October Newsletter

There have been two themes that have come up quite a bit in prayer, meditation, and action these last couple of weeks. One of them is to focus less on stopping the darkness in the world from advancing and more on taking part in the light of the world advancing (those aren't always mutually exclusive, but I'll explain that more later), and the other has been to return to my ministry roots and do the things that, deep down, I know are important. Everything else just has to fall in line from there.

The idea of focusing on advancing the light isn't new; Jesus talked about how the Pharisees were very careful to do the tiniest parts of the letter of the law, but they failed to honor parts of the spirit of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness. (To be clear, he said they should do both—but he noted the part they failed was the 'advancing the light' or loving portion). During the parable of the sheep and the goats, people are separated not by what sins they committed, but by whether or not they went out of their way to love others (advancing the light). Jesus told his disciples that the gates of Hell would not overcome the church; a pastor friend of mine mentions (accurately) that gates don't generally go out and attack people. He feels that Jesus was implying that the church should be going out and storming the gates of Hell on earth (also advancing the light).

I find this same idea is visibly clear in Aikido. If someone grabs a person and tries to hold them in place (say two hands grabbing one hand), people often respond by trying to rip and pull and fight that grabbed hand free. This is trying to stop the advance of the attacker/the attacker's goal rather than focusing on the freedom of movement that the person being attacked has. If they calm down they realize they are just held by one hand—they can punch with the other, kick, move their entire bodies—all that's held is one hand. However, people tend to frequently react in quick panic and fight where the other person is stronger rather than advancing their own free movement (which may even allow them to get free later).

In actual ministry applications, I find people often connect to our ministry when things have gone beyond the ability of the other ministries in town to help with. Many of the people coming to us are homeless, have untreated mental illness, or are dealing with varying complex problems. As we work with them, we try to help them free themselves from their problems; however, some of them have problems that they are unlikely to ever be free from if they continue to exist in their current state. These situations are much like being grabbed (as mentioned above) and focusing on trying to rip the hand free. It's not wrong for us to help them with direct, tangible needs—but often that is simply trying to rip their hands free from an attack rather than helping them advance in more important root issues that may seem unrelated to the direct problem. How this plays out is complex and varied per every individual/situation that we work with.

This principle is also something that I can directly apply in my own life. While it is sometimes necessary to 'rip the hand free' and take on problems directly, it's often actually best to grow and develop overall and focus on other things. Eventually I become a person for whom said issue is no longer an issue for.

Regarding the idea of doing what's important first—when I started doing in-state missionary work, I would only do small odd jobs that didn't conflict with ministry. If they did conflict, I turned them down. Now, over time, what I do has become more complex and involves many moving parts for multiple entities. It also takes a lot of time. To handle the minutia of keeping everything running can be a full-time job itself; this often leaves important things—things that might involve 'attacking the gates of Hell' on back burner while I handle the more imminent/immediate things (or work with the imminent, loudly requesting people). Putting it a different way—it's tough to make time to go out and meet/pursue people who I've interacted with that I feel led to interact with more when I can barely maintain all that's already rolling. That's not to say the things currently rolling aren't good or aren't 'serving the Kingdom'. To the contrary—some of the most time-intensive things I do right now involve helping people in bad situations (as mentioned above). However, helping the ones who constantly come in our door needing help (who may never get out of their situations) at the expense of pursuing new relationships that I feel led to pursue is not the right course.

A friend used a fun analogy in a discussion related to this topic—she gave the example of having two secretaries: one is stellar and is performing beyond all expectations. The other is performing adequately for a secretary. If you have the money to hire an assistant, which secretary do you hire an assistant for? With my current perspective of doing what's important, I answered 'the stellar one'. She said most people answer the normal one—since that secretary needs more help. The truth is, hiring an assistant for one who's already super capable maximizes their efficient use of the assistant and further increases their exponential productivity—whereas hiring an assistant for the normal one may help them, but it is ultimately less efficient. This is a similar idea—do I spend hours upon hours meeting with people who will be back in my space in a month with the same problems, or do I go out and pursue that fellow who came into the Gamers Guild fleetingly, but whom I had a really deep and meaningful conversation with? The answer, I now feel, is the latter. (It's not that I turn the others away, but I'm changing my focus and my time utilization to the important people and situations that often get put on back burner instead of the loud people and urgent-seeming things).

These two themes that have been popping up for me (advancing the light and doing what I deep down feel is important) are directly related in my life. Handling the constantly coming-in things instead of going out and advancing is much like 'stopping the darkness' instead of 'advancing the light'. While 'stopping the darkness' is still something believers are called to do (Jesus said to give to those who ask and gave multiple examples of helping those in need), we are also called to boldly go forth and announce and advance the Kingdom of light—not just reacting but acting in a forward-moving way. I think that this is an incredibly important part of the work that we are to do as believers, and I, for one, am excited to see where all it will lead in the coming months.

As far as prayer requests—feel free to pray for several challenging situations that I am in when it comes to working with others; a few of the circumstances are extraordinary and cannot be remedied without God's intervention, from what I can see. I'd also request prayer for clarity when it comes to how to move ahead with a community volunteerism project and potential buildings for our ministry. As far as potential volunteer opportunities—if you are in the area and want to do something, please contact me. We have needs for labor from simple things like cleaning and organizing to complex things like talking with lonely people who deal with mental illness or other life challenges. The opportunities for the Kingdom to advance are numerous—please just pray and ask Jesus, the head of the body of believers, where your particular role in that advancement is. If it's in something you're already doing, keep it up! If it's with us or near us—let us know; either way, if you are listening and following Him, I'm sure you'll end up where you need to be. Thanks again for reading this update, for your prayers, and/or for your financial support!

Happy New Year!

It seems that my life and ministry work have natural cycles to them; sometimes most of the outreach ministry comes from Unite directly, sometimes most seems to come through The Gamers Guild and the people who come in for it and the free store. This year, surprisingly, it seems like many of my best inroads for ministry have come from the Aikido side of the equation. Back when Unite was more focused on college ministry and less focused on community ministry, that was also true certain years, but it has several years since that was last the case.

Some of the ways that Aikido has been a strong inroad to allow for ministry have been obvious. One of the coolest examples was that of a student who came into The Gamers Guild to learn to play some games but saw the Aikido next door and wanted to give it a try. I knew he was atheist as far as his beliefs went, but one day after he’d been in class for a few months and we’d developed a stronger relationship through Aikido, I felt led to invite him to a small group Bible study. He joined in and sat with us for a few months more, and through God’s work in His life and some circumstances in it, he ended up becoming a believer. Now, I would consider him to be one of the more staunch men of faith I know.

Another example of Aikido connecting me to someone I could love and share faith with was that of a friend of mine from Japan. I met her when I was studying Aikido in Japan as a live-in student, and we developed a friendship. I didn’t have too much chance to discuss faith with her, but I did know where she stood and she knew where I stood. Due to some political situations, she had been asked to leave her dojo in Japan, and she was studying in Denver under a different Japanese instructor whom she’d had years of prior training with. We happened to be in Denver at just the right time to be able to help her when that political situation caught up with her here in the US and she was asked to leave this school, as well. She still had a couple weeks before her flight back to Japan, so we were able to let her stay with us in our house and comfort her when she was hurting. Ultimately, she made it back to Japan and has re-started as an Aikido instructor there, but I know that our time supporting her was very important to her, and I am glad God gave us the opportunity to do it.

In an extremely different direction, Aikido allowed me to share twice with the Kansas Academy of Math and Science (KAMS) students at Fort Hays State University (FHSU). These youth are high school students attending the university as they finish the last two years of high school. At the end of the program, they earn their high school diploma and an associate degree from the university. Needless to say, they are under a lot of stress. As I’ve mentioned before, Aikido teaches ways of making peace and harmony that are fully parallel with scripture, so it can be a very useful catalyst to help illustrate some of Christ’s principles and to share them in an environment that doesn’t allow faith discussions directly. The KAMS program was interested in having me, as an Aikido instructor, present peacemaking methods and philosophies for handling stress that are present in the art. I asked, and they were not interested in me presenting Christian concepts due to the varied faiths of their students. As such, I went in and presented Aikido honestly. When it was warranted due to our discussion, I also mentioned real times that my faith interwove with these peacemaking concepts (which often occurs as they are one and the same to me), and I was able to emphasize the importance of asking faith questions and delving into deeper life issues as part of dealing with stress (and I was able to do this in a way that was honest and non-threatening).

Several of the KAMS students in the audience were already part of the FHSU Aikido Club, and a few of the others I knew from The Gamers Guild, so this crossover was really useful as it let me have several real and deep discussions with those youth after the presentation. I must thank God for answered prayers that we were able to have these discussions; I had asked several others to pray for me going into these two presentations for KAMS as I needed to be sincere and honest—not compromising part of the faith that is core to my life and being—while also being sensitive to the way I was asked to present, which was not on faith but was on subjects related to faith. I think God helped that balance be preserved while still allowing beneficial talks and relationships to form from it.

I was further able to develop relationships with the KAMS students and other FHSU students on the FHSU Aikido Club trip that we took this December before Christmas. This trip usually occurs in January, but due to a variety of reasons happened Dec 14-20 this year. Also unlike previous years, six of our students were 20 or under, with only two being 21 or older. Of these younger students, several had never been on public transportation, and a few had never been on a trip outside of one with their family. These stresses combined with the physically stressful nature of an Aikido trip pushed them all quite far; they did extremely well, and I’m quite proud of them. I’m also truly grateful to God that He gave me the opportunity to have several deep talks with several of the different youth attending on a very great variety of subjects. We were able to talk about how to handle conflict as peacemakers, how to look at trials as opportunities for growth, how to help others who won’t help themselves with serious disorders, ways for dealing with questions about sexuality in an increasingly confused world, and several other deep topics to boot. It was a very excellent trip as far as bonding and growth went, and I’m excited to see how God continues to use the relationships that He furthered on that trip.

This is far from a complete list of ways God has been using Aikido as a connector for ministry, and it’s also not to say that the other ways stop—just that He’s been obviously using Aikido more heavily recently. The Gamers Guild has also gotten several new faces—I was very pleased to hear a couple of guys say that they felt welcome and accepted there where they don’t feel welcome most other places. Those two are both good young men who are working through some very hard circumstances and who are trying to turn their lives around. They come in to The Gamers Guild to socialize and feel welcome when they aren’t working; getting to know them and also to have some heavy-duty faith discussions with one of them has been quite a blessing.

The small group Bible studies and other ministry functions also directly show growth and benefit. I’m thankful for the honesty and comradery in our Monday and Wednesday small groups—several of those study evenings have been quite important for all of us attending. It’s also been enjoyable having George (one of the local homeless guys) and one or two of The Gamers Guild guys occasionally sit in on small group and share.

There are quite a few other things going on as far as kingdom ministry at this time, and I’d be happy to share with you if you ever want to grab a coffee in Hays or talk on the phone or over the Internet. That said, thanks again for your continued prayers and support—we greatly appreciate the blessing of being able to do ministry work together with all of you. Keep serving God in your own areas of influence, and have a Happy New Year!