Our Return to Billings...

I sat in my office that day a dreamed about what could be... I was 23-years-old, and had just set up my office as the Lead Pastor of Billings Praise Center, in Billings, MT. I was full of anticipation for what God was going to use us to do on the Southside of Billings. That day, God put such incredible vision and passion in my heart to reach the unreached on the Southside. I dreamed of ministry to single moms, and homeless teens, and hungry families. That was the day God put it in my heart for Billings Praise Center to become a sort of Spiritual Emergency Room for people in desperate situations. That day seemed so far away 15 months later when the church board of BPC suddenly asked me to resign... It's been over 8 years since that day, and I still have not been offered an official explanation as to why. The church was growing, and we were in the beginning stages of seeing some of those dreams and visions come to pass. We were only a few weeks away from starting a large scale food distribution ministry, and the first step would have been taken to become what I felt God had called Billings Praise Center to become. And then it all came to a very abrupt halt... We cried a lot during those days. We didn't know what we would do next, but that wasn't the main source of the tears. It hurt to have been rejected by people that you spent so much time praying for, and asking God to bless. It is almost like being asked to leave your family... For me, a huge source of the tears was knowing that the dreams that God had placed on my heart that day in my new office had just died. I knew that the people of the church would not continue the with the plans and dreams that God had given me, and they didn't. The vision to help the hurting left Billings Praise Center when I did... or so I thought... After leaving more than 8 years before, and inwardly vowing never to return, on October 5, 2013, we drove back into Billings. I never thought I would see that city again, but God allowed me to see something beautiful there, and He taught me some things about vision... When we lived in Billings, God gave me the incredible opportunity to meet a man named David Morales. David grew up on the Southside, and God had done some miraculous things in his life. He was doing ministry on the Southside for people that most churches wouldn't touch. He was reaching battered women, and women recently released from prison. He was touching people's lives in ways that traditional churches never would. I enjoyed getting to know David very much!! After we left Billings, David also went through some difficult things, and was also rejected by some people close to him. The ministry he had been doing, came to a sudden end, and the Southside was left without its Champion... But then God began to put broken pieces together again, but in a different way than they were before. David Morales became the Pastor of Billings Praise Center!! It wasn't easy for him to push through the desire of the people to control everything, but because David is like a pit bull, he was able to break through!! The church stopped holding Sunday services, and the people who had rejected me, left the church. Earlier this year, Billings Praise Center began holding Sunday services once again, and that is just one of the many incredible things we saw when we returned a few Sundays ago... Billings Praise Center now has a ministry that feeds hungry families, with a pantry full of food! They assemble and distribute kits of personal supplies to the teenagers who live on the streets in Billings!! My old office now has two commercial washers, and two commercial dryers in it, so that single moms can save the money they would use at the laundromat, and spend it on their kids instead! The house next to the church is being remodeled, and will be used to house women who have been recently released from prison, and need a safe place to try to restore things with their children. The church operates a day care for low-income families, and there was a family in church the Sunday I preached that have come to Christ through their relationship with that daycare!! The church building has been remodeled, and updated quite a bit, and the property looks great. And probably the most impressive thing we saw, was that there the atmosphere of the church was so much different than it was on the day we left. There seemed to be a genuine excitement about reaching out to hurting people. There was an honesty and sincerity in the way they talked about Billings Praise Center existing to help people in need. I almost cried like a baby when David told me that he viewed BPC as a type of Spiritual Emergency Room for the Southside!! God taught me an amazing lesson as we toured the property of Billings Praise Center. He showed me that His plans and vision never die. Situations might look hopeless, and it might seem impossible that God could ever fulfill His promise, and yet somehow He does it. I did not get to see my dreams and vision come to pass while I was in leadership at Billings Praise Center, but I did get to see them happen!! I am so thankful for the opportunity to have literally seen God's faithfulness to His promise with my own eyes. I would have never guessed that it was possible for our situation in Billings to have worked out in a good way, but God is too good to let His promise die!! As David and I have talked a little after our visit, we realized that we both really needed what happened that weekend. Our family needed to see how God has brought those dreams to pass, and David has said that there seems to be a renewed passion and a peace since we have been there. It as if something has finally and fully been reconciled. The hurt we never thought would go away, has turned to joy!! I know it seems simple, but it is so true: God is good!!! We had wondered for years about why God would have allowed this to happen to us. We had wondered why we had to endure this pain, or what we had done to deserve the things that happened. After going back to Billings, we have come to the conclusion that it wasn't really about us... We had given our lives to God and asked Him to use us, and He did. He used us to expose some of the unhealthy issues at Billings Praise Center. He basically used us to stir the hornets nest, so that the problems were easy to see. The difficult situation wasn't about us, it was about bringing His will to pass at Billings Praise Center. Now the Southside has a wonderful church that won't overlook the darkness of the neighborhood. The Southside of Billings has a church that loves the people, and is committed to reaching them!! It cost us some heartache and tears (as well as some from David and his family), but it was worth it!!

New Job, New Page Title, Same Andy

So, I haven't written anything on my blog for a while, but it's not because there has been nothing to say... The name Pastor Andy was all over this page, and I stopped being Pastor Andy (for the most part) several months ago. (The last post on this page was my resignation letter to Mt Calvary...) So basically, I haven't written anything here because I hadn't invested the time into makes the changes to the page that were necessary. Now that I have, you will notice a few things: 1. I left the old posts. I thought they'd be interesting to look back at, even though I no longer serve in the same role. 2. The new posts will be a bit different. They will have more to do with the ups and downs of life as a missionary. 3. The tone is bound to change a few more times. Soon, we will be leaving for Language School in Costa Rica, and with that life change, the posts will likely change. Several months after moving to Costa Rica, we will move to Honduras, and the tone will likely change to what our every day, Honduran lifestyle is like. Writing can be pretty therapeutic for me, and with our whole life changing by the minute, I could use a little therapy from time to time!! With all that said, I'm sure I will be posting from time to time, so I guess you will hear from me later!!

I read this letter to Mt Calvary tonight...

I read this letter to Mt Calvary tonight... Dear friends and family of Mt Calvary, We have called a meeting today to discuss our upcoming pastoral vote, but I have an announcement to make before that happens. We will still be discussing the election, but the information I am about to give you will directly influence what happens with this vote. My family and I have some sad but exciting news to share with you. This last week, Jen and I were in Springfield, Missouri for some meetings with Assemblies of God World Missions. On Friday, we received full-time appointment as missionaries to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. As I'm sure you are quickly realizing, this means that tonight I am announcing my resignation as Lead Pastor of Mt Calvary, effective April 14, 2013. This has been a long and difficult journey as my family and I have followed God's leading in this direction. The Lord began to speak to us about this several years ago, but I guess we are slow learners, and it has taken us a while to truly understand what God was asking of us. The steps that have lead us to today have taken several months, and we want you to know that we did not arrive at this decision quickly or easily. Jen and I have talked, prayed, cried and then talked and prayed and cried some more. We have come to the conclusion that God has this move in His plan for our lives. We have always seen ourselves as the pastors that would lead a church that was very supportive of missions, and took several trips to help missionaries. We never imagined that God would someday call us to the Mission Field ourselves. Even though the wheels of this process have been turning for a while, this has truly caught us by surprise. We will be working with the organization Latin America Child Care. We will help run a system of 14 schools in Honduras that offer food, clothing, and a quality, Christ-centered education to kids in very poor areas. We will have the opportunity to literally be the hands and feet of Christ, as God's love is shown to kids who are many times ignored or abused. We honestly feel that God has spent our entire lives preparing us for this ministry, and we are. Excited to be a part of it. We are also very sad to be leaving Mt Calvary. This church has been our home for nearly 8 years now. We have grown to love you as our family. We would not leave this church family if it were not for this intense leading of the Holy Spirit that we have been feeling. We know that God has incredible plans for Mt Calvary's future! A church never belongs to a pastor, it belongs to Christ. The church is His Body. And because it is His church, we are confident that God will take very good care of our friends and family at Mt Calvary. Let me be very practical about what this means for Mt Calvary: This means that there will need to be an election to choose a new pastor for Mt Calvary. Our District Superintendent, Dennis Rivera will speak to you in a few minutes to help answer any questions about how this process typically works. As for myself and my family; after our last Sunday with you on April 14, we will be traveling from church to church as we raise support for our ministry in Honduras. We have a large monthly budget to raise, and the only way it comes in is as individuals and local churches choose to partner with us and support us monthly. It will take us around a year to raise our support, so for the next year we will be traveling around and recruiting people to partner with us in our ministry. After our budget is raised, we will spend 1 year in Costa Rica for language school before we move to Tegucigalpa. We are both sad and excited to announce this to you tonight. We understand your sadness or confusion, but we hope that you also be able to celebrate with us as we follow God's leading for our family. Thank you.

I'd Rather Be Fed Than Led

If I’m going to be honest, sometimes being a leader of people isn’t much fun. There are days I would rather volunteer for dental experiments than lead people. Don’t get me wrong, there are tons of great things about being a leader, but the bad things seem to stay with you longer. I know you’re not reading this to hear me complain, and I’m not writing it to complain either, so I had better get to my point. Even though I’m a leader, I am also a follower. I am a follower of Jesus Christ! I also have spiritual leaders and systems that I follow. I have found that when I’m frustrated about something, I can usually find a similar problem in my personal life. So, when I’m having leadership issues, I try to look at where I’m being led. As I’ve been doing this lately, I’ve uncovered an uncomfortable truth about myself: I’d rather be fed than led. The good news is that God gives me some comfort in His Word by letting me know that I’m not the only one that has ever been this way. Check out Israel after leaving Egypt: 1The whole community of Israelites moved from Elim and came to the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai. This was on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left Egypt. 2In the desert the whole community complained about Moses and Aaron. 3The Israelites said to them, “If only the LORD had let us die in Egypt! There we sat by our pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted! You brought us out into this desert to let us all starve to death!” Exodus 16:1-3 GWT Israel decided they had had enough of this following stuff. They were done being led, and now it was time to be fed! They didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything, they just wanted to be gratified. They wanted to be fattened. They wanted to be fed. As Christians, we all need to be fed. We all need to go to God’s Word for life, strength, and direction. We need to be fed. But, if we decide we only want to be fed, and not led, we get fat, lazy, and unable to follow like we should. I know it may not seem like it at times, but God is trying to take you somewhere. He is trying to transform you into His image every day. He is trying to accomplish eternal things through what you see as a simple life. He is trying to lead you. But He can’t take you anywhere is you’re not willing to go… I think what God has been telling me, and I’m passing on to you, is that we shouldn’t worry so much about being fed as we do about being led. If we’re following Him, He’ll take care of our feeding. Psalm 23 says He’ll lead us by green pastures, but we won’t get there if we’re not following. So, what are you waiting for?? Get up and follow Him!!! He’s trying to take you somewhere incredible! He’s trying to accomplish something eternal!! But He can’t get you there if you won’t leave the dinner table… So, let’s go! I’m right there with you! Jesus, you lead, and we’ll follow!!

Unlikely Compassion

The other day I was reading the story of The Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37, and I saw something there that I had never seen before and I wanted to share it. First off, let me say how incredible God’s Word is! I love how a story that I have literally heard hundreds of times can come to me with new life and fresh vision. God’s Word is never dull. It is never routine. It is never predictable. It always speaks to you in a new way if you’re willing to listen to it. It’s a pretty amazing book… I can’t think of anything else like it! So, let’s get back to The Good Samaritan. We all remember this story. I’ve seen enough flannel-graph presentations on this one that I can almost feel that white felt board if I close my eyes. But don’t let familiarity water this story down for you. Check it out with an eye to see something new. So basically, a guy gets beat up and left for dead while he is on his way to Jericho from Jerusalem, when some people pass by. The first two guys are people of authority. The priest was a man of religious and political power, and the Levite was a man of God’s Law as well as an assistant at the Temple in Jerusalem. Both of these guys could have helped the man in need. They had the money to help out. They even had authority to get others to help him. But they were too concerned with their own business, and left the guy to suffer and potentially die. Then along comes The Good Samaritan. This guy would have been seen as an outcast in this part of the world. The Samaritans were not quite Jews, and they were not quite Gentiles. They were a religious and racial mix of both. In this part of the region, this Samaritan would have been a total outcast. He would have been overlooked, ignored, despised, and reviled because he was in Jewish territory, but wasn’t fully a Jew. He was more likely to be the guy beaten and left for dead than the guy that comes along to help. So this Good Samaritan picks the guy up, and puts him on his own donkey. The Samaritan is now left to walk for the rest of the day, which I’m sure slowed him down, and maybe even made him come up short on how far he wanted to travel that day. He takes the man to an inn, cares for him through the night, and then leaves enough money with the innkeeper to nurse the beaten man back to health. He makes sacrificial moves to help. He acts in a selfless compassion. He helps someone who could not help himself. And the Samaritan doesn’t care if he was the best person for the job, or if he makes the newspaper for doing it. He does the right thing because it is the right thing to do. So, how does this relate to you? What was the new thing that jumped out at me?? When we see a person in need, we usually figure that there are people of authority that will help them. We think that the priest or the Levite passing by will give them a hand. We think the government will do it. We think the big church down the street will do it. We think the rich folks will do it. We think that certainly, if there is a genuine need, someone will help them out. We are wrong… Since when does God use the likely candidates to solve a problem or fill a gap? He uses 15-year-old shepherds. He uses 8-year-old kings. He uses camel-hair-wearing, bug-eating wild men. He uses Christian-hating Pharisees. He uses the people that are the least likely to be thought of as the right person for the job. He uses the outcast. He uses the under-qualified. He uses the middle-class and the poor. He uses the uneducated. He uses the people that most of society would over look. My guess is that one, two, or most of these things describe you. Do you know what that means? That means that God wants to use you!! That means that He can make a difference in someone’s life using whatever it is that you bring to the table. That means that no one has to think you’re capable or qualified as long as He does… And He does think you’re qualified! The Samaritan didn’t do a lot of fancy things to help. He just did what he could. He acted in compassion. He did what he could, using what he had. Do you want to make a difference? Do you want to impact the Kingdom of God?? Let God put His compassion in you. Let Him move you in kindness. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Give attention to a child from a difficult situation. Show a little love. Give someone a smile. Move in God’s compassion!! Compassion is all you need. You don’t need to have money. You don’t need to have a title in your church. You don’t need to have political pull. You don’t need to have a wall lined with degrees. Compassion is all you need. Christ’s compassion in you can make the difference. What are you waiting for?? Get out there and love somebody. It might be exactly what they need to have their wounds healed and health restored. God’s compassion is most powerful when it comes from unlikely sources, and seemingly unqualified people… And that is probably you!! Get out there and show some love!!

Beautiful & Broken

My plane has just taken off and I’m al little overwhelmed emotionally. I always leave a piece of my heart everywhere I go, and in every place I minister, but this was very different. There really isn’t enough of my heart to go around here. I am certainly leaving a piece of myself here.
The best way I can describe Haiti is Beautiful & Broken. Port Au Prince is amazingly huge, with tons of life and people. The mountains to the East and the sea to the West create a serene and majestic feeling at times. But as beautiful as it is, it is very broken…
Literally right around the corner from the house where we stayed, are two house completely flattened in the earthquake on January 12, 2010. They still lay as a pile of rubble. No rebuilding. No cleanup. No life. Unfortunately, there is still much to be done in Port Au Prince. Those two houses are just a few amongst the many uninhabitable buildings. Haiti is certainly Beautiful & Broken.
We visited five orphanages, and we saw children with fear and hopelessness in their eyes. We heard horror stories of children orphaned by the quake. We met children that had been trapped under rubble from the quake. We met children that had been kept as slaves. We met children that had been violently and repeatedly sexually abused. We met so many broken children that even as a write this I am having a hard time containing my emotions. No one ever deserves to be mistreated, but children, of all people, should never have to endure this kind of neglect and abuse. We met children that, just by looking into their eyes, you could see that they had already lived a lifetime… and they were only 9 years old. There was a terrible amount of brokenness.
Yet, there was beauty as well. Mixed into all of the mess and the hurt and the brokenness, there was life and beauty. We met children that, even though they had been given every reason to give up, they had hope in their eyes. These kids had been given love, and they had responded to that love with hope. These kids had been given the food they so desperately needed, both physically and spiritually.
I held a little girl that was given away by her prostitute mother, and no one knows who her father is. And I had so much fun playing with that girl. She had an amazing and funny personality. Despite language and cultural barriers, when I gave here a hug and held her in my arms, the beauty inside of her exploded to the surface. She had been abandoned. She had been malnourished. But she had been loved. And love was what she needed.
At that same orphanage, I met an 11-year-old girl that was the size of a 4 or 5 year old. She had been so malnourished that she became sick and simply would not grow. But once she had been brought into that orphanage, and had been loved, fed, and taught about the hope that only Christ can give, her beauty had come out. Her face was almost glowing as she smiled and hugged us.
At the very first orphanage we went to, a little girl wanted me to hold her. I was the pastor. I was there to give love to those kids. Of course I picked her up. What happened next will forever be etched into my brain. When I picked her up, she leaned into my shoulder, put her arms around my neck, and began to stroke the back of my hair like I do when hugging my children. The kids of this orphanage had only recently been rescued from the streets, and were still very fear-filled and tentative. But this little girl wanted me to hold her, not so much so she could be loved, but so she could give love. This little 3 or 4 year old girl taught me so much about love as she tenderly ran her hands through the back of my hair and pushed her cheek into my shoulder. Love is a two-way street. As much as she and the other kids like her need to be loved, they need to express love as well.
I have spent the last two days holding children, playing with children, asking their names and ages, tickling them, and pretending to bite their fingers. I gave so much love in the last few days. But I think I received so much more than I gave. I saw so much hope in the eyes of these children that literally have nothing, that I could not help but have a spring of hope rise up in me. Love is simply amazing. Love makes the broken beautiful.
This was an incredible object lesson in the mercy, grace, hope, and love that Christ gives to me. I learned in these few days, that God’s love is enough. God’s love of certainly sufficient. God’s love is amazing. God’s love can make any situation beautiful.
Haiti is broken, but God is doing something beautiful there. Where His love is being displayed, hope is rising. Where His hand is being extended in compassion, beauty is rising. Where a meal is prepared, or an orphan taken in in His name, Haiti is rising. Haiti is Broken. Haiti is Beautiful.

Radical... and Needed!

That’s what I was going to say!… But I didn’t know how to say it, and David Platt said it far better and with richer experience that I ever could have in his book, Radical
This book was like the deep part of God crying out to the deep part of me. I realize that everyone that reads Radical will be an individual, with individual preferences and experiences, but this was definitely a God-timed read for me.
I needed this. I needed to know that its okay to question the way things have been traditionally viewed and done when it comes to compassion ministry, missions, and personal finances… And trust me, this book will challenge you in each of these areas and more. This book marks an opportunity for each of us to answer God’s call to go higher and do more.
We commonly refer to Christianity as a “walk with God,” but most of the time, we are content to walk nowhere and stay right where we are. This book will challenge and encourage you to take a step forward. Hopefully, it will challenge us all to take several steps forward, and embrace a New Testament, Biblical Christianity.
Radical is not about going to church, it is about being the church. It is about each of us doing the work of the ministry to the best of our ability. Radical is a call away from passivity in the Christian church, and I know that this was a message I definitely needed to hear.
I will admit that some of what David Platt said made me uncomfortable… it made me question my Christian life… and that is exactly what I needed. Radical did not make me feel good, and I’m glad it didn’t.
I read another review for this book that told people not to read this book if you were prone to feeling guilty. I want to ask, does this book make you feel guilty, or convicted? Guilt is a bad thing, but guilt is our decision. Guilt is how we process negative information,. Its not the fault of the information!
Conviction is a gift given to us by God. Without conviction, we would have never understood our need for Christ. Without conviction, we would have never sought salvation. Without conviction, we would never grow in God… We would never move forward in our “walk.” We need God-brought conviction, and Radical is full of this type of conviction.
As far as I’m concerned, every Christian should read this book. If it makes you uncomfortable, good! If it makes you question your Christian life, excellent!! I know that’s what it did to me, and I’m thankful that God gave me the gift of being able to move forward because I read this book.

Take a look for yourself by reading the first chapter: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781601422217&view=excerpt

Or, watch a video about Radical (its long, but check it out): http://www.livestream.com/waterbrookmultnomah/video?clipId=pla_a5fa3067-0103-4e5c-93fd-f95218bc8ebb

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review