Meanwhile...

...Back in Sunny Santa Rosa.

Sunday night is the night my small group meets. Last Sunday was also Halloween. To blend the two we had a Super Hero Summit. We had food and games, and everyone was required to come dressed as a super hero (if you didn't there were costumes assigned at the door).

You read that right, I got to come to church dressed as a super-hero. Church and super hero, same bat time same bat channel. But it gets better.

The 31st was my last Sunday in Santa Rosa, before leaving for two weeks for home, before leaving for four weeks for South Africa. I had already shared with the group about the trip, but wanted to drop off some support letters as prayer reminders for those who wanted them.

As there were a few of the heroes getting ready to leave early, I turned down the music just to let everyone know that the letters were on the front table, and that this would be my last Sunday for a while. Grammar Girl turned to High Maintenance and asked, "Should we pray for Jesse now?" I honestly didn't think that was going to happen, but I will take all the prayer I can get.

As some gathered around to lay hands on me, others stretched out their hands toward me. Zan of the Wonder Twins (aka Andrew Mark, who is one of the few guys I know who can rock purple pants)-said lets do this "super hero style." And he made a fist. Several others did the same. After a few quick fist bumps, the group began to pray over me, for my safety, for my health, for the relationships with the team, and the impact God will have through me in Capetown.

This may all sound silly or even stupid, but for me it was one of the most memorable commissioning services I have ever been at.

You see the Wonder Twins activate their power through physical touch. Granted no one in the room could leap tall buildings or melt things with their brain. But each one there carries a far greater power. The power of the resurrected Christ. As I sat there receiving the blessing that were being poured out on me, I opened my eyes and saw men and women in costume fists extended praying over me.

I thought about the power of four color guardians and how much it would mean for them to share their power with one another. I thought about how these men and women were in an odd way sharing their power with me. Praying to their all-powerful Father that I as I go out from among them that I would be filled with power to great things. Even greater than lifting a car or even moving a mountain. That I would he equipped to tell someone they are loved by the God who made them. To tell them they have been given a second chance by the God who loves them.

I know this sounds silly and even stupid, but like I said, for me it was the sweetest picture of what RCC means to me, what prayer means to me, and even what I am being called to do for those four weeks in Africa.

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

Ariving at Destination part two

The weekend of October 15-17 I was lucky enough to go to a conference for Christian Camping. I took a ton away from that time. A renewed focus on student lead teaching. A realization that I belong to a larger community of Christian camping. The reminder of the beauty of God's creation. The reminder of the beauty of relationships. And a confirmation that I work with wonderful, open and honest, and God-fearing people.

Oh, I also ended up on a free guided tour of Yosemite!

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

--Jesse "Gonzo" Letourneau

(as always click on pics to make em bigger)

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

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