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  • ivanildotrindade 6:10 pm on May 16, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Back to Church… After 1.5 Years — Part 3 

    My heartfelt thanks to Julie for being so open and unafraid in her posts here the last couple of days. If you read on, you will find out why I said that after reading your account you would wonder whether YOU had been to church any time in your life. Okay, before you get too excited, Julie’s church is somewhere overseas, so unless you want to fly there, you will have to find a vibrant church closer to home!

    “My experience in returning to church…. I have had three best days in my life. Two were the births of my daughters. One was my first date with my partner. These days had not been surpassed — until yesterday. It was the most amazing experience of my life. 

    I so expected to be walking through flames, to be attacked, to emerge afterwards charred and worn-out. Instead, I found myself fully-alive, fully-connected, fearless, and fully-loving to all. I attended those who needed most attending to. It was like an amazing roller coaster ride. Thrilling. Exciting. Laughter-producing. Sweet. Tearful. Ecstatic. Gentle. 

    There was a sharing that came from me that I had never experienced with this degree of richness and authenticity. There was a Spirit of love and rip-roaring courage that I had never experienced from a leader or from any other pastor in my life. I felt like I was home. It wasn’t expected. It wasn’t needed. It was just there. Fully. Majestically.

    It was familiar and well-worn territory, but all new. It was not awkward, which was so weird. It was exciting because I was excited and we had a true follower of God in our midst. It was nurturing because I was nurturing. I threw out attention and love and hugs like they were water, expecting nothing, receiving all. It was freeing and freedom filled because I was no longer afraid of others. My fear had been replaced with knowing and loving. I wasn’t at like my experience of going back to my hometown. Sure, there was familiarity, but the Holy Spirit was so present it just made you want to reach out and touch Him.

    I mentioned to you before  that I was curious to see who I had become and who I could be. Sounds like God was listening in.  If I am never more than I was yesterday, I think that might not be so bad. Attacks will come. They always do. We all need to be encouraged and prayed for and lifted up and protected. All I can say is that I am SO ready. This has been a long-time coming and I say, ‘Bring it on.’

    For me to be back in church is not an accomplishment that I made happen. It’s a blessing that God orchestrated. I keep remembering the verse about how only good things come from above. I think about my partner and I think about church and the pastor and I think, ‘These are gifts, not because I earned them or deserved them, but because God decided.’ Truly.  It’s as though God has been walking ahead and tossing seeds on the ground and I’ve been a pigeon walking behind, snapping them up one by one and being nourished as we headed towards the destination.”  

    Ivanildo C. Trindade

     

    • Julie 6:17 pm on May 16, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      What a sharing heart you have. Thank you from the bottom of mine.

  • ivanildotrindade 9:32 pm on May 15, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , church experience, date with church, date with God, going to church, holy spirit filled   

    Back to Church… After 1.5 Years — Part 2 

    Today, y blogger friend, Julie, gives us the second part of her return to church after a while. Please read carefully:

    “Yesterday, as you know, Ivanildo, I went back to church. What brought me back after being away 1.5 years? God. My Father brought me back when HE was ready. I had decided to go back a couple of weeks ago. My church-related terrors and fears had been reducing themselves as my strength and insight and resilience increased.

    The Sunday I had planned to go back, my partner, seeing that I was in bad shape, swooped me away for a day in the Tropics. (Note:  I NEVER travel and we had never traveled together). Fabulous move that totally changed my life. Meanwhile, I get a call from church saying I needed to come back. The Friday of returning from the Tropics, I visited with the new pastor and got to know him a bit. His courage, his vision, his determination, and many other aspects of him really impacted me.

    I mentioned that I was very much interested in a prison ministry and he and his wife (also a pastor) immediately responded in a very supportive way. I thought to myself, “Finally.”  “Finally.” And I realized the pastor needed much protection. Anyone with that kind of courage and vision needs a lot of protection. I know that I am a warrior and that I was needed on the front lines. I promised to come to Bible study and church. I made church pew dates with the church caretaker’s (my other best friend) daughters (ages about 6 and 4) and solidified the commitment with promised chocolate for them.

    Did the church change since before when I was there? There were two elements that had changed drastically: There was a new, on-fire, singing, crying, skinny (he almost died a couple of weeks ago in the hospital) fully-alive, Holy-Spirit-filled, 41-year-old Oklahoma pastor named Lance Keeling… and there was a renewed Julie, not working to be anything but fully present. Other change? – A lot of new faces because of the transient nature of the membership (largely temporary American and European imports).

    WILL I GO BACK? You’re d_ _ right I will!  (The HS hasn’t really gotten to my tendency to cuss yet :) ). I am SO home. I pray a lot for the health and safety of the pastor because he needs so much protection from attacks. Not only am I back for me, but more importantly, I am back because I am desperately needed. That wouldn’t be enough if it were the only thing. It’s that God sent me back and prepped me to be ready for it all. I got spiritual attacks on the way home. It’s just that now I know what they are and I know how to handle them and recover. I think that if I’m getting attacked, I can only imagine what the pastor is going through.

    There is a certain high that can come from being in church and listening and sharing — and then when I’m on my own, my old thinking patterns want to barge in. The thing is that this time they’re getting a good run for their money. I think there is something that totally gets in the way of people going to church and coming back:  shame. It’s so easy for us to feel stupid, ridiculous, think that we said too much or too little or the wrong thing. We have so much past conditioning through church and family and society that our minds are often ravelled in knots. If we all knew that it was common, then maybe we wouldn’t feel so weird and unworthy.”

    Tomorrow Julie will talk about the actual experience being in church again…

    Ivanildo C. Trindade

     

  • ivanildotrindade 9:14 pm on May 14, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: afraid of church, , change, church, gandhi,   

    Back To Church… After 1.5 Years — Part 1 

    I want to introduce to you Julie, my blogger friend. Julie blogs here. If you want to know more about nutrition, healthy choices, natural lifestyles, fitness, etc., you will need to read her blog. I have appreciated Julie’s comments on my posts over several weeks and have enjoyed her challenges to maintain a healthy lifestyle even in the midst of our busy lives. We’ve maintained a cordial back-and-forth in this sort of meta-virtual-word-fueled world, which may sound ethereal, but in this case has actually been a very enriching experience.

    When Julie told me she was returning to church after 1.5 years, I was totally intrigued. I am always captivated by people’s experiences in churches — I want to know why they first came, why they stopped coming, what made them come back, etc., etc.

    And this is not merely an intellectual exercise. Years ago, when I lived on the West Coast, a friend told me that she asked one of her friends, who was from a country south of us, to attend her church, which also happened to be my church at the time. The guy came and she asked for some feedback. Judging from what he wrote on the bottom of the church bulletin, it would be safe to say that he didn’t feel exactly welcome. He scribbled, “Your church gives me the creeps.” Enough said.

    Julie posted a comment about a famous quote attributed to Gandhi, which unfortunately has not been found in any of his writings, but was supposedly heard by Gandhi’s grandson. I responded, “Jay talks about that Gandhi quote in his book Go and Do. He says he used to see it as a call to action, to go change the world, but now he sees it more of a call not to wait around for others to change before I change myself. ‘I interpret it as an admonition to transform myself,’ which is, I think, the way you are seeing it.”

    I went on to talk about Julie’s church visit. I asked her to write down her thoughts and I would post them here on my blog. Graciously, she agreed to do it (thanks, Julie!) and in keeping with my promise, today I am posting the first part of her journey:

    “OK, bud, you asked for it. So exciting that you are actually interested, that you have all these questions. With most everyone, I believe, I’m like a kook for being so crazy about God and taking the church seriously. 

    But first, Gandhi commentary. Really cool that you expressed different ways of understanding ‘be the change that you want to see in the world.’ I just asked my project manager what he thought about it and he responded with another quote from Gandhi that I have never heard. It went something like, ‘Live today as though it were your last, but as though you had 1,000 more years.’ 

    I’m still trying to digest it. Oh… so how I get the ‘be the change’ quote: If I have great visions in the world, if I am gifted with seeing problems and solutions and having the heart and courage to change, then I must learn to live from the ground up. I can’t expand into the world until God gives the go-ahead. I can’t fully promote love until I am filled with love. I can’t promote the fullness of God until I am filled with the Holy Spirit. I can’t be a firm, reliable warrior until I am fully a disciple. 

    Basically, if I want to see love and nonviolence in the world, I need to get it and live it from the core of my being.  It needs to radiate out from the core of my existence. I need to be cleansed of my misdirected ambitions and manipulations first. If I want to see changes in the world, I need to drop all my weapons and let God mold me as He sees fit. Wordy and scattered, but it’s my best for the moment. ‘An admonition to transform myself’ was a much more succinct way of putting it. I also agree with Jay’s more recent understanding. 

    Now… my experience in church yesterday…” 

    For that, you will have to come back tomorrow and I guarantee you: it will be nothing like you are expecting it to be and it will make you wonder whether you have ever been to church yourself!

    Ivanildo C. Trindade

     

    • Julie 8:38 am on May 16, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      What a joy you are, Ivanildo. Thank you for sharing these thoughts and thank you for having so quickly grown into one of my rocks… preceded by having been the first stepping stone in my path back to church. I just love it how God surprises when I unclinch my fists a bit and let Him do His thing. Looking forward to reading what I have to say next (hee hee).

      • ivanildotrindade 2:12 pm on May 16, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        thanks julie. soli deo gloria. humbled by your comment. i love the metaphors u use… “unclinching my fist.” there is so much freedom in that act. i had a chance encounter with a powerful pastor in a restroom once. he was trying so hard to hold on to his position and power. i asked him how he was doing. perhaps in an unguarded moment, he said, “i don’t know, it is so hard to control.” there was sadness in his voice. i didn’t say anything, out of respect for his age and position, but i thought about saying, “have u thought about releasing control?” an unclinched fist is so much better for the body, the acting of opening both hands in a generous offer, though internally more difficult, externally is so much effortless. i guess God is looking 4 people whose hands grew tired of holding and are now ready to be loosened up for whatever may come. may my hands be the first in line…

    • Julie 9:04 am on May 26, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Am finding fist unclenching, i.e. letting go, to be an integral part of my daily “exercise” routine. Kinda like the Navy Seals of developing maturity.

      • ivanildotrindade 12:44 pm on May 26, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        “navy seals of spiritual maturity,” deep. i love that, but not ready 4 a tough mission yet… we keep our eyes on the author and finisher of our faith. people will disappoint us, circumstances will disappoint us. God won’t. thanks 4 sharing, julie. u’ve been a great encouragement.

  • ivanildotrindade 8:40 pm on May 13, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: honoring moms, Mother, Mothers Day, mothers day new normal, new normal, old normal, real moms, who's your momma   

    Mother’s Day “New Normal” 

    Mother’s Day is not as simple as it used to be. It used to be on this day you would just be with or think about mom. Yes, your mom, the one in whose womb you resided for about nine months before you came into this perilous place called world.

    Nowadays it is not that simple. To illustrate the point, I reproduce a conversation I had with a seven year old girl not too long ago about Mothers. It is not word-for-word, but it is close. We were talking about honoring your mother and she asked me to explain to her who her mother was.

    “Is it my dad’s girlfriend who lives with us and dad tells me to call her ‘mom’? Or is it dad’s other girlfriend, my little sister’s mom, who doesn’t live with us anymore but I still call her mom? Or is it the old girlfriend, the mother of my big brother? I called her “mom” until my dad told me to stop because she ain’t nobody’s mom. What about my grandma? When we were homeless I lived with her for a while and always called her ‘momma.’ And my mom who was married to my dad and had me — I haven’t seen her since I was two. I guess I am confused. Who is my mom for real?”

    You can understand why that little girl was so confused and today I just realized that when I touched the screen and called my mom via Skype all the way to Brazil without equivocation, I was part of a minority in some parts of the world — “the old normal,” those who are never confused about who their real mom is.

    Here is another story involving a little girl from another part of our town. She was playing with a family who is close to my family. Being as clever as she is, soon she figured out everybody’s names and made the right connections. My friends have three children, two boys and a girl. Noticing the kids’ last names, she asked the mom, “Do all your kids have the same name?” Mom: “Yes, why?” Girl: “That’s weird.”

    I can’t help but notice that one of the things these two stories have in common is men and women sleeping around with no regard for tomorrow. Welcome to “the new normal.”

    On this Mother’s Day, I would like to ask everyone, whether you are in the “new normal” or “old normal,” to put the needs of others before your own. You may be out of practice in this game, so let me walk you slowly through it: next time you feel that urge to populate the earth with more of your kind, think about the little boys and girls who are going to bed (no pun intended) today without no real definition about who their parents are. Think about the crisis of identity they will have to live with their whole lives. Think about the loneliness of children whose father or mother is absent from their life. Thinking about their longing for significance and security in the arms of someone who truly cares.

    Then stop thinking and start running. Run to the cold shower and let that wave of foolishness pass. And if you can’t do that, just run. A moment of pleasure can never be worth a lifetime of pain.

    Love to all real moms (biological or not) on this day. No nobler human has ever been born.

    Ivanildo C. Trindade

     

  • ivanildotrindade 7:35 pm on May 12, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , michael jackson, charles barkley, tent city, oxfam, worldvision, go and do ideas, angel tree   

    Go and Do In Your Backyard 

    I started responded to Julie’s comment on yesterday’s post and it just kept getting bigger and bigger, so I turned into a post. Here it is:

    Laura said yesterday here that in the book Go and Do Jay talks about how he ended up going to northern Thailand instead of doing a summer internship in the U.S. which could be a path for a lucrative career in the U.S. That trip changed his life as he became aware of the needs of children caught in the web of sex trafficking and exploitation in that part of the world.

    But no need not rush to the Post Office and apply for a passport yet. There is so much you can do right where you are. For example, my town has some housing for low income families. Every Thursday a group of ladies from my church spend a couple of hours with ladies there, scrap booking, doing little art projects or just trading stories. Some of the ladies have mental or physical issues, but are so appreciative of the time they hang out with our ladies.

    My town of 25 thousand people, mostly middle class Americans living their version of the American dream, also has its own “underworld.” A few years back some people occupied a run down area of town and refused to leave. That area is now called “tent city” and a lot of homeless people often find their way there. I know some people who go there frequently to bring used clothes, food, etc. The interaction with the people there is not always pleasant but the people who go there are always thankful they did.

    I heard a story once told by Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. Michael was driving his big SUV through the streets of Chicago when Charles asked him to turn around and head back. “There’s something I need to do.” They went back, Charles got out of the car, walked right up to a man begging on the street and gave him a one hundred dollar bill.” Michael said, “What did you that for?” Charles: “Didn’t you read his sign?” Michael: “No.” Charles: “It said, “I’m not going t lie to you. I need money for booze.”

    Charles concluded, “You gotta appreciate a brother’s honesty.” My guess is that the sign was designed especially for guys like Charles who like to buck the system. But the larger point still remains: we are always looking for a reason to give. Rather, I think we need to look for opportunities that match our talent or our courage.

    Today, for example, I watched as a group of about 15 men from my church did over 30 free oil changes in about four hours. They had a system going, but I couldn’t help to think that before they were ready to work this morning, there were some that made phone calls to the recipients, reserved facilities, brought equipment, prepared refreshments, etc., etc. There is always more opportunities than you see represented the day of the event. And you can get into the action at any point.

    Some people went into a nursing home and visited elderly folks. A young lady sat outside where the oil change was happening and did beautiful face-painting art. A group went to an elementary school that is closing and brought a care package to every teacher and staff there.

    But there is more. Every year we partner with Angel Tree to provide gifts to the children of parents who are in jail and cannot afford to give their kids anything for Christmas.  World Vision is also a great organization. Their gift catalog is rich with ideas for those who want to give sustainable gifts and not waste money on themselves for Birthdays.  How about Oxfam? Their tweets alone, almost every one of them, is an opportunity to go and do.

    And if you have a chapter of International Justice Mission close to where you live, by all means, find out how you can get involved. I don’t know of any other organization doing more to help women and girls who are victims of the sex trafficking and economic exploitation the world over.

    Okay, after you try one or two of these, and you get the “fever,” then you can start headed to the Post Office. But don’t smile. Smiling pictures on passports don’t is not a good sign in some other countries around the world!

    Ivanildo C. Trindade

     

    • Julie 8:23 pm on May 12, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for all the tips, Ivanildo. I’m not overwhelmed. I’m not overwhelmed. :) Shared a great laugh over the $100 bill story.

      • ivanildotrindade 8:29 pm on May 12, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        just pick one and keep moving forward, one foot in front of the other. yeah, i also find that story funny, especially since i like charles barker’s persona as a sports commentator. he is a lot of fun. i think he just won an emmy for his work on “inside the nba.”

  • ivanildotrindade 9:07 pm on May 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: career move, changing direction, desert experience, , , go and do book review, go and do here, go and do overseas, , laura gibson, middle class life   

    “Go and Do” Is Closer Than You Think! 

    Blogger’s Note: Today I have the great privilege to welcome Laura Gibson, my friend and former co-worker, into these pages. Laura now serves as a board member of G.R.O.W. and she just finished reading the book Go and Do (remember, the one that if you buy on Amazon you will be helping G.R.O.W.?). Well, here are her reflections, please give a listen:

    Go and Do is a book about one young man’s journey in life through the lens of his Christian faith. Jay Milbrandt seemed to come from a typical middle-class family that afforded him the opportunity to go to college and then on to law school. But Jay, like many of us who have lives of relative privilege, felt bored and less than purposeful pursuing the typical American lawyer life.

    So, through the work of the Spirit in him, a sermon about life’s deserts, and Jay’s own choice to risk the possibility of hurting his career, he set out to go and do. Jay’s go and do trip led him to  spend a summer interning in Thailand to help combat human trafficking and his life has never been the same.  In going and doing , taking the biggest risk of his life, he felt more alive than he ever had and more in the center of God’s will than ever before. He continues to live this lifestyle and remains alive and purpose-filled in it.

    In reading this book, I resonated with Jay. From as young as I can remember, I have always felt the urge to go and do, specifically for orphans. I did this in college, spending six months in Cambodia, helping AIDS orphans.  The experience wrecked and re-ordered my life priorities in good and bad ways. But God was in it all.

    If you are bored with your life, if you hope that Christianity has to be more than church on Sundays and daily personal devos, this book is for you. God will change you in the midst of it, in ways you hope for and possibly ways you don’t. If you go and do, you will be different when you come back. You won’t fit into “normal life” the way you used to. You have to be ready to risk and truly believe that the only life you need to fit into is the one God calls you to.

    One caveat, Jay talks of going to far away places like Thailand, Uganda, and Rwanda. This is great and if this is where your heart is, pray for funds to go and live frugally so you can. But you can go and do in the exact place you live right now. There are children and adults who are abused, parentless, and homeless in every town in America. You can go and do to the least of these right where you are or across an ocean. One might lead to the other. Just don’t limit yourself and don’t limit God. One appears more glamorous, but they are of equal value in the eyes of God. Be in the Word and in prayer so you can determine where God might be leading you.

    And then: DON’T THINK TOO MUCH. Just go and do. And see where God takes you.

    Laura Gibson

     

    • Julie 12:52 pm on May 12, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Ivanildo, Can you give us some “go and do” ideas in a future post? I’m especially interested in the areas of abuse prevention through domestic violence work and through prison ministries, both male and female.

  • ivanildotrindade 11:19 pm on May 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: american church, david platt, excess, how much clothe do i need, jeans, radical, radical christians, simplicity of the gospel   

    A Gross Experiment 

    Yesterday I told my staff about a gross, somewhat silly experiment I have engaged in for the last ten days. Okay, a little background: I’ve been reading the book Radical by David Platt. This book is ruining me. Not in a bad way, though. What I mean is that I finally found someone who is fundamentally in agreement with me about how American Christianity tends to radically depart from the simple ways of the Gospel.

    The author, who pastors a mega-church in Birmingham, Alabama, began to take a second look at the way he does church, after he started ministering overseas. The believers in some remote parts of the world where he traveled, often only had the Bible and each other. Nothing else. What is more, when he was confronted with abject poverty, he was forced to re-examine the way he and his congregants viewed their material possessions. The book is his journey leading his congregation out of the wilderness of comfort and indifference but it is a tough read, even for me.

    So back to my little experiment. Yesterday marked the 1oth day I wore the same pair of jeans. Yes, you heard me right. “Without washing?” Someone asked. Yes, without washing. Nobody noticed, nobody said anything and I felt totally fine. My point: I don’t need more than a few pair of jeans and I in the part of the world I live in, I don’t need to wash my clothe that often. Oh yes, and my wearing habits don’t matter a thing to you.

    Now, I don’t know what exactly I will do next, but I am thinking. I have quite a few pieces of clothe I haven’t worn in ages. I need to start going through them first. Then I will decide exactly how many pieces of clothe to keep and I will give the others away.

    I can’t just talk about helping those in need. I have to do something about it. And I will.

    Don’t worry.  I don’t smell bad and I still shower every day. As one staff member said, “At least it was not your underwear!”

    Today I finally put on a different pair of jeans. My wife was about to throw me out of the house. Just kidding!

    Ivanildo C. Trindade
    P.S.; Stay tuned for the sequel… no deodorant? :)

     

    • Julie 6:59 am on May 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      The book sounds like one of those life-changing ones. I am very much interested in issues dealing with the American church and the sadness of the incongruencies. Have had this push within me to further simplify my clothes lately. Your post was just the ticket. Today will be day 2 with my favorite black jeans, the ones with the pockets Everywhere. You just gave me permission to take my radical up a notch. Hasta luego, smelly. JK!

      • ivanildotrindade 10:35 am on May 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        if it’s one with pockets everywhere people are more likely to notice… but maybe u don’t care. mine was black 2 but plain. i was once on a mission trip 2 asia with a guy who only wore one shirt. he washed it every night and he was so proud of it. i thought he was crazy back then, now i think he was on to something…

        • Julie 4:21 pm on May 12, 2012 Permalink

          I think if I can keep food from getting on them, I’m in good shape, but the challenge is in their losing their shape, i.e. developing the baggy-butt syndrome. One shirt, huh? Really cool. I think I’m jealous. Reminds me of John Travolta in Staying Alive when he would take his clothes off his back and wash them when he was taking his shower. I totally admired that. … I used to think my father was crazy for having the dream of having his own farm. (He grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania.) I thought, “Why all the effort when there are grocery stores?” And now my vivid, detailed dream is a farm. Funny how we can change. Maybe it’s about discovering and growing into our values and who we truly are at the core.

        • ivanildotrindade 8:01 pm on May 12, 2012 Permalink

          food on your pants, julie? i somehow never manage to get it below my shirts! a farm? i love that! is that a dream like in the night or career aspiration? i overheard a child at a restaurant the other day who asked her mom, “what is that?” as she pointed to someone’s plate on another plate who was eating shrimp. kids don’t know food anymore and they don’t know that food doesn’t grow on supermarket shelves…

    • Marla Taviano 11:44 am on May 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      I read Radical last year, and it was life-changing for me. I did a read-a-long on my blog, and God did some awesome stuff with it. You need to read the book, 7, by Jen Hatmaker next. :)

    • Julie 8:17 pm on May 12, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      to continue… as usual… Yeah, I’m not always terribly cultivated when it comes to eating. Real live dream: live on small farm with laptop and writing career. Fruit trees, herb plants, vegetables, 2 goats, milking cow, chickens, ducks. e-i-e-i-o Yeah, we got really lucky being first-hand. More and more people are working their way back to nature, so hopefully it will continue to catch on. That was probably a Pollyanna comment.

      • ivanildotrindade 8:26 pm on May 12, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        unfortunately, in the world we live it costs more to go back to nature and that is probably what makes that statement pollyanish. but if we can’t dream we stop living, right?

        • Julie 7:57 am on May 13, 2012 Permalink

          Ahhh, but people are scared by the end-of-the-world threat. I still think it’s wise, like Gandhi said, to be the change I want to see in the world. I agree totally with your dreaming comment. Well, off to church. First time back in 1.5 years. Excited to see who I’ve become and can be. Excited about getting back to work with God.

        • ivanildotrindade 9:29 am on May 13, 2012 Permalink

          Jay talks about that Gandhi quote in his book “go and do.” He says he used to see it as a call to action, to go change the world, but now he sees it more of a call not to wait around for others to change before I change myself. “I interpret it as an admonition to transform myself,” which is, I think, the way u r seeing it. I’m totally interested in your experience returning to church… Was it awkward, like seeing an old boyfriend, or exci ting, like going back to your hometown, or nurturin, like seeing mom after so many years? Why did u decide to go back? Did it change since the last time u were there? Will u go back? Please do tell! In fact, if u write your thoughts, I will guest post on my blog. Send me an e-mail: itrindade@woostergrace.org. Best to u!

  • ivanildotrindade 9:27 pm on May 9, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: defeating our monsters, Fear, fear of the dark, imaginary enemies, stepping into your fears   

    Go and Do What Scares You 

    Oh the things we fear… As a little boy, I feared darkness. Having to go out in the middle of the night when nature called, since I lived on an island until I was 7, was always a very scary thing to do. When I was about 11, and we had already moved into a city, I used to sleep outside on a hammock in the patio. One night I woke up and tried to crawl out of my blanket to go inside the house to use the bathroom. What I saw on the wall of my house left me paralyzed with fear — a big, dark, shadowy figure, moving slowly up the wall, ready to jump at me.

    I immediately covered myself, in panic, waiting for the kill. Then, for some reason, I was clear-headed and decided I had to fight. I got rid of the blanket and was ready to defend myself. Except, I didn’t have to — the shadowy figure was a kitty cat! Yes, my neighbor’s cat, going to and from on the wall that separated our properties. The street light in front of our houses projected a distorted silhouette against the wall. That was the “monster” ready to devour me!

    I have never forgotten that story. And the reason I remember it? That was the night I got cured from my fear of the dark. Somehow, I decided to face my fear and realized that it was only an imaginary one after all. What a big lesson for an 11-year-old! And that lesson keeps on teaching —  most of my fears, most of our fears, are mythological, unrealized figments of our imagination. Get this: after 9-11, they did a study in NYC and found that the thing people fear the most there is being bitten by a snake. Get out!

    Life insurance companies prey on our fears. Employers prey on our fears. “Friends” prey on our fears. The devil preys on our fears. If we are not careful, we become victims of our own fiction. Like a scared 11-year-old in the middle of the night, we can end up believing in a monster that does not exist in the real world.

    There is no better way to kill the fiction than to step into our fears. Jay Milbrandt, in his book Go and Do (remember, every time you buy a copy on Amazon you are helping G.R.O.W. rescue more at-risk children in SE Asia), which I have written about here, talks about facing our fears. There is a chapter filled with suggestive subtitles such as “Do What Scares You,” “Fear Draws Us Closer to God,” “Learning to Live Dangerously.” Or, as another friend says, “If you are not living on the edge, you are taking too much space.”

    Jay recommends that every day we do one little thing scares us. Some examples could be talking to a total stranger or eating a raw egg (my examples). This, of course, is not an invitation to live irresponsibly or godlessly. It is rather a resolve not to conform to the mold, not to settle for the mundane, the boring, the uninspiring. A little scary thing here, another one there, and before you know it, you’re daring to do what you thought was impossible.

    So I read that chapter today, got my bike gear and rode to work. It’s dark out there now and it might be raining soon. I am rushing so I can get home before I get soaked by the rain, but if I get soaked, it will be fun.

    I love these words out of the Apostle John’s pen: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

    Happy dangers!

    Ivanildo C. Trindade

     

  • ivanildotrindade 10:45 pm on May 8, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: child run over by car, , Chinese people, good samaritan laws, good work, helping strangers, loving your neighbor, Mozer Oliveira, Parable of the Good Samaritan   

    A Brazilian Hero? 

    I came across this story today even though it happened last fall. It is a story that will rock your faith in humans. I didn’t have the guts to watch the video because it would have been too much, but I will post the summary of the story here:

    “October 13th afternoon around 5:30, a car accident occurred at the Guangfo Hardware Market in Huangqi of Foshan. A van hit a 2-year-old little girl and then fled. No passersby reached out to help and then another car ran over her. Over the span of 7 minutes, a total of 17 people passing by failed to extend a hand or call the police, up until the 19th person, a garbage scavenger ayi [older woman], who lifted her up after discovering her but the little girl in her arms was like a noodle, immediately collapsing back onto the ground. The trash scavenger ayi called for help, and the little girl’s mother, who was in the vicinity, immediately rushed over and rushed her to the hospital.”

    Tragically, the child didn’t  survive. And China’s leaders went scrambling everywhere trying to figure out what’s wrong with their people. They started a national campaign to encourage people to care more about each other. And out of nowhere comes an unlikely hero, a Brazilian national living in China who has become a sort of hero in his town for one reason and one reason only — he risked his life defending a lady who was being robbed, risking his own life in the process.

    The story is in from a Brazilian newspaper and it is in Portuguese, but here is the synopsis:

    Last Friday, 27-year-old Brazilian Mozer Rhian Oliveira, came to the aid of a woman who was being robbed while 50 people simply stood around and did nothing to help him. The young man was walking on the sidewalk when he saw a thief with his hand inside the woman’s purse. Oliveira hit the man with his closed umbrella. Soon, two other man joined the thief and hit him with a belt. He ran to the lobby of the apartment building where he lives and when he lowered himself to try to grab a metal sign to protect himself, he was attacked by the three assailants who hit him on the head with a metal bar. People who knew him and other passersby simply ignored the scene.

    Oliveira received 15 stitches on his forehead but he had some small consolation — yesterday he was visited by 20 local and provincial authorities, who gave him a check for about $7,000.00 and was presented with a plaque thanking him for setting an example for all the Chinese to follow. His action is only the latest in a series of incidents in which westerners have been the only people willing to help people in dire need.

    These incidents have forced Chinese people to look inside their own souls. Like Americans living in states with no “Good Samaritan” laws, they point to cases where people were sued by relatives of those they tried to help. Some specialists point out the fact that the Chinese people have been programmed to only help those who are part of their circles — close friends, relatives, etc. Some point out the logic of a judge who found a man guilty of causing the injuries of the lady he helped bringing to the hospital when he found her lying on the street. The judge said, “He has to be guilty; otherwise, why would he help her?”

    As for Oliveira, when asked by the authorities why he decided to ask, his answer was, “I am a Christian and I believe in loving your neighbor; furthermore, if my mom or my sister were in that situation, I wish someone would help them.”

    Whether you are a Christian or not, I would hope you would agree with me that there are things in this world that are as black and white — helping a child in distress is one of them. Hope you don’t have to wait for a crisis to act.  Start today, right where you are.

    Ivanildo C. Trindade
    PS: My sincere thanks to my friend Helena Koyama for sending me the link to Mozer’s story.

     

    • Julie 7:28 am on May 9, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Wonderful on the part of the Good Samaritan and what a great ambassador for Brazil he has been. This post was a wake-up call. I have heard that China will be our next world power. Eek! I do like that officials are responding with concern. We went to the article in Portuguese and Carlao read it out loud. Has me getting closer to the idea of making my blog bilingual. Thank you for this beauty, Ivanildo.

      • ivanildotrindade 12:15 pm on May 9, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        yes, what a guy. i had a long discussion with my staff today about what we would each do. thankfully, we all agreed we would act. how could we not? i am glad u were able to read the original story in portuguese. take care!

  • ivanildotrindade 6:21 pm on May 7, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: child sex abuse, hope for abused children, joy comes in the morning, , pedophilia, sex abuse in se asia, sex tourism, sheer joy, sleeplessness   

    Sheer Joy May Affect Your Sleep — the story of G.R.O.W.’s ninth child 

    There are few joys more precious in this world than that of giving hope of a future to someone who was living on the edge of extinction. Sadly, extinction does not threat only certain species in some remote African forest. It also affects millions of nameless kids walking aimlessly on the edge of cities or in the heart of bustling metropolises around the world.

    So when you hear about one that was snatched from the brink of precipice, as a friend of mine likes to say, “Your heart starts dancing like an elephant.” But when you not only hear about it but in some small way play a part in the act of redemption, you are insanely beside yourself with joy.

    Such was the state of my soul this past weekend when I heard that G.R.O.W.’s home for at-risk children in northern Thailand had received its ninth child (sorry, no name for now!) — an eight year old boy who up until this point had seen his share of danger, rejection, famine and abuse.

    Let me back up a little. His father was forced to fend for himself on the streets of a most inhospitable city dating to a time when the son was yet to be. Tragedy struck the father early on when as a little boy he met a foreign tourist intent on seeking forbidden pleasures only a foreign visa on his passport could allow him.

    To put it mildly, when that “tourist” boarded the plane that would take him home, he had left in his wake a trail of destruction that reached the very core of a very badly bruised young boy. By the time he ordered his red wine and settled nicely into the cushy seat of his first class cabin, the  little pieces of what was once a somewhat whole person were now splattered indiscriminately — so disfigured it would be nearly impossible to gather them up and glue them together again.

    The boy grew into a man who kept on living between the streets, gay bars, failed marriages and a constant search for a suitable occupation that could now help him feed the little one who seemed attached to him wherever his feet took flight. Like the P. S. in a letter, the boy was an appendage, a backpack someone only remembers when it is time to get another thing out of it.  But quietly, without his knowledge, a conspiracy of kindness had been brewing to save him.

    For four years a young lady who is now a staff member of G.R.O.W. in Thailand had been watching this boy. On several occasions she had literally intervened to take him out of danger. Seeing the “backpack” being thrown around without mercy, all she could do was pray and wait patiently for her time to act. The day finally came last Sunday. I won’t tell you the details, but the boy is now safely in the G.R.O.W. home in northern Thailand.

    He traveled light — only a plastic bag to his name, but his heart was heavy with bad memories. When he saw his own bed, he was afraid to jump in because never in a million years could he imagine it was his — he never had a bed attached to his name. He arrived late in the evening. “Are you hungry?” They asked. “No,” he said. They insisted and he finally confessed: “I had one little plastic bag of noodles which I mixed with some cold water.” “All day?” “Yes, all day.” When asked why he lied, he said, “My dad told me not to tell you this.”

    Later, he was jumping in bed, hearing the other children tell stories about school. “Is it true that I can go to school too?” He asked. He had so many questions it was hard for him to fall asleep, but when he did, it was a heavenly sleep, one he didn’t even know existed in this world.

    And six thousand miles away I too couldn’t sleep but this time it was out of sheer joy.

    “Just as crying may come at night, you can be sure that joy comes in the morning!” (Psalm 30:5).

    Ivanildo C. Trindade

     

    • Marla Taviano 11:47 am on May 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      My heart is dancing like an elephant too. Praying for Faa and her 9 beautiful children.

    • ivanildotrindade 1:29 pm on May 11, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      thanks, marla. i got an e-mail today. the boy went 2 school 4 the first time. he went to the back of the truck. everybody told him to seat up front on the passenger seat. he said never in his life he dreamed he would ever ride like an important person on the front seat of a car. oh the small joys we take 4 granted!

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