God at Work

But Jesus replied, "My Father is always working, and so am I."  John 5:17


God has been at work in so many ways at Living Hope. A few weeks ago, Steve encouraged each of us summer staff to keep a journal of the ways we see God at work.  I want to give you a sneak peek at some of the things I've been seeing--though I trust that He is always doing a million things I cannot see and do not know.  This is a long blog post, but I trust that you will be encouraged by these stories. (Besides, it's too late at night for me to try to figure out how to pare it down for you.)  I just want to get it out there.  Perhaps it will encourage you and spur you on to pray for God's work here and wherever you  are.  May we have eyes to see it!

6/22/10- "God-sightings"

Yesterday I was blessed with the opportunity to go on home visits with Sheila (a fabulous youth group leader) and her three daughters.  The highlight was visiting Verla, a girl who was involved a lot in the past but was unable to come this past semester.  We could tell it meant a lot to her to have a visit, and it may have been the springboard for her to come back to youth group this summer.

Last night I took Tasha canoeing at Northwestern College.  We had hoped to do this for a while.  It was great to talk to her one on one, and for me it was very encouraging.  Tasha has been gone for a year and is here for a 3-week visit.  Her comments showed me the huge impact the years she spent at Living Hope have had on her life.  She said, “For some reason, when I came back, the people I remember most are the people from the church.”  Whenever we would talk on the phone this year she would ask about youth group, and now she’s really excited to be back for it.  She is even helping out with it—she volunteered to bring water balloons and fill them up for games tomorrow night, and as I was bringing her home last night she asked if there was anything else she could help out with.  Few of the kids think this way—“How can I serve you?”—so it’s exciting to see.

            Tasha comes from a pretty rough home, but God is working to break some of the harmful cycles passed down from her parents and grandparents.  I’ve been pleased with the way she has continued to pursue a relationship with me while she’s been in ND this year, and I’ve been happy to hear that she’s reading her Bible, reading the 2 books I lent to her, and sometimes going to church.  Last night I learned some new things.  She is being very intentional about teaching her younger brothers (here) and her little cousins (in ND) to make good choices.  She said, “I used to get in trouble with the law a lot…it’s really bad on your record, and I don’t want them to make those bad choices.”  She reads the Bible to her little cousins and even their friends.  This is awesome, but I do want to be realistic.  I sense that her understanding of Christianity is that it’s something to keep you safe, healthy, and a generally good person.  It’s not so much about a love relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and it’s not so much about eternity.  I sought to challenge her in this direction.

            I am excited to see God working in Tasha.  A little bit over a year ago I was praying for her, and God gave me the closest thing I’ve ever had to a vision.  I saw her several years down the road teaching inner-city kids about Christ and about how to be wise and find healing from scars of the past.  I praise God that He is working toward that end.

Today was also an amazing day.  In the morning I received a snail-mail letter from a friend at NWC.  She wrote it last Thursday, sometime after my urgent prayer request for Living Hope.   She said that when she went to bed on Wednesday night, she knew that God laid it on her heart that Thursday needed to be a day of prayer and fasting.  She didn’t really know why…but she said when she read my prayer update Thursday morning, that filled in the blanks. J

Later this morning we went on a prayer-walk through our target area in NE Minneapolis.  At one point, we began praying that God would open up doors and give us more opportunities in this area.  Seconds later, we saw a lady on a morning jog who was wearing a Crown College t-shirt.  Not wanting to miss an opportunity with a sister in Christ, Steve stopped her and they began to talk.  We learned that she is the Family and Community Liaison at Mill City Church which meets in Sheridan Elementary School.  Steve wants to meet with her and discuss ways we may be able to partner with them in afterschool programs.  You gotta love those immediate answers to prayer!

This afternoon I went with Jess (another fabulous youth group leader) to visit homes of youth group kids and potential youth group kids.  We were really hoping to see one particular girl, because she has been impossible to get a hold of and it seems she has been ignoring us, even pushing us away (perhaps knowing we don't approve of her choices).  The test of the relationship is whether we continue to be persistent with her or not.  God answered our prayers that she would be home when we visited, and we were able to talk with her for a while.  She will probably be back at youth group this summer.  Praise the Lord!

Tonight was the big annual Northeast Parade.  It’s a longstanding tradition of 80 years, and it is well-attended by the community.  Frank, Emily, and I decided to go hand out flyers to let people know about our kids programs and our upcoming rummage sale.  We handed out all the flyers we brought (about 300) and could have handed out more.  Tonight brought about a few observations of God’s hand at work:

¨     The rummage sale was originally scheduled for June 11-12.  We were a little concerned when we had to postpone it 2 weeks because of a funeral, but this really turned out way better for us!  1. We have about twice as many items to sell.  2. We were able to do some great face-to-face advertising for the rummage sale, which will likely increase our sales.  3. Instead of advertising only kids programs at the parade, we were able to advertise something that a great variety of people are interested in. This made it much easier to hand out flyers; we did not have to discern whether people had kids or not, and we could easily advertise to Muslims and others we would not normally expect to come to Christian kids programs. 

¨     I got to see Dezarae, a girl who I hadn’t seen since last summer.

¨     We had been praying for 2 particular families we had spent a lot of time with in Jackson Park last week.  Frank especially was thinking before we went to the parade, “I hope we see the parents of these two families.”  Guess what?  We did.  We met one mom, named Tracy, who said, “The kids have been talking about you all the time,” and she registered all her kids for our summer programs.  We also met the mother and father of three Muslim children who we hung out with last week (Fatu, Nafumara, and Ibrahim).  I’ve been praying a lot that we would gain favor with their parents rather than have them afraid of us and our teaching.  I believe God has been answering this prayer, at least with baby steps.

¨     We saw Libertha, a woman we met last week.  God’s hand is all over this relationship.  As Steve, Frank, Emily, and I were prayer-walking last week, he led us to a place where he used to live.  Right when we got to the front of that house, a woman opened the door (Note that we never would have met her if she hadn't opened the door at that moment).  She had met Steve once before, and they began talking.  We invited her to bring her kids to the park later that day, and she did.  Emily and I had opportunities to talk with her one on one, and we found that she is coming to a point where she desires a relationship with God.  Though she would not call herself a Christian, she told me, “I think I’m gonna give the church another chance.  I know they produce people who are healthy, both body and soul.”  We saw her again tonight and got to talk some more.  She was excited to register her children and nieces and nephews for our programs, but she also asked if there was a phone number she could call to give prayer requests.  (Cool.)  I gave her my cell phone number.

¨     We also got to spend time with Precious and her mom and brother.  I've known Precious for 2 years, but this summer God has been giving us numerous opportunities to build this relationship before they go to the mom’s home country of Nigeria for July and August.  This is a Christian family, but as Kate seeks to adapt to this country and raise a family on her own, and as Precious struggles with a learning disability that makes her doubt whether anyone loves her, they need the body of Christ to come around them in real and practical ways.  What a blessing it has been to live life with them!

¨     Finally, on the way home from the parade, after a long but satisfying 12-hour day, a woman asked what we thought of the parade and struck up a conversation with us.  She happens to live in a duplex with another family involved at Living Hope.  We also met her teenage daughters, one of which has children.  I don’t know what God will do with that, but I do know that I will pray for them whenever I pass that house, and I do know that she called our conversation “refreshing” and she plans to see us soon at the rummage sale. J

I love my Daddy!

If you have grown up with a father present and active in your life, count yourself blessed.  I’ve been learning a little bit about the consequences of growing up in a father-absent home—a problem that many of our kids at Living Hope deal with.  Here are some stats:

F   1 in every 3 children in America live in father-absent homes.  For African Americans, the figure is nearly 2 in 3 (64%).  36% of Hispanic children and 25% of white children live in father-absent homes.

F   “Children in father-absent homes are five times more likely to be poor.”

F   “Children who live in father-absent homes, on average, are at least two to three times more likely to use drugs; to experience educational, health, emotional, and behavioral problems; to be victims of child abuse; to become teen parents; and to engage in criminal behavior.”

            (Cited in A New Era of Partnerships: Report of Recommendations to the President- March 2010, pp. 30-31)

I have been blessed with a dad who has not only been present, but also has trained me up in the way I should go.  Every year I become more and more thankful for my dad.  To honor him before you all today, here is a (very incomplete) list of fond memories I have with Dad.

Memories with Dad

F   I believe one of the most important activities of my life was evening storytime and devotions that Dad led throughout my childhood.  Christianity was an everyday reality for my parents, and they passed that on to me, while also building family cohesion.  Reading together also had a strong impact on my academic abilities.

F   Dad led songs on his guitar at home sometimes, and he also brought us kids along to sing at the “Children’s Home,” and the nursing homes in town.  Though sometimes I didn’t want to be there when I was really little, I grew to love it, and now I am so thankful that he led us into the places of people who were lonely, disabled, and different from ourselves and showed us how we could minister.

F   Playing games with him in the afternoons when I was in kindergarten.  We played chess, backgammon, the memory game…He would always try to make us tie in the memory game.  I’m pretty sure I can beat him now.

F   Bedtime was great! Dad tucked us into bed almost every night when we were little.  First JaNae and I would run upstairs and hide from him—pretty much always in the exact same spots.  He would tuck us in and kiss our cheeks, and we would kiss his prickly face.  When he left, we would have a contest of “I love you more!” and he would sing “Good night, ladies,” as he went down the stairs.

F   Dad gave us chores—taught us that wonderful word “responsibility.”  He also set up a system where we were paid for our chores and taught us to portion out our money:  We had a “spending” cup, a “savings” cup, a “tithe” cup, and a “college” cup.  I’ve never had trouble with tithing or saving, because it’s been so ingrained in me.

F   Dad taught me how to play badminton and tennis.  Sometimes he would park the car in front of the tennis court and blare classical music as we played.  He would always play “his best”—meaning he would do his best to hit the ball straight to me, and if I got close to beating him, then he would play his best. J

F   Swimming- We would get to stand on his shoulders as he walked into the deeper part of the pool. Sometimes he would catapult us off.

F   Dad was always supportive with school.  I think his elementary ed. major and his devotion to us kids in our early years was a major factor in how well all three of us did in school.  One of my very favorite things to do in 2^nd grade was to practice math flashcards with dad.  We would do it almost every night.  I would set the timer on the microwave for 1 minute and then run to the dining room.  Dad would see how many flashcards I could get right before the time was up.

F   Dad definitely supported me in the spelling bee.  He helped me study—and I think he liked it more than I did—but I don’t think he pushed me too hard or let me off too easy.

F   I clearly remember one hug that was especially meaningful.  When I found out my best friend at school was about to move away, he gave me a long hug before bed--it was just what I needed.

F   I loved having Dad involved in jr. high youth group.  He did a great job with teaching and also led games well.  (Does anyone remember “Africa and the door knob”?)

F   Dad was also very supportive and involved in swimming (with no hard feelings that I chose that over tennis J).  It meant so much to have him and mom and every swim meet they could possibly make it to.

F   Dad got our family leading worship in church.  He still leads worship once a month, and he is truly a blessing to the family at FBC.

F   We had many wonderful family trips: Itasca, Black Hills, Florida, Wisconsin Dells, Yellowstone, trip around Lake Superior, family camp every summer, a canoe trip with the youth group…

F   I remember some times when Dad helped me out of my own stupid mistakes.  Once when I made a incredibly foolish purchase over the phone, he came home from work early the next day to help me get some of my money back.

F   Dad is my main competitor in the Great Game of Boggle.  He also comes up with great definitions in Balderdash.  And of course there is the game of Scum.  He may be overly competitive and play the part of “annoying little brother” quite well, but we all love it. J

F   Dad has always been a great provider for our whole family.   His generous provision throughout college and even now has been a huge blessing!  Though he has worked very hard to provide for our family, I am deeply thankful that he has never put work before family.

F   He has succeeded in passing down a love for God, for His word, and for missions.  He has also succeeded in passing down the mindset of thriftiness.  He has halfway succeeded in passing down his love for coffee, crossword puzzles, brainteasers, and hot sauce. 

F   As I work at Living Hope, I do not take for granted that many people’s parents would not understand or support such a career choice.  Dad and Mom have been extremely supportive from day one, not only understanding, but also supporting financially as they are able, praying for me, and helping in huge ways with support-raising.  I can’t imagine working at Living Hope without their help to get here and their continued support.

F   I also do not take for granted that my Dad loves my Mom.  He has been faithful to her and continued loving her for their 28 years of marriage.  He has modeled well what a good father and a good husband look like, which has been a gigantic blessing to me.  By God’s grace, he has done well to lead the Stynsberg family, and as a result I have a vision for the family to pass on to many who lack that vision.

Dad, I thank God for you often and I love you very much.  Be blessed today!

How to meet little kids without looking like a creep...

Kids love to hang out in the public parks in Northeast Minneapolis, making it a great place to meet kids and parents, develop relationships, and get them plugged in to ministry programs.  However, sometimes it is challenging to develop relationships because just going up to a kid you don't know is not only intimidating for them; it also might make their parents pretty nervous.

One great way of meeting new kids is through relationships already established.  Almost every time I go to the parks close to Living Hope, I see someone I know--often allowing me to meet their friends and get a little more into their world.  But on Friday I discovered another way to meet new kids and share Truth with them.

Emily and I went to Jackson Park on Friday night, and we decided to sing worship songs as I played my guitar.  After a few songs, our little friend Camron (8) found us, and I asked if he wanted to try strumming the guitar.  He did, and he really enjoyed it.  Soon other kids started coming up, wanting to try.  Over the course of an hour, about 15-20 kids tried playing my guitar--kids of many different ages and cultures.  Some of the kids were Somali Muslims, and their mom was watching with a smile as they had their first experience playing a guitar.

After a while, they wanted to hear some songs.  I played the chords with my left hand while kids took turns trying their hand at strumming.  I was trying to think of some fun kid songs, but they saw my song sheet and wanted me to play some of those songs.  Open the Eyes of My Heart?  God of Wonders?  Sounds good to me!!  As we sang these songs, I asked the kids if they knew what the songs were about.  Through this, I had the opportunity to share about God as Creator and about Jesus His Son.  The kids spouted out what they knew about Jesus, one saying "He died on a cross."  I told her, "Yes, but did you know that He rose from the dead, and He's alive?"  She hadn't heard that part before.

Please pray that we will get many more opportunities to see these kids and develop relationships with them where Truth can be spoken and love can be shared.

God's Plan Always Succeeds

Today was an amazing day.  It didn’t seem all that amazing to start out with though.

Frank, Emily, and I went to a meeting this afternoon to plan our BUMP week (a week in July when youth groups from outside the Twin Cities partner with urban churches, serve, and receive intentional training and challenges in their relationship with Christ).  The meeting brought some “bad” news—that the youth group that is coming to lead our week of VBS is down to 9 people (down from 16, which seemed like a small group already).  We were already dealing with some other “bad” situations—like Living Hope being in a very difficult place financially, not knowing how much longer we can stay in our current building, and our plans for our big rummage sale being ripped apart.  In addition, Steve received news of the death of a dear sister in our host church. 

These are difficult situations, and we find ourselves not knowing what to expect.  However, praise God that all four of us are resting in the fact that God is in control of all these things.  Our ministry training this summer involves a lot of dwelling in God’s word and being immersed in Truth.  We are working through the Experiencing God study by Henry Blackaby and the Truth Project videos put out by Focus on the Family.  With all of this fresh in our minds, and with some valuable experience of walking with God and seeing Him work things out for good, we knew we could trust God.  Our role was to pray.

So we did that…and then eventually we had to get on with the other things that had to get done.  Steve had to be somewhere else soon, and the rest of us were supposed to go on some home visits with Larry, a guy who often visits homes of ministry participants on Thursday nights.  

We realized that we needed some informational flyers to get out to these families…so I scrambled to make something on Publisher.  Nothing was working; my computer was too slow, I couldn’t find the document I was looking for; the printer wasn’t working; the flyers didn’t turn out very aesthetically pleasing!  (More plans gone awry, more obstacles!) But finally, after a late start, we were ready to go. 

We considered taking the ministry van so that we would all fit, but after rearranging the desks in the office, I couldn’t find the van keys as quickly as we needed them.  Ok, another change in plans.  We split up; I went with Emily and Frank went with Larry.

We visited a couple of houses, then we headed to a nearby park, having heard the some of the kids were there.  Then, wow! Cool things started happening.  A teenage boy waved at me…it’s Tank!  He hadn’t been to youth group for almost a year.  And Ethan and Will were there too, playing basketball.  These guys had been a big part of youth group a while ago, but after Ethan and some other guys moved away, they stopped coming.  It was so good just to see them.  Then I saw some of our youth group girls inside and met some of their friends.  It was very interesting how these friends kept saying things like—“Watch your language; those are church people.”  At one point I brought up the fact that it doesn’t really matter what church people think; God always sees all of us.  They joked around—“He needs prayer!” "No, she does!" But I think I found some more people to pray for. J

The best part of my day came next.  Thursday nights are “Teen Night” at Audubon park, so decided to stay there for supper (which conveniently solved my problem of what to eat).  Emily and I ended up eating with some younger kids, and there was a beautiful opportunity to teach them about prayer as we thanked God for the meal.  Then during supper, I asked Jahkaya (a 3^rd grader I’ve known for the past 2 years) where she goes to church.  She talked about her church and said she’s having her First Communion this Sunday.  When I asked if she knew what that was about, she said she couldn’t remember.  This began a conversation that went on for at least 45 minutes, as she asked question after question about God and the Bible, giving Emily and me the opportunity to share deep truths with her in terms she could understand.  We talked about the Trinity and incarnation, creation and the fall, Satan and the problem of evil, the gospel and the eternal fates of those who trust Jesus and those who do not.  I was amazed at how she was the one propelling the conversation forward with her many questions.

Jahkaya was getting excited about what she was hearing, but she got to the point where she said, “I want to read about that in the Bible.  Could I have my own Bible where I could read about that?”  (Yes!!!)  We said she could—that we could even get her one that night.  She got really excited and went to call her dad to see if we could drive her to the church.  And so we went, found a nice NIrV Bible for her, wrote her name inside, and explained that this book is more valuable than all the money in the world and more important to her than food and water.  I think she was inclined to believe us.  We showed her how to look up books and verses, and we showed her where to find one of the stories we had told her at the park—Creation.  She worked hard to read a good portion of Genesis 1, and we had her underline the things that God made.  It was good to see her learning to comprehend scripture on her own!  Before the night was over, we had given her a notebook and pen and a bookmark I had “randomly” found that day while cleaning the office (which happened to point directly with the last verse we read—Genesis 1:27).  We closed in prayer and walked her home, and we got to meet her older sister and her mom.

Wow.  Emily walked back from her house and just began to praise God aloud for the ways He was at work.  The Spirit was clearly working in her heart to draw her to the Truth.  And though our plans seemed to be going awry all day, His plan always succeeds. 

As I look ahead to this summer, the picture is pretty blurry; I don’t know a lot of details of how this will all work out.  But I am excited to simply follow Him day by day and moment by moment and see what He does for His Name’s sake.  His plan is what really matters.

Hip-hop dancing with 8-year-olds=FUN

Every Monday night we would have kids age 2 through 2nd grade at the church for Transformers Kids Club.  We had too many kids to get them all home in one van-load, so many of them would end up staying after for a while.  What do you do with these rambunctious kids as they wait to go home?

DANCE PARTY!
That's right.  One night I decided to pump my Lecrae cd in the youth room and see if the kids would want to dance.  They did not disappoint.  The kids had a blast break-dancing to some solid Christ-centered lyrics.  I made a fool of myself (especially compared to the impressive break-dancing displayed here) and had a blast.  (Fortunately did not get in a video.)

Reflecting on Refining

As the school year has come to a close, it is good to reflect on the past months at Living Hope.  The themes that have been interwoven through the year have been refining and prayer.  The two have gone hand in hand.

As the school year began, I was beginning to feel led toward coming on staff with Living Hope.  The process of discerning this and deciding to do it was a little bit hard, but it was not nearly as hard as sticking with the decision.  Don't get me wrong; I love Living Hope, and I was happy to continue in the relationships that had been established and the ministry I had been doing for the past 3 years.  But saying yes to this meant saying no to a lot of other things.  In years past, God had already asked me to say no to College Choir, working at camp, and studying abroad for the sake of Living Hope.  Now He was asking me to graduate a semester earlier than I anticipated (or wanted).  This was the source of refining last fall.  There was not a day that went by when I did not think about the classes I wanted to take and the things I wanted to do in the Spring semester; I did not want to graduate in December. (Some of you will find this hard to understand!)  But this is where prayer came in.  It drove me to God, drove me to prayer.  He helped me understand that His plan was much better than anything I could come up with.  His plan is perfect, so it is foolishness to complain and utter stupidity to disobey.

So I moved forward.  I wrote my support letter and sent it out.  I found a place to live near the ministry.  I determined to enjoyed every minute of college and was deeply blessed by my final semester.  Then came January.

Since my struggle up to this point had been with accepting God's plan regarding graduation, I had not spent a lot of time pondering His plan regarding Living Hope.  And so, my first day on the job in January began a new step in the refining process.  I was banged on the head with the reality that now I had to raise support.  And the fact that support-raising is hard.


The problem wasn't that I didn't trust God to provide for me.  I had no question of that.  The problem was that I actually had to do something; this was not a situation where I could just sit there and wait for God to drop money from the sky (wouldn't that be nice?!).  I had to get out of my comfort zone and ask people to support me.  Even this would not be so bad, but the problem was bigger than the fear of asking people for money.  The problem was that my heart wasn't in it anymore.  I had obeyed God in coming on staff with Living Hope, but I had not obeyed from the heart.  As I sat alone, crying out to God after my first day on staff, I wondered if I would even give money toward this ministry.  If I wouldn't, how could I possibly ask anyone else to?

Again, the theme of prayer shines through--and of God's faithfulness to answer.  I cried out to Him for joy, thankfulness, encouragement, and a renewed passion for this ministry.  He answered!  There's no other way to describe what happened; He just gave it to me.

But the refining process continued.  I was tested by low numbers in youth group--as some kids moved away, some of our neediest kids could no longer come because of behavior issues, and--saddest of all--some just didn't want to come.  Oh, I was tempted to be so discouraged.  But for this too, we cried out to God, and He heard us.  He gave us precious Truth: that He is in control, that His plan is good, that this season of low numbers can be a very good thing.  And in many ways it was.  We taught the few kids who came challenging truths; they listened more than they ever had before.  We poured ourselves out for a few and were focused in prayer.  We became more like a family.

As low numbers persist, the task of support raising still looms, and the future (even my job description) is pretty blurry, the discouragement comes back every now and then.  The enemy knows where my weaknesses are.  But these times of hardship are refining me.  I am learning to pray--with discipline, with spontaneity; often alone, and often with others.  And as I take an honest look at my inadequacy for what lies before me at Living Hope, I am learning to stop looking at myself so much (for that leads only to discouragement or my other great weakness--pride), but rather to gaze on Christ, my Savior, Sustainer, Sufficiency, and my Beloved.

My trials have been so small compared to what many of my loved ones are going through.  But may it always be a comfort, to me and to you, that God does not waste trials of any size or shape.  Through the painful refining process, He is conforming us to the glorious image of His Son.

Welcome!

I have been meaning, for a while, to start a blog to share about what God is teaching me and what He is doing as I work with Living Hope Ministries in NE Minneapolis. Why the title "Captivated"? Because I am captivated with the glory of my Creator, Sustainer, and Savior. As I work with inner-city kids, He has given me a hope that shines in the darkest places, a love that reaches to the unlovable, and a faith that believes the unthinkable. He is what this blog will be about.