Repost: For Such A Time As This

While I’m in Guatemala, I have several guest bloggers to share and a couple of posts from the archives.  Here’s a post I wrote last year about my placement at my job at just the right time.  Here you go…

I like my job.  I get the opportunity to help other people succeed.  I get the chance to support other people.  And I have the privilege of setting a tone and example for others to follow.  I confess that I don’t always get it right.  But I do pride myself on living with integrity and making decisions that represent Godly values and character.

Being in a management role, I have the honor of walking alongside team members as they celebrate the joys of life, but I sometimes have to provide support through their tough times as well.  Yesterday, I received some tough news from one of my team members.  He and his family are facing a very challenging time.  My heart was heavy yesterday when I got the news.  My thoughts and prayers have been with this family yesterday and today.

I don’t know what role I will have in the whole process.  But I do know that I will have a chance to provide workplace support to this individual as he focuses on what really matters at home right now.  Perhaps, I was put in my position a few years ago for just this time.  I pray that for them, and I also pray that I can lead in a way that draws others close to God.

As I’ve been processing this news over the past twenty-four hours, I was reminded of the story of Esther.  Esther was given a chance to be queen at a time when her people (the Jews) were facing persecution.  As a Jew herself, Esther had the opportunity to speak to the king and to sway him to protect the Jewish people.  The story is much more detailed than my explanation, but the gist of the story is that Esther was made queen at just the right time.  This verse from Esther 4:14 echoes this thought:

“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Obviously, my position in management at my company is not quite the same as Esther’s position of queen, but I’m reminded that God can use us where we are at home, at work, in school, in the community.  Are we open to being used by God for His glory?

Where does God have you right now?  How do you sense that God may be using your current position in life to bring Him glory?

Departing Thoughts and Prayers – Leaving for Guatemala Tomorrow

Last night, we had our last team meeting before we depart for Guatemala early (REALLY EARLY) Thursday morning.  (That’s tomorrow!!!)

Our leader and high school youth pastor, Adam, opened up the meeting by asking everyone what they were thinking and feeling as the trip is just about here.

It was interesting to hear responses from the kids and even some of the leaders as the trip is upon us.  Here are some of the things I heard:

• “I’m nervous about not being able to communicate in Spanish with the kids.”
• “I’m nervous about getting sick again.”
• “I still need to pack.”
• “I’m nervous about leaving my family.”
• “I’m so excited!”

It’s kind of interesting to hear some of these thoughts.  If I’m honest, I share many of these thoughts and anxieties.  I haven’t had Spanish in many, many years.  I’m not sure how I’ll be able to communicate with people who don’t speak English at all.  I certainly don’t want to get sick.  I’ll have medications necessary to combat stomach bugs and headaches, but I certainly don’t want to spend my time away sick in bed.  I still need to pack.  I guess that will happen after work tonight.  I’m a little anxious about leaving my wife and son.  I trust that everything will be okay while I’m gone.  But I’ll miss the ability to communicate and to be there to jump in on anything that would arise – even the small things.  I’m super excited as well.  I struggled with sleep last night which I’m sure is normal.  I’m a little nervous about hanging out with teenagers all week.  I don’t know many of these students now, but I’m sure that will change as the week goes on.

As Adam asked the question at our meeting last night.  He commented that it will be interesting to see how these thoughts look after we’ve been to Guatemala.

As I look at many of the thoughts including my own they have such a “ME” focus.  “I’m this…” and “I’m that….”  It’s my prayer that our team is WRECKED by this experience.  I pray that our focus would shift to others first.  I pray that we’d make a difference during our trip to Guatemala.  And I pray that we’d be open to ways that God will transform each of us through this trip which is sure to be adventure.

While I’m away, I have a number of guest bloggers lined up and some other scheduled posts to keep you going.  Please keep visiting here, and be sure to chime in on the conversations sparked by the guest bloggers.  You can also follow the blog of our team at riotmissions.com.  Someone from our team will be posting here daily – at least that’s the plan.

What are you anxious about today?  What are you excited about today?

Book Review: Wrecked by Jeff Goins

I find it incredible that I would be selected to be part of a launch team for this new book by Jeff Goins right before I head to Guatemala where I’ll be working with a team in conjunction with Adventures in Missions, the organization that Jeff works for when he’s not writing books and blog posts.

Wrecked will disturb you.

Wrecked will give you the splash of cold water on your face or the slug to the shoulder necessary to wake you up.

Wrecked will challenge you to consider how God might be calling you to a new, wrecked adventure.  It will challenge you to process experiences differently.  And the book will challenge you to bring others along with you to help them become wrecked along with you.

I really appreciated Jeff’s new book.  Throughout Wrecked, he weaves stories from his own wrecked past in with truths he has learned along the way.  He writes in a style that draws you in from the first page all the way to his personal story on the last pages of the book.

Jeff makes you think differently about your own experiences.  I have had several stories of wreckage from my past floating through my head as I’ve read through Wrecked.  I’ve also been praying that God will wake me up and wreck me – as I head to Guatemala later this week, as I return home from the trip, and as I go on with my life.  I’m also praying that God will use the Guatemala trip to wreck the lives of those going on the trip (32 including 25 teenagers).  And I’m praying that you’d consider picking up a copy of Wrecked and that it would be catalyst for wrecking your life as well.

Here’s the deal:  You can get the first part of the book for FREE.  Just hit this link.  At the bottom of the page, there are directions for getting the first part absolutely free.  Secondly, I want you to buy the book, BUT WAIT!  Don’t buy it until, you read some information on the book’s website.  If you wait until the first week it comes out (which is supposed to be next week), Jeff will send you over $150 worth of additional Wrecked related items at no charge.  Please go to the website for the book.  Plan to buy Wrecked.  And get ready to discover what happens when a broken world slams into your comfortable life.

Do you plan to read Wrecked?  What’s a good book that you’ve read recently?  How have you been challenged in your reading lately?

Stretch Full Throttle Starts This Week!

Many of you are scratching your heads thinking, “Doesn’t STRETCH happen everyday right here on The Stretched Blog?  Why is he saying that STRETCH Full Throttle starts this week?”

Great questions!

If you’ve been around here for more than a year, you may remember that every year for the past several years, my church puts on a fun, free, and fantastic event for middle school students.  The event is called STRETCH (I should get naming rights – just kidding).  STRETCH is a three night event where kids can play all kinds of fun games, eat all kinds of crazy food, listen to great music, hang out with friends, and be stretched in their faith.  This is the middle school event of the summer in our area!

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night this week from 6:30PM – 10:00PM each night on location at our church is the time and place.  If you are entering grades 6 through 8, and you live anywhere near Royersford, PA, you’ll want to make plans to be there.  Trust me, you don’t want to miss this incredible event.  For more detailed information, click here.

To get you excited, here’s a promo video that our student arts director and students pastor put together just for this occasion:

2012 Stretch Full Throttle Music Video from CHRIST’S CHURCH OF THE VALLEY on Vimeo.

If you were a rapper, what would you rapper name be?

Ice Breaker – Wrecked

It’s Friday which means it’s time for an ice breaker question here on The Stretched Blog.  As you read below and recall my post from yesterday, you may see a common word used in both posts.  The word WRECKED is bringing new meeting into my life these days as I read through Jeff Goins‘ soon to be released book, WRECKED.  I’ll share a teaser video at the end of today’s post and a review post in the coming days.  In the meantime, it’s time for today’s ice breaker question.

(For those of you who are new around here, each week I ask a question – an ice breaker – designed to help us get to know a little bit about each other.  I answer the question in the post, and you get to answer the question by leaving a comment.)

Question:  Describe a time when you wrecked a car (or bicycle…or something else).

My answer:  If memory serves me correctly, I’ve had two car accidents in my life.  Neither of them were fun, but the first one was an especially memorable crash.  Two weeks before my wedding day, I was traveling into Philadelphia to meet up with my soon-to-be bride (Leanne).  I had just spent the night with my college roommate (and best man) at my new apartment, and I was traveling down a busy stretch of highway known in our area as The Roosevelt Boulevard.  I was driving my mint green Ford Taurus which I had recently purchased in an effort to get out of a lease situation on my previous vehicle.  Even though I purchased the car used, I think it only had 5 or 6 thousand miles on it at the time of the accident.

I noticed that traffic coming the other way was stopped as I approached a hill.  You think I would have slowed down, but I didn’t.  As I came up over the crest of the hill, there was a car parked in the left lane.  I tried to stop, but there wasn’t enough time to slow my car.  I was probably doing 50-60 miles an hour when I plowed into the back of this parked car.  My airbags went off, my hood flew open, my car immediately stopped, and I went into shock.  Through the smell of the airbags and the floating smoke that lingered in my car, I emerged from my smashed up Taurus only to discover that the car I had hit was gone.  Yes, it someone drove away and left the scene of the accident.

The police, ambulance, and tow truck showed up.  There weren’t many cell phones at the time, so I had no way of contacting my fiance to explain why I was late.  Eventually, I showed up at our rendezvous location in the front seat of the tow truck.  It was an interesting ride home and an interesting introduction into the two-week period that led up to our wedding.  My car ended up being fixed despite over $11,000 worth of damage.  I’m still not sure why they didn’t total the car.  It was never the same again.  It was WRECKED!

Now, it’s your turn to answer today’s question.  But before you leave your answer in the comments, check out this video about a new book that I’m very excited to share with The Stretched Community:

WOW! Guatemala Goal Met!

For those of you who have been following along, The Stretched Community has been working together to fund the costs to build a house in Guatemala.  If you read my post this morning, you may have noticed that we still needed $2,550 to meet this target.

Well…

You stepped up!  The goal was met as of 1:36PM today!

Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

I am amazed and blown away by the power of taking a leap of faith and by the power of community.

Thanks to your generous support, The Stretched Community will be responsible for building a house in Guatemala.

The goal has been met, but there’s still an opportunity to be involved.  You can give towards another home by hitting the fundraising page, and you can definitely pray for our trip.  My post from earlier today provides some specific prayer requests.

God is great!

When was the last time you were blown away?

Guatemala Update: 1 Week To Go!

One week from today, I will be leaving bright and early in the morning (2AM to be exact) from our church’s parking lot to catch a plane in Newark, NJ as I head down to Guatemala with my daughter and the rest of our team.  How did this happen so fast?

My daughter is mostly packed.  But I still have a lot to do to get ready.  I still need to pack.  I need to finalize plans for the Stretched blog while I’m away (thanks to those who have offered to guest post in my absence).  I need to get a haircut, and I need to pick up a few essentials required for the trip.  It is sure to be a busy week!

From a fundraising standpoint, we are still trying to see if we can raise enough money through The Stretched Community to pay for one of the houses we’ll be building while we’re there.  We still need $2,550 which may seem like a STRETCH, but I think we can still hit the mark.  Please consider how you might be able to help to close this gap.  If you’re interested in giving, you can contact me or you can go to my fundraising page to learn more.  Thanks!

As an update on our itinerary (so you’ll know how to pray each day), here’s our rough schedule:

• Thursday (7/26) – Travel
• Friday (7/27) – Home build with Casas Por Cristo
• Saturday (7/28) – Home build with Casas Por Cristo
• Sunday (7/29) – Church, Home build with Casas Por Cristo, and possible visit to Mayan ruins
• Monday (7/30) – Bible School/Kids Camp in the AM (we’ll be using the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego throughout the week), Football Camp in the PM
• Tuesday (7/31) – Bible School/Kids Camp in the AM, Football Camp in the PM
• Wednesday (8/1) – Bible School/Kids Camp in the AM, Football Camp in the PM
• Thursday (8/2) – Bible School/Kids Camp in the AM, Football Camp in the PM
• Friday (8/3) – Travel Home

You can continue to pray for the following as we head on our trip:

• Pray for safety for our team as we travel.
• Pray for effectiveness as we minister to families and kids in Guatemala.  We especially want to share God’s love with the families who will get the homes and with the children who will attend our camps.
• Pray for the impact on our team – may we be WRECKED!  (I’ll share more about WRECKED in the coming days.)
• Pray for Leanne and Isaac at home that they would have a safe and fun time together, and that I would have peace of mind while we’re apart.

I think that does it for this Guatemala Update!  Thanks so much for being part of the journey.  I can’t wait to share with you all about the trip when we return.

Have you been on any mission trips?  Where and when?  What did you do to prepare for these trips?

Kids Camp Olympics Starts Today!

My housing is buzzing early this morning as my wife and kids prepare for the first day of Kids Camp Olympics.  For the next three mornings, they will be getting up early and heading over to the campus of Christ’s Church of the Valley in Royersford, PA to meet up with over 500 other volunteers and over 1000 kids to run around, play wild games, sing songs, and learn about Jesus.

This year, Kids Camp is using the Olympic theme to get the message across.  So the kids will be teaming up with other members of their “country” for games that are sure to include obstacles, water, and possibly some mud.

If you live within 10-15 miles of Route 422 between King of Prussia and Pottstown you should consider coming on over to the camp.  To learn more, clink on this link.  If you can’t make it today, don’t miss Thursday and Friday (it’s not too late)!

Here’s a promo video to get you excited!

2012 Kids’ Camp Olympics Promo from CHRIST’S CHURCH OF THE VALLEY on Vimeo.

Is your church doing any camps this summer?

Beers, Brothers, and Bible Study

During our vacation, we stayed with my sister-in-law and her family for a couple of days in Columbia, SC.  It was fun to catch up with my nieces and to get a glimpse into the lives of our extended family.

As part of the visit, I was invited to attend a men’s Bible study group where they were discussing the attributes of a Biblical man and husband.  The discussion was interesting, and I definitely left the meeting challenged to step up in my role as a husband.

But there was something else that happened at the meeting that really got me thinking.  As the men were filing into the house where we met, we small talked about the newest Burger joint to open up in Columbia, the latest happenings in their church community, and the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State latest news.  As the small talk continued, the host came out with cookies and chips.  And then two six packs of beer emerged from the kitchen that were strategically placed by the chips.

As the meeting started, a few guys grabbed a beer without a second thought.  Not everyone participated in the beer, and it was certainly not forced on anyone nor was it the focus of the meeting.  I just thought it was a great way for guys to be guys – a way to help some guys feel a bit more comfortable with the group.

I’m not sure if there’s any Biblical evidence, but I suspect there would be wine or other alcoholic beverages when Jesus gathered with his disciples.  Can’t you just see Peter commenting to John about the great taste of the 4 B.C. wine?

I realize that this could be somewhat controversial for some.  After all, the Bible clearly states that we shouldn’t do anything that causes another brother or sister to stumble.  So having beer or wine at a small group meeting could be somewhat risky.  But I also wonder if the risk is worth it people who are far from God are drawn one step closer to Him, because they feel comfortable and welcomed by a group of guys doing what guys do – talking about sports, drinking a beer, and talking about things that matter.

What do you think?  Have you ever had beer at your small group meeting?

Digital Detox … I’m Back From Vacation

I’m back!

Vacation to South Carolina was wonderful.  I truly enjoyed the break from just about everything.  If you followed along.  I used the time of vacation to take a break from the block and just about everything social media and digitally related.

What did that mean?

Well, here’s a rundown:

• The Stretched Blog had the worst week of traffic ever.
• The Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook Fanpage “People Reached” statistic dropped by over half.
• My Klout score dropped by a point.
• My Empire Avenue “stock value” dropped by 3e.
• I missed out on many new blog posts.
• I fell behind on my e-mail both personally and for work.
• Essentially, I lost ground – from a digital perspective.

But…

• I spent uninterrupted time with my family.
• I enjoyed floating in a lazy river.
• I read most of Bob Goff’s book, Love Does.
• I played in the warm ocean waves of Surfside Beach, SC.
• I sat on the beach – and I even got a little sun tan and some sun burn.
• I played miniature golf at a cool course in Myrtle Beach, SC.
• I slept in.
• I ran along the ocean.
• I laughed, lived, and created new memories with my wife and kids.

So was the digital detox worth it?

Absolutely.  It was a bit of a challenge at first.  I haven’t taken a real break from the blog in about a year.  And I’ve certainly plugged into social media and to many other blogs over the past few years that I’ve tracked and added to on a nearly daily basis.  But as the week went along, it became a bit easier.  I really needed the rest, and I especially needed the time to focus completely on my family.

I’m still processing what that means for the future.  I still intend to write every day.  I still intend to be engaged through social media.  But I need to find the right balance.  This time of digital detox was a great reminder.

Will I do this again?

Well, actually, yes.  I won’t have a choice in just over a week.  I’ll be heading to Guatemala with my daughter on our church’s high school missions trip.  I’ll be unplugged for just over a week.  But, it will be okay.  I have a couple of great guest bloggers lined up.  (I could use a couple more if you’re interested!)  Besides, I’ll be hanging out with my daughter doing some great things!

All in all, I’d recommend an occasional digital detox.  It will give you new perspective.  I will give you more opportunity to get back to living.  It will still be here when you get back.  Go for it!

Have you ever taken time for a digital detox?  How did it go?  Was it difficult or easy to let go of everything?  What did you learn from the experience?

(What was your favorite repost that ran over the past week or so?)