Quick the Vampires are Coming!

       This past weekend Dan Bouchelle from the Missions Resource Network guest spoke at Westark.  I really enjoyed what he had to say, especially his Parasite vs. Bone marrow analogy about how missions is viewed by churches. 
      
       He used the idea of parasites feeding off a body, I'll use the idea of vampires, because I need to be hip since I work with teenagers.  Now vampires are invited in just like missionaries sometimes are, and in some places are probably treated like such.  Almost as if the missionaries suck away from blood or life from the church, and then go out and somehow go out and take life to non believers?  That doesn't make a lot of sense.  Bloodsuckers just kill period.

       Now, Dan may have blew some minds on Sunday, when he continued his metaphor by talking about bone marrow.  I know my ears perked up when I heard him say bone marrow.  Partly because it's a strange phrase, and that dislodged bone marrow once put me in a coma and almost killed me.  If that last sentence is the first time you've heard of bone marrow, I'd like to add that it's not supposed to kill you like vampires.  Bone marrow is the stuff that produces more red blood cells which keep you alive.  In the same way, missionaries like myself are sent out to produce life and goodness in the places that we go.  We carry the resurrection of Jesus that has shaped our lives so much out to the places we go.  In fact, all the church is supposed be like bone marrow, otherwise how will it grow?  

      

Runaway Fields, Oxen, and Brides

        I've just returned from a week of recruiting interns for our upcoming summer.  We traveled to Searcy, then St. Louis, and then finished off in Oklahoma City.  Every time I go off to recruit I get excited because I get to talk to people about Impact, and try to get them to come intern for a summer.  Sometimes people are easily convinced, and it makes my job easy, and then they come intern.  Other times people listen to our spill about Impact, and take some information, and leave and never come back. 

       There is a third group I often encounter and it is a fascinating group to deal with.  This group doesn't ignore me, or just take my free stuff and leave.  This group listens about Impact, and sees that there is something good and holy happening in Houston.  Yet they start coming up with different reasons to not come and intern.  The two most popular excuses being, "I need to take classes," or "I need to work this summer."  Both of which make me want to vomit.  I've done both of those things, and they're horrible.  There's also the favorite church answer, "I'll pray about it."  This frustrates me quite a lot, because I don't think you need to pray about joining in what God is doing.  You may need to decide about where you should join God's work. 

       It makes me think of this story in Luke 14, where someone says "Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the Kingdom of God," to Jesus.  Jesus goes on and tells of a master who is having a great banquet and invites many guests.  When the servant is sent out to tell the guests everything is ready, they begin to make excuses.  The first says I just bought a field and I must go see it.  As if the field is going somewhere.  The second says I just bought some oxen and I need to try them out.  What?  Shouldn't you try them out before you buy them?  The third says, I just got married.  Which may be the most reasonable excuse given.  Well the master doesn't like it and tells the servant to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. 

      It makes me think of this one instance while recruiting last week.  Josef and I were talking to this kid about interning, and once he had heard enough and seem interested, he was leaving.  As he left we offered him a shirt. His response was, "I need it in a small."  Which was weird since he was about my size, and me and Josef shared a look that said, what a weirdo. 

      Turns out, this kid is the only one who returned an application that day.  Which humbled me, and got me to thinking about Luke 14.  Often times the smart kids, talented bible majors or youth ministry majors get invited and pushed towards our "feast" at Impact.  But those guys usually go somewhere that they'll get paid, so I'll take the guys who are a little weird, because everyone that works at Impact has to be a little weird.  To all the weirdos out there like me, please come intern, even if you wear tight shirts.  Because you'll probably be really good.