Teaching from ignorance

Today, I was assigned the duty of tutoring one of the Burmese locals that works for the company and also teaching a class of three women who have been going through a series of 4 classes known as Opportunity Now!'s Business Explorer classes.  First off, I worked with a guy named Deerum in a private tutoring session as we tried to address the first of his two objectives that he had shared with me yesterday.  

I had spent a good chunk of the afternoon yesterday developing a lesson plan for him as I felt really ignorant on the subject so I knew it would take some time to properly prepare.  Not to mention that it was supposed to take a full 2 hours straight of our time.  You can get through a ton of material in 2 hours via one on one tutoring sessions.  His first objective that he wants to address with me is to improve his English writing - both for personal use as well as business use, with the emphasis being placed on business English since he will use that more in his everyday use for the organization.  When I had finished typing out my plans, I had 5 pages worth of plans.  

By the time we finished, we had spent the entire 2 hours doing the lesson I had developed.  Deerum is a wonderful student but as I am finding here, I found in Haiti, and is rampant in America due to standardized tests that are all multiple choice instead of asking the students to produce and create something, he had a difficult time applying what he had learned when I was teaching him and he was busily taking notes. After some guidance and encouragement he did fine though, so I have a feeling we'll be able to go pretty far in 8 short hours.  I even gave him homework, would I be considered a real teacher if I didn't?  hahaha

In my plans and the majority of what I had him copy down as notes, were 17 different types of business writing that I came up with off the top of my head.  Not too bad considering this is my first week in the business world, right?!  Actually, I had read through quite a bit of the Opportunities' Now core curriculum so I was more familiar with what types of documents were needed to start a business.  A few of them I did pick up however during meetings and conversations with some of the organization's leaders.  As I mentioned before, we got through a ton of material and then applied what we had learned and tried to create some of the documents that we had discussed.  I was reminded of how clearly a teacher must communicate exactly what they expect.  In Deerum's case I had asked him to write a paragraph for something and he wrote bullet points with numbers.  Turns out he didn't know what the word paragraph meant; which I should've asked him before assigning him the task.  Lesson learned though fairly quickly and we put it into paragraph form rather quickly with him doing the work and me editing.

That tutoring session lasted from 10-12 this morning.  After an hour lunch break, I was asked to teach the Business Explorer's 4th class which focused on 'Managing Your Business.'  I found this to be hugely ironic since my personal management of time in particular is quite deplorable and not something to be emulated.  However, as the old saying goes, "Do as I say, not as I do."  Ryan was gracious enough to go over the 6 slide powerpoint presentation that I was somehow miraculously supposed to stretch into 3 hours.  Again, I went bell to bell as they say.  I used the entire 3 hours, well more like 2 hours and 45 minutes because we wanted to wait for everyone to arrive, Burmese usually arrive about 15 minutes late Deerum had informed me earlier.

There are three things to manage when opening a new business - time, resources, and people.  As it turns out, these are all limited things and hence the need to manage them.  Ryan emphasized to me the importance of prioritizing tasks within each of these three areas and also the need to delegate different ones to different people.  As a result, i also emphasized the importance of prioritizing things and delegation during the presentation today.  I took several notes during Ryan's brief overview of the slide show and was able to expand on the notes into a halfway decent lesson considering I had just learned about the stuff earlier in the same day.  I also had the three women inform me of what they had learned in their first 3 sessions so they could review the material as well as so I could be informed of what else they had already learned and use that as a general starting point to transition into my lesson.

The three young hopefully soon to be entrepreneurial women did a great job at reviewing the material from the previous three lessons and that provided me with a great starting point to launch into my lesson for today.  After teaching straight through for probably an hour and a half or two, it was time to put these girls to the test.  Don't worry, not a multiple choice-test as I hate those things and have yet to see them as being of any real value in the working world of today's global marketplace.  No, I had these three bright-eyed and eager to be entrepreneurs present their business plans to me and the rest of the class and act as if they were trying to pitch the idea to me in order to secure a loan.  I gave them probably about 5 minutes to write down ideas for their pitch and then said as each one presented their ideas, we would listen carefully and offer constructive criticism afterwards.  I made sure to say it would have to be constructive and respectful, not that it would be an issue anyways but I assured them hearing criticism is difficult for anyone to handle but that it was a necessary part of the learning process and refining process to get them ready to present to a bank or other lender.

The girls did a fabulous job and I followed up their presentation with questions that I thought a lender might ask them after their business presentations.  Why should they lend to you as opposed to the competition?  What makes your business unique?  Why will it succeed?  What kind of experience do you have in the field? I also encouraged them to dream big in order to show the bank or lender that they were especially passionate about their business and wanted to grow and expand quickly.  For instance, one girl wants to open a private kindergarten center in Yangon.  I asked her to brainstorm what she would do if her student population outgrew the facility that she was renting?  Would she build a building?  Would she rent property nearby to open another center?  Would she split the population among two different locations?  How close would they be to one another?  How are you going to manage both places since you can only be physically present in one of them at a time?  She was really quick on her feet as were all of them and really impressed me.

I had a wonderful time teaching today.  This is what I love, teaching practical skills that people will use.  In kindergarten you teach the basics which are necessary to everyday living.  The same goes for the classes here; we are teaching business basics that students can then use to launch their own businesses.  I have to believe that when my dad reads this he will grin with a big ol' smile as he has always applauded things that are actually practical and necessary to a job as opposed to just theory.  Ryan, my friend and the CEO of the organization thinks a lot like my dad.  When brainstorming about where to find teachers for the entrepreneurship classes, I suggested perhaps teachers from a local business school may be of some aid.  Without hesitation Ryan informed me that they were mostly all academic theory with little to no experience in the real world of business and were therefore useless to our students.  We need people, he went on to inform me, that have a ton of on the ground experience and can teach from that experience with real world examples as opposed to mere theoreticians.  For a moment I thought it was coming straight out of my dad's mouth, as if my dad had lent Ryan an earpiece and was telling him what to say.

Today's lessons

Today, we went to the office as usual.  We had several meetings which is par for the course I'm learning.  They are surprisingly concise for what is being discussed and are effective and efficiently lead.  Including everyone's ideas and writing down the good ones and throwing out the bad ones while still showing respect towards the person who suggested a poor idea, most of the time it comes from me to be honest since I don't know my way around the business world quite yet; but I never feel stupid for suggesting less than stellar ideas.  As also is par for the course, I'm busy soaking up all the knowledge I can from everyone's input whether good or bad.  I mainly pay attention to how the CEO and COO handle the meetings well, with respect and dignity extended to all parties and a genuine interest in making them feel valued.

In the afternoon, I met with a couple of the locals they have employed at the school to discuss what they wanted to learn during our English lessons this week that will be two hours each, once a week.  I am looking forward to these private tutoring sessions immensely as my background is obviously in education and I even have a specialization in ESL, or English as a Second Language.  First, I met with each employee separately to discuss learning goals and objectives to see what they wanted to get out of our relatively short time of only 8 hours of classes together.  Originally, I was supposed to teach/tutor them together but they are at such different levels I decided it would be better to do it one on one.  This is not possible in a regular class setting of course but is the ideal if you can get to that point.  Deeram wants to practice writing, both personal letters as well as for business, with an emphasis on business English.  He also wants to learn proper grammar for speaking English, which will honestly be more difficult for me but I have a wonderful mom who always tried to help us speak intelligibly as English was one of her passions growing up and I think secretly she wasn't about to let one of her sons sound like an uneducated fool.

Secondly, I spoke with Khongnin, who is at a lower level of English language learning but does understand you when you speak to her.  We're going to work on her speaking so she can converse more easily; which might prove difficult since she is super shy even in her own language I've been informed.  We are also going to work on pronunciation as that is a typically difficult thing for Asians in general, not to stereotype or anything but just like Americans struggle through their American accent in a foreign context so do foreigners struggle with their accents when speaking English.  We will also work on basic reading comprehension as well as writing responses to simple passages of reading.  All this may not be able to be accomplished in 8 short hours, but I'm sure going to do my best to help them both reach their goals.

I was also present during a meeting between Ryan and Matt discussing and writing down some S.W.O.T. analyses for different business ideas that another organization had asked them to do as consultation.  I had never heard of a S.W.O.T. before so I will share with you what it consists of from what I learned about it today.  It stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.  Strengths and weaknesses are internal, opportunities and threats are external, such as a competitor already in your location.  While I found this interesting at first, I quickly lost interest as they started talking about costs associated with opening and maintaining a viable business as I don't know the cost of anything here so I was of little help to them at that point.

Afterwards, I spent time developing lesson plans for one of my students since we have our first session tomorrow and I really don't know that much about business so I mainly wanted to get some ideas down in a word document so I could do a little bit of research later.  That's also something I'm learning lately.  Teachers aren't the only ones that take work home, contrary to what you might hear in a school setting.  In fact, I would bet most professions either take work home or stay late to get caught up everyday, unless you're in a secretarial role or something similar.

business as mission

There is a growing movement among business professionals as well as missionaries who want to help empower people around them, whether that be at home or abroad.  It is often referred to as Business as Mission as a kind of all-encompassing term to refer to using your business as your mission as opposed to separating the two from one another as has often been the practice of church-goers in the past.

My good friend Ryan, who married a woman from Myanmar around 2.5 years ago and now lives in Yangon, Myanmar with her, has started an organization called Opportunities Now! which is devoted to providing educational classes and resources as well as micro loans to individuals who are wanting to start their own businesses.  So far, I have been greatly encouraged by all that I have seen, and felt a little out of my league to say the least since my background is in education and I know little to nothing about business.  I have taught myself some basics about economics since the crash in '08, but other than that I've always respected business people but never felt like I was really given a business mind or that I could help in any way.

That is all starting to change now.  The past couple of days alone I have learned a tremendous amount about what is needed to start a business for young professionals or anyone for that matter.  Opportunities Now! focuses on youth aged 17-25 as that is kind of a forgotten population here who aren't really expected to do a whole lot with their lives.  I obviously have a long ways to go, but I am very excited as well as eager to continue down this path.  As I've said before, I can see myself coming alongside someone else as their right-hand man in a venture such as this, ideally in Haiti is my idea, I'd also really love to be able to teach the classes to the youth as part of the curriculum for their first 6 weeks in the program.

Sometime this week I will be working with a Burmese woman named Sara on developing curriculum for another series of classes that they're trying to start that will be addressing businesses that have been in existence for a few years and are looking for new ways to expand and grow their business.  I am super excited about this and can't wait to sink my teeth into this project.  She asked me on Monday how much I knew about business, and I informed her I knew nothing.  However, I assured her I could ask my dad all the questions that might pop up and he would know most of the answers or could locate them rather quickly if he didn't know them right off the top of his head.

You see, my dad is brilliant in the area of business, having spent his whole career in the field and now leading a mid-size business in the field of agriculture.  I grew up knowing one thing, I didn't want to go into the business field.  I had seen how much stress it put on my dad; very rarely did he take it out on my mom or us, but I did hear him cuss out some inanimate objects in the garage on a fairly regular basis.  At first, I didn't really understand the reasoning behind this, but as I've grown older and dealt with stress on my own coupled with an absolute ineptness in the area of anything requiring a knack for handy man types of skills, I find myself more often than not cussing out inanimate objects myself.  Like father like son I suppose.  There are certainly worse things though, aren't there?  I would much rather take out my stress on things as opposed to other people, although that has admittedly happened before as well, albeit minus the cussing part.

He has also handled stress by a consistent routine of exercising in the mornings.  For as long as I can remember, he has ridden an exercise bike and now has added an elliptical as well as weight-lifting to his routine.  This is an area where I really struggle with consistency.  When I exercise, I generally feel much better physically as well as mentally, it's simply a matter of sticking with it and not falling off the wagon that I struggle with it.  Not to rat her out but I'm sure she'd be okay with it, I think my mom has the same struggle I do, at least when compared to my dad but she is also probably more consistent than I am with that being said.

I may not be able to take the helm of a company or organization some day like my friend Ryan or my dad.  Who knows, though, maybe that's what God is calling me to and will teach me a deeper level of faith and trust through that process.  One thing is for sure, Haiti could definitely benefit from something like this organization here in Myanmar.  When my team was in Haiti, we learned that the unemployment rate is around 80%, completely incomprehensible to my mind and I'm guessing most Americans' minds as well.  What would be ideal in my opinion for me, would be to take a right-hand man type of position in an organization such as this one.  When my other friend, also named Ryan, planted our church 4.5 years ago, I was able to help him out quite a bit and have continued to do so over the past few years when I've been home especially but even sometimes when I've been overseas.

It is my prayer for God to bless my life with meaning doing something in the field of business as mission.  I truly believe that economic development and the development of a country therefore begins and is sustained by creating small businesses.  That is what gets a country off the ground and running.  We must empower locals to create their own work so that they can employ other locals and as a result be able to pay the school fees for their children as well as put food on the table.  Part of the problem with material poverty is the mindset that comes along with it.  There is little to no time to plan far into the future when you are desperately struggling to put food on the table.

Education and healthcare are vitally important too, but I really believe the first step is starting businesses.  That way, you can grow your tax base and start working on infrastructure to help the other areas along as well.  As I heard Tony Campolo say once in regards to education, "You know the saying, 'If you feed a man a fish, you feed him for a day.  If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.'  I would agree with that but we must go one step further and ask the next question and that is, 'What if there is no pond to fish in?'"  This has always stuck with me as a paradigm shift in my thinking as well as many others.

Haiti as well as any developing country is not going to be saved by white men who have savior complexes.  First, they are going to be saved by Jesus and the local church as it grows the kingdom of God within their local contexts.  Second, it has to be saved by Haitians or whomever the local people of a country might be.  They have to take the helm and step up to serve their own countries by starting businesses or schools or whatever else may benefit their local communities.

It is our job, as missionaries to these contexts as well as people who stay at home in the states - who I consider every bit as much of a missionary as those who are overseas by the way - to equip and empower the local church who in turn equip and empower their members to reach and disciple their nation for Christ.  This cannot be done simply as a call to fire insurance to save people from hell.  We must have a more holistic understanding and sharing of the gospel if we want to truly be effective and have local pastors be effective in their churches and ministries.  They, in turn, equip and release their members into the marketplaces to go be love to the people around them, whether that be in the area of business, education, health care, government or whatever other field.

While it is true that change must start from within, it is vital to recognize that it cannot stay there.  People often quote Gandhi and someone else whom I can't remember, as saying something along the lines of everyone wants to change the world but no one wants to change themselves.  While this is obviously necessary to have an ongoing transformation that is rooted in Christ, it must not stop there.  It would be the equivalent of having Bible studies and gathering a bunch of head knowledge without ever applying it to your personal life and in the workplace as well as at home.  Jesus as well as many other God-inspired authors of books in the Old and New Testament alike challenge this way of thinking as nothing short of sinfulness.  If you see a brother in need and do nothing to meet that need, etc is just one example I can think of off the top of my head.

first day in Myanmar, or Burma as the case may soon be

Yesterday, I arrived early in the morning around 2 or 2:30am in Yangon's main airport due to a flight delay on the second leg of my trip coming out of Hong Kong.  My friend Ryan picked me up and took me to his flat for some much needed rest.  We awoke a seemingly couple hours later to go to the office and get started on our day.

We had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, a delightful way to start my stay in Yangon.  We then proceeded to head to the office to have several meetings which were very interesting to say the least.  It was nothing like my staff meetings I used to have when I taught at school, thankfully.  We had devos which I loved thoroughly; I would suggest every Christian-lead business start the day even at least once a week with devos time being cut out for importance of melding their team together spiritually.

Then Ryan and his business partner Matt met with me individually to introduce me to their organization and what all they're doing.  It is way too much to relay here, but suffice it to say my mind was blown and my heart was kindled even further for getting involved with Opportunities Now! and business as mission in general.  I hope to do something similar myself in the future in Haiti, although I think I would make a much better right-hand man as opposed to the founder or executive director to an entrepreneurship school.  That being said, if no one else steps up to the plate after I have spent significant time in prayer regarding this, than I am willing to take the lead and trust God to provide me with the leadership skills and abilities needed to launch something as overwhelming as an entrepreneurship school in Haiti.  God doesn't always call the equipped, sometimes He equips the called, right?  Or some cheesy Christian cliche to insert there.

His partner Matt took me through an outline detailing all their different projects they were undertaking and took the time to explain each one.  I hope to be able to learn everything well enough to explain it to my dad when I get back home as I'm sure he would be excited to learn more about Ryan's ministry as he gave a significant amount to this ministry out of his last bonus which I was thrilled with as was Ryan of course.  Such a privilege to be able to report back to what God is doing with the funding that my dad has donated to this cause.

They have a very well thought out business model to help young entrepreneurs start their own businesses rather quickly.  They don't accept every student's business plan as some of them don't have a good enough idea or Ryan and Matt don't think they will be successful after having seen them progress through the school and internship.  I believe this is very wise on their part as they're not loading someone down with debt who couldn't pay it back in a reasonable time period.  As it stands now, the students who do receive a loan have 12 monthly payments to pay back the loan and are mentored along the way as well as have to attend networking meetings once a month with the other students who received loans in order to learn what's working or not from one another and share best practices in their respective fields.

Ryan, Matt, and the locals who are employed by Opportunities Now! are all very inspiring and I feel/know I will learn an unbelievably useful amount of knowledge over the course of the next month.  I am super excited to finally start saying yes to God and stepping out in faith in the direction that I feel He is leading me in.  It just feels right to go forth in what I feel is my calling to international missions.  It may or may not look like what I have in mind, I am obviously willing to bend my will in response to His.  However, if He chooses to empower me to do something like this I will be absolutely thrilled and count it a huge privilege to serve Him and do my little part to accompany His Son in expanding the kingdom work in wherever place He has set out for me in advance.  You know He does that, right?  He has prepared good works in advance for us to do.  We simply have to say yes to what He has called us to, whether that be little steps along the way or giant leaps of faith.

thoughts on the gospel and its implications for all humanity

This leads me to my next point.  God is infinitely good.  It is easier for myself and others to see this when things go well and you can feel his special favor and blessing over your life.  However, even in the dark times of questioning, when evil things happen to innocent people for instance, God is still good and still sovereign.  Free will is the only path to true love, both a love for the Creator as well as for His image-marked humanity and His beautiful and stunning creation.  Along with free will came the fall, and from that point forward we have been separated from a most holy God who cannot have sin come into His presence.  For this reason Jesus was sent, that we might be reconciled to God through the sacrifice of His Son.  Not only His death but more importantly His resurrection from the dead, for that is where we place our hope for eternity.  When given free will, you are ultimately left with two very different choices.  You can either choose to die to yourself and as a result live more fully for Christ, or you can live for yourself and the desires of this world.  The first leads to a head start on eternal life, the second similarly to a head start on eternity, only resulting in very different destinies.  You will either be lifted up into His glorious presence when you pass from your earthly existence, or you will be separated from the God of the universe and every good gift that comes from Him forever, including beer, in an answer to a rather famous book title that states he hopes they serve beer in hell.  Rest assured they will not haha.  Forever is a very long time, something that must be contemplated as we try and fumble our way through the few moments that we are granted breaths on earth.  Many self-help books and motivational speakers as well as pastors have said it before and it warrants repeating now.  Begin with the end in mind.  As my campus pastor said once, what do you want to have engraved on your tombstone.  A very sobering thought to be sure among newly independent young adults desperately trying to find out who they are apart from their parents for the first time, but one that has always stuck with me and I'm positive with many others during his long and impactful tenure as a campus minister.  We must contemplate what we want our legacy to be to generations after us before we're able to move forward with wisdom.  Do we want our lives to count for something?  Do we want to be known as someone who made a difference in whatever place they found that God had placed them in?  If so, then we must live with an ever present and continual prayer that God may honor us by using us for His kingdom and His glory.  

His Name is the only One worth praising, and it is our duty as believers to share this infinitely good news to the ends of the earth.  My brother, Nathan, once questioned me on why I was going on a mission trip to Kenya.  He informed me that it was no place of mine to tell other people they were destined for hell, to which I explained I rarely use that method when sharing the gospel with others.  Usually promising a more purposeful life does the trick.  However, as I get older and read the Bible again and again, I'm confronted with the idea that perhaps we are misrepresenting God and Jesus at some primary level.  We must arrive at the place where we acknowledge that yes, He is all-loving and slow to anger, but simultaneously He is also the Great Judge who will eventually judge the earth's inhabitants for their actions while they lived on the earth.  As I once relayed to a new acquaintance during my student teaching experience, I truly believe there will be more people who end up in hell as opposed to heaven where everyone likes to comfort themselves by believing their loved ones are there even though they had no evidence in their lives of submitting to the only One who can bridge the chasm between ourselves and God.  While this may be of some temporary relief and comfort, we should not waste such an opportunity to share the gospel after having walked alongside our friends and family in the midst of their grieving.  This must be done delicately, with much grace and as stated before only after having walked alongside someone in their grief.  All the same it is upon us as our responsibility and response to the gospel and our salvation that we are compelled to share the love of Christ with our loved ones.  This looks different according to whatever circumstance a believer might find themselves in, what is good news to this people group might look differently in one place as opposed to another place, however we are called to point others to Christ, in action as well as word and truth.  For one people group that might mean you start businesses with the intent on providing much needed jobs for locals.  For another people group it might mean you challenge them to search out the meaning to life, can it really be found in wealth and material things?  Or is there more to life than meets the eye?  Regardless of the circumstance we find ourselves in, we are all called to share the gospel and make disciples.  For some reason the church of the 20th century in America did a great job at making converts and a less than stellar job at making disciples.  This must be turned from and repented of in the 21st century if there is any hope of revival in America and other post-Christian societies.  We need to understand and share a more holistic picture of the gospel, otherwise we do God a great disservice and make ourselves unworthy of the calling that He has called us to.

Tokyo, part 2...the onsen experience

Naturally we went to the left to the human onsen, and I never could've anticipated what awaited me when we walked through the doors to the onsen.  My host instructed me to remove my shoes which is a common practice in Japanese homes as well as certain public spaces depending on the purpose of that space.  We then put our shoes in a locker and were given a key with a barcode and a wristband to use for the rest of our stay/incredible experience.  The barcode was used to order food later or various other services such as a foot massage.  We decided we'd do the onsen first followed by dinner later.  First you have to change into an outfit called a Yukara if I'm not mistaken at the spelling of the word.  Afterwards, you journey on to the shared foot onsen between both genders.  There are rocks about every step you take but they are separated into nice little rows so they are easy to avoid if you wish.  After spending some time spoiling our feet, we walked on to the next part, but not after first having watched a special room where apparently little fish attach themselves to your feet and remove dead skin from your feet.  Sounds gross of course to out American ears, but have you ever seen a Japanese person's skin??  Perhaps this is something we should import although I think they're only used on the feet and not the face so maybe it wouldn't be as popular as an entrepreneur might hope.

We entered into the men's locker room, thankfully the actual onsen is separated into men's and women's baths so there is no embarrassment on either side, or any hanky panky although that would be quickly disallowed in Japanese culture and wouldn't even happen in the first place between two Japanese people but rather with a tourist couple undoubtedly.  Anyways, you take off your Yukara and shower off before entering the public bath.  You're given two towels upon entering the locker room, one to dry off with when you're finished and one to bathe with.  I mentioned to my girlfriend that it must've been years since I'd taken a bath of any sort, much less one with a bunch of naked Japanese men.  When in Rome, or Tokyo for that matter, you adapt to the culture, and I'm very glad I did.  When I showered off I was unable to locate a razor but there was shaving cream.  I mistakenly used a foot scrubber that didn't prove to be an effective razor until the guy in the stall next to me showed me what it was.  Having been only slightly embarrassed, it takes quite a bit for me to get truly red in the face, I politely asked him where the razors were located and he pointed me to the entrance to the onsen that I had walked past earlier, completely oblivious to the big basket of one-time use razors.  Understandably I'd argue as I was slightly distracted by being naked and going into a giant public bath where there were dozens of other naked men.  Having regained my composure, I shaved and rinsed off and then it was time to enter the baths.  These baths were produced by hotsprings in many places my host informed me, but I doubt it was here as the island was atop a landfill.  Who knows though, stranger things have happened, right?

The majority of people would walk around with their towels covering their private area, but there were a minority who refused to follow standard protocol for some reason and it reminded me of the old European men on Siesta Key beach who wear speedos, much to everyone else's chagrin.  Having gotten past the shock and awe of such seemingly shamelessness that didn't fit the paradigm of Japanese politeness and shyness that I had come to expect, I entered the hot bath water and was completely refreshed and invigorated in a matter of only a few minutes.  My host and I then went to the outside bath which was just as refreshing only in the outside one you sat on large rocks as opposed to the tile benches in the indoor ones.  Having spent around 10 minutes soaking up the all-encompassing water, much as a blanket seems to wrap itself around a baby, we spotted a rule-breaker.  There were relatively few rules to enter the baths, one of which my dad would've stamped his approval on being that no one with tattoos was allowed to enter.  The first and in my opinion the most important rule was that there was no photography allowed.  Unfortunately, this rule was unsuccessful in preventing some older Japanese man from video recording a panoramic shot of the outside bath.  My host and I agreed that this was ill-mannered and highly surprising coming from a Japanese man as opposed to some stupid tourist who could've claimed ignorance if questioned later about it.  Apparently he got away with it though, so if you see my half-naked body above the water in a public bath with a bunch of other naked dudes in a Japanese onsen I apologize in advance and request that you inform me of the website immediately so I can take hopefully some action and have the sight removed from the public domain, thanks.  I especially want to take the time to apologize to my girlfriend, sorry honey, not really a lot I could do outside of tackling a 60 year old Japanese man and making a terrible scene and undoubtedly being kicked out of the onsen.  This was a risk I simply was not willing to take, I hope you understand as I'm sure you will.

Once we had fully appreciated and enjoyed the envelopment of the warm springs, my host and I toweled off and went on back to the main area which featured many restaurants with countless types of food to feast on. And feast we did.  I ordered fried octopus as well as a couple different rolls of sushi, two times of sushi in one day is not to be frowned upon when you're visiting Japan for a few short days.  My host had asked me before I ordered if I was hungry and I assured him I was, which I gladly appreciated shortly thereafter.  He ordered many different types of Japanese traditional food, almost all of which gave my taste buds something to shout in unanimous approval of.

Having spent an unforgettable day exploring as much of Tokyo as humanly possible in about a 9-10 hour period, we headed back to his flat to enjoy a well-deserved sleep that might be considered by some to be closer to a short, drug-induced coma in my case at least.  We traveled through the tunnel again and got a spectacular view of the green lights at the top of the bridge upon exiting, lighting the way to one man's treasure built atop many others' trash.

Suffice it to say, my words have done a mere sketch of what was a true masterpiece of an experience.  I hope you have enjoyed reading my poor attempt to capture what was a glorious trip to Tokyo and I hope you are able to see it someday yourself, as it must be experienced in person to truly appreciate all that I have spoken of.  By the way, I can't recommend highly enough the couchsurfing website that I have been a member of for around 6 years now.  You may just have an experience like I had and will be overwhelmed by people's hospitality all around the world.  You will undoubtedly be inspired to provide a more welcoming experience for travelers and friends alike when they enter your home as you attempt, in whatever minuscule way you are able, to pay it forward upon your return to your humble abode.

Best day ever in Tokyo, part 1

Needless to say, it was fascinating to learn about Japanese culture from my more than gracious host.  We also met up with a coworker of his who is now doing her 3 month internship with his company as she pursues her masters in Romania.  She was quite fun as well and helped us to understand one another's versions of English.  We three had an incredible day exploring Tokyo and it was an experience that will not soon be forgotten.  I'd have to rank it the most remarkable couchsurfing experience I've ever had, which is really saying something as I've had several fond and memorable experiences through that network.

Halfway through the afternoon, I remarked to my newly found Romanian friend that we were being spoiled since our Japanese tour guide was paying for everything.  She didn't agree until I explained that I had used spoiled in the sense of how grandparents spoil their grandchildren by treating them to many things that are costly to their budgets but they do with great joy.  I'm pretty sure my host spent well over $500 on both of us showing us his city; like I said it was humbling to receive that amount of hospitality.  It was also a huge relief as I had started to wonder how much I was going to have to dip into my checking account to cover three days in Japan after having spent around $80 a day for the first two days.

We did many incredibly fun and entertaining things on Saturday, and I'll try to provide a brief synopsis here although it will undoubtedly be an injustice to the day no matter how I'm able to convey how much we did and experienced.  We went to different shopping districts and I witnessed that Japanese culture is almost or more of a consumer culture than American culture can be.  We went to lunch at a sushi restaurant that had a running sushi train that brought around plates in front of you and then continued on to the next customer to entice you to pick up that plate in hopes of satisfying your pallet.  The operation was in fact very successful, as we all had several plates but to my surprise my host, who was much skinnier than I am, had one more plate than I had.

Later, we drove the Toyota Prius that my host had borrowed for the day from the city's car share program to another shopping district and went to the craziest restaurant I've ever been to.  It was a trendy place in Tokyo apparently and had only been in business for about 5 years but had over 20 restaurants in Tokyo alone.  I'm going to take a wild guess and say the waitresses were about 15 or 16 years old and were dressed in a maid's attire.  They came to our table and told us how to order, which involved hand movements as well as meowing like a cat to gain their attention.  During the entire dessert experience I'll call it, I was distracted by a male customer who wore a mask for some reason and was definitely a show stealer.  After we had spent probably about 15-20 minutes at our table, the lights blacked out and a disco ball hanging from the ceiling started casting its light around the room while different waitresses took turns singing karaoke and getting the crowd involved.  They had sold glow sticks right beforehand for people to use to make the sing-along more interactive and fun, and the masked man had brought his own version of a glow stick which was battery powered and somewhere in the middle of a glow stick and a light saber.  He danced in his place to the music being played and more people, including myself and newly found friends, were entranced by his dancing as opposed to watching the waitress on stage sing her little heart out.  I asked my host if I could take his picture when we first got there but he assured me it was considered ill-mannered in Japanese culture.  Moments later, I saw a Japanese woman take his picture so I felt justified when I snuck several pictures and even a video when my host wasn't looking.

Having our bellies filled with sushi and ice cream, we needed some time to walk it off so we went and explored some Japanese gardens that were pretty to look at.  They had a technology called DryMist that you could walk under to get cooled off, much like the mist in Phoenix and other desert cities out west.  There was a live performance of what my host said was the equivalent of their American Idol so that was fun to witness as well.

We then proceeded to ask our Romanian friend if she wanted to join us on our trip to the onsen, or public baths.  My host assured her that men and women are separated when they bathe, but nevertheless she politely declined so we took her and dropped her off back at her flat, which sounded about as small as Steffani's flat when she was teaching in Osaka a couple of years ago.  Having dropped off our Romanian friend, my host and I continued on our journey to the onsen, which was located on an island.

The cool thing about this island is that my host informed me it was built on an old landfill, if I understood him right which I'm pretty sure I did.  It reminded me of a park in Sarasota that had been built atop a capped landfill.  It was an enormous island, one that simultaneously displayed what must have been a disgustingly huge landfill and an act of scientific and technological brilliance to pull off making it suitable to build mini-skyscrapers as well as a separate business district on.

We crossed under a tunnel as opposed to crossing over a beautiful bridge which reminded me of the Skyway that I take back home to get to St Pete or Tampa whenever I need to fly or go to a Rays game and arrived shortly thereafter to the onsen.  This was no ordinary onsen, to relay the understatement of the year.  When you first walk up to it, you are directed to the left for the human onsen or to the right for the dog onsen.  It occurred to me that Japanese people were as crazy about their dogs as American people are back home, perhaps even more so.  Something is wrong in both countries if we make sure our dogs are well-fed and even sometimes clothed in the winters depending on the owner but there are people who are not.  Not sure this can be said of Japan as I didn't see one single beggar on the streets of Tokyo while I was there though.

Bipolar traveling...from Haiti to Japan

A couple weeks ago, I spent an incredible week in Haiti with a team from my church and 3 others who we were blessed to spend the week with.  There was incredible physical poverty, the kind that makes you rethink who you are and why you were graced to be born into a developed nation and the Haitian people were not.  80% of the population is unemployed, and the World Health Organization declared it the poorest country in the world recently, previously it had just been the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.  Of course, declaring the world's poorest country is largely determined by who is measuring it and what measures they are using; GDP, healthcare, educational access, or a combination of different measures.  Regardless, it's not exactly a list that you want to find your mother nation on.  It was very heartbreaking and moving to say the least, and I believe God will use that trip to change all of the team members' hearts into something more beautiful and willing to say yes again no matter where God may call them, whether that be to adopt locally or become a missionary overseas or live more intentionally in the setting that God has already placed them in.

After a week in Haiti, I spent a couple of days back home in Sarasota, in order to rest and catch my breath a bit before I went on my next trip.  It was very encouraging to see my church family and discuss what I had seen and experienced in Haiti, though a 5-10 minute conversation hardly did it justice.  All the same, it was an honor and privilege to be reunited with my church family after such a difficult week to process and try to comprehend.

Two days seemed to be the right amount of time to catch my breath, so it was time to move on to LA for a night and then onto Tokyo for a few nights.  LA was good although I was only there a night; I was reminded of just how diverse our own country is as I ate dinner at a local restaurant near my hostel that had a menu that was solely in Spanish.  You don't have to travel far to meet someone of a different culture, they're probably right in your own backyard, sometimes quite literally.  Even in mostly white Sarasota, I teach at a school that has a roughly two-thirds population of students who speak English as a second language and whose parents speak none or very little English.

I arrived in Tokyo in the middle of the afternoon and had some time to kill before my couchsurfing host was able to let me into his place after he finished work at 11:00 pm.  Since I didn't want to carry my large check-on luggage, I was thankfully able to store it at the airport for a few days for around $20, not bad as far as luggage storage prices go.  Afterwards, I went on to my host's place to make sure I could find it when I would have to go back there in the dark, always wise to find your destination in the daytime if possible which is something I've learned the hard way from arriving in several international cities in the pitch black and not having a clue as to where to go or how to get there.  Sorry mom, I've not mentioned that to you before for obvious reasons.

My host let me in right around 11:15pm when I arrived at his lobby of the skyrise that housed his flat.  He was a wonderful host who displayed the true meaning of hospitality to this American man who thought he knew something of living generously but turned out to be woefully mistaken and put to shame by Japanese hospitality, to the point where I vowed I would be more hospitable to my couchsurfing guests and others who I invite into my home in the future.

On Friday, I was left on my own to explore the city and take in some of the sights.  My girlfriend had emailed me a list of places to see, phrases to use, etc. that turned out to be very helpful as I didn't even crack the book that she loaned me that was a visitor's guide to Japan.  I much prefer to get someone's personal advice on where to go and especially appreciate it if a couchsurfer can take me to those places himself.

Thankfully, my host was in fact able to show me his city on Saturday since he doesn't have to work on weekends.  I learned however that it is common practice for Japanese people to only have weekends and national holidays as their vacation time.  Personally, I thought 2 weeks was pretty pitiful after having visited Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand where it is typically 4 weeks depending on the job.  He informed me that he took 3 days off for his honeymoon, and I encouraged him to come visit me in Sarasota sometime but I'm doubtful that will ever happen, even if I did suggest he tell his employer that he needed to take his wife on a second honeymoon.  If/when I marry my girlfriend, provided she actually/slightly surprisingly says yes some fine day in the future, the near future according to my friends' and family's wishes but I've written the first book of Hesitations and am well on my way to finishing the sequel, our honeymoon will consist of something quite a bit longer than 3 days.  Hopefully closer to 3 months if I have any say about it.

Needless to say, Haiti and Japan are very different countries, and reminded me of having bipolar disorder in just how different they are.  One is extremely poor and underdeveloped to put it lightly; while the other is in many ways more advanced than even American culture, for instance having a toilet that is smarter than the average person as opposed to the seemingly boring and almost hole in the ground experience we have at home.  There were so many things that amazed my senses on that trip, from the way the car park whizzed your car away atop a moving belt to who knows where only to return it upon your request just as quickly and seemingly magically, to the ways the public transportation is able to handle a large percentage of the 20 million residents of Tokyo who depend on it for their daily route to work.

You see, for me traveling is much more than just going to a new place and sight-seeing.  It is about connecting with locals and being willing to learn from their cultures as they ask and try to learn from your home culture as you try and explain the best you can where you come from.  Couchsurfing is a beautiful way to accomplish this, and one I hope to continue to use both as a surfer and a host for as long as is humanly possible.  AirBnB is another great website devoted to the same purpose, with the significant difference of charging money to travelers that hosts get in return for offering their spare bedrooms.  I use both, but I prefer couchsurfing as the majority of its members are like-minded in their pursuit of traveling with the purpose of not only seeing and experiencing the world but also learning from many different cultures and having a much richer experience for having been blessed with such wisdom.  That being said, I am also grateful for AirBnB as I was able to rent out my master bedroom this summer to a pro golfing Spaniard for a significant source of income in my absence.

helpless and heartsick in Haiti

This past week I was in Haiti with a team of 13 working with a ministry named Respire.  Respire is a non-profit that works with orphans, vulnerable children and restaveks to provide them with education and other things.  It is a marvelous ministry and the founder has a really inspiring story of how she got started.  A few years ago I went to Haiti 7 months after the earthquake hit.  As with anything, your memory eventually fades.

What I saw this time in Haiti was as heartbreaking as the last time I was there.  There is an 80% unemployment rate, practically no health care, malnutrition and preventable diseases are everywhere.  We spent the majority of our time at the school they had built loving on the children.  It was especially neat to see the teenagers on the trip blossom and have their hearts broken for orphans on the trip.  I said today in church that when I was a teenager all I cared about was girls.

Callie, a teammate on the trip, asked me the first or second night what the way forward is for Haiti.  I responded that I really believe the way forward for any developing economy is small business.  A student at Respire for a few weeks said he had done a parent assessment for a parenting class that he wanted to start.  He asked the parents what they thought they needed to become better parents and all of them responded the same; they need jobs.  Does it really take a survey to figure that out?  Personally, I think if you're going to take a needs assessment then you need to do it with an open mind and actually listen.  He already had his mind made up that they were going to do a parenting class, which is all well and good, except that it completely ignores what the people said their primary needs were.

As both an American and a male, my first reaction to any problem is to find a way to fix it.  The founder said she emphasizes to her interns that Haiti can't be fixed overnight and that she wasn't called to fix it.  She simply felt called to love on children and provide for them.  I believe Haiti can be fixed, but it will have to be fixed by Haitians themselves.  Well-meaning white people can offer help and expertise, but ultimately it's got to come from the Haitian people to take ownership of rebuilding their country.  My friend Ryan in Myanmar started an entrepreneurship school in Yangon where I'm going to visit him in a few short days.  His model is the best model out there in my opinion.  He has youth aged 16-30 take business classes for 3 months, then he sets them up with an internship with a local small business owner for 3 months during which time they're required to develop their own business plan; and finally he provides them with a micro loan to launch their own business.

I have a heart for doing something like that in Haiti, although I have a feeling I would make a much better right hand man than the actual founder of the school since that's usually the role I find myself in.  There's another organization in Uganda called Light Gives Heat that employs 120 women as artisans and sells their goods in America so they can have a steady income and provide for their children to go to school.  That is what I feel called to more and more lately.  So I'm going to go to Burma and check out my friend's model and see what I can do to help him and hopefully help others with similar things going on around the world.  Maybe instead of starting a school I could just be a teacher in one of them, that would be pretty awesome.  Who knows?  I'm open to anything at this point.

The last couple of days in Haiti I just felt so helpless.  I talked to Rita, one of the leaders of Respire, about how business could really help some of the people in the community and she agreed and said she would love to do something like that.  She then informed me that another non-profit got in a lot of trouble for doing just that in Haiti a while back because of red tape from the US.  They would have to make an LLC and wouldn't be allowed to work on the same campus as the rest of the ministry.  So there would be some obvious hurdles to overcome right off the bat.

In addition to that, the entire week I was heartsick for talking to my girlfriend Steffani.  We had spent the previous couple of weeks talking everyday since we were finally in the same time zone and man was it tough to not be able to talk with her for a week.  In fact, I downright hated that part of the trip.  I used to just not talk to a girl if I developed feelings for her and I'd get over it in a week or two.  Something is different now though.  I just want to spend time with her so badly it's awfully pathetic.  I pissed and moaned to some of the girls on the trip who just laughed and said I had gotten bit pretty hard by the love bug.  I love Steffani deeply and missed her more than I thought was humanly possible.

So, the helplessness and heartache caused me to be in what Anchorman Will Ferrell called a 'glass cage of emotion' haha  I think everyone reaches that point sometimes, where you just feel paralyzed.  I spent a large part of today catching up on world news and felt paralyzed again.  There are protests and police brutality in Istanbul, where I was last summer.  The Czech president or prime minister is resigning on Monday and that could lead to instability potentially.  This may not seem like a big deal to most people but I have dear friends who are running English camps over there this summer and I would hate to see them have to deal with any potential unwanted political outcomes while they're trying to focus on ministering to Czech youth.

Then, either out of necessity or desperation or both, I remind myself that God is sovereign over it all, and I am not.  All I'm called to do is pray about the situations that I can't change, and move forward in the ones that God chooses to use me to change.  Without the realization that ultimately God is in control of everything, we stay in that state of paralysis.  Only when we acknowledge that we are simply incapable of doing anything good on our own apart from the Creator are we able to then move forward.

Last week before I left, my great friend and pastor Ryan had a great idea for today at church.  He said they would send me to Myanmar but then I would turn around and send the rest of the church to their own mission field.  Honestly, I didn't spend any time preparing anything because we just returned from Haiti yesterday and I couldn't think straight last night.  I had a verse in mind but much beyond that I wasn't quite sure of what would come out of my mouth.  Before it was my turn to talk, I prayed that God would speak through me and I really feel like he answered that prayer.  I challenged our people to see their everyday lives as missionaries who are being sent to the people they interact with on a daily basis.  I said something along the lines of, "As you are sending me to Myanmar, so I am sending you to your places of work and home.  Spread the gospel to the people around you.  Minister to your family and your coworkers.  May you be a living example of the gospel."  It felt so right to say those words and the other ones that came out of my mouth.  Sometimes you just know when God uses you as His mouthpiece to call His people to a deeper level of commitment.  It's always an honor and a surreal feeling when the Holy Spirit is using you.

After church, I chatted with a bunch of friends that I had missed dearly and knew that I was leaving again soon so I enjoyed that thoroughly.  I also borrowed a book from a friend that I basically just met yesterday when she picked us up from the airport in Ft Lauderdale and drove us back to Sarasota and Bradenton.  Usually, borrowing a book is no big deal, I love to read and am often passionate about sharing what I'm reading with others.  This book was just downright embarrassing though.  It's titled The Marriage Builder by Dr. Larry Crab I believe.  This woman gave it to me because we had talked about relationships and what makes a marriage work.  Suddenly I have an interest in the subject so I decided I should probably learn about it from people who have been married for a long period of time.  So she suggested that book and lent me her old copy which was  no big deal.  Until people noticed that I, the guy who everyone at the church has only ever known as the single guy, was holding a book about marriage.  Naturally, I turned it over so people would stop asking me about it but unfortunately the title was at the top of the back cover as well so there was no escaping it.  Needless to say, my friends were in utter shock that I was interested in the subject but at the same time very supportive and happy for me.  When I told one friend that I actually kind of liked spending money on my girlfriend now her jaw dropped and she said with a laugh, "Aw, Justin's finally growing up."

Through it all, God is so good.  You come to the point where you realize His heart for orphans and the needy around the world is incredibly beautiful and you pray boldly for Him to bless you with a heart like His. You come to this point where you finally realize that even when everything is stripped away and all you're left with is God, that He truly is more than enough.  After a week in Haiti, you realize that you're the one who is truly poor because while many Christian Haitians may be unbelievably physically poor, they have a richness towards God that Christian Westerners could only dream of.

the way forward in politics

My dad and I love to banter about politics.  He's a conservative, and my brother and I are liberals.  One of his biggest mysteries is as to where he went wrong when he raised us that we both turned out liberal.  We've been bantering back and forth today through email and phone conversations and I love every minute of it.  Don't get me wrong, there is no disrespect on either of our parts, just a little fun jabbing at each other.

Why don't politicians do this?  Once, I heard a freakonomics podcast that talked about how in England they have a weekly thing where members of Parliament are allowed to drill the prime minister with questions about different topics in politics.  It's all friendly banter and I wonder why we couldn't do something similar here.  The podcast went on to interview some current and retired politicians who say things have certainly changed over the course of the past couple of decades.

There was a time when members of Congress would meet for drinks after hours with members of the opposing party.  It's a lot harder to demonize your opponent when he just bought you a drink the night before.  That is no longer the case, sadly, and so we have the current political gridlock that has us moving nowhere fast.  Each side just thinks the other side is a bunch of complete morons instead of having healthy dialogue about what's best for the country.  

Obviously, no one is going to agree 100% with how to move our nation forward, but the whole idea of just getting one party into office and power is pretty useless to me.  Not to mention all the lobbying in Washington.  How is lobbying allowed in a democracy such as ours'?  When I go to the gym, I see Fox News and CNN on a couple of TV's right side by side.  I'm usually listening to my own podcasts or music, but I still read the subtitles to see what they're saying.

The single best picture I can think of in regards to trying to display the idea that each party thinks the other one is idiotic and out of touch is a book by Glenn Beck entitled Arguing with Idiots.  My friend assured me that of course he put that as the title as that's what people think about the other person they're arguing with.  I don't agree with that at all, but I'm not going to call my friend an idiot because he shares a different view.  To be fair, I haven't read the book but the title sure comes off as arrogant.

Our politics have become so polarized lately.  Very few people are on such extreme sides of the aisle though in reality.  Politicians say things in primaries to get the hardcore conservatives or liberals with the most amount of money to back them, only to go back on the things they said when it comes time for the actual election campaign.  That's when people say more middle of the ground things, to appeal to a wider array of voters.

In short, I believe the way forward in politics is simply relational.  I know that makes me sound like a hippie, but I think we'd get a lot more done if our politicians and the people supporting them would spend less time demonizing their opponents and more time listening to the other side.  As the Bible says, we should be quick to listen and slow to speak.

what is love? baby don't hurt me...

Today, I tag team preached with my good friend Ryan.  He introduced the summer series we're doing which is a series on the fruit of the spirit.  Then I was left with a whole 8 minutes to preach about an hour's worth of material.  Needless to say, I cut back on quite a bit of the material.  I sent my notes to Ryan earlier last week and he said I had about an hour's worth of material.  I had it trimmed down to about 20 minutes or so but still ended up cutting out about two thirds of my sermon.  For some reason, I really want to share what I was going to say that I didn't get a chance to say.

As I stated before, my sermon topic was love.  A good way to start a sermon is to come to the table with a working definition.  I started this off by asking Ryan and Amanda to put a clip of the song, "What is love?"  from SNL days but they wouldn't do it, so I sang a tune of it for everyone's enjoyment.  I then went on to explain that love is self sacrifice.  God is love.  He showed us how to love by laying down His life for us, and we are to lay our lives down for others.  It is not a sentimental feeling, although that is hopefully part of a healthy relationship between a man and a wife.

After that I asked the rhetorical question, "How do you love someone?"  The obvious answer is that you spend time with them.  How much time are you spending with God these days?  How much time are you praying?  How much time are you reading the Bible?  I gave the example of my friend that I met with this past week who I had challenged a few weeks prior to get back into Scripture reading and he more than stepped up to the challenge.  I challenged him to read a chapter a day in the book of Proverbs for the month of May.  Now he's reading through the entire Bible in 90 days.  That is very tough to do but such a great discipline to cultivate.

Here's where I skipped some so I could fit it in all before the time was up.  What I wanted to say was that if you don't read Scripture, it's a lot like only eating regurgitated food.  The preacher tells you the Word from the pulpit and his own interpretation, and then you chew on that.  This is good and biblical, but you also need to read the Bible on your own.  If Paul in the New Testament challenged his readers to test what he said against the Scriptures, then surely we should challenge our hearers to test what we say against the Scriptures.  

Love also keeps our hearts free from idolatry if our love is directed towards God.  Anything that you love more than Jesus is an idol.  Anything that you turn to in your time of hurt and heartache is your idol.  We think we've moved past that since we don't worship Baal or Ashtoreth poles but idolatry is just as alive and rampant today as it ever was.  We worship money, time, sex, power, food.  My friend Ryan also pointed out that a lot of people in suburbia worship their families.  I think I must've pushed some buttons on that topic because not too many people could look me in the eye afterwards.

Mother Theresa said to do small things with great love.  This is so huge to me.  For part of high school and part of college, I wanted to do something huge for God, something extraordinary.  Then I read that and thought, "Well, that matters much more than fame, doesn't it?"  It's something that we all can ascribe to, doing small things with great love.  Are your Christian acts of service done with love or out of obligation?  How can you transform those acts of service?  You infuse love into them.

Love your neighbor as yourself proves to be an extremely difficult command to follow.  If we realize that everyone is our neighbor and we really followed that command, we would end material poverty.  There are other types of poverty which some people don't realize, but material poverty is the main one we think about. When we travel to developing nations we're astounded at first by the level of extreme poverty.  However, the longer we stay the more we realize that we're spiritually poor towards God while the Christians in their nations are rich towards God like we could only ever hope to be.  Don't get me wrong, addressing and trying to fight physical poverty is one of the noblest things a person can give their lives to.  However, if it's not done with love and a pointing towards Jesus then it's worthless.

I'm going to stop there before this blog gets unbearably long, but hopefully it gave you something to think about.