Arriving at Destination part one

I have long thought it would be cool if there was a GPS for life.

"Turn Left Ahead." Take this Job." "Avoid crazy girl approaching" and of course "Arriving at Destination." ah, Destination, the journey's end. I have always been more about the where than the why. Maybe it's because I can get car sick even if I am driving. Maybe it's because getting there takes work, and I would rather avoid work. Maybe getting there takes pain, and I assume I have had enough of that for one lifetime. Maybe it's because the journey is about growth, and growth implies that one is getting stronger and better. And maybe for too long I saw myself as unworthy of being better.

Whatever the case, I am slowly learning to look around me and enjoy the view, enjoy the journey, and even enjoy the pain and growth, and maybe even to accept the fact of my worth. The thing that makes any destination, any journey, and really any thing worth the effort is the people you are traveling with.

God has underscored my journey, my growth, and my worth three times in the last five weeks. Each time He did so at a camp. Each time he used the people who have stood along side me.

September 24-26 was a crazy weekend for me. Here at Alliance, we hosted a Men's Advance (cause guys retreat enough on their own). A thousand little moments that weekend, some good, some bad, some big, some minuscule, some echoing faith that can move mountains, some that I am smart enough not to commit to writing, all led to the Saturday night sermon.

The cliff notes version is that men in this country are absent. Fathers in this country are absent. Boys do not have a ceremony, a time, a rite, where someone sits them down and tells them what it means to be a man. Where someone sits them down ans tells them that they are a man. At the end of the service, an invitation was sent for those who felt the need to mark the truth of being a man, and even more than that being a man of God was extended. The other men in the room came forward and prayed over us.

I am a 33 year old guy (no longer a boy, but never embracing my manhood), who was raised from the age of 12 by a single mother. The idea of having someone speak those words to me (and don't get me wrong, my mom is awesome, and there have been a thousand father figures in my life, I have learned from the church what being a man is) as a novel concept isn't horribly shocking.

What is shocking, what is appalling, is that to my left and my right, and filling three rows behind me sat men who had never had this done for them. Men in their 30s as well. And men in their 40s, and 50s, and 60s. How the hell does the church allow someone to become a grandfather, yet the idea of marking their time from boyhood to manhood is a new one to them? How has the Church, how have we as men, failed the body, how have we failed each other? Let's hit pause for a second, because I want to come back to this, but first I need to explain what was happening in me that night.

That night I was healed. That night all of the zip-lines, and sea cave kayaking, and ski lessons, and movie nights, and simple words of encouragement, all my time at ARCG, all my time in CM at Grace, all my time at Simpson, all the encouragement of friends and family over my 33 years, finally made sense, complete and total sense. I saw fully (or at least more fully, cause grace isn't a concept I will fully unpack in this lifetime) the person others had seen in me. I was commissioned by man that night, but my spirit was spoken to by God.

He told me that I was a man, and that I no longer needed to serve as broken and lonely, but that He had made me into a man of God, a man with gifts, talents, and passions that would be able to reach out to the men, the guys, and the boys I so desperately want to tell of the wonders of grace. I now no longer serve being able to only put my arm around those I serve, and share in their pain. I now can help them up to where I am. I can pull them up, because God has made me whole, and I stand above, not better than, but healed.

That day my son, I became a man.

--Serving Him alongside all of you, just from further away

--Jesse "Gonzo" Letourneau

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Dear friends and family,

I am finishing up my second year here at Alliance Redwoods.      many of you know the Lord recently placed on my heart the desire to go into full time church children’s ministry. Until that particular calling comes to fruition, I am happy to say that I have found a home here among the Redwoods. I enjoy my job and am blessed to be working with people who inspire and challenge me each and every day. I have also found a church and a small group that do the same.

Through the camp, I have taken the opportunity to join a team of Americans (along with two “South African-Americans”) who will be meeting with a team of South African nationals to bring hope to youth in and around the Cape Town area. The ministry is known as Camp South Africa or as it is affectionately labeled CSA. We will be working in schools, churches, prisons, and parks. Our mission can be summed up in our desire to bring fun for the spirit, food for the body, and hope for the soul. We hope to accomplish these goals through songs, games, stories, small group sharing, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This is the ninth year that camp has run this program. I like to describe it as “hit and run missions-that has been running for almost a decade and has nationals involved with and connected to the ministry to stay behind and carry out the work all year long.” It may be a mouthful, but it is a large task that we are under taking.

My personal involvement came after I heard the story of a little girl who was a part of CSA 09. We will call her “Lenaiah.” Lenaiah like so many children in South Africa, has A.I.D.S. She is fortunate enough to have access to anti-viral medication. Last year, the team was able to host overnight camps. On the last day of camp, Lenaiah forgot to take her daily medication. When asked by our leader and founder Merv, ho w this happened. Her response was, “Uncle Merv, I was having so much fun, I forgot.” The children of South Africa live in circumstances beyond my imagination. If I can give them one week, one day, one hour, or even just one moment where they are having so much fun they forget their circumstances, and in that moment they are simply children again, then I simply have no choice but to go.

My work here at Alliance has allowed me the time and the resources to undertake this journey. I am writing to all of you asking for prayer and support. The dates of the trip are November 18 – December 17, 2010. We will be working most days, and will be out ministering for as long as twelve hours a day. Please pray for our team, that we stay healthy, safe, and sane. Pray that the moments seen and unseen will be used to impact these children and that through the fun and food, they will come to know of the hope of Christ.

--Serving Him alongside all of you, just from further away

--Jesse "Gonzo" Letourneau

If you would like to help defer the cost of my trip you may send donations to

6250 Bohemian Highway, Occidental, CA 95465. Please include CSA2010/Jesse Letourneau on the memo line. All donations are tax deductible and you will be sent a receipt.

It's the little things

Sunday morning on my drive into town to church, I was playing a CD that had been given to me 8 years ago. It was mix of worship songs that were popular at the time. They may be a little dated now, but they remind me of a time and a place. Specifically, they remind me of all the people I worshiped with and severed beside at Grace Community of Seal Beach.

The song "You are My King." came, and I found myself singing along. The opening lines are "I am forgiven, because You were forsaken. I am accepted. You were condemned." It wasn't uncommon for Grace to play this song as the Communion elements were being past down the rows. The song reminded me of the sweetness of fellowship and of the friends left at home.

I arrived at Redwood Covenant and spent the first service helping in Redwood Kids. The second service found me in "Big People Church." Communion was going to be served later in the service. And as all good church kids know, Communion is served the first Sunday of the month. So it wasn't something I was expecting.

As the Communion elements were passed the worship team began to play "You are My King."

As the title states, "it is the small things." God was reminding me that RCC is now my home. And it is. It isn't as deeply rooted as Seal Beach. Actually, as I type this, I realize it is. It doesn't have the same number of memories as Seal Beach, but I have only been here a quarter of the time I was at Grace. But the acceptance, the ministry, the feeling of home they are as deep, maybe deeper since they took root so quickly.

--Serving Him alongside all of you, just from further away
--Jesse "Gonzo" Letourneau

New Years Resolutions

The new year starts in September, right? The teachers out there know what I am talking about.

So with that in mind, I present my 2010 new year's resolution:
Drink an Nalgene (32 oz.) of water a day.
Read for an hour a day (internet and books with pictures don't count).
Eat dessert only once a week (notice it doesn't say only one dessert).
Draw 30 min a day three times a week.

--Serving Him alongside all of you, just from further away--Jesse "Gonzo" Letourneau

(not fascinating I know, but I wanted to write them down for me.)

VBS

More Here

For Mike

My Top 10 tricks and such I have learned working with kids

1) Always be positive

This includes your attitude, but also your speech and your directions. Rather than say, “Stop running.” Ask them to walk. Rather than tell them to “Turn around, stop talking, and finish your homework.” Tell them they need to keep working on the task at hand.

2) Be consistent.

Never promise: I once told a sixth grade class that if they were the most respectful period I would leave a bag of Jolly Ranchers for their teacher, and let her knows who was the best period. They weren’t the best period, I don’t them that, and still years later they were claiming to be owed candy.

Never threaten: Don’t make up punishments the kids know you won’t follow up on (If you don’t… I am going to hang you by your toes), don’t give punishments you don’t want to follow up on (Knock it if off or you are going to spend time with me afterwards; they know you don’t want to stay late, and will test you on that), don’t give punishments you don’t think are fair (I never took recess from a kid (unless specifically asked to by the regular classroom teacher.)

Bottom-line follow through

3) Give them choices

Kids love choices, if you let them choose (even if it is something simple like playing on the swings or on the basketball court, they will respond). There is also what I like to call the ridiculous choice (You can hand me the note, or you can hand it to the principal (however see number 2).

4) Broken Record.

Tell them what you want to see happen when they start to argue, repeat exactly what you just said. After three or four times they will either give up or start an argument. At this point walk away and give them the choice to follow directions or not.

5) Justice is important, but Roe, Sham Boe (maybe misspelled, it was Rock, Paper, Scissors in my day) is almost as good.
If kids treat each other unfairly (and they will), and you don’t know who is the right (eg someone cut in line) have then play roe, sham, boe to see who gets the better spot.

6) Life is not fair.

If you have more kids than you need helpers for a certain task, and a child says, that is not fair, simply tell them they are right. That you need only x number of helpers and that everyone won’t get a turn, and that it is not fair.

7) Establish your boundaries.
Physical boundaries are important, never touch a kid in a way you don’t want to be touched (e.g. messing up hair, being picked up off the ground, tickled). If they can’t do it to you, you can’t do it them. (See also #2).

8) Rule of threes

Generally speaking kids can’t follow more than three direction at a time, so keep your rules, directions, expectations, and explanations’ short and sweet. Limiting them to three is a good rule of thumb.

9) You are human, but you are not
Patience, grace, repeating yourself, and picking up after them, will be a part of your daily routine. Disobedience, disrespect, not listening, not remembering the first (or second) time will all be a part of their daily routine. Be ready that it will happen and be okay with it. Also realize it is NOT a reflection of you or your skills if a kid isn’t perfectly obedient or respectful.

10) You are human

This isn’t a universal, and may vary by situation, but don’t be afraid to apologize to a kid.
If you say the wrong thing or say it in the wrong way, don’t be afraid to let the kid know that you made a mistake (a valuable lesson in that we all make mistakes), that you care about them (a super valuable lesson), and then model correct language and behavior (use “I language,” don’t tell the child what you did was wrong (even if it was, but HOW you approached it-ie hurt their feelings), and don’t go into your personal life (I may care that your dog died and you were already in a bad mood when we got in a fight, but the kids don’t and it impacts number 9)

Bonus:
No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Bonus: #2
What kids (or anyone) need is not always what they want. (see #1,2,5,6)

What is sacred?

The Saturday before VBS there were several of us gathered at the church to hang cardboard and construction paper around the sanctuary in such a way as to make it look like a jungle. While we were working one of the high school girls plugged in her iPod to give us a little tuneage. Mostly Christian stuff. The shuffle function then chose a secular song. It isn't important which one.

Halfway through the song, a very upset person stormed into our church and told us that such music (i.e. secular) was not appropriate for "this house of God." A reasonable calm defense was given, but he wasn't having any of it. In order not to offended our brother in Christ we turned the music off. (Then talked about the event amongst ourselves for the rest of the week).

We could talk all day about secular music, the House of the Lord, meat sacrificed to idols, becoming all things to all men, and the 40 thousand other topics that this encounter raises. But the question that stuck with me is, "What is sacred?".

The easy definition of sacred vs. secular is to define secular first. Secular is what belongs to the world, Sacred is everything else. But is it that easy? If there is a chair sitting in a church building, does it belong to the Lord? The Church is the House of the Lord. If I remove the chair and place it in a restaurant, or even (gasp) a bar, does the chair lose its sacredness? When did it become sacred the first time around? When it was purchased by the planning committee, and therefore became property of the Lord (via the church). Or does the object become sacred once it crosses the threshold of the church?

And if that is the case, if the church is holy ground, wouldn't the song we were playing become sacred because of its surroundings?

Here is the problem, the building isn't sacred. The building isn't holy ground. What made the tabernacle holy? What made the temple holy? It was the presence of the Lord. Where is the Lord's presence today? It is in the lives of His followers (or it should be, but that is another topic for another time, maybe when God calls me to overseas missions). The church (the structure) is NOT HOLY. The Church (the men and women who follow Christ) is holy. We are going to skip the whole, "Well then can we do whatever we want and make it holy?" tangent (short answer= no).

Ironically, the message of VBS this year was that we (the Church) are the living stones that make up the temple of the Lord. It is us working together through the Spirit that make up the Church. And we as people certainly are NOT holy. My holiness is that of Christ's.

That is to say that through the perfect live of Christ that is now mine through the work on the cross and the presence of the Holy Spirit within me, I become holy. Close to four years ago, God began to impress on me the idea of Relationship. How vital relationship is to what we do as a Church. This week I began to see how important Redemption is.

For my inclusion into the Royal Priesthood, my standing as a temple of the Lord, my privilege to be a living stone making up the Church of Jesus, all of it happened through Redemption. If secular is what belongs to the world, then sacred is what belongs to the Lord. I belong to the Lord, the church building belongs to Lord (because it, not unlike me, has the function of serving the Lord), music, food, games, fun, miles of construction paper fashioned to look like a jungle are all sacred because they are taken from the mundane and repurposed to be used to bring God glory.

For me it was the reminder that ministry focuses on Relationships, but cannot neglect Redemption. We must purposely but ourselves in contact with the secular. That is we must go and find those who do not yet belong to God and bring them to Him. That can be done by going out to the jungles or by decorating your church to look like one.

--Serving Him alongside all of you, just from further away,

--Jesse "Gonzo" Letourneau