I wanted to share a couple blogs from the team down here in Manila – we are digging deep, finding God in whole new ways and getting our hearts ready to serve a hungry world! This is Melissa Gibson and below is one of my favorite guys on the race, Ian… he has resisted a bit, but is catching my heart… you can read all their blogs here
Fear and Loathing . . . and progress
Posted in General by Ian Schumann on 10/1/2008
In February 2007, I knew I was going to be a Christian several months before it happened. This was weird because it was at a time when I still didn’t fully want it or understand it; and actually, I feared it. I had a lot of prejudice and misconception about what it would mean and who I would become. I had loathed Christians for a long time . . . and then I was just reading the writing on the wall–and it said I was going to become one! Eesh.
I present this backstory here because since training camp in August I’ve been saying I’m in the second phase of my conversion. That line is turning out to be more prophetic than I would have guessed. See there’s this guy, Gary Black, or just Black. He’s a friend of AIM, and he’s been teaching and challenging us in these last few days. Initial reaction: the guy’s nuts. He’s seen things that are nuts. He’s done things that are nuts. His claims are absurd. Just the initial feeling.
And yet, the guy is undeniably anointed. On fire like few people I’ve ever seen. He helped start up a thriving ministry in Swazi. He ran Rock the Nations for a few years. He’s pastoring an incredible, exuberant church in Colorado. So yeah, his deeds speak louder to me than his words, and they sound like the marks of a man devoted to the pursuit of God. I can’t write him off.
Though the guy makes me nervous, I’m again reading the writing on the wall, and I know that God’s calling me soon to a deeper faith like this guy. Crap! Again, like before, I’m facing my own prejudice. Am I going to become the insane tuned-out Jesus freak that I’ve despised for so long? What about the connection I’ve maintained with non-believers and the way they think? Will my witness to them be completely destroyed as I sink ever further into some cultish indoctrination? Will those that I used to connect with now discard me as a mindless Bible-robot?
*sigh*
Clearly, beyond any shadow of a doubt . . . this is not the case with Black. And neither will it be with me.
So, just a warning, innocent readers, that my writing might be getting weirder. Just don’t panic.
Good Black ! Ian – stay absolutely without show or hypocrisy – real in other words and packed full of Grace and love and you`ll BE exactly what ‘non-believers’ are looking for ! They`re hungrier than you think .
Our prayers for each other are reaching across time and space. You are leaving footprints every where you go and God is following your tracks with signs and wonders!
imagine what the disciples thought when Jesus said…”greater things than this you’ll see…!” if you’ll press thru Ian, someday…somebody will look at your life and what God has done thru you and say…”absurd! but, the anointing is real and undeniable!” it will cost you everything. you willing to pay up for that?
paschall
HAHAHAHAHA!
I LOVE THIS! Do you remember what I said to you the first night I met you in Swaziland – after you prophesied over me and my team? I walked up, gave you a hug, and wide-eyed exclaimed: ” Gary…you TERRIFY me. In a really good way.”
And you continue. You and all my AIM dads push me and call me higher, deeper, further, and continue to pour out the Holy Spirit and fan it into flame. So thankful for you! Keep freaking out those world racers. HA! Love you and your lovely wife and our whole crazy tribe!