Rocked by Tragedy, our Global Family Grieves

Blog entries, emails, and skype calls confirm a deep and dark tragedy that unfolded at the end of last week. In Denver, my home town at the YWAM base, 2 DTS staff were shot and killed on base 2 others injured, then the shooter appeared later at a Colorado Springs Church, New Life, opens fire, and kills two more before being injured by a security guard eventually taking his own life.
What do we say to something like this? Please stop reading now and just think about it… I sit and watch my cursor blinking, waiting for an answer, but I have none.
There are no words that can express the sadness that I feel for the families of all involved. I was speaking with my mother around the time the second shooting occurred, still getting impressions from the first ones late Sunday night (9:30pm was 12:30pm Denver). Then next morning, with more news the track students and staff got together to worship and pray. We stood on the rooftop, the sun shining through the crisp air. We raised our voices to the sky and the warm vapors of our life went with them made visible by the brisk winter around us.

I couldn’t sing, I couldn’t speak… I could only cry. I wept… I wept for Denver, I wept for the United States, I wept for the world, and I wept for the lost. My face grimaced in sorrow as I hid it from the group tears flowing freely. I could feel my heart physically stressed as if someone had its hands around it squeezing the life out of it. I acknowledged this pain, but at the same time heard God whispering, with sadness in His voice, “Now you know a little bit about my heart and what I feel.” I instantly thought of the Cross and the fact that Jesus died from a broken heart. From then on I kept weeping, but something was different. I wept out of grief, yes, but I also wept simply because I was overwhelmed by the Love of the Father for Denver, the United States, and the world.

He wants you to be His child. He died for you so that you could be His. You don’t have to do anything to get His love; He loved you before you were born. You can’t do anything to get His love, it’s free. Just like there is nothing you can do to get God’s love, there is nothing that you can do to get rid of it either; it’s always there, He’s always there. He asks us, those who follow Him to show His love to others, to carry His love to the far-reaching corners of the world no matter what the cost.

Love… is it easy to love? Is it easy to stare into the eyes of an adorable child, so innocent, blameless, and dependent? Is it easy to stare into the eyes of someone who sells children to the international sex-trade? It may be easy to love the innocent, but what about the guilty?

Will we love that way? Will we respond to the call to love? It will take everything that you have. But what is really yours in the first place? Every gift is from God and all that we have in this world will pass away. Love in a way that is inclusive, drastic, and even reckless. Love brought Jesus to earth and to the cross, but it didn’t leave Him there; His resurrection bringing Hope to humanity. Tragedy makes us want to cry out for, “Jesus come soon, don’t wait.” But until he does, we know that there are so many that haven’t experienced his love and know that His heart breaks for them too.

What happened last weekend is a dreadful tragedy and we should weep for our family; the body of Christ. Please keep the families in your prayers as well as the staff and students of the DTS and YWAM base in Denver especially.

In Turkey, we are all pretty sick. We were able to host a Photography Exhibition in the city square and named it “Exposing Beauty”. It was a terrific even and some relationships were made with some people who are open for the Gospel. Praise Him! We are all heading our different directions this coming week for Christmas break. Pray that we will all be well and that our travels will be blessed as well as the two weeks we are apart.

I included some of my needs on the right hand column. It is great being here, but there is a cost that comes with it.
I want to thank my monthly supporters for their obedience to God. This is a team effort and as much their heart as it is mine. I honestly wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t responded to His call and vision for His world. It is a beautiful partnership that God has put together. I honor you for your faithfulness.

Love is a Movement

I have this intense desire to be in love. I am talking about that head-over heels feeling that controls every one of my movements. Many of you know that kind of love, but I am not there yet. Every day that goes by, I think about it. I am in love with the notion of being in love. I desire to desire. I long for the passion, emotion, and commitment of it. I am pulled by the prospect and swept away by stories of those in love; how it happened, when were and who…

Let me tell you a little love story I heard recently. It starts out with a statistic that blows my mind. There are over 27 million slaves in the world today; Human Trafficking is the largest slave trade in history. The sheer magnitude is staggering; beyond anything that I can conceptualize. Many of these slaves are children, stolen from (or sold) by their parents into the sex-trade of South-East Asia in order to be able to survive. They are sold to brothels, club’s, and bars for the patrons (mostly from America and the Western world) to do any number of immensely grotesque practices to. There was this lady, an artist who would go and paint portraits of the children, getting to know them a little bit. She found out that some of them were slaves of some bars and clubs in the area. She was overwhelmed with grief that humans could do these kinds of things to each other, especially innocent children. She decided to do something about it, so she would make her way into some of the places and steal the children out of them and hide them. She got away with it for a time, but then was found out and received death threats from the industry because they were losing money… She ended up fleeing for her life to a different part of the country where she now lives, with 125 of the children that she stole…

This is a picture of the love that I want to be in… Not for one person, but for the people who’s God heart breaks for constantly… For those of you who have kids, what if someone stole them and sold them into that kind of slavery. I bet that you would do everything that you could to get them back. I bet that you would willingly give your entire life in a search and rescue attempt. Not only would you do everything that you could, you would ask anyone and everyone to help you… This is your kid we are talking about.

I want to love like that woman who laid down her life for just one of those children. It reminds me of what someone once did for me. It was God… He gave up that status, the Creator of all things with a perfect glorified body, to come down here to a world ravaged by sin and rescue me from this slavery that I was in; to steal me away and take me to a better place; to SET ME FREE…

If God loved me that much, that is how he loves all people. Those he has changed are now his children, but also his followers; that is our confession of faith, a “Follower of Jesus.” How can I consider myself his follower if I don’t do what he did? How can I say that I have love if I don’t give everything to go after those who he loves? Am I alone in this? What are we after in life?

I have been studying the Bible for a month now… I could be studying it for the rest of my life having knowledge of everything in it, but if I don’t have love, it is all worth nothing. Why? Because love is the fire that forces me out of my chair to movement. I could even weep over the atrocities that go on, but if I didn’t have love, I would be only grieving to make myself feel better.

What are we living for? Who are we following? Why do we want what we want from God? Is it all for me, so that I can be comfortable and safe? Is what I do in this life for me or my well-being? Do I have any love? How far are we willing to go to love the people of the world? Yes, it will be hard, and it will cost you… maybe everything, maybe your life. Jesus did it for me, will I follow him if it costs me that much? They are out there, 27 million of them, waiting for us to come and rescue them. Are you up for it? What would you be willing to give for them? What would you be willing to give for your own child? If we really have love, let’s do it.

So many questions… So little time. We can’t be looking around at everyone else, hoping that they will move first so we won’t have to. Love is all that can save them; the perfect, unselfish love of Jesus Christ. There has to be something inside you that pulls you to them. Act on the compassion that is within you and let love be your motivation to be the change you envision for this world. God wants to use you, be open, be willing, be ready. There are too many out there to wait any longer.

In Love

John Paul

Visit HumanTrafficking.Org