I'll be heading off to Caracas, Venezuela on April 9th and staying there for 10 days. I'm going to visit a missionary team there living in the barrios of that city. This team is part of an organization called InnerCHANGE. I first heard about InnerCHANGE at Urbana this past December.
2. I honestly have no clue what I'll be doing those ten days I'm there. This isn't exactly a "missions" trip in that there is a task to accomplish or people to serve. Rather, it's a survey trip to see if this might be where God would have me spend the next 2-3 years, or more of my life, starting in October. My goals are to get to know the team and the folks in the barrios, and simply watch and listen to hear God's direction.
3. I would certainly appreciate prayer. First, this is a huge decision to make and clarity in hearing God's voice and receiving His wisdom are key. Second, the barrios in Caracas are very dangerous. Everyone on the team there has been robbed at some point over the years (some at gun point.) There are many shootings there and much vengeance killing. Pray for safety for those of us visiting (two girls and myself), for the team, and most of all for the people living under the daily threat of violence. And finally, and this may sound weird, but pray for my mom to have peace while I'm down there.
4. As part of the C-mail premium package, you get to know what happened when I get back. Stories, cross-cultural blunders, lessons learned, and the ever amusing, over-generalized country by country food review (current stats: America 3/5, Canada 4/5 (chocolate and salt & vinegar chips bump the rating) and Peru 4.5/5 (if I hadn't gotten sick from that last salad it would have been perfect)). How much you want to know depends on how much you want to read:)

I would love to hear from all of you and forgive me for not getting back to so many of you. There are a few more days before I head off, so feel free to give me a call/email/telegraph. I've certainly missed many of you (Cal Poly and Peru folks) and I hope to catch up with you soon. Have a great Easter, for He is Risen!
Press on for Joy!
Cameron


"Your's is the most terrible crime a human being can commit. I accuse you, of a wasted life!" - Papillon

So, you might be wondering how I came across this particular group and what exactly about them has me traveling to a super dangerous barrio. The first I heard of InnerChange was at Urbana. I was hoping to find a missions group there that worked specifically with the poor, ideally in Latin/South America, and that I could somewhat "agree" with. By agree, I mean both doctrinally, but also operationally. As I looked through groups, there was always something that just simply irked me about them. Yes, I could work with them, but I feared I would have always been straining against the reins and trying to go at it in the way that I see and know God: both who He is, and how He works. When I came to Urbana, I had for the most part thought that I wasn't going to find a group that I could AGREE! with, but rather a group that I could merely "agree" with.

Thankfully, I came in contact with InnerChange. I got to talk with some of their staff and hear some of their stories. Initially I was only mildly interested. Yet when I got back, I read, researched, reflected and I began to realize that I Agreed! Now no group is perfect for sure, but I certainly thought kindredly of their experiences with God and the ways they work with Him. I'll explain more about their approach later, perhaps on the blog. As one example, here's one of the coolest things I love about God and InnerCHANGE does model themselves after this as well.

I don't have a clue how to dig into this topic and type of life because it is so broad and so rich. Essentially, it comes down to upside down. By that, I mean what we pass by and ignore might be the most important of all. What we as people naturally value, may not be what God values. What we as people consider as the best, may not be what God considers the best. Look at the beatitudes and the states of existence that Jesus said are blessed (poor, mourning, persecuted). Look at how Saul armored up David to fight Goliath, when actually armor was the last thing David needed. Look at Paul as he came to the Corinthians, not in the wisdom and persuasiveness of words, but in the power of the Spirit. "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. . . . God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. 1 Cor. 1:25, 27-29.

I believe that God loves to work in opposition to our natural desires to possess power, control, safety and success. Rather, God works to pull us into dependence upon Him and the Body of believers, He requires faith to please Him, He calls us to build upon the solid rock that endures storm after storm, and He asks us to obey even in the face of failure. It is more than just head knowledge about this reversed state that God asks for. I believe that He asks for our lives to be ordered around this backward scale. This kind of life lived in the hands of God, walking by faith and not by sight, is so counter to everything we know, see, hear, and learn from others. As such, it encounters opposition. One example, days before Good Friday:

'And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, "Why was this fragrant oil wasted? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they criticized her sharply.
But Jesus said, "Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her."' Mark 14:3-9

If you just got back from Spring Break Camp, this will be review, but a worthy one. See this woman, anointing the Savior for his impending burial. John identifies her as Mary in his gospel. 300 denarii, that is at least a years wages; let's say $40,000. Forty thousand dollars on a bottle of perfume, broken and poured out all at once. How many meals is that for hungry mouths? How many clothes is that for those who have none? How many foreclosures could that avert? How many more if it was invested well and then given prudently? But it was broken and wasted; the answer to "how many?" became zero. The disciples become indignant. John specifically singles out Judas who leaves immediately after this scene to find the Pharisees to betray Jesus.

Yet, Jesus commends this woman. What she has done is beautiful. Even wherever the gospel goes, this story of this act by this woman will go along too. How easy it is to be offended by this waste. How repugnant it is to sensibility. Yet Jesus calls it beautiful. The question then becomes, what am I wasting on Jesus?

For me at this time, it means visiting, and possibly moving into a very dangerous barrio. It means taking years to really master a language and simply resigning myself to the sidelines of ministry during that time. It means dumping whatever God given resources and love I have onto whoever I meet. It means spending my life not on that which might make the most sense and might accomplish the most, but rather spending it in one small place with a few people I haven't even yet met.

John Hayes founded InnerCHANGE back in the 80's and recently came out with a book called "sub-merge" describing the group and some of their history and stories. He ends the book with this paragraph:

Mary's anointing was also a meaningful act. Like the account of Mary, many of the members of our communities spill out their lives in areas doomed to die. No matter what we do toward transformation in every community we choose to live in, some will not make it. Some will be bulldozed, sold out, gentrified, or redeveloped for a "better" crowd. And our hopes and dreams, joined with those of the poor, will simply be an expenditure of love, an anointing for burial. Logic may be on Judas's side. But for those who choose to pour out their lives among the poor, there will be a fragrance that fills the house of God."

This week, just before the burial of Jesus, what can you pour out? Make it beautiful and
Press on for Joy!