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Expect the Unexpected

February 12, 2010 in Random Fun with 64 Comments

Over the years in ministry I’ve found myself in some awkward situations. From having a woman at a funeral home lift her skirt to show me her “scar,” to having someone pull a gun on me during counseling, to patting a baby’s head only to discover the baby was breast feeding. Should I go on? Oh yes, there was the night the state police showed up at my door to inform me a lady had been murdered and the only thing she had on her was my name and phone number. And who could forget the night I drug a girl out of a crack house at 2 am in the morning. I feel like I’ve experienced just about everything.

However, last Sunday, while in India, I once again experienced the unexpected.

On Saturday night I reluctantly agree to speak at a church the next morning. To be honest I was looking forward to just worshiping at a church and soaking in their culture, but I wanted to respect our hosts so I agreed to speak.

I didn’t ask any questions but was still a bit surprised when we showed up at an Anglican church. You have to remember I grew up Baptist. I’ve never been in an Anglican church in my life!

Five minutes later someone is putting a robe on me and I find myself walking down the aisle behind two priest and a man carrying a very large cross.

As we walked down the church aisle I quickly made eye contact with my friends and mouthed “I have no idea what I’m doing.” It crossed my mind more than once during the service that I might be on some kind of prank TV show.

It turned out to be a beautiful worship service. I simply followed whatever the other priest did. When he bowed, I bowed. When he motioned with his hands, I motioned my hands. When he stood up, I stood up.

This was one beautifully awkward moment I didn’t mind being caught on camera.

A Father to the Fatherless

February 9, 2010 in Missions, Parenting with 36 Comments

There are some 11 million abandoned kids roaming the streets of India. I’ve been aware of that statistic for a while but nothing prepares you for meeting it face to face.

This is Puja Ghosh who is just five years old. I had the amazing opportunity to spend some time with her over the past few days and I can confirm that smile is just as beautiful in person.

She lives with a family here in the Khalpar slum who found her in a pile of trash. Her mom literally tossed her out like you would a loaf of moldy bread.

I know many of you have unhealed wounds from your parents. These are deep wounds because your parents are the two people on earth who by God’s design are entrusted to pour unconditional love into your heart. So when that doesn’t happen for one reason or another it bruises our very souls. It can be the deepest of all hurts.

It’s one thing to grow up in extreme poverty.

It’s one thing to grow up in a 3×5 tent.

It’s one thing to grow up wondering where your next meal is coming from.

But it’s a whole other thing to grow up with the realization your mom and dad threw you in the trash. To know you were so undervalued that you were discarded as worthless and left for dead.

Lack of love is the deepest and most painful form of poverty that exists.

I’m so thankful for the family that is taking care of Puja. She goes to our school here in the slum and is actually doing very well. She says she would like to one day be a teacher. I think she’s going to make a great one. I’m also thankful for the wonderful teachers who are pouring into her ever day. Not only will they teach her to read and write but they also share with her from the Bible about this God who claims to be a father to the fatherless. A truth she so desperately needs.

Will you guys join me all over the world in praying for Puja today.

Father God we lift up Puja in prayer to you today. We can’t even being to imagine what all she’s been through in her short life. While my kids have been growing up playing games, being tucked into bed, and flowered with love she’s been searching for food, sometimes sleeping alone, and desperately searching for love.

God, I know you have a plan for her. You allowed her cries to be heard from that pile of trash one day and I believe you’ll now hear our cries for her.

I pray as she deals with the pain of abandonment that she will come into a personal relationship with you, who promises us that you will “never leave us nor forsake us.” I pray as she struggles with not knowing her parents that you God will wrap your eternal arms around her as the Father to the fatherless.

As she grows up and is tempted by her wounds to seek love from loveless people and other things, I pray you will flood her with the thought that you love her more deeply than she can fully comprehend. That you couldn’t love her any more or any less than you do in this very moment.

Amen.

Thank you guys for all your prayers during this trip. If everything goes right I should be back in Nashville later tonight.

Clowning Around

February 8, 2010 in Missions, Spiritual Growth with 30 Comments

Got a call from a buddy right before my trip who in essence said, “Pete why are you going to India right now? You need to be promoting Book #1 and I know your writing book #2. You guys are having record settings weekends at Cross Point, you’re getting ready to open a 4th campus and you’ve got a new teaching series you need to work on. Couldn’t you have found a less busy time?”

He’s got a great heart but I think there was a part of him that felt as if I was almost being a little irresponsible. Almost as if I were clowning around when more important things needed to be tended to. None of his concerns were new to me. I had selfishly thought every one of those things myself.

We tend to put things in categories:

Things that are important. Things that aren’t.
People who matter. People who don’t.

Henri Nouwen explains in Clowning in Rome(which is rocking my world right now)…

Clowns are not in the center of the events. They appear between the great acts, fumble and fall, and make us smile again after the tensions created by the heroes we came to admire. The clown don’t have it together, they do not succeed in what they try to do , they are awkward, out of balance, and left handed, but…they are on our side. We respond to them not with admiration but with sympathy, not with amazement but with understanding, not with tension but with a smile.

The church today is full of lion tamers and trapeze artists whose dazzling feats claim our attention and elicit our applause and yet what the Kingdom so desperately needs is more clowns.

In a way this is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 20: ¹⁶“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” In other words the way up is down.

In God’s Kingdom it’s not the ring leader or the trapeze artist who grabs the spotlight but it’s the clown who simply prays, God may I evoke a smile and awaken hope today, even in a city terrorized by violence, poverty and despair.

I’ve never spent way too much of my life trying to get to the center of the ring. Time to head in a different direction. Time to be a clown!

Red Rover

February 6, 2010 in Missions, Videos with 33 Comments

Laughter may not fix everything, but it sure is a good place to start.

They had never heard of Red Rover in the Khalpar slum until yesterday.

What’s your favorite childhood game?

Mine? Freeze Tag.

Red Rover from Pete Wilson on Vimeo.

More Pastor Then I’ll Ever Be

February 5, 2010 in Missions with 72 Comments

Let me introduce you to Bishal Barik.

This kid grabbed my heart from the moment I met him. Maybe it’s because he’s 8 like my oldest or maybe it’s his contagious smile, but we instantly hit it off. Bishal is a student at the school we’ve started in the Khalpar slum.

His mother abandoned him the day he was born and another family took him in. There were complications with his birth which have left Bishal battling issues with his legs. He walks with a limp and is often in pain after a day of playing outside. He’s in desperate need of physical therapy but obviously that’s just not a reality in his situation. The couple who took him in are both employed and combined make just over one dollar a day.

You’ll have to trust me when I say Bashil is a special kid. When I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up he quickly responded, “I want to be a pastor.” I said, “Why do you want to be a pastor, Bashil?” He said, “Well, because I Iove Jesus.” And boy does he ever! This kid has Jesus written all over him.

Despite his physical hardships and extreme poverty he simply loves anyone and everyone who comes in his path.

His laughter is a sweet sound in a sea of despair.

His kindness is a light in deep darkness.

His joy is a miraculous contradiction in a hopeless slum.

While Bashil dreams of one day being a pastor he doesn’t even realize he’s more pastor than I’ll ever be.

Matthew 22: 37-40
Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

How can you love God and people better today?

Finally Here!

February 4, 2010 in Missions with 29 Comments

Our first day in Kolkata was a tough one. After 30 hours of travel we finally arrived, grabbed a quick shower and headed out to the slum we’ll be working in the rest of our short visit.

The Khalpar slum is currently the focus for Cries of Love. This slum is the home for some 500 people. While most of the men in this community work as rickshaw pullers the women serve as maid servants. While the adults are off working during the day this leaves the some 70 kids in the slum to fend for themselves.

Cross Point is partnering with Cries of Love to provide a school for these kids during the day. The school includes an aged graded curriculum which also features Bible classes and a daily hot meal for these kids. In the future we’re hoping to provide all around health care and nutritional support to the kids as well as vocational training for the mothers so they will be able to live a life with self respect and dignity.

I’m absolutely blown away with the impact this ministry has already had on this community in the few short months it’s existed. I’ll share more soon! Thanks for all the prayers.

Following My Heart

February 2, 2010 in Missions with 34 Comments

Last year I was privileged to travel with Compassion International to India. I could talk about that trip for hours but there were two things I walked away with.

1. Compassion is doing an amazing work. Our family’s compassion child is in India (Sammy) and we’ll continue to support kids through compassion. I love and believe in the work they’re doing around the world. If you’re interested in sponsoring a child in India just click the banner in my sidebar.

2. I was blown away by the extreme hopelessness and paralyzing poverty that exists there. With 25% of the worlds population living in India the ministry opportunities are almost overwhelming. I’ve honestly never visited a place where there was such a heavy spiritual oppression. It took me months to emotionally recover after my last visit.

When our team left India on May 1st I knew in my heart there was still some unfinished work there for me. I knew on the plane ride home there was a burning passion that life could no longer go back to the way it was. I had to get back there as soon as I could. Since then I’ve started a non-profit called Cries of Love to help the children of India to be filled with the Hope of Christ while helping meet their basic needs.

So today, nine months later, I’m finally getting the opportunity to go back. I’m traveling with Jenni Catron, our Executive Director at Cross Point, and Ryan Bult, our Pastor of Missions. Since returning from India not only have the families of Cross Point literally sponsored hundreds of kids in Kolkata, India, but we’ve also helped start a school and feeding center there as well.

We’re going to check on the new work that has been started and also scout out the logistics for future trips we hope to take as a church.

We should be on the ground in Kolkata, India Thursday morning (I think that will be Wednesday night here in the US). I’ll try to blog a few times while there but I believe our internet connection will be unreliable at best. In the meantime I would appreciate your prayers.

1) Pray for our safety. The State Department just released a new travel warning.

2) Pray for our productivity. There are a lot of meetings and decisions that need to be arranged while we’re there. While I believe in the future of Cries of Love there are several things that need to fall into place to ensure the future and effectiveness of this ministry.

Here’s a few posts I wrote on my blog during my last trip to India:

The Source of My Passion
Looking Into The Eyes of Bondage
A Reminder of Nothing
Sometimes I’m Miserable, Poor, Pitiful and Blind

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