Thursday, May 14, 2015

Hinted Intellectualism | Confirmed Vision

*notes on a bow-tie, below

It requires a sense of humor to be here in this place. There are days that seem too hectic, with too many requirements. Each day begins at 6:45 and is filled. I'm an introvert at heart and sometimes I long for a cave on an island. 

And then there are these incredible moments that pull back the veil and I am able to see these days as God sees them. These little glances fill my heart and energize my body. A single student that finds hope, or breaks the grasp of what held her back... these moments are immeasurable.

We are learning to dream big. Giant. Epic. God is showing me a plan that will extend into generations. A partnership between a church congregation and a school... a student ministry that reaches beyond language, nationality, culture, and even denomination... a community center that serves missionaries, churches, and provides students safe, structured, and crazy fun God-focused activities.

I think this may be the role for a person with a sense of humor. Maybe God really does know how to handle me?

Soon we'll be linking up individuals and churches with students in Guatemala, providing partial scholarships along with student and parent commitment and contribution, shaping young lives that will go out and influence a culture and a nation. We empower and serve beside young men and women who will be the change they seek. 

The Shep family is learning (taking a note from my wife's blog) that we are called here to work with students. We are called to live in community. We are the catalysts that reconcile relationships and bind together partnerships. We are kingdom builders.

We've formed an alliance with individuals from the US, and Guatemalans that has come together as an international non-profit, the Guatemalan International Christian Education Foundation. We ask that you begin to pray and to help us network as we prepare our first big steps. 

Sponsor a student. Come down and see the work. Help us source funding for a building. We're dreaming big... and we're doing it with the joy of the lord. We like to refer to that as... our sense of humor. So pray with us. Pray that we follow the will of God and remain in His favor. Pray that if this is the path... that He makes it straight before us.

So tie a bow on your head... and follow me!

Preliminary Sketch - Future Home of Journey Church | Guatemala
Local partnerships with Schools & Missions

2nd & 3rd Floor Classrooms

*To its devotees the bow tie suggests iconoclasm of an Old World sort, a fusty adherence to a contrarian point of view. The bow tie hints at intellectualism, real or feigned, and sometimes suggests technical acumen, perhaps because it is so hard to tie. Bow ties are worn by magicians, country doctors, lawyers and professors and by people hoping to look like the above. But perhaps most of all, wearing a bow tie is a way of broadcasting an aggressive lack of concern for what other people think… A list of bow-tie devotees reads like a Who’s Who of rugged individualists: Theodore Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill and Fred Astaire wore bow ties, as did Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and Paul Simon of Illinois. 


-Warren St John, New York Times






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