Today, I spent Easter in Africa....and it was spectacular.

I woke up to a gorgeous morning and took a boda to church, were we had the most beautiful Easter service. It is amazing to worship with so many different people, all of us with our different stories, different struggles, different joys.....yet, all in awe of, and there to glorify, One beautiful God. I cried as I looked over at one of our street boys sitting next to me, with his eyes closed, tears streaming down his cheeks, singing at the top of his lungs his love to Jesus, head swaying to the right and then the left in adoration. What a gorgeous example of God’s hope. He took a boy...starving, addicted to drugs as his only source of comfort and warmth, left hopeless...and He brought him out of the pit, gave Him life, and now causes Joseph’s heart to beat with love for His Savior. Literally.....his Savior. I am in awe at the work God is doing here, His love so extravagant.

Later in the day, we went out to Ssenge and had such a perfect afternoon at the boys home for street kids. Imagine the most simple, gorgeous place, far away from the hustle and bustle of city chaos, where you’re stripped of things like running water and electricity, but surrounded by all beauty. It’s like a haven. I honestly feel closer to God being out there. And I learn so much about God’s heart from these boys. One of them told me the Easter story today, and when I asked him why he thought Jesus died, he responded in his adorable little accent, “People. He just loves people!” It was like a cup of cold water remembering how simple it really is. He just loves people. We spent the afternoon playing soccer, trampolined, sang and danced, did lots of running, and then lots more dancing, enjoying the beauty of Jesus all around us. After that, I took a motorcycle back through the jungle, caught a taxi stuffed full of people (many on top of each others’ laps), took another motorcycle home where I met up with my friend Polly, and then took yet another motorcycle into town to go grocery shopping....because we were about to make an amazing Easter feast for all of our friends.

We arrived at Garden City, the Western shopping center where all the UN workers, NGO’s, and tourists go (it’s a bit of culture shock after living in Kampala), and as we were walking in, I saw this ragamuffin bunch of kids, with their torn clothes and broken shoes, and wondered to myself what they were doing in this shopping center? Polly and I continued into the store, as we set about finding the perfect ingredients for the perfect Easter feast. As we were walking through the isles the group of kids (two little girls and two little boys, under about the age of 9) walked through our aisle, and they looked at me and smiled, giggled, and asked how I was. When I responded back in their language, their eyes lit up and they started following us through the store.

Now, let me just say that, at this point, I realized that they were beggar kids and had come here to get anything they could from anyone that would give them something. They started following us around, holding onto our arms like we were their mamas, and asked curious questions about the ingredients for our feast like what ‘pasta’ was. They followed us, and kept on following us. It could have been annoying because we were in a hurry to get back, and people tell you “Don’t give them anything because it will just reinforce their begging and add to the problem!”...which, to be honest, is probably true.....but it’s EASTER. The day that we celebrate ultimate love and sacrifice and how that changed our lives. And, to be honest, I think that every kid should get spoiled with some yummy biscuits and Cadbury chocolate on Easter. I didn’t care if people said it added to the problem, I wanted those kids to feel so spoiled. While the kids were walking with us, I couldn’t help but wonder if they just wanted to feel like they belonged to someone. So I asked them if they wanted to be my babies for the day, and they shook their heads yes, and we continued shopping, smiling as we got curious looks from people passing.

It’s so simple. I didn’t do anything extravagant or anything that even required much, but those little ones were grinning ear to ear, feeling loved and feeling that they existed. And I remembered how simple it actually is to make a dent in people’s hearts, as His love melts away indifference and penetrates hopelessness. It’s amazing how much a little Cadbury and some puttzing through grocery store isles can make the forgotten feel loved.

We came home and made our amazing Easter feast, with a few bumps in the road (we ran of our gas in the stove while we were cooking, and then ran out of water when we were cleaning it all up...a daily occurrence). But it was just amazing to eat, be with dear friends, eat some more, and celebrate Love. I was reminded today to not be overwhelmed by the enormous need here, but to stop for the one....being Jesus’ Cadbury chocolate covered hands and feet.

“Give the King your justice...May He judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice! Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills in righteousness! May He defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy...In His days may the righteous flourish and peace abound till the moon be no more.”

:: Psalm 72

The Lord has been stirring up deep, deep things in my heart while being here. I admit that something I am growing in is knowing how to see heavy things and heartbreaking situations, and not be paralyzed by the weight of it. That I would give it back to Jesus and trust Him with it, because, after all, he loves humanity more than I ever could. But, I am also realizing that God let’s us see things for a reason, and shows us things not so that we could just sit back, but so that we could join Him in seeing change come to that situation and that life. That we would be vessels of that change.

Today even, as I walked through the streets of Kampala, I see so many kids (and I mean some as young as two years old), forced to beg on the streets by their parents....parents who should be empowering their children, and teaching them that they have purpose and potential.....but instead, use their children and their children’s future for their gain. If you walk the streets here you’ll see a little girl missing her arms and legs, and will later find out that her parents cut them off when she was young so that she could get more for them when she begged. I saw a Western man today, drenched in his expensive cologne, as he walked right past three different street kids, without being fazed or even acknowledging them as human beings.

In our city there are these fancy, tall corporate buildings right next to heart wrenching slums....and I just don’t understand how the two can exist right next to each other, without anything changing. I believe that God lets us see harsh realities like these so that we can do something about it. I admit that I see things like this it’s easy to feel completely incapable. And then I realize, I am incapable, and shamelessly so...but I am dependent on the One whose love is more for them than I could ever muster. This isn’t about me being some good humanitarian.....because, honestly without His love, I can’t bring any change. No, it’s about me and it’s about you joining Him as His love story for humanity unfolds.

Sweet, sweet love. And there is always enough. ‘The greatest of these is love’.....and there i always enough. Even more than when we’re tired of loving and have poured it all out. We possess the same love of the One who created humanity....the love of the One who poured it out for the broken flowing through us. My heart collides, unexpectedly, from anything of myself; now morphing into the one whose essence is Love itself.

God has been absolutely ruining me for the ordinary as I've been here in Uganda. Last night, my friend Jade and I started a series called "Radical"and we didn't want it to end. Please take some time and listen to it. Honestly, it will change your life. And challenge you to live true discipleship. It will make you laugh, cry, get the chills, feel challenged, feel loved.....an most of all, not want to live the same. I encourage you to listen to this series, as we ask God what it looks like to actually live out the Gospel...the whole Gospel...not just the parts we want to highlight and live by, but the entirety of what Jesus calls us to. And it IS the most satisfying life ever. I am hungry for change. Ready to be ruined by Jesus.

You can go here
http://www.brookhills.org/media/series/radical/
and either watch it or listen to it. You can also go to itunes and download the podcasts.
I would love to hear feedback from you of what God is showing you through it. Feel free to email me at mombasa26@gmail.com.

My friend Jade has been here for the past two months away from her husband and daughters, waiting for the adoption of her gorgeous son, Ezra, to go through. The journey God has been taking her and her family on has been beautiful....not always painless....but so, so beautiful. Her husband wrote this for her and I just loved it.

Jade,

It was awesome to talk with you today. Sorry I don’t have pictures of myself to put on here. I guess that’s what happens when you leave, WAY less pictures going on around here. Today was a good day, productive practice this morning, warm day to work around the house, Sunday school prep this evening…etc.

I used one of your tshirts as my pillow case:) How is that for sappy? I like a good tshirt pillow case though, perfect material for faces.

I just about have Samuel’s room done. You’re going to love it. The bed and the dresser are supposed to be dropped off any time, then that room will be complete and ready for a little boy!

I really liked your post today. I know it’s so hard to go through this not being able to see what is coming and not being pleased by the progress. We love the plan when we are happy, we just have to trust it when we aren’t. As the great Mumford and Sons put it: ‘Hold on to what you believe in the light when the darkness has robbed you of all your sight.’ You quote scripture and I quote lyrics, you’re making me look bad;)

I am proud of you babe. God doesn’t waste time, this has been five ON PURPOSE weeks. They are useful to the building of God’s kingdom and you haven’t wasted them with sadness and complaining. For that, I am a supremely proud and happy husband. I mean that. I’m beyond happy with you, Jade, I am celebrating your diligence and discipline. You have followed God on this path that veers away from what you planned. You have chased Him even though it meant selfless efforts through pain and heartache and confusion. Oh man! Man oh man oh man!!! The more you LOVE Him and OBEY Him the more I desire you and respect you.

So I guess we have another week ahead huh? I’m excited to see what gets done…love seeing you at the other missions places helping out. Maybe you will get another opportunity this week! Whatever you do, God is at work there.

I love you and miss you. Have a great Sunday babe. Kiss my kid for me.

Nathan.

Jesus remains Lord by being a servant.

I am convinced that Jesus’ ministry was so effective because of how humbly He loved. He was not afraid of getting into the hard places and loving even there. And this is exactly the way I am to love. This is the we are to love. Not afraid to be a servant. To die to anything of ourselves so that others may be loved. When the Bible says “greater things shall you do”, I think that we need to really compare that to what Jesus is meaning, as well as comparing it to what things He did that we are to carry on. The answer is greater things than what Jesus’ ministry was here on this earth. What an amazing promise to our obedience! So if we honestly want to do greater things, we have to look at why and how Jesus was so effective.....and it all comes back to how He came as a servant and loved out of complete humility.

If you think about the culture of that time (and, to be honest, our culture now), it was all about climbing up the social ladder and gaining prestige among society. How often do even Christians, and evangelists, and prophets and....I search after this! If you and I want to see the promise of ‘greater things’ fulfilled, we have to be willing to love with absolutely no recognition or pats on the back. To love God and love people (the one cannot exist without the other) is not for our own well being or to make ourselves feel better at the end of the day. It is because we are called to it, and created for it, even when it stretches every part of us, pushing us out of our cozy comforts, and sometimes into others’ pain.....and yes, often when it does not feel good to love. (Inevitably, it is the most fulfilling feeling in the end...which I just think is beautiful.)

I also think about the phrase “greater things”, and how easy it is to immediately think signs and wonders. While I think that miracles are absolutely a part of God’s Kingdom today (I have seen God do crazy, crazy things. Let me know if you ever want to talk about this), I don’t think that it’s the core of what Jesus is talking about. I think that’s a part of it, for sure, but I think the main thing, and the greatest thing, is that people would know the true, potent, life changing love that Christ has. Love that gives hope and causes us to see God’s goodness and glorify His name in the midst of the crap and the trial. Love that ruins us for the ordinary, and makes us truly alive, no matter what the circumstance. That is the ‘greater things’ I want to see! And to be honest, that isn’t always accompanied by a hyper spiritual experience. Yes, sometimes it is totally accompanied by signs and wonders, and I want to expect Go to do the craziest things He wants to do! But... are we willing to see God’s will be done and His love reach people, even when there’s not some crazy, feel good thing that happens with it? Are we willing to get our hands dirty to truly love people. To meet them in their struggle and pain, and love them there?

My heart says “yes!”. The greatest thing is that everyone would know His sweet, sweet love. And that because of it, their lives would never be the same. That whether they’re in a season of much, or a season of little, that even that wouldn’t look the same because the hope, the beauty, and the goodness of God is our strength, no matter how long the seasons last.

So, my prayer is that we will absolutely see greater things....and that in order to truly see the promise fulfilled, we would be willing to love and serve without reserve, and with absolutely no one watching or saying “look at that anointed one”. But, that we would live and breathe His love. And through it, all will come to know such love! And that, my friends... is definitely the greatest thing Jesus is talking about.

“The Beloved disciple [John] presents a mind bending image of God, blowing away all previous conceptions of who the Messiah is and what discipleship is all about. What a scandalous reversal of the world’s values! To prefer to be the servant rather than the Lord of the household is the path of downward mobility in an upwardly mobile culture. To taunt the idols of prestige, honor, and recognition, to refuse to take oneself seriously or to take seriously others who take themselves seriously, and to freely embrace the servant lifestyle- these are the attitudes that bear the stamp of authentic discipleship. The stark realism of John’s portrait of Jesus leaves no room for emotion or mood or feeling; it is a decision to live like Jesus. It has nothing to do with what we feel; it has everything to do with what we do- humble service. To listen obediently to Jesus- “If I then, the Lord ad Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each others’ feet”- is to hear the heartbeat of the Rabbi that John knew and loved. When being is divorced from doing, pious thoughts become an adequate substitute for washing dirty feet.”

~Brennan Manning

‘So He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash their feet, drying them with the towel that was around Him.’

John 13:4-5

Jesus remains Lord by being a servant.

:: concrete love ::

You've been walked past, in your state of brokenness.
As scoundrels pass, your tissue paper heart rips by harsh winds of dismissal.
While hurricanes of assumption define their thoughts and mold their judgments.
A post-it note stating 'Crazy' they've stuck to your weathered forehead, with uncanny fate. They don't even know the love and beauty that weathered skin has seen.

Doomed. They cast upon you with their glances.
Failure. They resonate with haughty eyes, as if you've brought this upon yourself.

Selfish fear replaces the selfless simplicity of boldness we know as love.

You've seen it all. The Indian with his lucky coin. The ex-soldier with his nostalgic rings. The aimless wanderer with his coffee cup, his stories, and his addiction to nothing other than adventure. Jesus. When will your people see you? We ask to see you. But we don't even want to sometimes.

You are the man with the torn backpack in front of Target. You are the women at the corner of Betteravia and the freeway. You are the child sleeping in the strawberry fields.

May selflessness replace bonds of fear. May hope move past thoughts of dismissal. May we see you like we've never dared to see you before.