BCM Summer Missions 2009: Kaneohe, Hawaii

Allllllrighty, its time for an update!

As far as summer missions related stuff goes, I have gotten my plane ticket info and finally some information about orientation! So I officially leave on June 02 at 10:15 AM Atlanta time and arrive after a non-stop flight to Honolulu at 1:30 PM Hawaii time. Do not be deceived, the trip is longer than 3 hours. Its actually 9 hours! Woot! We are scheduled to com back on July 28 leaving Honolulu at 3:15 PM Hawaii time and arrive in Atlanta at 5:35 AM. Please ask for blessing on who ever has to pick me up at that ridiculous hour :-P

Orientation weekend looks like it is going to be pretty cool. The Good news is that the commissioning service on Saturday starts at 2:30, which means I will be able to get out of there in time to make it to my initiation into Delta Sigma Pi at 6PM! God is sooooo good! That weekend is going to be good no doubt! I will get to have some uality time with my missions partner as well as our other brothers and sisters going out on the field this summer.

In other news, there have been a lot of realy cool things that keep reaffirming that I am supposed to go on this trip. I really think one of the coolest things God does is that he sets up little reminders and check points right under your nose and you don't know their significance until later. Let me start from one of the cooler instances. One of the first "check point" that God presented me has to do with a shower curtain. Back in the 6th gradeish time period of my life, we spruced up my bathroom. My mom made me a shower curtain and said it could be any design I chose. I had chosen a beach island pattern with a special resort and palms and kyak like boats in the water. Just recently my mom told me that when she was making the curtain with a friend that her friend pointed out tht it was actually supposed to be Daimond head beach, at the bottom of Oahu!How cool is that???
Another has been developing for a couple of years. In preparation for this trip, my mom has gotten some really good reading material on Hawaii and its culture. She has been reading through them and told me the ther night that if I recive a red envelope sometime near my birthday, that I should accept it. Apparently red is the lucky color in Hawaii, which makes sense given that Hawaii is heavlily influanced by asain cultures and red is a luck color there too. This struck me as quite interesting because I grew up really liking the color blue, but since about my sienor year of high school, my taste has changed to red. Its funny because after that point I became particularly fond of red. When I got a new car, it had red interior lighting.
When I got my phone for this round of contract, I decided to go with the red color, where as I would have normally gone with generic black or metal.
Another cool, and probly the more ironic was the color of "send me now" cause braclet I chose at Confluence... you guessed it, its red.
So those are a few of the things that are just getting me soooo pumped about this trip and How God is in every thread of it!

In closing, I like to leave you with a provocitive thought. Last Sunday I heard some really encouraging words. During our college bible study, the college minister talked about this guy named C. T. Studd. This guy was an excellent Cricket player in his prime, but he is better known for the mission work he did setting up opium recovery clinics in asia and ending his missionary carrer in a culture of cannabalism where he was able to share God with these natives and evetually God turned the culture around to using Studd and his family. In this study the minister brought up one of C.T. Studd's quotes-

"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell."

This has really been on my mind all week and speaks to me so greatly. Although I may not be going to Hawaii to meet a physical need like poverty, I am going to a spiritual battle field. Please pray for me and my partner Todd as we prepare our hearts, as we get our information at orientation weekend, and for the hearts that the Holy Spirit is plowing as we speak in Hawaii and all that Todd and I encounter.
~D-Rice

Okay, so here goes part 2.

So Paul goes on to talk further about the relationship between a child, their Paidigogos, and what happens after. Continuing on Paul is talking in Galatians 4:1-2-

"Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all. But is under his tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father."

The first aspect that needs to be understood that carries over from the last post is that the Paidigogos is the primary care taker of a child, therefore, the child is under the authority of the servant, cared for by the servant, and lives among the servant's own children. That's what the first verse is talking about is that, although the child is of the rich family, it still is under the constraints and authority of the Paidagogos, just like the Paidagogos' own family.

The second part to this is based on Greek traditions. In the Greek society, it is the childs father who decideds when he is a man and bestows apon him the position of full-grown son. (Im about to tie in the prodigal son here in just a second, its gunna be pretty cool.) At this point of recognition, the father throws an awesome party for the young man called "toga virilis". This party is basically to celebrate that the sone has reached the age of maturity and authority in the family. The father gives the son a toga and a ring with his special insignia. This ring means the son now has equitable power and authority over his fathers possesions. This is where the prodigal son comes in. You know that party the father of the prodigal son threw? Well it was a "toga virilis". Upon the prodigal son's return, he had shown his father that he has experienced the things his father tried to teach him and now is worthy to have the mark of his father, where as before when he ran away from home he was stubborn and cocky.

Now weve gotten to the good part! To explain the significance of this metaphore should be easy now. Now knowing that as an official son of the father, and that you gain his power, I hope you have made the connection. The child has now become higher than the Paidagogos' auhority, and is now the servants' authority. This is the significance of why we call our selves sons and daughters of Christ! We have been given the power that is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Those of the Faith are now above any condemnation the Law could throw at us.

This is some good heavy stuff eh?
~D-Rice

As I promised, I am going talk about the Paidagogos and why it is significant. To start off, ill share with you why this has caught my attention. Earlier this semester in my communications class, we talked about a Paidagogos as we began the semester about the roots of the study of communication. It just so happened that same day as I was doing my study on comentary about Galatians that I came across the verse that also is specifically talking about the term Paidagogos. Obviously it seems like that a concept I had never heard before in my life being brought up in to different areas of my life on the same day... well it would foolish of me not to pay attention to it.

So what is a Paidagogos you ask? Well lets first take a look at where it comes in from Galatians 3:25-

"But after faith has come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster"

A quick definition of a Paidigogos is related to the term "schoolmaster". In class it was defined as the person your parents hired to make sure you went to school and didn't cut class. Its soooooo much deeper than that, and Paul uses it as such a relevent metaphore to the Galatians. A closer look at what a Paidagogos is was that they were actually slaves under hire of the rich in ancient Rome. Understand that just because they have the title of slave does not mean they were "property", but most slaves were actually bond servants and or kinda subsistance workers. Anyhoo, so this servant is the paidagogos. He or she is given custody of a child from birth and they become the primary care taker. They do everything from feeding, clothing, bathing, disciplining, to basic teachings. At some point in the early development, the child would exceed what the Paidagogos could teach he or she, so at that point the Paidagogos just had to wake them and prepare them for school, then escort them to and from school.

So with all that in mind, to understand this metaphore, you must understand that Paul is talking about the difference between the Law and Faith. The Paidagogos is the symbol for the Law. The law is ment to guide us, make sure we don't touch the stove, and lead us to a greater understanding of God, but it cant save us. Ultimately, the Law is constructed to point out that we are sinners and that we aren't self-sufficient or faultless. It points us to Faith. When we reach the point of Faith, then we are no longer under the authority of of the schoolmaster.

Here comes part 2...
~D-Rice