"Love Was Here First" (album review)

Fresh from the blog tour for Andrew Peterson’s recent release of his book I saw an opportunity from Carolyn Arends to review her new CD, “Love Was Here First”. I loved the process so much from the book that I quickly signed up and was given immediate access to the album, artwork and promo materials. So, here goes...

Ever heard of Carolyn Arends? Yeah, she’s probably there in the background somewhere singing “Seize the Day” in 1995. Oh yeah...It’s dawning on you now. Well, she’s still around and has been recording, touring, speaking and writing all this time from her home in British Columbia in Canada.

You may not know much about Canada...most of us south of the border do not. Canada can be easily dismissed as that nice, kinda quirky country up there providing us with maple syrup and hockey players. “I heard it’s real clean...”

Our family sojourned among the Canadians for eight years from 1993 - 2001. Having been previously unfamiliar with (aka ignorant of) Canada, I assumed it would be a lot like the States only...you know...colder. Living there changed me forever. Community awareness, commitment to the marginalized of society, celebration of diversity and respectful discourse flow easily through the fabric of the culture. It is by no means perfect but in so many ways, Canada has a lot of depth, quieter insight and wisdom to offer us here in the land of rugged individualism.

Carolyn’s music is a lot like Canada. It would be easy to dismiss to the background. She has a nice, innocent sounding voice that does not reach out and grab you and make you listen. Her music is based in roots disciplines...acoustic guitars, mandolins with ambient electric layers. Her melodies and themes are simple. But listen again...

This album, “Love Was Here First” is full of songs that easily play as the background of where I am at in my journey. The busiest song on the album is the first one and ironically named “Be Still”. I started listening while cleaning off my desk covered with late bills and projects left ignored (including this review). This song flowed into Arend’s haunting, heart cry rendition of an old song “Standing In the Need of Prayer”...during this I was sorting through a pile of stress looking for an important something that I’d lost.

On to the anthem, “My Favorite Lie” and as I’m still trying to frantically figure out my mismanaged life, Arends sings “I am a pilgrim on a dead end road who refuses to go in a new direction...” Ok, I get it. I’ll stop and listen.

Now that I’m paying attention and ready to receive what I need to hear from this album comes the hopeful “Something Out Of Us”

...you made cosmos out of chaos, you made Adam out of dust, you made wine out of water, you’ll make something out of us...

And the album goes on with songs of hope, songs about what’s real, songs about Jesus, songs about surrender. My favorite line and the heart of the collection is from “The Last Word” which inspired the album title, “That day in the garden could not erase, all that was started with original grace, and though we have wandered, we will know if we search, Love was here first.”

Musically it’s well done and you can hear Carolyn and crew having fun playing this music. A few songs have horns that brighten and bring gravity to the tracks...I especially liked them on the last song “Never Say Goodbye”. The production gets a little busy on a few tracks...Arends is best being a folk artist singing hope. A couple of times, the atmosphere bends toward rock and blues which doesn’t work as well for me as when the music and Arends voice is being straight forward.

I would highly recommend this work. It is not a loose collection of songs but flows on the currents of the best themes that can be sung or written about.

Find out more about Carolyn Arends and listen to some of the tracks from “Love Was Here First” at her website... http://www.carolynarends.com/

The album is available for purchase here... http://feedthelake.com/

Happy Hallowe'en!

Happy Birthday Josh!

Today, Joshua is 14 and so he gets the traditional Whitler birthday roll. That's right, on your birthday, you are awakened by your family singing "Happy Birthday" and rolling you under your bed and then leaving you there. Happy day, Josh! We're proud of you!

A rare opportunity...

The sign on his back says..."Free dog-piles."

Orange Soda

It happened at the end of outreach. We were really tired and had seen all we wanted to see of Romania. A half a year earlier, my imagination had been captured by this newly freed people and the way they collectively said “enough!” to their oppressors. When our Youth With A Mission leaders gave us the choice between a team going to Nicaragua, another touring the States and one to Romania, I jumped at Romania.

We went for a month. Then four months later, we went back. The first trip was magic, just being with 92 Romanian girls in an under serviced orphanage for a few weeks. We made friends. We shared our hearts, life, space, games, songs and food. It was cold, it was an adventure, it was meaningful, it was good.

The second trip was frantic. We travelled all over with a fifty-five minute allegorical gospel play called “Toy Maker and Son.” Our mission contacts ran us ragged. For it’s time, this production was the top in it’s class and the Romanian people ate it up. And we performed whenever and where ever we could. Once, we did four performances in one day. I was the clown. By the end of four shows, I looked like a demented horror movie clown with a blue hair fountain out the top of my head. I was so tired, I went to sleep in my makeup and costume.

People responded, people had conversion experiences but we didn’t come away knowing anyone. It was good for what it was. We were serving our faithful missionary friends.

We were tired. Twenty-five exhausted traveling performers were ready to go home. At the start of the long journey back we hit a snag and got stuck at the train station in Bucharest. It was really late and we were facing a dodgy sleep in the airport as it was.

Nothing to do and nowhere to go, we circled the wagons while our leaders tried to work out our transport issues. We piled up our luggage and waited. I was done. With a few lei in my pocket still I decided to use it all up and buy myself a treat. I went to a snack counter and bought a liter of orange soda. I think it was Fanta. Or maybe it was fake Eastern European Fanta. I tried to disappear to enjoy it quietly and alone.

In the train station was a group of about twenty or so street kids. They were dirty and probably gypsies. Despised by the wider culture and left on their own, these kids scratched out an existence for themselves by begging and stealing. These kinds of kids cope by tightening their belts to not feel hunger, sniffing glue to stay unaware and self mutilation to distract from the other pain they feel much deeper.

We, a group of twenty-five stuck westerners were quite conspicuous and attractive to these kids living on their own and looking for any opportunity. They moved in and some from our group began interacting with them. Doing the thing we had been doing with numerous kids groups like this for the past month, communicating in broken Romanian and English and hand motions and playing simple games.

I stole away from this scene to enjoy my soda, by myself. I opened the bottle and took a sip only to look up and see a train station boy looking at me. I smiled at him and he asked me for my soda. I inwardly panicked. No, I am not going to give you my soda. I’ve worked hard for a whole month and have no more money and I’m going to drink this soda and enjoy it. No, no, no! Change the subject, anything!

I said to him in broken language, “What is that on your arm?” And he pulled away, a bit embarrassed that I had pointed out his scars. “Why do you do that? Don’t do that, it’s bad for you.”

“I want your soda.” He demanded. I was inwardly angry. Holding it together and still trying to steer him away, I thought I should try to speak to him about Jesus.

“Isus te Ubeste (Jesus loves you), he doesn’t want you to cut your arm. Jesus loves you and doesn’t want you to hurt yourself! Please don’t do that anymore.”

I knew it as clearly as if I understood fluent Romanian, the kid looked at me and said, “Jesus does not love me. You wont give me your soda!”

I knew that he was manipulating me but that didn’t matter. He was right. I had no idea what his life was like, the things all those boys and girls face, the horrors they encounter without physical, protective love in their life. What’s the problem with a fat American letting himself be tricked out of a small thing like orange soda? What good will sticking to my guns and proving a point do?

I can still do this. How many ways do we try to divert the possibility of giving up some personal time or comfort, the actual cost of relationship, to instead stay on the moral high ground of discounting others because of their shame? It can be so easy to keep them locked behind the bars of ‘them’ and we retreat safely to our ‘us’ foraging out every now and then to remind them that they are broken and need to change.

I gave the kid the soda. I wish I could have given him more.

Family update 10/13/09

Howdy folks,

Chris here writing from Youth With A Mission Urban Ministries Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada...whew...that's a mouth full! I'm teaching at a Discipleship Training School or DTS (YWAM's initial training program) about our motivation as Christians for evangelism and having a great time with my friends here. It's a fun class of youngins and always good to reconnect with the Arpin-Ricci's and all the staff here. Jamie was a part of the first DTS that Amie and I led in Cambridge, Ontario a stunning 15 years ago! Jamie and Kim have pioneered the mission here and are doing a great work. They have also partnered with the Mennonite church to plant and new neighborhood based faith community called Little Flowers. I had the privilege of attending their weekly meeting last Sunday and lead some singing. It's always a rich time here.

Speaking of church, our home church, New Hope is walking through a lot right now. At the tail end of our big move, our Pastor's wife Mary received a terminal diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. This illness moved quite quickly and Mary went home to be with Jesus on Saturday, October 3rd. In the days before she died, Mary's family was able to gather around her and to the end she was praying with them, praising God and giving of herself. I was honored to be able to share some music and words at her memorial service. Please pray for our Pastor, Ken and all the kids and grand kids adjusting to life without Mary. She will be greatly missed and we anticipate the day we'll see her again.

The day after the funeral, I flew to Minneapolis to be a part of some meetings with the U.S. board of Compasio, an organization run by good friends in Thailand. Compasio serves the refugees fleeing oppression in Burma. They support schools and families with much needed supplies, they operate a drop in center in the city market and they run two safe houses for children in need of shelter. The board meetings were anything but boring...it was a great time to pray and worship together, tell stories and work together on our part of shaping the future of Compasio. You can see more about their humbling ministry here...Compasio.org

On the family front, please pray for Amie's Grandmother, Margaret. The day I left for Minneapolis, she fell and broke her neck, wrist and nose. She turns 93 this week. Margaret had to be taken to a hospital in San Francisco to be assessed for surgery. In the end, they have decided to wait on surgery and now the long process of recovery has begun. Special thanks to friends from church that made it possible for Amie to get in to the city while I'm away.

The kids are doing good. Stella has been playing mad at me for leaving - she laughs and won't talk to me on the phone. Josh and Sam have been a help to Mom while I'm away. Our team is still reaching out to the friends we make by making ourselves available in forgotten places in the city. We'll be working with a few church groups this fall, teaching about local poverty and hosting an outreach team from Kitchener, Ontario in Canada.

Thanks to all of you who support us through prayer and giving...we really do need it and appreciate so many who sacrifice time and money to make our work possible and effective. If you would like to support our work financially, all donations are tax deductible when made out and sent to: YWAM / P.O. Box 3000 / Garden Valley, TX / 75771-3000. Our name must not appear on the check but include a separate note stating the gift is for the Whitlers in Modesto, CA.

If you'd like, there is also an auto-withdraw form I could email you with instructions on how to set up monthly support for our work. If you have any questions, feel free to email - cwhitler@gmail.com We'd love to hear from you.

Thanks so much!

Here's how to find us online and other ways...

Family site/blog - http://thewhitlers.com

Whitler podcast (teaching, music and fun stuff)- http://www.gcast.com/u/cwhitler/main

Amie on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/amiehw

Chris on facebook - http://www.facebook.com/badyouthspeaker

YWAM site - http://ywammodesto.org

YWAM blog - http://ywam-modesto.blogspot.com

It's getting pretty high-tech to be a hobo...

The people in your neighborhood

I got to talking to a greengrocer a couple of weeks ago at a local market. He's a guy we see quite a bit and share small talk with. Always a friendly hello and sometimes more. Here's a story he shared with us...

There is a homeless man that meanders outside of his shop and his wife and he decided to engage with this man just to offer him a bit of friendship. This homeless guy is out of it quite a bit but they started slow, offering him a sandwich and such. As they got to talking they realized that they knew him from the town they grew up in...that they had actually, long ago, been family friends. So they are just trying to listen, befriend, build trust and help this guy however they can.

The grocer knows what we do and occasionally asks our opinion on how they are proceeding. They aren't getting carried away. They have no illusions that they will "fix" his problem. They are simply meeting him with dignity with the offer of friendship and the opportunity to reciprocate, trusting that friendship will lead the way. What a wonderful example! After hearing his story, I told him that I had no advice for him because what they are doing is the only thing I know to do.

This grocer said he and his wife fell in love with quiet service the year a kid ripped their son's jacket off of him at school. They met with the other parents in the principal's office to resolve the issue, expecting the family to replace the damaged jacket. The other mother was distraught, saying she'd replace it but she couldn't afford jackets for their own kids. That's all it took.

The grievance was dropped and the grocer and his wife bought jackets for everyone. Ever since, they have anonymously bought jackets for a needy family as a "back to school" ritual. So beautiful...that's the gospel! Laying down our rights to help meet the needs of others.

Friendship, reaching out across whatever divides us, helps us see that people are just people. People respond to honest, if clumsy, attempts. You don't need a fancy program, just a few extra minutes and a good honest try.

North! Or Be Eaten.

I became aware of Andrew Peterson's work long before he became an author. Please, indulge me to do a bit of set up for a review* of his latest book, North! Or Be Eaten. Book Two of the Wingfeather Saga.

I have a small circle of friends that grew close with Rich Mullins' music as the soundtrack of our relationship. Rich brought depth, creativity and voice to our common questions and longing. Have you ever come to the end of a story that you just don't want to end? When I first finished The Lord of the Rings and Samwise was home, I cried. The story ends beautifully, yes, but I also cried from mourning. My first thought was "Well, I did it. I've ruined every other book I will ever read by reading this one. I'll never find one better." That's the way it felt when Rich Mullins died.

Like the Steven Lawhead book that cured my broken heart for a good story, Andrew Peterson came along with dulcimers and guitars and thoughtful lyrics. His music did that thing that I had missed so much. In 2003, he made a rare visit to an obscure music festival in Northern California and a friend and I went out to hear him. We were part of a very small crowd.

After the concert, we were talking to Andrew and his accompanist and collaborator Ben Shive at the record table and they talked us into giving them a ride to another town where fellow Square Pegger, Jill Phillips, was singing. We, of course, were happy to oblige (even though they kinda made fun of my car). On that trip, Andrew Peterson told us about a story...

It was about a boy who grew up not knowing who he was. This boy lived an everyday life unaware of the wonder that lurked just beyond the peripheries of most people's view. The story was about the adventure he experienced learning who he was. This boy wouldn't always have the right perspective. In fact, he would end up making big mistakes and taking those closest to him for granted. He would act out immaturely. He wouldn't have the whole picture. The boy would have to experience pain, humiliation, the thrill of hope, the dark of doubt, tenacious friendship, challenging quests and the grace that comes from true love played out in an imperfect but committed community. The peril would be real but told with humor, elegance and with respect for it's audience. And in the end, we would have come on a journey of our own, not just observers of the story, but experiencing all that disappointment, fear, surprise and exhileration right along with the boy. Not an allegory, but a story encoded with The Story and like good music, giving voice to our longing.

The way Andrew talked about this story made me anxious to read it. And I did.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix would come out later that year and partly due to Andrew's rave reviews, I read all seven Harry Potter books.

North! Or Be Eaten, is book two in the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson. If your heart broke in the Kings Cross railway station at the end of "The Deathly Hallows", come away to Aerwiar and run with Janner Igiby and his family away from the Fangs of Dang, past Toothy Cows, Rockroaches, Bomnubbles and Snickbuzzards and into all for which we read a good story. First, read On The Edge Of The Dark Sea Of Darkness. Then continue on as Andrew spins his tale wider and richer. New cultures, landscapes and characters fill out the journey begun in "Dark Sea." This is a story for all ages. I laughed out loud, got scared, cried real tears and reached a point where I could not put it down and did that excited reading thing where you race ahead in the text hoping your suspicions are right. It's good. It's "break your heart" good.

This series may not see the phenomenal literary success of Narnia, The Hobbit or the Potter books (although I hope it does). But like all these stories teach us, the best treasures sometimes lay hidden. And when the time is right, the unsuspecting child in all of us opens a door and steps across a threshold to find courage to face danger, power to fight, light for the darkness and a world dripping with beauty, mystery and grace. And the occasional quill diggle.


*any similarity of this review to the forward (by Winkie Pratney) of "No Compromise, the Life Story of Keith Green" was purely intentional.

Find the books here...http://wingfeathersaga.com/

More about Andrew Peterson here...http://www.andrew-peterson.com/

Two chairs

I know...there's actually three chairs in the picture but only two of them got used this particular morning. I've been meeting with my pastor on a weekly basis. "Meeting" makes it sound more formal than it is, it's really just having coffee with Ken regularly. There's no agenda other than to intentionally be together. Ken tells me stories. He has a great capacity to remember the strange, hilarious details. He's lived an epic life...grew up on a Native reservation, worked hard in remote Alaska, all kinds of history of odd jobs and serving in church and now, a pastor for a small Bible fellowship. He's got a lot to talk about. I love to listen and he seems to enjoy listening to me too.

Sitting with Ken this week made me remember a scene I observed in the Native community we were working in this summer. Mua is a large Samoan who came to Canada through YWAM, married a native woman and they live, work and raise their family in native community near Victoria. Their house is an open door for the kids of the community. They often share food and time and not in a programed, "this is my time at work" kind of way but with sincerity and grace. Things are a little messy but it's ok.

There are little chairs in Mua's front yard and in the cool of the evening, they sit outside, water the plants, talk and laugh. I spied Mua and his son, two big guys, our first evening there, sitting and talking in these little chairs. What struck me was the way they were sitting, very close, eyes locked, intent on each others words. It looked as if to Mua, the only thing in the world was his son.

Everybody needs this. I need this. I need it from God. I need it from other men. I need it from those closest to me. Just the opportunity to sit with no agenda and be heard. I need to look up and see eyes that are only seeing me.

Everybody need this. And that means all the other people in my life...my wife, my kids, my friends and church family, the poor and lonely along the way, all need to look at me and see from me that they are important. They are heard. That someone is listening.

Oh, to drop the distractions, weed out the non-essentials and to remember that at the end of all things is God and people...the only thing that will last is these precious relationships. That means they are all that matter now.

Whitler update 9/9/09

Howdy all, Chris here with another small Whitler family update...this won't hurt a bit...

Everything moved! - First and foremost, the address in our letterhead up there is now wrong (the phone number is still right). Right on the heels of our awesome camp (named Camp Awesome) and our great family mission trip to Canada, we had a little break with family in Portland on our way back home and then right into the fire of moving everything. Well, not our home (just yet), but everything else. Our small fellowship, New Hope, is meeting at a new property and that means our YWAM office is also some place new. It's a change we're all still getting used to but it has been and will be a very good change.

Our home address is The Whitlers - 5321 Avante Ln, Salida, Ca 95368

Our Church and YWAM mailing address is YWAM c/o New Hope Christian Fellowship - 300 Trask Ln, Modesto, CA 95354

And...our actual office is located with our generous friends office at Stanislaus County Youth For Christ. Now that's a bit to keep track of!

It's been a lot of work but the dust is starting to settle. Our team couldn't have done any of the move without the help of our wonderful community around us. Thanks to New Hope for a great place to work from all these years and your continued blessing to see our work go on, thanks to YFC for our nice little hub we can come to get the office-y stuff done. We are grateful!

Staying Faithful - We are still faithfully on South 9th Street to bring food, friendship and hope to the folks that live there. We meet people in friendship and go where those relationships take us. It's not always easy. Pray for Rob who earnestly desires to be rid of his addiction. Pray for Mary who needs to find a better place to live and peace in her mind. Pray for Cheryl, for mental peace and clarity. Pray for Frankie who recently lost his Dad and is working hard toward getting his daughter into safe custody. Pray for Jim who seems to have no hope. Pray for Ken who is sick and alone. Pray for Helen who is so close to being ready to leave it all.

Our Kids Club - We had a couple "kids club" times in August and both were wonderful gifts. First, North Modesto Church of God had us over on a Saturday afternoon for water games and ice cream...15 kids + hundreds of water balloons = awesome! Our volunteer group from Downy High School have mostly headed off to university, but before they went they used their own money to give our kids a great good-bye party...15 kids + pizza + pool = awesome again! So we're gearing up again and working to see what our time with these kids and their families will look like in the next season. Pray for us for creativity and flexibility.

Whitler family - Like all kids, we have begun the year's school work. Unlike all kids, the first day was a field trip! It's good to be a home-schooler : ) Amie also is taking dance at Modesto Junior Collage and teaching dance with a small group of local women. It's been fun this summer having the whole family involved in our mission work and we are looking forward to new possibilities to all work together. Good stuff ahead!

The Future - this Fall we are settling into all the change, hosting a couple of teams and I'll be teaching again at a YWAM school in Canada on evangelism in an urban context. YWAM Modesto will continue to reach out on our streets, develop partnerships locally with churches and ministry networks and internationally with Compasio and Global Youth Network.

Here's how to find us online and other ways...

Family site/blog - http://thewhitlers.com

Whitler podcast (teaching, music and fun stuff)- http://www.gcast.com/u/cwhitler/main

Amie on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/amiehw Chris on facebook - http://www.facebook.com/badyouthspeaker

YWAM site - http://ywammodesto.org YWAM blog - http://ywam-modesto.blogspot.com

If you would like to support our work financially, all donations are tax deductible when made out and sent to: YWAM / P.O. Box 3000 / Garden Valley, TX / 75771-3000. Our name must not appear on the check but include a separate note stating the gift is for the Whitlers in Modesto, CA. Thanks!

New Compasio Video

Our friends at Compasio have a beautiful new video about their work with street kids on the Thai/Burmese border. I couldn't get it to look right embedding it on the blog so please CLICK HERE to watch. So worth a 5 minute investment!

All we need.

This is the Brunswick Hall. Our little church has moved and this is the way we gathered at our last service in the old property. We had already moved the sound board, instruments, screen, mics, CD player..you get the idea. We left only the essentials, some chairs around the communion table. We sang, prayed, shared and ate the Lord's Supper together. We had all we needed. Now, in a new location, we still do: God and others.

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." 2 Peter 1:3

I'm the cat.

This is Aaron and Bucket. Bucket is one of the last of our wild cats at the church. Bucket has lived most of his life outside hunting for his own food and living by pure instinct. He's always fearful and on edge. His life is pure survival. Aaron has been working with Bucket, being very careful, keeping his distance and slowly, over time, getting the cat to trust him enough to eat out of his hand.

When I snapped this picture I was thinking about being on South 9th Street. We go there on Friday mornings bringing food, cold drinks, chairs in the shade and the offer of friendship. The culture there is so paranoid that it takes a long time of being there to develop trust.

But tonight, sitting with my family and some friends from church over a meal I thought of this picture again. I thought about the long faithful pull of God in my life leading me through darkness and fear and continuing to offer grace, provision and patient love. I thought about how God bides his time and doesn't get antsy or worried. How his slowness is from patience not willing for anyone to perish.

I realized that I am the cat. I don't trust God. I am afraid of how life moves. I take what I can get while I can get it because I am afraid it won't be there tomorrow. I live in a kind of soul-survival mode. I get by. I lay down with one eye alert and waiting for something to go wrong.

But there is God, crouched at a distance with a handful of good food and purity in his intentions. If I only knew that I could rest and trust and receive. If I only knew that there is a life beyond survival, that I could be near him and happy.

He doesn't give up. He waits and knows how much I can handle and probably chuckles a little at my protests at his kindness.

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear..." 1 John 4:18

At YWAM Modesto, we're all about togetherness...

Umm...there's this...?

A contemplative intersession exercise...

I've been exploring contemplative prayer and I want to share a little exercise here. Different than the list/request style of prayer that I was raised with (and, of course, has it's place)..."God please do this and this and also this," contemplation teaches us to carry prayer with us in our heart in specified times of quiet and through the mundane movements of the day. It may sound a little more "spooky" than it really is.

And of course, intersession is a kind of prayer offered on behalf of others. So, set aside 15 minutes and do this with me if you can...

Psalm 17 is subtitled in my Bible "Prayer for the protection against oppressors" and I'll post it here below. Take a minute and think of a people or group that you know about facing oppression. If you need any help you can look here, here, here or here. Hold these people in your heart by picturing them in their plight. Slowly and quietly read this on their behalf. Take your time.

Hear, O LORD, my righteous plea;
listen to my cry.
Give ear to my prayer—
it does not rise from deceitful lips.

May my vindication come from you;
may your eyes see what is right.

Though you probe my heart and examine me at night,
though you test me, you will find nothing;
I have resolved that my mouth will not sin.

As for the deeds of men—
by the word of your lips
I have kept myself
from the ways of the violent.

My steps have held to your paths;
my feet have not slipped.

I call on you, O God, for you will answer me;
give ear to me and hear my prayer.

Show the wonder of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.

Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings

from the wicked who assail me,
from my mortal enemies who surround me.

They close up their callous hearts,
and their mouths speak with arrogance.

They have tracked me down, they now surround me,
with eyes alert, to throw me to the ground.

They are like a lion hungry for prey,
like a great lion crouching in cover.

Rise up, O LORD, confront them, bring them down;
rescue me from the wicked by your sword.

O LORD, by your hand save me from such men,
from men of this world whose reward is in this life.
You still the hunger of those you cherish;
their sons have plenty,
and they store up wealth for their children.

And I—in righteousness I will see your face;
when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.

Did God speak to you through this? Write it down. How can you respond?

Well, we moved.

YWAM Modesto is officially in our new office with our friends at Youth For Christ! Thanks YFC!

A different perspective...

There's a friend from Thailand visiting here in Modesto this weekend and she wrote a nice entry at her blog about our 9th St. Cafe. READ IT HERE. Thanks Rachel, this was really encouraging.

9th St. art project

Down on south 9th St. today we found this. Someone has taken it upon themselves to decorate this stretch of fence with hundreds of old cigarette boxes. It must be a collaborative effort that somebody started and the neighborhood is keeping going. I don't know why but this gave me some feeling of hope for South 9th St.

I've written about 9th St. before and this is something I have not seen down there. It's just not a place to participate in a whimsical, colorful thing. I've been surprised before, like when a guy (now a close friend) played bagel toss with us and when I saw a woman run a hug our friend playing Santa around Christmastime. But these are few and far between. My heart lifted today when I saw these boxes. On one hand it's litter, but on the other, it reveals that there is something there still in the heart of the most desperate people that wants to play, laugh and appreciate.

I guess it's another lesson in hanging out long enough and looking through the right lens.

North! Or Be Eaten.

I'm excited to be a part of the blog tour coming up for "North! Or be Eaten" (out today)...Andrew Peterson's much anticipated follow up to "On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness" (blogged about it here). I should receive my copy in a few days and will be reviewing it here in the next month.

But I really wanted to re-post here something he wrote (here) about stories, art and creativity in the life of children...heck, for all of us...

"Those of us who write, who sing, who paint, must remember that to a child a song may glow like a nightlight in a scary bedroom. It may be the only thing holding back the monsters. That story may be the only beautiful, true thing that makes it through all the ugliness of a little girl's world to rest in her secret heart. May we take that seriously. It is our job, it is our ministry, it is the sword we swing in the Kingdom, to remind children that the good guys win, that the stories are true, and that a fool's hope may be the best kind." -Andrew Peterson

Loser. (unashamed plug)

Many of you know that I have been losing weight. I lost a lot right up front there in March and April and have been slowly and steadily going down since then. I don't have an accurate read of when I started but I know I've lost a bit over 60 lbs since the middle of March.

Some benefits...

-My knees do not hurt near as much
-My blood pressure has gone from high and borderline high down to the "normal" range
-I'm lighter on my feet and have more energy
-I am not hungry on the program

It has been so easy as some friends are helping me do the "Take Shape For Life" program so I thought I'd post their info here. A helpful difference is that this program is run by "health coaches" who check in on you, have done the plan and help you through rough patches (I'm due to call Bob as I write!)

If you think you'd like to learn more, I can help connect you to my health coaches to see if this plan might be for you. Here's their website...GLONK HERE! And I'd love to talk to you more about it too...cwhitler@gmail.com

Justin Fox live!

Youth With A Mission Modesto and New Hope Church present a day with recording artist Justin Fox!

Sunday, August 16 at 7pm, come out to hear Justin in concert in the Brunswick Hall at New Hope (corner of Dale and Pelendale behind the new bank). The concert is free and an offering will be taken to help cover Justin's expenses. Please bring your friends to an evening of great music! If you haven't heard Justin Fox's music before...go to his website here...justinfox.com

And ,as a special bonus...

Would you like to learn more about the song writing process? Justin will be offering a song writers workshop on that same Sunday afternoon (August 16) from 1 – 5pm (suggested donation $30). Bring your guitar, paper, pen and a willingness to try something new.

If you are interested in the workshop and would like to register or have more questions, please call Chris at 209-404-4027 for details.

Remember, two great events in one day...

Song writers workshop with Justin Fox, Sunday, August 16 from 1 -5 pm ($30 suggested donation)

and

Justin Fox in concert, Sunday night, August 16 at 7pm (free with offering)

at

New Hope Church (4220 Dale Rd. Modesto, CA) in the Brunswick Hall

GLONK HERE for a map

You've had a good summer when...

The Whitlers in July! (and August)

Here's our recent family newsletter...enjoy! And yes, I know a lot of the links actually point to this blog : )



August 9, 2009

Howdy, thought it'd be good to send out a quick little update. This should be pretty painless and with a few links if you want to know more...

Camp Awesome - We took a bunch of kids from inner city Modesto to "The Lord's Land" toward the end of July for 3 nights and 4 days. The camp truly lived up to it's name. We were able to partner with Global Youth Network (they brought 9 down to develop the camp), YWAM Mendocino who provided the property for what we could afford and a generous donation from Central Baptist Church in Modesto to help us buy food and put gas in the vans. If you would like to see our pictures of Camp Awesome, GLONK HERE!

Camp Tsartlip - After an awesome time at Camp Awesome, our family and the Global Youth Network team traveled up to Vancouver Island off the coast of British Columbia in Canada to help with a YWAM couple's day camp program for Tsartlip Village, a First Nations community near Victoria. We had a great time and the day camp ran a lot like our own camp so it was easy to flow with. You can read more about that and see some pics by GLONKING HERE.

Back Home - After a little visit with family in Oregon (thanks Hewitts!), we're back in Modesto. This next month, our home church, New Hope Christian Fellowship, will move to a new property. We'll be moving our YWAM Modesto office (up until now has been at New Hope) to a space offered to us by our friends at Youth For Christ. And of course, continuing to be a presence on South 9th St. and working with the our kids club, youth group, church and our local and international partners.

Please pray...

- For all the moving to go well. - For our staff couple John and Rhiannon, working in Thailand with friends at Compasio for the next couple of weeks. - For the kids at Camp Awesome, that God will work in their lives and in their families. - For the Tsartlip community in Canada. - For us, that we handle all of our precious relationships with the care they deserve.

Keep in touch! How can we pray for you? What's going on in your life?

Here's how to find us online and other ways...

Family site/blog - http://thewhitlers.com

Whitler podcast (teaching, music and fun stuff)- http://www.gcast.com/u/cwhitler/main

Amie on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/amiehw

Chris on facebook - http://www.facebook.com/badyouthspeaker

YWAM site - http://ywammodesto.org

YWAM blog - http://ywam-modesto.blogspot.com

If you would like to support our work financially, all donations are tax deductible when made out and sent to: YWAM / P.O. Box 3000 / Garden Valley, TX / 75771-3000. Our name must not appear on the check but include a separate note stating the gift is for the Whitlers in Modesto, CA. Thanks!

Things you might want to know...

Tsartlip village

It's hard to know how to begin this post. I don't feel like I have to be careful, I want to be. It's how I felt all last week in the Tsartlip village near Victoria on Vancouver Island off the West coast of British Columbia in Canada. The Tsartlip village is a reservation for indigenous people. In Canada, they say "First Nations" people or "aboriginal". The people in the village say "Indian" and "reserve" or simply "the rez".

We were there with a team assisting a YWAM couple that do community service and youth development there. Mua is Samoan. His wife Marie grew up in Tsartlip. We helped them run a day camp for the kids of the community. Nothing fancy, just hanging out with kids and having positive interactions.

We were welcome. The people's natural disposition is not overly warm but they are welcoming if a little held back at first. They did want to know who we were, why we were there and who these strangers were taking pictures of their kids. It's the way I would feel if complete strangers showed up to run a program for my children. I would check them out.

The wounding of indigenous culture by larger, invasive cultures is something I don't completely understand. But I know it's important to learn about here and all over the world. It's part of why I went...to learn, listen and carefully seek out. It was a great time for our family and the team we were with.

Before I got there, I felt a bit intimidated going into an unknown...worried I would misstep or say something stupid. And then I remembered a meeting I was a part of in Fresno. A couple of friends and I went down to talk to some ministry leaders down there. We were talking to Brian King about his work with the gangs. One of the guys with us asked if we would ever have credibility with the guys in gangs as many of us came from middle-class families. Brian looked at us, smiled and said "man, people are people." Everyone responds to genuine attempts at friendship and understanding even if the attemps are a bit clumsy.

So that's what we did in Tsartlip. We flowed with the slow, methodical culture, asked questions, listened and played with the kids. We attended and volunteered at the Pow Wow weekend. We ate fried bread (mmm). We danced. Kids are kids. People are people.

Here's some pics from our time there (facebook readers will have to click "read original post up there at the top)...or you can view it by GLONKING HERE.

Tsartlip

Camp Awesome was awesome!

I realized that I didn't say much about the camp in this post so I thought I'd come back to it. We had 24 kids and 16 staff travel together for 4 great days of camp all thanks to our wonderful hosts at The Lords Land (YWAM Mendocino). Most of the kids (minus our staff kids) are from our Kids Club that we do throughout the year. This camp was a colaborative effort between YWAM Modesto, Global Youth Network (9 came down from Canada to create the camp with us) and The Lord's Land. Thanks everybody for a great week! Here's some pics...Facebook readers with have to click "view original post" at the top or GLONK HERE for the slide show...

Camp Awesome!

Spiritual Warfare

“For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy,
Now I will arise,” says the LORD;
“I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.” (Psalm 12)

This is a picture of our friend hearing that there is hope for her to get out of a run down motel infested with vermin, abuse and wickedness. This is a picture of forms being filled out, files opened, information given, friendship offered, smiles and a tangible way out. There are evil people, earthly systems and demonic spirits that oppress the poor. They greedily want to keep them down. Their gain is directly related to keeping the poor in hovels, discouraged and feeling isolated, weak and vulnerable. This picture is of true spiritual warfare.

And there's a much better article about this out there, so if you have time...go here...A 401K Plan You Can Tickle by Brant Hansen

Who wants to make chili?

I played around with a couple of ideas for my recent chili...first, I thought of a Bacon Chili Cheeseburger themed chili. I still may do this someday but for a competition, I thought it would be better to stay a little more traditional. The last time I tried a novelty chili in a cook off, it was treated as such (Cincinnati Chili...which is awesome). Then I thought I'd do an existing recipe from a chili master - Iron Chef, Bobby Flay. He had one that intrigued me (here) and it's the one I went to the store to do but as I was shopping, it came to me that it would be better to improvise. So, riffing from Bobby Flay's chili, a little bit of Cincinnati, a Hobo's suggestion and a few things that just seemed like they'd taste good, here it is...



Some kind of oil
1 yellow onion (chopped)
4 - 5 cloves of garlic (chopped)
2 lbs of Chuck steak
Some kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper
1 can of tomato puree
1 can of Rotel (diced tomatoes and green chilis)
1 cup of beer (I used Moosehead)
2 TBS of Pasilla chili powder
3 TBS of regular chili powder
1 TBS of cumin
2 tsp sage
2 TBS of honey
2 TBS of unsweetened cocoa
Splurt of lemon juice (or lime)
Splurt of red wine vinegar
Splurt of hot sauce (I used Tapatio)
Spurt of Siracha (rooster sauce)
1 can of black beans
1 thing of beef chorizo
1 can of chicken stock

Tenderize the steak by beating the heck out of it and then cut it into little cubes



In a large pot, heat oil and saute garlic and onions until the onions become kinda clear. Then add the steak and cook until brown on all sides. Throw in some salt and pepper.



Add the cans of tomato puree and Rotel. Add the beer (swirl it around in your tomato cans to get all the residual goodness out of there before you pour).



Then add the chili powders, cumin, sage, cocoa, honey and splurts of things...



Add black beans and bring to a boil. Once boiling add the chorizo and stir it till the heat separates it to spread its love all throughout the pot.

Let is simmer for about 20 minutes and remove from heat.



Once it's cooled off, put it in the fridge and wait (chili is ALWAYS better the second day). It will thicken overnight so the next day, warm it up in a slow cooker, incrementally adding chicken broth (not too much...you want it thick) to bring back its former consistency.

This recipe didn't make near enough chili (about half a crock pot full)...more is better so double it if you wanna.

And there you have it folks, it's pretty durn good! Ahh yeah! Special thanks to Bobby Flay, that Greek family in Cincinnati, my hobo friend and really, I want to thank the idea of chili itself. Chili is good. The more ways of having chili, the better the world becomes. Thanks, Chili, for being so good!

Unlikely ministers in unlikely places

We have been pleasantly surprised this past week finding little groups we didn't know about. While visiting some of the boys from our kids club we stumbled upon these church people doing a small, faithful thing in the park. They come to pray with folks, encourage them, share food and clothes...no big promotion (or funding I'm sure), just Christ's community doing it's thing. And the sermon was great too...basically a small scripture reading and the pastor saying something like "so let's all remember that" and a closing prayer. Best sermon ever!

Then we happened upon "Beans and Rice and Jesus Christ" in the Airport district. It was just happy people serving and eating beans and rice...very simple, very cool.

And finally today we stopped to visit our friend James (who we've shared about before) and new friend Stan happened along with perfect words to share about recovery, staying encouraged and hopeful.



Nobody has the entire answer but we all have a part to play. Friendship and compassion win the day!