Feb 2013 Newsletter: Urgent Updates!

It appears that God has answered two prayers in a very big way.  First, thank you all VERY much for your prayers for the Perspectives on the Christian World Movement class.  Through prayer, God’s providence, gracious donors, and new students signing up for the class, the course is now financially able to run for the full semester.  Though that may seem minor, it was very important for the students who were already taking it—including my girlfriend, Tella.  That brings me to the second answered prayer (or prayers)—my girlfriend Tella and I are now engaged!  We are both (obviously) very excited about it, and we are very much looking forward to what the future holds!

In both of these instances, I know that many believers were praying.  For Perspectives, many people responded to my email and said that they were praying, and others went out to see what God would provide.  In relatively short order, the needs of the course were taken care of.  Regarding my engagement, my family has been praying for me to end up with a good wife for many years.  I myself have long prayed that if God had one special person set aside for me that He would help me find her; I also prayed that if He did not have one specific person that He would help me make the wisest/best choice possible.  I further prayed that He would do whatever was necessary to help me get there since I can be very stubborn and hard-of-hearing in such matters.  Though I had thought a couple of my earlier relationships might be the one that I had been praying for, specific circumstances eventually made it obvious that they were not.  After a time, I gained more experience, and I believe that God helped me hear His voice a little better.  I noticed in Proverbs that it says, “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord” (Prov 18:22), yet it also says in Proverbs 19:14, “Parents can provide their sons with an inheritance of houses and wealth, but only the Lord can give an understanding wife.”  Since only the Lord can give an understanding wife, and since my lifestyle of service to the Lord whatever He may ask very much requires an understanding wife, I began to pray that He would provide one.  I also began to realize that only if He provided one would I ever be able to have a companion and live how I desired to live.

After dating Tella for some time, I started to wonder if she might be that answer to prayer.  Even as my girlfriend, many of her attributes already fit with me very well and with what I needed, and who she was fit very well with who I was.  Our hearts and desires for the present and the future were also heavily in line.  Over time, it became obvious to me that I would want no one else as a companion to walk with me through life’s adventures and that I would much prefer to walk through life with her than without her.  She is such a great blessing to me that I do not have words to adequately describe it, and I myself receive joy beyond words seeking to be a blessing to her.  Now we are on our path together, and I thank God beyond words.

The way that those two prayers were answered is a good reminder for me to trust God to answer prayers in His way and His time.  While the prayers for Perspectives had an immediate answer, there was more than a decade between when I began praying about a potential partner and when it came about.  I also had numerous false leads that might have, at the time, led me to believe that God wasn’t answering my prayers.  Ultimately, we can now see that He has answered my prayers, and He answered them well.  Despite my stubbornness, He seems to have helped keep my earlier relationships from becoming what they shouldn’t have been, and then He ultimately blessed me with my relationship with Tella in a way that was even better than I could have asked for!  Thank God for such providence and for the fact that He is true to His Word and true to His nature!  

In the same way as He answered prayers for Perspectives and for me to have a wife, I trust that He will continue to provide for our basic needs if we continue to seek first His Kingdom (Matthew 6) as we prepare to embark on this new journey.  I also believe that He’ll do even more than that!  Jesus on multiple occasions said that if we give up our lives for Him, He will give us true life and life to the full.  He has helped me slowly let go of my old life, and He has certainly given me life to the full!  I have been blessed beyond words—I have a fiancé who is better than I could have dreamed of, I have a job that is not just a job but a passion, I have adventure and variety and the unknown in my life, and I am blessed with friends, loved ones, and a community.  What more could I ask for, truly?

Despite this tremendous providence, I have been questioned at times by those whom I love if God is really providing for me based on my income.  It is true that my income is small for the United States--$907 per month out of a goal income of $2,320 per month.  However, it is more than enough for what I need now.  He has always helped me meet all of my critical needs, and even on such a small income, I have been making aggressive repayments on my couple of small remaining school loans and my business/ministry startup loan.  Sometimes as my car breaks down or other things happen I take two steps forward and one step back, but I have still always been moving forward.  This, to me, is providence.  It is true that my expenses will increase when I marry; Tella is still a student for another year, so there will be no extra income, but my rent (which has been so low since four of us guys live in a three bedroom house) will increase when she and I move in together after the wedding, and I will have to look at private family health insurance options (I am currently uninsured).  Even so, I remain firmly convinced that God will provide for these things—our basic needs—as He always has.

However, in part due to some of my loved ones’ doubts and in part because I believe He will answer it, I have been praying and continue to pray that God would provide even more than that.  I have been praying that God will help move my income not just up to the most basic new needs, but up to the goal amount of $2,320 per month, which is equivalent to what I would earn if I left ministry and taught Math or Spanish at a high school (both of which I can do right now with my degrees).  It is also starting salary for many full time youth pastors and part-time salary for many college ministry workers.  Since I do more than full time college ministry and other missionary work, it seems to be an appropriate amount.  I have been praying this for some time, and I feel that God has begun slowly answering it; though my income has held at $907 per month, there have been occasional surprise one-time donations, and there is just a feeling I have that He will be showing more soon.  I have also recently had good conversations about approaching churches for financial support, and I feel peace to finally step out and do it in the same way that overseas missionaries and other in-state missionaries like me frequently do.  Many churches may not want to support me on a monthly basis, but if I look at this as a yearly goal, then only $16,400 needs to be raised by the end of this year to get my salary taken care of.  If just 32 churches vote to give $500 on a one-time or yearly basis, that would completely cover it!  When it comes down to it, I firmly believe in the vision of this ministry and what we can accomplish—and I do need funded to accomplish it!  As such, I am willing to work at this as hard as I work at the other parts of the ministry, too.  I continue this prayer, and I ask you to join with me in it.  I also ask you to seriously, prayerfully consider asking your church’s leadership if they would invite me to come out and speak about my mission work and seek to raise financial support for it.  Regardless of whether God answers this prayer quickly, slowly, or in a surprising way, I am convinced that He will answer it, too, and that however He does answer it, it will be for the best.  Thank you!

Newsletter

Foreword:

Hello everyone!  I had planned to send out this newsletter at the end of January as a special ‘double issue’ covering the end of last year (December) and the beginning of this year (January).  Unfortunately, several unexpected things (including praying and seeking money for Perspectives early this month) set me back a bit!  I will still send out February’s newsletter near the end of February, but I will likely make it shorter since this one is so long!  I apologize for the delay, and I thank you for your continued prayers for me as a missionary and for Unite as a ministry!

Newsletter:

God seems to often work through the unexpected.  As those of you in Northwestern Kansas know, this New Year’s Eve day brought in a LOT of snow—more than had originally been expected.  My girlfriend, Tella, and I were going to head up to Plainville with some friends to bring in the New Year.  With several inches of snow on the ground and more falling, we had to change plans and stay in Hays.

While we were running out to get some supplies at Wal-Mart, we passed someone walking down Main Street.  Tella recognized the person as Martha, one of the women from our Monday morning small group this last semester.  The snow was too deep to turn around directly, so we looped around a block and pulled up next to her and offered her a ride.  As it turned out, she was on her way to a special evening mass at her church; we were able to give her a ride to her service and time our shopping so that we could pick her up, too.  When we picked her up, she surprised us by inviting us in for dinner. 

We were a little unsure whether or not to accept—we had some plans for later that evening and didn’t know when everything was going to happen, but we felt like we had enough time, so we went in and joined her for supper.  While she was heating up food, I headed outside and started shoveling off her driveway.  As I was shoveling, I began to reflect about how well that evening was working out from entirely unplanned and unexpected events; even though everything came up by surprise, we each had something that could serve the other well.  Tella and I had an already-warmed up car, and we were already driving around.  We were able to use that as a blessing to Martha.  She had spare warm food and time for conversation.  That was a blessing to us.  I had the time while the ladies talked to take care of her driveway, and Martha had experience and wisdom to share when we talked over supper later.  It just seemed to jump out at me that God really did build all of us so that we could be blessed and bless one another in turn.  All we have to do is seek to genuinely love one another in whatever situation arises, and we can experience much of the community that scripture indicates God built us for.

As the night wore on, we ate our food and began a series of very enjoyable discussions.  One of the more intriguing was over an old Volga German tradition that Martha could remember that she said was called ‘winching’ (probably a form of a German word ‘Wunschen’).  Apparently, when she was little, it was common custom to go out on New Year’s Day and every day for the next week or so and ‘wunsch’.  This involved knocking on the door of close friends and family and giving them a traditional blessing in German to have a good New Year.  In response, the friend or family member would thank those ‘wunsching’ and give them alcohol (usually beer or spirits), unless the person giving the blessing was younger, in which case they would be given money.  This wasn’t meant to be completed in one night, but was done over the course of the first week of the New Year until a person had greeted and blessed all of their family, friends, and loved ones in the region.

I was immediately enamored with this tradition for a few reasons.  One was simply that it was cool—I had never heard of such a tradition, and I tend to find history and traditions to be somewhat fascinating.  It also just sounded like a fun thing to do—kind of like Halloween without the costumes but with blessings instead of tricks and with better gifts than just candy.  More importantly though, I thought that it was really impressive how this and many other traditions (such as Christmas caroling) that are more common to the older generations were truly designed to form and reinforce a broader sense of community.  Each one of these traditions made people think more about extended family and friends, spend more time with them, and even bless them during holiday times.

It seems to me that at times my generation’s society works against genuine community—especially broad, genuine community; we often have small groups of friends but find it hard to be a legitimate part of a bigger community.  While there are many factors that lead to this, it often boils down to my generation just being ‘too busy’ in our minds for broad community.  I can tell you from scheduling my ministry’s small groups and leadership meetings that it is NOT easy to find times that fit everyone’s schedule—between work, school, family, obligations, and other priorities most schedules are pretty packed.  Often when we do gather for things like ‘small group’, it initially takes a fair amount of time for us to quiet down from our crazy days enough to listen to others and to God.  I am not speaking as one who is not overly busy himself—I speak as one who is often himself too busy.  With everything going on it is just so easy to do.  The reason that I bring this up, though, is not to simply condemn busy-ness or exhort us all to open up our schedules more (though that could be a good idea for some of us, including me), but to point out that in today’s society we have to make community—especially broad, encompassing, and loving community—a high priority if it is ever to happen at all.  It is very easy to underestimate the importance of community to our health and spiritual lives, but we all should look very closely at scripture and especially at Christ’s words before we dismiss community as not very important.

To truly see the importance of community, I think we have to look at God’s heart and his plan from the beginning.  In Genesis 1:26-27 we see that we are created in God’s image--it says male and female they created us.  In their image, they created us (some translations of the Bible say He created them, but the Hebrew word ‘Elohim’ used for God is plural, not singular).  This is interesting—that the trinity would create us (plural) in their (plural) image.  This makes sense on several levels.  Love is only fully existent with at least two—a person loving and a person to receive love.  A person who loves but doesn’t have a person to receive their love is not able to fully express love.  Also, a person to be loved who does not have anyone to love them is not a full expression of love.  Only when one person can love another is love fully expressed (and it is even more fully expressed when it is mutual).  The Bible teaches that God is love (1 John 4:8).  We just mentioned that love doesn’t fully exist with just one—and God isn’t just one!  There are three—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Well that makes sense then that they together in community are God, since God is love.  It also makes sense that they created us (male and female) in their image—plural.  We were meant to be in loving community from the very beginning, and since love (and God is love) is part of that, we were meant to be in community with God from the very beginning.  Once we sinned, we were unable to fully receive God’s love (as evidenced when Adam and Eve ran away and hid from God).  Our guilt and shame kept us from receiving it as we once did, and community was broken in part.  At that time, God began a plan to restore us to Him and to the love and community that we were built for.  In Genesis 12:1-3 it states that

Abraham and his family were blessed to be a blessing and that ultimately the whole earth would be blessed through them.  This came to fruition when Christ, descendant of Abraham, came and dealt with our sin and its separating guilt and shame in full on the cross, so that we could again freely receive God’s love and be in community with Him and others.  This isn’t just abstract theology.  Let me say that again, Jesus came so that we could be rectified with the Father and live again in community with God and with others!  If His very purpose was to restore us to community with God and others, then how high an emphasis should broad, loving community be in our real lives?  Does this reality translate into how we live as Christians and how highly we emphasize living as a loving community to all others?

Jesus highlights ways to really love others and live in community in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-8), and He reinforces its importance when He says that all the law and the prophets can be summed up in ‘love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself’ (Matthew 22:37-39).  He even teaches the disciples how to do this—washing their feet and commanding them to love one another as He has loved them right before He went to the cross (John 13).  His last fully recorded prayer on earth is that all believers might be one as He and the Father are one (John 17).  If that isn’t a mind-blowing concept, I don’t know what is!  That Jesus would pray that we have the same unity and oneness that God the Father and Jesus the Son share!  Wow.  All of this is later followed by a bunch of New Testament letters that constantly exhort believers to love one another, to not give up the habit of meeting, to seek to be one in the Spirit and one in love.  Again and again it emphasizes ideas of unity, loving one another, and loving others who are not believers.  We are repeatedly told as a community to care for widows, orphans, and the foreigner among us.  Everywhere a loving, broad, Bible-following community is emphasized.  In sharp contrast to how Christianity is often presented in our era (as a religion centered on helping individuals in their separate, private lives ‘not sin’ and do good things), the Bible shows that Christianity is centered on God’s heart as He passionately does what is necessary to save those He loves and restore them to loving community with Him and others.  We then, as a community, are challenged to reach out and love all others—from those whom society does not care for to even our enemies.  In this love, we are challenged to become one with God and with others.  What a high calling!  What a high emphasis broad, loving community should have in our lives!

This leads me to my New Year’s challenge (and it is still early in the New Year, so feel free to take it up even though we are in February)!  I challenge myself, and I invite you to join me by challenging yourselves, to seek to live actively for Christ and the Kingdom this year NOT by first emphasizing moral purity (not that I am saying I WON’T seek to be morally pure—just saying that I don’t want ‘not sinning’ to be my primary focus), but instead by emphasizing looking for opportunities to love others genuinely and to be in community with others genuinely.  May this generation take a lesson from the older generation in building broad, loving community!  May we UNITE this year in the Spirit and in Love by actively seeking to go out of our way to love and bless others!  Let’s pray Jesus’ final prayer for us and seek to be one with the One who came to restore community!

Note: Below we have information on various outreach projects along with ways that you can pray for Biblical community in them.  You are also welcome to become involved in them directly!  Please keep us in your prayers, and PLEASE feel free to send me prayer requests, too!

More information about all of these outreach projects is available at www.UniteHays.com.

Unite Game Night and Common Grounds Coffee House

Pray that our barista team can pray and be Biblical peacemakers whenever it is necessary.  Pray that the churches would send out more people to get to know the college students and befriend them.

Get Plugged In

Pray that more churches get involved in this day in a bigger way.  Each church is invited to campus this day to greet the incoming Fort Hays State University students in love and to care for them.  Some have in past given care packages, food, coffee, and more; may God use this to reach out to campus!

Nomads Trip

Pray that God use the trip to help those who go from various churches to bond in the Spirit and in Love.

Unite Small Groups

Pray that we can open up and share and that God help us see Him as we study His Word.  Pray that more Christians would join these small groups to interact with college students.

Juarez Mission Trip

Pray that God help those who go from various churches to bond in the Spirit and in love; pray that we bond with those in Juarez, Oklahoma City, and Hays.  May we see more opportunities to reach out in love in our home communities!

[alt]

May God help those who plan and help with [alt] to bond as believers as we reach out to provide an alternative event to the post-Oktoberfest partying in Hays, Kansas.

Here are some game night photos from last Friday!  Our small groups are also up and running, and we are preparing for some upcoming things this semester, this summer, and next semester!  Please keep God's work out here and our ministry in your prayers!  :)

Recent Game Night Photos

Here are some recent game night photos!  Please keep this Friday night alternative to the bar scene in your prayers.  The first two weeks that we have been back in operation since school has started have been quite good; the first one was short (ended around 2:00 a.m.), and the second one lasted until almost 5:00 a.m.!  Both nights were quite fun, and I was blessed to have some great conversations with students who are back for the semester.  Thanks again for your prayers!  :)

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST/ASSISTANCE REQUEST

Hello everyone!  I have a time-sensitive prayer request and request for assistance! 

   When I began my journey as an in-state missionary, God greatly used some of the missionaries and other speakers who weekly taught the Hays ‘Perspectives on the Christian World Movement’ class to prod me.  This class is taught by a number of experts in their field who travel on a circuit around the U.S. so that each place they speak can divide out the cost of having them come.  As such, participants in the class are taught by a different speaker every week as they go through a deeply powerful experience that challenges their perspectives on how God has moved throughout human history.  It is a rare experience, and one that I would recommend anyone consider taking.

   This year the Hays class is ten students short of the required amount to financially make it—though they have already had two weeks of class, they are looking at having to close their doors, refund money and give up on what could be a very powerful semester for the college students and private individuals who are currently taking the class (for credit, for audit, or just for personal growth).  They need either $2,000 or ten students to allow for the class to happen, and they need it immediately.  First, I ask you to PLEASE PRAY that God provide the individuals AND/OR the money to make the class happen this semester.  Second, I am going out over the next few days to try and get corporate and private sponsors to allow the class to financially happen this year—if you are willing to either make a one-time, tax-deductible donation to make the class happen OR if you are willing to TAKE the Perspectives class yourself this year and gain from the epic experience (it may not be offered again in future years here), then PLEASE contact me AS SOON AS POSSIBLE so that I can give you instructions to route your donation or enroll for the course.  Please keep in mind that a small donation of $5, $10, or $20 can SUBSTANTIALLY help (if everyone on my Unite email list gave $20, the class would already be saved).  I will be putting my money where my mouth is and personally financially supporting this class, myself.  If you join me in this, I think that God will do a cool thing through our efforts as a body of believers.  Please consider contributing or letting me know if an employer or your church would be willing to contribute.

   These will be an intense several days as we pray and see how God provides for this course.  Please pray with me, and please consider donating OR enrolling!  Thank you sincerely for your prayers and help!

   In Christ,

   Brandon

Contact me by phone: 785-259-2539

Contact me by email: Brandon.Nimz@gmail.com or UniteEph4.1.16@gmail.com

Sabbath Thoughts...

It’s funny how easy it is to miss resting—even when I have ‘down time’.  It seems that my mind is often constantly busy with different ministry things, interpersonal things, things that need to get done for ministry events and the dojo, things that need done at home or in my life in general, and more besides….  Often even when I am doing things that could be restful, my mind is pretty occupied.  It’s not like it is necessarily stressful—in fact, most of the time I enjoy the things I am doing and the things that I am thinking about.  It is just very different from truly stopping—and truly resting.

When I truly stop and rest, I do not think about anything that I need to do or let there even be a tentative schedule in my head.  I treat it much as I did when I was a young kid and had an evening free—I did not think through what I had left to do on ‘back burner’; I did not worry about tomorrow or what needed done tomorrow; I did not even worry about things that I could do or ‘should’ do that day.  I just rested and enjoyed the moment—savoring all of the little things around me and enjoying them.

Tonight, as I rested in my living room, different things would stick out to me.  The old couch that I was resting on is definitely part of a bachelor pad with four guys living in it; it is old and not super ‘stylish’, but when I stop it is fascinating to look at.  It has designs of farmhouses, waterwheels, and leaves in it along with certain fibers that make parts appear shiny…  It must have been a fine achievement for the artist, designers, and workers who built it in its original day.  The padding that is heavily worn still works and makes it comfortable to lie on as warm air from the heater blows over my feet.  There are actually so many interesting little things in my house, all designed to please the person who is using them or looking at them that I rush past or use without noticing during my daily rush to ‘do things.’  I miss the intricate carvings in the end-table made to wow guests, the artistry and design that went into the guitar poster on the wall, the work that had to go into crafting and finishing all of the wood in the house for it to look good for those who lived there…  There is so much that is literally fashioned expressly to be appreciated that I just don’t take the time to stop and appreciate because of my pace of life.  Making the time to stop and appreciate and enjoy all of these things at least once a week (on my Sabbath) actually helps me be more thankful to God and His providence.  What crazy things!  I have clothes that are comfortable, food that is chilled but hat I can heat, water that I can flavor as tea or chocolate or any number of other things.  In my house I have cheeses, crustaceans, and canned vegetables—a tremendous variety of food to choose from.  Our society has given us so many little pleasures that I almost never TRULY stop and notice when I am ‘rushing’…  Stopping and appreciating them fully as I partake in them (while resting) is good medicine for me—emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  It adjusts my speed and my attitude and makes me look at things through a different lens and perspective; it is a lens and perspective that is at once more natural to me, and also something almost foreign because I usually don’t take time to operate in this mode.  What an interesting thing, rest is.  What an important part of life…

It is odd, but resting is actually a lot of work for me, at first.  My mind doesn’t want to shut down, my sense of urgency and pace wants me to use this ‘free time’ to ‘catch up’ on several little tasks so that I can rest more easily by not having to remember to get them done—but if I do that I will ultimately never truly slow down into rest…  I often have to pray and ask God to help me to let go of things into His hands (which I need to do anyway), because by focusing on ‘letting go’ I continue ‘focusing’ and don’t actually let go.  Once there, I have to just let rest happen naturally and naturally start appreciating all of the cool little things around me.  It’s not that I just lay there like a bump for hours on end necessarily; rather, whatever I do once my mind is in ‘rest mode’, I try to do appreciating every part of it and being thankful for every part of it—listening to my coffee machine percolate and being amazed by how good the coffee smells and tastes and how warm it is in the mug in my hands, enjoying the texture and flavor of cheddar cheese as I have a small afternoon snack, enjoying the comforts that allow me to read my book or rest with my girlfriend, thanking God for the Kansas wind and brisk air and all of the life around me when I am outside…  It varies, but the part that is the same to me is that when I truly STOP, then I can truly start resting, listening to God, and letting God refill me—which I desperately need.

I hope and pray during this busy Christmas season that we can all force in the time to genuinely rest as God commanded in the Old Testament—and that we continue to stop and rest throughout the year.  Though it is increasingly hard in our society, I think we need to rediscover and re-initiate the lifestyle of healthy balance and include genuine rest.  Without it, I think that we lose much of the beauty, joy, and perspective that God intends for us…

Thank God for another good Sabbath.  :)

Blessings, Meditation

This morning's early church prayer and meditation class (http://aikidoofnorthwestkansas.com/index.php/schedule/additional-opportunities/prayer-meditation) was particularly good.  We had a very cool new person join us, and the atmosphere was conducive to interactions with God as usual.  I substantially enjoyed the 'Examen' meditation; my consolation (life-giving memory from the week) reminded me of some of my purpose in Christ, and my desolation (life-draining memory from the week) taught me that I cannot easily hear God when my pride feels challenged and my emotions get high.  It was a good reminder of my need to really slow down in such instances and pray, trusting God to answer.

Perhaps what was even more cool was hearing how Aikido has been good for some of the youth who have been taking it and having a chance to hear about some of the families who have been taking it chatting about and working on Aikido together.  It brings my heart great joy that we can help families enjoy things together and help communities form--both things that seem very important to God, Biblically.  I also feel that the idea of forming community and working together towards common, Godly purposes is a huge concept throughout the New Testament.  It is exciting to see that lived out a bit.  Beyond that, I have just been feeling very blessed all day in many little ways.

Thank God for a great birthday and exciting life!