Embracing Freedom

While I'm here in C. Asia I've taken to running in the botanical gardens just down from the house I am staying in. It's 2 Somoni (about $0.40) for the entrance fee and in the morning it's me and the women who are sweeping the sidewalks clean. It's so beautiful. The air is fresh, I catch glimpses of the snow covered mountains around certain turns, peacocks wander freely and here I am, in my sweats and t-shirt, iPod with hip hop music pumping and I'm running....in C. Asia!

When I first moved to Taiwan from Af, everything seemed amazing. I could walk by myself. I could wear t-shirts. I could go out after dark. And so I did those things, I enjoyed them. I shared my excitement with others.

While I've been here, how could I not take advantage of the beauty and the freedom of being able to go running (btw, something I've NEVER done in C. Asia before so it was amazing!)

I've been studying the book of Hebrews to teach in the SBS when I get back. And I've been thinking about how often I take the gospel, the truth, my freedom in Christ for granted. It gets to be the same ol', same ol' thing. The readers of Hebrews were willing to throw their freedom away to go back to the law because it looked a little easier, a little less taxing on their day to day lives. But, they have beauty and freedom and hope at their fingertips. The grace and mercy of God.

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."(Gal. 5:1)
It's possible to walk away from freedom. It's possible for me to sit in the house, thinking how great it would be to run in a beautiful park but too scared to really step out and do it. It's possible for me to hold back from living free in Christ, submitting to a bunch of "shoulds" or "shouldn'ts"....it's possible to have the truth and never fully embrace it in my life.

Oh that we may live free in Christ, embracing our identity as ones who are loved and redeemed, freely sharing how amazing that freedom is with others.

Teaching Prep--Titus-style

So, I've been in the blogging mood but haven't felt like I have too much that's interesting to talk about...then I found that quite ironic because I'm in the middle of a blitz of teaching prep just arriving back from India and just about to head out to C. Asia. There's lots to talk about, but teaching prep just doesn't feel all that, well social or sharable.

So, this is what I've been doing for the last week and a half and will continue to do for the next two weeks! Yeah for studying and teaching prep. It's been quite the shock to go from an intense, people-filled time to sitting at home, or in coffee shops or at a classroom, typing and praying and studying and thinking and writing and planning and well, introverting.

But, my time with Titus Project has really helped me grow as a teacher, I believe. For one, it's immensely helped me to understand how I best prepare to teach. Before I'd just type up bulleted teachings, sometimes word-for-word, because that's what I thought you did, then I'd print them out, scribble a bunch of notes from them, and then either never look at them when I teach or get completely lost while I teach.

I've discovered the art and joy of mind-mapping and have been experimenting with it to teach and also plan my schedules. I've realized color and space to add things freedom to draw pictures rather than write detailed points has helped me teach better and more creatively. Teaching prep has always been something I've done only because I had to, and half the time I ended up relying on my abilities to ad-lib and to think on my feet.

This is my teaching schedule for a D-school that I will be teaching in this
 next month. I was pretty proud of my "note pad" to write my to-do list on
 the right side. 

This is an example of mind-mapping my teaching for an overview of the
Inductive Method. This is a 45 minute teaching which fits nicely on
one sheet of paper. I taught from this one while in India. 

So, if you're reading this and not bored out of your mind yet, please do pray for me as I prepare. I have a number of different groups of people I'll be teaching over a period of about 5 weeks. I want to make sure I'm catching God's heart for each group as well as offering them what they need to be even better equipped and to have a deeper understanding of the word of God. So, pray that as I prepare, God would speak and lead and that I'd not be distracted but able to focus and follow through with all the preparation that needs to be done.

And....that there would be some space and time for some social activity. Otherwise, I just get weird if I spend too much time alone. 

YWAM Taipei

This video gives you a great look into what goes on here in Taiwan and what we are doing here to connect with things God is doing around the world. Please take a few minutes to watch, and also to pray for the ministry and the workers here. 

Return to Oz....or a look inside my emotional nostalgia

This might be a bit of a random post....and being that it's past my bed time and I've been a bit reflective and introspective lately, it doesn't seem so random after all, to me. But you, dear reader, may feel cast into my sea of nostalgia and contemplation. Don't worry...just keep swimming and hopefully you'll stay afloat and make it to shore.

So....confession time. The movie "Return to Oz" is one that I actually think about quite a bit. I was a huge Wizard of Oz fan...I watched it on TV every year when it came on, hiding my eyes from the flying monkey scenes, wondering what it really feels like to have to have my jaw oiled by a tin can, and wondering why Dorothy is often so moody about her family stuff when it really doesn't seem that bad.

But, Return to Oz is just weird. I loved the "real" movie so much and when I first saw this movie, I was a bit crushed. Crushed because the anticipation of being able to return to Oz compared to both the quality of the movie and the experience of the characters was just so dark, so dreary, so bizarre. And I think I often have a cynical look on things in the same way as this movie experience.

Let me elaborate....for example, my elementary school was just torn down this last year. I watched the pictures people posted on the Internet and felt a deep sadness in my heart. The memories I have were so alive in my mind and in my emotional connection to that place. There are stories that I still tell people about that time in my life that are all intertwined in that building. But the photos showed a place so drastically different. Dark, depressing, bizarre even. It didn't seem anywhere near as close.

I think sometimes I fear seeing places and even people grow and change, my experience of them the first time was so rich and I'm afraid that return is going to be as shocking to me as it was to the characters in the Return to Oz movie, and to the viewer experiencing the movie.

Where am I going with this??? I sound like I'm just running away from reality and living in an idealistic dream world.

Well, no....but I have been processing a few things lately and I'm letting you in some of it. First....let's talk about my own return to Oz. But my return was to the Taj Mahal.

 I came here seven years ago (wow...time flies!) at the beginning of a trip a friend and I took to India from Kyrgyzstan a few months after the tsunami in 2005. We came to help out a ministry in Chennai and stopped in Agra on the way. Through a series of naive decisions on our part, we ended up getting taken advantage of by a tour company and our guide for the day brought us here 45 minutes prior to its closing. We ran around (literally) snapping photos. We thought we'd be geniuses and trade cameras so all the photos I took had him in them and all the ones I took had me......then I was mugged the DAY I returned to Kyrgyzstan and all those photos, the ones with me all in them were gone. Forever. My friend only had the ones I took, of him, on his camera.

 So, here I am, with real documented proof that I was at the Taj Mahal again. The experience however, was quite the opposite of the frantic disappointment of the drama of the first time. This time I got to stare at and admire this incredible structure and dialogue with friends about the incredible waste of money this is on a dead woman, etc. etc. But, oddly, as I was walking around this place, I had a moment of connection with God.
I was looking at all this, remembering my previous experience and those last seven years of life flashed before me. I thought of how rich my experiences have been since this time....people pay money to come to this place as a once in a lifetime experience and here I am for the second time, and I've seen and done things that far surpass even this great experience. I thought of how much I've grown since I first arrived here. I had an emotional breakdown at the end of that day in 2005 feeling lost and helpless with all the events that happened, and I realized if the same thing happened again I would know exactly what to do and how to handle it....I even had friends I could call who could help me out.

This bench (in the photo to the right) is where I sat and had my break down the first time as our tour guide had abandoned us, only to return 2 hours after he said he would with alcohol on his breath. Life came full-circle. I am a better person because of all that transpired over these last seven years. I've matured, experienced things, grown, made mistakes, laughed and cried, been hurt and hurt others, been humbled and had joy in so many moments. God as truly been good in my life.

So my return to Oz, to the Taj Mahal, was not a disappointment, but a deeply rewarding experience. It made me overwhelmingly thankful for the journey of life God has set me upon and who he has molded me and shaped me into in the process.

And I have another upcoming "Return to Oz" encounter. It's been over two years since I moved away from Central Asia. I miss it deeply. I have fond memories and stories and stories that I tell others and people that I miss having a part of my every day life that really are like my family from our experiences together. I left a large chunk of my heart behind in this land and with the people there.

I didn't realize it until I started processing and focusing on this upcoming trip that I'm a bit nervous to return. I know things will be very different. For one the office as it was when I was there is pretty much gone. The team and the work has moved locations. People have come and gone and things have moved on.

I'm also a bit nervous about returning to one of the other "stans" I will be visiting because the last time I was there was when I received the phone call that my brother James had died. That place is intrinsically connected to that tragedy in my own life.

I know I can't be a cynic and neither can I be overly idealistic. I'm SOOOOO excited and so thankful for this upcoming trip and hoping that just as God opened my eyes to see all he's done in my life during my visit to the Taj Mahal, that this will be a deeply meaningful trip on so many levels as I return to my own Oz at the end of this month.

Stay tuned...

Incredible India

I first stepped onto Indian soil seven years ago. Before I came that first time a friend of mine told me that everything you never expected or thought you could see you will probably see in India. She was right. India is a place of intensity. The culture is aggressive and vibrant in all its various outlets...the food is spicy, the colors are bright, the language is loud and never seems to pause between sentences. The traffic is constant, the people are piled and packed and squeezed together, the sun beats down with ferocity, the gods are innumerable, the poverty is overwhelming, and the daily experiences are unpredictable.

When I first came to India, I left with this thought in my mind, "Oh God, I'm so thankful I'm not called to India." I laugh now because God has brought me back to this land a few times and each time, my heart is more and more opened to this place and its people. There is an incredible open door here to work with Afghans. As I've been here in India this time, my experience hasn't been one of just trying to breathe in the midst of the culture shock I was undergoing, but this time I feel at ease and have been able to enjoy and learn and appreciate so much of India. I've made friends, not just "dealt with" people. And many days I've had this feeling like I was quite at home.

I think often times it's the people that make a place and an experience. This trip was not an exception to that. We have met and shared our lives with some incredible people who are living for the Lord here. Afghans, Iranians, Indians from all over the sub-continent, westerners, business people and ministers. Moms and teenagers, pastors and lay people. This has made this trip. We came here to serve and bless. I believe we did that to the best of our abilities. But the people also blessed and taught me so incredibly much.

 This trip to India has opened my eyes in many ways. Delhi is a metropolitan place where people from many nations take up residence and put down roots or reside until they move on to the next place. It's a meeting place of cultures and nations. It's at the intersection of major empires from the past and it's a gate and a hub for many trying to escape a difficult life or searching for a better one.
I also have had my eyes opened to the hunger and the need for truth in this place. Churches and individuals are hungry to feast on God's word, and some just don't know the best way to pick it up and ingest it. The tools that we were able to off through Titus project sometimes felt small in the sea of needs but the individuals that we were able to spend time with I know God touched and challenged and spoke to during the time here. This makes it all worth it. We will leave this place, not just having entertained or had a good experience ourselves, but others have encountered God and will continue to after we are gone.

So India has proven to be an unexpected delight and joy. Our original plan never included India, but God led our team step by step to this place and I stand at the end of it amazed at all the beauty that it has revealed.

Before we left for our outreach, we had a prayer time and someone gave us a word that God wasn't giving us Plan B but his plan was always Plan A. This was a promise we held on to this entire time as our locations, contacts and time of ministry all changed even up until the last minute we left. God knew what he was doing even when we (I!!) couldn't see it.

 And though the sun is setting on this short season of our outreach, I believe there is another sun rising in my heart for things for the future. I sense God just asking me to return to Taiwan to finish well and to seek him there. I believe more of that plan will be revealed in this upcoming year, but it's exciting to me to know that God is in control and he has some open doors and plans to continue to reach Afghans, Muslims and many others with his Word and to encounter Jesus Christ.

And of course, this trip would not have been the incredible experience it was without my team. God blessed me with being able to share two months with these people who love the Lord, who are willing to serve and who teach with passion and authority. I have been challenged and sharpened by each one of them and they have shown me so much of God's heart over these last two months. I could endlessly brag about them. I'm just thankful for their friendship and that we got the privilege to serve in ministry together here in this incredible land. 

What does Jesus see?

Here I am, sitting at the end of my day, reflecting on all it held. There were great people to meet and spend time with, times of worship and preaching, times of laughter and fellowship, food and shopping. And yet there is a moment that sticks in my mind that I find myself going back to at the end of the day.

My friends and I were at a stoplight riding in the back of an auto rickshaw in the late afternoon of the day. The traffic is whizzing by, in and out. The horns are endlessly honking and humanity is ev.ery.where. Out of the corner of my eye, across the intersection I see a small child. She is standing in the middle of the median, holding a plastic bag and scooping garbage into it. The small girl has no pants on, wild tangled hair, and is covered in dust. I look around at me. The cars continue to whizz by, the men try to sell us various goods at the red light. People wait for the bus, hail an auto rickshaw, go about their business.

I've been thinking about Jesus a lot. I guess when you teach the Bible, this is the joy and perk of the job. I often wonder what it is that Jesus sees, that touches his heart, that I often walk by and don't give any attention to. I wonder as God sees each hair on every person's head, even the wild mess of a mane this little girl has, what does God see in her that I gaze past, as soon as the light turns green and I carry on the normal course of life and never think about again? And how, in the seas of millions of people, can I go deeper in God's heart for the lost, the poor, the broken, the hurting and the shamed? 

Ni hao, Salaam, Namaste, Hello....from India!

So, call me an idiot, but I had no idea there were as many people groups as there are in Delhi. It's a collision of the world, a traffic jam of ideas, thoughts, religion, hopes, dreams, fatalism and existentialism, experience and thought...body soul and spirit trying to find their greatest good. Delhi is like the intersection of the world where everyone comes with their own mode of transportation and tries to make their way in the world.

I've been to Delhi probably 4-5 times but most of the time I was passing through, on my way somewhere else. This is the first time I've stopped, smelled the roses (among piles of garbage I guess) and spent more time with people. My initial impression on my previous trips was not so positive...I have stress-filled memories from those times and the only gifts I took away were parasites and numerous trips to the bathroom. My heart is much changed. Delhi has proven to be a place of possibilities, where God's spirit is moving and working, where people's lives are being transformed and truth CAN be found.

Our team arrived three weeks ago. From the time I started planning this outreach just in prayer and with an idea to this time, I feel like every step I take gets a little bit redirected. This has proven to be true of this whole outreach as we are not going to be continuing on to Central Asia as we had originally planned. But, God's opened up the door for ministering here. We have had opportunities to teach, preach, lead Bible Studies, pray for people, share the gospel a bit, and experience the many flavors and varieties of life that India has to offer.

We have spent most of our time with the Afghan people. I have to say, I have been near to tears many days seeing the realization of some personal prayers and dreams of mine become a reality right in front of my eyes. My stomach has been blessed with great Afghan food once again and I'm still convinced Afghan hospitality is the best in the world. And the friendships that have been formed just in these first three weeks, have the potential to be life-long friends. One thing that amazes me about times of outreach is as much as you step out to be a blessing, to serve others, to build others up, God has poured back into my life many times that. Today as a number of Afghan women laid hands on me and prayed blessings over me in their own language, I felt so humbled and blessed that God would call ordinary Danika from a tiny little town in Northern Minnesota, and send me half way around the world to a culture and people so completely different from my own and allow me to feel at home and see the Kingdom of God grow and blossom. I am one blessed woman.

So, here are some photos from my trip so far...to give you a taste of what I've been doing. Many of our times with the A people cannot be posted here so know there is a side of this trip where even more treasure and great times have been had but will not be included on this blog.

teaching prep in the cold of the morning....but with a hot cup of chai! 

Becca, myself and Aimy...the powerhouse women of our team

Preaching in a Hindi-speaking church

Lindsay, who is graciously allowing us women to stay in her home--a great new friend

Preparing Bible Overview teachings at the coffee shop....this is how I spent my birthday! 

Bible Overview teaching

Pilau....so good to eat Afghan food once again! 

So, what does God have in store next? We still have 5 weeks left here in India. Our plan is to travel and teach in a few different places, to build into those relationships we've already made, and to seek God for more opportunities to minister to the people here. My heart is so full on this trip...in many ways, I feel right at home and there are definite open doors for the future should I choose to walk through them. This will be a year of decision for me as to the path that lies ahead so if you think of it, please pray that God would direct me step-by-step and give me wisdom as I consider all the options to invest in both now on this trip, and in the future.