LIFE…As I Know It

In his most famous sermon Jesus gave the instructions “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7:6 (NIV) This is a phrase common to many people, but I wonder if it one that we consider as often as Christ intended – daily, or even many times a day.  The phrase has theological implications, but I believe it can also be applied to social and/or relational matters as well.

The symbolism here is one of undomesticated animals that were both scavengers and prone to viciousness; additionally, they were unclean and exposure to them caused one to become unclean and therefore require ceremonial cleansing.  Jesus’ instructions in this verse are figurative as it is doubtful that anyone was literally throwing pearls in front of pigs.  He was using this absurd illustration to make a point – recognize (1) that which is of value and (2) those that you can trust.

The implied lesson is that you should be able to recognize a dog and a pig for what they are and not treat them as a priest or royalty – they do not merit your trust and confidence which is demonstrated through the character they possess and the behavior they demonstrate. In contrast it is equally important for you to be able to recognize those whom you can trust and place confidence in – leverage those relationships to gain support and encouragement. When you identify these people in your life, value them by treating them respectfully and honorably.

In a theological sense, Jesus was saying, do not apply what is holy (or belongs to God) to something that is unholy – an extreme example could be asking God to bless an adulterous affair, but the spectrum for this illustration is immense.  However, this same wisdom can easily be applied to daily relationships and associations.  It is a self-destructive trait to continually place the ideas and passions you hold dear (and believe to be inspired by God) before anyone who continually opposes, criticize or abuses you and/or your vision.  It is not worthy of your efforts to repeatedly cast your God-given dreams before someone who cannot be trusted to nurture them in a loving and caring attitude.

This is not to say we should not seek wise counsel from trustworthy sources to help us make informed decisions.  The message is to first, proactively seek the purpose God has created you for and, second proactively seek counsel from those who have proven to be honorable and trustworthy allies.  The goal is not to surround yourself with those who will always agree with you; rather, to find those who will support you through honesty, selflessness and godly advise. The test for which category someone falls in can be found in many scriptures, but one of the most famous ones is found in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7,  “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Be wise and be resolved!

In 2011 I had the extraordinary opportunity to participate in two international mission trips.  The first was to the Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico and the second was to Kakinada in the Andhra Pradesh region located on the southeastern coast of India.

Both trips introduced me to so many different new and different experiences – I doubt that I could never fully relay them in a manner where anyone else could totally envision my experience.  Although the experiences were great, and I have been blessed beyond measure for having gone, I am left with a persistent and relentless desire to help meet some of the needs revealed to me on these trips. Again, there are too many to relay in this format, but I will report that many of them are life-or-death matters; and all are urgent.  For example, as I write this message, there are 20 orphans in the village of Peddapuram who are in need of a building to house them.

In response to this persistent and relentless desire, and through God’s leadership we have created a nonprofit, charitable ministry that will raise awareness and financial support to help eliminate some of the issues.  In December of 2011 we filed the paperwork to legally establish Agapao, Inc (ag-ap-ah’-o) as a charitable organization. We chose the name, Agapao as it is the Greek verb that means; to act in love; that is, to do caring things or act caringly.  This is seen in the passage on Matthew 22: 34-39, “…an expert in the law, tested him [Jesus] with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied: “‘Love (agapao) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love (agapao) your neighbor as yourself.’”

Our mission statement is; “Agapao exists to demonstrate love in action, as we discover and meet needs around the world, to make our God more famous.”

There are 20 orphans in the village of Peddapuram, India who are currently being cared for by loving members of local churches, but this is a temporary solution – the permanent solution is to build a house where they will be cared for – a home where their physical, emotional and spiritual needs will be met by people who are committed to raising them.

One of the first and primary projects of Agapao is “Operation Orphanage” with the goal to raise funds for a building that will provide a home for these children. For the price that many Americans pay for a car we can build an orphanage to house these children where their physical needs will be met and they will be introduced the God who created them.

To accomplish this goal we are currently seeking financial donations to help build the orphanage through a partnership with a local church in the same village.  Once the building is completed and furnished we will also work to raise funding to provide ongoing support that will provide food, medical attention and education for the children on a continued basis.

Please consider a donation that will help make this home possible. To make a donation please CLICK HERE

Check out our website at agapaoinc.com

Today we are going to a family Christmas lunch at my parent’s house so I have decided to try a new recipe.  I’m calling it Corn, Jalapeno and Cheese Casserole (basically because it has corn, jalapenos and cheese in it).  Actually, I’m not a big fan of the word “casserole” – It brings to mind too many “potlucks” with dishes made of a lot of processed cheese and Ritz crackers – so, I’m actually going to name it, Corn, Jalapeno and Cheese Bake. There, I feel better now.

This is my very own attempt of a mock recipe inspired by a dish I had several months ago at a local restaurant – I think it was Bonefish Grille, but I have not been able to find it on their website.  Anyway, the dish was so good and I have wanted to try to make something similar, so here’s how I made it by remembering what it tasted like.

By the way, if you Google “Corn, Cheese & Jalapeno recipe” you will find lots of them, but not of the ones that I read appeared to have the ingredients to create the taste sensation that I remembered.

Since this is my first road test for this recipe I will let you know the reviews.

CORN, JALAPENO & CHEESE BAKE

Ingredients:

• Butter (enough to sauté the peppers in)
• Fresh Jalapeno Pepper (to taste)
• 2 11oz Cans White Shoepeg Corn
• ½ cup Cooked Bacon (chopped fine)
• 8oz Cream Cheese
• 1 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese – shredded
• ½ cup milk

Directions:

• Melt butter in a sauce pan.
• Finley dice jalapenos and add them to the butter. Cook until the peppers are soft.
• Add the cream cheese, shredded cheese and milk and simmer until it’s melted and smooth.
• Add the corn and bacon.  Pour into a baking dish and bake for 35 minutes.

Wow, yesterday was a great day as we started cooking for this year’s families!  As always I am so inspired by th people who come to help prepare and cook the meals and this year is no different.  Our numbers so far looks like we are going to feed 122 families but that number changes up until every meal is delivered, but that’s part of the fun.

As I was going through some of the pictures from today I got a little nostalgic and started to reminisce about the past 12 years of Feed the Need and the thousands of people who have partnered with us to feed the families in need. Before I start to wax poetic here I’m just going to sum it up to say, it’s been a great 12 years – THANKS to everyone who has helped to make this ministry possible!

See our pictures HERE

Today our team went to the most remote region yet, the Village of Rajapudi in the tribal region of Andhra Pradesh. We had a great day of cultural exchange among the people who live there and met many new brothers and sisters. We were welcomed into the home of Joseph and his wife, Mary…true story and shared a meal there.  Joseph and Mary serve the people of the village in many ways. They run an orphanage for children who lost their parents in the tsunami. We were able to meet the children and they sang a song for us. I will post the song as soon as I can to share it with you. We still have several days here and although we are tired we are also encouraged. More later…

There have been so many things I have wanted to blog since I arrived in India, but to be honest everything I have experienced is almost overwhelming and I just haven’t found the time to write it out. I have tried to put pictures on the blog to visually share my experience, but as you know, pictures just can’t fully share the experience. Our days have been both exhilarating and exhausting. I still have a hard time believing that I have experienced some of the things I’ve seen. India is truly a multi-sensory experience.

There’s no way to give a full description of all that we are getting accomplished. Everyday each team of 2 are going out to experience the area with a national and a cab driver. Yesterday, my parter, Stacy and I visited the village of Mandela and had the pleasure of meeting many of the people who lived there.  I had an opportunity to meet a man named, Mondi who was weaving a sarhi on this huge loom.  We talked for a while and I purchased the sarhi he was making at the time as a momento of my visit.  I have posted pictures in my India 2 set.

Today I asked my national to take me to see a king cobra, but when we reached the little hut where the snake chambers lived they were not there.  There adolescent daughter was there but she expressed to be afraid to open the box…none of us judged her because we were afraid to open the box as well. The nationals have been so kind to us. Stacy and I have visited in more than 100 homes in the last three days in three different villages. In each of these homes they have offered us the seat of honor which many times are the only 2 chairs in the house…sometimes it’s the bed as they have no chairs. Even though they have so little they often offer us something to eat or drink. In the homes where the family has shared a meal with us we are given the only fork or spoon (if they even have one). Several times I have prayed, “Lord, please help me get this down and please help me keep it down!” So far, so good.

We have five more days here. Please pray for us to have opportunities to meet as many people as possible while we are here. Pray for safety as we travel and for good health.

We met at and left from the church on-time and made it to the airport on schedule. We made it thought the security checkpoint without a hitch and had a little time to chill-out at the gate before boarding our plane. This flight begins the first of three legs of the trip that will get us to our final destination.  From Atlanta we will fly to Newark-Liberty International Airport then to Dehli, India where we will spend the night. The following morning we will fly from there to Vishakhapatnum, India – I know, I can’t pronounce it either – where we will take a three-hour bus-ride to Kakinada, India where we will enjoy getting to know the people and culture of such a diverse country.

The plane we are taking for the first leg of our trip is a  Embraer RJ145 which is a fairly small plane small – only three seats across.  We boarded our plane on time and it apeared that we would actually depart a few minutes early, but after making it to the runway we were held on the ground for thirty minutes, but still made it to the Newark airport on time.  We had a three hour layover and during that time we met-up with several other group members who were joining us from other parts of the country.

The flight to Dehli took about 14 hours and while it was long it was not a bad experience. It helped that the plane was a  It helped that my seatmates were Jennifer and S ttacy and we had several other friends on the flight with us.  I had good intentions to catch up on reading, and while I did finish Soul  Print by Mark Batterson [finally] I spent a little time catching up on some movies that I haven’t gotten around to veiwing…don’t judge me – fourteen hours…free movies…what’s a guy to do.

When we landed at the airport in Dehli it was already dark and we were not able to see much of the scenery on our short bus-ride to our hotel.  Our abilty to see was also greatly hindered by the amount of pollution in the air – basically it was smoke from where they burn refuse.  As with every travel expereince I have had in a forien country our ride to and from the airport was no different – there were lots of horns, motorcycles and bike riders weaved in and out of the traffic  seeminly oblivious to the other drivers – no matter how much bigger they are.  It was interesting to see pedestrians of every age walking along – and though – the streets, even on the major highways.

We made it to our hotel with no incedent and I was very pleased with the accomodations.  In our discussions about what to expect regarding the trip I had set my expecations pretty low so, when our room had a toilet, shower, AC AND toilet paper I was a happy camper.  Oh, and they had complementary Wi-Fi so being able to check email and facebook made it a good end to a good day.