Love That Will Not Let Us Go

            A crazy, crazy weekend! God is faithful and I am pretty happy to be in his graces. A lot to share J

1: LET ME SERVE YOU

            Our motto at the Blue House has been “Let me serve you!” It usually involves some Christian bickering but all done in love and service. I love this community. It’s the coolest thing ever. We have the most random weirdos coming over all the time and it’s the best ever. Please be praying for Kyle. I love him a lot and I know that God does too. He’s opening up a lot more and he’s just the funnest thing. All the interns here and it’s great because God is good.

2: The love of the god of Mormonism

            When I talk to Mormons they like to tell me that I need to realize that God loves me. Like I believe he hates me or something. But lemme tell YOU something, Mormons believe in a deceptive, uncaring and I’d venture to say evil god. He sent his children away, MADE them forget about him, told them they could only come back to him if they joined a certain church and then judges them in the last day and only the best of the best of them get to be with him again. He won’t even VISIT anyone that doesn’t cut it. The thing that really bothers me though is that they believe that god took away all the evidence that what they believe is true so that they would have more faith. What an evil god! He only accepts them if they join a church that teaches crazy things that he makes it impossible to believe. They believe that Christ’s atonement and grace is only enough to cover those who have repented of all sins and become perfect. It’s sick. But hey, I know (tear, tear) that Heavenly Father loves us, SO much, and I KNOW that this church is true. Sorry, I’m not a crier. And I KNOW that if Heavenly Father wants us to return to him if we obey his commandments. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. (That’s a Mormon testimony. Look them up on youtube. It’s funny.)

3: The love of the God of the Universe

            Oh, wow. God REALLY does love us! Read Hosea, it’s insane. God is outside of time so the worst sin that you have EVER committed or that you ever will, the one that totally shocks you and shames you, has been known to God since he chose you. Think of a time when God did something SO good to show you that he loves you. In that moment, he knew you fully and fully knew what you were going to do to disgrace him. He didn’t think that maybe he could be nice enough to keep you from making that mistake. He just loved you. We don’t know God’s language so we don’t often understand it when he says “I love you, child.” But he says it often and shouted it when his only Son hung on a cross. We should never forget that. But we do, every day. Lucky for us, God is patient and tells us new each day. How has he told you he loves you today and how are you celebrating that?

4: The Love of God for Mormons

            God loves Mormons. It’s insane. Super crazy. The LDS temples are a slap in God’s face. They are disgusting and weird, creepy things go on in there. Real weird. Look it up. It’s gross. And at the base of the Manti Temple, each year thousands of Mormons congregate to watch nearly a thousand Latter-day Saints put on a production about how great Joseph Smith is. White Jesus gets a little shout out when he appears at the base of the Mayan Temple (look up what practices the Maya did, and consider that LDS prophets teach that those things were acceptable worship to God-it’s AWFUL). However, when it comes time at the end of the show for a happy married couple to go to heaven (where a bunch of people in white robes are doing a dance that is sorta like the Macarena), Jesus doesn’t make a come-back. He isn’t there. Weiiiiiiiird…. But what is the craziest to me is how much God loves these people. As they make this pilgrimage to take part in this (and all leave crying, so moved by the whole production), God sends hundreds of his ambassadors to share the message of his grace to them. Think about that for a second. That should bring us to our knees. God loves Mormons so much more than we do. He sends his people from all over the place (I met tons of people from Iowa, groups from California, Arizona, the South, Canada, etc) to share his good message in this gross place. Praise God for being SO much better. He loves us. He loves them. We should too.

5: Manti highlights

            One group of us went down Friday. Aubrey, Allie and I stayed back and we had a four-hour conversation at Jimmy Johns about God’s work in our lives and our responsive love for him. They love God a lot more than I do and I am so excited to get to spend the summer with them. Saturday we went down to Temple Square and did a prayer walk there. I was praying the whole time to see Sister Brevard and Sister Rodriguez and I ran into Sister Rodriguez right as we were leaving. She was with a new companion but we talked and were both really excited to see each other. We got caught up and then we all prayed together. She really was excited about it and asked when I was coming back. I told her I’d be there Tuesday afternoon so I’m excited to find her today. I love her so much.

            We made it down to Manti and got there to pray and do worship before. I talked with some guys who were born-again Christians who became Mormons for like thirty years, found out they were Jewish when doing the family genealogy stuff and then became Jews for Jesus who love Mormons. It was super cool. I was having trouble talking with Mormons, but I did get to share the gospel with a guy from the Church of Christ, Righteous Branch. They are an FLDS Church, which means they are polygamists. It was a cool conversation. There was a group from Rancho Santa Margarita who were doing worship and painting on a corner so I talked and worshipped with them. It was awesome. When I finally found Aubrey, Allie, Colleen and Ryan they were having awesome conversations through this thing called “soularium.” Very cool. Look it up. I prayed with a couple named Miles and Jackie with them and a woman named Lisa from the SoCal team. Later on, Miles found Lisa, and asked what we were all about and when she shared the gospel vs the impossible gospel (the Mormon gospel that you have to be perfect), he took it very seriously and agreed that the LDS gospel is not right. He told her he would really look at it. Pray for him. God loves him and is pursuing him. My friend Aaron was doing some really great street preaching and people were really listening. It was a great night and the next day at church was awesome. I made a lot of connections with Christians who love Mormons. Please pray that those connections continue.

6: Best Friends

            Sunday, Aubrey and I took Aunt Martha, and 88-year-old family friend of Russ, down to the bottom of Utah to a tiny town called Kanab on the border of Utah and Arizona. It was really beautiful which was cool. We went to an animal shelter called Best Friends which is the largest pet sanctuary in the country. We stayed in a hotel where (thanks for praying) we found cedar bat mites in the bed rather than bed bugs (which we were fearing). We drove back up the next day. Aunt Martha insisted on driving for a bit and Aubrey and I once again realized how much God loves us. Because he kept us from dying. She was driving in two lanes in crazy traffic around Provo while people honked and we tried to get her to get out. It was dangerous. But God loves us. J

7: Prayer requests

            Pray for Kyle and Miles mostly. I’m getting a little bit worried about money with unexpected expenses with the garden and my car. God has me, I know, but it’s still something he’d like to be asked about J

Mormon Miracle Pageant

Hey! Wednesday night we had an awesome study on the love of God as shown through Hosea. If you don't know that book very well, I highly recommend reading it. God's love for us surpasses all human reasoning. That is because his love for us is not about us (that would be conditional love), it is part of God's character. We can depend on it fully. We had pancakes Thursday morning and I found out my friend Rulon from the ward was raised FLDS (the polygamist sect) and is now basically anti-religion. I got to share the gospel with him and I look forward to doing that more and more! The Arkansas team left on Thursday night and then we had ten new friends over to watch a movie. It was fun! The community that is developing at the Blue House is so exciting. Please pray for more miracles!

Friday morning Colleen, Bobby, Vickie, Casey, Allie and I (that's all the interns so far) drove down to Ephraim, UT and met a team from Bellflower, CA. It is in the middle of nowhere but a little further down the road you come to the Manti Temple. There the Mormon Miracle Pageant is held. For eight nights over two weeks, 20,000 people watch a play with a cast of over 900 act out the "historical" stories from the Book of Mormon, which includes the life and death of Joseph Smith, the Nephites and the Lamanites (those are spelling errors because Google Chrome happens to know that they are not real people groups-Mormons teach that the Mayas, Aztecs and Incas are actually Jews that came over from Israel centuries before Christ) obeying and rebelling against the word of God, Jesus Christ visiting them (they honestly believe Mayan temples are Mormon temples) and then a married couple going up to the Celestial Kingdom (basically heaven, but in this version of heaven a bunch of people are dressed all in white suits and are doing what looks like the Macarena; Jesus is nowhere to be found, he only had a forty second appearance in the course of the two-hour production...and they claim to be a church NOT a cult and completely centered on Jesus Christ...it's hard to reconcile). It was ridiculous and absurd and full of Joseph Smith-worship (the climax is his martyrdom), but is what I would have expected. Cheesy, but still the Mormons were sobbing and really felt the Spirit. They eat this stuff up. I don't get it. However, I am getting ahead of myself. Let's get to the good news!

The production starts at dusk (9:30) but people start coming in at about 6. That's when we arrived. About 150 Christians come to this each night to share the love of God. We started with worship which was really cool. The Temple blasts music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir because they know that evangelists will be there. They believe that we have the "spirit of dissension" and that scares away the Holy Spirit. Because they do not believe they are indwelt with the Holy Spirit (one of the things we agree on), they need to create a pretty place to invite the Spirit in. I found out that is why they sing. They sound good but it is dead and that is because they do not actually consider it worship. It's more to create a pretty environment with the hopes that the Spirit will join them. Sort of like idol worship. Do what you can to invite the gods to come bless you. I'm glad that's not how our God works (especially because my singing voice is not all that inviting). So we actually gathered and worshiped there which is such a cool experience. And then the witnessing began!


First we gathered as a team together to pray but we were interrupted by the security who told us we were not allowed to do that on Church property. The sign actually says no evangelizing (which just means sharing the gospel...I guess deep down the LDS Church knows that isn't what it is doing), but I guess praying to God isn't allowed either. We kept on praying once we were on the street which is public property. Then we went out and talked to people. Most people (of all ages, the little kids witnessing were awesome) were handing out tracts. That's not my favorite approach but in this case it is powerful because they are waiting for hours and will read them out of boredom. I was impressed by the various ways of talking to people and how effective all of it is. A lot of Mormons would stand around just to argue, but that meant they heard the gospel. It was so cool. I talked with a Mennonite woman handing out tracts and found out she is an ex-mo. She had a very unique testimony. Her reasons for exploring outside the LDS Church were very LDS and she finally left because she found a tract in her attic that she had taken from the Nauvoo pageant. She had actually taken it just to throw it away with disdain in front of the evangelists, but somehow that one ended up in her purse. God is great!

In the two nights we did that, I was not very forward. I should have been less timid because so many people were more than willing to talk! Allie and I went around together and she would pray while I spoke most of the time. We went first to this guy named Wade who was with his wife, sister and niece and nephew. We had a good conversation and his niece was in seminary mode but his younger nephew was intrigued by what was going on. I'm praying that he (Chase) will hide those things in his heart and that God will recall them at the right time. Next we talked with this cowboy named Kevin. He was going off on Bill McKeever who had a display out of a replica of the Golden Plates. They were 80 lbs and he invited people to lift them. Joseph Smith claimed to hold them under his arm and run three miles hopping over logs and fighting off attackers. At one point he was hit in the back of a head with a gun. And the replica plates were not made of gold. They were 60% LIGHTER than the ones Joseph claimed to be carrying. And if he at any point had dropped them, they would have been crushed and all the characters would have been erased because of the pressure on the soft gold.
Kevin came unglued, claiming that the best people in the world, US Marines do that every morning before breakfast. He went off on Bill for being a fat city slicker. We found him later and had a conversation with him. He's not LDS and he has a lot of crazy views but we shared the gospel with him and had some fun with him. Finally we talked with a young woman who lives near Ogden named Jill. She is very Mormon. We shared the gospel with her again and again and again. She couldn't understand that when we said we have been set free that we didn't mean set free to sin all the time. She also couldn't believe that we believe in a God that is so harsh he would call us sinners. It's unreal. I wanted to talk more on that here but this is too lengthy. Another post I'll discuss the differences between the God of the Universe and the god of Mormonism. We asked to pray for her and she was offended and I explained that I pray for everyone. She still said no but all-in-all, we had a long gospel-centered conversation and she heard the gospel for the first time in her life.

The second day I was having trouble starting conversations with people. So we decided to go onto Church property to take pictures with all the actors. It's so funny. I kept asking them what the costumes are based on "because you can't Google a picture of a Lamanite" because, of course, those groups don't exist. They said they didn't know and that if you tried to Google "Lamanite" you would just find stuff about how crazy Mormon people are. "But we're not!" she insisted. Oh, gotta love them :) So we did that which was a lot of fun! But then we ended up talking with these two girls:

The one girl is one of the stars of the show. She plays a fictional follower of Joseph Smith who falls in love and gets married and then dies and goes to the celestial with her husband. They asked where we were from and since the answers were so diverse, they asked what we were doing. Well, we're planting a church! So I explained what that means and shared the gospel and how much we love talking to people about it and they were super happy about this! We talked for a long while and I found out Becca (the star) is going to BYU and Katherine (the one playing an Indian) is about to go on her mission. I prayed for both of them and shared the gospel there. They were super stoked about it! It was awesome!!! And all of this was done ON LDS property! Woohoo! breakin' the law for Jesus :) Then we went and talked to this old couple who are serving their senior mission. They listened a little bit but they kept cutting us off to bear their testimonies. I really see what God says when he claims people are without excuse. Here he is sending Christians to offer freedom to these people and they actually refuse to listen. I think that God offers us freedom from things that bind us all the time but we refuse to give him the time of day.

Anyways, it was an amazing time of fellowship with believers from all over the country (mostly Iowa for whatever reason) and an awesome time of witnessing. I had only a few really great conversations, but I was only part of that army. I saw my friend Aaron talking with some atheists who were so intrigued they are going to hang out with him soon. So cool. We are going back this week (Thursday-Saturday I think) and are excited to see what God has there. It's amazing. Please pray for miracles to happen at the Mormon Miracle Pageant.

(Dead End...Get it?)

Chi Rho Misfits

God is awesome. I am loving life and learning so much. I am excited for this blog post even though it is 1:15am and I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in a few weeks. God is doing too many awesome things for me to not be sharing it!

Firstly, what I am learning most: We are all works in progress. Wow, I need sleep; it took way too long for me to remember that phrase. Forgive me for messing up idioms or standard English in this post. I’ll do my best. Anyways, duh, yes we all know that. But sanctification is GOD’S work, not ours. So I am starting to look at Christians as God’s workmanship in a new way. Instead of being frustrated by sin, I’m learning to be at peace because in a couple years God will have transformed that part of a person’s life. I don’t need to get bothered by things. For example, today we heard a group of Christians all ganging up and gossiping about a brother and adults and kids were joining in this. That’s a grotesque picture of the church, but God got me excited that he is going to touch the hearts of that group and they will be cured of this. How cool is that! God is the potter and we are the clay. We can’t expect each other to start out as anything but formless ugly lumps. God is not in a rush to sanctify us-we shouldn’t be quite so much in a rush to sanctify each other. That’s not to say that sin should be permitted; I am all for church discipline and trust that to the leadership of the local church especially. But I know that I do not possess the wisdom or maturity to be able to deal with a fellow believer’s sin in any way that is edifying to the Body. I too am a work in progress. I am excited for God to teach me temperance and purity and the other things he has for me. I’m an ugly mass but I’m in the hands of the Master Craftsman. J

Now, what I am loving most: Chi Rho is awesome. I don’t think anyone who has been coming around even knows that name or anything about what the sign represents. But that doesn’t matter at all. There is nothing institutional about this group but God is carrying out the vision he gave us for the ministry. There is a bunch of total misfits that have been coming around the Blue House to hang out and do whatever we have for them. It’s insane. I’ll try to begin to describe the people. We have had two bonfires, a movie night, a hike and some other hang out things and activities in Salt Lake. Basically all that’s happened is that people have been brought together. It’s the greatest. 

Band of misfits: Hmm….I’m not sure how to not be gossipy here. I would like to describe the people coming to these events but I am having trouble. I love, love, love that the people craving community now have one. Basically there are a couple missionaries with no friends. There are a couple Christian girls who grew up in such LDS cultures that they seem Mormon and are craving Christian friendships. There’s a Christian who went to BYU and is goofy and obnoxious but loves Mormons like you wouldn’t believe. Two kids (18 and 20) just got married and left everything and everyone they know in Arkansas to move here a couple days ago. There is a guy with a rough background and his two daughters who love God but have trouble making friends. Two or three guys from my ward have been coming around. Three girls from Intervarsity love to come because it’s the only time someone will listen to them. The crazy LDS lady that I hang out with regularly enjoys the only social interaction she’s ever had outside of family and LDS events. We pulled two Mormon married from their evening walks and hung out with them. My ward missionary has been trying to pursue me, so she’s been hanging out with us more. An LDS guy was walking by tonight so we invited him to join us for s’mores and he hung out for about four hours and told us about how much he hates his life and has no friends. Monday is his birthday and we are going to celebrate it for the first time in his life. My friend Shannon and her fiancé who are ex-Mormons hung out and answered questions and showed us what God is doing in their lives. A couple from England is here for a few weeks ministering to Mormons. We have a team from Arkansas here for the week form Adventures in Missions. An older couple from our neighborhood has been helping us with gardening tools and hung out with us one evening. We went to an Ex-Mormon Meet-up and got to talk with fellow Christians from LDS and non-LDS backgrounds who have a love of sharing the gospel. We met a couple Christians discussing Spurgeon at a restaurant in Salt Lake who were ex-Mormons and completely covered in tats. Um…I have no idea who else….a girl from my ward that I think has AS wants to hang out. Two girls from my old ward that split came by today because they have been thinking about me and wanted to talk with me, so I’ll be hanging out with them.

Basically, God has just started relationships among people that would never have met without this particular ministry. I really do not think that I am doing a very good job of sharing the gospel with my Mormon friends in general. But God didn’t mean for me to do everything on my own. He had me gather together people that all have one thing in common: they have been unwanted in some way by the Utah culture. But Jesus wants them and that’s what we get to be a part of. We’ll offer hang-out time for them several nights a week and I don’t have any doubt that they will keep showing up. I am really having fun, and not just ministry fun, the regular time. God is creating something precious amongst us. Please pray for miracles. He keeps doing it. It’s a miracle that these people were brought together by a few texts and shouts to passersby.

One comment on how great God’s design is for the Body of Christ: I have had trouble being able to talk with my Mormon guy friends. A lot. I didn’t know how to broach the subjects of school, sarcasm and girls. But Colleen’s boyfriend is awesome at it and tonight he was able to really get them to open up about what’s on their hearts and share the gospel to those open hearts. It was great to think about as I was watering and watching them talk. They would not have met if God had not been having me try to hang out with them for months. But all that time I felt like I was failing, God had someone better to share with them than me. I had been obedient with what he called me to all along. There is comfort that God’s plans are way better than ours.

June! No way!

I can't believe it's June 7! It's been almost a month since my last post, my apologies. I cannot begin to figure out what all has happened in that time, but I'll give a few highlights.

1) We planted the garden! That was a ton of fun and I loved every minute of it. We have stuff sprouting and that is super exciting!

2) I went home for Cassie and Pierce's wedding! It was a joy seeing people I love and celebrating with Mr. and Mrs. Rainey :)

3) Colleen came, so now I have a roommate. Last week was mostly relaxing which was great as we settled into the house. I'm excited for what God has for her this summer.

4) Bible Institute is now finished. I'm thankful for the friendships I made there and for the ways I have grown.

5) I had a crazy busy weekend but all of it was fun! Well, not weeding on Friday morning. I was cursing the effects of the fall as Colleen and I were bested by monstrous dandelions and ungrateful plants that left us with lots of thorns as we tried to defend them from foreign invaders. After that I went to the last day of Bible Institute and day care and then went to the high school graduation of an old family friend. Saturday Colleen and I went to her bf's volleyball tournament and got ready for the bonfire. We worked on the garden for about four hours before it started. The bonfire was a ton of fun. There were about 35 people there from various walks of life and I believe everyone enjoyed community with people they would not have otherwise met. It lasted about six hours so it was a long day but it was super fun. One of the Mormon boys started flirting with my Christian friend and now he wants to go on a hike with us this weekend and wants to meet up at the Blue House. She will def not be dating him, but the fact that he's now comfortable enough with the notorious Blue House to come here willingly is exactly what we want. Praise Jesus! My friend Becky from my ward asked me to take her to church the next morning, at the Christian church I've started attending-yay! It was awesome!! She liked it a lot even though it was outside anything she had experienced before. I'm super stoked for that friendship. We went to ward meetings after that and then to a Christian gathering down in Salt Lake where we hung out at a park all day. It was a lovely summery weekend!

6) At Sunday's Sacrament meeting I shared my testimony again. The first Sunday of the month is Fast and Testimony Sunday and that's when Mormons stand up and bear their testimony. Their testimony is, as far as I understand it, the same thing as the burning in the bosom. It's the feeling that the Holy Ghost gave them when they read the Book of Mormon. That is the confirmation that it is true, so since they have been told it is true, they have the right to "bear their testimony" and tell others it's true. It's sort of confusing but I hope that makes sense. Still, it's an open pulpit and an opportunity I took to share Christ. It was announced at the beginning that Elder Porter of the Quorum of the Seventy was presiding. (In the LDS Church, there is the First Presidency which consists of the Prophet and his two councilors, then below them are the Twelve Apostles and below them is the Quorum of the Seventy-basically that means this guy is an LDS bigwig.) I was scared. And to make matters worse, Bishop Priet kept glaring at me to the point where even Colleen was uncomfortable. I think he was worried I was going to speak and embarrass him in front of Elder Porter. I did speak, though, and I don't think I offended anyone. I shared the stuff I'm learning in the garden (the "warm mud" stuff). I don't think many saw the direct challenge to their system of thought, so they were not mad at me. It went well. They aren't used to having people stand up and speak that have any sort of teaching ability (if you haven't been to one before, just know that LDS wards are as boring as watching paint dry), so they do like it when I share. I ended with "Jesus is God" and then walked back to my pew. I had to pat myself on the back for that. During the rest of the meetings, Colleen and I answered most of the questions and were able to share bits of Jesus throughout. It was a pretty good day.

7) We went to Family Home Evening on Monday night and are getting better about befriending those in our ward. Please pray that as it gets warmer, so do the people. I'm excited to have more casual friendships here and as they realize they don't have to fear me, they will be open to finding Christ. It's cool to be an example of what freedom can look like in their lives.

8) The first team is coming this weekend. Please pray!

9) I set up a schedule of Chi Rho activities to do weekly at the Blue House. Please pray for awesome things to happen.

10) Please pray that Saturday is a great day to grow deeper in Mormon-Christian friendships!

11) I started doing the Community Chaplain thing at the mall today. I went to about sixty businesses and explained what it is and gave them my card. Basically I'll be spending Tuesdays at the mall talking to employees and looking for invitations to share Christ by offering a listening ear and helping them with wherever they are at in life. Please pray for miracles there.