Enjoy!

So here’s a scenario for you:

You’re in a foreign country, the weather is beautiful , you’re with a fellow servant and new friend enjoying the beautiful weather and eating a pizza outdoors.

After about half of the pizza is gone you decide to take the rest with you and the two of you head on your way. In doing so you see a man. He’s drunk, passed out, laying in the gutter, using the curb as a pillow for his head.
What would you do?

A car drives by nearly running the man over, missing him by maybe 2 feet.
What would you do?

Now change that car into several cars.
What would you do?

Now change one of those cars into a police car and it doesn’t stop.
What would you do?

Now the man has no legs, sores all over, and one arm and hand is severely deformed.
What would you do?

Well here’s what my friend Jack and I did. We watched to see what everyone else did. We then did what everyone else did and we walked on except we did look back. Our conscious couldn’t take it and we decided to go back and at least try to do something. No we couldn’t wake him. No we didn’t get him out of the street. I wasn’t doing that unless he was awake and knew I was not meaning to harm him. I did take the pizza we had left and placed it next to him. I then took his deformed arm and placed it on top of the pizza box, we left, and said a silent prayer as we went on our way. Did anyone else do anything? One person, a cab driver, stopped, and offered help. Even though there is a language barrier no words had to be spoken to understand each other. He got his cell phone out and proceeded to call someone. I don’t know who he called but from the urgency I could hear in his voice I’m guessing maybe the police, not that they would do anything, they had already shown they weren’t concerned.

We made a second trip back to his spot later that evening, about a 4 mile walk round trip to see if he was still there. He was gone, just an empty pizza box laying in the street where his body had been.

Did I do all I could do?
Probably not.

Isn’t something better than nothing?
In this case probably not.

Was it more than the rest of society did for him that day?
Probably so.

Does that make me feel any better about myself?
Definitely not!

On my 1st trip here I met Eugene (pronounced Eugen). Eugene is former Russian military, and me being ex Navy we hit it off pretty well with a sick curiosity of one another being a byproduct of the fact that both of our countries had taught us that we were enemies who needed to die so the other could live. When I left here in 2003 Eugene had become very dear to me and he and his family permanently owned a piece of my heart.

Eugene lost his father, a rabbi, and his grandfather, a minister, to the KGB. Both were killed for practicing religion when religion was illegal in this part of the world. I have felt pain in my heart for him ever since learning of this in 2003.

In 2003 Eugene and his wife Marena had a beautiful little girl and lived a modest life. Since then they have adopted 3 more girls. Marena is actually an attorney and does pretty well here, her and Eugene have been very happy, prosperous, and blessed. They are definitely not the norm when it comes to families in Ukraine.

This past Sunday night we were headed to dinner. When we are walking into the building I hear someone hollering Clark! I look up and it was Eugene. I can’t begin to describe the emotions and memories that flooded my brain, my heart, and my spirit.

Well we sit down and are eating dinner and I ask about Marena and Eugene tells me that she will be there shortly and then it hits me. We’re working a VN weekend, we are about to go through Serenade. I have always had a hard time with serenade ripping my heart out. 1st time I experienced serenade on a weekend I was in the middle of a divorce from someone I did and still love with all of my heart.

It’s one thing to experience serenade in English but to have a room full of women singing songs of praise and worship in Ukrainian will rip your heart clean out of your chest. I don’t know what it is about the language but it has an artistic flare to it that our English language lacks. I believe you could say that for other languages as well, Spanish, French, etc…

Well serenade ripped my heart out as expected. To see and talk to Marena and to see her warm smile brought tears to my eyes. To spend time with them you would think we were close as ever and that we had never been apart. It was so hard to leave friends in 2003 and now I have been re united to leave them again?

We’ll start off with some Decuria. If your not familiar with Tres Dias Decuria is the by product of study and is done as a group effort. These pics are the posters that represent the ideas and thoughts of those involved in the various talks / studies during the weekend.




Next set of pictures are of worship, ministering, and some of the team members (the girls) who have supported us through prayer and doing the dishes while waiting their turn to serve which starts today on the women’s weekend. So guys it’s our turn to pray and do the dishes.




This last set of pictures say more than I can for sure. These are from “closing” yesterday afternoon and I think they say it all.




Something that was done this time for closing that I haven’t seen done before was certificates. Each candidate got a certificate proclaiming them God’s Ambassador. I saw a lot of pride in the faces of the recipients. When I questioned a Ukrainian about it later it was explained to me that to receive a document or an award like that means a lot in their society. It was nothing fancy. Wilson came up with the idea to do it and it took me all of 30 minutes after it had been proof read a couple of times to come out with the final version.

Here are Ukrainian and English versions using my name as the recipient.

The day was awesome, we did our group pictures right after the morning communion service. These are the goof off pics from that. I should have put these in the other blog but they’ll go here.

Here is the group pic:

This last pic holds a link to my past here and something that is about the most awesome work of God that I have got to see poured out on me by His Spirit in my life!

Back in 2003 I was asked to create a logo for the name tags for Rivne Tres Dias #1. They actually had the graphic printed that they wanted to use, just no one to get it back into the computer for them. That logo is on the shirt Wilson is wearing in this picture. As legend has it I called down fire from heaven and had the logo burned into the computer screen and memory permanently but that’s not what really happened.

I was asked if I could create this on the computer and before I checked things out I said yes, no problem. Little did I know I had just bit off more than I could chew. See earlier I had been on a computer that had a little English / Russian button so you could swap back and forth between languages. I had just assumed everyone had their computers setup this way. Surprisingly enough this wasn’t the case and that computer was 4 hours away in Kyiv so I found myself unsure if I would be able to deliver on a promise.

Here I’am on a computer that is only in Russian and with nothing more than Microsoft Paint to get the job done with. The sick feeling that came over me still lingers in my mind today. Being a man and all I don’t like to say this but I cried, I balled like a baby. “Dear God I just promised these people something and now I can’t deliver. What do I do?”

Well I used my memory of where I thought things should be and God handled the rest. 30 mins later, still crying, I was done, Rivne Tres Dias #1 now had their graphic and now I had to explain to my new found friends why there were tears streaming down my face. I have likened it to Pentecost when the Holy Spirit made it where people of different tongues could understand each other. Well the Holy Spirit had performed a similar miracle here in my life, just on a smaller scale, between me and a computer. And you can be rest assured the Holy Spirit will bridge that language gap for all of us this time as well, He already has.

Here is my original journal entry from June, 2003 for the “Logo” miracle.

It amazes me what little the body really requires. I was up with Don from Atlanta until 3am, by 6am I was back up and hitting the shower. It’s now 4 in the afternoon and I feel great.

Well things seem to be going really well. Taylor kind of lost his job as my sidekick to a local boy. Actually I don’t think Taylor cares, and he’s really more like sharing it. He’s pre occupied with watching God work and enjoying a new friendship.

Making Friends in Ukraine

It’s an awesome thing to see for sure and Taylor is loving every minute of it. It’s awesome to see Taylor being like a sponge and absorbing all that is around him.

The Rubik Cube is Universal in any language – aggravating! LOL

We had the foot washing earlier today. I believe that it will be the pushing point, the point that goes over the edge. Unfortunately I wasn’t a part of it, I had to go through material with Joy (Wilson’s wife) for the upcoming girls’ weekend that will be starting tomorrow. Hey whatever needs to get done at the time. Joy is so supportive of us all so it’s an honor to help her gather material.

The schedule here is God’s and not ours, in other words it just flew out the window with angel’s wings. The planned schedule was lost in Germany so we’ve been winging it and going where God leads us.

Yesterday things actually started different than anticipated. We are actually using media as well as talks to get God’s message across. We don’t have the luxury of having someone who can speak Russian or Ukrainian for every talk. Prior to coming over I had bought Louie Giglio’s Passion series on DVD with Russian sub titles and we have Volodymyr translating at the same time. We used 2 of the dvd’s yesterday, I pray his voice can hold out. And even when we use someone to give a talk if it is in English it still has to be translated so talks take a little longer than the norm.

I also have other videos that I purchased prior to getting here as well and can’t really describe them other than to say they go along with some of the talks that we have and are geared toward youth. The language barrier is getting slammed by God right about now and things seem to be going really well.

I also have some videos, actually all 23 of them, that are testimonials from the I am Second movement that has started out in Dallas. My good friend Jim Sharp turned me on to them.

Don and I also have a special presentation we are working on for the team meeting tonight but it’s top secret so I can’t mention it just yet in case by some little slip of the email it got back here to someone else. But you can bet I will write about it later.

Secret mission update: Don and I didn’t do the special presentation because at around 10pm I couldn’t take staying awake anymore. That’s okay there will be plenty of team meetings ahead that we can use to spring our little get even project back at the guilty party, hey it’s all in good fun and might even become tradition for some folks.

Have you ever looked at the statement “Love Is Stronger Than Justice” and made the connection between it and salvation?

Our first day here I got about 4 or 5 hours sleep, which was enough. I love waking up here, it is so peaceful and different than the mornings back home.

It’s about 5am and I’m working on some material for presentations and I’m listening to Sting’s “The Chicago Sessions” which is actually a recording that was made through a sound board during a practice session. Well there’s this swanky, kind of bar room jazz tune with a country chorus thrown into the mix called “Love Is Stronger Than Justice”. It kind of hit me, love really is stronger than justice. I tried explaining my new philosophical thought to someone and it didn’t go over all that well, no big deal…

It’s now about 10am and we are having our first team meeting of the day and Wilson gives us a pep talk and is stressing how important it is to communicate the love God has for us.

The candidates will be here at 2pm and Wilson is concerned about the message not being communicated to the candidates, there is a language barrier here to deal with. Then that tune “Love is Stronger Than Justice” pops back into my head. That’s when it hits me. Love isn’t just stronger than justice, IT CONQUERED JUSTICE and it will conquer the language barrier as well.

Justice for sin is eternal damnation in hell but God’s love conquered what justice demands of sin through the sacrifice Christ made on the cross and gave us eternal life instead. If we can convey that one thought, that one belief, the battle is half way won and God will take care of the rest. For me this is what missions and ministry is all about.

Panoramic of Borispol Airport – Kyiv, Ukraine – taken June 12th, 2009 by Clark Word.
For the full screen version click here

This blog is about religious denominations and let me say this I claim to be non denominational and attend a church that is called as such. But even non denominational is denominational in some sense. It actually should be called multi denominational instead of non denominational because in most cases it’s made up of people from different denominations.

I was raised Independent Baptist. I was a resident in an abusive Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Boys home for 7 months. And I have attended church regularly at some point in my life in the following denominations as well.

Assembly of God
Church of Christ
Church of God
Independent (whatever that is)
Southern Baptist
United Methodist

The Good

I have my gripes about all of these but in this part I will talk about the good. And yes even in an abusive IFB boy’s home there was some good.

New Bethany Boys Home (Independent Fundamentalist Baptist) – Being in the boys home I truly repented and accepted Christ as my savior and felt led to preach. Fortunately this happened early on there for me. If God had waited until later in my stay there His call might have fell upon deaf ears. As it was what grasp God manage to get on me was stretched to the limit as those in charge tried their best to beat God into me but all they were actually doing was allowing themselves to be used by the devil to distant myself from God. But anyway that is where I came to accept Christ and a desire to serve Him was born no matter how beaten down it became. That desire and Jesus never left me. I’m glad I can see that now.

Assembly of God – Well this was a switch, almost culture shock for someone raised Baptist. I’ll never forget the 1st time I heard someone speak in tongues. Talk about feeling like I was on an alien planet. But hey this was my first exposure to spiritual gifts and the first time that I got to use some of my God given talents to serve him by working the lights and sound for a pretty good size children’s Christmas production. Personally I don’t speak in tongues myself, I don’t have healing powers but I got to see the power of spiritual gifts at work for the first time and I learned the importance of them.

Church of God – If the knowledge that I attended an Assembly of God church doesn’t have my Independent Baptist preacher / grandfather rolling in his grave by now he’s in for an even bigger shock. The Church of God that I attended exposed me to even more spiritual gifts and to one of the godliest men I know, Pastor Raymond Culpepper.

Pastor Culpepper physically is a small man. I didn’t know God could pack so much fire and spunk into such a small package. Pastor Culpepper is one of those who is on fire 24/7. He’s so on fire for God he probably talks to God in his sleep. What I mean by on fire is this Pastor Culpepper is passionate about telling others about the love Christ has for them and he has a desire, a burden to see that all come to know that love. I just can’t say enough about this awesome man of God.

Church of Christ – Okay grandpa, sorry, I know your probably doing flips by now. Wow what can I say about Church of Christ? Well it was my first exposure to music with no instruments. Hey sometimes you don’t need instruments when you have several hundred voices that are the instruments. The particular Church of Christ that I attended had 2 pastors. And I don’t mean pastor and associate pastor. At that time in my life I had just gotten divorced and I had gone through Birmingham Tres Dias #7. At that time I really needed a good church family and I found it here. It was here that people supported me in getting goods to distribute to the homeless. And it was here that I learned God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called. But the most amazing thing was the pastors, Greg and Todd. I don’t know how they worked out writing the sermons all I know is you could “see” God’s hand all over their words. Greg could come in one Sunday and start a series that would take several Sundays to preach. Todd would come in the next week and pick up where Greg left off without missing a beat and vice versa, it was truly amazing. I still think they were twins separated at birth by some hospital mistake. I also saw material other than the Bible such as movies and song lyrics used to get points across or used as examples in sermons, definitely outside of the box. This is also where I met Mark who was the youth pastor and is now in Honduras full time. Mark was a hippie then, high on Jesus, and even though he’s a grandpa himself now he’s still the same ole Mark we love and know.

Independent, Southern Baptist, and Methodist – Well it’s not that I don’t have any good to say here. It’s just that these were experienced very young in life, where my roots were laid, and my memories have faded over time. The roots of my beliefs have changed from what they were so long ago. But it was in a little old Baptist church that I first met and recognized a true man of God, our pastor Bro. Walker. He was outside the box before being outside the box was cool. What I mean by that is he preached God’s love and steered away from the more condemning traditions / hell fire & brimstone that the old Independent Baptist Pastors of his day like my grandfather preached. He was ahead of his time and the congregation just wasn’t ready for that. But I will always have fond memories of him, mom taking my brother and me to church in an old corvette with the top down on warm, sunny summer days, and having my mom and aunt up front, one on the piano and one on the organ. Outside of that on into the late 70’s the Southern Baptist and Methodist churches I attended exposed me to guitars and drums in church music for the first time, oh the heresy, LOL.

The Bad

Well with all good there is always some bad, at least here on earth.

Baptist – My first church split I experienced was at age 5. Bro. Walker, and Hughes Road Baptist church in Madison Co., now Huntsville, AL. I don’t remember the exact sermon that Bro. Walker preached but he managed to step on the toes of the richest man in the church Mr. Putnam. This is where the human factor of revenge comes into play. Funny how God tells us that revenge is not ours but His, yet our nature tends to overlook that. Well revenge is what Mr. Putnam wanted and revenge is what he got. His money turned half the church against Bro. Walker and he eventually stepped down because he thought it was the right thing to do in order to save the church. Personally I feel he was wrong for stepping down. A few years back I was in Huntsville and drove by the church, 25+ years later and it has not grown an inch. Just goes to back up the Bible in money is the root of all evil.

Assembly of God – This is where I experienced my 2nd church split except this one was more personal. There were 3 families that I attended church with there that were the best of friends. They did everything together, dinners at each other’s houses, mini vacations, riding horses, even ministry. But when the church split happened they weren’t all caught on one side or the other. The split went through them and had two families siding against one. It is truly sad that such good friends whose children went to school together, played together, went to church together, would let a split like that come between them and pit them against each other.

Church of Christ – the 3rd church split in my life. It cost the church 2 pastors, a youth pastor, and part of it’s congregation but it also taught me that God can use anything to further His kingdom. In the process a group of us started the non denominational church that I still attend today. We have one of the pastors, the other pastor is involved in a church planting ministry, and the youth pastor has his ministry in Honduras. As far as the church we left, well they still have an awesome church family and I still have some very dear friends there. They also have an awesome pastor that I can’t say enough good about. And what is really neat unlike the other 2 splits there was a lot of good that came out of this and the birth of new ministries. It’s the one split that I witnessed that God jumped in there and used it to expand His kingdom in ways I would never have imagined.

The Ugly

There is nothing uglier than people doing evil things in the name of God. Fortunately I can really only relate that to one place in my life and that was at New Bethany Boys Home in Longstreet, LA. How I ended up back here telling the same story again is beyond me but here we are.

I was at the boys home for 7 months and the staff there abused us in the name of God. For more on that you can read my blog:

“It took 7 months to literally beat God out of me, and 27 years to be able to forgive those responsible.”
 

And even in “The Ugly” God can bring about ‘Good.”

2008, 27 years later…………

This past summer I was talking with a friend and I was explaining to her about New Bethany. Instead of trying to tell her everything I googled New Bethany because I knew that there was a survivors group online. I was going to send her a link to it. Well when I did there was a descriptor under the link on Google’s page that said “I want to apologize to the boys from Longstreet……” I could not believe it and had to see it for myself. It was Dee Rapier and she was asking for forgiveness and she had posted her cell phone number. I don’t know why but I called her number. Her voice had not changed in 27 years and of course the emotions I went through were hell. But it really gets interesting. Right before I left New Bethany 27 years earlier I had ordered a KJV Thompson Chain Reference Bible with my name engraved on it. I was gone before it came in the mail and my mom had bought a new one after I got home so we had told her to keep it. She still has it, has used it for 27 years. For 27 years she has seen my name, one of her victims, for 27 years she has been reminded of the abuse and fear that she caused someone else to live in.

Now at first I did question her sincerity in asking for forgiveness. She tried several times to minimize her role in what happened. She claimed that L.D. had abused her as well like it was an excuse for what she did. I never saw a mark on her during my 7 months at New Bethany. At first I couldn’t forgive her, then I felt sorry for her and I decided that I could forgive her but she wasn’t going to have the satisfaction of hearing it. I was really just fooling myself into thinking I was forgiving her.

This past September I was working the men’s weekend for Birmingham Tres Dias #19. One of the talks given that weekend was by a pastor who along with his wife had adopted a girl who had been abused. After the talk I asked him how the girl had turned out and I explained to him about New Bethany, my finding Dee after all these years, her asking for forgiveness, and I could forgive her but she didn’t deserve to hear it. Then wham. that’s when the Holy Spirit said to me do you realize what you just said to a man of God? Do you realize how harsh of a statement you just made? You didn’t deserve forgiveness yet Christ died for you.

I called Dee later that day. I told her that I forgave her. I also told her about the statement I had made about her not deserving to hear me say I forgave her. I then apologized for making such a harsh statement and asked her forgiveness for making that statement.

Was Dee really seeking forgiveness? Only she can answer that. But my forgiveness for her was not for her but for me. When I forgave her it was like God reached down and cut a cancer out of my spirit and heart that had been there for 27 years. My forgiveness of her was really healing for me.

If I’m not being taken advantage of, I’m not being like Jesus,”

Don’t let your worries get the best of you; Remember, Moses started out as a basket case.

Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited until you try to sit in their pews.

Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisers.

Ministry is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you.

Don’t waste your pain; use it to help others.

We actually learn more through our hurts than our successes.

Your greatest ministry will most likely come out of your greatest hurt.

The very experiences that you have resented or regretted most in life are the experiences God wants to use to help others.

You must honestly admit your faults, failures and fears. Doing this will be your most effective ministry.

It is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one.

The good Lord didn’t create anything without a purpose, but mosquitoes come close.

When you get to your wit’s end you’ll find God lives there.

People are funny; they want the front of the bus, middle of the road, and back of the church.

Opportunity may knock once, but temptation bangs on the front door forever.

Quit griping about your church; if it was perfect, you couldn’t belong.

If a church wants a better pastor, it only needs to pray for the one it has.

We’re called to be witnesses, not lawyers or judges.

God Himself doesn’t propose to judge a man until he is dead. So why should you?

Some minds are like concrete thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.

Peace starts with a smile.

I don’t know why some people change churches; what difference does it make which one you stay home from?

A lot of church members singing ‘Standing on the Promises’ are just sitting on the premises.

Be ye fishers of men. You catch ‘em – He’ll clean ‘em.

Stop, Drop, and Roll won’t work in Hell.

Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.

Don’t put a question mark where God put a period.

Don’t wait for 6 strong men to take you to church.

Forbidden fruits create many jams.

God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

God grades on the cross, not the curve.

God loves everyone, but probably prefers ‘fruits of the spirit’ over ‘religious nuts!

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

He who angers you, controls you!

And my personal favorite albeit it’s sad but true:
Christianity as a whole has spent more time worrying about how to stay out of hell instead of being Christians.

God points his finger out at Earth,
Up and down, throughout it’s girth,
Mid lies, stealth and lack of worth.
Then he says “Five are they…”.

One, separated by the sea,
In solitary audacity,
Speaks aloud to try and free
Those who once were prey.

One, for decades haunted by
The puzzle of the boy called Guy.
Did he live or did he die?
Where are those who will say?

Another, who the spirit filled,
And then, by monsters, it was killed,
Re-learned forgiveness, it was billed
And waited for the day.

One, who after forceful lessons,
Opts away from taught transgressions,
Follows behind her own impressions.
She has made HER way……

The other, guilt upon her back,
To throw it off she must not lack
Valor to turn white what was black,
And clear up all the gray.

“The decades past forget they not,
Singly, each a minute spot.
Joined, they will unfold a lot.
This bevy, five are they.”

God’s intent to bring to light
Myriad children’s terror plight
And turn the wrong into the right
Can’t wait another day.

“I find these five. Some here, some there.
What single trait do they all share?
A burning will, a cross to bear.
They all have made their way.”

- Teresa Frye, March 2009