Scotish Thoughts

This has certainly been a very active week in Scotland, so I thought I'd take a minute to share just a few thoughts from my experiences thus far.

-I have always thought that the idea of the drunken Scotsman was a horrible stereotype. It appears that I was wrong. So far I've been kissed by a drunk man (on the cheek thankfully) who kept trying to usher me into a bar to let him buy me a drink, invited by a drunk man to go to church with him last Sunday (sadly, a day late) who then gave me an standing invitation to stay with him whenever I'm in Inverness.

-Scotland is a lot like the south. Everything's fried, everyone enjoys a drink, they speak with an accent that few other Britain's can understand, they have words that they always use that probably aren't really words, and everyone's a Christian.

-I've had haggis. Haggis is a sheep's stomach stuff with all kinds of goodies. It sounds gross, it looks gross, it even feels gross in your mouth, but surprisingly, it's not that bad. Though, the gas it makes you produce afterwards is something to be proud of.

-Seriously, everything's fried here. Haggis is fried, fish is fried, candy bars are fried. I'm pretty sure they have steamed vegetables, but they fry them afterwards. Scots should be a lot fatter than they really are.

Today is my last day in real Scotland. I head out to Edinburgh tomorrow, but that no more represents the whole of Scotland than New York represents all of America. These have been some of the most interesting days I've had in my 24 years so far.

I miss you all and can't wait for each of you to take me out to eat when I get back, one at a time.

Where in the world is David Fisher?

Sorry for the extended blog absense as of late. It's been hard to find free internet and I'm not a big fan of paying £4 an hour for it. That's close to $7, which is just ridiculous. So, just in case the problem persists I thought I'd give you an idea of where I'll be in the next week.

April 25-26: Stirling
-The home of William Wallace.
-I wonder if they'll look at me strangely if I paint my face blue and keep screaming freedom everywhere I go.
-I really hope that that's the norm in this place.

April 27-28: Drumnadrochit
-A town in the Scotland Highlands.
-Just a twenty minute walk from Loch Ness.
-I'll find him. No worries.

April 29-May 2: Edinburgh
-I have one week to figure out how to pronounce the name of this city correctly.
-I've heard upwards of 7 different ways so far.
-I'm sure the cities nice too, but I'm more excited about hearing people say it's name.

A Stupid American Mindset

One thing that keeps standing out to me is that no matter where I go, people are all pretty much the same. Sure, there are different customs and cultures on the whole, but if you look at the individual you'll likely always find people going about their everyday business, talking to friends and family, getting pissed off when things don't go their way, and trying to figure out why they're here on the Earth (or vehemently ignoring that question altogether).

With this in mind, one of the American mindsets that's keeps bothering me is just how much American mindsets bother me. I can see Egyptians doing nonsensical things and think, "they need to hear about Jesus." But if I see Americans around me doing stupid things, I just get annoyed; especially if that person claims to be a Christian.

The only real difference I've seen between Egyptians and Americans is that one is a lost people who think they're going to Heaven because they're Muslim and another is a lost people who think they're going to Heaven because they go to church and said a prayer or got baptised. An honestly, if your focus is going to Heaven, you've missed the point anyway. So, instead of seeing this in my own people and sharing and showing the Gospel to them, it's easy to enter into a thought pattern sounding like, "I can't wait to get out of this place so I can start loving people for Jesus."

One of my favorite people I've met on my travels so far is an Egyptian named George. He's a college student with an absolutely amazing heart. When he graduates in a few weeks, he plans to do mission work. He's not moving to another part of the world, he's getting an apartment right in Cairo. I was taken aback many times and challenged many more time by this new friend of mine and his heart for his own people. He sees the pattern of darkness in Cairo and rather than try to escape it, he wants to spend his life right there spreading light on that city.

So I'm in a weird spot right now (which is where I seem to stay). I'm loving getting to see all of these amazing places, but the more I see all of these unbelievable things, the more my heart turns to my own country and my desire to see American turn to Jesus. I have no idea what my future holds. I've given up on the idea of having a huge revelation in which the Lord tells me what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. He has always revealed things to me one step at a time and until He starts doing it a different way, I'm going to assume that's what He'll continue doing. But, for the time being, I think my calling is to my own country. When I get home, I plan to stay there. (Of course, it's a big country, so "there" could still be just about anywhere.)

Thoughts From Across the Pond

Is it weird that I felt more comfortabl in the middle east than I do in Europe. I'm not sure what it is, but I think I just miss the talkative people. Even though they typically were wanting to sell me stuff, it's always a good thing to have someone want to talk to you.

It's been a weird couple of days and I think one lesson is standing out: people are more important that places. I'm getting to see these amazing things right now. Today alone I got to see inside of St. Paul's Cathedral, walk down the River Thames and Tower Bridge, and explore the Tower of London. These things were all awesome, and I enjoyed getting to see them, but none of them really matter without people. I definitely miss conversation and familiarity. Comfort is definitely nice for me.

But a few thoughts come to mind over this. First of all, I'm not alone. Jesus has proven time and again that He's right here with me. I have my Creator and Savior right here next to me and I'm not even going out of my way to lean upon Him right now.

Also, I think I'm learning that I find my worth far too much in having people around me. People are good to have, and necesary, but I can't find my value in the number of people I have around me.

And finally, the Lord has given me the money and the means to come to the other side of the world. Maybe it's my turn to do something. He might not put everything into my lap. If I want to meet people, I'm going to have to go out of my way to make it happen.

These are just a few thoughts going through my head. I'd iron them out more, but I'm paying for internet, so no time to proofread. Prayer would be appreciated.

Those Crazy Kids

I think one of the coolest things I've noticed since I got into this country is the behavior of the kids. Kids are kids no matter where you go. It seems that childlikeness is intercultural. Whether I'm at Falls Park on a Sunday afternoon or in Garbage city, I see kids playing and paying very little attention to their surroundings.

That's not to say that these kids don't have issues. Some of them are playing in the streets because if they went home they'd be beaten, and others have no home to go to at all. But when they're really just being kids, there is no difference in how they act. From the American kids to the diplomat kids to the street kids, they all play the same.

I guess this is where I'm supposed to add the deep spiritual significance to this about having childlike faith and whatnot, but I'm not going to. Play with this and let it speak to you in whatever way the Lord let's it speak to you. And please, share your thoughts. But I just thought I'd share a short observation.

Egyptian Thoughts

I thought I'd give a brief glimpse into the grand scheme of my past week in Egypt. If I had to describe it in one word, the first one to come to mind would be uncomfortable. I'm just a sheltered, germaphobic, middle class white boy. It's uncomfortable for me to be in a third world country.

The bathrooms aren't as clean as I'm used to. The public bathrooms form a demonic force, the likes of which I've never seen. The motel room I stayed in this past weekend was unlike anything I've ever seen as far as crampedness and dirtiness. I don't understand the local language. The drivers are insane! Some roads have lines, but no one uses them. What would be a three lane highway for most is a 6 or 7 lane over here. There are no crosswalks, and people are hit by cars very often. So yeah, uncomfortable.

But, I feel like after a week, I've hit sort of a stride and am starting to feel a little more comfortable with my surrounding. God is definitely destroying my fear of getting dirty. And I'm glad He's doing this, because, honestly, you have to get dirty to love people. The smaller my personal bubble becomes, the closer I can get to people.

But overall, this has been an amazing week. I've met some godly folks who are out here doing a great work for the Lord, and I've definitely had my eyes opened to a world that I had ignored for so long. I've gotten to see the richest and poorest parts of Egypt and it's like night and day. What's sad is that there aren't too many Egyptians in the rich part. It's mostly foreigners.

One thing that's really shining through to me is this: Jesus isn't just ours. When Jesus was dying on the cross, He wasn't just thinking about Americans. I think, whether we like it or not, we tend to monopolize Jesus, making Him just ours. I know I do. But these Egyptians were just as fresh on His mind while He was on this earth as we were. We're not the only important people. God doesn't need us to reach the world. He allows us to reach the world for Him.

So, as you can tell by this hodgepodge of thoughts, there's a lot of stuff on my mind right now. Keep praying for me. God is definitely working on me on this trip. I can't wait to see what's coming up over the next few weeks.

My Mountain Top Experience

I spent this past weekend in a place called Dahab. It's sort of a beach town off of the Red Sea and was a very different and really fun experience. Dahab was on the Asian side of Egypt, so technically I've had my feet on four different continents in the past week, which is pretty crazy for a one continent guy such as myself.

Last night, my buddy Hans and I left Dahab got on a bus at 11 PM to head towards St. Catherine, which is where Mount Sinai is located. We pulled up around 1:30 and spent the next three and a half hours or so hiking to the top of the mountain. It was such a rough hike that revealed to me just how little I've been working out over the past few months. I had to take a breather more times than I'd like to admit, so I'll just say it was twice.

It was freezing and windy towards the top. There were a few moments where I almost lost it and took a tumble, but thanks to my cat-like reflexes, I was fine. Beduins live on the mountain, so we stopped at a tea huts that they run and had a couple of cups of Beduin tea to warm us up and they even gave us some Beduin bread as well, which is kind of like pita bread, only more amazing. I was actually pretty impressed with the little tea huts all over the mountain. Not one of them had a set up of Ten Commandment key chains.

We rented a couple of blankets to protect us from the wind and rain, then we set off for the top. When we got there, we found a spot that we thought we'd be able to see the sunrise from and prayed together to thank the Lord for allowing us to see this unbelievable place. We read a little bit of Exodus and then were then able to put that bread to good use as we took communion together. It was such an unbelievable experience.

And to top it all off, I got to see one of the most beautiful sunrises I've ever seen in my entire life. The clouds were just right to reflect the beauty of it all.

So I got to spend my Easter morning with the Lord and a good friend on one of the most important places on this earth in regards to the formation of my faith. It was here that the Lord revealed Himself in such a corporeal way that Moses was marked by His precense. It was here that God gave us His law. That law was the law the revealed to us our need for a Savior and set the stage for Jesus to come to us as a man, die for our sins and conquer sin and death. I'm so blessed that I got to rest in the heaviness of that. I genuinely can't believe that the Lord blessed me in this way. While I do miss getting to see my family for Easter, this is by far the most unforgettable Easter of my life. I'm so blessed. I love my Savior and Lord!

Philosophy of Mission Work

I would say that the Lord is changing my view of missions, but honestly, I'm not sure I've ever had a view of missions, so I think I'll just say that the Lord is forming my view of missions. I've gotten an eye full in the past few days and a lot of things are going through my head.

I have a new friend named Jon. He lives in Garbage City, which I talked about yesterday. He doesn't have to live in Garbage City, but in order to minister to its residents, he wants to gain credibility with the people, so he lives with them.

The first question that comes to mind is would I be willing to move to a place like that if the Lord commanded me to? But more than that, it makes a point clear. People listen to those who are like them.

Who's the best person to minister to an Egyptian? Another Egyptain? Who's the best person to minister to a Kenyan? Another Kenyan? Who's the best person to minister to a New Yorker? Another New Yorker.

I'm starting to see that mission work is more than than just the Church ministering to another culture; it's also teaching another culture how to minister. If you create a system that involves you serving and loving, you're creating a system that's built around you and one that will crumble when you someday leave those people. So I think the ideal is to create a system that will eventually no longer need you.

And I think that this system is Biblical. First of all, Jesus knew that the best way to reach His children was to come to earth as one of us. He knew that it would take more than prophets and angels, it would take Himself to save us and the best way we would listen to Him would be if He were, in fact, human.

From a more practical side of things for us, Paul shows us an amazing system. During his time planting churches, Paul would go to a city, become a part of the city doing work, cultivate a body of believers, start a church, raise up leadership within the church, and then move on to another city to do it all again, all the while keeping his relationship with that church active to keep them accountable. This accountability relationship is why we have many of the New Testament epistles. Paul knew that the Lord didn't need him in order for a church to thrive. He didn't create Paul centric systems, he created Christ centric systems.

So this is what's on my mind. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

Garbage City

I have lots of stuff on my mind, so it's hard to pick a topic to write about. But I'm sure I'll get to the other stuff soon, so no worries.

Yesterday I spent time in a slum called Masheyet Nasr, which in English is translated Garbage City. It was unreal. The place gets it's name from the fact that all of the garbage in the city is brought to there daily. To say that it stinks is kind of an understatement. The streets and houses are crammed full of bags of trash. Click the above picture to get a good view of the city in detail.

Many of the people in the city spend their days recycling. Each one has a certain product that they specialize in. One guy I saw, goes through every bag of trash around him searching for scrap metal. He takes what he finds, melts it down, beats it into pots and pans and sells them.

I guess what's so surreal about this place is the fact that this is their home. This absolutely disgusting place is where people live, have families, raise their kids, work, worship and do every other facet of life. It was heartbreaking. One thing in particular that continues to stick out in my head is a little girl that couldn't have been more than two years old, crawling around in the wet dirt road underneath a parked trash truck playing with her brothers. And she was happy.

It's odd because it's mostly Christians that live in this particular slum. We had a hard time getting the taxi to believe that that was actually where we wanted to go. The Muslims around here are scared of it because of all the Christians that live there, which I find kind of funny. Realistically it's because Christians are few and far between in this country, so they don't understand them. But it could also be that darkness tends to run from light. The smell might also play a part in it.

I'll have more thoughts up later on things God's put on my heart through Garbage City and how this trip is effecting my thoughts on missions in general.

The Things I Learned in Amsterdam

-Everybody smokes. I think it's a law. I didn't smoke and the cops gave me shady looks all day.

-There's a certain food that everyone was eating. Fries in a paper cone with mayonnaise globbed on top. They sell it everywhere. Everyone loves it. They are wrong. It is disgusting and a sin against a holy God.

-It's never too early for a prostitute. I had always thought that one of the perks to being a prostitute was not having to work a first or second shift. It appears I was mistaken.

-You should avoid the red light district.

-If you try to avoid the red light district, it will find you. There is no escape.

-When you inevitably end up in the red light district just look up. If you look to your sides, you'll see boobs. If you look down, you'll see boobs in recessed windows. If you look forward, you will make eye contact with a guy who will offer to let you see his girl's boobs. Trust me. Just look up and pray.

-There are many coffee shops in Amsterdam. Oddly, I didn't see anyone drinking coffee in a number of them and they appeared to be decorated as green houses.

-Pot is legal. But I'm fairly confident that they disguise it to confuse the Americans. I smelled it all day but I never saw a single joint. Sneaky Amsterdamians.

-Amsterdamians is a far better label for a people than the Dutch. I'm just saying.

-Every European guy dresses like Brad Cooper.

-The streets have bikes, cars and trains on them. Bikes will swerve to miss you. Cars will usually stop. Trains NEVER stop! You will die.

Pray For Me My Peeps!

I'm a huge fan of specific prayer, so I thought I might give you guys some specific things I'd love for you to be praying for me while I'm gone.

-Divine appointments: I want to meet the right people on this trip. God knew I'd be doing this before the earth was made, which is a pretty awesome thought. He already knows who I'm going to meet while I'm there and I don't think any of them will be by accident. I want to meet people who need Christ, Christians who need encouragement, and everyone else in between.

-Boldness: It's one thing to have those appointments, it's another to actually seize them. So pray that I have the boldness to seek people out and talk to them. Also that I'm sensitive to hearing God's voice and the things He wants me to say.

-A tender heart: I want to be better at loving people and I think this will be an amazing opportunity to learn more about what that means. Also, I want a tender heart to better be able to hear from my Father.

-Protection: Traveling alone isn't the safest thing in the world, but at the end of the day, if I keep to myself and play it smart, I'll be fine. Fine, but not very Christlike. So pray for protection, but also pray that I live my faith out in such was that I actually need it.

I'll be updating this blog whenever I can and you can also follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/D_Fish and you can send e-mail to me as well at dwfishe@gmail.com.

I'd love to have some encouragement sent my way as well as just hearing about what's going on with you guys. Send me some stuff I can be praying for you all about. My prayer life goes so much better when I have specifics to pray about and not just, "God, bless that person."

I love you guys and I'll miss you all. I can't wait to share all of my pictures and stories!

I Am Sent!

I had a really awesome moment the other night. God definitely answered a prayer that I prayed last year. I have some friends who, in the past year or so have had pretty ridiculous encounters with God. I mean, if I weren't friends with these people, I'd straight up think they were lying. But because they are people that I trust, I ended up being a little jealous of what they got to experience, so I started to pray for it. Specifically, I prayed for an Isaiah moment where God showed me His holiness and I would be completely ruined by it. And I was frustrated because I thought that because I had a good heart behind that prayer, God should answer it. But I've yet to read a promise in the Bible that reads, "If you really mean it, you'll get what you pray for it." I can be sincere, and still be sincerely wrong.

But I was having my quiet time the other night and God brought Isaiah 6 to mind, so I grabbed my Bible and went to read it. I read the first seven verses and remembered how much I had prayed for that, and then I went on to read verse eight and God just grabbed me.

You see, at the end of the day, if God had given me the moment I had prayed for, I know myself well enough to know that I could have gotten really self-righteous about that and started to feel holier than those around me. And even if not, I might have gotten a lot out of it, but it wouldn't have really built His Church, which is the whole point of spiritual things.

And the Lord did, in fact, give me an Isaiah moment, just not the one I was hoping for.

"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"
"Here am I! Send me!"

That's my mission. I'm not going on a trip. I'm being sent!

So no longer am I praying for God bring me to those who need to hear about Him on my travels. I'm being sent by my Master. I will seek them out.

I'm not going to pray that God will bring me Christian brothers or sisters to encourage me on my journey. I'm going to seek out my brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage them.

Being sent changes my entire mindset from a self seeking trip to a selfless mission. The world is not about me. It's my job to serve no matter where I am. So God has imprinted Isaiah 6:8 on my heart. I'm still going to pray for a moment with God where His holiness ruins me, but not as the expense of my assignment.

I'm not longer going on a trip. I'm sent on a mission.

The Most Important Miracle: Laziness

We don't get excited about things we don't have some kind of investment in. Last Monday I got to go see my favorite band, Gomez in concert. They coheadlined with Josh Ritter. This actually led to a pretty cool environment since half the people there didn't know who Josh Ritter was and the other half didn't know who Gomez was.

My friend and I were standing between two people. One was a 19 year old girl and the other was a man in his late 30's. As Gomez took the stage the man started freaking out and screaming to the band stuff like, "thank you so much for coming back!" and "we love you!" The girl was obviously a Josh Ritter fan who was hanging around for the rest of the concert to get her money's worth. She leaned over and asked me what the names of songs were (obviously just trying to flirt with me) and ended up leaving before their set was up (which, honestly, ruined any chance she might have had).

It was pretty clear that the man had been following Gomez since they started over ten years ago. He cared about them because of the time he had put into being their fan. You couldn't have made him leave early. The girl could easily leave because she'd never even heard of Gomez before that night.

The same could be said of why it's easy so often for me and others to be apathetic to people meeting Christ. Maybe the reason we act the way we're supposed to rather than react out of an excited heart is that we're not investing into the Kingdom.

Maybe the fact that the we've grown callous to the power of the Gospel is the Holy Spirit shining a light on the fact that we've segregated ourselves from people who need it. No one would appreciate a doctor if they didn't know about illness so how can we appreciate salvation if we stay away from those who are perishing? When I surround myself with those who need Jesus, I'll be all the more grateful when He saves them. When I care about the life saved, I can't help but celebrate the victory.

The Most Important Miracle: The Curse of Familiarity

Say what you want about the movie, but I love the book Watchmen. God's spoken to me so much through it and that's honestly one of my favorite parts about God because the things God has shown me have absolutely nothing to do with the author's original intent (go new criticism!).

In the second to last issue of Watchmen, Laurie is trying to convince the godlike Dr. Manhattan to come back to earth to save it from destruction. His speech about why he chooses to come back is beautiful. I'll share much of it in full:

"Thermodynamic miracles...events with odds against so astronomical they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing. And yet, in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive, meeting, siring this precise son, that exact daughter...to distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, is like turning air to gold. That is the crowning unlikelihood. The thermodynamic miracle...But the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget. I forget. We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away." (Emphasis mine)

I think that salvation is God's favorite miracle. That's why He does it so much. But, sadly, if we see something amazing enough, it grows dull to us and we lose interest. Like a new toy on Christmas morning that is all but forgotten when the time comes to open presents the next year.

I remember my reaction to hearing Clayton's story of 2,000 students accepting Christ, or being at Fuse in Anderson when 100 students accepted Christ, or hearing Joe Sangl tell us that nearly 6,000 people had accepted Christ in a NewSpring service since we started. I clapped and cheered, but I fear that I cheered only because that's what you're supposed to do. I know that my heart has grown hard to the miracle of salvation.

We can't afford to get used to the unusual. We should never just expect this miracle. It's a blessing every time it happens, no matter in what magnitude it may come, be it one person or a million. This apathy to the abnormal in my heart seems to come from this expectancy that God will always save souls, like He owes us that. But this just paints me as a spoiled child who feels entitled to the very things that I'm bored with.

God doesn't owe us salvation. He doesn't owe us a single one. That's the beauty, that's the miracle. That's the thing that takes the breath away that we need to view with new eyes. That a perfect and holy God would pick out even one of His enemies who willfully murdered His Son and instead of punishing that person justly, He adopts him or her as His child. And then He continues to overly bless us by doing the same thing with millions and possibly even billions of others. God's love is gorgeous.

I pray that God would renew our hearts. That he would remove the callous on our hearts and instead leave us with a tenderness there to not just act the way we're supposed to act towards Him, but to react out of a childlike heart, happy to see his Daddy work.

The Most Important Miracle: Impatience

The first reason I think that we under react to salvation is our own impatience. Typically whenever someone is healed it happens immediately. There's immediate satisfaction. We like that because it fits how we do the rest of our life.

When someone accepts Christ, it's a lifelong miracle. There is a definite change in someone who accepts Christ, but really the only immediate thing you typically see is the person doing a 180 with their life. You will immediately see them change the direction they're going in. That's pretty dramatic, but it takes so much longer than that one minute to attain the Christlikeness which is the effect of salvation.

And this causes a lot of strife for a lot of believers. I know in the past I've gotten so frustrated whenever I messed up because I thought I was getting closer to "making it." I assume that all it takes is to pray to Christ, have Him zap me and I'll reach the perfection that He has planned out for me.

But I don't think that Christianity on earth is really about the destination. Once you have Christ, there's really no question about whether or not you'll reach the destination. The Bible says that we can't be snatched from the Father's hand. Once we're His, we're His and there's no changing that. I think that Christianity on earth is about the journey, as cliche' as that might sound.

God could very easily grant us perfection in a moment. We could attain the holiness that we as His followers desire. But I think that rather than just get slapped with a holiness arrow, and give it to us, the Lord would rather teach us holiness. And I think one of the main points of this journey isn't just knowing what it means to follow Christ, but experiencing what it means to follow Christ. I know that when I do fail, I appreciate the perfect life Christ lived all the more and that makes me desire to be like Him even more. And that will take time but it will come someday.