Sunday, June 30, 2013

Kazakhstan- Update or Backdate? Either Way: Here's the Scoop!

                                                      (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

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