A Child Will Lead Them

Two Sundays ago, Epic had the privilege of having Mike and Jill Lowery, missionaries serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, share during our worship service. When Jill came up to speak, she spoke directly to all our kids who were sitting in their usual seats in the first few rows. She told our kids that the women in Congo knew them as the To Lingana Kids ("love one another") because of the Sunday school campaign to raise funds for new sewing machines. You see, these enterprising Congolese women were starting a restaurant but needed to sew curtains and such for the restaurant's interior, but had no way to do this without the proper equipment. At the beginning of the year, our kids had raised enough money through their own efforts that Jill was able to purchase a first sewing machine and have enough spare change to repair several others.

But what Jill really wanted to communicate was that she in turn shared about this small Sunday school program's efforts in a newsletter that is circulated among supporters. After reading about our kids, other Sunday school classes were so inspired that they followed suit. Less than a year after our kids responded to this need, Jill said they had received enough money to purchase 9 sewing machines to date. She told our kids that they had started a movement!

As I sat listening to this amazing story, I was reminded of the prophet Isaiah's eschatological vision of the coming Messiah who would reign with righteousness, justice, and peace for all the earth and among all the nations. Isaiah said that this Messiah would come to God's people as a child and that this "little child would lead them" (Isaiah 11:6). I couldn't help but see how true that was in this moment: The children of Epic were leading us adults in the act of thoughtful and generous giving.

It also happened to be the final official day for Kristy Prince as our kids director. It ended up being a nice way, I think, to honor her by hearing publicly of the tangible fruit of her ministry with our kids. That might have been the sweetest thing of all.

WE+

This list and following comments were part of my message on community given at Epic (9/18/2011). I got feedback that people wanted the list, so here it is:

What's the point of church? One argument is that we can’t live out the Scriptures, particularly the New Testament, without a community.

Speak truth in love (Eph 4:15)

Bring things into the light (Eph 5:8)

Submit to one another (Eph 5:21)

Build one another up (Eph 5: 29)

Carry each other’s burdens (Gal 6:2)

Resolve conflict with one another (Matt 18:15)

Discern and make decisions together (Matt 18:18)

Eat together and partake of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:33)

Confess our sins to one another and pray for each other (James 5:16)

Encourage one another (Heb 10:24)

Love one another (Heb 13:1)

Extend hospitality (Heb 13:2)

Forgive one another (Eph 4:32)

The ethical invitation to live in the kingdom of God assumes gathering, relationship, that we know one another, that we are in each others lives. We can believe the right things, but we cannot actually follow Jesus without belonging to a distinct, real, visible, community. It is impossible to truly live as a Christian or function as the church outlined in the New Testament without a deep commitment to the body of Christ.

Letter to Time

I resonated with the aspect of missed opportunity in Kurt Andersen's back cover story, "Terror Has A Half-Life" in this week's commemorative 9/11 edition of Time magazine. So yesterday I wrote the editor the following letter:




Dear Time,

I appreciated Kurt Andersen's back cover story (Beyond 9/11 Issue). Having visited Ground Zero just a month ago, I came away with similar reflections. What if instead of entering two wars as a response to the 9/11 attacks, we had invested that $2-3 trillion on what makes America so resilient in the first place: its people. Not only could President Bush have made the urgent call to wean us from oil, but the opportunity was there to inspire all of us to invest more heavily in education, the arts, technology, and housing for the homeless - or to volunteer - all investments in citizens by citizens that would have made us stronger as a country. In the end, our top political officials governed by the very thing they wanted us to overcome: fear.

Sincerely,

Kevin Doi
Diamond Bar, CA

Postscript: My response ended up being published in the 9/26/2011 edition of Time (Rick Perry cover).

102 Minutes

I had the privilege of visiting Ground Zero less than a month ago while on vacation to NYC. Next week on the 10th anniversary an unveiling of the memorial pools will take place, but construction dominates and looms large as surrounding buildings near completion. At the visitor center, this is one of the few books that I assumed met stringent standards and was worthy of offering. And I can see why. Written by reporters from the New York Times, it is at once haunting and beautiful. 102 Minutes recounts the fate of those inside the twin towers from the moment the first plane struck until the last tower fell. It is enthralling reading (I couldn't put the book down). At turns both horrifying and heroic, the authors effectively expose how decisions - both small and large, by employees and politicians - made in seconds or over decades - saved or doomed thousands of lives during that hour and a half. Right up there with Devil In the White City and In the Heart of the Sea as absolutely riveting accounts of history.

Steak and Eggs

I was walking in downtown Fullerton this week on my way to meet Kristy at Tranquil Tea lounge to talk kids ministry when a homeless man on a bike stopped me. He immediately went into his story about losing his job, wife, life and was now on the streets. He was going on and on so I stopped him and asked, "What do you need?" He said he was hungry and wanted money to get a bite. As I usually do, I told I couldn't give him cash but could buy him breakfast. So on the way down the street to Rialto Cafe, I asked him about his life - where he was from, what he did for work, where he was currently living. When we got to Rialto, I told Becky, the waitress, that I would buy Dennis (the guy's name) anything he wanted, but that I had a meeting next door and would come back for the bill. I told Dennis I couldn't stay, but to order whatever he wanted.

After my meeting with Kristy, I came back to Rialto to pay the bill. It was $17! A little startled, I asked Becky what he ordered that cost that much? She told me, "Steak and eggs." I laughed.

Truth be told, after the initial shock, I was a little bit miffed at the audacity. Mostly, because I know I couldn't have done that. It would have gone against every Japanese bone in my body. I also felt a tinged taken advantage of. But the more I thought about it, I was really glad Dennis ordered the steak and eggs. After all, I told him anything on the menu. Who knows when the last time he really had a good meal, let alone a T-bone steak? I was even smiling at the fact that he had the shamelessness (and appetite) to order exactly what he wanted.

During this past Easter season, P.Erin and I were talking in the office about how Evangelicals often view Lent as a time to make sacrifices (i.e to suffer without) to identify with the suffering of Christ. People will forgo caffeine, television, chocolate. But that assumes we have, so that we can go without for a time. But for others, Lent might be a season to actually indulge in what they cannot otherwise partake or afford. For the poor or oppressed, that might mean enjoying that delectable sweet or out-of-reach treat as a celebration of what Jesus has done. I was thinking about this when reflecting more on Dennis. Jesus often told stories about the kingdom of God being like inviting those on the street to a great feast, to a banquet his Father was throwing.

I can see steak and eggs being on the menu.

Santa Rosa Hike

On Saturday AM we headed out to the Santa Rosa Ecological Reserve with close to 30 other Epic folks, with our own resident botanist Ranger James Harrison leading the way. Turned out to be a warm day, but it was well worth the effort...beautiful pools, native flowers, and great company. Probably the neatest thing was seeing James in his element...giving us commentary about the various types of shrubs and flowers that grow here , warning us about the poison oak along the path, and even a bear story or two. When you see people at church, most of the time you have no idea what they do at work, and how many people are so good at what they do. That's why it's always a treat to see people doing what they love. When it was all said and done, and we were pooped (I was proud of our kids for making the trek), stopping off at Tom's Farms for a burger on the way back really hit the spot. And then we were off to a wedding.

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area

Over Spring Break we traveled to Vegas to visit my dad, which is where he makes his home. Beyond the swimming and eating that is the standard fare, we decided to get outside and exercise a bit by hiking in the Red Rock Canyon area, where they just completed an amazingly creative and interactive visitor center. We didn't hike all that much, but there was plenty to see and admire on the 13-mile loop with its vistas and changing landscapes. All in all, a beautiful way to spend the morning with grandpa. We finished our day, of course, with a buffet lunch at the Red Rock Hotel completely erasing any benefit we made by hiking.

Thailand?

I am one who believes God is always trying to get our attention. Most of life is just paying attention.

Yesterday, our staff went out to lunch at CafeWest in Fullerton, a great little place in downtown. After we finished our meal, we moseyed to the back of the cafe where they have an eclectic mix of art, a rack of women's vintage clothing, and a single bookshelf of used books, which patrons can help themselves to (like "on-loan" forever). To my surprise, I saw Lonely Planet's Thailand. (I happened to be at AAA just the weekend before, looking for a something on Thailand to no avail). But this was my lucky day. So I lifted it, legally.

The backstory is that just a few weeks before, I had received an e-mail out the blue that Becky Mann wanted to meet with me. I had heard about her, her husband Mike, and their wonderful and important work in Chiang Mai as American Baptist missionaries. Mike and I had corresponded briefly two years before as I inquired about their ministry, particularly their clean water projects, but had lost communication. Then to my surprise, Becky had instructions from Mike to hunt me down while she was back visiting in SoCal.

We sat down at Starbucks and I learned about the Mann's work with Burmese refugees in Thailand, near the mountainous hills in Chiang Mai. Firstly, the Mann's teach the Burmese how to farm their land with coffee beans, which they sell direct to Starbucks in a FairTrade exchange. Secondly, the Mann's help whole villages access clean water by setting up projects, often with the aid of teams from the States, who pay for the materials and dig the trenches from the water source to the villages. Finally, the Mann's discovered that the Burmese would often send their children into the city with the promise of work, only to never see their children again, victims of human trafficking. So the Mann's began building schools in the villages so that the children could stay and get an education. The hope is that as the children graduate, the Mann's will scholarship further study at the University if these students will return to their villages to teach at least two years.

I left that meeting amazed and inspired.

During our conversation, I had been invited to come and see their work as part of a scouting trip, having in mind the possibility of taking a team(s) over from Epic at some point.

Ever since, I have been in prayer about going, even sending out feelers to some of my friends to see if there is any interest in going with me.

And then I saw the book.

Story

Some cool things I've read lately about story...

"The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth." - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

"We were created for stories, not propositions; for drama, not bullet points." - James K.A. Smith, Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?

"If I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you." - Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

"We are not outside observers, as if we were watching a movie. We stand within the landscape. We are affected by the landscape. Since we are people of faith, we can even say that we are defined by the landscape. We are also part of the view that other observers see, from their own perspective. And they too are part of the total landscape that we see. Part of the beauty of a landscape is that it draws me, the observer, into it, so that I am engulfed and in a way defined by its greatness. In the case of biblical interpretation, we are people who stand in faith, who believe that the Bible speaks to us, and who therefore are quite conscious that what we are describing is not simply a landscape "out there," but rather, something that is at the very heart of our lives. We are not speaking of the biblical text as if it were dead letter, ancient history, distant memories. We are speaking of a text in which we find ourselves, our very lives." - Justo L. Gonzalez, Santa Biblia

"The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to stop herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well." - Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

American Baptist AA Colloquium

Last month I had the privilege of spending a week in Seattle with a wonderful group of American Baptist pastors, all of us part of the denomination's first Asian American Colloquium. For one week each year, the AB Ministers and Missionaries Board treats us to a time of learning, community, and R&R. It is quite a treat.

For me, it's a refreshing opportunity to get away and enjoy another city, and also to be around such a wise group of seasoned pastors. It's fun and enriching to hear their stories, to ask questions, and to glean from their experiences. I am continually amazed at what they and their churches are doing. My soul is always full by week's end.

During this year's trip, I was struck by two "firsts" regarding my AA identity and history:

The first came on a tour of the Japanese Baptist Church of Seattle, where our colleague Paul Aita is senior pastor. As we moved from room to room we got a sense of the history of the place. When we arrived in the church's gymnasium, Paul told us the story of former senior pastor Rev. Emery Emerson, who was minister at JBC from 1929-1976, which included the years during WWII.

As American citizens of Japanese decent were being rounded up to spend the next several years in internment camps all along the West, Rev. Emerson transformed the gym into a storage warehouse. To make ready for camp, each Japanese American family was allowed only what they could fit in a suitcase. So Pastor Emerson took masking tape and marked off 4X4 squares on the wooden floor in which Japanese American families from the community could come and leave keepsakes and possessions that they were unable to take with them. Looking at the floor, I wondered if each square contained belongings that were impractical, unnecessary, or too valuable for the unthinkable trek toward an unknown future. How difficult those decisions must have been. Yet, this small act of kindness surely brought some measure of relief knowing that what little remained of their former lives would be kept safe until their return.

I was moved upon hearing this story for the first time. Immediately I was both proud to be a fellow AB pastor and deeply grateful for what this Anglo American Baptist pastor had done - surely not without severe dissent and criticism from the majority - to extend love and care to so many Japanese during their time of dislocation and disillusionment. Remarkable.

The second was a reflection I had upon returning home. In the history of the American Baptists, the M&M Board has had the foresight and generosity to invest and thank pastors for their service to the Lord and to the denomination. Because of this, over 30 years ago the first colloquial was formed. Subsequently, a colloquial for pastors serving Black congregations and another for Latino churches was birthed. I am part of the first colloquial for senior pastors serving mostly Asian American churches. I was struck that although the denomination is nearly as old as our country, here I am in the 21st century still part of "a first Asian American..." On one hand, I thank my lucky stars I belong to a denomination that is attempting to include and give voice to the minority in their midst, while also realizing how far we have yet to go.

Currently Spinning

The Go! Team's
"Rolling Blackouts"

Photo Challenge

I've taken up the photo challenge for this week that Kristy proposed on her website. One of the first things I realized was that there is a lot more beauty in the world if I actively look for it. The second is that I couldn't take a photo of the many things I wanted because I was in the car driving. I realized that I spend way more time in the car than out and about on foot. That's a sad reality. I wish I lived and worked in the same place, but I don't. And I wish that I lived in a walkable city, but I don't. But that's what I love about working in Downtown Fullerton: Many weeks I get to stroll around the city, but not this week (so far). Anyway, here are my photos by day:

Day 7, Fullerton: Once a year in January, our church gets temporarily displaced from our usual worship space at Wilshire Ave. Looking to try something new, we decided this year to meet atop Hillcrest Park, in a rustic log cabin decorated prominently with a big American flag and game trophy throughout (hey, there's one behind Art our bass player!). Despite the rain and unfamiliar surroundings, we had an great time discussing and praying about what God is doing in our midst, and had a wonderful lunch together. Proving once again that church is not about a building, but about the heart of its people.





















Day 6, Long Beach: Every wedding is lovely in its own way. This picture was taken at Dorene's co-worker's wedding reception on Saturday. However conscious the bride and groom may or may not be of God's presence, there is no union between a man and woman which does not somehow, often miraculously and beautifully, reflect the glory and image of God.





















Day 5, Fullerton: There is something to be said about a sense of place. Today, I showed a friend around town, first having lunch at Rialto Cafe down the street, then a walk over to PAS Gallery to meet Brian. It's good to be proud of the city you're a part of, good to feel the energy of it. There's been no more special place for Epic than the corner of Wilshire and Pomona. Our promised land where God has settled us.
















Day 4, Diamond Bar: I like the various meanings of this sign. The obvious one alerting motorists to children crossing. But I also like the fact that children represent hope...of what is good about the future, and the call to care and nurture these precious ones. I think about the children in our kids ministry at Epic, for instance, and smile because of all the good they will bring to the world because of their hearts, their enthusiasm, their creativity. The sign also makes me think of our JOYA Scholars too, kids who may be lacking some resources but who are nevertheless bucking all odds to get ahead, working to create a better future for themselves and their families. Maybe it's a call for all of us to heed who is ahead, to make an investment in our future by loving a child.





















Day 3, Diamond Bar: The day after Obama's State of the Union address, this flag standing beside barren trees seemed an apt description of how many people feel about the state of their lives and the economy.





















Day 2, Chino Hills: Rows of empty carts. It made me think of two things: 1) the hope that more people are shopping locally at farmer's markets, and 2) of all the people in countries around the world with empty stomachs.




















Day 1, Diamond Bar: I took this near South Point Middle School while waiting to pick up my son. The sun was so bright shining over the canyon, a beautiful open space.

Contentment Challenge

So one of the challenges I've made for myself in the new year is NOT to buy any new clothes or shoes for 2011. I realize this might not be such a big sacrifice for some of you (say for instance, a certain P.Erin?). But if you know me, it's going to rob me of some quantifiable joy! (Sad, I know.) It's part of an attempt to live more frugally and save money where I can, but mostly part of a conviction that has grown out of something I preached recently from 1 Timothy 6:6-8

1Ti 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
A life structured around Jesus + contentment = great gain in things that matter; where "contentment" equals food and clothing.

I need to learn contentment. And the Apostle Paul says if you have food and clothing, that is enough. In my mind, that's hardly anything. But I suppose that's the point. I have so much already. Clothes and then some. So I'm up for the challenge.

One thing I can say is that I live consistently by the one-year rule: If I don't wear something within a year, I get rid of it, donate it. I had practiced the one-year rule after Christmas and cleaned out my closet prior to making this commitment, so my wardrobe is lean and mean, by my standards anyway. But even with that, the real truth is I still have plenty to wear for the year. It won't be easy, but I'll have to be content with that.

Anyone have their own contentment challenge? Anyone want to join me in a clothing fast for 2011?

Wish List

Here's an uplifting way to start the New Year. I'm not yet 50, but P.Ken of Evergreen Baptist Church posted a link of this Huffington Post article on his Facebook page: "12 Things I Wish I Knew at 25: Spiritual Learnings on My 5oth Birthday" by Rev. James Martin, a Catholic priest and author. Not sure why 12, but it's a really good dozen, and worth repeating and sharing if you haven't come across it already. Read it at any age since these lessons come hard, but especially if you're 25.

Anyone 50+ or pushing 50, what would you add to the list? Share your wisdom with us!