“Third Cup of Tea”

Life Groups are the “Third Cup of Tea”
“Sharing Life—Connecting Journeys—Following Christ”
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of this service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God……2 Corinthians 9:12-13a
Many of us have read Greg Mortenson’s book entitled “Three Cups of Tea”. It is an amazing story of a young American who is living a fairly experiential self absorbed life until he is lost while returning from a mountaineering expedition in Pakistan. In his wanderings he encounters the people of the steppes and mountains and they welcome him as the traveling stranger among them. The unwritten tribal code of conduct requires that strangers be welcomed and invited in. For the few days Greg resides in a particular village he observes the joys and challenges of their existence and shares the daily lives of these warm people. One glaring deficit that troubles and convicts him is that the children have no school and are limited to writing their studies in the dirt. After he is “rescued” he is haunted by the memories of the children he saw studying in the dirt with no school building. The conviction continues to weigh heavily upon him and he goes on to make it his life’s work to procure construction materials for buildings and learning materials for the children of both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Needless to say there is an entire book enfolded in the stories of his trials and failures, successes and struggles. He builds relationships with many village elders, tribal leaders and common people of the areas he connects with. Greg’s mission grows dramatically with support from many international agencies and private donations. He is recognized in many parts of both Pakistan and Afghanistan and can travel freely where most westerners could never safely go. He made it a personal priority to honor the traditions and customs of each area he visited and during one of those welcoming cultural exchanges of greeting he receives the explanation and title of what would become his first published book, “Three Cups of Tea”. In Greg Mortensons own words………, “Haji Ali spoke. If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways,” Ali said, blowing on his bowl. “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything,” he said, laying his hand warmly on Mortenson’s own. “Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived here for a long time.”

Is There Room in Your Stable?

Is There Room in Your Stable?
Sharing Lives—Connecting Journeys—Following Christ
“And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the Inn.” Luke 2:6-7
As I read these words I forever will hear them in the voice of a child. The solitary figure of Linus standing on the stage in the “Peanuts Christmas Special” school performance. Overcome with the message and significance of the moment Linus articulates his epiphany before an adult audience with a passion that comes from his conviction that he has an important story to share.
As I read the narratives of the Bible I try to understand both the context of the person documenting the event as well as the person sharing the story. In the case of this story I have an image of Mary, the mother of Christ, the only directly involved person that we know of still alive on earth at the time of this documentation, sitting and talking with Luke, the reporter. What did she remember that she felt was important to share. What was important to the now mature and reflecting gentle lady of that moment of her teenage life when she gave birth to her first-born son. So much of those days we only know through her willingness to remember….the angel’s announcement, the coming of the Holy Spirit, her prayer and obedient response to the wonder of Gods choice. One comment that stands out in Luke’s narrative that she and he both felt was important to remember was that there was “no room in the inn”. An obscure fact perhaps to us two thousand years later but to the teenage girl in labor a very relevant issue. I remember well the birth of my own three children and the details of those events are strongly imbedded in my memory. The room, the table and gurneys, the infant warmer, the doctor and nurses, where they stood and how they moved. The process of the actual birth as I saw it, and the moment of the miracle….the first cry. But as Mary relates her story even in the emotion and celebration of that glorious memory, this fact still mattered to her, “there was no room in the Inn, and she had to lay him in a manger”. Location and welcome mattered to her as it does to all of us. As Life Group leaders we often find ourselves involved in the “labor” of others. Moments when they are doing the sometimes hard work of growing, healing and learning. What are the memories we will leave with them of those struggles. Do our ears work better than our mouths. Are our hearts open, or do the walls perhaps built in our own struggles keep them out. The challenge to all of us is to continue as the ministers we are called to be among the communities God has placed us in.
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:3-6