Why do you do what you do?

I don't think I've written much about the lifestyle and climate here in New Zealand. Most days it's been between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. During the first few weeks we had a strong breeze coming from the Antarctic which made it feel cooler, especially on the beach. It has dropped in the last few weeks, making it more enjoyable. So far I've tried a few new foods. I've had fish and chips (deep fried shark with french fries) a couple of times and today I had salmon. There is a lot of free time in the schedule. This is occupied by hanging out with classmates, reading, walking along the beach, and praying. In short while I am learning and lot and growing it is also a complete vacation from the worries of normal life: having to watch that TV show or movie, needing to pay those bills, wishing I was playing that game. I'm enjoying it.

By the way, for those who haven't tried a media fast I'd suggest you give it a shot. Try going a week without TV, web sites, movies, and so forth. It really opens you up to spending time seeking God, doing homework, hanging out with friends and talking, and so forth.

This week we had Mark Johnson from Steiger Minneapolis teach. During a men's group he challenged us to write down a list of what we do every day. Then take a look at that list and see what it reveals about yourself, what the underlying assumptions or values are. Some of them will be good. Others may reveal some lies at the core of your being. This brought some additional clarity to why I do some things and shrink from others. The next step is to bring about a change. Molly suggested making a two column list with the lies on one side and the truth from the Bible on the other. When the lies come into your head respond by speaking aloud the truth.

Worldviews and such

Last week I posted that the healing evangelist based one of his early points on the Israelites leaving Egypt in good health on a verse in the Psalms. This week we had a session on hermeneutics. In it our teacher pointed out that we need to ask different questions for the different books of the Bible and remember that there are many different types of literature in the Bible. For example, the Psalms is poetry. As such it is an expression of people's thoughts and feelings, not necessarily literal truth. We got a copy of the healing evangelist's notes and I'm planning on going back and looking at his references and praying about this.

Wednesday and Thursday we had sessions on worldviews and evangelism. This was a good refresher on these topics along with ideas on how to speak to people with these different worldviews. I plan to refresh myself on these ideas every couple of days because these thoughts are "use it or lose it."

Lastly, Fridays we have seven hours devoted to spending time seeking God alone. So far we've had three such Fridays. I've tried hanging around home, sitting on the beach, and walking the greenway. So far none of the days have been as good as I hoped. Either I've got wrong expectations or I need to keep trying to find that place to be alone and focus and pray.

I'm sure some of the blog posts in the coming weeks will sound a little strange due to my effort to sum up a day's worth of teaching in a paragraph or two.

This week had a special guest speaker named Weston. He's a 75 year old Kiwi who's been a healing evangelist for a good 35 years. He spoke for about 7 hours on Tuesday, the first 5.5 of which were lying the groundwork for healing. He talked about how the fundamental assumption is that God wants us to be healthy. However, things we do or don't do keep us from that. These things range from the obvious, such as healthy eating and exercising, to the not so obvious. For example, unforgiveness, strife, unhealthy fear (fear other than of God or natural things for protection), and believing false doctrine. Throughout this Weston pointed out that the the wisdom literature and prophets really expanded the scope of what Jesus did on the cross. Usually I just thought it took care of our sins, but he showed how it includes things like rejection (Jesus was rejected by everyone including God), strife, and so forth. Because of that we can give it to Jesus and be free from it. After that he prayed for physical healing for many of the students. It was a challenging day.

Last night Phil and company performed the Suitcase Sideshow show "Blessed Are The Poor." This is a 25 minute marionette story with full soundtrack, voices, and effects looking at three different people in search of a hero. In each case Jesus was there to love and accept them while others had rejected them. I still get chills at the start of the show when you first hear the demons speaking lies to the people. Phil plans to take it out on a tour around New Zealand at some point during the school.

Weekly schedule and more

Things have changed so now we are able to access email and such for a half hour each Sunday afternoon. So look for an update most Saturday night/Sunday afternoon for those in Minneapolis.

Some may be wondering what the school schedule is like. Sunday we go to church about 5 minutes away by car. It's one of the churches in the local Anglican parish. The rest of the day is free. Monday is our free day to do whatever. Tuesday through Thursday we start the day with a quite time from 8:30 to 9:00. We then have worship for a half hour followed by praying for one person in the group for about 15-25 minutes. After that we have our first class session, which lasts about a hour. We then have a ten minute break with tea and cookies (biscuits as they're called here). We then have our second class session which goes until noon or 12:30 at which time we all have lunch together. After lunch on Tuesday and Thursdays we (will) have a work project in prepping stuff for the next No Longer Music tour or other such stuff. Wednesday afternoons we split up men and women.

Friday we meet in small groups for accountability from 8:30 to 10:00 after which we spend the rest of the day seeking God. Saturday we meet at 8:30 for a quite time followed by worship and evangelism in the community.

Media fast beginning

First off I realized many don't know who the Andy I referenced in the last blog post is. He was involved with Steiger Masschusetts reaching out to the punks and street kids. Now he's living in New Zealand with his wife and kids. They come to Minneapolis most summers to do some teaching during the training school for the New Age Festival missions trip.

We have chosen to be at this school. It is an investment of time and money and Satan wants to attack us throughout our time. Many times this can come through TV, movies, and the Internet. In order to focus on God during this time we are having a media fast for the duration of the school which includes email access. So I hope to send some post cards to friends and family but the blog will be silent until May.

Arrived safe and sound

Greetings from the future! Right now it's Sunday evening around 8 PM while many Minnesotans are sleeping at 1 AM Sunday morning. I arrived in New Zealand just find, caught all my flights, and got to ride the train from Wellington to Paraparaumu. One of the things that struck me about this country is that it seems to have many of the different geographic types and styles that America has. Wellington is very tight city. There are roads that are wide enough for one lane of traffic going each direction, others are wide enough for two lanes going each direction, kind of like Hawaii. Once I got on the train I saw a few houses that look like some of the towns in West Virginia that had no hope, I saw graffiti that reminded me of the big city, I saw rolling hills with horses which reminded me of Montana. So in some ways it doesn't feel too foreign.

I'm living in a rental house with five other guys: two Americans and three Brazilians. All the houses are within a few blocks of each other and we walk back and forth between them. The beach is about two blocks from my house.

So far this weekend has been about hanging out, getting to know each other, and getting used to the time change. This morning we went to the Anglican church where Andy is a Reverend. We sang the same kind of songs we sing in chapel at Crown. Afterwards I had some coffee and chatted with the church members. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and hanging out with friends. Tomorrow we've got an afternoon trip to a bed and breakfast. Tuesday we start in the classes.

Let me close by saying this may be my only blog post of the school. I knew going in that we were going to have a media fast from TV and movies. It seems it includes the Internet this year, though I won't find out the full details until we have the formal orientation session on Tuesday. So if you don't see another post before May that's why. Please know that I love you and I pray God is doing good things in your lives.