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Posted in General Articles
by Joel Chitwood
on 8/11/2008
Morpheus - "Get some rest, You're going to need it."
Neo - "For what?"
Morpheus (confidently smiling) - "Your training."
Sunrise behind the Bridgers
Seven days ago I boarded a plane in just before sunrise in Bozeman, Montana. The previous night was filled with the anticipation of finally meeting my entire team of 57 people from all over the country. Despite staying up all night playing HaloTM 2 with guys from my church and packing, I was re-energized in the crisp 40 degree morning as the Bridger mountains began to glow a faint pink and orange. After spending most of the day flying from Bozeman to Minneapolis to Memphis to Atlanta, a good friend from college provided me with a place to rest for the night. And then...
We all packed in two school buses for the ride to training camp in Gainesville, Georgia and spent the entire week running around in the woods, forming our teams, and worshiping God in the heat and humidity. I wasn't sure what to expect during training, but the week has been an exhausting yet amazing time of counseling and struggling through personal issues, opening up to one another, and spiritual equipping our squad for the road ahead. If I can summarize two things I've learned very personally here at camp:
1.) I'm afraid of failure so I choose not to give 100% of who God has created me to be. So often in life I have let let fear and pain define who I am. And although Jesus has healed me of so much, the time has now come for me to choose to risk and serve despite that fear of failure! These next 13 months will be an incredible opportunity for me to give everything I have!
2.) The next 13 months are going to require much of me, and I will need to daily choose to trust and rely upon God for my strength and rest. Without Christ, I am nothing. But with Him, I have all that I need!
As I prepare to leave tonight and sleep in the Atlanta airport tonight for my flight back to Montana tomorrow morning, I'm tempted to think I can relax in my own strength. But I quickly realize even the time from now until September 27th will require me to continually trust in God. I'm not sure where I'll be living in two weeks, and I still have over $10,000 in support to raise. Yet we have an amazing God. This morning one passage from Matthew stuck out to me. Jesus travelled to his hometown and began teaching in the synagogues, and "he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith." (Matthew 13:53-58). I believe the time for me to rely only upon what I know and what I think I can control in life has come to an end.
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Posted in General Articles
by Joel Chitwood
on 7/23/2008
The storm approaching Bozeman
Two amazing storms arrived yesterday. The first "warning" storm swept through the Gallatin Valley in the early afternoon flooding streets and streams. The sudden dark sky brought winds that left me looking for a tree to hang onto as I ran outside without shoes or a raincoat to fully enjoy God's awesome power. Yet just as soon as the storm came, the sun cracked through the clouds and the vivid Montana blue sky reappeared.
This past year in Bozeman, I once again found my love and instinctive talent for flying and began training as a student pilot at our airport just a few miles away. And although flight training is expensive and I haven't been able to fly this summer, I've studied as much as I can to get all of my ground school out of the way for my private, instrument and commercial ratings. And so after the first storm I set up my "office" in my favorite coffee shop with windows overlooking the Bridger Mountains and Spanish Peaks to prepare for the second, much larger storm to come through later on in the evening. Radar images, time-lapse satellite photographs and barometric pressure plots flooded my laptop screen as I waited and hoped for the second storm to pass over Bozeman. I poured through books and articles learning as much as I could about thunderstorm physics while waiting and watching. It's one thing to study weather from a book, yet such an incredible opportunity to be able to study a real storm come through! Sure enough, the storm hit. I ran outside to watch the seething brewing mass of dark clouds swallow Bozeman, turning the entire city black as night. Winds reaching almost sixty miles an hour mercilessly whipped rain and golf-ball sized hail around for almost a half hour. Later on in the evening the setting sun broke out during a light rain revealing bright orange skies and a full double rainbow. So beautiful, so amazing!
Today Caleb, one of the awesome guys I live with, mentioned that we'd be getting another thunderstorm this evening. Tensions have already been somewhat high between the two of us, and I immediately thought to myself...What do you know about weather Caleb? All you probably do is watch the Weather Channel. And once again in disgust at myself, I realized my pride and failing love. Why do I think I'm any better than anyone else? Why do I not care about others in absolute love and selflessness as Jesus does and gives us the desire to? Why do I not take every opportunity to serve and know everyone around me?
Last August, I left Michigan Tech as a senior in the Electrical Engineering program to head back out West, frustrated because I hated what I was studying. I could do it, but there was never any joy. I'd rather be kayaking, climbing peaks, skiing, or even learning to swing dance. I just wanted to spend time with people and God and in the outdoors experiencing incredible love, fellowship and beauty. And yet graciously God has once again given me incredible joy at using my mind with my strength here in the mountains. I've loved flight school, I love pouring through molecular biology textbooks, I want to learn as many languages as I can, and I may eventually return to college here in Montana. Yeah...m y creator has given me so much! I love running here; my steps grow faster and more intense with a beautiful crescendo at this altitude. The more I run, the more energy I seem to gain. I love hiking around in the woods at night or climbing straight up the sides of steep mountains. In the winter, the thrill of flying down a mountain as fast as I can go while feeling the incredible burn in my legs of my body being thrown into the ground through every turn is euphoric!
And yet being here has been so humbling. Every day I'm reminded that everything I am is because of my creator. I own nothing, I have nothing. God gives me strength to run, He gives me the ability to think, and the capacity to love. Without Him, I am nothing! All summer I've tried to find work in Seattle and here in Bozeman that I thought would pay well. I was confident in my ability to learn any job quickly that would pay all I would need to leave in October. And yet all I've found since April have been less than three weeks of work this summer pounding away at concrete and laying asphalt in the bitter cold and intense sun. And just as soon as I was promoted to the surveying and grading crew, I cut my foot and was sent to the hospital and couldn't walk for a month. I'm learning everyday that my confidence must come from God; everything else eventually fails. And he has provided everything I've needed this summer. There is such incredible joy to be able to rest in knowing I really can trust in Jesus for everything!
I desire to see God's glory flow through me if He wants. But everyday I realize all I really want is Him; wherever he takes me is absolutely amazing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 says –
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
What point is there in possessing the glory of God if we do not love and serve others? Our creator gives us life; the very fact we breathe is because he gives us breath. And Jesus has come to give us real life...now and into eternity!
Bridger Mountains
A few days ago, some small thunderstorms rolled in during the evening, echoing their gentle yet deep and incredible rumble throughout our mountain valley. The sweet vibrant fragrance of pine from the mountains accompanied the rain and occasional light hail quenching the semi-arid landscape and greening endless miles of wheat, oats and hay. And once again, the sky turned bright blue against the disappearing white clouds as the sun began to set. Two rainbows signalled the end of the storm and dove into the Bridger Range to the northeast as the sun glowed a wheat gold into its rugged green folds. I love simply absorbing all of this, enjoying the natural beauty around me as if I were created perfectly to enjoy and rest in this. My God knows He has created my heart to open to Him in the wilderness. I am alive out here, and it is here where Jesus often whispers to me. I am captivated by His beauty, and I want to run away into the mountains and spend time alone with the one who loves me most.
One final note: That thunderstorm Caleb said would happen is just beginning to dump rain outside.
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Posted in General Articles
by Joel Chitwood
on 7/19/2008
Life has been amazing the past few weeks watching God provide. He has worked through others to provide support for my trip and provide a place for me to live and food to eat. In less than two weeks, I'll be in Gainesville, GA for to meet my team for about a week of training and immediately thereafter have the awesome privilege to be in Kevin Perrine's wedding – one of my amazing brothers in Christ! I had no idea how I was getting to Gainesville nor to the wedding in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Yet now I have a direct ride from Gainesville to the wedding and back, and yesterday my Dad provided for me and found a way to get me a plane ticket to Atlanta for training just two weeks away! I've tried so much to figure out how I'll be able to leave this October and it seems like all of my plans have been thwarted so far, and God has come through in ways I never thought possible. I'm realizing how much of this entire year will be me trusting in God rather than my own abilities. Reading through I Timothy 6:17 yesterday, Paul seems to be speaking directly to me –
"Command those who are rich in this world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment."
There's so much of this entire support raising and preparation process that God must be intimately involved in. And I'm realizing more everyday, there's so much of all of life that God is intimately a part of.
With that said, here is the tentative route for our October team! We're trusting in God and some of this could change. But the plan looks amazing so far! Clicking on the links will open up a new window with a GoogleTM map of the location.
July, August - Central America - Guatemala/Nicaragua/Other
And as a final note, I'm not trusting in either Firefox or Internet Explorer anymore. After three failed attempts at writing this, both were used together to make this entry a success! Is that teamwork?
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Posted in General Articles
by Joel Chitwood
on 7/9/2008
Just a note before I begin: I'm not saying this to make a statement, but rather to describe a large struggle in my own life - a struggle that in part has drawn me to become part of the World Race.
In a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal, a US soldier describes his experiences fighting in Afghanistan. The article reports: “[a soldier] thinks about the price of war; the killing bothers him as much as the dying. ‘I wish there were another way to do this, but there’s not,’ he says, ‘Death is the only language they understand.’”
I think a few years ago, I would have said the same. I’ve struggled much in my own life with who God has created me to be and why I exist – what is my purpose. I’ve grown up in a military family traveling around the United States and even to Germany for seven years. My dad deployed to both Bosnia and Kosovo while I was growing up. And as I’ve grown to know God, I too desire to serve. And instinctively the first question that enters my mind is, “How can I best use the abilities that God has given me to serve in our armed forces.” I desire to be a warrior, desire to fight for a cause that is worthwhile! But for the past few years, I believe that God has asked me to stay away from our military for now, and that time has given me the ability to think about where I can serve best.
I’m not saying here that fighting for a cause is not worthwhile, nor am I undermining the efforts of the soldiers we as a nation have chosen to send fighting abroad to places like Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. But I am beginning to see that in a world where even here in the United States so much sin is covered up and its incredible danger and hurt ignored, Christ is the only true long-term answer to the cry of the world. Violence ultimately doesn’t solve a problem; only true love can create a transformation that the world desperately cries for but has no idea how to solve. I think we often like to put people in the category of “good people” and “bad people”. And so often, we believe (whatever country we’re in) that we are always right. But I think the real picture is often far more complex.
The Bible says in Romans 1:23-24:
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
I Timothy 2:3 says:
God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
And Jesus says in Luke 6:27-38,
"But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
I’ve been reading a book right now called The Heavenly Man, and one section describes a story of a handcuffed inmate named Huang sentenced to death in China. Yun describes the inmate –
“He was ferocious and full of hatred, and just 22 years old. Huang couldn’t use his arms or legs but if another prisoner would try to get too close to him, he would try to bite his ear or nose off.”
“In cell number nine the prisoners had treated him like an animal, kicking and punching him. They’d refused to feed him for days. Instead they mocked him by deliberately pouring his food over him. His clothes were covered with food stains. One day, out of sheer desperation and pain, Huang waited until nobody was watching and rammed his head into the wall as hard as he could, in a bid to kill himself. He survived, but left a dent in the wall.”
To prevent Huang from committing suicide, he was transferred from cell nine to Yun’s cell where Yun, imprisoned for spreading the Gospel in China, had recently led the other men to Christ.
“The moment Huang entered our cell, he knew something was different. All of us showed him love and sympathy. We welcomed him with open arms, placing his possessions in neat order next to his bed.”
Huang was speechless as the men shared their food and cared for him. The next day, “Huang’s stony heart broke. He dropped off his chair, knelt down on the floor, and wept. He said to Yun, ‘Older brother, why do you love me like this? Why didn’t you eat your bread last night? I am a murderer, hated by all men. Even my own parents, my brother and sister, and my fiancé have disowned me. Why do you love me so much?’” Yun shared the gospel with Huang, who accepted Christ into his heart. “He was released from the burden of sin. All of the other prisoners were so happy. They realized that only the love of God can give true hope to those bound by sin.”
Is it possible that death is often a language that only breeds more hate? And is it possible that love – the love of Christ – is the one language everyone understands?
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Posted in General Articles
by Joel Chitwood
on 7/3/2008
Every day I learn more about God, I am amazed. Our creator is the author of so much incredible, intricate beauty. And every time I explore more of who He is through scripture, through studying molecular biology of the cell, while staring up at the complex yet graceful fluid motions of the clouds forming from the mountains here in Montana or through interacting with Him on a very personal level, I am left amazed and wanting to know more. It seems the more I explore, the more not just the existence but the goodness and love of my God become undeniable! And yet the more I begin to know about my creator and the more I know Him personally, the more I realize how much doubt and disconnect exists that still separates me from truly involving God in every area of my life. And once again, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to close that disconnect and challenge that doubt – the opportunity to choose to trust in Him and apply truth.
The past few months have been particularly frustrating for me since I’ve been accepted onto the October World Race. I had hoped to be part of a wildland fire crew here in Bozeman this summer, and when that slipped through my fingers I began looking for temporary engineering jobs in Seattle for three weeks. Returning to Bozeman to once again be part of my church here, all of the Information Technology positions available were long-term positions. Finally after a total of about two months of no work I was able to work for an asphalt company, and once again the prospect of paying off debt or at least making enough money to make payments for a year seemed within my reach. But just a week and a half ago, I landed in the hospital after cutting my foot and hitting an artery leaving me without work and more bills. Yet during these months, God has provided just enough! There have been so many days where I’ve wondered how I’ll be able to pay for food the next day or my housemates for rent, and yet every day God has blessed me with a place to live and food to eat. I can choose to become discouraged, choose to walk away from God. But through this time, I am beginning to understand that I need to really trust God first even when I don’t understand what is before me. To no longer have control over my financial situation right now despite all my efforts has been an incredible blessing as I now look at it – because I now really do trust in my living God who wants to interact and who really does care!
One particular night about a week ago, frustrated as I prayed to God asking for where to go next, I once again dove into scripture. You know what Jesus says?
In Matthew 21:22 he says to his disciples – “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” In Matthew 17:20 after the disciples failed to cast out a demon from a boy Jesus says “you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain ‘Move from here to here’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” When Peter responded to Jesus’ prompting to walk on the water and began fearing and sinking, Jesus responded by saying “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” In Matthew 9:29 when Jesus heals to blind men, he says, “According to your faith, will it be done to you.” Jesus says in John 14:12-14, “anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Matthew 6:25-27 says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” And there’s so much more that Jesus says about trusting in Him for our daily needs, taking our concerns to Him, and having faith in Him!
I’m tired of ideas and theories that have nothing to do with the truth. I want real truth that I can apply every day. There’s no point to believing in something that isn’t real; what good comes from believing an idea that can’t be tested and applied? Can you imagine me being an expert knowing how much my climbing equipment holds but then never using it? I’m tired of reading scripture as if it were only meant to be read – and maybe sometimes applied. Treating Christianity as simply an idea is safe, but then I miss so much – I don’t get to see how amazing, how adventurous, how beautiful, and how deeply loving my creator really is.
After a lot of prayer and thought, I still feel and believe that God wants me to continue working towards leaving in October even though I don’t know how all of the details will work yet … and already, God has been providing money to pay some of the hospital bills! God has given me a mind, and there definitely value in thinking through and solving challenging problems. The very fact that we can be creative as the image bearers of our creator is amazing! But at times, I think God removes illusions of control to once again remind me that He is far more trustworthy then my plans.
Thank you so much all of you who have provided for me financially already and have committed to praying for me – you are showing me the love of Christ in an amazing way!
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