What is it and how did it happen?

Blue Blood is a history of the Indianapolis Colts.  Some of you may be aware that I run a popular blog about the football team.  I also wrote a novel in my spare time.  The novel is about basketball in a small town.  In trying to get an agent to represent the novel, a non-fiction agent strongly encouraged me to write about football and said he would represent the project if I did.  Having attended Colts games since 1986, I felt I had a unique opportunity to tell the history of the team since it came to Indianapolis.  I started writing in January and finished in March.  I wrote in my spare time (which is limited).  Yes, it was extremely stressful, because we knew the book needed to be ready for this summer if it was going to do well.

Why are you are writing books?

There are several reasons that both Deb and I have been working on literary projects

1.  Our team is philosophically committed to finding new ways to fund missions work.  Deb and I both have writing talents, and we felt that it was our obligation to use them to find ways to solve the funding crisis that all missionaries face.  We are just trying to do our part.

2.  It gives us a clear, understandable answer when Argentines ask us, “What are you doing here?”.  We are writers who work with churches. That answer makes more sense to people than, “We are missionaries”.

3.   We want to set an example to Argentine youth of how to practice bi-vocational ministry.  We want them to reach the Muslim world, but they won’t get in as ‘missionaries’.  They need examples of people willing to work bivocationally.  We want to be role models they can follow.

4.  We’ve got stories to tell and love to tell them!

When do you write?

We carve out space in the day.  Deb and I try to give each other space and time to do uninterrupted work.  It isn’t easy.  Because until now, our writing hasn’t generated any income (I make about $50 a month from my blog!), we have been careful not to let writing interfere with any of our normal ‘missionary responsibilities’.  Until now, this has been a hobby for our free time.

Why not write Christian books?

There are two answers:

1.  We are Christians.  Everything we write is from the perspective of a Christian and is imbued with our view of the world.  Even my book on the Colts is a Christian book.  I can’t write any other kind of book!

2.  Though there are expressly “Biblical” projects that I hope to pursue eventually, the truth is that writing strictly to the church doesn’t meet with our overarching goals.  We want to ‘make tents’.  I don’t want to write ‘Biblical’ books until I can offer them as gifts to the church.  Right now, we are pursuing commercial endeavors so as to not be a burden to our supporters.  The time will come for other kinds of projects, but when I write them, I want to be able to view them as gifts rather than a means to earn money.

What will happen to the money?

All money I make on the sale of Blue Blood goes:

1.  To help Rich and Jil Elledge make it back to Argentina. They need roughly $20-25K a year (more) for the next three years.  I hope to make a dent in that.

2.  If we are satisfied that they can come back, Deb and I would like to augment our GBIM salary.  We have been operating $5-7K a year under the recommended missionary salary since joining the mission 8 years ago.  I cannot in good conscience ask for another penny from all of you for myself.  I know how deeply our team (you!) is sacrificing to keep us here.  Still, the financial pressures on us are real.  You’ve done your part.  We are trying to do ours.

3.  If we can get our team up to full salary, then I will seek to use any book profits to live on, thus reducing our support level. We are a loooong way from that, however.

My eventual goal would be to be able to provide my own salary from my writing, and depend on all of you for the various other expenses we have.  This project is just the first step, and will not get us there.

What other projects do you have?

I have written a novel, Invincible, Indiana, that is currently being shopped by an agent.

Deb has also written a novel for young adults that is the first in a series.  We are currently exploring representation and publication options for her books.  We are investigating new and nontraditional publishing options.

Deb has a blog as well:  tellmeastorymommy.com

Where can I purchase Blue Blood?

Blue Blood will be on sale June 9th.  Blue Blood will be for sale at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and other major retailers.  You can check out the site

bluebloodbook.com

for more details.

Anyway, I hope this letter makes the how and whys of things clear.  We covet your prayers in this whole process.  We see writing as a big part of our ministry and our future.  We need wisdom and guidance at every step of the process.

A Summer Review:

This summer we planned a movie night for every Saturday night in the villa, but due to the insane amount of rain we’ve had this season, we were only able to show two movies.  We showed Veggie Tale’s Jonah and last night we showed the Kid’s Version of the Jesus Film.  The kids were glued to the screen last night.  Many of the girls around me had questions and also  retold to me parts that they already knew.  It was a very exciting night.  We also passed out the Gospel of John to whomever wanted a copy.  Now we are praying for God to continue to open up doors with these families.  We’re praying to begin reading God’s word with those who’d like to.

This summer we also did 6 weeks of English classes, meeting once a week with three different groups of kids.  Deb and I met with the group of girls and Rich, Brian and Nate met with the two groups of boys.  It provided a great way to get to know these kids better.  Last week we handed out school supplies to these kids and to their brothers and sisters.  Many of their moms came out of their homes to greet us and thank us.  We hope to start up some more English classes a few weeks after school starts and also provide tutoring for anyone who requests it.

And now that summer is over on Saturday mornings we will begin the Hora Feliz in the morning at the villa, sharing a Bible Story, playing some games, singing some songs, and providing a snack.  What’s even more exciting about this is we know these kids by name now and have spent time with them, I’m looking forward to seeing a new dynamic with this group.

The water is filthy.  The world has polluted it, dirtied it.  It is one of the least healthy, most disgusting places I can think of.

The boys were fishing in it.  They proudly showed us a bucket of small fish they had caught.  It was semi-tragic really.  They were proud they had caught dinner for their families, but nothing caught in that river could possibly be safe to eat.  That wouldn’t stop them, of course.  The whole scene made me a little sick.

Then I realized that we were fishermen too.  We were fishing in that same dirty, polluted stream.  Most people wouldn’t want to look at our river, let alone take anything out of it.

Even if we do catch fish in it, what kind of fish will they be?

Small.

Unhealthy.

Worthless.

Matthew 4:19  “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.

1 Corinthians 1:27-29   But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things– and the things that are not– to nullify the things that are,  so that no one may boast before him

Pages 100-101: “It is true that we should bear testimony to the supremacy of God’s goodness by receiving his good gifts with thanksgiving(1 Tim. 4:3).  But for many Christians this has become the only way they see their lifestyles glorifying God.   God has been good to them to give them so much.  Therefore, the way to witness to the reality of God is to take and be thankful.

But even though it is true that we should thankfully enjoy what we have, there is a relentless call in the Bible not to accumulate more and more things but to give more and more and to be deprived of things if love demands it.  There are no easy rules to tell us whether the call on our lives is the call of the rich young ruler to give away all that we have or the call of Zacchaeus to give away half of what we have.  What is clear from the New Testament is that suffering with joy, not gratitude in wealth, is the way the worth of Jesus shines most brightly.

Who can doubt that the supremacy of Christ’s worth shines brightest in a life such as this:  ‘But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.’  Philippians 3:7-8

You cannot show the preciousness of a person by being happy with his gifts.  Ingratitude will certainly prove that the giver is not loved, but gratitude for gifts does not prove that the giver is precious.  What proves that the giver is precious is the glad-hearted readiness to leave all his gifts to be with him.  This is why suffering is so central in the mission of the church. The goal of our mission is that people from all the nations worship the true God.  But worship means cherishing the preciousness of God above all else, including life itself.  It will be difficult to bring the nations to love God from a lifestyle that communicates a love of things.  Therefore, God ordains in the lives of his messengers that suffering severs our bondage to the world.  When joy and love survive this severing, we are fit to say to the nations with authenticity and power: Hope in God.”

The night of the event, they all went haywire all at once.

We had forgotten the screws for the movie screen.  I went to five stores to find replacements.  In the end, the ones I got didn’t work.  We still got the screen together, but it was rickety.

On of the neighbors promised to let us use her electricity, then changed her mind at the last minute.  We did find someone else.

It was blazing hot, but someone bought us a bottle of cold Coke…which one of the villa kids accidentally spilled all over the microphone.

After we finally got everything set up (an hour late), we found that the big sound system we had wouldn’t work because the electrical current wasn’t strong enough to power it.

And just like that, the whole night had to be canceled.  There was no way for anyone to hear the movie, which was ironic because we initially were going to use a smaller sound system, but decided that we wanted to be sure people could hear it!

And then a funny, miraculous thing happened…

Everyone clapped for us.  Suddenly, we were people instead of foreigners.  Suddenly, we were pathetic instead of intimidating.  Suddenly we were weak instead of powerful and competent.

The men who had gathered started to play volley ball and once we had loaded up all the equipment back into my car, they asked Brian, Rich and me to play.

So we played (duh!).

We stayed for a couple of hours playing and talking with the men.  I had a long conversation with Roberto who told me all about his home in Paraguay and how much he longs for it, and how he’d do anything to live in his home country, but has to be in Argentina or his children will starve to death (by the way…that’s what most immigrants everywhere say about their homes…an important lesson to remember).  We talked, played, and got to know the men there.  It was astounding and incredible.  This was where we hoped we’d get at the end of the month of movies.  It was far and away the best case scenario for weeks and weeks of work.  We’d spent lots of time with the women and children in the villa, but the men are notoriously difficult to reach out to.

All it took was for all our plans to fail miserably and for us to look like fools.

Totally worth it.

So last week, as I open the door to 7 eager first-time guests, and hear a resounding chorus of “WOW!” “This place is amazing!” (the Spanish equivalents, of course), you’d think that’d be a goodish feeling for me, right? Or at least not something that would set off a constant, unceasing feeling of angst, right? Wrong.

The problem is that these 7 guests, are part of a group of boys in a nearby villa (follow this link if you’re not familiar with the Argentine term villa miseria) that I’ve been spending a lot of time with recently, where I’ve been repeatedly choosing to put myself in emotionally and physically exhausting situations, trying to talk with them as best as my Spanish will allow, trying to connect with them and gain some level of understanding of their lives, trying my absolute hardest to build relationships with them, to show them that we love them and want to serve them.

And the great part is… THEY’RE RESPONDING!! For whatever reason, they are really into us, and love it when we go there. When I make the four-block walk to their villa, as soon as the first kids see me (usually the littlest ones out playing in front of their houses), they immediately start yelling my name and waving - “RICHARD!!!!” “RICHARD!!!” (Richard just works better in Spanish than Rich) “Come over here!!!” And, almost always, they immediately reveal the true reason for their excitement with the follow up “Did you bring the little ball? Can I see it? Can we play? Come on!!!” (little ball referring to a hackeysack that I almost always carry with me, and all of the kids love playing with, even though their play rarely conforms to established international hackeysack regulations)

When I first started going there and hanging out with them, and seeing how drawn they all were to playing with the hackeysack with me, I sort of patted myself on the back, thinking “Wow, I really hit the jackpot with this thing. What a great idea!!” Since then, I’ve come to realize… pretty much ANY toy of ANY sort that I could possibly take with me for them to play with would illicit the same response. Sure, because it’s a ball that can be kicked similarly to kicking a soccer ball, they may be a little more inclined to play with it than, say, if I had a toy doll or something. But, for the most part, it’s just a toy, something they don’t have a ton of. And on top of that, it’s an older guy, likely around their dad’s age, who’s interested in them and willing to play with them and give them a few moments of attention.

These kids’ lives are so completely foreign to me, that I can’t even really begin to describe it. I could tell you about the shacks they live in, the communal toilet many of them use, the messed up families they come from, but the truth is, I don’t really have much of an understanding of all of that yet. I’m still learning. And what I learned this week (as I had 7 of them over for the first time, to start English classes in our house) is that our house is far and away the nicest house any of them have ever stepped foot in. It’s not that our house is some luxurious mansion or anything like that (it’s definitely nice and comfortable to us, but honestly, compared to any other house we’ve ever lived in before, it’s really pretty basic.) It’s not even that our house is the nicest in the neighborhood or anything like that (in the four-block walk from the villa to our house, the kids certainly would have passed homes much nicer than ours.) The thing is, these kids would never get into those houses. They’ve never seen inside them, and likely never will. But we’re inviting them into ours. We’re intentionally trying to bridge that economic gap, in order to build real relationships with them so that we might serve them.

So I guess the angst, the uneasiness that I haven’t been able to get away from since that moment, has a lot to do with a renewed/reinforced understanding of just how different things are for them, and consequently how difficult that could make it for us to really connect with them on a level where they trust us, and want to hear truth from us. Thankfully, even though we are the craziest, most incomprehensible lot they’ve ever met, I think they’re starting to realize that we care about them.