The Fashion of Theology and Hearts

O LORD I need You

Capture me again

Steal me away

Take me deeper to Your heart

Surround me with Your love

And hold me close

And never let me go

So close that I can feel Your every breath

Until my heart begins to dance with Yours

Never let me go

Won’t You take me to a new place

To a realm of mercy and grace

Where love

Love flows heavy

Like a waterfall of honey

Let Your love be poured out on me

Overcome me

Overcome me

(-Waterfall - United Pursuit Band)

GOD WE NEED YOUR PRESENCE LIKE WATER TO OUR SOULS.

So i write from a different and unusual perspective and a different world.

- i'm at home, that in itself is unusual, being that i do have a home.

"there she is"














- i'm writing from my very own laptop, which is different, and a little intimidating.

- i'm lying down, unable to move extensively because of a snowboarding injury (no comment).

-and i'm thinking.

Now, thinking isn't so unusual for me, i often find myself contemplating mindlessly, much like Fyodor Dostovesky's character from Brothers Karamazov, Smerdyakov (except without the murderous temperament, of course) - but i'm thinking about the future, about plans and details, ideas and issues, and this is not very normal for me.
but it's necessary, although i don't enjoy it.

it's necessary now because RHYTHM is over, and we are preparing for out different sections of ministry outreaches.
i myself, along with Tonya Thomas, will be leading an outreach excursions to North India, initially commencing in Leh, i believe.
and usually, i just do things, on whims, and hunches, and feelings, and figure out details and plans along the way. i'm sure there will be room for this, but right now, it makes me feel a bit stuck and a bit hopeless, but ever hopeful of the greatest underlying theme, of course.

as far as being back, it's a struggle with issues of all sorts, but i still rather enjoy the time of being back. i don't know where to live or where to go currently, but that's always been a part of the adventure, and i'm learning to rely on faith in Christ and His Power, and not on my personal enjoyment of a horrible inconvenience.
but the one thing that i can affirm as always, an undying theme in the dying lives of Christians,

we all must grow and continue to grow

if we think we have reached some sort of apex, we have missed the path altogether and shall never find our way until we have ruined ourselves so much that the beauty of our brokenness will be mathematically translated from an initial number, representing our brokenness, but being an output of exponential increase, as the beauty of brokenness, leading us to intimacy with God.
we cannot stop excelling in what God has given us, not now, with the new year upon us, we should resolve ourselves to grow steadily in godliness, which culminates very many things.
Jesus is coming back, so we can't stop now, i realize numerous people consider 2012 to be humanity's final year. although i cannot comply with this idea, we should be living like this is our last year, that each and every moment is precious and a chance to redeem the time.

so, i'm icing and heating my foot between two buckets of hot and cold water, and it's rather excruciating, but maybe next time, i will be more cautious of how i attempt Aeriel stunts in snowboarding. yet i'm learning, growing, changing, through success and mistakes, and prevalence and failure. that's all we can really do at the end of the day.

God bless, pray for me and for S.E.N.D, and i hope we can continue growing in all areas of life this new year

Hey, i apologize for the lack of my updates. our "team" computer breathed its last and left me unable to say anything, but let me say this.

We have safely arrived back in California, and i write from North County California, sitting where i had once written in months past concerning the truth that has just now come to fruition.

Despite seeing numerous countries, meeting hundreds of peoples and being involved in their lives, and thousands of spanish errors, we have arrived to our destination

-but

we are not finished yet.
soon we will be split up and some of our 9 group will go to Texas, to tell churches out there about our experiences, and about S.E.N.D. ministries, and the pathways of God's opportunities for our lives concerning missions; while the rest of us stay in Southern California visiting several churches and sharing God's heart with our brethren in the Body of Christ about His desire for His beloved to wake up, to be awakened to the Heart of Jesus.

although, we rest today, and visit dearly missed friends and family, we are still in the middle of this adventure; soon, we'll be whisked away again to far-away countries, wherever the Spirit may carry us, and we'll have more stories, and more jokes, and more adventures, and hopefully, we all and everyone we come into contact with will have more of Christ in their hearts.

we still need help in support of prayer and finances, and i will still communicate and transcribe, to the best of my abilities and availability, the stories that consists of this blog.

before i go and find something meaningless to do, i do want to mention our friend James Chapman - his family has recently experiences a tradegy, that although i don't have right to disclose details, it should be said that prayer for comfort will not go unheard. so please consider them in your times with the Lord

well, i'm tired of using computers, and the sun is setting, literally, and i want to be a part of it in some way or form

thank you all, and i will re-update the past adventures, whenever the surf is bad.

Nicaragua, Managua City, 9/18 - 9/28

Although, we had enjoyed ourselves in El Salvador, we carried on into Nicaragua, which I was excited for, but a bit apprehensive for the sake of the team. I’ve heard a lot of great stories about Nicaragua, but I’ve also heard all the different horror stories. Every place has its horror stories; where there are people, there are troubles. I’ve seen Nicaragua before and I was excited to spend some real time in the city that many of my friends has spent part of their lives there.

First off, Nicaragua actually is the poorest country (so we are told) in the western Hemisphere: apparently, Haiti was the most economically declined, but after the recent relief efforts that internationally have been contributed, now Nicaragua has slipped into that unfortunate positioning. Nicaragua also is a war-torn country, whereas El Salvador has a stable government but rebels and gangs that continue the unrest, Nicaragua has its political parties to rip apart their own country. Socialism is the governing power now, and has been in the past, which has inherited all the problems that one reads about in their “Government” class. War and rebellion is in the air, “viva la revolucion” is painted on every corner, and the statues to commemorate Nicaragua’s accomplishments are revolutionist leaders toting their assault rifles.

But that is life for some countries, and the people are rather apathetic about it all, as long as they can survive and have a television set.

As for us, we were quite busy: in the morning, we did service projects or taught english at the school nearby; evening, we went out into the streets to talk with people and pass out tracts and invite them to church; and at night, we helped with the services, whether it was playing the songs for worship or teaching.

It was a sweet time for us a team and with our contacts there. Despite all the things that Nicaragua has to go through on a daily basis, they are sweet people and our team loved Managua and our time there. It’s a place where I will have dear friends for a long time. it's amazing to see a church with so many youth in Central America; especially, young and older men of God whose hearts are for God and for their people, it's truly a rare thing. they fight a battle that no one else understands and can only come along side of them and help lift them up and push them forwards. i love them dearly and i saw how much the Lord loves them and cherishes their presence.

and so, R&R time

After Managua, we went to San Juan Del Sur for our time of rest.
And I surfed for the first time in a few months.
Yeeeaaaaaa, daaaaaah
More about that when I update again!

Honduras

I’m trying desperately to be responsible in the area of recovering from my irresponsibility of updates.
So, here is Roatan, Honduras.

Actually, I have to back up a little bit (just a tad) and state the type of adventure we had trying to get from Guatemala City to La Ceiba/Roatan, Honduras: horrible, that’s the type, just straight up horrible.
Okay, maybe that’s a bit exaggerated, but it was trying anyways. We had a small window of time to traverse across both countries and get to the port that taxis across the Caribbean to Roatan (for Roatan is an island, if you didn’t guess already), and as soon as we got on the bus, we found out that it was completely impossible to get there in time for the ferry.
That was a bad start. From there, it got worse. We didn’t have any money on us because of a withdraw limit we have on our team credit/debit card, and we were told by several people and the customs/borders website that traveling from Guatemala and Honduras is free, so we didn’t bring any money because we thought we’d be fine. Well, it wasn’t free, so we had to scramble enough money to pay, and on top of that, the border guard purposely over-charged us and I even called him on it and he just left his post and went on break.
After several other problems (lost bus tickets, malfunction ATM’s, unenjoyable bus movie viewing), we arrived in La Ceiba (the port city) far too late, and already at nightfall. The hotel that we were referred to was full, so we found one close to the port, so we couldn’t miss it. After get “robbed” by the taxi drivers (if you can help it, never get into a taxi without an established rate), we stayed in a hostile... Hostel... (ha.) which, at least, had air-conditioning, so it was nice eve despite the countless cockroach killings that were required to sleep in peace.

So, that was a lot more than I intended to write. So, without further to do:
Roatan, Honduras

A small, 7 mile, Caribbean island that is about 32 miles away from the coast of Honduras, Roatan is an extremely diverse place. The Islanders that originate from there speak “English” that almost sounds exactly like Kriol, and only a few years in recent history was the island given to Honduras and thus, the spanish speaking government moved in and enforced their spanish ways.
Roatan is also considered paradise, you probably even know somebody that went there for vacation, seeing as it’s the Caribbean, tropical, and based around the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world (I know, quite the place for missions work).
It’s also quite a dysfunctional little island with too much inflation economically, with retired rich americans and giant european companies running the tourism that makes up all the economy, while the majority of the residents, live in poverty. Poverty is, interestingly enough, usually only a financial state and not cultural/enjoyment condition, but because of the racist divide between the Islanders and the Hondurans, there is a constant state of unrest and mistrust. Unfortunately, this had led to all sorts of drug related problems, between the two groups, and as well as for the upper-class business owners who support the problematic state of drug affairs and discrimination.
We stayed with the Sonrise Missionary Hotel which is ran by a pastor, his son, and their families. There were plenty of ministries at the church that we were involved with, but the majority of our work was construction projects, mostly, working on a house for one of the ladies of the church. We were able to do house visits in the spanish community, worship and teaching for the services, and basically, had a lot of the fun with the families and their several wonderful kids. One of the kids happened to be an enthusiastic Star Wars fan, and therefore, was my best friend.
It was an interesting time for our team as it was the time of the most medical conditions we have had, nearly everyone got some sort of affliction. But I think we can look back on Roatan, and think of all the hilarious times we had, as well as the work we were able to spend ourselves to encourage the believers there.

Well, that’s about all I can say towards Roatan. It’s beautiful, and hot. And our friends there were delightful know-it-alls. But now we are about to leave El Salvador,
and so I’m almost caught up on updates. Kudos to me.

this is me playing catch up on updates:

Guatemala

So I must apologize for how inconsistently I have been updating. I realize that I’ve only fully updated one out of the four countries that we are currently en-route, onwards to the remaining countries of Central America.

But despite all else, here is Guatemala:

In Belize, I had the opportunity to spend a few days in a spanish speaking community and while I was there, I was told about how terrible Guatemala is. “Mala” is spanish, actually is translated as bad, so it’s an unfortunate pun for Guatemala, to have the word “Bad” in its name. Within all this, I was told what an awful, dangerous, and unpleasant place Guatemala, and specifically, Guatemala City is.
It’s no great secret that Guatemala is known to be an excessively dangerous place, with Guatemala City being the apex of its precariousness. Look it up. It’s in the news, on the internet, and ask anyone that’s been there. Even one of my relatives has an unsettling story of what happened to her and her group of volunteers in Guatemala, just to show you how common and how close to home these things happen. Not convinced yet? Try this: everyone in Guatemala owns several cellphones; now, there are many countries where the people own several cellphones, but not for the same reason as Guatemala. Guatemalans own, at least, two phones so that when they get robbed at gunpoint, that they can give up their less-preferred phone without too much trouble from their gunman. A lady from a church in a particularly dangerous zone (Guatemala City is divided into zones) told us that we should leave because of how dangerous it is, especially when the sun starts to set.

Look, I could talk for an extended amount of time about it, but the point is: even in the darkest of places, God wants His light to shine.

Some of the most generous people, inviting and friendly, are Guatemalans, and exponentially more for the Christians of the Calvary Chapel Guatemala that we were working with. It’s thus far true, that everywhere we go, we connect hearts with people there to the extent that it hurts to leave them, which I think it’s a good sign of how the Church as a Body of Christ should work. To the degree that I could mention the dangers of the city of Guatemala, I could spend a much larger degree of time mentioning the endless love and enjoyment that we had in Guatemala with our brothers and sisters of the small church there, who constantly pour themselves out into their community, such as the poverty-stricken areas like Santa Lucia in the mountains, or Zona 18 where the drug dealers reign over the law.

The Light will always outshine the darkness, eventually and eternally.

So needless to say, Guatemala was amazing for us. We were blessed to be involved with the church, being able to do worship for them, to go into the city and passing out flyers and sharing the gospel, and to do construction work and social work in Santa Lucia, leading up to a outreach there with the entire community.

My time in Guatemala had its own struggles for me, being that I was the leader of our team of 9 people during that time (to hear more about that, email me at rootsofxistence@hotmail.com and ask for me email updates), and majority of the people we worked alongside did not speak very much english. Most of our team does not speak very much spanish, so I had to spend a lot of time figuring out what was going on, despite all the miscommunications, but we survived, and made our way to Roatan, Honduras, after a sketchy taxi ride and a shady hotel. But that - is a different story for a different update, but I leave you with one quote.

While we were passing out flyers, Corey Grueter managed to give a flyer to a jogger passing by; as the jogger passed by the pastor Francisco, and Francisco comically fake-ran after him, and Corey stated that he had already got the jogger, to which Francisco replied in his limited English, as dry as can be, “You save my life”.

They just great people who sincerely like to have fun and take seriously all aspects of life, including enjoying their lives. Guatemala was a trip, literally.

and so now i write you from El Salvador 2 days away from our departure to Nicaragua. we are still in dire need of financial support, but God has made out time in Nicaragua possible, just in the knick of time, so we are still looking to Jesus for the rest of the trip.

next update - Honduras

A fond hello to you all, please read this entire message, eh?
eh?

Basically, this is not so much as an update as it is an importance notice of request, both urgent and relevant.

As most of you may know, if you have been reading my blog (www.myallyistheforce.blogspot.com) or reading my email updates or even facebook status updates, i, along with the RHYTHM team of S.E.N.D ministries of 8 other people, are approximately halfway through our excursion throughout all of central america. Currently, i am writing you from Potter's Field Ranch of San Martin, of El Salvador, but this information i will share for an update.

this is where the importance comes in:
i state this somewhat shamefully
as i have never been able to do such things easily
but we left california with tickets from Tijuana Mexico to Chetumal by the border of Belize, and we have plane tickets from Panama City, Panama back to LA, California, on October 31st.
we left with half of the money that we estimated that we needed for the whole trip.
we obviously, are halfway through our trip.
that meaning, we have ran out of financial support.
i want to say that none of us are freaking out.

we may individually have certain anxiety, fears, worries, or whatever else, but we are trusting in God in all things, including this.

in 10 days we are scheduled to go to Nicaragua, we have enough money to arrive there

and then, nothing more, at all.

and i desperately need to say two things: the first being that i truly do have a hard time asking for money, in any scenario, i hate that feeling, it's just the reality of it, and the second thing is, i am not writing this to scare anyone into giving money.

i can expand on both these issues with one idea (two birds, one stone, always preferred method)

God is Almighty. if you read this and don't be believe in God (which is an issue all to it's own), you must still understand that the idea of God is completely functional on the fact that He is Almighty, theology doesn't work unless God is Almighty (in regards to power, knowledge, presence, and beyond - infiniteness)

so i write all these things to let you know of the truth of the situation, the facts - if you feel obligated by some other convicting power other than God and the Holy Spirit, then disregard that obligation.
i don't need your money
i, and the team i am with, we need support, it's true, but we want God's Provision.
The israelites in the Bible were reprimanded by God for going to Egypt for resource, help, and protection, instead of God - i don't intend to make the same mistake

if we don't get the financial support, we will be forced one way or another to go home
i'm okay with this fact; i don't think, however, that's what God wants to do, but if it is, this is okay with me.

if you support, and i pray that those whom God asks, will, i don't want it out of obligation - because i could probably raise the money, or steal it, or sell a kidney or something outrageous, but that is not what God is calling me or this team to do, He's calling us to trust him, in all things, and to press in and ask Him to provide the impossible (at this point, the money we need is quite implausible and i hesitate to even say; IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE FINANCIAL NEED, CONTACT ME VIA EMAIL AT THIS ADDRESS OR FACEBOOK)
In the Bible is a story of a wise leader of the Sanhedrin of Jews, Gamaliel (acts 5:33-39) where Gamaliel tells the people to leave the apostles of Christ alone and stop trying to persecute them, because if it is a work of God through the Apostles, then the people will find themselves fighting and striving against God, rather than just the men.
in a similar fashion, if you gain the money outside of God's provision, then i, and whoever gives financially out of obligation because i made them feel bad, might be striving against something God might want to do.

i'm really not worried, but i really do need financial support, but i really don't want it unless God provides it

so, please, step back, get with the Lord, and pray, and ask concerning this issue (this you should feel obligated to do). Ask the Lord if this is an issue that you need to support (there are thousands of missionaries in the world, who all need support, we SHOULD be supporting someone, no matter what)
and at the very least and most, please pray for us, if you have already, please do! write to me, ask me how's its going, let me tell you stories of what God is doing

if you want to support, and are lead to do so
please visit my blog, and find the support button via PAYPAL (www.myallyistheforce.blogspot.com)
OR
you can send cash or checks to SEND MINISTRIES - Erik Mason at this address


Send Ministries
885 Vista Way
Vista,Ca 92084

with fastings, and prayer, and sincere needs, i write these, hope to write you in 10 days telling you how God did a miracle for us, God bless you all, and us.

with dire and urgent, and a slightly embarrassed regards
ERIK JAMES MASON