this is the day - the last day!

Whelp, this is the day (pun intended). Not only is it the first update to my blog in about 4 months (oops), it’s also my very last day of missionary service! I thought it would be appropriate to post a little update on my life since it’s been so long. By-the-month highlights - here we go:

March

• March Madness at the Seminar Program: hosted 9 groups from Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
• Bucket showers for lent: experienced a deep appreciation for water as a resource and gift from God, and remembered my baptism pretty much every day as I poured water over my head.

April

• Visited home for a few days and hosted my family in DC for a few days.
• Finished physical therapy with great improvements in strength in mobility associated with my spinal arthritis.

May

• Married off one housemate and welcomed a new housemate into our home.
• Experienced US-2 End-Terms, the final formal gathering of our missionary class.
• Summer season at the Seminar Program begins with 4 seminar groups.

June

• Began co-leading a Bible study and fellowship small group with The District Church, studying the book of Ecclesiastes.
• Spoke at Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference on my call to mission, my work, and Generation Transformation programs.
• Facilitated a workshop and screened a film, both on human trafficking, at the Youth2015 conference in Orlando, FL.
• Hosted 5 more seminar groups.
• Had the first ever “Find-a-Dave-a-Job-a-Thon,” where my generous friends volunteered to gather at my house to look up jobs they thought I would be good at, and then explain to me why I should apply. Discernment is best done in community. I highly recommend this for anyone engaged in a job search.

July

• For the first time in 3 years, rode a century (100 mile bike ride) with my roommate, fulfilling one of my little known DC goals of biking to the beach and back.
• Celebrated Independence Day with my roommates and friends here in DC.
• Hosted my last seminar group.
• Had the honor of witnessing a good friend be baptized.

What’s next? My first item of business is a bike ride across Iowa called RAGBRAI (Registers Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa). This is simply a huge bike tour I’m doing for fun with 3 friends from DC and about 15,000 new friends I’ll meet there on the journey. The ride will take 7 days and cover 585 miles.

After that, I’ll continue the job search, focusing here in DC for the near term, but expanding beyond as needed. As always, if you know of something at the intersection of engineering, education, and ministry which provides ample time for working with people or hands-on work, please let me know!

I have so many more things I would like to share, but this is all for now. Blessings friends!

><> <><

So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God.
Ecclesiastes 2:24 NLT

reblogged: challenge accepted

First appearing on Nov 15, 2014, this is guest blog I wrote for The Book of Fellows, the blog for United Methodists Young Adult Missionaries. Check it out and see what my peers are up to and thinking about!

Over November 7-9, 2014, a few of us Young Adult Missionaries traveled to Denver, CO for Imagine What’s NEXT. Through music, messages, conversations, and fun, this UMC gathering gave college students, and folks from agencies and organizations, time and space to connect, worship, and consider opportunities for service and vocation.

On Saturday evening, we were issued the $5 Challenge. As we departed for dinner and evening worship downtown, the organizers gave each participant $5 cash. We were not to keep this, but to use it to make the biggest impact possible in downtown Denver. They gave a number of ideas like buying a package of socks to give away, treating someone to dinner, or buying a bus pass for someone. They encouraged us to take pictures of our experiences and post them on social media with the hashtag “#5challenge.”

As for the missionaries, the gears in our minds were spinning. Personally, I had just given a talk earlier in the day, and one of my points was an old standard at Church and Society: we often fail to make the distinction between acts of charity – temporary assistance for urgent needs – and justice – lasting transformation aimed at God’s Kingdom. God calls us to both through our lives of faith (Micah 6:8, Matt 23:23), but we often focus our ministries on charity. For us, the $5 Challenge was to think and act outside the box and do something a little closer to justice.

An idea budded and blossomed during break time: what if we bought sidewalk chalk and wrote messages of inspiration, encouragement, advocacy, and awareness on the streets of Denver? We ran with it. After dinner, we fortunately came upon an office supplies store 5 minutes before close (yes, we were those annoying customers). Six of us went in and spent $3 on 3 packs of chalk. We hit the streets.

Before our eyes, the results multiplied like fishes and loaves blessed by God. People read our notes as they walked by, some engaging us in conversation. Some people wanted to write words of wisdom and inspiration for themselves, so we gave them chalk to take with them on their own journeys. We tagged each of our notes “#NEXT14″ so that socially-networked passers-by might go online and see what else we were up to at the conference.
 

I like to think that people’s lives were changed, even just a little, by our “street tweets” – that someone would know that Christians carry messages of hope as well as challenge – that another might grow in their awareness that all people are valuable and treasured – that yet another would come to realize we were created to be alive and vital. A few strategic and beautiful words, bathed in the power of the Spirit, have the power to transform lives forever.

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’ –Luke 19:39-40

back in action + creative

 

Welp, it's been almost 3 months since my last blog post. Oops. So much for posts every Wednesday. It has been good to take some sabbath from the blog, and I've also had some pretty major life events in the mean time which have distracted me a bit.

In August, I moved from the Capitol Hill neighborhood to an amazing group house with 5 other Christian young adults in Petworth. We live in "intentional community" - we take turns cooking for the whole house, share all our groceries and food, split up house chores fairly systematically, pray together before meals, and generally enjoy life together. It's actually a lot like living with great family.

I've struggled with severe back pain, which kept me from going to work for about 3 weeks in September. The doctors diagnosed me with axial/ankylosing spondylitis, or spinal arthritis, which could lead to spinal fusion if left unchecked. This is chronic, and is likely a complication of another condition I have called ulcerative colitis, or inflammation of the large intestine. Both are inflammation and immune system related. My pain level is much decreased after a course of steroids, I'm back to work, and I hope to start some longer-term treatment with medicine soon. My roommates have been extremely supportive as they have surrounded me with care and food!

Near the end of September, I started to recover and felt well enough to go to New York City for US-2 midterms, which is the halfway-through-the-missionary-program time of gathering, reflection, equipping, and sending. I had a blast hanging out with my sisters in mission again. And yes - I'm the only male US-2 in my class.

Through The District Church, I've also started a small group book study with a friend. The group is based around Dallas Willard's book "Hearing God." We're all about listening for God's voice and guidance through forming a closer relationship with God as we discern our various callings in life. We also spend time just enjoying each others' company and eating snacks. Let me know if you think you'd like to join us!

Finally, I'm coming to the realization that I've only got 9 months left as a US-2. Just 9 months! The natural question is: what comes next? I'm still quite interested in engineering and think about it almost daily. My work as a US-2 has sharpened my understanding about the many struggles humanity faces, and how Christians have a general calling toward ending those struggles. There are a number of ways I see to integrate the two worlds of engineering and faith-based justice, and I've enjoyed the opportunity to explore those intersections.

Over the next weeks and months, I'm going to share more about these and all of the other things I'm thinking about and experiencing. I just wanted to take a moment to catch up and summarize. I hope to be back in action on at least a semi-regular basis going forward.

I also want to introduce a new feature of my blog. I think I'll just call them "creative" posts. I discovered that one of my great joys in life is doing work with my hands - manual dexterity - tactile thinking and learning and processing. I actually do some artsy things on occasion, like drawing, writing, poetry, alternative prayer styles, cooking, and I might even try my hand at brewing beer at some point. I've kept many of these things tucked away, but I plan on sharing more of them.

One type of drawing I like to do is graffiti-style sketches. Below is one I did on Sunday while I took some sabbath time.

Prayer requests:

• That I am released from or can make peace with the pain I experience with the spinal arthritis
• Continued guidance on finding a fulfilling vocation when I finish the US-2 program
• Relief for our may friends, brothers, and sisters in West Africa who struggle with Ebola

Newsletter Issue 2: Catching Up

Finally, I got another newsletter to the presses! Take a peek, and I hope you enjoy. Please let me know if you'd like to get on my email or postal mailing lists to recieve a copy by either of those means next time around.

Stay blessed!

Prayer requests:

• Next Tuesday, I speak at the 60th annual Missions Conference at Lanes Mills UMC, my home church where I grew up! I'm excited and nervous, but hope to deliver something good!
• My Grandma Elsie (97 years young) recently needed to be placed in a nursing home. It's been a hard transition for her and for the rest of the family, so your prayers are welcomed.
• Thank God for spring warmth and sunshine!

silly questions

Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
John 6:26

Merry Christmas!

This post is going to be like time travel – written on the bus on Saturday, posted on Wednesday. On Saturday morning, I awoke at the early (late?) hour of 4:45am to begin my trek home for Christmas vacation. Traveling by bus is one way I’ve given in to simple living. It’s a release of control compared with having a car – I don’t get much choice as to when I leave, who I ride with, how much stuff I bring, or what temperature the cabin is. Door to door, it’s about 11 hours of travel instead of 6 by car. DC bus to Union Station (oops, bus didn’t come, I had to walk); Megabus to Philadelphia; 2 hour layover; Megabus to State College via Harrisburg; car ride to Brockport.

On the other hand, it is very freeing. There is a lot of time for reflection, reading, and even writing a blog post. While in Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station (pictured) waiting to change buses, I got the opportunity to hang out and chat with a panhandler (not homeless – he had an apartment) for 20 minutes or so. That’s the first time I’ve ever had someone ask me for money and then walk away because they had other things to do!

I read the above scripture during one of my times of waiting. It grabbed me. Earlier in John 6, John records Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. After everyone had eaten, Jesus slipped away quietly, sensing the desire of the people to “take him by force and make him king.” The next day, the people traced Jesus’ path and caught up with him. “When did you come here?” they wanted to know.

One of the fun things for me about John’s version of the Gospel is that Jesus almost never answers questions directly. I’ve read or heard somewhere that Jesus is so sensitive that he sees through these superficial questions and answers the question that is actually on the hearts of people. Jesus knows that when he came to Capernaum across the sea is not important. The more important question is: why are they are so drawn to Jesus?

I imagine them, and even myself, answering, “Dude, you took five dinner rolls and two cans of tuna and fed 5,000 of us! And we got to take home leftovers!” (Sidenote: I love leftovers)

“Nope. Pretty cool, but actually, you were hungry, and I fed you.” Seeing a miracle is pretty amazing, but having a hole in your soul filled is way better.

Jesus didn’t just give them something to eat to fill their bellies. Manna, the flaky bread-like substance that God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness, is pretty amazing. Jesus – the bread of heaven, God incarnate, walking among us and with us, showing us new ways to live, living and dying to reconcile us to God – is way better. “When did you come here?” now seems like a silly question!

Let’s keep asking God silly questions though. We might not be able to get to the tougher and more important ones on our own.

I hope your Christmas and holiday season has been everything you needed and everything God wanted for you, and that 2013 treated you well. I know it’s been a trip for me. Thank you for your continued support, including reading my blog!

Come, Lord Jesus. Reign in this world; reign in my heart. Merry Christmas!

A matter of faith

I'm on the NY subway, wondering how I would ever get around this city without my smartphone. Ok, yeah, a map would do the trick; let's leave that aside for the moment. Living and spending time in the city and public transit has helped me to realize how useful the phone can be. It also helped me realize how much faith I put in it. Navigating the city underground, I trust that this tiny black box with its glowing screen is going to help me reach the goal. And it almost never fails!

Life is kind of like navigating a new city. So many directions to go, and so many different ways to get there. A guide sure would be helpful! Thank God for the Holy Spirit. The Spirit knows "the city" and helps us reach the goal and all the best stops along the way.

The challenge is to put even more faith in the Spirit than I do in my phone! How easy it is to trust a simple thing like a phone; how much riskier it is to do so with a God who has plans which might look different than what we want or what we're comfortable with. How much do I trust God? How much do you trust God? It's a matter of trust. It's a matter of faith.