mark + ange guinn

We just found the cord to plug our camera in to our computer, so here are a bunch of photos from the past few months. Enjoy!

It’s been a busy week for us. Thursday we were in Muncie for a goodbye party for our good friends Josh and Michelle Garrels. Friday we were in Muncie again for dinner with our friends the Kristiansens and the Millers (two of the three couples on our team). We had a really fun evening together. Saturday night I played a few songs as an opening act for my friend Jason Wolfgang (you can download his songs free at thewolfgangarchive.com).

Then this morning we got up at 6am and drove to Gas City, IN, where we lead worship at one of our sister churches – Exit 59. It was a really beautiful time and our whole team was there. They prayed for us and sent us out with their blessing. Did I mention we love that church?

Finally, always a glutton for punishment, we returned to Indy where I filled in the pulpit (a.k.a. stool) at our own Indy Alliance. It was an exhausting day at the end of an exhausting week, but it’s been exhilarating too. We’re in for a whirlwind six weeks here, and it probably won’t stop until a few weeks after we’ve landed in Northern Ireland. That’s what we signed up for, though!

Mark

This is a strange thing to be thinking about when it’s been such a week of celebrating God’s goodness (did you hear we got our visa!?!), but I’ve been thinking about pain today. One of the most alarming things about Jesus and his teaching is that He never guarantees that we won’t be hurt – rather the opposite.

There’s so much to say about that subject: how the defining characteristic of God’s love is that it chose his own pain over our separation and he calls us to live that way; how so much energy is spent avoiding pain – from karma (in the broad sense – there’s a pseudo-christian version too…) to health insurance to “if I just had more faith”, on and on; how nothing in God’s kingdom moves forward without pain; how all relationship has pain in it.

Here’s what I’ve come to:

1. God’s goodness is bigger than whatever I’m afraid of (this sounds trite but it’s a huge issue)
2. God is worth going through pain – both so that I am more intimate with him and just because he is who he is
3. We can handle a lot more than we think we can. I don’t have all the empowerment now that I would have in the situations I imagine.

Just some thoughts.
Mark

We received an e-mail today letting us know that our visa has been granted. There are no more major obstacles to our move, so we plan to leave in early September. Our visa starts September 1 and lasts for a year, after which we’ll have to reapply.

I can’t tell you how happy (and sad) we are. It’s been a long road, and it looks like we’re finally about to turn the corner. Thank you for your prayers.

Mark and Ange

For the last two years I’ve been spending time with a group a of Indianapolis pastors, facilitated by Loving Accurately Ministries. They have a weekly prayer meeting for pastors and meet monthly at the Broadripple Brewpub. I’ve learned so much from these guys, especially the guys that lead it – Geoff Wybrow, Jim Falk, and Steve Freeman – about what it means to love people well.

One of the principles I’ve learned from them is things work better when relationships lead the way. There are people at that table that I wouldn’t agree with about a lot of things, theologically or organizationally, but because we started with prayer and relationship it’s different, because there is something powerful that happens when you see someone’s heart and his (or her) passion and his love for Jesus.

The interesting thing is that a lot of times at cross-denominational gatherings like that, there’s a shallowness and a sense of compromising issues we’re passionate about in order not to offend. What I’ve seen, though, is that if you start with a relationship, there’s actually room to have those discussions and disagree heartily and healthily – there’s room for “iron sharpens iron,” for stretching each other. The effect that I’ve sensed is that there is actually a sense of going higher and farther together instead of watering down.

Paul also refers to Jesus’s whole body (i.e. the Church) being held together by “every joint and supporting ligament,” which I’m coming to think means the relationships that connect us. I think that’s how it was made to function. If you don’t have ligaments, you either have disconnection or a LOT of pain (I’m told bone-on-bone in joints is excruciating). The spirit of religion, then, is the “arthritis” of the church – going after the joints to keep the whole body from functioning.

This is also one of the key values we are taking with us to N.Ireland. We want to everything we do to stem from loving others well – as Paul says: “deeply, from the heart.” It’s the only way for us to be “known by our love.”