Worship Beyond Words

First of all, sorry it's taken me so long to get another post up here. No excuses, I'll do better.

and now higher up and further in....

"I can't even put into words the experience of standing on top of a mountain, completely buffeted by the wind and snow, staring out as far as I can see into God's creation."

"God just keeps moving the boundaries of what I think I am able to do!"

"I hiked into our site a couple of days ago with a heavy heart, and have really spent our time up here wrestling, doing a lot of thinking. It was cool to discover as I hiked out that I still had a song in my heart."

These are some of my favorite quotes from our experience two weeks ago in our camping trip in the High Peaks. Here's a brief summary: We loaded all our gear on our backs and hiked in about 3 hours to our base camp, which was actually a really nice, warm cabin. Girls stayed in the cabin (apparently so warm that they didn't even use their brand new North Face sleeping bags). Guys stayed in the lean-tos (a little colder, especially with 10-year old bags). The cabin was great, we had breakfast and lunch in there, as well as a couple of meetings, worship times, that sort of thing. Great place for building community. We spent three nights out there, and the third night we all slept outside. Some slept in the lean-tos, while the rest of us built and slept in Quincy's. To build a quincy: back a bunch of snow down, then begin shovelling snow onto that spot, building a mount, packing it down as you go. Build it up about head high, then shovel out the insides, making a make-shift igloo. The girls' was big enough for about 5, and we fit 10 in the guys. I'm not kidding--it had two rooms, a door in between, two entrances, and even two windows of ice some guys dragged up from the river. Style. Quite the experience!

But this week was about far more than experiences, hills, or snow. It was about worship, about developing the bonds of our community, of struggling through cold and exhaustion, of supporting each other, and realizing our failures. And more than that. I can't blog it all, but I will say this: it was a good week. I'll share a couple stories in particular that highlight our time of worship in "the wild".

We hiked a couple of mountains, the most significant of which was Mt Marcy. Marcy is the tallest mt in NY, and really was an adventure at the summit. The wind really picked up above the treeline, and the final 1/2 mile or so of the hike was a fight against the elements, carefully picking your way along the treacherously icy, barren hillside, leaning into the wind, trying to ignore the pelting snow that was pummelling your face. There is just something about being stretched to the limit of our physical capabilities that makes us feel that we are human, that we are alive...hard to put into words, actually. :) There is a unique awe of God you feel as you lean into a freezing wind that is almost strong enough to actually hold you up, and so loud that you have to shout to be heard...and to look out, and see for miles, and know that the same God who made all that can hear the prayers you utter silently in your own mind.

I'll round out the story of the tempestuous storm at the top of Marcy with another one from a different perspective. For some reason at some point I was out walking alone, and happened to cross over a frozen river near our cabin. A soft snow was falling, it was one those times where the white blanket just muted everything. I paused in the middle of the river, taking in the stark beauty of the WHITE. Standing on a frozen river, covered in snow, surrounded on every side by towering trees weighed down with their burdens of snow, and giant, silent flakes falling all around me. We had just witnessed the glory of God's power on the peak of Marcy, and now I was hearing the still, small voice of God.

And, as I drank of God's beauty, i noticed, down a ways from me, perched on a rock, all by herself, one of our LIFTers. I just stood there for awhile, unbeknownst to her, watching her as she worshipped. I can describe to you the things that I saw, but I can't put the experience into words. There is just a beauty to God's creation, and a futher beauty to silently witnessing one of God's daughters drink in that beauty in worship... I can only thank God for the moment.

It was a good week....one that i still don't quite have all the words for. But I have a song...

Different Point of View

This week's post comes to us courtesy of one of our LIFTers...

Well, week 4 is drawing to a close. I am pleased, and humbled, to be able to announce that things are going very well. I've actually been quite enjoying myself as of late. I particularly love the fact that I'm learning things here that I can see becoming a reality for when I leave here. For example, we are required to read the 70 resolutions of Jonathan Edwards every week, and I can see how they are actually permeating my thought process and I think this will be something that I will continue to read and re-read for years to come. I will definitely recommend them to you. They're a quick read, until you really study them of course, but well worth the time. And looking back to last semester, we memorized the book of James. I still go over it every once in a while, and it still comes to mind quite easily when it is relevant with the conversation. We are also reading Augustine's Confessions, and it's fascinating to see him struggling with the same things I do now, quite a few years later. And I can see the conclusions he came to, which are really helpful. For instance, he recalls a time in his life when he would break into a pear orchard, steal some pears, and go feed them to the pigs. He did not do it to harm the farmer, nor for the nourishment of the fruit, nor for the profit of selling the fruit. He simply wanted to break in and steal. And it resonates with me incredibly! But I can see how he came through it, and how he eventually saw the folly of it. So ya, it's really a learning experience to be here!

Today we all did mini presentations on Brazil and the ministry and the history and the people and the culture, so that was pretty cool. There's a lot of nominal catholic influence, and some spiritism that's growing, but the evangelical church is taking hold and we get to see it and be part of it for 2 weeks! I still don't know the specifics of what we'll be doing, but there will probably be some time spent in building a church, hauling water filters, and establishing relationships with the missionary families and the locals. It also looks like we'll be spending time assisting in evangelizing! Everything must be done through translators. And just as a side note, turns out there's a lot of animals down there that stay alive by ending other lives! So I'm gonna have to be real careful how I go about catching them!

e pluribus unum

It is amazing to behold, an act of beauty, a sight as priceless as any masterpiece gracing a museum wall. I have had the distinct pleasure this past week or so of watching our little group of random individuals from all over the world gradually coalescing into One Body. I watch old friendships graciously turn outwards in order to invite new friendships. I am welcomed by the warm embrace of growing love as I observe authentic concern for each other developing throughout our group. I hear stories, listen to laughter, open up myself, and have even already hugged those who needed a hug, mourned with those who are mourning. How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity!

It's been an incredible week. We've enjoyed the wonderful teaching of Michael Craven, who spent the week teaching us through cultural apologetics, otherwise called a biblical worldview. He led us through a biblical, compassionate approach to modernism/postmodernism, consumerism, sexuality and homosexuality, marriage, and much more. He actually wrote one of the best books I have read in awhile. It's called Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Cultural Christianity. Seriously, this is one of the best treatments of how to respond to and understand our culture as a biblical Christian. I can't recommend it enough! You can buy it at his website or from Amazon. Seriously--go buy it today.

In other news, we continue to have more fun in the snow than should be allowed! We all learned how to cross-country ski this past Wednesday. There are few experiences in life more breathtaking than skiing through fresh powder on a snowy afternoon under the shelter of towering, snowcapped trees. We took a few minutes on the trail to stop and simply listen to the snow falling. I hear they stop to smell the roses in Scotland...here in the Adirondacks we prefer to stop and listen to the snow fall!

We also enjoyed one of our first snowshoe hikes. The group is already in much better shape than we expected at this point. We made it up, had lunch on top, froze our hands, and then ran through the mounds of snow on the way down in a few hours less than we thought it would take. We are excited at how well everyone did--but we laughingly told them they should have intentionally tanked their first run out--that way the rest of the semester would be much easier! Now we know we can challenge them!

We have already seen growth from our classes. We are studying a few of the significant contributors to Christian thought over the years (Athanasius, Augustine, Calvin, Edwards), as well as learning leadership lessons from Jesus in the book of Matthew. There are few things more challenging to our Western paradigms than the Sermon on the Mount. We've also delved deeply into our study and practice of the spiritual disciplines. It is great to watch the students pour themselves into their studies, as well as practice bible study, solitude, worship, prayer, and even fasting. We look forward to what is to come.

This week we'll be tackling our first afternoon of full outreach. We will be involved in a wide variety of activities throughout the mighty metropolis of Speculator. This will include serving at the local library, historical society, Day Hab (daily rehabilitation for the severely retarded), and local volunteer ambulance center. We also host a group of local girls every week on Monday night for Tapawingo Girls Fellowship, which is sort of life Vacation Bible School, only better! :) We simply do everything we can think of to practically and tangibly demonstrate and proclaim Christ's love to those who desperately need Him. We'll appreciate your prayers, and we'll let you know how things go!

First Things

We've just barely logged 24 hours of LIFT 21, and I already sense that this is going to be an incredible semester. It could be the way the group of strangers I sat with a couple of hours ago opened up to each other, sharing fears and concerns as if they'd known each other for months. It could be the way they all reveled in the challenge of a vigorous hike up a ski hill in snowshoes through the blinding snow. Or perhaps it was the reckless abandon they demonstrated on the way back down! Maybe it's the servant's heart that has already been revealed in so many of them, despite our short time together. It may have been the privilege of sitting on top of a "mount" while we listened to Kathy recite the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety.

Or, it might just be an expectant hope that our God will do great things in our lives. To be honest, I'm still growing in the habit of hope. I've grown accustomed to people letting me down, circumstances not working out, plans apparently not being a part of God's will after all. I confess that when it comes to expectations I too often limit God to a box no bigger than my efforts.

We worship a God just "slightly" bigger than that.

And so, I look forward to what this semester brings with hope.

We've just barely logged 24 hours of LIFT 21, and I already have the sense that this is going to be an incredible semester.

The First Step of the Journey

Welcome to the new LIFT blog! This will be the new way for alumni, family, and friends of LIFT to keep up with LIFT. Our blog will include weekly updates about our program, what we're doing where we're going, etc, as well as students' posts from time to time. We will also try to offer insightful comments once a week.

This will be replacing our official LIFT newsletter...we hope that those of you who've enjoyed newsletters up to this point will be happy with the new form of communication.

And so, we take our first step towards our next LIFT adventure...