(Air Port in Almaty)
Now that I have been back for a
month now, I am finally sitting down to update everyone on my trip. What can I say?
This trip was different from all the others on so many levels. So, everyone
always asks me the same question, “How was your trip?” I always want to say,
“It was awesome”, but that really doesn’t explain anything. Therefore, what I
really want to say is this, as always, the band was amazing and I am blessed to
have been a part of this tour. I even had an opportunity to play auxiliary
percussion at an impromptu concert we did due to rain. Not only does the band
have tremendous talent, they also have huge hearts for the Lord. I was so
humbled and blessed by their immense desire to share their faith with the lost.
Kazakhstan is a very beautiful place
with green fields and snow capped mountains. For that reason, I really enjoyed
my rides through the countryside. But aside from it’s natural beauty, it was a
very depressing place for me. Because
the infrastructure was developed and later abandoned by Communist Russia,
everything was grey and drab, the roads were either falling apart or
non-existent and the plumbing was minimal (a.k.a “squatty potties”). And even though
everything around the Kazaks was dirty, they were all well dressed; even the
children wore suits as they walked to school.
Spiritually
this was a challenging trip as well. Even though they claim to have religious
freedom, Christianity is very highly regulated. Foreigners are not even allowed
to preach in a church without special permission from the government, much less
openly speak about Jesus in public. But Praise the Lord that our team has a lot
of experience with this kind of “special ops evangelism”. I loved seeing God
continually doing things and working in ways that don’t make any sense until
after they are already done. God definitely revealed to us that this is His
mission and not ours. It is very hard sometimes to show up to an event and the
first thing that crosses your mind is “Am I on the show Punk’d? Do they really expect us to set up and do a concert here in
the dirt”. Often those are the concerts that have the best results as far as
ministry is concerned. There were a lot of very humbling situations where God
just revealed how wicked our hearts can really be, even when we think we are
being very spiritual. So basically, God was faithful even when we were not.
Going over
seas is always an educational adventure. On every trip, I feel like I get a
glimpse of America’s future. Not a definite future, but what America may become
if we continue on the path we seem to be going down. On other trips I have thought
a lot about how how prideful we, as Americans, are in our “newness”. We think
that, since we are so young, we are doing everything right or better than those
who are “stuck in their old traditions”. The problem, I have seen, is that, we
don’t yet realize we just created different traditions to get stuck in and we
really aren’t any different. More specifically we have decided that the new hip
church is better than the old traditional church, while we are abandoning the
older generation and all their wisdom. This may be about worship styles or
about baptism, it is different every time; and yet it is the same. The result
is a lack of unity amongst believers. I know that churches don’t tend to split
on issues so simple as musical taste, but we do need to learn how we can work
together to impact our city, or country, for the sake of the gospel.
On this trip I was thinking a lot
about our freedom in America and how Christianity is under attack; specifically
evangelism. Right now the government is making evangelism illegal in the armed
forces. This can only lead to one result. If we continue to allow the
government to regulate our rights as believers to talk about our faith, we will
begin to see persecution like never before in America. Some will say “maybe
this will be a good thing; it will weed out the fakes”. Let’s ask those Christians in Syria who are
being slaughtered because of their faith, and see which option they would choose.
I realize that the last section may
have been a little dark, but I must say I truly desire that we as the bride of
Christ will put down the walls we have built around our Christian cliques, love
and serve one another, and unite for the sake of the kingdom. One thing that
makes Christians stand out in a foreign land, and at home, is the way we love
one another. When I go on these trips, I am not Baptist, Pentecostal, Anglican,
Catholic, Assembly of God, Brethren, or Mennonite; I am a Christian and I am working
with fellow brothers and sisters for the kingdom. When I get home, that often
changes, not because I want it to but because it does.
I know God wanted me to go on this
trip and I am convinced that He wanted you to send me. I don’t even know how to
begin to show my appreciation to all of you, but I also know that I don’t have
to. God has and will continue to bless us for the work we do in His name.
Praise the Lord. Amen.
All that being said; I don’t think
God is done sending me on these trips and I want to continue to be open and
available when He calls me. I would like to start raising funds year round for
whatever trips come up, as well as some missions opportunities here in the
States.
For those of you who don’t know
what I do for a living; I work as an audio engineer. I record and produce music
for local bands as well as local churches. I recently finished a song with my
church Midtown Fellowship. (You can download the song here.
) Even though being a music producer is my passion, I also do a lot of
freelance work around town. This type of work ranges from mixing live sound,
for bars and churches, to sound training and consulting for churches. This
brings me to my next venture.
http://midtownmusic.bandcamp.com/track/we-sing
As I continue to work with churches,
I have noticed a huge need for providing proper training for church volunteers
who want to help with running sound at their home church. Most people don’t
really think about this, but as much as we rely on the pastor, the worship
leader, and the other people, whether staff or volunteers, who contribute to
the interworking of a typical Sunday service, sound is such a crucial part of
that process. Even the simplest church service involves thousands of dollars
worth of sound equipment and as services become more and more complex the sound
systems get even more expensive and complex. Now, here is the problem that most
churches struggle with; after spending the time and money needed for a sound
system that actually meets their needs, there is seldom anyone who even knows
how to run this massively complicated system, much less trouble shoot problems
that may rise as time goes by. The most practical solution to this problem is
to hire a professional to run the sound system. However, there are a few
problems that come with this solution. First, if you know how hard it is to
find musicians to play in the worship band; finding a sound guy is even harder.
Second, even if you know a sound guy, there is a slim chance that he/she is a
believer. Oh yeah thirdly (and probably most common); churches don’t usually
have a budget for someone who has the knowledge and the experience to run their
expensive system. However, most churches do have someone or more than one
person who is willing to volunteer for free. But because they are volunteers
they typically don’t have a clue what they are getting themselves into, or how
to do it. And since I can run sound all over town, here is my desire; I want to
start a ministry that will allow me to work one on one with churches and their
volunteers, to train them on their own sound systems, so that they will have
practical experience and the confidence to serve their church through audio
engineering.
But hey, people spend thousands of
dollars and years to get a degree in audio engineering a.k.a. “running sound”,
so how can you expect your volunteers to get a proper education at an afternoon
seminar? You can’t. It takes time and practice and accountability (much like discipleship).
I believe that I have a system that will help these churches, but I realize
that not every church will have enough money to have me come out to their
church to help them when they need it. That is why I want to expand my
ministry. I would like to start raising support so that I can use my talents
and gifts, in audio engineering, to help these churches, as well as go on these
missions’ trips. Now, I am not asking anyone to pay my salary so I can go out
and work for free and never charge, or so I don’t have to work at all. My goal
is to charge the churches for my time and efforts, but where their ability to
pay may fall short I still want to be able to help them. I must be honest when
I say “I don’t know what this is going to look like”, but I do know that this
is a need that the church has little to no help in and I want to be available
to serve in this capacity. So far, I have began to partner with the South
Carolina Baptist Convention as well as All Praise Ministries, both of which
share my passion to see the church grow in this area of ministry. As some of
you may know starting a ministry takes time and money, and I know that I will
need both in order for this to transition into a self sustaining ministry.
This next stage in our lives seems
very unclear for us and we are trying to walk forward in faith. If anyone wants
to contribute financially (you can still do so via paypal), we would greatly
appreciate it. If anyone has advice we would love that as well. If anyone would
like to pray for us, we really, really, really need it.
Thanks again to everyone who has
supported us so far. And, thank you for putting up with my crazy long blog.
With Hope,
David, Alisha, Isaac, and Liam Cook
