Archive for February, 2010

The Long Defeat

February 27th, 2010

I am moved by music with a lyrical story. I love it. I was reading one of my favorite missionary blogs, The Livesay Weblog. I don’t really know these people and they certainly do not know me … but I do enjoy reading about their lives. I was kicking around in their archives and found a post entitled … The Long Defeat, that referenced a song by Sara Groves … by the same title. As I listen to this song, I knew that this composer had walked the same stretch of ground that I had and seen the same sites.

I will post the lyrics at the bottom … but, one line in the song stabbed me in the heart … and I actually commented “wow”, the first time I ever heard it. “I just can’t fight when I think I’ll win”. That truth is so amazing to me … that someone wrapped up a very complex current dilemma in my life with one line of lyric.  Sometimes it gets so frustrating … living the same thing week in and week out … sometimes not seeing any progress in your situation. No solutions. All you get is … “just keep walking in the light, and trusting God.” But God! I need to know where I am going and what the purpose of all this stuff is … it is too heavy. Just keep moving.

Some may read this and totally not get it or miss get it. If you have ever struggled or suffered … you will. Here are the lyrics … find a mp3 and get a listen. Hope it helps you like it did me. — wg

I have joined the long defeat
That falling set in motion
And all my strength and energy
Are raindrops in the ocean

So conditioned for the win
To share in victor’s stories
But in the place of ambition’s din
I have heard of other glories

And i pray for an idea
And a way i cannot see
It’s too heavy to carry
And impossible to leave

I can’t just fight when i think i’ll win
That’s the end of all belief
And nothing has provoked it more
Than a possible defeat

chorus

We walk a while we sit and rest
We lay it on the altar
I won’t pretend to know what’s next
But what i have i’ve offered

And i pray for a vision
And a way i cannot see
It’s too heavy to carry
And impossible to leave

And i pray for inspiration
And a way i cannot see
It’s too heavy to carry
And impossible to leave
It’s too heavy to carry
And i will never leave

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Posted in missons

Change

February 19th, 2010

I put this quote on my facebook status this morning after pondering it’s truth for … a while.  “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.” The statement was written by Anatole France, a french poet, journalist and novelist. It seems like my life is always changing. For the most part I like change. I like new things, new adventures. But there is a part of the change process that I have never been able to describe until this morning. Mr. France identified for me perfectly. Change has it’s melancholy. Melancholy, the word, has a root in the greek which carries the meaning … sadness, literally “black bile”. How’s that for a word picture? Even though I embrace change in my life … there is always that “reaction” point where you shift from thinking about change … to the actual process. Sometimes circumstances dictate that process … sometimes we voluntarily choose to jump down the rabbit hole.

I look around at a lot of people I know … and I have to confess … it seems they never change. Why, I don’t know. Maybe they resist it or are content. I probably am just a restless soul always feeling I ‘need’ to make a difference in the world around me. When I coached, one of the things I could not stand was to see players just standing around while coaches worked with other players … I would go off on them and yell … “do something, even if it’s wrong, just move.” That just how I feel inside at  times. Sorry guys.

The black bile of change is the dieing process of one idea or part of your life. It is painful … for myself and others around me. We have to remember that every decision that we make causes a chain reaction that effects others. So when change is happening in me … it is also happening with my wife, my kids, with everyone that has close contact with me.  Even if that change is good … there is still a dieing process. I think that is what Christians speak of when they say “I’m praying for a door to open” or “waiting on a door to open” … in essence the black bile of change has crept into their thoughts … and we know that change is now inevitable … and man, we are looking at where “the change” is about to happen. If you are a believer in Christ and the providential hand of God … that is a good thing because you know that God is engineering circumstances to point you in the right direction. If you don’t believe that way … then you are probably making your own way and chalking it up to the winds of fate. Me, I would rather trust in my faith. It has not let me down.

In reading the above to Lori, at this point, she reacted “wow, that’s heavy”. I was put back … really, I don’t think it’s heavy. Honestly, I think it’s refreshing to be able to identify what is happening in me and be able to describe it. Personally it puts a sign on heart saying … I am still in process, come back later and see what happens.

Anyway, embrace change or not … you don’t really have choice … just thought it helpful to know that “Change is inevitable, accept from the vending machine.” (via Robert C. Gallagher).

wg

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Posted in Uncategorized

If you say go

February 15th, 2010

In praying this morning, this song came to my heart. I keep asking myself and the Lord … “is it just me that wants to go to Haiti? or is this your will? … then I thought, what a stupid thing to ask after the Lord has given us a mandate to care for those who can not help themselves. Here’s a tip … don’t keep asking the Lord a question that He has already answered. I should know that.

If You say go, we will go
If You say wait, we will wait
If You say step out on the water
And they say it can’t be done
We’ll fix our eyes on You and we will come

Your ways are higher than our ways
And the plans that You have laid
Are good and true
If You call us to the fire
You will not withdraw Your hand
We’ll gaze into the flames and look for You

Since my last post, I have to say, that things are frustrating to me. The NGO’s and ministries that I have been TRYING to get in contact with are pretty much dead end streets. They all say (in their tweets and facebook status) we need you to come, we need you … but most that I have contacted or tried to contact … don’t even respond back. I guess they are too busy. So … I am going … even if I have to go Abraham style … just walk. God never said Go … if you can get support, or approval, or partners … so, that is what I am doing.

I am planning my own media trip for March 2010. My team (me, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) will be going to Haiti to see  the possibilities of starting a vocational school for the young people of Haiti. I think I know enough people in the tech field that we can establish mission trips to train Haitian young people how to do a myriad of things … from computer repair, to screen printing, to art, to music. Anyway, that’s what I got.

I will be preparing to get things together in the next few weeks. Shots, and all the stuff the CDC says I need to get ready. I hope to partner up with a local pastor in Haiti to help … but, I don’t even have that yet. But it will happen. It will cost about $1,000 the way I count it. Airfare, transport in PaP. Plus I want to help out these missionaries there that need tools for rebuilding. Hammers, saws, general carpentry hand tools … more about that later when they send me their wish list.

I’m going to put up this donation button that you can do if you want through paypal. It would be appreciated … but it’s not a … if you don’t send the money I can’t go thing … cause, I’m going no matter what. Faith is a funny thing like that.

Haiti Relief Trip – Wayne Gooden

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Posted in missons

Mesi

February 1st, 2010

It’s Haitian creole for thanks … and yes, it is spelled correctly. I thought it proper to give you some insight into my life today. To most of my friends, you may have felt that my life has been on hold for the past few years after leaving my ministry post. It doesn’t seem like years since we left Deerwood. It seems like minutes … or at best a month or two.  But, it’s true … it has been years since I stood behind a pulpit every week and preached. Our journey certainly has not been idle … and ministry still abounds from us whether we like it or not … why do I say this … because “He who begins a good work in us is faithful to complete it.” We have served in several capacities in local churches … helping where we can, supporting our selves through our tent making endeavor of printing tshirts.

My ‘off the menu’ trek has taken me back to things that I brought before the Lord many, many years ago … one being a MasterLife training conference that Lori and I attended taught by Avery Willis and Henry Blackaby. Wow, was that a weekend. During one of the small group sessions that Avery taught … Lori and I both were struck with a deeper call on our lives to missions. We left the conference … back to our nice church office, nice home, nice family, nice cars … and pretty much dodged the bullet and got by in our hearts by doing some short term work here and there and leading our churches to give more money to missions.

Let me digress here a sec … God is not a tyrant or a big baby … you can serve Him anywhere in a myriad of capacities … and He is not disappointed in you and withholds nothing. The gnawing of obedience is in yourself. God blessed our minsitry and the lives that we had the opportunity to put into was tremendous. But … as my U2 mantra rang in my head and heart … “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

Now, I don’t know what you feel about the providential hand of God, but I see it every day … guiding … not pushing … but funneling me to the inevitable aspects of obedience. The Haiti earthquakes were devastating and the loss of human life is heart breaking. What good could come from that catastrophic disaster? I could not even begin to tell you what God has shown as to the good that will come from these earthquakes.

In recent months Lori and I have felt that our place within the church has been filled with an abundance of young preachers and tremendous worship leaders … that’s what we have done all of our lives. But man … there are some very talented and gutsy guys out there that God is using.  So we began to feel that God wanted us in deeper … to the base level of peoples needs … pre-church, pre-convert … at the hurting level of humanity. With me … it always starts with a dream. I woke up one morning … sat up in bed and said … “water wells” … “I want to learn to drill water wells.” I pretty much can learn anything I put my mind and heart to … and this seemed like a mandate from God … so, it was not an option for me.

The need for clean water in the world is tremendous. Africa needs a millions new wells. That’s just one spot in the world. Haiti needs water. I have no idea where else God may lead me … but, now I am ready. After losing 75lbs, getting healthy, training for marathons, beating my body into submission … I am getting ready for the next big mission. Come on, Wayne … you are 53 … you need to be thinking about retiring. Nah, retirement is for old people. I’m not old.

Jordan Ogden, pastor at Mercy Place in Dallas (my last ministry post), has agreed to allow me to work under the covering of the Mercy Place. For prayer, physical, emotional support as well as a financial clearing house for raising support. We are on our way.  I am in the process now of, as Blackaby puts it … finding out were God is at work and joining Him . I want to get my feet wet in water well drilling. I am praying about several good ministries to get put into my training and learning a great deal on my own.

So, I write this today to my friends, the body of Christ, for support, encouragement, and networking. If God moves you with any hint of someone that could help me at this point … you know me. I will follow it.

that’s it

(oh don’t worry about the tshirt thing … we will keep printing … I even have a dream of training indigenous artisans how to screen print as a vocation)

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Posted in family

One million water wells needed

February 1st, 2010

Experts are saying that Africa as a country will need to drill up to a million boreholes to supply them with enough safe and clean drinking water over the next ten years. Estimates for Ethiopia by itself has been said to need 80,000 boreholes for water wells.

This amount of well drilling will supply the country with safe clean drinking water. Just for Ethiopia alone an investment of a billion dollars is said to have to be raised to pay for this over the next decade.

It’s a sad fact that 6000 African’s die each day through drinking dirty unsafe water. The African people have to walk miles and miles to fetch this water in cans or plastic containers, this water if often unclean and not fit for human consumption, but often there are no alternatives.

The average person in this country probably needs to drink about 2 liters per day to maintain life but In Africa the people will need to drink more because of the extreme temperatures.

In the United Kingdom we have little appreciation for our water supply. Just think about how much water is wasted everyday in our daily routine, for example we can use 8 liters per flush of our toilet system although new w/c’s are only permitted to flush 6 liters and when code 4 building regs comes into to place this will then be reduced to 4 liters, leaving the tap running whilst brushing our teeth can use up to 10 liters of wasted water if you clean your teeth properly i.e. brushing for up to two minutes.

The Environment Agency has stated that as an individual every person in the United Kingdom uses an average of 140 liters per day wow! When was the last time you went to the tap and started trying to consume this amount, the most I can drink is about two liters of water a day and that is in tea.

What’s left from what the average individual in the UK drinks is 138 liters, this is probably used up with toilet flushing; cleaning teeth, car washing, leaking taps, broken mains, etc.This list could be endless.

Imagine if you could save half of this wasted water per day and ship it to Africa in a container ship, this would amount to around 70 liters per person per day and would go a long way to combat Africa’s water shortage.

Another way to help this problem would be to donate say £1 per person per year, just from the Untitled Kingdom alone this will be a figure of £60 Million per year and go along way with supplying Africa with drilling rigs to drill their boreholes and also supply them with the necessary training to be able to drill a water well successfully.

We are just average people, living in our own little world in an affluent society carrying out our busy daily routines. When we get 5 minutes to ourselves just sit back and look at how fortunate we are, then compare our lives to the less fortunate and the needy. The ones that have no taps to turn on, the ones that walk miles and miles a day to fetch water.

Remember always, water is a gift of nature; it is just harder for some people to get than others.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adrian_Dunne

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Posted in missons, news worthy, water

A Good Plan Gone Bad

February 1st, 2010

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) — Ten Americans detained and accused of child trafficking in Haiti after they allegedly tried to bus 33 children into the Dominican Republic insist their effort was an attempt to get the children to a shelter.

But Haiti’s prime minister said Sunday that the group was kidnapping the children.

“From what I know until now, this is a kidnapping case,” Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN. “Who is doing it — I don’t know. What are the real objectives or activities — I don’t know. But that is kidnapping and it is more serious because it’s involving children,” he said.

“The children certainly were not fully willing to go, because in some cases, from what I heard, they were asking for their parents, they wanted to return to their parents.”

U.S. embassy officials visited the Americans over the weekend at a jail near the airport in Port-au-Prince, where they are being detained. They are being treated well and are holding on to their faith, the Americans said.

“We came into Haiti to help those that really had no other source of help,” Laura Silsby, a member of the Idaho-based charity, New Life Children’s Refuge, told CNN on Saturday.

“We are trusting the truth will be revealed and we are praying for that.”

The group of five men and five women said they were trying to move the children to the Dominican Republic in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake that devastated parts of Haiti, flattening the capital and killing tens of thousands. But a Haitian judge has charged the 10 with child trafficking, they said.

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince said Sunday that the Americans have been detained for “alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration.”

“God is our provider and God gives us strength and comfort,” said Carla Thompson, one group member. “We have our Bibles and we are OK.”

(there is more to this story here)

source: cnn.com http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/31/haiti.border.arrests/index.html

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Posted in news worthy

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