For the last 4 months I’ve been training hard for this marathon. I’ve made a couple posts on my blog as to why I’m running the marathon (Why I’m Running The Chicago Marathon) and what I’ve kept on running (Why I Run.).

When I started this training one of my main goals was to support one of the communities that I care about the most. After we adopted Mason from Guatemala we began looking for ways to come alongside the people in the home of his birthplace.

Many of you know we found Lemonade International, who has been doing some amazing work there in the heart of Guatemala City – La Limonada is a ghetto and home to about 60,000 – 100,000 people living in a seemingly endless cycle of extreme poverty.

Lemonade Intl. comes alongside some amazing Guatemalan leaders to educate and empower the families, and especially the children, living in this ghetto.

So, I’m running my 26.2 miles for the 100,000 who are stuck in a cycle of extreme poverty.

I’d love to have you take this opportunity to come alongside me and support this effort. The great thing is that since my fundraising is supporting the new Mi Casita Safe Home, everything you give will be doubled by way of a matching grant Lemonade International received.

Because of this, no gift is too small (and of course, no gift is too large)!

You can give on the Lemonade International website here:
http://www.lemonadeinternational.org/projects/todd-hiestands-marathon/

Thanks so much for considering running with me in this way…

Most of us have heard a variation of this statement: “The United States is becoming increasingly racially and ethnically diverse. To stay ‘relevant,’ we must adapt to this new reality.”

I have often wondered exactly what this statement is supposed to mean for the church. Does it mean that churches filled primarily with white or black persons should somehow forget such folks and focus on other people? Does it mean churches should start playing some imagined stereotypical Hispanic music? It is never clear. Rather, it seems as if the statement is typically more a veiled threat: get hip (somehow) or disappear.

Forget getting hip. The growing diversity is a gift from God, a blessing for the church.

Read More the rest here…

★

Today, I’ve been laying in bed a most of the day recovering from back surgery that I had yesterday.  I had spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spine) plus a herniated disk in the L4-L4 vertebrae that my wonderful doctor kindly fixed for me. I am still a bit sore and kinda doped up on percocet so I hereby am not held accountable for anything I write in this blog post that is offensive or rude or doesn’t make sense!

But, there is one thought that I have been reflecting on a ton the last 24 hours. It hit me yesterday that I am blessed and privileged to be able to get this surgery. I have talked to about 10 or more people who had the same injury/problem I had that have chosen to not get the surgery done due to bad insurance and/or financial reasons. And I live in the suburbs where everything has all they ever wanted (sarcasm).  I can’t help but think of all the people across the world in places like the ghetto in La Limonada and the slums I visited when i was in Zambia who have much, much worse physical conditions than I do.

I am simply broken that they have to continue to live through pain.

So, I guess as I reflect on my surgery, I am thankful to God that I was able to get this done. Thankful that I have relief from pain. At the same time, I mourn for the millions of people around the world that don’t have that same luxury.

I have a renewed sense of thankfulness and respect for the many doctors and nursers who give up their time to visit the poor in places like Haiti, Zambia, La Limonada, West Africa and other impoverished countries to be the healing touch of Jesus there.

It is my prayer that in their poverty, these suffering men, women and children would find and experience the healing touch of the Jesus, our risen savoir, the great physician when no doctors and surgens are available to them.

“Jesus hath many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His Cross. He hath many seekers of comfort, but few of tribulation. He findeth many companions of His table, but few of His fasting. All desire to rejoice with Him, few are willing to undergo anything for His sake. Many follow Jesus that they may eat of His loaves, but few that they may drink of the cup of His passion. Many are astonished at His Miracles, few follow after the shame of His Cross. Many love Jesus so long as no adversities happen to them. Many praise Him and bless Him, so long as they receive any comforts from Him. But if Jesus hide Himself and withdraw from them a little while, they fall either into complaining or into too great dejection of mind.   2. But they who love Jesus for Jesus’ sake, and not for any consolation of their own, bless Him in all tribulation and anguish of heart as in the highest consolation. And if He should never give them consolation, nevertheless they would always praise Him and always give Him thanks.”

I have nothing else to add to this.

La Limonada is known to have the 4th highest murder rate in the world. There is a saying in Guatemala City that “even Santa Claus doesn’t visit La Limonada.” I have shared with a few Guatemalan friends from here in the States that we visited there last summer and their response was “and you are not dead?!”

By all accounts La Limonada is a hopeless place. But, by God’s account, it is a place where He is making beauty out of ashes. A Guatemalan woman named Tita has been serving this community since 1994. She is amazing. We like to call her the Mother Teresa of Central America. She has earned it. You can read the rest of the story here and more about the Ghetto here.

My journey towards this point started before we ever heard of Lemonade International. In 2005 my wife and I started the process of adopting our son from Guatemala.

That experience has made us passionate about our son’s home country. It was in the fall of 2009 that I met Bill Cummings at one of the IdeaCamp conferences. Bill was (and still is) serving as the director of Lemonade International. When I heard he was at the conference I made a mutual friend introduce us. You might say it was friendship at first sight. At least it was for me. Bill can tell if I creeped him out at all. I think within 10 minutes I offered to redesign his website as a gift to his organization (that website was finally launched last November). It was then that I also shared with Bill about how our church was interested in a sustainable long-term cross-cultural partnership with an organization that did not need us, but could benefit from an intentional partnership.

Fast forward 8 months and I had the privilege of leading an amazing team of 13 people from my church on a week of service in La Limonada. Our goal was to figure out if La Limonada was the place that God was calling us to invest long term.

Our week there confirmed that it is to this community that God has called us. We are now on a journey of discovering how we can come alongside the people of La Limonada to help bring hope to a fairly hopeless place.

I was honored when Bill asked me to serve on the board. It is my prayer that I will be able to use the gifts that God has given me to humbly serve and support the amazing people who are working in the Ghetto everyday with some of the most beautiful children in the world.

You are probably asking yourself, “Self, how can I also get involved?”

Well, I am glad you asked!

I would be honored if you would join me in making a donation of $50 to the work in La Limonada today (I am not usually into talking about how much I give and when, but I want you to know I am asking you to do something I just did myself).

But wait, there is more! I have a friend who has promised to give $5 for every person who gives as a result of this post. So, if you give, be sure to mention my post in the notes section of the online giving.

You can do that online easily right here.

★

Some great news! The “Mi Casita” Safe Home has become a reality for the first eleven children who have just moved into the place they will now call “home” – where they will be provided with unconditional love, healthy nutrition, one-on-one attention from a psychologist and a support structure from house parents.

A letter from Tita, the Guatemalan Directory in La Limonada is included in the news post on the Lemonade International blog.  I love the way she writes..

My heart is completely about to explode. I feel lke Jesus is very pleased with this. I can see him smile because he knows that there are some of HIS children at home…

But someone has to do this work someone needs to stand in this gap for these children…

Guatemala sufferes badly from vandelism, but some Guatemalans have not realized that it’s the childhood that is where this starts … and surely it only requires a little bit of sacrifice from each person. I hope that God helps to lift this because we cannot do it alone.

Read more here.

★

For decades, parents have relied on youth group meetings, mission trips, and other church programming to instill a solid sense of faith in their children…

…When researchers consider which factors account for strong faith commitments in teenagers and young adults, one element is consistently more pivotal than all others: parental involvement. Parents who practice faith intentionally at home and guide their children to do likewise are most likely to raise children with clear understandings and robust commitments.

but how many of our churches are effectively doing something about this?

★

★

• Introduction (5/11/2010)
• Part I – Working as Team (5/12/2010)
• Part II – Decision Making and Expecting Change (5/13/2010)
• Part III – Risk and Failure (5/14/2010)
• Part IV – Leading in and With the Congregation for the Sake of Others (5/15/2010)

#10 – We must lead with the belief that “the spirit of God is among the people of God” and not just the leadership team.

Far too often leaders and leadership teams believe that the congregation is dumb and naive. While very few people actually say that, there are those who actually do. Just spend some time at a pastor’s conference where the majority of the pastors are frustrated with the state of their churches. Most of the conversation is about how the “people” don’t “get it” and how they are stuck in the mud and the leader can’t do anything because the congregation is always holding them back. I would suggest that, while this is partially true because of the fallen nature of all of humanity (even the leader!), what is really happening here is that the pastor / leadership team have their own agenda for what God is calling the people to and they are not doing the work of hearing how the Spirit is moving and active among the people.

We find ways to constantly have an ear to the ground and listen to the voice of the community as a whole to see how the winds of the Spirit are blowing among the people. This is a complex task in our setting because of the disconnected nature of our community so we must go out of our way to listen to the stories and hearts of our people. In doing this, we cannot only listen to the loudest voices, we must work hard to hear the voices of the introverts and those on the fringes of the church.

#11 – We cannot not forget that the community (and leadership) is made of fallen people.

As we listen to the spirit of God among the people of God (in the context of the community as well as the leadership) we must constantly be questioning our assumptions about what is right and wrong and reasonable. It would be far too easy to capitulate to the culture if we just assumed that we were all successfully hearing from the Holy Spirit at all times.

#12 – We remember that our leadership is not primarily about taking care of the needs of our congregation but more calling the congregation to care for the needs of those outside our group.

We talk all the time about being a church for the sake of others. We must live that out in how we lead and care for the community. We are not here to cater to their consumer needs, rather we are here to help them care for their neighbor.

#13 – We remember that the most effective apologetic to an unbelieving world is a healthy, kingdom living congregation and that pastoral care and healthy relationships is essential to our witness.

While its true that we don’t cater to our people’s consumer needs, we cannot ignore their needs all together. We have to work hard to cultivate a community that is full of healing relationships. Often this will mean that we focus our energy towards the congregation as we focus outwards also.

Read the whole entire series in one spot here.