Hail to the dorks!

Recently, I have been accused of being a dork more often that usual (which is saying a lot). Why am I being called a dork? Because I am a proud Belegarth participant. What is belegarth? Well, think paintball, but instead of guns and paint, we use foam swords and shields (and clubs, flails, javelins, etc.) That's right, I sword fight. And this isn't cute cuddly foam, but industrial strength stuff... the kind that leave bruises... BIG bruises. :D Now I don't care if I'm called a dork, I know who I am and have no problem with it, infact I probably embrace it a bit too much. But this got me thinking... which is it better to be a "cool" person or a "dorky" one? Who has more power really? Who could survive without the other? I know some "cool" people and obviously am aware of at least a few "cool" people on the larger society scale... and you know what I notice? They set trends. Like clothing, gadgets, etc. But did they create such clothing, gadgets, etc.? NO! THE DORKS DID! Where would "cool" people be without the dorks? They'd be nothing. Hail to the dorks! :D That is all. Haha.

Tis STILL the season...

No, not that season. Well, yes it is THAT season, but I'm referring to the political season that so many hoped would be over as soon as the votes were tallied that first Tuesday of November. Now I had a lot of thoughts on that election, but since Jennifer and I left for our Mexico trip right after that I didn't have time to post. And by the time we got back it felt a little like just trying to self-righteously add my voice at the tail end of the clamor, so I didn't. However in light of the past 24 hours I think the opportunity and responsibility is still there.

For anyone living outside of Illinois (or in a cave in Illinois) who may not have heard, our sitting Governor Rod Blagojevich has been taken into custody by the federal government. He is being accused of a number of things, but most prominently "pay for play" politics and allegedly trying to auction off the Senate seat that became vacant when Obama was elected. Now I'm not going to say he is guilty (you know, I do still believe in that whole innocent until proven guilty thing) but I will say it would not come as a shock to find out it is true. Actually, "come as a shock" is too strong. It wouldn't come as something worth raising an eyebrow at, if it is true. But the laundry list of things about our current Governor that I didn't care for is not what I'm here to talk about. What I do want to address is the response to the new situation that I have seen from so many Christians (myself included at first). So many people are practically rejoicing at the latest developments. They are proclaiming a great win for the people of Illinois and really wouldn't mind if they locked him up and forgot about him. Most of these same people also were very quick to speak very harshly and disrespectfully about him in the past. Again, I am not going to shed a tear for the charges filed against him, nor defend him in his actions. I believe he made his bed and now must lie in it. (As we all do at one time or another.) But there are two things that bother me about this attitude coming from the "christian" community.

1.) Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. Romans 13:1-2 (NIV)

Rod Blagojevich is still our Governor. No that doesn't mean he gets a free pass for illegal activity. No that doesn't mean that we follow his laws if they truly contradict God's. But that DOES mean we still need to respect and honor him. And I just don't see how "christians" calling him derogatory (and even vulgar) names is honoring or respecting him. Or how rejoicing that "the idiot is in jail" (as I heard one person say) honors or respects him. No I don't agree with what he has done and I'm not defending him, but one day I (and all people) will have to stand before God and give account of all our words. I already have more than enough that I am ashamed of, I don't need to add more here. God's word is pretty clear. We are to honor our leaders, it doesn't qualify only the ones we like, but all of them.

**The reason I have put "christian" in quotes is that the term means to be Christ-like... and I just don't think we can use the term and then act this way. I'm not making light of anyone's belief, but the use of the term with these actions.**

2.) Secondly, I find so many believers who are almost giddy at the downfall of our Governor. They have been so dissatisfied with his politics that they didn't care how he left as long as he is gone. They have no problem deriding his name, throwing him out the door and hoping that he disappears into the night. But we have a problem claiming to be Christ-like and reacting like that... Rod Blagojevich is still created by God. Rod Blagojevich is loved by God.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)

I don't know about his relationship with Jesus Christ or if he has one. What I do know is that he has fallen down and made mistakes (who hasn't?) and he needs compassion and forgiveness and the Truth of God in his life right now. Now some might say "but I haven't done..." But sin is sin right? We've all done that and it all counts. Shouldn't we as Christians stand up and say, "Yes, mistakes were made, and yes there are consequences, but my God is one of forgiveness. I know the God of restitution and reconcilliation. Lemme me share His love with you." But instead I find so many believers dancing on the grave of a fallen man who is no different than you and me but for the Grace of God.



Those are the two things that I find running through my head at a pretty constant rate right now. One of the reasons I find myself looking at things from the point of view is that my hope is not in the government. My hope was not hinged on McCain OR Obama winning the election. Neither man was going to "fix" america, only God can do that. So when Obama won I was actually happy in a way... when Obama was not able to create this new change utopia that many people expect (because he may end up being a great leader, but he still won't be the savior of America... no one outside of Jesus is), God's church would have an opportunity to stand up and proclaim that an elected official will not "save America" but that we know a God who can. I was afraid however, that believers might get into a mud-slinging fight with those who support the "liberals". If our current situation in Illinois is an indication, my fears may come to be. But does it change how I live my life? No. My hope is still in God, not this government, not this country, not anything else. Whether the economy rebounds or the country falls apart, I know that God has me here for this time and a purpose. It doesn't change who I am or who God is, it simply changes the setting for this epic adventure of walking with God. One that I hope someone shares with Gov. Blagojevich. And yes, I'm praying for him and if I get the chance to be that person, I hope I step up. Hope you all are well. God bless.

Just an FYI...

Yes it has been a bit of a blogging dryspell for me, I apologize, but it will only continue for a bit. We are in the middle of a move across town that has involved packing my grandma's house, painting the house, packing our house, moving into my grandma's house, and cleaning our old house... it's been busy. We don't have our internet hooked up at the new house yet, so I only have limited net usage. Add to that Jenn and I are leaving on Thursday for 12 days in Mexico on a missions trip and I just won't be on much. I promise that will change later in the month. God bless and I hope you are all well.

- Matt "I hate packing" Schrock

Quick updates...

Odds are there won't be regular posts for a bit... here's why.

* We are getting ready to move across town to my Grandmother's house, and she is moving to a new addition on my parent's house. Needless to say, lots of packing, painting and unpacking. Busy busy busy.

* Jenn and I are leaving for Mexico in a few weeks, YIKES!

* Still trying to finish typing up all my notes/journal entries from Albania... taking forever.

* Trying to start a not for profit organization... I hate paperwork. Especially legal paperwork.

* Have Papa Ken (and some others) visiting this weekend at church, should be uber-exciting but also quite busy.

* Traveling next weekend to visit some dear friends, The Allisons. You have no idea how excited I am for that.

* Trying to start sharing Adopt-A-Child with some local churches. Lots of prep to do.

* Going to Mizzou for Thanksgiving, so more traveling.

All in all, quite busy right now, so if I don't get to this as often as I'd like, I apologize. God bless.

If I have not love....

(Oh and before I forget, no I'm not avoiding talking about Albania... it's just this is what is pressing on my heart at the moment, and I write about what I'm dealing with... so this is what we get this time out) We live in a culture that loves to talk. We have talk shows, gossip magazines, call-in radio shows, analysts for every political event, sporting event, social event, everything. But what we love more than talking even, is talking with no restrictions, with no ramifications for our sound bites, at least with no REAL ramifications. It doesn't matter if we are right or wrong, if we can back it up or not, just so long as we say it. Look at the number of blogs on the web. The number of videos on youtube that are responses to someone else's response to something. How pretty much ALL of the major web reporting sites (be it sports, politics, whatever) have comment sections at the bottom. It's all about talking. But what society really loves is to take those opportunities to "speak" and just say turn it into a shouting match. I LOVE to read espn.com, and sometimes I will venture into the comments section, but so often the comments have nothing to do with the article. It's turned into a "who can insult who more" mud pit.

Most of the time this comment phenomenon, while it annoys me, doesn't really bother me. There are a whole lot of things in this fallen world that annoy me, but you have to choose your battles and this wasn't one I felt I needed to choose. But then this week two things happened that made me think about it. One, Jennifer and I went and saw Fireproof. If you don't know what Fireproof is, it is a movie starring Kirk Cameron (yeah, Mike Seaver, for those of us old enough to remember that). It was produced by a Chrisitan movie company and is about a fireman (cameron) who is on the verge of losing his marriage, his decision to try something to humor his father and the subsequent journey it takes him on. I really liked the movie, and if you know me I tend to be a cynic with "Christian" movies. They tend to strike me as too cheesy and patronizing, but this one was really well done. And yes, some might say the acting in the supporting cast left something to be desired... but then you find out the cast was made up of church members and not professional actors and they get a pass on any minor stiffness. There was a song in the movie that Jennifer really liked and so I started doing some net searching for the name , in the process came across a number of sites that had, you guessed it, comment sections. And the mud-slinging was in full force. Sadly, it was from people who claimed to be believers as well as those who did not. It really saddened my soul... for a couple of days actually. The weird thing is I couldn't really put my finger on why is dismayed me SO MUCH. Sure it upset me and made me sad for those who were so angry in their posts, but why did it cut to my core?

I've now gone over and over this in my head and spirit for a few days and I think I have an answer. It actually came from a question I posed to myself. As I thought about the comments and how much it hurt my heart to read the posts, I asked myself "then why didn't you post something?" And after really considering it for a moment, this is what I came up with. "Because I would just be another crashing cymbal in this symphony of noise. They don't know me, why should they listen to anything I say." And there it was. "They don't know me." We are a society that is incredibly connected yet disconnected. I know people who literally interact with hundreds of people via the web, but have physical contact with very few people. They have lists and lists of people who know a little about them, but hardly anyone who knows the real them. And that's what I thought of as I thought about those comments. Not what they said or how they said it, but if there was anyone in their lives who could speak God's love and truth into them. Someone who has taken the time to show love, to gain trust and share truth with compassion and caring. We are a society who wants our truths broken down into sound bites that we can pick up at our local drive up window as we speed through our lives. But that doesn't last. People need more. And that is what made my soul so sad, because the community of believers in this nation have dropped the ball, myself included. I blog. I love to blog. But I would trade all my websites in a heartbeat if it meant I had to choose between that and spending time investing in the lives of those around me.

So where does this leave me? It simply reminds me that if I am talking and talking and talking, but not taking the time to invest in those I talk to, then I am simply the resounding gong to which Paul referred. It's the talking without words that makes all those words matter.

On a TOTAL side note, last night I had the opportunity to be the color commentator for a local radio broadcast of Arthur's Homecoming football game. Now before you get too impressed, please know that this is a smaller radio station and it does not offer streaming radio via the internet, so we were probably heard by about tens of people at best. Either way I got to be the color man with a good friend of mine (Doug Davis) offering up the play by play. And yes, if you do happen to know both Davis and I you realize that the people who allowed us to do this had NO idea what happens when the two of us get together. By the grace of God we didn't get sidetracked and start rambling incoherently. It was a good game and we actually didn't do too bad (or at least no one has said we did poorly) and I LOVED IT!!! Big surprise, I enjoyed being given the opportunity to talk about football for 3 hours. I'm actually hoping they liked us and ask us to do it again. I do love to talk. God bless.

-The man without a mute button

Ok, so here goes...

Yes, so I've been putting off writing on here because it's still such a massive undertaking to try and talk about/describe the trip. But I don't want to wait too long so I'm going to try and dive in. Part of the problem is I've been trying to figure out what type of format to write in. Should I try and break it up by days? By topic? Just go with a stream of consciousness ramble? None have really "clicked" and that's been a large struggle. So without any overall "plan" on how to write about it all, I'm just going to dive in on the first one and see where it goes. Today's method will be a collection of seemingly random ideas. Enjoy.

*Jennifer and I are now officially representatives of Adopt-A-Child, WOO HOO!!! There is no way to convey the level of excitement I feel over that. We now have packets that we are responsible for and are authorized to seek out opportunities to share about the ministry of AAC. Last Sunday we shared about the trip at church and had 3 kids sponsored, which was amazing. :D Now we are in the process of figuring out the paperwork that needs to be filed when and where, our plan for promotion, and our plan for follow-up. It's exciting.

* I am trying to figure out this whole Skype thing. Apparently this is THE way to contact people in the world of international ministry, so I'm working on it. If you happen to know me and have skype, contact me and we'll get connected.

Now for the trip...

* We flew out of the international terminal at JFK airport in NYC. It was odd to be on American soil and TOTALLY feel like a foreigner. Not bad, just odd. It wasn't a bad experience at all aside from the fact that a seven hour layover is NOT FUN.

* Germany is gorgeous. The architecture, the landscape, everything. We got to ride the autobahn. (No I didn't drive it, but by that point I had been up for about 30 hours and me behind the wheel was not a good idea.) One of the coolest things was just seeing the architecture that was old. I mean, we stood next to a statue that was constructed in 1424... That's 50 years before "Columbus sailed the ocean blue". C'mon, we just don't have that kind of history in our nation. I know the USA hasn't been around that long in terms of the world, and we at times give it lip service. But more often than not we have a view that it's all about us and always has been... that everyone should live how we live, think how we think, etc. But standing next to an almost 600 year old statue is pretty humbling. (Now it was a statue of a wiener dog, and apparently the dog saved it's owner, a royal of some sort. I'm not sure how a wiener dog saves it's owner, perhaps the man ate the dog to survive... but either way he made a statue of it.)

* I need to mention that at the moment I don't have my pictures at my disposal, so you won't get any visual aids on this one. Hopefully next time.

* We didn't do a whole lot of ministry in Germany mostly due to our jet lag. We got in on Sunday, and were up for about 40 hours by the time we went to bed, and then left early on Tuesday. So most of our time was spent trying to recover and sight-see. But it really was one of the best things we could have done, for without that time to recover, we would have been a mess in Albania.

* During our time in Germany, many of the people we met thought we must be from a very large church since they could afford to help pay for our trip. We told them that our church wasn't large, but that they were just a very giving church. This was a great commendation upon our church, but a rather sad commentary on the american church as a whole. There are churches out there with huge congregations and seemingly endless funds... but how are they used? Do we just build bigger and more extravagant buildings filled with more "stuff"? Are we ignoring a better use of our funds in the world around us? Consumerism is the focus of american society, but should it be the church's? Do we need flatscreen tvs in the halls of the church? Do we really need all the lights and flash for worship services? Do people come to our meetings because we have the Love of Christ, or because we have the "stuff"? This train of thought only got stronger as we were in Albania. It was very hard for me to come back and go on with life as before. (See previous post and the Lord of the Rigns quote) I could go off on a huge rant, but I'll stop there for now. I'm sure I'll pick it up later.

* One day in Germany we got to eat a snack at an outdoor cafe. We had waffles and hot chocolate. OH MAN was it good. :D

Ok, that's it for now. Next time I'll pick it up with thoughts on Albania. It may be random or more flowing, I don't know. Hope all is well with you. God bless.

-me

I'm not dead yet

And you must read that title using the vocal inflection from Monty Python.

That's right, I'm back. Actually, I've been back in country for almost a week, but haven't written anything for the need to process everything from our trip. It was a great trip in so many ways, and even now I don't feel like I've been able to wrap my head around what took place. One of the things weighing on me has been "How do I convey what happened (both in writing and in person)?" It was too much. I've seen and heard too many things. I've been impacted by so much. I've been encouraged and humbled, broken down and rebuilt. It was more than I could have possibly hoped for. But now what? As we flew back a quote from the Lord of the Rings popped into my head (imagine that... me using a movie quote to quantify a milestone in my life haha) It's from the end of the Return of the King and Frodo is reflecting on the journey:

"How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on... when in your heart you begin to understand... there is no going back?"

Seeing all I've seen, how do I reconcile my drive to help the ministry and the need to uphold my daily responsibilities? How can I live in the midst of this society that champions consumerism when all I want to do is give it all away? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start over.

I realized as I came back that pretty much anyone who's read my blog knew I was going to Germany and Albania... but pretty much didn't know why. (Which in my defense I could not have explained before due to my lack of really knowing WHY I was going in the first place.) Jennifer and I had put our names on a waiting list to take a group to Albania to visit the ministry of Adopt-A-Child. (I'll explain what that is in a minute) But due to some change-over in personnel the ministry had to cancel all group trips for 08, including ours. No big deal, we started working on another option (which became the trip taken to India in July). But shortly after that, Jennifer and I were contacted about an opportunity for the two of us to join with another group and go at the end of August. We immediately jumped on it. The tricky part was we didn't really know why we were going. We hadn't filled out an application, or designated what type of trip we desired. All we knew was there was an opportunity to go, and we went. As we started to learn more about the trip and who was going, we realized we would be with various staff of the international Adopt-A-Child (AAC from here on out) offices. Now that sounds like it should clarify why we were going... but in reality we didn't even really know there WERE international offices. So it didn't help much. We didn't work for AAC, weren't looking to and now we're on this trip with other staff. We didn't know if we were just tagging along, just getting an in depth look or coming back as staff, ha. I mean, we just wanted to visit the kid we sponsor, lol. Anyway, time to leave came and we just left in faith that God would show us why on earth He'd asked us to travel across the world.

Now I need to stop for a second. SOOOOOO much happened on this trip that it's pretty much impossible to put it all in one post without writing a novel. For the sake of space (and my sanity) I won't go into what happened exactly in this post. I will put more in subsequent installments, but for now I'll just talk about WHAT Adopt-A-Child is for anyone who doesn't know.

Adopt-A-Child is a ministry based in Guatemala and Albania. It sets up feeding centers in villages for the children of the area. There are 3 (soon to be 4) in Albania and 9 in Guatemala. The children come and get nutritional meals, limited dental and medical treatment, and spiritual care. These are not necessarily starving or abandoned children. But many are malnourished and in need of basic medical care. AAC allows any child who wants to come to eat and then have the opportunity to attend bible classes afterward. The classes are not mandatory, it's totally the choice of the child. At the bible classes, the children are presented with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are given opportunity to receive salvation, taught how to pray and sing LOTS of songs. As the children grow older they are given the opportunity to attend discipleship classes which teach more than the basic intro to salvation, but how to live a godly life and in turn live out their witness. Each child that comes is registered and tracked with a namecard. Then AAC gives people in other countries (such as the US, UK and Germany to name a few) an opportunity to partner with them and sponsor a child. The sponsor gives roughly $30 (or however little or big they can afford) to help offset the costs for feeding. The sponsor is also given the opportunity to interact with the child through letters and pictures.

That's a basic overview of what AAC does. What I didn't realize is exactly how it does it. There are multiple offices internationally, there are multiple internation directors and then support staff of various regional influence ranging from overseeing whole countries down to the church contact who is the local face of AAC. The only face I'd ever known for AAC was Ron and Pat Kelly, the top dogs. We've known them for a number of years and they are good friend with Dad. But due to the vast amount of responsibility/traveling that they do, we don't see them in person much. And because they were the only face of AAC we'd known, we were in the dark about the rest of the structure.

Now you might be thinking "that's great, but there are A LOT of feeding programs out there, what makes Adopt-A-Child so special?" I'm glad you asked:

1.) AAC is not a feeding program. It is a ministry that uses food as a way to open doors. The main focus is NOT the food. The food is simply a tool. The focus of the ministry is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Where there is free food, there will be kids (duh). Then the team has an opportunity to share the love of Christ with those kids. BUT because they want to make sure the kids are doing well in all aspects, the team will also do home visits to check on the child (and see if there are siblings who might want to come as well) which gives the team an opportunity to share the love of Christ with the parents. It's all about sharing the gospel. That is what is of the utmost importance in this life. You can feed starving children, which is absolutely a good thing to do. But whether a child is starving or full to the brim... if he or she does not have a personal relationship with Jesus, they are going to Hell when they die. And we're all going to die. You can rid the world of hunger, but it's still just a giant band-aid. It's just delaying the critical point. We all die and without Christ we go to Hell. Period.

2.) I can vouch for the fact that AAC is not going to steal your money. 90% of what is given goes directly into supporting your child. Only 10% is taken out for other costs. You can either believe me or not, and that's all I'm sayin on that.

3.) If the host countries would suddenly decide that all foreigners had to leave, the ministry of AAC would continue. Why? Because the ministry is staffed and run by nationals. All of the feeding/serving/teaching done in the feeding centers is done by local people. They have been mentored and trained and are now turning around and mentoring/training others. I've seen too many foreign missions works fall apart because it all relied on one or two people usually the visiting missionaries. And if those people had to leave the whole thing would fall apart. This is not that type of ministry. That was so exciting for me.

4.) The financial support of the sponsor is great, but it's really the corespondence that is vital. I saw kids who had every letter/picture/gift from their sponsor in places of honor. It's really about that relationship that makes AAC special. Some people are put off by the name "Adopt-A-Child". No this is not an adoption agency. In fact, it's near impossible to do that from Albania. Many of these kids have their families intact. That's not what it's about. What it's about is spiritually adopting a child/family. It's about becoming invested in a life and being a spiritual father or mother. And while I am NOT saying that adopting children in the natural is not important, is adopting someone in the spiritual any less vital?

Ok, that's my spiel for now. good grief this is long. I'll leave you with a few pictures from our trip. (And yes I mean just a few, I don't think you want me to post all 480 pictures Jennifer and I took... nevermind the 3 gig of pics we got from everyone else. :D) But before I do, if you would like more information on AAC you can either contact me or check out this website www.adopt-a-child.com (This is the UK site, the ministry is working on kicking off a new site, but it's still in the construction phase.) If this has tweaked your heart I STRONGLY encourage you to find out more and get involved. When I mentioned the Lord of the Rings quote I really meant that's how I feel. Just FYI you'll be hearing a lot more about AAC from me... Jennifer and I are in the process of becoming representatives with authority to speak/promote the ministry whereever our shoes may tread. :D Now the pics...

p.s. The boy in the picture with us is the child we sponsor.