The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Central Church Family (Page 46 of 54)

On Sao Paulo

July 30, 2012 / / 1 Comment

I’ve been meaning for a while to post a few pictures from our recent mission trip to Brazil. We actually got home on Friday the 20th, went straight to Blue Sky for lunch and then had Ruby Tequila’s for dinner (we had to replenish.) But, hold on, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Carley and Carrie-Anne and I actually joined our Central youth group at the Itaquera church in Sao Paulo early on Thursday morning. Whitney and Valerie seemed really glad to see us after six days — as glad as they could muster at 7:00 am, I guess. Of course, they already had everything figured out: the language, the food, the church building, the games, and the schedule. So we leaned heavily on them for the first few hours.

Most of that Thursday was spent doorknocking the immediate neighborhoods surrounding the church building, inviting people to Gary’s leadership seminar and the VBS. Lots of kids. Lots of kites. Soccer (futbol!) in the streets. And poverty. Wow, the poverty. God, help me. I forget all the time that I really am in the top five percent of the wealthiest people in the world. I must disappoint him constantly. That night we all split up and went to small groups in the Itaquera members’ homes where we studied from Revelation and ate more snacks and sweets. C-A and I were blessed to spend the evening at Carmen’s home where her kind hospitality blew us out of the water. Fabio, an Adam Sandler look-alike with a personality to match, was there with his wife and children. And it was at Carmen’s house where I shared a Bible with Marcel and his sister, Marianna.

The VBS was Saturday. Carrie-Anne and I planned the entire six hours around the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with the five loaves and two fish. The theme was service to others and the fact that God uses our gifts, regardless of the size, to do great things. So we told the story in a couple of ways, weaved baskets made of yarn, went fishing behind a makeshift puppet stage, ate goldfish and Swedish Fish gummies for snacks, decorated the sidewalks around the church building with colorful chalk depictions of the day’s stories, and sang and sang and sang. We had right at 25 kids, give or take a couple here and there (there was some coming and going involved). And I believe we were all made a little more aware of the grace of our God who somehow makes our meager and shallow offerings worthy of his eternal glory.

I preached for the Itaquera congregation on Sunday. It was a halting sermon marked by fitful starts and stops while Sidney interpreted for the patient brothers and sisters in the pews. I tried to paint a portrait with my words of the mystery and majesty of the Kingdom of God as it had been represented in Sao Paulo all week. Here we were, all in one room, all around the common table, worshiping our one Father. Brown people and white people. Portuguese and English. Young and old. Rich and poor. Corinthians football fans and Santos football fans. Painting together, worshiping together, cleaning, praying, teaching children, eating, singing, shopping together. One people. A family. God’s Holy Spirit is the only one who can do this. This doesn’t happen anywhere in the world. Complete equality. Perfect love. Genuine family. People from different continents with seemingly nothing in common brought together by our God and bonded forever by the redeeming blood of the Christ. That is God’s salvation! We had experienced it all week together. So marvelous. So wonderful. So spectacular. So magnificent. Anticipated by God’s people for so long. To quote the apostle Peter, “Even angels long to look.”

It was a decent sermon. But nothing at all like the illustration that followed. All the Texans and Brazilians on the stage together, singing “Jesus Is Lord” and “The Lord Bless You and Keep You.” Whoa. Powerful. We thought we would really impress them with our singing that one verse in Portuguese. But I was almost driven to my knees in amazement and gratitude and humility when they started singing “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” to us in English. Wow. What a blessing.

The huge church potluck was a feast of food and fellowship, capped by Corbin outjumping Trey and Barrett and out-muscle-ing Blake for the Brazilian soccer jersey. The underdog won it and we were all delighted by his enthusiastic victory strut.

I didn’t learn anything on this trip that I didn’t already know in my brain. But what I actually experienced in my heart, what I felt in my soul, served as an unforgettable reminder that what I know in my brain really, really, really matters. Surrounded by my Brazilian brothers and sisters in Christ, listening to them sing “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” I was reminded that God’s name is praised in Portuguese every day. Every day, our God’s name is praised in Chinese and Spanish and German and English. His name is praised every day on every continent, in every city, in every corner of this world. His name is praised by people of every nation and language and tribe and tongue. You know why? Because he is Lord. He is God. Because he reigns and all the earth is filled with his glory. To belong to God is to belong to something so much bigger and everlasting than most of us can wrap our brains around. We need experiences like our trip to Brazil to remind us how large and eternal is the Kingdom of our God.

What a blessing to be his children.

Peace,

Allan

What´s Sung On The Bus…

July 14, 2012 / / 1 Comment

…stays on the bus.

Grace and peace from Sao Paulo, Brazil. No time this morning to post any pictures, although, even if I had the time, I´m not sure I would know how to do it. I´m typing on a computer in the lobbey of the Blue Tree Hotel, waiting for a few of my Central brothers and sisters to make it downstairs for breakfast before we head out for a pretty big Saturday.

Gary´s leadership seminar started off with a bang last night. Today is the main day for that. We´re expecting about a hundred folks for his lessons and Carrie-Anne and I are looking for about 50 kids to teach and entertain during a sorta-kinda VBS.

We have cleaned and spruced up much of the church building here, we´ve painted one of the classrooms, doorknocked the immediate area for our children´s programs and our worship time on Sunday, we´ve worshiped and shared together with the local Christians here in their homes, and we´ve learned the local language. OK, we´re learning the words and phrases we really, really need; trying hard not to speak Spanish; and everyone´s being really kind and gracious to us. Last night we actually went to a local English school to help people who are learning it as a second language. I´ll tell your right now, watching Larry Borger teach English to a 75-year-old Brazilian man who´s never even met an American was worth a million bucks!

We´re going to get up front tomorrow morning during our worship time together and sing Jesus Is Lord in Portuguese. We´re praying that it blesses the church family here that has been so kind and generous to us. After a few practices on the bus last night, we´re not so sure it´s going to bless anybody. Maybe we´ll just let Blake do it solo.

Graca y Pas,

Allan

Gone Pecan!

July 11, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Carrie-Anne, Carley, and I are headed to Cheddar’s this afternoon for our last American meal for ten days (I lost; I wanted Blue Sky) before settling in for an almost twelve hour flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil. We’re excited to see Whitney and Valerie and the rest of our Central church youth group. We’re ready to hear the stories and get caught up on what God is doing there with and through our great friends. And we’re very much anticipating the rest of what the Spirit of our Father has in store.

I do know that trips like this, especially all five of us together, will shape us as a family more into the image of our risen Lord. We’re going to see up close what our God is doing outside of our American Church of Christ box. We’re going to experience the Kingdom of God more fully than we ever have before. We’re going to sing and worship, study and pray, laugh and cry with brothers and sisters in Christ who don’t speak our language. And we’re going to come, as a family, to a far greater understanding of the magnificent scope of his redeeming work in this world.

We’re also going to realize that it’s possible to survive for ten days without Dr Pepper. I hope.

The blogging will be sporadic at best for the next week and a half. Pray for the hearts of the people in Brazil — those brothers and sisters we’re going to encourage and those outside the Kingdom we’re trying to reach for our Christ. And ask our God to transform our group from Central, to do more with us than we could ever begin to ask or imagine.

Peace,

Allan

Central to Sao Paulo

July 6, 2012 / / 2 Comments

Our congregation’s partnership with God and the redeeming work he’s doing in Brazil is something we at Central truly treasure as a legacy that’s been handed down to us and is worthy of our honor and respect. We’re grateful for the ones who took the Gospel to Brazil ahead of us; we’re so thankful for the formation of Great Cities Missions; we’re honored to join forces with the great Christian missionaries who have sacrificed and served in Brazil in the name and manner of our King. What a tremendous blessing!

And now we’re personally rolling up our sleeves to join that venture in the flesh.

A whole bunch of our Central teenagers and just enough adults to make it work took off this afternoon for Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil. Our two oldest daughters, Whitney and Valerie, are right in the middle of it, excited for the chance to meet our missionaries down there and to work with them in showing the more than eleven-million people in that city the love and grace of God. They’ll be painting rooms at a church, playing with kids at an orphanage, and putting on a VBS for the community. There will be worship time and service time, prayer time and door-knocking (clapping) time. They’re going to Brazil to help change things for Christ.

Carrie-Anne and I send them to Brazil hoping our Christ uses this time to change them, to shape them, to further transform them into the image of our Lord. We pray that our King uses them to his eternal glory and praise, but that he also uses this opportunity to show them what a huge eternal Kingdom we belong to. I want my girls to experience personally what God is doing in other countries, in other cultures, in other ways. I want them to know first-hand that we Christians in America are not the only ones that matter. I want them to see that God works in ways that are wholly unfamiliar to us. I want them to be convinced that God loves all mankind as much as he loves them (us). I want them to be certain that Christians in the United States don’t have the market cornered on God, that none of us has him or the way he operates figured out and neatly packaged in a convenient and comfortable pattern we can all identify and feel good about. I want them to see — to really see! — that our God is wild and he’s on the move; he’s unpredictable and unstoppable; he’s bigger and better and more wonderful than we’ve ever imagined; and he is saving his children of every tongue and nation and tribe and land without discrimination and without end.

God, please show them your glory.

Carrie-Anne and Carley and I are leaving Amarillo Wednesday to hook up with this group in Sao Paulo and, after four days, take Whitney and Valerie with us to catch the first four days of another Central group’s trip to Brasilia. And we can’t wait. What a joy, to be able to share this life-changing, spirit-transforming trip with our entire family! Thank you, Central! Thank you, Lord!

Yes, we really did just put our two oldest daughters on a plane to Brazil with Adam Gray.

And we’re so full of gratitude and peace. May our God’s will be done in Sao Paulo and in Amarillo and in the lives of his children in both places just as it is in heaven.

Peace,

Allan

Cheering the Runners

June 29, 2012 / / 1 Comment

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on… let us encourage one another.” ~Hebrews 10:24-25

Our summer Wednesday nights at Central are intentionally focused on getting our church family together; on breaking down the barriers between generations and zip codes; on putting away the distinctions; on bringing together all ages, races, cultures, economic groups, and social classes to celebrate the divinely-ordained diversity with which we’re blessed in this body of Christians. And this week’s version of Running the Race — we called it “Cheer the Runners: Encouraging One Another” — surpassed by far our expectations.

For the evening meal, we asked everyone in our church family who was baptized 50 years ago or more not to wait in line to serve themselves, but to sit down at the designated tables so the rest of the congregation could serve them. And we did. We served up tons of brisket and potato casserole and strawberry shortcake. And after we all ate together, we sent these older saints into the foyer of our chapel. While the rest of us gathered in the pews, our older brothers and sisters were outfitted behind the foyer’s closed doors with “runners tags,” big numbers to wear on their chests declaring how many years they’ve each been running the race. Meanwhile, I prepped those of us waiting in the chapel for what would come next.

Johnny led us in the singing of Come, Thou Almighty King and then Greg opened up the back doors and here they came! Right down the long south aisle of our 83-year-old chapel. 60-year-Christians! 70-year-disciples! A couple of 74 and 73 year followers of our Christ! And we let them have it! A standing ovation. Clapping. Cheering. Whistling. Stomping. High fives and hugs. Salutes and pats on the back. Yelling. Hollering. Smiling. Laughing. Nearly 70 of our dearest, sweetest brothers and sisters entering our place of worship to such a roaring welcome. Three hundred more of us cheering them on!

It took a little longer than I thought it might. But if it had lasted three hours, I’m convinced we would have kept clapping and whistling. And everybody in the room would have kept smiling.

Once these dear saints got grouped up at the front of the chapel, we sang to them:

“We love you with the love of the Lord. We see in you the glory of our King. We love you with the love of the Lord.”

And then we all sat down together and raised the roof in beautiful song, praising God and encouraging one another.

Next, we ran around with a couple of handheld microphones and asked these older members to fill in the blanks: My favorite thing about Central is __________. I once was __________, but now I’m __________. I’m encouraged when I see younger people __________. They really opened up with us. They shared their hearts and their emotions. They shared with us their joys and sorrows, their laughter and their tears. More than a few of them expressed gratitude for having once been uncertain about their eternal salvation, but now being completely confident in the promises of our God. A lot of them spoke of their admiration for our elders and ministers. There were many comments about the faithfulness of this church. There were several observations regarding the blessing of so many young families and children in our congregation.

And then we younger ones blessed our older ones one more time: We love you because __________. Again, we heard over and over the common themes of faithfulness and love. We’ve watched them run the race. We’ve watched them endure and persevere in faith. And we’ve felt their great love for us. A lot of people in that room have been blessed by the faith and love of these older saints for their entire lives. And I pray we were able to return some of that encouragement and strength Wednesday night.

Later, Mary had us all divided up — intergenerationally, of course! — into 20 groups to create and decorate Running the Race banners, using only the random supplies and following the specific directions provided at each of the decorating tables. It was quite a deal. Young and old, black and white, rich and poor, older saints and brand new Christians, all working together on these little projects and then, with great pride, displaying their banners and posing for the “team pictures.”

It was an extraordinary night. I believe every person who participated Wednesday came away with a strong sense of truly belonging to something huge, something bigger than ourselves, something eternal. I think we also got a real reading on the faithfulness of our God. He really is still alive and still very powerful; he really is still saving people and still bringing his people together to work and worship and, together, change the world. And I believe we got a little glimpse of heaven Wednesday night. We experienced a little taste of the one people around that one table celebrating together our salvation from God in Christ.

We’re doing a church-wide tailgate party on July 11 and prayer-walking our neighborhoods on July 18. Can it get any better?

Truly we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. Let us not grow weary or lose heart. And may we consider how we may spur one another on.

Peace,

Allan

Running the Races

June 18, 2012 / / 0 Comments

We’re finally home now from a ten day family vacation to Orlando, Florida  and back. We put 3,384 miles on the Town & Country and I feel like we did most of it yesterday. I’m very, very glad to be home. We all are. Orlando is great, but there’s not a Dr Pepper to be found there. I knew the Magic Kingdom had a contract with Coke. But so does Universal Studios and, apparently, the entire Central Florida region. It is not the happiest place on earth.

We managed to survive four straight days of Universal theme parks and theme rides and theme restaurants and theme shops. On the way home yesterday we dropped Valerie off at OC for Camp Zenith with all her Legacy friends and made it back just in time to deliver Carley to her “Missions In Amarillo” event here at Central. Now, it’s time to get caught up on this blog. Bear with me, I’ll try to do this in a couple of days.

I want to post a few pictures from our Running the Race kickoff at Central two Wednesday nights ago. I know, these pictures are already old. But, really, this is the first chance I’ve had to even think about posting them since that evening.

We crammed Sneed Hall for the enchilada dinner; we even had to bring in extra tables and chairs. The “Running the Race” headbands were a big hit as surprise door prizes. As always, just click on the pictures for the full size. Copy and use them at your own discretion.

  

I don’t have any pictures of the actual worship time in the chapel. There are lots of those pictures out there. I can report that the chapel was packed. It was buzzing with energy and excitement. It was loud with kids. And the singing was magnificent. Whoa, the singing was good.

Following our worship time, we all headed out to the field behind the Upreach Center for some intergenerational races. Greg and his crew did a great job of organizing four different events in which we all competed in pairs for gold, silver, and bronze medals. In order to foster some of that intergenerational interaction, the rule was that there had to be at least a 20-year age difference between teammates. And it worked!

Josh Dowell and I took the bronze medal in the game’s opening event, a race in which Josh ran the width of the field, did seven circles with his forehead pressed against an upright baseball bat, staggered back to where he blew up and tied a balloon. My job was to sit on the balloon and pop it. Which I did. Nobody blacked out or hyperventilated. Which is a surprise.

Don Evans and I qualified for the medal round in the three-legged-sack race. But, due to some awkward moments at the turn, which, thankfully, all occurred inside the sack and out of sight, we finished fifth. Carley and Shannon actually took the gold in that event. Alas, it would be the last medal of the night for the Stanglins.

Jonah and I didn’t even come close in the golf ball toss. And Leon dropped and broke our water balloon on just the fourth throw into the evening’s final event. He blamed a hangnail or something on his “catching hand.” We’re putting him on the 15-day DL.

It was just the beginning of what promises to be a wonderful summer of exploring and enriching the tremendous blessing God has given us in having a church family made up of five full generations. You know, some churches are made up of only two or three generations. We’ve been blessed with five! And from here on out we resolve together to never take that blessing for granted; we promise to use it to our Father’s glory and to impact all of Amarillo for the sake of his great name; and we intend to enjoy it more and more.

Peace,

Allan

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