Hey West Enders! My name is Ashley Harton and I am currently serving full-time with Campus Crusade for Christ at Vanderbilt University, along with a few others you may know (Joe & Betsy Thomas, Beth Randolph, and Adam & Haley Strouth). If you don't know much about Campus Crusade, we are basically committed to developing authentic spiritual movements on university campuses by focusing on evangelism, discipleship, and sending students out missionally.
Why so much focus on the university campus, specifically Vandy?? Lots of reasons! But to give you one that really motivates me...university campuses are home to streams of current thought/culture-shaping ideas and places of worldview formation. That is certainly true of Vanderbilt! The average college student comes into this environment as an 18 year old with some sort of understanding of the world, but is very open to change as they are exposed to different friends, top professors, and new experiences in and outside of the classroom. You can find students or professors on campus who believe (or don't believe) almost anything! Consequently, Vandy students encouraged, however indirectly, and in a very postmodern sort of way, to adopt the view, "what's true for me may not be true for you" and vice versa. "You believe what you want to believe but don't bother me with it". By the end of their college career, this often leaves them waving the banner of tolerance without really knowing any more deeply about what they really believe...at least in the realm of faith.
Recently in discipleship, I have been talking about this with some senior women, asking them: "If you were to guess how the average Vandy student would answer these questions, what would you say?" The questions are "Why are we here?" "What is wrong with the world?" "What puts the world right?" and "How can I be a part of putting the world right?" These conversations have been eye-opening! But even more, it has exposed how much our own views of the world are mixed with secular values. Values that are not all bad, but ultimately surface level compared to the depth of the answers we have in the gospel. Please pray for believing and non-believing students alike that God would reveal Himself in Spirit and in truth...and that they would really believe that there is Truth that IS real, pervasive and worthy of heralding!
The article that has been shaping these recent discussions can be found here, if you are interested: http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2004/oct/deconstructing.html
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Going as a family to Honduras
Before we left for Honduras, I had certain expectations, prayers and hopes for our time in Siguatepeque. There were the obvious prayer requests - safety, smooth travel, health, and opportunities to love and minister to the kids who would come to the soccer VBS and the medical clinic. God is good and he answered my prayers and was so real to me on this trip! What was it about this trip that made God seem so much more real than when I am living day to day in Nashville? God gave me the gift of this missions trip with the key word being mission! Going to Honduras removed all things that so easily distract me in Nashville and showed me a picture of what it is like to serve with a specific mission - to love those that God put in front of us.
God was so real on this trip! I watched him provide as we ministered loved and played with the kids that he brought to the soccer field each day. He provided the soccer equipment to outfit close to 90 children with shoes, socks, and shorts. He provided a beautiful soccer field at the doorstep of our hotel! He provided energy and enthusiasm to make each day special for the campers. He provided the words of love spoken at the end of each day to the campers to help them see who God really is!
We had the opportunity to preach the Gospel to the boys and girls at the end of each session. We used the Jesus Storybook Bible to share the Gospel. Most of the kids have only heard about God from a very legalistic perspective. We shared a simple message - God loves you, not for what you have done but because you are his creation! Speaking in front of groups has never been a favorite activity of mine. But again, God was real and there was not a moment that I felt nervous or inhibited by doubts of my ability to speak in front of large groups. God instilled a confidence that came from knowing that this was not about me, but it was about what God was doing through me. They were not my words the kids were hearing. They were the words of love from God inviting these kids to be his children! I was surprised how emotional I got at several different moments of the week in the midst of sharing the Gospel. I think that emotion came from have a much deeper understanding of what it means to be loved by God!
As a family, it was such a blessing to serve together! Aaron and I loved watching Katelyn take off on the soccer field with her new friends. She grew so much from the first day in terms of her patience and making the best of each situation. I had really prayed going into this trip that her world as she knew it would be turned upside down. I feel like God answered that prayer as I see her response to adversity and what she values now after going on this trip. I pray that it will stick! God thankfully did the same for me! Finally, I take away from the trip a greater urgency to better equip myself and my family to be ready to share the Gospel in the midst of the distractions of our daily lives.
The White Family
God was so real on this trip! I watched him provide as we ministered loved and played with the kids that he brought to the soccer field each day. He provided the soccer equipment to outfit close to 90 children with shoes, socks, and shorts. He provided a beautiful soccer field at the doorstep of our hotel! He provided energy and enthusiasm to make each day special for the campers. He provided the words of love spoken at the end of each day to the campers to help them see who God really is!
We had the opportunity to preach the Gospel to the boys and girls at the end of each session. We used the Jesus Storybook Bible to share the Gospel. Most of the kids have only heard about God from a very legalistic perspective. We shared a simple message - God loves you, not for what you have done but because you are his creation! Speaking in front of groups has never been a favorite activity of mine. But again, God was real and there was not a moment that I felt nervous or inhibited by doubts of my ability to speak in front of large groups. God instilled a confidence that came from knowing that this was not about me, but it was about what God was doing through me. They were not my words the kids were hearing. They were the words of love from God inviting these kids to be his children! I was surprised how emotional I got at several different moments of the week in the midst of sharing the Gospel. I think that emotion came from have a much deeper understanding of what it means to be loved by God!
As a family, it was such a blessing to serve together! Aaron and I loved watching Katelyn take off on the soccer field with her new friends. She grew so much from the first day in terms of her patience and making the best of each situation. I had really prayed going into this trip that her world as she knew it would be turned upside down. I feel like God answered that prayer as I see her response to adversity and what she values now after going on this trip. I pray that it will stick! God thankfully did the same for me! Finally, I take away from the trip a greater urgency to better equip myself and my family to be ready to share the Gospel in the midst of the distractions of our daily lives.
The White Family
Thursday, December 4, 2008
A Perspective from Honduras
Honduras 2008
I always seem to be reading two or three books at a time for my devotionals. Right now its Hearing God by Dallas Willard and Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Both very appropriate for our trip as well as Carter’s current sermons about how pathologically self obsessed we are. This was my third missions trip and truly the best. I worked hard all day. I saw as many as 55 patients a day. Our bus had questionable shocks over roads that could have been an amusement park ride. I had minimal resources to help my patients. Occasionally we had hot water. My sheets smelled like an ash tray. My pillow gave a new definition to lumpy. We learned what “the rainy season” is all about. And I tore my thigh muscle getting schooled in soccer by Hondurans who all were quick as lightning and with skills like Pele! Yet I have never felt closer to our Lord nor more like I could hear him speaking directly to my heart
Without the material trappings we associate with comfort and “need” (OK I did have my iPod!) I really got to spend quality time with people who love radically, like what Francis Chan calls Crazy Love, like the Love God has for us. Everyone I met reminded me what God really desires, ALL OF US. Not just a half hearted “I do enough. I go to church most Sundays” commitment, but a heart and soul, sold out, Love the Lord Your God with All Your Heart and Soul and Might/Love Your Neighbor as Yourself commitment! 6 year old Katelyn White brought huge smiles that made everyone’s day along with love for the other kids and huge hugs. Pastor Walmer, one of the missionaries gave eloquent prayers and encouragement. I long for a prayer life like his . Alfredo Cerrato described his vision for the orphanage and inspired us to think big. The patients touched my heart and soul. How truly pathologically self obsessed my life seems in contrast to the 14 year old who suffered through years of physical abuse and neglect, was finally adopted, but now suffers from end stage, dialysis dependent, kidney disease in a land where dialysis is scarce, let alone the prospect of a transplant! Worse was the toddler with hyperthyroidism whose mom looked gaunt as a concentration camp survivor and felt like a failure because she could only afford to feed him one meal a day!
It all just gives me immense Joy though in a world where the economy seems on the verge of faltering, where people trample to death store employees trying to be the first to get to the latest greatest toys to buy for their kids with the misguided notion that is what love is all about, where terrorism has not gone away as it rears its ugly head in India while we were gone, where 401Ks seem like 201Ks to many and homes are foreclosed…. I am Joyous because God is sovereign. Going to Honduras again so clearly showed me the Lord is present and wants to have an intimate Father/child relationship with us, if we are only willing to truly seek Him and listen with His ears, see with His eyes, touch people’s lives with His hands, speak His words of truth, go where He says to go,…. He really does speak to us. He really does Love us with an absolutely Crazy Love. Despite how pathologically self obsessed we are!
Agape!
Tom Courtney M.D.
I always seem to be reading two or three books at a time for my devotionals. Right now its Hearing God by Dallas Willard and Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Both very appropriate for our trip as well as Carter’s current sermons about how pathologically self obsessed we are. This was my third missions trip and truly the best. I worked hard all day. I saw as many as 55 patients a day. Our bus had questionable shocks over roads that could have been an amusement park ride. I had minimal resources to help my patients. Occasionally we had hot water. My sheets smelled like an ash tray. My pillow gave a new definition to lumpy. We learned what “the rainy season” is all about. And I tore my thigh muscle getting schooled in soccer by Hondurans who all were quick as lightning and with skills like Pele! Yet I have never felt closer to our Lord nor more like I could hear him speaking directly to my heart
Without the material trappings we associate with comfort and “need” (OK I did have my iPod!) I really got to spend quality time with people who love radically, like what Francis Chan calls Crazy Love, like the Love God has for us. Everyone I met reminded me what God really desires, ALL OF US. Not just a half hearted “I do enough. I go to church most Sundays” commitment, but a heart and soul, sold out, Love the Lord Your God with All Your Heart and Soul and Might/Love Your Neighbor as Yourself commitment! 6 year old Katelyn White brought huge smiles that made everyone’s day along with love for the other kids and huge hugs. Pastor Walmer, one of the missionaries gave eloquent prayers and encouragement. I long for a prayer life like his . Alfredo Cerrato described his vision for the orphanage and inspired us to think big. The patients touched my heart and soul. How truly pathologically self obsessed my life seems in contrast to the 14 year old who suffered through years of physical abuse and neglect, was finally adopted, but now suffers from end stage, dialysis dependent, kidney disease in a land where dialysis is scarce, let alone the prospect of a transplant! Worse was the toddler with hyperthyroidism whose mom looked gaunt as a concentration camp survivor and felt like a failure because she could only afford to feed him one meal a day!
It all just gives me immense Joy though in a world where the economy seems on the verge of faltering, where people trample to death store employees trying to be the first to get to the latest greatest toys to buy for their kids with the misguided notion that is what love is all about, where terrorism has not gone away as it rears its ugly head in India while we were gone, where 401Ks seem like 201Ks to many and homes are foreclosed…. I am Joyous because God is sovereign. Going to Honduras again so clearly showed me the Lord is present and wants to have an intimate Father/child relationship with us, if we are only willing to truly seek Him and listen with His ears, see with His eyes, touch people’s lives with His hands, speak His words of truth, go where He says to go,…. He really does speak to us. He really does Love us with an absolutely Crazy Love. Despite how pathologically self obsessed we are!
Agape!
Tom Courtney M.D.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Advent Season
The Advent Season began officially on Sunday, and it is defined as "the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the nativity of Jesus." The wonderful thing is that our expectancy and preparation does not end with the celebration of Christmas, it is a celebration of what is to come. As a church, as followers of Christ, let us be expectantly waiting and preparing for not just what was, but what is to come!
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