Luke Parrott

It's Not Hard to Find the Face of Jesus...

Some great students and staff at Grace Prep here in Durango traveled up to Denver to work with Ryan Taylor of Access to show firsthand the ministry of connecting those in the suburbs with those in the city, those with means connecting to those on the margins.  The result:  We find we are all poor.  And now something beautiful can blossom.

Our KIVU Gap Year students have the privilege of being a part of this ministry during their Denver Experience in the fall.  Thanks Ryan and Mile High Ministries for all you do to show us the face of Christ.  And thank you God that you chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.  You hide treasures in jars of clay.  You say, in order to be first, you must be the very last.  You exalt those who are humbled.  You embody the poor.  In them, we find the very face of Jesus. 

 

Access Denver from Jacob Brooks on Vimeo.

Let it Hurt, Heal, Frustrate, and Change You

Community is about living life with people.

But it takes an incredible amount of work to create it.  It's not something you can find or stumble upon without great cost.  True community is something you commit to working on for better and for worse.  It's something you want badly enough that you will let it hurt, heal, frustrate, and change you.  Its something you just keep showing up for each new day and each new week.  It happens incredibly slowly over a great span of time.

But it can only happen when people are walking together through the whole gambit of life's emotions.

God Speaks to Communities, Not Just Individuals

Each summer at KIVU, we ask our staff and campers to share what God is teaching them today and it never fails that there are overarching themes and common threads He is weaving into all of us.

God speaks to communities of believers.  He has common threads and patterns he is weaving, by his Spirit, into the fabric of Christ's body.  Through it all, he is weaving a tapestry of unity both in purpose and progress.  Sadly, most of us never tune into this phenomena.  He's doing it all the time, everywhere but often times our arrogrance or rampant individualism prefers to let one voice speak for the whole.  In so doing, we silence the voice of the masses and, in effect, the voice of God.

At CTK (my home church here in Durango), we are finding that sometimes a sermon is best said when the whole group shares God's movement in our hearts and lives.  As we go around the circle and share our joys, aches, and pains, he is revealing to us all strikingly similar statements for both our corporate and individual growth.

Then, we realize that we are moving forward together both in pain and progress.  Defeat and victory.  Vision and outreach.  Unity and togetherness.  And in so doing, we fulfill the law of Christ.  To bare one another's burdens.  (Galatians 6:2)

A Rwandan proverb says it best, "To go fast, walk alone.  To go far, walk together."

Good Ole Manual Labor in Rwanda

We fell two trees and hauled them out of the woods.  That's enough work for one day.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

The writings and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr are remarkable to revisit.  My favorite of all is a speech delivered in February of 1968 titled 'The Drum Major Instinct".  In honor of this day, take time to listen to this speech of his.  Here is the link.  It is worth every minute of your time.

http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_the_drum_major_instinct/

I wish he were still alive today.  It would have been his 83rd birthday and I can't imagine what social issues he would be speaking out against in America today.  Because you know he wouldn't have stayed quiet!

 

stay tuned

I am currently in Rwanda for 10 days getting our KIVU Gap Year students settled into their 6 week adventure here.  It is great to return and see old friends, make new ones, and see the work our students will be engaged in here with Kids Across Africa Camps. 

For now you will have to refer to my Facebook page for real time updates.  But I look forward to posting upon my return and diving into another year of blogging in 2012. 

Murakoze Cyane! (thank you very much in Kinyarwandan)

 

"Born", A Christmas Morning Poem

This poem was written by Bob Webb out here at KIVU.  This is the final reflection of our KIVU Advent Devotions.  Have a blessed Christmas!

BORN... of a woman, a virgin torn
…blessed comfort for those who mourn
…bold to fulfill all that was sworn
…a he-child, a free child, a lion unshorn
…a seed, a root, of salvation, a horn
…a boy, a man on whose shoulders the government is worn
…acquainted with grief but fount of joy, peaceful healer but object of scorn 
…a light, a love rejected, beaten, emptied and crowned with thorns
…in blood he arrived in Bethlehem, in blood he died, he defied lies well-worn
…his last, hurting breath a prayer; and by it lifted the lovelorn, gifted the stillborn 
…finishing the mystery of forgiveness, beginning the mystery of the twiceborn 
…and so He forever makes new each morn
 …and so we endeavor to let His Spirit adorn...
our hearts this day, re-born.

Lord, may we not only visit the story of Christmas once in a while, but carry the story
with us so that Your birth, Your story, may transform our understanding and our
undertakings in our every days between the Decembers of our lives. Thanks be to You.
Amen.
 
 

A Prayer for the Host and the Guest

May this peace prayer of Saint Francis be your meditation this day as you welcome family and
friends, neighbors or strangers, with love into your heart.  

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon; 
where there is doubt, faith; 
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light; 
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Pray for our Friends in the Philippines

KIVU has worked with ICM in the Philippines for several years now.  ICM is an NGO in the community that works towards alleviating poverty among the desparately poor.  Last year we sent a team of gap year students to work with the staff in Dumaguete.  The recent tropical storm caused much disaster in the area.  One of the ICM staff (who helped coordinate the events for our students), Lilian Ferrar, was featured in CNN as she went through with her wedding even after her home was washed away the night before.  She responded, "Don't worry.  It's just things."   A powerful perspective for all of us to learn from.

Please pray for Lilian, her husband and all the ICM staff as they respond to this natural disaster.

Read the story on CNN or ICM's blog below.

http://blog.caremin.com/2011/12/20/icm-area-hit-by-tropical-storm-washi/

 

"Come as you are, both Joy and Grief, and let us dine together."

The Christmas season never fails to polarize our emotions.  We find ourselves on the side of either Joy or Grief.  We are rejoicing or mourning.  Celebrating or grieving.  The passage of time teaches us all that we will have our fair share of both emotions during the holiday.  But in this season of togetherness, how is it possible for those who grieve to dine with those who rejoice?  How is it possible for Joy to share the dinner table with Grief?

There is one human emotion that dangles itself precariously between these two polarizing forces.  This emotion is both thrilling yet foolish.  It builds up in our hearts during times of darkness when
life is not playing out as promised or desired.  It goes against all odds.  It calls for a turn of
events.  It holds out the belief that the story is about to be written differently.  It is often
carried most strongly by the weak, weary, worn out, and seemingly defeated. 

Hope. 

It is the place where both Joy and Grief dine together.  In the company of Hope, Joy and Grief can shake hands.  Where Hope is present, Joy and Grief are able to make small talk.  Here is where Joy and Grief can come together at the same table.

The classic Christmas song says it best, "A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!"

The thrill of Hope gives Grief a chance to breathe.  Hope welcomes the weary heart.  And Hope centers around what arrived that new and glorious morn.  Our Hope is Jesus.  He rejoices with those who rejoice and mourns with those who mourn.  He can bring anyone to his dinner table to dine together.  He stands between two polarizing forces this holiday season and bids them to come and dine. 

Hope has come this Christmas with an invitation saying "Come as you are, both Joy and Grief, and let us dine together."