The Gospel According to Country Music Revisited: My Apologies to David Allan Coe

After my Gospel According to Country Music bit, I thought I had written the perfect Country and Gospel blogpost. But, a friend of mine wrote me back and told me that I had NOT written the perfect Country and Gospel post because I hadn’t said anything about Momma, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or gettin’ drunk. So, I sat down and wrote a Part II to this post and I felt obliged to include it on this blog, and it goes like this here:

Despite what most of us have been taught all our lives, Jesus was and is not a stuffy, churchy, religious deacon-type driving a Cadillac and wearing a suit following all the rules and living quietly and fading demurely into the proverbial sunset. Not even close, He made it apparent that he preferred hanging out and serving the “least of these” including those whom Country Music lovers would easily recognize: thieves, sluts, liars, not to mention the lowest of the low, those tax collectors. Of course, Jesus didn’t want these folks to stay in their sinful conditions, but it’s pretty clear as I read the Scriptures that He preferred the Bible-era Bubbas and the Bethlehem rednecks gettin’ drunk as opposed to the super-religious stuffed-suits of Jerusalem.

It has been said that if a Country Music singer makes it to Nashville, they will likely already know Jesus but if they don’t they better learn in a hurry. The big wig music execs could probably care less with their business motto of “show me the money”, but the fans, the audience wouldn’t cotton to kindly to an unclean heathern or a treacherous vixen a singin’ to ‘em if’n they hadn’t been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Confederate Railroad will take it from here:

She never cried when Old Yeller died
She wasn't washed in the blood of the Lamb
She never stood up for the Star Spangled Banner
And she wasn't a John Wayne fan

Speaking of Confederate Railroad, they reminded me that Jesus and Momma Will Always Love Me. My friend was right, Country Music just ain’t Country Music without Momma. Merle Haggard’s Momma tried to raise him better, but her pleading he denied. His Momma seemed to know what lay in store, but despite all his Sunday learning, he turned 21 in prison doin’ life without parole. Turns out, like Paycheck, he was the Only Hell [His] Momma Ever Raised.

Josh Turner churned out a classic Gospel-inspired Country song with his, Long Black Train, the hauntingly memorable story about temptations and allurements of the world. He encourages the listener to believe that there’s Victory in the Lord (I say) and he warns us that the Devil is driving that long, black train.
Well, this brings us to trucks and trucker songs and of course there’s the classic and my favorite trucker song of all - Convoy. Even C.W. McCall honored Country Music’s Gospel roots, uh sort of, as he sings about the eleven long-haired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse micro-bus.

It can be argued that the premise of the Gospel is that Jesus was human, God in the flesh. I realize that this post and the post before it have been quite theologically thin, but as well as just having fun with my Southern, Country Music, and Christian roots I think it is important that we realize while He was fully God, Jesus was also fully human. From the classier Country tunes of Patsy Cline to the raunchier redneck ballads of David Allan Coe to Charlie Pride’s enduring love song Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’, Country Music, perhaps better than any other genre, best represents the human condition and our need for a Savior.




* The Ryman Auditorium image (The Mother Church of Country Music) is from www.keywest-art.com.

Confessions of an Evangelical

• I think it’s fine for you to have one, but your Jesus fish decal doesn’t impress me, especially if it’s placed perfectly beside your political bumper sticker of choice. . . As if they are equal?!
• I believe in Creation, but I won’t freak out nor am I threatened if you believe in evolution.
• I believe in being politically and socially active, but I believe the biggest mistake of evangelicals in this generation is relying on our elected officials to do the work of the Kingdom.
• I cringe when I see an American flag draped around a Cross.
• I believe in Global Warming.
• I don’t think of God as being a Caucasian male.
• I love Contemporary Christian Music, but I cannot stomach most Christian radio deejay’s. Try as I may, I cannot find them funny. I can’t even courtesy-laugh.
• I find Christian-themed t-shirts seriously lacking in creativity. You know the ones: HisWay instead of Subway. CreatorAid instead of Gatorade. Jesus (in yellow, orange, and brown) instead of Reese’s. If you see me in one of these, rest assured that I haven’t take my meds or I’ve lost a bet I thought surely I’d win.
• I have heard from God more often in the woods, at the cabin, on the river, in friends’ living rooms, driving down the road, and at Waffle House than I have in church buildings.
• I played Gospel and Christian Music (Hallelujah FM and KLOVE) in my office in a public school in Little Rock and had my counseling clients who were interested reading the Bible, T.D. Jakes, Donald Miller, and others IF they were interested, while I received countless e-mails and complaints from friends about “them liberals” taking God out of school. Meet me at the pole.
• I don’t think Obama is the antichrist, but I can’t tell you why Biden is always smirking that smile.
• I often forget to pray for people who have asked me to, but I find myself praying for people I see in public that I don’t know.
• I confess that I like and support some televangelists, but I don’t believe that you can purchase a miracle with a credit card. And what’s with the pink hair?
• I don’t want Big Gumment to suppress the work of the Church, but if they could just do me one little favor, I’d plead with them to outlaw church marquees.
• I believe that we’ve developed a sin check-list that differs seriously from the Spirit of the Word to fit our cultural and socioeconomic needs and preferences.
• I’m sickened by the fact that the amount that Christians in America spend in a year on ice cream could eradicate hunger in the entire world. Replace ice cream with dog food, boob jobs, Viagra, North Face, create-your-own category. We spend money wildly and selfishly chasing the American dream of instant, self-fulfilling, glamorous gratification while our "neighbor" in our own country and especially the world over are literally starving to death.
• I’m certain that there are things that I do and beliefs that I hold that annoy, irritate, and bother others and I’m also sure that I’ve been pretty tacky and judgmental (mainly in the name of humor) in the above bullet points, but therein lies my point about contemporary evangelicals – we should be more tolerant. I’m not saying change our standards, but it's more important to get people into the Kingdom instead of converting them to our culture and our politics.

* Please add your confessions or challenge me on mine. Would love to hear from you.

It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels: The Gospel According to Country Music

In the rural South of my childhood, social gatherings of near 'bout every stripe from candidate speakin's to buryin's were accompanied by music - Country Music. This is perhaps due to the collective Scots-Irish heritage of our community, and in fact much of the rural upland South from Appalachia to the Ozarks. Anyone who's ever gone to a concert down at the VFW or a sangin' on the court square or listened to the band down at the volunteer fire department's fish-fry fund-raiser has certainly heard a little Gospel in their Country. A true Country concert isn't complete without at least one obligatory shout-out to God often in the form of the Southern Baptist National Anthem, also known as Amazing Grace.

To one lacking an understanding of the culture of rural America, especially the rural upland South, it would likely be confusing to hear performers go from singing, and sounding like she meant every word of it, Stand By Your Man as Tammy Wynette did only to turn around and belt out D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Poor little J-O-E.

And of course ya cain't have a true conversation about Country Music without talkin-bout Hank Williams, though it's purty easy to have a conversation about the Gospel and never think twice about ol' Hank. However, this is Country Music where outlaws like Hank have always played by their own rules if by any at all. Hank could sing "Your Cheatin' Heart" and "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" without missing a beat.

Then, to stir it up are two of my favorites: Bobby Bare's Drop Kick Me Jesus (Through the Goal Post of Life). . . straight through the heart of them righteous uprights and Jeannie C. Riley's come-to-Jesus meeting when she wore her mini-skirt into the room of the Harper Valley PTA after it had been reported that she had been a-drinkin' and runnin' 'round with men and goin' wild.

Perhaps as obligatory to mention as Hank Williams in any conversation about Country Music would be the Carter Family and the famous Man in Black who joined them. The Carter Family's Will the Circle Be Unbroken is perhaps one of the most classic Country Music songs of all time and is lyrically both haunting and hopeful.

Will the circle be unbroken?
By and by Lord, by and by,
There's a better home a-waitin'
In the sky Lord, in the sky.

Whoever invented Country Music must have had Johnny Cash in mind as his paradoxical life could have come straight out of the Old Testament, King James Version of course and thank you very much. Anyone who has read about him, heard his songs, or has seen the movie knows that Cash knew as well as anyone that there are two kingdoms in this old world. Johnny knew the Devil on a first-name basis, but along came Billy Graham and June Carter and he started to Walk the Line.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

From Tammy Wynette's troubled love-life to Riley and Bare's firing back at the ever-present self-righteous among us to Johnny Cash's decades long struggle with addictions, Country Music, like the Gospel, is about life. Country Music is nothing if not honest. Sure you'll hear some honky-tonk-badonkadonk and plenty of songs about tractors and even about how beer is good and God is great and people are crazy, but you listen long enough and you'll feel like you heard the 20th Century Version of David's Psalms set to twin fiddles and steel guitars accompanied by some good ol' Southern country twang.

Like Brooks and Dunn, I Believe. . .that When I Get Where I'm Going. . . I'll Thank God for Unanswered Prayers. . .

Bless Your Heart and Y'all Come Back Now, Ya Hear?

Singularity of Focus

Sometimes God gives us a phrase, a word, a riddle, a verse, a song, or some other little nugget that we are not sure what to do with. We feel that it’s from God, it gets stuck in our psyche or spirit, but try as we may we cannot make any sense of it. For the past several weeks the three words “singularity of focus” have been reverberating in my mind to the point of annoyance and distraction. I thought it might be from God, but then again thought if it was that I wish He would help me make heads or tails of it or remove it from my consciousness.

I wondered if I had read this phrase somewhere recently and that it just stuck with me. I wondered what possible meanings it could have for me. I thought of the events in my life in light of these three words and came up with a multitude of possible meanings, but I felt certain that while these solutions were possible that they were not actually what God intended. I would convince myself that it meant to doggedly focus on paperwork, or seminary papers and study, or self-development, or health and fitness (that’d be more miracle than focus). I would reason that it meant that whatever I do that I am to do with all my heart, and while that sounded great, I knew it was not quite the meaning God intended.

Despite school assignments and work obligations and a new book referral from a friend, I found myself reading a classic - Watchman Nee’s Spiritual Authority. This is the kind of work that elicits inner-wrestling of the mind and soul. At once I would agree but not like his inferences. You know a book is good if you find yourself in an inner quarrel or questioning what you believe or what the author believes, basically if it forces you to think or challenge your beliefs. This is such a book by such an author.

His premise appears to be that God is the Source and all authority comes from Him. Pretty basic stuff. . .so far, so good, but then he goes off and implies that our reasoning, our thoughts, our feelings, and our beliefs if not directed by God are sin. At this point, my mind began doing the very things Nee was warning against. I began reasoning with God about how it was He that had given me a mind to reason, to think, to believe and now this super-spiritually-credentialed-tested-in-the-fire dude was telling me to stop. But, God, what about my thoughts and feelings that I intend to bring honor to you? What about the reasoning I employ when counseling a client? What about the things that I do – good works – in your name? What about the personal, cultural, meaningful beliefs and opinions that I hold dear as part of my identity? What if to the Nth degree. . . but there is no reasoning with God.

Singularity of focus. What? You again? What’s with this singularity of focus? But, before I could completely get these questions before God, I already knew . . . and this time I knew for sure. It goes back to the very familiar verse in Matthew (6:33). Seek ye first the kingdom of God. But, why didn’t God just say that instead of this singularity of focus business? I would have tuned Him out. I have heard “seek ye first” my entire life. Powerful as the inspired word of God, it had become routine to me. God sneaked it to me through a back-alley of mind causing me to wonder if it was a stray word, intriguing and familiar to my ears yet uncertain in meaning. But, why did it take me weeks to get it? Again, if it had been an instantaneous spiritual zinger, it would have been over as soon as it had been received. I would have likely given it an, “Oh, that’s nice, Seek ye first again” and dismissed it in search of something more current, more relevant to my present situation/s.

As much as I would have loved an obscure verse from deep within a forgotten Old Testament passage, I got Matthew 6:33. Again. Apparently, there is still something that I am not getting. “Seek first God’s kingdom and what God wants. Then all your other needs will be met as well,” Matt 6:33 (New Century Version). The subtitle starting in verse 25 is “Don’t Worry.” Don’t worry about what you’re going to eat, drink, or wear (i.e. finances, job, provision, plans, etc). Lilies of the field, birds of the air, etc. The immediate verses preceding the actual “seek ye first” text are dealing with distractions of focus. Seemingly relevant, important distractions, I might add. Verse 32 stung me like never before, too - “The people who don’t know God keep trying to get these things. . .” So, if I am still trying to get these things, wouldn’t the implication be that I don’t know God? Obviously, I know God well enough to have received my salvation and to be in relationship with Him, but if I am continuing to stress over details then there is a part of me that has not experienced God’s complete truth.

I think I may hang out here in spiritual kindergarten for a bit.

Plenty of Jesus to Go Around

I cannot remember a time when I did not consider myself a Christian, but only within the past several years have I had a relationship with God. Religion and relationship are no equal. I was religious long before I was spiritual, at least I thought more in terms of religiosity than in terms of spirituality.

I believe we are spiritual beings, but that most of us do not routinely recognize the spirit within. We recognize our feelings and emotions on varying levels, but the human spirit has long been neglected in our American culture. As much as it looks and seems as if I'm about to rip off a blog about spiritual formation, I am not. I am simply setting the stage to say that we are spiritual beings who have spiritual longings for a Higher Power and that we will seek until we are fulfilled, be it in substances, addictions, world religions, academia, sports, human relationships, video games, culture, media, Lady Gaga, what-have-you. . . we will seek to fill the spiritual void. We are designed to need God and will allow someone or something be god of us.

When I began to take Jesus seriously and devote my life to Him, I was scared to death of what that might mean. I could not find nary a denomination whose doctrine I agreed with completely. I found precious few Christians who shared my world-view. Church, religion, and Christian sub-culture were huge spiritual-buzz kills to me. Here I was with a new, passionate devotion to Jesus . . . but I was all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Christian counsel on the subject was lacking: "Suck it up, just choose a denomination that best suits you"; "You're gonna have to forfeit your progressive political views if you're an evangelical"; "You don't have to agree with everything they say"; "You're going to have to overlook a few things"; "Well, just keep quiet and don't broadcast your views."

My interpretation of the above was: You best fit in. The rules and culture are already in place. Keep your mouth shut when you don't agree. Sign on the dotted line.

Uh, no. I'm in love with Jesus - the Way, the Truth, the Life. I am not in love with Christian sub-culture or denominational by-laws. In an age of pedophile priests, church cover-ups, gazillionaire pop-celebrity preachers with private jets, and denominations who have just recently under much pressure officially apologized for their role in slavery, I am not going to be pressured into signing anyone's dotted line nor drink their kool-aid (or grape juice, depending on church tradition - ha).

I know Christians today who think that if you don't belong to their particular church, that you're condemned. I know Christians today who think you have to vote Conservative to be right with God. I know Christians today who have a blanket negative outlook on poor people regardless of their situation. I know Christians today who push for all Believers to home-school. I know Christians today who are racist, sexist, and just plain mean.

There are broad social movements within Christian sub-culture that presents Christianity as an Us-vs-Them. Us=Saved, righteous, conservative, better Vs. Them=Lost, worldly, secular, liberal.

Let me be clear: I am not trying to convert anyone to my way of thinking. If you feel compelled to vote straight-ticket R, then I think that is absolutely what you should do (just preferably the day after the election). If you feel compelled to home-school, then go for it. If you choose to align yourself socially with a certain movement, then have at it. Seriously, I think that we should do as we feel led or as we discern best for ourselves and our families, but what about everyone else?

Several preacher friends and Christian counselor friends of like mind have shared with me recent studies, statistics of what the word 'evangelical' means in today's culture. Most Americans associate this word with politics. What?! You can't tell me that the church that Jesus died for has become. . . Fill in your own blanks, but have we let a social movement and a political party become the mouthpiece for Jesus. Isn't that our calling?

What's burdens me the most is what about those on the outside? What about someone who would love Jesus, but they can't see Him in us because we have secluded ourselves in million-dollar sanctuaries, home-schools and private schools, elite social circles with people that look just like us, and are predominantly represented by one political party. I'm picturing an SUV with a Jesus fish and just the right bumper sticker at a country club church in the 'nice' part of town. . .

Just consider that you are on the outside and you have a lifelong deep hunger for more and you might just be receptive to accepting Jesus Christ, but His followers have said hateful things about homosexuals and your daughter is gay. What if they've left your school district in droves and built a beautiful school out by the country club where you could never afford to send your children. What if the Christian neighbor kid berated your child for watching Harry Potter? What if evangelical lady at the office opines loudly and vehemently about abortion and you had one as a teenager? What if (right or wrong) you respect the President of the United States, but all your Christian friends say horrible, hateful, mean things about him that you've never been able to get them to substantiate?

Again, I think we should all believe as we are led and act accordingly. I'm not asking anyone to think like me, vote like me, church like me, pray like me, but can we as Christians give some thought to others outside of evangelical Christianity? We have a world at our fingertips that would absolutely love Jesus if they were to ever recognize Him or see Him in us, but I fear that too often they see elitists, they see conservatives, they see separatists, they see social clubs, but not the Christ-in-us!

We are called, commanded actually, to love God and love others. Nowhere are we told to convert to a particular denomination, movement, political orientation, but we are called to love. There are hurting, spiritually wounded people in our sphere of influence who desperately need a Savior, but we're offering them politics, subculture, divisive opinions, and a lot of nonsense. It's clear that the vast majority of evangelical Christians are aligned with a general movement. I don't necessarily disagree with them on many issues nor do I think they're wrong on these issues, but while evangelicals have done a superb job of rallying the saved to be united, they have done a crappy job of presenting themselves and their message of the GOOD NEWS to others. Kudos for some organizational skills and taking over a political party and positioning them to do legislatively what the church is called to do relationally, BUT what about the others? The world gets a big dose of how right we think we are, how saved we think we are, but do they get any sense that we represent a Savior that died for them and wants to fulfill their deepest needs in this life and eternally?

Let's pray that despite our politics, worldviews, biases, and beliefs about government that we as Christians can unite and expose the world to Christ - not our culturally skewed, watered-down version of Him. Let's not send any perverted message that you must look like, think like, vote like, dress like US to be saved. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." For God so loved the white people? No. The conservative people? No. Actually, yes, but EVERYBODY else, too. The world.

The Lord's Prayer models for us that we are to pray that His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. We are called to love God and others - all others. Social movements come and go. Earthy kingdoms come and go. Jesus is forever. Let's not keep Him to ourselves. There's plenty of Jesus to go around.

Ashland Theological Seminary and Me

I went to junior high for the girls. I went to high school because they made me. I went to undergrad for the social life. I went to grad school for a pay increase. Now, I'm going to post-grad/seminary because I really want to know what the scholars know and I want to be educated to be an effective Christian Counselor as opposed to just another nice guy with an encouraging Scripture.

I researched doctoral programs and seminaries for years, but without finding one that resonated with me. Liberty and Regency were out because of their associations with, Falwell and Robertson, respectively. If my call was to work with Conservative white Southerners who are already Christians, then both institutions would have been excellent choices and I no doubt would have agreed with much of their theology, even if differing with their application thereof. However, I believe part of my calling is to introduce Jesus to a new generation, i.e. letting Jesus outside of the church and into the streets, the villages, the slums, the ghettos, the prisons - the world. There are plenty of people to serve in the traditional ways.

I submitted numerous applications to seminaries across the country and had phone interviews and e-mail correspondence with admissions representatives from several of these institutions with similar results. While I am a Southern white Christian male, I am not the perfect candidate for most of the programs for which I had applied. Basically, I felt as if I wasn't white enough, Baptist enough, Conservative enough, or Republican enough to be a good fit for most of these institutions. Please don't misunderstand, I have nothing against white people or Baptists - I am after all from Arkansas.

What I do have a problem with is getting the feeling that I'm being interviewed to see what parts of the Christian sub-culture I align with as opposed to the reason I want to attend a theological seminary. I was asked questions such as my position on the sanctity of life and my views about marriage. Remarkably, I believe I answered their questions in a manner that they could easily accept. The problem was that they could not answer mine. Do the writers of the Holy Spirit-inspired Bible choose two issues with which to define an entire religion? Not in my Book, so why must these seminaries? My questions to them were, Why are you not asking me about how I feel about the poor, the disenfranchised, the disabled, the suffering, the victims of heinous crimes, those who don't have clean water or access to education or healthcare, those who are routinely discriminated against, those who are in the child slave trade?

I refuse to base my Christian spirituality on a couple of hot-button cultural issues at the expense of the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have no desire to re-write or reinterpret the meaning of Scripture on these or any other issues, but I have every desire to receive a Biblically-balanced, theologically sound seminary education.

Enter: Ashland Theological Seminary.

When I discovered ATS, it was one of those times when you just know that you know. I read the curriculum and felt as if it had been written and designed with me in mind. ATS is in Ohio, though, so I thought I had a bit of a problem as there's no conceivable way outside of me seeing and hearing from a burning bush that I feel that I could leave my friends in family in M0-ARK to go to Ohio. But this program was too perfect to not pursue. It turns out that after a few preliminary online classes that I can commute to ATS campus for two weeks per semester and do the remaining doctoral coursework online from home.

I am on a slow trek towards a Doctorate of Ministry in Formational Counseling. The program I am in blends a theological seminary education with spiritual formation counseling techniques. With a doctorate of ministry, I could get credentialed to preach, but my primary call is counseling. Some of the dearest people to me that have helped foster my own spirituality have been well-versed in the Bible and I want to be able to give back some of what I have received. I also place a great deal of confidence in counseling, when administered correctly and appropriately.

The theology of ATS appears not to be too different from that of the other institutions, but my interpretation of their application of it differs greatly. For instance, in my current class, Christian Theology II, I have a female professor leading a diverse group of female and male students of numerous denominations and from various cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds - truly representative of the Body of Christ.

ATS was founded by the Brethren Church, but they emphasize cooperation among people of all faiths and the students and faculty are from a range of Protestant denominations or like myself claim no particular denomination. My particular program emphasizes caregiving, spiritual direction, spiritual formation, pastoral care, and Spirit-directed counseling all based upon the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

I am being taught in such a manner that I am learning what the Orthodox, Catholic, and various Protestant traditions believe (and to some extent what other world religions believe). The truth is taught in love and I am not only allowed, but encouraged to develop my own beliefs based upon my studies. As long as I can back up my beliefs, they are accepted. No particular dogma or creed is taught to the exclusion of others. When the prof has a bias, she states it, but doesn't proselytize or pressure the students into agreeing with her.

Coming to a close in my first course, I'm already experiencing academic work as hard as any I've previously encountered. In any previous period in my education, I would have resented the demands of my time, but this time I am excited to learn and to know at least a part of what the great theologians and scholars have long known. I have long loved God with my heart, but now I am learning to complement that with a love of God with my mind.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Art for Africa

Until I actually experience something for myself, it typically doesn't resonate in my mind as real no matter how real I may "know" it to be. I was at the WTC in NYC a month before the attacks, but it was not until I visited Ground Zero several years later that I actually grasped on some level the horrific reality of what had occurred there on that dreadful day - 911.

In undergrad with my semester-abroad peers, I experienced something quite similar when I visited Anne Frank's home in Amsterdam and the concentration camp, Dachau, in southern Germany. I had heard the lessons, read the books and pitied the oppressed for a moment in time. However, when I was in the actual places where a heroic Jewish girl hid in fear for her life and when I actually saw and toured a concentration camp, did it actually compute in my mind on some level what these people had endured - living hell. Gas chambers and furnaces designed for humans. You can't go to these places and not be changed.

This same concept came in to play when I spent three weeks late last fall in Africa. I'd seen the TV footage, the National Geographic magazines, and had heard countless missionaries tell of what was happening in Africa - famine, AIDS, lack of water, infant deaths, illness of every kind. It was all very touching for another moment in time, but then you put the magazine down, flip the channel, offer a quick "bless the missionaries" prayer, listen to the last AMEN and you go about life as normal - your own drama. Family, friends, facebook, food, fun. I'll stop with the F-words before I get myself into trouble with my fellow evangelicals.

My last day of three weeks was spent in Kampala, Uganda. I had high hopes and expectations for this trip to Africa and while the entire journey was rewarding, something seemed missing until the end. I felt that something more was to happen on this trip. It did. Cari Nash, a social work major from Little Rock, had moved to Uganda 10 years prior to work with the orphans of the slums of Kampala. We had Little Rock and social work in common along with our shared love of Christ, but when we met I felt certain that she was one of the primary reasons God led me to Africa. How cool is God that on the last stop of the last day of a jam-packed three-weeks schedule that he led me to Cari Nash and brought my first mission trip full circle.

Cari said nothing to me on that day that I can quote as having changed my life forever. Her school and her ministry wasn't terribly unlike others I had seen in both Ghana and Uganda. I think what struck me most was Cari herself. My friend and distant cousin who was my traveling companion (actually, I was a guest on his yearly mission) had told me that we would meet a girl from the States who had started a school for orphans. Cari Nash was not at all who I had envisioned in my mind.

I was pleased to know that she was from Little Rock, a kind of second home town for me. Her story, much of it told to me by others as she is too humble to disclose anything akin to boastfulness, has continued to mesmerize me. She needed two non-major classes to fulfill her requirements for a bachelor's in social work. She could not wait as she knew she was being called to Africa to the mission field, though as I get it she doesn't consider herself a missionary, but rather simply a child of God choosing to live in Uganda. She's only been home one time in a decade. This is no mission trip, this is her life.

I promised myself, Cari, and God that I would try to help this school - Vision of Destiny - founded by God through his willing and unassuming daughter. I've been to her school. I've met Cari. We've become friends from a distance. My mentor knows her sponsor at Until All Have Heard based in North Little Rock. Cari and her school are the real deal and not once have I heard or noticed her making this about herself. It's been from day one about God and these precious children, many of whom think of her as mom. Rightfully so as many of them live in her home because if not, then they'd be left in the streets. Her mission is educating them, but her reality is also that she is raising many of them as well.

Several months ago as I was praying, I got an idea to do an art contest for Cari's students and especially for those on her waiting list. There are dozens of kids at a time who are waiting to get into Vision of Destiny. In Uganda, two meals a day and an education is valued even by small children. At a young age, they know that this is their chance in life for a big break. These students depend upon sponsors, primarily from the U.S.

I was pleased to know that Cari expects students' parents who are able to regularly volunteer in some way, be it sweeping and cleaning, serving food, carrying supplies, etc. to do so. Many kids have lost parents due to abandonment or AIDS as many of these young kids are "street kids". The kids, too, are asked to help out on the grounds. No one is getting a free ride. Most of these kids are destitute if not plain starving and dying, many from AIDS. This is not inner-city America where money is sometimes spent on Nikes instead of school supplies, this is Africa where only a very few among the elite have any access to currency at all. I saw elderly ladies placing passion fruit in the church collection/offering plates because that was the most valuable thing that they owned. They are making sacrifices to go to school to say the least.

Believe it or not, I'm not blogging this time to preach and not even to beg money of you, though I admit it's beginning to sound like it and given half a chance I might do both.

I'm writing because I need help in order to fulfill my pledge to help this school that has a hold on my heart. An art contest for starters. I'll tell you my plan, but admit that it has holes in it.

Cari has agreed to supply the kids on her waiting list with access to art supplies. I want each child to draw (paint, sketch, whatev) a picture, but I'm wondering age brackets and themes. Any suggestions? Also, for the kids who are already enrolled, I want them to participate, but in order to raise awareness for the need of general funds for the school - supplies, buildings, etc.

I don't know whether to do this on Flickr or some such site or to create a specific site just for this contest. I picture having each child's artwork displayed, then giving the viewer the opportunity to click on that picture and be able to read about the student-artist and be given an opportunity to sponsor that child or make a donation of any size in his/her honor. Voting on the pictures would be free, of course, but then each vote would lead you to a place where you could view information about that particular child with an opportunity to sponsor or donate. The winners of each division would be given a reward.

I don't have the technical know-how to pull this off online. I don't know what's the most fitting as far as a theme for the art contest.

My primary goal is to raise awareness of Vision of Destiny school - vodafrica.org . If even one child might get sponsored as a result, then I'd be pleased and consider this venture successful. Of course, I'm hopeful that multiple kids might get sponsors and that all of them get a kick out of people half way across the globe looking at and voting on their artwork.

Please send me any thoughts or insights or suggestions. I am excited to do this. The school term is starting soon and I would like to do this early this fall. I just keep getting stuck as I try to make it make sense in my mind. I can see the end result, but not the processes that get us there. Help, please!

Check out Cari's blog at www.footstepsthroughlife.blogspot.com and her website at www.vodafrica.org or www.untilallhaveheard.org .