Our Blog Has Moved....

With the launch of our new website a few weeks ago, our blog is now integrated into our site.  We're excited about our new site and we encourage you to check it out!  See our new website or go directly to our blog.

Groundhog's Day

Did you know?  That in addition to being the humble SALI assistant / SALI teacher / ESL coordinator here in the great land of LINC North Texas, I am also a full time grad student at the University of Dallas.  Our mascot is the Groundhogs (yes, I'm for real), and yes, we do go crazy for Groundhog's Day - the one day of the year that all the serious students at UD get a chance to cut back and relax.  What's more, on that day of celebrating giant rodents and their shadows, there is the compulsory screening and re-screening of the movie, Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.

If you've never seen this film, your'e in for a treat.  It's the story of Frank Conner, a malcontent-ed weatherman from a big city news station who is sent to Punxsutawny, PA to cover the emergence of the hollowed hog only to find that the next morning is a repeat of the day before.  Frank seems doomed to re-live the same day over and over until he finally gets it right (learning to speak French, play jazz piano, and fall in love).    Ultimately, it's a good tale of getting a do-over on the events of life - especially when you have a love of time to kill.

But when I think of the ability to re-do everything in life, I also think of all the things you would forfeit: the errors we've made that have taught us valuable lessons, given us chance encounters, and ultimately helped to define who we are.  This Groundhog's day, I'm making it a time to be grateful - grateful for mistakes and errors that have made life richer and helped to make me the person I am.  As for the unknown future and worrying about mis-steps, I'll give all of that to God and let him direct my path.

Brandon

Stop, Collaborate and Listen!

Partnership is the spice of life for nonprofit organizations, churches, and ministries.  It's a messy and challenging process, full of unmet expectations, overtime, and sleepless nights.  It's also the only way forward.  If the task were completely isolated and predictable, we would have no need of partnerships.  We could all blissfully manage our own selves toward our simple goals.  However, God's mission is far from isolated, simple, or predictable.  Matthew 24:14 - the Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached to the entire world!  With the population growing by some 200,000 every day, that's a tall order since the Joshua Project reports that 42% of the 7 billion people on earth are unreached.

God's mission is unattainable without unity of mission.  This doesn't mean that everyone has to join to form one supermission, or that we should just forget about all our differences.  It may mean that we need to think more openly about with whom we will partner.  It definitely means that we have to collaborate.  It's too big for us to be competing with each other, starting our own replica ministries of other successful ones.  And it's too big for us to hold tightly to our own successes and not share them.  Successful collaboration requires broadening our scope from ourselves to God.  It's about God's mission, not our own.  We have to listen to Him, to what He is doing, and then relentlessly pursue it.  Then we partner with others who are headed the same direction.

At LINC NT, nearly everything we do is through collaboration.  We partner with many churches at a variety of levels. We also partner with secular organizations such as local schools, school districts, and a national school program.  These partnerships allow us to do our ministry.  Plus, we are currently pursuing a partnership with a national Christian ministry to do one of their programs here in our city.  Just like the Body of Christ, everybody has their own function and own strengths.  Nobody is great at everything.  Recognizing that, we can transform communities.  People are surprised when they hear how small our staff is because we do so much.  On our own, we would accomplish very little.  Through collaboration, we can change the world, starting right here in North Texas.

Season of Giving

There is snow somewhere with our name on it.  That's right, folks - meteorologists say that by Christmas night, there might be little tiny flakes of snow delicately falling down from our Texas skies, drifting fleetingly upon a our winter-neglected lone star lands. Wouldn't it be amazing?  Maybe if we're all good for the next few days, our gift will be a winter wonderland.  But hold your icy breath . . . its a big maybe.

But even while Texas might might match up to all those iconic songs about sleigh bells and snow, we still understand the real meaning of Christmas - giving:  how God gave us the birth of His son, Jesus, and how we in turn should be giving to others.  Isn't this what is meant by the saying  "peace on Earth and good will towards men?"  Perhaps this is never needed more than now.

In the wake of the  New Town massacre, the senseless violence towards those that we hold most dear has hit all of us hard.  And with new issues that we'll have to deal with coming up on the horizon, like the overwhelming availability of high-powered weapons and our deficiency as a nation in addressing mental illness, we know that we will have some major challenges ahead.  America will have to change.  And one of the first steps we can take is to make 'peace on Earth and good will towards men' a real thing - to actually do something in the lives of those that we love, and even in the lives of strangers, realizing that we are all connected to and responsible for our brothers.  One kind word, act or deed.    

This Christmas season, I encourage you to do some good deeds for the people in your life, even those you have never met. Below is a link to 26 Acts - a challenge brought forth by Ann Curry of ABC news do 26 acts of kindness for strangers to honor the memory of the 26 victims in the Sandy Hook shooting.  

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/17/15972814-inspired-to-act-26acts-of-kindness-to-honor-those-lost-in-newtown-conn?lite

To all of your families from ours, we wish you blessings and happiness this season - have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Brandon 

LINC North Texas 

Isaiah 61

One of the most powerful realities expressed in Isaiah 61:1-7 is that the poor are the ones who become the new leaders in society.  It is easy to read through the passage and forget that the pronouns later in the passage still refer to the poor and brokenhearted described in the first few verses.  It is not the wealthy or powerful who become oaks of righteousness, rebuilders of ruins, priests, ministers, and joyful owners of land and sheep.  God has chosen the poor and marginalized as His leaders.  Transformational development, like what LINC NT is trying to do in communities in North Texas, helps the poor recover their identity and vocation and empowers them to live it out.  Once people are restored by both the Gospel and community development, they rise up and act.  They begin to reform their societies with ideals of justice and peace in accordance with God’s Word.

As Christians, we must therefore acknowledge that the poor are ultimately the leaders and that they must be allowed to step up to lead the efforts and define the outcomes.  While the non-poor clearly have many of the resources necessary to change the future for the poor, they must carefully live within the boundaries of their roles.  Ultimately, the non-poor must have the humility to set themselves at the feet of the poor to listen and follow.  The poor already have many of the resources they need to accomplish great things, but they are, as Isaiah 61 shows, in captivity and ruined by their shame and disgrace.  The role of the non-poor is to proclaim freedom from captivity and offer the Gospel.  Then the poor will lead.

According to Isaiah 61, proper holistic Christian development seeks out the marginalized, proclaims the good news of the Gospel, and restores marred identity.  Development brings total release from poverty, addresses the systems that contribute to poverty, sees evangelism and social action jointly, transforms people holistically on all levels, and allows the poor to lead.  This passage has been instrumental for us at LINC NT as we allow God's word to guide us!

In Whom Do They Believe?

(scroll down for translation)

Dos días después de nuestra celebración hispana, una señora preocupada me llamó y me dijo: don Beto, llame a Sofía (nombre cambiado) y hable con ella porque está muy confundida. Su hijo le dijo que porque ella como Católica Romana fue a la iglesia evangélica para asistir a la celebración.  Ella le explicó que no estaba cambiando su religión, que era solo un evento y nada más, sin embargo quedó dudando si de verdad ha traicionado su religión. (Sofía, asiste semanalmente a un estudio bíblico en casa de unos amigos también católicos romanos, con Beto y Toña)

Lo hice de inmediato y después de una extensa explicación, quedó más tranquila con mi respuesta.  3 días después me llamó de nuevo la señora y me dijo que el domingo en la misa, el sacerdote estuvo hablando acerca del valor de la religión y dijo que no tenía ninguna importancia, sino en quien debían creer. Estaba feliz por la respuesta de sus oraciones de una manera tan rápida.

"La evangelización no es un asalto hostil a las creencias de alguien, sino una búsqueda de la persona total por la verdad y la realidad de Dios. Es posible hallar puntos de identificación y terreno común incluso en personas cuyas creencias acerca de Dios difieran completamente de las nuestras. Si edificamos sobre este fundamento, podemos presentarles progresivamente a Cristo."

Escrito por Beto Alzate

Two days after our Hispanic celebration, a worried lady called me and said, “Mr. Beto, call Sophia (name changed) and talk to her because she is very confused.”  Her son had said that because she was a Roman Catholic and was at an evangelical church to attend the celebration, he was wondering if she had betrayed her religion.  She explained that she was not changing her religion, that it was just an event and nothing else.  (Sofia attends weekly Bible study at the home of friends who are also Roman Catholics, with Beto and Toña)

I called her immediately, and after a lengthy explanation, she was calmer with my answer.  Three days later, I called again, and Sophia told me that on Sunday at Mass, the priest was talking about the worth of religion and said that religion did not matter, but only in whom they believe.  I was delighted that their prayers were answered so quickly.

Evangelization is not a hostile assault on someone's beliefs, but a search of the whole person for the truth and reality of God.  It is possible to find points of identification and common ground even in people whose beliefs about God completely differ from ours. If we build on this foundation, we can present Christ progressively.

Written by Beto Alzate

Spreading It

Is there anything like a screaming group of middle schoolers running around a gym playing 'foxes and chickens' on a cool November night to make it feel more like fall?   Last night at Blalack's Parent Night, autumn was in full force and it was a great feeling.  

If you've never heard about our parent nights, allow me to tell you about it.  LINC partners up with 14 schools around the metroplex and Ft. Worth to connect kids with their parents in a meaningful way - giving both the opportunity to grow closer over pizza, classes that teach parent how to reach their kids, and group games that focus on teamwork and goofiness for all.  Our focus is the promotion of healthy families and healthy relationships. 

I'm in charge of running the games, and let me tell you, it gets crazy.  There's everything here: toilet paper, bananas, a great human-chain snake that tries to catch its tail . . . the list goes on.  But the best part is when the parents get to come back into the gym and engage with their student in teamwork and goofiness. They get really into it, and that makes me get really into it.    I might be having a lousy day or be bogged down with school work, but when I'm in the midst of all those students and their energy, and when I see their parents let their guard down and let themselves look silly with their kids,  it just makes me feel better.  I genuinely fell like I'm making someone's life a little better than it was.  

If you've never gotten the chance to experience this, then just go out and do something nice for somebody and you'll see; or better yet, come out and volunteer at one of our parent nights -we're always looking for new people to come and make a difference in the lives of these kids, even if its just one night running one game.  So, until next time - if you've been blessed, then go out and bless others more.  Maybe I'll even see you sometime at one of our parent nights, who knows?  I hope so!  

God bless,

Brandon