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We asked the GPS folks to share a little about what they are learning by being with us. We thought you’d be interested to see what they said.

This reflection is from Conner:

We need to really think about the people that we’re serving. I don’t know, but in service- long term investment is important.  Strategic planning is important.

Putting power under people is huge.

Something else is that commitment starts with you, and you’re relationship with God. Knowing who you are is very important.

We asked the GPS folks to share a little about what they are learning by being with us. We thought you’d be interested to see what they said.

This reflection is from Justin:

I think God is trying to tell me that right now I’m not being the full me.  I’m holding back and he is trying to give me all these opportunities to go all out and I need to start using them.

We asked the GPS folks to share a little about what they are learning by being with us. We thought you’d be interested to see what they said.

This first reflection is from Lindsay:

What I’m learning about myself is that I am able to adapt to different types of people and different circumstances.  I figured out I like being challenged and being put in hard situations.

I found that when Im interacting with others that it doesn’t matter if they’re exactly like me or in anyway like me at all.  I found that it is almost easier to be myself when I’m around people who I know aren’t there to judge me and who I know are going to accept me no matter what.

Before our hike to Big Bluff on the Buffalo River

I think the phrase above means it is something that is difficult to do.  Not sure.  However, one thing I am sure of is that it is a difficult thing to measure growth and positive change when you’re in the moment.  Most of our “learns” and our ways of articulating “what God taught me” or “what I figured out” are retrospective.  Most of the time for most of us our ability to get our minds around something that has changed in us sounds like:  ”I didn’t know it then, but now I see that_____________.”  Or “I lived like I believed this thing was true, and now looking back I see that I was changing, that perhaps God was changing me.”

Working with young people (our GPS group is ages 17-20) who are in the midst of a personal and directional upheaval is great fun, and meaningful for me.  It is also hard to measure progress outside of the increased open-ness, overall level of smiles and laughter, and occasional new insights that our people bring at the times you least expect it.  We are a group of very different people- who are growing to like each other very much- that is evident.

But regarding growth, effectiveness for our people, I wish they would give me more.  Right now.  I want to force the learning.  I want to force the change.  I want to be the Holy Spirit and get inside people’s heads and hearts and help them to see truth to the point of complete “ah ha!” moment.

I am not good at this techinque.  As a matter of fact, even though I try to force the change in people here- I resent it when I see others do it somewhere else.  It bugs me when we give tons of energy to creating “God moments” rather than gathering and celebrating the ones that are happening all over us all the time.   I suspect the people I judge for being in the God business, who seem to be forcing change and shoving stuff down people’s throats would judge me too, when I try to manipulate people through other means to get them to change.  Actually, I bet they would laugh, because the attempt is feeble.

On my good days, however, I just help our people help others, and ask them a few good questions.  I share a scripture, quote, and/or story, and expose them to other people who understand their place in the world.  When we do this, great things happen- and I don’t always get to see it, and I am sure many who experience those great things will not even know how to articulate what has happened until after the fact.  Sometimes it will take years.  I am ok with that.    (More and more every day!)

What does all of this have to do with “catching lightning in a bottle?”  Well, I have comitted that we will do our work, and give students a chance to reflect, and be good with whatever they reflect back to us.  If they don’t give us a bunch to work with regarding a verbal or written reflection of “growth” or “change”- its all good.  We still love our people, and do our work.  God is big enough to use it all- and we trust that.  Some of our people love to work out what they’re learning in discussion and writing.  Some of them tend to shut down when asked these types (What are you learning?) of questions in an organized fashion.  Yet, you get them one on one the change is obvious and they share all kinds of good stuff that is honest, real, and reflects growth.

Their growth is also reflected in just how they approach people and situations on a practical level.  We can see it- sometimes they can’t- just yet.

So, with all that being said- I’m going to share some November thoughts from students over the next few days.  They might be things they wrote down, or things I heard someone say.

I can’t change people.  We can’t catch lightning in a bottle.  We can provide people with a space where change can occur, and is occurring whether we know it now or not.

We appreciate your support and are looking forward to finishing up well this fall, and hoping for more groups in the spring.

ck

gather round the coffee table for the "informal" learning circle!

Today we go on our first GPS Tulsa fall retreat- a trip intended to involve camping, but may in fact involve cabins (more on that after we return) because we are experiencing our first freeze warning of the fall.  I’ve heard that all the best families camp.  Its because when you camp, nothing ever goes as planned.  There’s not enough space for all your stuff, the weather isn’t what you expected, dad snores, and sometimes you wake up looking a skunk in the eye about 2 feet away (this happened to me back in the day- spent the rest of the night sleeping on top of a state campground picnic table).

Really what happens is a great opportunity for adventure, and all the possibilities that can be birthed from it.  A retreat that has elements of adventure (meaning- we’re going to do this thing, and we’re not exactly sure how its going to turn out, lets try it!)- is a great chance for a group of people to put to test a great quote from our friend Parker Palmer:  ”If you can’t get out of it, get into it.”

Stuck out on the trail, stuck in a car with people you don’t know that well, stuck on that zipline, stuck overlooking that beautiful valley, stuck believing its time to tell the truth because you trust these people, faced with a choice to “live in the light”  as John says in the Bible…. well, it doesn’t all sound difficult or terrible.  But, when we create space to engage our identities as image bearers of God- and live out as creators and contributors with a group of people trying to do the same thing, something great happens.  We face points of choice.  We see God and each other in new ways.  We tell the truth, and hear truth with more mercy than is normal when we are engaged in our self absorbed busy life.

This is the beauty of retreat.  This is the beauty of committing to a group of people over time.  This is stuff God uses to alter our direction, and create memories that influence our future.  This is stuff worth getting into.  (cause once you’ve signed up for it, you can’t get out of it.)

(Kinda like life.)

Here’s a few learns from our recent experience.

• Service makes us feel like saviors who rescue the broken, while Justice means God does the rescuing, but often he works through the united power of his great and diverse community to do it.
• The goal of service is to help others, but the goal of Justice is to remove barriers so others can help themselves, and look to a Savior with little obstruction.
• Everybody is normal till you get to know them.
• Our group would never choose to hang out together on their own merit- but now their gathering produces more laughter and goodness than I would have imagined 2 months ago.
• 3600 lbs of bikes to the metel recycler is a lot of jacked up bikes.  They get heavy.
• Our past influences us greatly- and every part of it can be used by God to make something great in us.
• Grant wants to work at the zoo.
• People older than us have something to teach us.
• Conner needs a compass (or hard wired GPS in his body.)
• Its fun helping people, together.  The people we help have something to teach us as well.
• There is great value in commitment.
• Everybody has a kite they’re carrying around, that is your gifts and experiences.  When you use your gifts that kite tends to take off, and everyone around gets to see and enjoy the flight of it.  When you keep them to yourself, carrying that kite gets a bit awkward and cumbersome.
• Imran plays a mean version of “Sweet Child of Mine.”
• Dinner together is important.
• People are very helpful when you are trying to find a lost teenager deep in the city.

Please continue to pray for us- that our students and all the people we work with come to believe and live out the mission they were created to live.

Cause- if you can’t get out of it- you gotta get into it!

ck

Finally a chance to stop. A chance to read(on-line) and hear (Grant and Rachel so far) about Tuesdays on Quaker Street. This allows me a different perspective and a different opportunity than I had planned for. God gets the best of me when He gets me out of my plan and living HIS. He tricks me sometimes and I get the experience of having faith….I love God’s way with me! Usefulness comments were great….I think this whole GPS-thing might just be leading somewhere!!!! Can’t wait to see how you all give it “JUSTICE” over the course of the next month!!!????

I met Paula when I sent out my crazy idea about GPS Tulsa to local school counselors.  Beth Alaback, and old friend from NLR days, was very excited about it, and sent this info on to Paula Barton, who was the senior school counselor at Edison High School.  Paula was way enthused, and when we met she said things like “I believe this program will save lives.”  Wow.  I guess she believed in what we were doing.  She then enlisted her own time and recruited and talked to potential students and offered herself to our work. She is one of our team, and I am still waiting on her bio (hint hint, Paula…) so she can give a better introduction of herself.  Suffice to say, she is one of our three counselors who have a total heart for our recent high school grads, and they want to talk to her (which I love.)  Her enthusiasm for life, and for getting into the lives of people and lending a hand, is infectious.  You will hear from her occasionally on the blog.  I wouldn’t doubt it if you become her friend in the near future.  - ck

i was asked if i believe that my existence is necessary. i believe that everyone has a purpose, a role to play. actors or not we are all participating in Gods HUGE movie. he has a plan and in that plan it obviously includes me and you because if it didn’t… god wouldn’t have placed us on this earth. sometimes we might feel useless and unpurposefull but we are making a difference in peoples live whether we see it or not..

sometimes we don’t see it tho… all we think about is ourselves, we walk through our day thinking about the next thing  we have to get done, the next place we have to go to, the next meal we are going to have… or how we are going to finance the next meal… we don’t realize the homeless people sitting on the side of the road. they have a life too we are not the only ones going through hell on earth… or what we call hell.

God put us all together to compliment and help each other.  to fit together as puzzle pieces, to help create one big beautiful masterpiece.

when we all (because everyone eventually does) come to this point of asking ourselves “is our existence necessary?” we should all ask ourselves “can one mosquito make a difference in a tent of sleeping people?”

you bet.

one of today’s questions was: do you think that these kids individual existence matters?…DUH! yes i think that each one of these kids has an existence that will play a vital role in the community around them. each personality that is portrayed in these kids is an important instrument that God has placed there for a reason. yes all of them, including the one kid that gets all his enjoyment out of making his piers (and the occasional teacher with a sense of humor) laugh and gets distracted when you give him instructions.

one kid that jumps out at me in particular is a young guy named Alex. he has such a high amount of energy and is just looking for a way to use it! unfortunately he has a tendency to choose the wrong times.

This was the word from a good friend this morning.  He asked how we’re doing (we meaning my family).  I said, “Really good.  The financial challenges have been hard- but everyone is doing great overall.”

Then he said it- “Persevere.”

Hang in there.

Don’t give up.

If you know its God’s deal- keep going, do whats right.

While you might get discouraged- don’t stay there, there’s more adventure around the corner and you won’t want to miss it.

Persevere.

The more you hang in there, the more stories that will be told and the more stuff to be thankful for.

Don’t forget why you did this in the first place.  Remember who you are.  Never forget who God is and how His love and care for you is bigger than what you know.

Don’t be afraid to express your weakness.  Apologize.  Ask for help.  Build alliances.  Be honest.  Keep it real.  Say no to the job when one competing for your time is related to you.  Say yes to the one life you have to live.

Persevere.

Live it well.

Remember that side stitches work themselves out over time.

Remember that uphill leads to a summit that precedes some downhill sweetness.

Remember that going against the wind may not have a flip side today (like a hill climb) but there will be another day when the wind is at your back.  Thats a great day.  Enjoy it.

Persevere.

We’ve talked a lot the past few weeks about our service time at the elementary school. And some weeks it seems to have gone well. Other weeks not so much.

But as I sat & listened to everyone share about their experience there each afternoon, I was struck by something. Something I knew GPS would provide from early on, but I guess it was just fun to see it playing out in reality. (Not just “here’s what we HOPE will happen with GPS”-but “here’s what DID happen b/c of GPS.”)

For most of us, when we are serving somewhere & things aren’t going just as we’d like-we don’t feel very useful…we seem to just be spinning our wheels…it probably wouldn’t matter if we stopped showing up… We’ve all felt those things I think.

But with GPS we’re getting to remind ourselves that the service experience being awesome is not what we’re after. We’re after service that teaches us something…about ourselves…about others…about life. And so, even though we maybe had a not-so-great experience, we are less likely to just check out, or stop going & find a different place. Because the emphasis is not on the experience making us feel good, but about the experience shedding some light on our own actions/behaviors/thoughts.

That is one of the things I think is so great about GPS & why I want to be involved in what’s happening here.