A timely reminder...

The Spring semester of 2013 was a trying one. It started off really well as far as we were concerned. We kept up with all of our schoolwork along with our jobs. Things took a turn for the worst on April 1st, when Leslie’s mom was killed by a drunk driver. I am not going to go into how that event changed the course of the semester. School and work are small stuff, and I am tired of sweating the small stuff.

In 2010, I felt as though I needed to attend seminary. Not just any seminary, but Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, California. I felt as though getting my higher education outside of the Bible Belt would be a great thing for me, and so I left for California that August. Fast forward three years and I’m still in school, in part because of a degree change, a concentration change, and a semester that I had to take off for financial reasons. In these five semesters I have learned some, but even more I’ve learned how well Howard Payne University prepared me for where I am. It may not show on my transcript, but I have had little trouble with most classes.

I’ve also had somewhat of a revelation. I was not called to come to this seminary in particular to study books outside the Bible Belt, but interact with those who live here. I’m supposed to be going to church here, fellowshipping with some people, loving others, maybe doing a little networking, and just enjoying the absolute beauty of this area (whenever the weather is bearable for a Texan, anyway).

Between being a full-time student, a full-time employee of the school, a part-time employee of the city of Mill Valley, a full-time husband who tries to help out with the housework when I can, and, a bit of a gamer (or at least, that’s what I would like) I have not experienced much outside our small apartment. Even less off campus or outside of Mill Valley. So here is what I’m doing. And this is more for me than it is for you. Actually it’s 100% for me and only for you as much as you care. I’m taking the least amount of school per year that I can get away with while maintaining the right to live on campus. I’m dropping my part-time job (not quitting completely, perhaps, but not signing up for near as many shifts), leaving me with my full-time job. I’m taking Leslie hiking at least every other week, schedule permitting. And I am going to take her camping from time to time, or at least to a hotel. Just somewhere outside of Mill Valley. And warmer.

One other thing to mention is that I will have a new internship-type situation that is being added to my plate thanks to school, but Leslie and I are both too excited about the opportunity to let it get in the way of enjoying ourselves here. I have not received the job description yet, but it seems as though I will be leading service projects in the area, getting to know a bunch of new people, speaking at churches and to the association to gain interest and support for the service projects, and maybe even heading up a trip to Romania.

Finally, I also want to blog more. Not because I have an audience right now, but because it seems to help me think. If you are reading though, I do appreciate it. If you have gotten this far, I hope I can count on you for your prayers in all this. It’s going to be a lot to take in. Thank you.

What you can do to help.

I think the title of this blog is pretty self-explanatory. There are a few things you can do help with the work that is going on in Haiti, and this is going to be a short list of them. If you’re interested in helping in some way, but want to look past what I put in this post, please feel free to discuss it with me! So let’s get started.

1. This is less about ministry and more about a personal request from Pastor Martin, but we believe it is for a good cause. Pastor Martin has three young children, and one of them is just reaching school age. He does not want to send him to just any school, though. Pastor Martin wants his children to go to private school so they can get the best education available to them because he knows that one day his children will be taking over for him, or doing something outside the village maybe, which will require an above average education. His youngest son will be starting school this coming September, and the cost will be $270 for the entire year. Pastor Martin would like to be able to stay focused on the projects going on with his church/orphanage, so he is looking for someone who can sponsor his boy, at least for the first year.

2. The school run by Pastor Martin has seven or eight teachers that do not always get paid because as a mission with free classes for the orphans and other children in the area, he depends upon money from supporters for their wages. Other schools could pay them on a more regular basis, but he has managed to keep them around, promising them that they will begin to be paid a fair salary soon enough. This fair salary he seeks to pay the teachers is $100 per month per teacher. It seems like so little, yet to them it would make all the difference. For $800 a month, he could keep his entire staff of teachers employed with regular pay.

3. As stated in my last blog, Pastor Martin has some major projects to get through. First, he has begun construction on a new church building. His old church building was some wooden poles with palm fronds for walls. This was fine in normal circumstances, but did not provide shelter from hurricanes or other storms very well. There is one small concrete building next to it that villagers cram into during serious storms, but there is not enough room for everyone in it. Besides that, the church building was too small to hold church in, so this one will be large enough for everyone to get into. Also, Pastor Martin wants a free clinic to go with his church, orphanage, and school. There is nothing like that in the area at this time, and there is most definitely need for such a thing.

4. Saving the best for last: Pray. Please pray for Pastor Martin and his mission, as well as for everyone involved on the States side. There are a few of us who have a relationship with Pastor Martin, but none of us are in great shape financially. Our main involvement for right now will be to draw attention to the needs and pray for God’s provision. I will hopefully be meeting with a gentlemen this weekend who has an organization and does a lot of work in Haiti who will potentially be a huge contact for us. Please pray with me for discernment and direction as we talk about what we can do together.

Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions about any of this, feel free to leave a comment, message me on Facebook, email me at claytonfordrogers@live.com, call, text, whatever works for you. My phone number should be on my Facebook page. God bless!

They Call Me “Tibab”

 

I’m still in Haiti as I write this, and I’m glad I decided to bring my laptop with me so I could get this down while it is still fresh. Even though this is now my third time here, I am just beginning to understand what is happening in this area. Neply, the village where Pastor Martin lives and where we spend the nights and some days, now has at least three missions, all of which seem to be building up their facilities and showing no signs of work elsewhere. Madam Tibab (Leslie) and I were fortunate enough to spend a few short minutes speaking with the coordinator of the newest one, My Life Speaks. which was started by a couple in America who have a child of their own who is blind and has a severe case of cerebral palsy. They have been told over and over that the child would only live so much longer, yet it has now been fourteen years and their child still lives. Though this child cannot speak like most of us, his life has spoken volumes, thus the name of the organization. You should check them out at www.myLIFEspeaks.com. I will too as soon as I have internet access again. We had a chance to speak a little about what the goals were of this branch of the organization, and I like where they plan to go with this.

Anyway, the reason Madam Tibab and I wanted to speak to this coordinator was to explore the possibilities for ourselves. Pastor Martin has a church and orphans that he takes care of in Fauche, a little less than an hour’s drive from Neply, and he has plenty of vision to go with it. As I understand it, there are no other missions at this village, but the need is great. We are in the process of building a new church building. The building we are replacing is too small for the congregation, no matter how tightly they pack in, and was not much more than some tree branches holding up a roof and palm fronds for walls. This was a fine building as far as they were concerned, and there were no complaints about it from those who attend this church, but this was not ideal for hurricane seasons. There is one small brick building on the church’s property, where the residents gather when a hurricane comes through, but they do not all fit; not even all of the orphans. Because of this, Pastor Martin also plans on building a school building and a clinic, both of which would provide their services for free, while at the same time being a place of sanctuary for the community during severe weather.

All this is to say that Madam Tibab and I are now trying to figure out where we fit in this vision. We know we do somehow, but not in what capacity. One idea that we have considered is to keep doing what we have started, spending time here each year while raising as much money as we can for the needs here. This would enable us to be more involved in whatever ministries we have back home. Another is to start a sort of continuing education program for pastors and potential church leaders in the area, while still raising money and interest in Pastor Martin’s vision. This would possibly allow us to have ministries back home, but would require a larger amount of support. We have also kicked around the idea of just living In Haiti and helping with the services Pastor Martin wishes to provide.

These are the basics of a few of the ideas we’ve passed around, just to give you a glimpse of what we have been thinking about during our stay. I hope you will continue to pray for us as we figure this out, and please keep an eye out for blog posts to follow, detailing needs that we have been made aware of.

By the way, Tibab means “beard” in Haitian Creole. :)

Who’s the flock?

So I’m sitting in class. Supposed to be paying attention. Today, however, is frustrating. I’m in my Global Leadership class and we have been talking about focus on making people more than just a task we deal with on a daily/weekly/whatever basis. The discussion soon turns to ministers’ salaries, and a guy from Arkansas a couple rows in front of me pipes up, “I think it would do the churches good if they did away with salaries.”

“Okay,” I think. I can see where he’s coming from if he is taking his argument to an extreme to prove a point. We did, after all, just finish talking about greed among ministers. He then, a few sentences later, states that youth pastors should get paid more than senior pastors because we should be focusing more on future generations than the adults and seniors.

… What?

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been a youth pastor before, and I would not mind being one again. I definitely see myself working in that capacity at some point in the future, at least for a short span (2-3 year) of time. But did this guy really just say that? Two things:

1.) When I go into a church office to be interviewed, I now have a ministry philosophy to hand the committee or pastor or whoever a copy of. This idea is thanks to the great Dr. Rusty Wheelington. In that philosophy of ministry, I now state my belief that in a perfect world, the position of Youth Pastor would not need to exist and that my goal is to work myself out of a job. Kind of like a consultant. I would only need to stay as long as there is a gap to be bridged between the adults and the high schoolers. In all honesty, I don’t know that this is an attainable goal. The gap just seems to get wider and wider. Still, what I work toward is the bridging of that gap.

2.) Who says the youth are off-limits to be taught by the pastor? Or even the children? Are the lambs not part of the flock? My favorite pastor so far is a man named George Martin. He was not the youth pastor at FBC Nixon, he was the senior pastor. He was not only involved with adult Bible studies and hospital visits and the like, he taught the youth just as much as the youth pastors he hired did. He was the one at summer camp with the guys and he and his wife were serving the youth on Wednesday nights. He wasn’t perfect, but we didn’t ask him to be. All we wanted was his presence, and that’s what he provided.

Today’s problem isn’t just greed. It’s compartmentalization. There’s nothing wrong with hiring a youth pastor to teach high school students or a children’s minister to teach children. The problem is the “get them out of my hair” policy it seems so many senior pastors and the parents of our youth follow.

What’s goin on… Part II

So it’s been a while since our last post, and I figured I should put up an update to what we’re up to.

First off, Leslie didn’t get the position I wrote about in the last post.  We were both a bit bummed, but we also realized that it makes a whole lot of things easier other than the fact that she still needs another job.  That will have to wait, though, because she leaves for Texas this Saturday to finish up all the wedding planning and such.

We are really excited about moving into our tiny little apartment here on campus, but we could still use your prayers.  The first month or two after the wedding are going to be rough, and we have a lot to figure out.  Especially the income thing.  Leslie has got to find another job.  And I might need something for the weekends.

We are also attempting to push each other to be better students.  We both enjoy learning, but when it gets to the homework part we still always wait until the last minute to get started.  We get our stuff done, but it’s not our best work and we know it.  We could use a lot of discipline.

What’s goin’ on…

This blog was primarily created to give me an outlet through which I could let some of my thoughts get out into the open.  As you can see since this is the first post, that hasn’t really happened.  But I am hoping that, at some point in the near future, it will. 

This is a time, though, in which I feel that I need to use this blog to let you, the reader, know what is happening in my life because I’m a couple thousand miles away from most of you and there are a few matters that could use your prayer.

As you most likely know, I am engaged to an amazing young lady named Leslie Payne.  We are in Mill Valley, California attending Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, where we will be pursuing our Master of Divinity degrees.  I am in my second semester and Leslie is in her first.

During my first semester, I was blessed enough to quickly find a steady job at an outdoors store that is predominantly a ski/snowboard shop called Any Mountain.  Leslie, however, did not find a job so quickly.  Despite applying at jobs almost constantly for which she was actually very well qualified for, nobody seemed to ever call her back until The Container Store, which is not giving her enough hours to pay for her dorm rent.

Before she even moved to California in January, Leslie had noticed a job opening at a programs camp in the eastern side of California, probably about three or four hours from the seminary campus (depending upon how much snow is on the roads).  Well after a couple months of job searching in the Mill Valley area, she happened to notice just recently that the job opening is still there.  This job is perfect for her because it is something that she did at Riverbend Retreat Center in Glen Rose, Texas.  Now, this is a full-time position that would require her to live at the camp grounds, but we discussed it and decided that we could be commuter students if she was accepted for the position.

Interestingly enough, Any Mountain will be opening a new store not too far from where this camp is located.  I may be able to transfer over to that store to be one of their opening staff, possibly even as a manager.  Whether the manager thing happened or not, this would be a sweet deal on so many levels.  Including the fact that through Any Mountain we get free season passes to go to Heavenly Ski Resort, which is also about two hours from the camp.  The only downside to this is that my commute to work would not be the little five minute trip that it is now…

Anyway, this is where your prayers could really be helpful to us.  Please pray for the job situation.  Whether Leslie gets this camp position or another job she has applied for in the Marin County area, she just really needs one.  If she does get the position, prayer would be welcomed for wisdom on our part.  Moving away from campus with gas prices like they are is kind of a big deal, not to mention that weather in that area gets a little intense in the fall through spring months.

Thank you so much for reading and especially for your prayers.  They are very much appreciated!