Meet Josh and Sebina

Josh is the pastor of Victory Church. Such a great guy! In 2010, Journey is going to partner with Victory Church in three ways.

1. Pastor to Pastor. Josh and I are going to continue our relationship with each other. We can learn from one another by what od is doing in our churches.
2. Church to church - One time a month we're going to write a letter to each other about what God is doing in our churches. He can share with his church our letter, and we will share with Journey the letter he writes us. Our hope is we will be encouraged to see that through Christ our churches have more commonalities than differences.
3. If God should provide the opportunity, we'd like to send a group to Beijing, and receive a group from Beijing, once in 2010.

Take a minute to hear about Josh in this video.

Victory Church

This is a picture of some of the folks from Victory Church. Victory started in May of 09, about two months after Journey started. They have about 60 people worshipping with them on a Sunday morning. They meet in an apartment building. They've rented an apartment and turned it into a church meeting area. They put seats in the living room and use the two bedrooms as children's ministry areas.

Every one of these people, like you, have a story to tell about their journey with God. Hearing their stories was the best part of the trip for me. I attended a prayer service, where they met and prayed for two hours while kneeling on foam mats. I also taught a leadership class on Tuesday night, about leadership lessons from the Life of David. there were about 30 in attendance, and I discovered that, like here in the US, only about half of the people in attendance got my attempts at humor.

Seriously, the best part of the meeting was the reciting of the Lord's prayer at the end of the night. A beautiful chorus that lands powerfully on the ear, even in a language I couldn't understand.

The Great Wall

Here's a video of us on the Great Wall of China. I learned that the wall was 5,500 miles long at one point. What an Incredible dedication to the protection of their country. It isn't so much the technology of the wall that makes it impressive as much as the sheer determination and effort that went into building it. The wall runs along the very top of the mountain ridge, so walking it required quite a bit of effort.

One of the interesting things along the way were the 'concession stands' at the watchtowers. Enterprising chinese people climb the wall every day with pop and candy, snacks, even beer for the climbers to buy. It was hard not to buy something from them simply out of appreciation for their incredible efforts!

Perhaps what stands out the most about the wall is how utterly futile it was to keep conquering armies away. There were no walls tall enough to keep gatekeepers from being bribed to open the gate.

The Orphanage

These children at a local orphanage put on quite a little production for us. The older children were in school, but these little ones were home and eager to show off their considerable skills! They are wearing jackets because of the cold. My understanding is that typical homes in China do not have thermostats. They get whatever heat is given them. The orphanage had about 40 beds in it, though I don;t know how many children are presently there.

The Dance

Traveling around Beijing was very interesting. Picture bikes and motor-scooters, buses and cars and even the occasional horse and cart, all intertwined with people on their way someplace, all sharing the same small piece of road. What struck me the most was the trust each showed in the other. Everyone seemed to know the rules of how to operate, and it just worked. I included this two minute clip to show you a little of what I mean.

Also, there was very little 'road rage'. The horns never stopped blowing, but it was more of an "excuse me" than an "up yours" kind of horn. I couldn't help but laugh the first night back in Omaha when someone gave me the bird for merging on Q street due to construction. Apparently they felt I was unjustly trying to get in front of them. Normally that kind of thing would hack me off, but that night it just made me laugh.

Beijing Pollution

This was the afternoon sun, trying it's best to break through the smog in Beijing. They told us that the winter time was the worst time as far as smog. I couldn't get over how everyday felt like a misty day, even though there was no rain. Every car was covered in, I guess pollution dust, in the morning. Sebina told us that a friend of theirs from Australia, who had lived in Beijing for four years, returned home and took a physical, where the doctor said, "When did you take up smoking?"after looking at tests.

The only day we saw the sun was on Wednesday, when a very cold northern breeze blew into the city and blew the smog out of the city. Some people wore masks to try to limit the effects. But that city is in trouble. How could a government allow that to go unchecked? It's got to be a major health concern for the citizens. That was a glimpse of the fact that in China, life is not nearly as revered or respected as it is here in the US. (Sebina's words, by the way.)

Plane thinking

The flight to Beijing was about 13 hours from San Francisco. On the way out, we made the flight by about 3 minutes. I think we were the last two guys on the plane. On the way back home, we missed a connection by about 3 minutes, causing a delay in returning to Omaha by about 4 hours. Funny how 3 minutes can make you feel awesome, or unbelievably perturbed. Thankful I don't fly regularly for a living.

On the flight, I looked around and asked myself, if this airplane were filled proportionately with the different nationalities of the world, what would it look like? One in seven seats would be filled with a Chinese person. About 1 in 10 with someone who is Indian. 1 in 40 would be American? I felt a bit sad that until that moment, I really didn't have either a Chinese or Indian friend.

Our website is up

Well, we have a website.  It is an interesting exercise to figure out exactly what to say on the web, and how we want to say it...  We're learning as we go.

Feel free to check out our site and let me know what you think.  

www.journeychurchne.org

What makes people consider church?

Ever wonder what makes a non-church goer reconsider and think about going to church?  I recently came across three motivations that often get people reconsidering church.

The first is children.  When a couple begins to have children, they often begin to think about their children's spiritual development.  Every parent wants to be able to talk about spiritual issues that inevitably come up with children.  Yet another reason to have a healthy ministry to children and families.  

Another motivation is change.  When people move to a new city, they are often willing to integrate new pieces into their life, including church.  Interestingly, this is one reason why new churches are often effective at welcoming previosly unchurched people.  Folks are more willing to jump in when things are new, rather than coming into something established.

The third motivation is crisis.   Crisis makes us re-evaluate priorities in life.  When life moves into the realm of 'out-of-our-control' it is comforting to turn to a God is is never out of control.  God has often used negative circumstances and times of crisis to help people wake up to spiritual realities.  

These are all motivators in preparing someone to reconsider church.  But they alone will rarely get someone to walk into church without an invitation from a friend.  Always, always, always... the number one reason a person will walk into a church is because a friend they trust invited them.  So be aware of these issues going on in the lives of your friends.  It may be a good time to invite them to attend church with you!

Here's pictures of the Thomas Elementary, on Hwy 370 just east of town.  The cafeteria area will hold about 175 chairs.  The school will let us use their chairs as well as store some stuff there on sight.  This is a huge praise, as we won't have to purchase chairs or a trailer to store them in!  We will also be able to use three classrooms just off the cafeteria for children's ministry.  The principal at the school was extremely kind, and we are excited about being a blessing to her school.