Letting God do the heavy lifting

A couple of weeks ago, I was trying to change out my van seats. Our YWAM van has big, stupid, heavy seats. John, my friend who was visiting us, would not help me lift the seat. He told me he would get his teenage son to help get the seat in. I inwardly pshawed at John thinking it'd be quicker to just throw it in myself. I picked it up and felt electricity wrap around my back that left me helpless for the next two days. John is wise. I am dumb.

Have you ever been to Nepal? I haven’t. Word on the street is that if Bob Seger ever gets outta here, that’s where he’s going.

I knew a girl who went to Nepal once. She went by way of the classic Youth With A Mission story. A team was going on a missionary journey to Nepal and she knew she was supposed to go with them. She had no money, even up to the day they were leaving. In an act of faith that I would have for sure shrunk back from, she rode along with the team to the airport with bags packed. At the last minute, she got a call on the airport courtesy phone that someone had purchased her a ticket. She went to Nepal.

Nepal was the subject of my first time in a YWAM style prayer meeting. We call it ‘intercession’. I believe it was the first morning of my Discipleship Training School in 1990 and all the YWAMers in Tyler, Texas had gathered for prayer together. In these times, we began to practice a progression of prayer that followed a set of biblical principles to help lead us as a group.

Several hundred of us sat in smaller circles around a gymnasium and prayed together for God to help the nation of Nepal. Something magical happened. In that short hour, I began to feel God’s feelings for the people of Nepal. It’s like he gave me a tiny taste of his love for them. I began to cry. I was caught up in a swell of emotion that I didn’t know what to do with. Afterward, I even felt a little embarrassed. I don’t know if I had ever even thought about Nepal before and here I was, experiencing deep feeling for the people. It was a little intense for my first day.

We Christians can be smug sometimes when we talk about having a ‘burden’ from the Lord. We tout it like it’s such a cool thing to carry a heavy burden for “the lost” or “the poor”. We wear our service, our work, like a badge of honor. But Jesus says to learn from him. His burden is light. No need to brag about how much we carry. We can find rest in him for our souls.

I think prayer or intersession is the place we learn to let God do the heavy lifting. I may never go to Nepal, but God can let me in on his heart for the Nepalese in prayer. It’s not up to me to do great things. God does great things and sometimes he takes me along for the ride. We just have to keep close to his heart.

God is more committed to making the world a better place than you and I. And he uses us in the process if we let him. What is it like to have a heart that stretches around the world? How does God see all the injustices, hear the cry of the desperate and still have love and hope to carry us all? I don’t know. I don’t have to know. But I want to be close to a heart like that. We get there by prayer.

I don’t use a lot of words in prayer anymore unless I’m praying with others or if I’m writing. Simple liturgical prayers or silence are fine by me. It seems that God doesn’t really speak English. He speaks heart and can understand it no matter what language we use. I can go talk to a mountain all I want to, but to really understand it, it’s probably better to just lay down on it. To know the sea, you have to go sit next to it, walk along it and let the water wash your feet.

There are many other ways to pray. THIS ONE has been especially helpful to me.

If you’d like to read YWAM’s principles of intersession, you can find them HERE.

How have you experienced God’s heart in prayer? Did that ever lead you to an unexpected place doing unexpected things?

Good lesson. Bad story?

My introduction to fiction written by Christians was sadly not “The Hobbit” or “The Chronicles of Narnia”. Neither of these really grabbed me as a child. My parents were not particularly readers, it’s not something I saw too much in the house. Maybe they were ‘behind closed doors’ readers or maybe I was oblivious but I do not remember reading as part of the culture of my family.

Books were though. My Dad was a collector of antiques and curiosities. And if that makes you think of my childhood home as looking a bit like a museum, then you’ve got the right picture. In our back family room, Dad had an entire wall made to be a book shelf. It was filled with hundreds of old, dusty volumes of poetry, history and I think four copies of the complete works of Shakespeare. Dad bought books for how they looked.

My Dad has a bit of the flair for the dramatic. In front of the book shelf was his half grand piano and a carved wooden writing desk complete with inkwell and quill. On the bottom row of the bookshelf were about 500 LP records.

In the 80’s, cable TV had not yet reached the channel capacity of today’s 5,348 and counting (remember the song “57 channels and nothing on”? That was supposed to be hyperbole! Ha!), so in the summer, if I did not want to watch a soap opera, my other option was to walk up to the library. We had a little local branch around the corner from us that was quaint and air conditioned. It was here that I learned to love reading.

I think I read every Encyclopedia Brown story at that library. I am happily rediscovering these kinds of stories by reading their source material in Sherlock Holmes. I would stay up late, scarred out of my mind reading books about UFO sightings and big foots (big feet?) and other unexplained phenomena.

The first “Christian” fiction I ever picked up was a book called “The Tower of Geburah”, a children’s fantasy novel by John White. I did not know at the time that this series was an homage to Lewis’ Narnia that Mr. White wrote at the request of his nephews and niece. Delightfully, he put them in their own adventure story and I was caught up in it too. I recently re-read the first book with my son and I enjoyed it again (probably my 4th reading or so) but it definitely doesn’t have the staying power of Narnia, which I found later in life.

Then, when I was a teenager looking around the Bible book store, there was a book on the bargain table that caught my eye. It was called “This Present Darkness” by Frank Peretti. It was on clearance. I picked it up strictly because of it’s cool name and cool cover. This book had not yet become the famous, landmark work for Peretti. I, or any one else it seems, had never heard of it. I bought it. I may be the first person ever to buy that book. I like to think that I discovered it.

Well, I opened it and like many, many others, could not put it down. It was fast, exciting and scary. It opened my imagination. I ate it up. About a year later, this book blew up and became a best-seller and it’s own culture in the American Christian scene. I haven’t read it since. I remember not liking the sequel as much but it was every bit as popular as the first. A friend of mine used to say, “In the 70’s, people knew you were a Christian if you were carrying around a large ‘Good News Bible’. In the 80’s, it’s a copy of Frank Peretti’s books”.

If you’ve never read it, it’s about a small town church congregation that is caught up in a high stakes spiritual battle of which they are mostly unaware. We see the story unfold in the physical world and in the spiritual as angels and demons fight to influence human lives.

After this book hit, Christians began discussing ‘spiritual warfare’. People started to see their life as a battle. ‘Warfare’ prayer and songs became quite common in Christian meetings. And there were reactions and warnings to not let fiction influence your theology. It was a big deal.

Recently, I was at the movies with a couple of friends and we were standing in front of a poster for the next Christian outreach film coming to one or so theaters within a hundred miles of you. This is a “message” movie. I know, because the poster tells me what the message is. I don’t even need to see this movie to know what I’m supposed to get out if it. This movie wants me to be a better Dad. I don’t know if this movie is good but it got us to talking about stories and why it seems that Christians have a hard time writing or telling good ones.

I think it’s because we start with the lesson and work our way backward. I don’t think Peretti started with the idea that he wanted to teach us all about spiritual warfare. I think he wanted to tell a good story. I think he liked scary stories and thought it’d be cool to write a scary story about angels and demons. It seems in a lot of Christian story telling, the story is secondary to the message.

You may be saying, “Of course we start with the lesson! We do it because Jesus did it. He told parables.” Yes he did. And I like parables. Parables are short. Most of them take about 2 minutes to read or hear. Some less. It’s a small message in story form told to open our eyes to (or hide...which is confusing I know but Jesus said it, not me) a spiritual truth. The people hearing the parables came to hear a message. Parables work fine in that context. I love it when preachers use parables instead of just lecturing. It’s way less boring.

A 90 minute or 300 page parable is boring. Why? Because you feel the sell. If you sense the ‘message’ early on, your mind puts up walls to it. Stories are supposed to ignite imagination and take us to another place. Stories help us recover something that gets stolen by the false world around us. Stories remind us of what’s true. But if you start backward from the ‘message’, it seems harder for the story to work it’s magic, not impossible perhaps, but harder.

Lewis, Tolkien, L’Engle, King, Grisham, Lawhead, Rowling and many others have all written distinctly ‘Christian’ and enormously popular stories. What makes them different than ‘Christian’ fiction or movies? Do you have a favorite book/movie? What makes a story work for you?

Gout, suffering and diarhea.

On and off, for about the past 12 years or so, I have flair ups of gout. It’s a little embarrassing as gout is a disease people think of as something 18th century British waifs get as they sit begging on the side of a cobblestone road in a Dickens story for a few tuppence or an old apple as they cry out, “have mercy on me, I’ve got the gout, Gov’ner!” (cough, cough).

But gout is alive and kicking in 2011 and right now, it’s kicking me in my knee pretty hard. I couldn’t sleep last night. I’ve been up for a while. It’s a pain that hurts no matter what you do. There are small, spiky crystals that settle into your joints and hurt like, well...the dickens. The tendency to get gout is fueled by genes (my Dad got gout), systemic tendencies (especial kidney function), reaction to various foods (red meats, asparagus, cauliflower, shellfish, etc), being overweight and even ethnicity (pacific islanders have the highest rate of gout in the world. I’ve always wanted to visit Tonga.)

We get sick. Sickness seems to be a part of the deal no matter what your chosen life pursuit is. People in missions or “full time ministry” (not a fan of the term) don’t get a sickness pass. In fact, getting sick on a short term mission trip should be part of the promotional brochure. “Join our team for a 21 day trip to Finscuvina where you’ll share the love of Jesus with orphans, learn about another culture, grow in your relationship with God and get a mind blowing case of diarrhea. Yes, that’s right, you’ll get stomach cramps that are so bad, it’ll make you question your faith in a whole new way. Join us!”

In the Winter of 1991, on a 24 hour drive from Romania to Germany, I shivered in the 2nd bench of a VW microbus stuffed with way too many team members and our luggage. I had a fever, diarrhea and was the most uncomfortable I had ever been in my life. I remember running to a toilet on the hungarian border only to find the strangest looking contraption I had ever seem. There was no place to sit on an elongated type bowl that resembled a banana seat on a kids bike from the 70’s. It seemed you were supposed to straddle it. I had no strength so I just sat down on the thing. Sorry for the visual, but I was miserable. That would make a good line in a rap song like all the kids these days seem to enjoy.

We made it to Germany and were staying at a church in Augsburg. I quarantined myself in the church basement and writhed on the floor in an unparalleled agony for a couple of days. I had massive sores on my head, a scorching fever and could not eat. I was miserable. I slept on the whole plane ride home. Turns out, I had caught impetigo from the orphans we were working with in Romania. Some thanks, eh?

We get sick. I don’t know why. My friend is in agony in the hospital right now with a strange spinal issue that some of the best doctors in the country can’t figure out.

Dear friends, who last year went for broke and moved to Thailand to work with street kids had their whole world pulled out from underneath them (the mission they went to serve was not a relational or philosophical fit), then they got the joyful news of a new pregnancy that has laid the wife in bed with sickness for about 10 or so weeks now. They are confused and coming home to uncertainty, in need of all kinds of healing, housing and fresh direction from God who doesn’t seem to be making the way too clear at the moment.

Another friend who was in YWAM with us continues to suffer with undiagnosed pain that puts her out of commission more often than not.

We pray for healing. Sometimes things get better, sometimes they don’t. It’s hard to understand.

Looking back on that trip to Romania, I don’t really think too much about being sick. In fact, when I talk about that miserable road trip, I laugh about it, almost proud of my battle story like an old guy that shows his scars from the war. For that trip, I mostly remember the way Ana Maria, a little orphan who adopted my heart and how she loved me so deeply and purely. We were short term best friends and she taught me so much while we played games, fumbled through language barriers, shared snacks and sang “Miss Mary Mac” way too many times. She probably gave me impetigo. But the suffering is a funny afterthought now.

The bible says that Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising it’s shame. We are that joy. He was able to endure the cross because relationship with all of us was on the other side of it. The resurrection pushed the reset button on creation and set about redeeming human suffering and opened the way to know God and enjoy him forever. Jesus felt it was worth it.

I have wondered if Jesus looks back on the cross the way we look back on an incredible time of suffering that we have come through. If he sometimes laughs and talks about it in the way we would tell an old battle story. Does he talk about the proud scars of a risk taken that cost a lot in terms of pain but was totally worth it. “Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’ “ John 20:27

I am not pretending to have answers for our suffering. While I’ve been writing my gout attack has begun to ease off as my nsaids kick in. My friends are still in pain. I do know that there is joy set before all of us and joy to be found right now. Jesus suffered and still suffers with us. He is not aloof from our pain. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.” Hebrews 4:15.

And one day, as Andrew Peterson wrote in his beautiful song paraphrasing C.S. Lewis, “We will look back on these tears as old tales.” Until then, we carry on, supporting one another in love, bearing one another’s burdens, rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep.

Please feel free to show off a battle scar in the comments section or share on what suffering has meant to you. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Super 8 and a Control Freak

So far, I’ve seen "Super 8" two times. I’d like to see it again. This film has scratched an itch that I’ve had for a long time. It’s no secret that the director, J.J. Abrams (the newer Star Trek, Lost, Alias and...um...Felicity) wanted to make a Spielberg movie from the 80’s. Kids that get caught up in a something way bigger than they could imagine and winning the day with backpacks, bikes, overlapping dialogue and slightly foul mouths.

Do you remember that scene from “Ratatouille” where the food critic is whisked back to his mother’s kitchen and the comfort food she made for him? That’s how I feel watching this movie. Suddenly, I’m 13 year old Chris sitting alone in the theater and crying as E.T. is leaving Elliot, Gerty and Michael. From the soundtrack to the beautiful writing and fun adventure, it’s a place I haven’t been too in a while.

Part of the story is a movie within the movie. The kids are making a zombie movie to enter into a contest. As the credits roll, you get to watch the finished product entitled “The Case”. It’s awesome. And it made me realize how much of a control freak I am.

Let me explain. My sons (especially my oldest) love to make movies. And I have had some involvement in a few of them. I usually end up directing/controlling the ventures I am involved in because, well, I have a mature sense of what would be funny or interesting in scenes. I usually have a little moment when I realize that I’ve taken over the project but sometimes it’s too late.

In Super 8, Abrams (and Spielberg) are telling part of their story. They are letting us peak into what it was like when they were kids, running around with a Super 8 camera and dreams of cinematic glory, adventure stories, and scary wonder. These kids are free to make their movie even if it doesn’t come with a mature sensibility. It’s about kids making a movie kids would make.

This week, my boys had some friends staying with them and they all saw Super 8 together and then set to making their own movie. I stayed out of it. The way you get good at something is to just do it. To make an attempt at the level you’re at.

I have a friend in Canada that is determined to learn to sing songs, write poetry and play guitar. His attempts are not yet perfect but they are awesome. He is reaching, trying, stretching and growing. His poems are insightful, his songs are surprising and his outlook is fresh and creative. He is seemingly free from worry over what others think of him while he grows. I want to be like that.

I want to free others to feel like that.

I was at a concert festival in Texas listening to Phil Keaggy. This concert seemed to be running by a pretty strict time schedule and Phil’s set got cut short. He was gracious and respectful of the schedule but if Phil Keaggy is playing the guitar, you should just let him play till he’s done. A friend turned to me and said, “Man, sometimes you gotta stifle utility and let art flow!” We laughed so hard and that line became our mantra for creative freedom.

And here’s the boy’s movie as they wanted to make it. It's perfect.

Do not be afraid

I’m chasing you and I don’t know why.
I want you to see
I want you to hear
I want you to know

I write, do, go, say, work, try
Partly because I am afraid
Of what you think
Afraid you think wrong of me

Fear begets fear
And there is no fear in love
I’m so sorry. I don’t love you
When I’m afraid of you

I hate the me that chases after you
I know he’s afraid
He’s running hard after the boys who are laughing
His side hurts and his heart breaks

Stop! Let them go
Into the woods and catch your breath
Sit by the tree
Feel a love greater than the boy’s

It’s just for you
It’s wide and vast
Settling like a cool mist
“you’re enough”

I can’t
I might
I’ll try
Let go

Psalms - Inspiration for Life

Next week will be John Wason's 4th tour to the Modesto area. John is from YWAM Canada's Word To Life Theatre Arts, he performs large portions of memorized scripture presented with excellent story telling. (Check out last year's tour HERE)

If you're a Modesto local, come on out Tuesday night for a live performance of...

Psalms - Inspiration for Life
Tues night, June 21, 7pm
New Hope Church
300 Trask Ln
Modesto, CA

A free-will offering will be taken. There will be no child care services but kids of all ages are welcome.

John will also be performing at Shelter Cove's M2 Saturday morning men's bible study at 4242 Coffee Rd in Modesto, June 18 at 8:30am

An Evening of Justice and Worship

This week, I've been in San Diego with friends here teaching for a YWAM Mission Adventure team. Last night was a special evening for prayer, thinking about justice and the heart of God and responding through singing and commitment. This was put on by Phil Cunningham and Chris Wilson who are a part of Steps of Justice, an initiative to inspire the church to begin to take steps toward those living in poverty with our hearts, our minds, our choices and actions.

This fall, the Cunninghams and the Wilsons are taking Justice and Worship on the road all up and down the west coast (and beyond) and I'm happy to announce they will be stopping in Modesto (more to come on that). This evening is interactive, challenging and very helpful to inspire the "next step".

If you'd like more info on the tour and how you can book a night at your church, you can check out their site at http://justiceandworship.com/

Whitler World Tour Stats

32 Days
Over 8000 miles
23 States
2 nations
5 Whitlers
167,give or take, McDoubles (Just Josh)
2 times in a mechanic shop
9 concerts
6 national parks/monuments
11 cities
3 Man vs. Food restaurant locations (The Big Texan - Amarillo, Mothers - New Orleans and Matt's Bar - Minneapolis)
1 sprained ankle
1 10 year reunion comedy extravaganza
1 fox, 1 bear, 1 road runner, 2 armadillos, 6 buffalo, 2 guinea pigs and a chipmunk...oh, and a little baby rabbit.
2 sworn in junior park rangers
4 souvenir t-shirts (Joshua Tree, Preservation Hall, Duke the Duquesne Incline car, and Matt's Bar)
1 massive mall...like, with roller coasters and stuff
Approx. 100 Timbits
1 1/2 bags of sunflower seeds

And friendship, the one thing we wanted this trip to be about more than anything else, was to be found everywhere in ways that cannot be measured. We were supported, prayed for, sought out, loved, served, listened to, taken in and blessed in so many ways. Our hearts are full and we are rich beyond compare. Thank you friends for helping us go and meeting us along the way.

P.S. -



Our car served us well on this trip, becoming our slightly smelly home away from home. We ate, slept, laughed, watched movies, prayed, wondered and wandered in it. Our little Indy hat, the symbol of our adventure, held on till the last day when it was lost to strong winds in the Nevada mountains. We were sad to see it go but feel it appropriate that it leave us in such a noble way. Blowing out there on the road somewhere is the spirit of adventure, and we, the Whitlers, will go looking for it again.

You can see our last batch of pictures (from Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah) on our facebook album HERE.

The Whitlers and a hat rack

Ontario, Michigan, Minnesota and beyond...

Howdy folks,

Another quick note from our continuing journey down the road. We’ve now pointed ourselves West and are heading home. Unfortunately, some kind of glitch happened transferring some photos and we lost all our pictures of our time in Ontario in Canada. Well, all but this one....



Sam and Stella with some Guinea pigs. It’s ok though...most of the other ones were of us eating chicken wings. I’m sure you’ve seen enough of that.

Our time in Ontario was rich in friends and fun and music and stories. We were a part of Pitch and Praise, which is an annual youth camp/music festival. I (Chris) was the MC and a performer at the nightly “Acoustic Cafe” where we put together our old comedy troupe “Spidie-sense” for a 10 year reunion show. Here’s the little teaser video for the forthcoming series of short films from that performance (http://youtu.be/5oGh7H68HbU)



I also got to speak at the general session on Saturday morning, telling stories from our 20 years in YWAM to about 2000 youngins! Here’s a pic I harvested from twitter. That's me in the orange hoodie...



We also got to share at Stanley Park community church on Sunday morning. God has spoiled us with so many good friends. It has been nice to spend time remembering that.

Last Tuesday found us traveling back into the States and a surprise landing in St. Joseph, Michigan. My old and dear friend Paul took us in for a few nights and spoiled us rotten with great food and put us up at a lake house in the country.



We were able to share music and scripture at the midweek service at his church, the First Assembly of God in St. Joseph. And on Thursday, we drove to Minneapolis, stopping at Jesus People USA on the way for coffee and lunch with our friends Josh and Erica.



Now we are visiting family and anticipating our drive home. Oh yeah, we went to the largest mall in the country...so there’s that. Turns out, it’s a really big mall...



This is the point in our trip where we cease to have a for sure plan. I hear there are some big faces carved into a mountain a little ways west of here. So, we’ll see.

If you pray, please do so for our journey home. It’d be great if our car made it back and lasted for a while longer after we get there. We have wanted all along for this trip to be about relationships within our family and reconnecting with old friends. So far, this trip gets an “Exceeds Expectations” in all our books. We live grateful lives.

Kentucky And Pittsburgh!

My Dad and his brother and sister, Aunt Mary Lou and Uncle Richard.

I didn't take too many pictures in Kentucky as it was a whirlwind of family fun with my sister and her kids and my Dad. I got to sing at my cousins church in central Kentucky and then we had some great food at my aunt's house. We also did a little concert for friends at my Sister's church. You can see photos from that HERE.



And we got to stop in beautiful Pittsburgh for a couple of nights hosted by former DTS student and fellow YWAM worker, Jenny. She showed us the city and arranged a house concert for us to share with her friends and family.

See a few pics at our facebook album HERE.

We're now in Canada and the whirlwind continues. We're having fun though and we'll post pics from our adventures here soon.

Texas and New Orleans...

Howdy folks...the Whitlers are still on the road. In fact, a nice man we met the other day called us the "real Griswolds". He had no idea how high a compliment that was for Amie. Anyhoo, we've uploaded some more pics to our facebook account that I thought I'd mention here.

A little album from our time at Twin Oaks Ranch...the YWAM base where Amie and I met, HERE.

And the important highlights from New Orleans while guests of the wonderful hospitality of YWAM across the river in beautiful Algiers HERE.

We're off today to Kentucky and all points North for a few house concerts and the like, making our way to the big event...Pitch and Praise in Ontario, Canada.

Grand Canyon!

Howdy folks...here's a few pics and pieces from our visit to the big 'ol Canyon.



We stayed at the beautiful property of Youth With A Mission, Tribal Winds...a YWAM training center and ministry with the Hopi people of New Mexico. Most of the staff were gone while we were there so we took advantage of the quiet.



The Whitlers at the Canyon...there is no way our tiny camera could get close to capturing it.





We did a Fossil walking tour with Ranger Wolfe...



This is an ancient sea shell...



Spongebob Fossil Pants...



Sam and Stella doing workbooks to become Junior Rangers...





For Sam's badge, he had to write a Haiku about the Grand Canyon. Here it is:

The canyon out there
Has the cutting river and
The forest so high

They made it...



And one last thing. Amie had a particularly odd wish. She wanted to see the Hotel where Clarke and Ellen Griswold (in National Lampoon's Vacation) stood and looked at the Grand Canyon for about 5 seconds because Clarke had stolen cash from the register. So, yeah, we...uh...went there...





And now we're on the road, after a little mechanical difficulty in Albuquerque (I knew we should'a taken that left turn!) and on our way to Texas. Week one done!

Joshua Tree!

The first stop on our world tour is Joshua Tree national park where Uncle Dan (Amie's brother) works as a Ranger. We spent two great days together in the park. You can see more pictures in our facebook album by clicking HERE!

A quarterly report...but not too boring!

The first bit of 2011 has been a bit of a whirlwind for the Whitlers and YWAM Modesto. I realized this past week that there are a few things I would have blogged about that I didn't. Here's a little scrap book of posts that I never got to...

Modesto Youth Reach Out in San Francisco



In January, YWAM Modesto and New Hope youth in partnership with YWAM San Francisco and Eastridge Church of the Nazarene spent an evening reaching out on the streets of the "Tenderloin" neighborhood of San Fran. Here, the YWAMers in the big city brief our team on life on the streets and ways that we can be a blessing to the marginalized in the city. We had a profound experience as well as a lot of fun together. If you're local and/or looking for a great location to take a mission team, pray about joining up with the YWAM team in San Francisco!

Tsartlip comes to Modesto!



Together with our friends at Global Youth Network and YWAM in Victoria, B.C., March brought us a team from the Tsartlip Native community on Vancouver Island. Our family (the Whitlers) visited this community in 2008 and we are planning to visit again (with our church youth group) this Summer. These guys came down to spend a week with us on their school break to learn leadership skills, the basics of reaching out to others, to interact with Native Americans and have a bit of fun in the process. This picture is during a BBQ for the struggling community on South 9th St. They did a great job.

This team also blessed the Whitlers greatly by helping us with a surprise, short notice move from our home of 4 years..our landlord was foreclosed on and lost his house :( They had all our stuff transferred to our new place (walking distance from our church!) in 5 hours! Thank you Tsartlip!

Steps of Justice



For the season of Lent, YWAM Modesto hosted a Steps of Justice group to go through the Steps 30 day Prayer and Action Guide. This is a great way to gain awareness, fuel intercession and take action around issues of global injustice. Our group of 12 or 13 dwindled down to a small group of 5 by the end of our study (I hear folks are pretty busy these days :), all who participated said this was a really good experience. It's a great way to carry with you the plight of the poor and let it help inform your choices, lead you to prayer and help you to give. Read more about my experience HERE.

YWAM Pismo Beach Discipleship Training School (DTS)



Now this one is truly pitiful. I did not even take one picture of a great team that came to be with us in the beginning of April...the Isaiah 61 DTS. 12 girls and the DTS staff joined us for a week of training and outreach on evangelism. This was an awesome team. They hit the streets with passion and purpose to love and pray for our city. It was a special privilege for me to set these folks loose in Modesto. They touched quite a few lives and are now reaching out in Israel and China! For more info in a DTS in Pismo Beach, go HERE.

New Hope Youth Car Wash



We wash cars waaaaaaay better than we spell, we promise. We spent the first of a few Saturdays washing cars at Yosemite Lanes here in Modesto to help raise money for our group to go to the Tsartlip community this Summer. Be on the look out for other fundraisers...more car washes to come as well as the classic bake sale and plain ole asking for donations. If you want to give toward this trip, let me (Chris) know! Email me at cwhitler@gmail.com

Blankets of Hope



We were able to link up recently with this great group of folks from a local church in Salida that have started a group to make and distribute blankets to the homeless. Deb brought 30 new, clean, handmade blankets out to our most recent 9th St. BBQ to give away. Everyone loved them and were so thankful for this meaningful gift.

Which leads us finally to...people from Fresno continuing to rock!



Like LAST YEAR and THE YEAR BEFORE, we hosted a team from Fresno First Baptist Church for Easter week. A couple of newbies (including the new youth pastor) and a couple of veterans joined us for a week of outreach in Modesto. This group spent the week praying, feeding, and helping all over the place.

A highlight for me was they day we had the high schoolers pray without us leaders and come up with the agenda for the day. What'd we do? Well, we bought 36 pairs of socks and 50 tacos and drove around handing them out to the homeless, that's what. Drive by Sockos. Then we spent the afternoon at the park with some kids that YWAM Modesto has been involved with for some time. A great day.



So that's a lot to cram into a little space but we did it! Our thanks to all the teams, churches and new friends we've been able to make in this first part of the year. And here's to more as we continue on in Spring and into the Summer...this week, the Whitlers head out on a month long North American tour to visit friends and share stories and songs with congregations and households and YWAM bases across the country. In June, we'll host John Wason from YWAM Canada's Word To Life Theatre Arts. In July, we'll have visitors from Stanley Park Church in Kitchener, Ontario. We'll also take our youth group to Tsartlip and I (Chris) am looking at visiting Thailand in August. All the while continuing to partner with our church and many other organizations to be a light in our city and neighborhood.

We need your prayers, support, friendship and encouragement now more than ever!

Living the Story #40, Lent 2011

...looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; -- it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed.

And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you." John 16: 4 - 7

This will be my last post of the season. Encountering the gospel always surprises me. Even though I have read and re-read these stories many times, Jesus is never quite who I expect him to be. I suppose that's kind of his job.

Jesus breaks through, overturns, remakes, restores, creates and builds up. Only he can make an instrument of death into a symbol of hope. Only he can make a grave a place to laugh.

Happy Easter!

Living the Story #39, Good Friday, 2011

"They shall look on him whom they have pierced." - John 19:37

Thorns on his head spear in his side
Yet it was a heartache that made him cry
He gave his life so you would understand
Is there any way you could say no to this man?

If Christ himself were standing here
Face full of glory and eyes full of tears
And he held out his arms and his nail printed hands
Is there any way you could say no to this man?

How could you look in his tear stained eyes
Knowing it's you he's thinking of
Could you tell him you're not ready to give him your life
Could you say you don't think you need his love

Jesus is here with his arms open wide
You can see him with your heart if you'll stop looking with your eyes
He's left it up to you, he's done all that he can
Is there any way you could say no to this man?

How could you look in his tear stained eyes
Knowing it's you he's thinking of
Could you tell him you're not ready to give him your life
Could you say you don't think you need his love

Thorns on his head your life in his hands
Is there any way you could say no to this man?

- Julie Miller

Living the Story #38, Lent 2011

"...when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." John 13:1

LISTEN HERE

Living the Story #36, Lent 2011

"Will you lay down your life for me?" - Jesus (John 13:38)

Living the Story #35, Lent 2011

"When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came, not only on account of Jesus but also to see Laz'arus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Laz'arus also to death, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus." John 12: 9 - 11

Because nothing will put you on the enemy's radar more than living free and like one who is back from the dead.

"...present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead..." Rom 6:13

"So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.

Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ."

Col 3: 1 - 4 (The Message)