The LuHi Pod
A podcast for LuHi students, families, and our community.
The LuHi Pod
Season 7, Ep 4: Missions with Mr Garner
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Did you know one of the goals of the LuHi Missions program is to have every student go on a mission trip before they graduate? Missions is one of our fastest-growing programs on campus, and we are so excited to be a very small part of what God is doing throughout the world. Today on the podcast, Mr Garner shares more about the goals, mission, and vision of LuHi Missions.
Come to Missions Night on October 4th starting at 6pm.
During the top of the show, we get into some table questions and talk books (again). Let us know how you would answer, "What book do you think every person needs to read?" Email us at podcast@lhsparker.org, and we'll discuss on air (on our way to ATL).
Our intro, outro, and segment music were written and recorded by Mr. Matt Zoeller. You can find us on most of the socials under the Lutheran High School handles.
If you have a question you want answered on the Pod, we do Q&A episodes each season! Submit questions anytime to podcast@lhsparker.org.
You can find chapters for each episode and transcripts here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2228322
Thanks for listening, subscribing, and sharing with your friends!
Therefore, as God chose a people, holy and dearly love.
unknownIs there something in my head?
SPEAKER_04Cloth yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bear with each other. And forgive one another. If any of you has grievance against someone, forgive us the Lord, forgive me.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to the Little High Boss.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Um I have I have four ideas of things we can talk about. Do you have any ideas of things we can talk about?
SPEAKER_05I love it when you frame the question like that. I've already reserved us a table at a restaurant. Did you have a restaurant?
SPEAKER_02Because we can change.
SPEAKER_05Is this how you named your children? Here's a list of names we're definitely going to use. Um regardless of your list. Can I see your list?
SPEAKER_02Yep, that is basic how it goes. Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_05I hung out with one of our more faithful listeners recently. Ooh. And uh and she's Christina Zieler again. Christina, hello.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for your continued support.
SPEAKER_05Uh she said something like she listens to it when she runs, and there's been times when we start laughing and she starts laughing and she has to pull over to laugh. And I thought, nice. Well, that's a compliment. We're hurting your runtime and pace. But then she's like, oh, and you guys always say, We'll have to cut this, and I think, don't cut this, don't cut this. If you only knew, Christina.
SPEAKER_02If you only knew.
SPEAKER_05What got cut.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Especially my pin number, because I can't believe I chose. Oh, hey, Hannah, we're back.
SPEAKER_01We're back. Uh, somehow we do 30 minutes to fix content. Okay. Um, so today's episode we have uh all about missions with Mr. Garner, but before we say nice things about Mr.
SPEAKER_05Garner, some mean things about Mr. Garner. He too is a sinner. One he arranges his socks in a weird way. Yeah, we texted his family.
SPEAKER_02This is amazing. Off the rails. Sorry, what do you got?
SPEAKER_05Um four things.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I'm into Where did you get these, by the way? I'm into John Mark Comer, and these are his.
SPEAKER_05These are his. These are his. Okay, I saw the website I was practicing the way, and I thought clearly I need to catch up. Because I don't know about this slideshow of stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yes, so you can purchase the table questions or download the free Uto Digital version, which is what I have done here. And these are just conversation starters for you know your Sabbath meal when you're all around the table.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, for people who've never talked to other people.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yeah, exactly. Not for people who are already friends, but we're gonna try this anyway. Uh okay, I think this is good.
SPEAKER_05I I'm just kidding, actually, I don't want to slight this. I'm a I read through these, I think they're great, and I am down with John Mark Comer. Me too.
SPEAKER_01He can also sponsor the show.
SPEAKER_05He can sponsor the show.
SPEAKER_01Or just come be a guest.
SPEAKER_05I've given out his book a bunch of we've talked about him, right? Yeah. I've given out his book as a gift.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, we love John Mark Comer, and this is one of his uh table questions. And I think this is great for the podcast because we'll talk about this anyway. What book other than the Bible do you think every person needs to read?
SPEAKER_05Oh yeah. This is this written by an author.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Choose wisely.
SPEAKER_05Okay, so well, the first thought that comes to mind is the John Mark Homer book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
SPEAKER_01Agreed. Such a good book.
SPEAKER_05Great book, very apropos for the times, even though he wrote it like eight years ago. He did, yeah. It's not that it's old, but it's it's old enough that you could say, Oh, things have changed. But if if they have only changed in the direction of everything he's talking about is worse.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yeah. That is true. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So I really like that book. I think he makes some valid points. I liked his other books too. I think I've read all of them. Um but that's the one, I think that's that's my top one by him. But the question is not what book by that author.
SPEAKER_02That would be very if you put that in for the pick one of mine.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, pick one of mine. Next question. Which one of my quotes? Do you think every person go on your mirror and say, mirror, this changed my life?
SPEAKER_02He would never.
SPEAKER_05He would never.
SPEAKER_02We would, but he would never. Amazing.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_05Okay, what book other than the Bible do you think every person needs to read?
SPEAKER_01And while we think, listeners, if you have an answer to this, please email us. We would love to hear. We'll read them online. We'll read them online. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05On the air. On air. On the airline. Yeah. We're going to go flying and read them on the airline.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_05Hannah, where are we going to fly to? New question to read all these responses. Atlanta. Okay. Perfect. Perfect.
SPEAKER_01So we need lots because that's a long flight.
SPEAKER_05Yes, especially because we're going to be in the baggage clan for a long time. Yes. With a snowblower. Oh man, I almost lost that callback from five seasons ago. Seriously. We'll read them online. I don't know. This is kind of a hard question because every person, you know, that changes it. It's like every Christian or every Christian male or every person who's over older 40 or every parent, or you know. I feel like the answer might change for that. But every person who can read I might go with a darn good book with a profound humanitarian lesson.
SPEAKER_01Let's say it at the same time.
SPEAKER_05What? To kill a mockingbird.
SPEAKER_02Gentlemen in Moscow.
SPEAKER_01To kill a mockingbird. That is a banger. I love that book. That's a good one.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so it's really just a biased answer. Like, what book do you really like? Yeah. That one.
SPEAKER_01Maybe it's what book do you read over and over and over again. That's kind of a different question.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's kind of a different question.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Because I probably only read it like three times, four times.
SPEAKER_01That's pretty good.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I guess. In a lot of years. Yeah. But I don't feel like I should reread it.
SPEAKER_01Like you've you got the point. Yeah. Yeah. Um a book everybody should read. I don't know. Is it cheating to Google it?
SPEAKER_05No!
SPEAKER_01I'm just number one. That's crazy. That's are you sure you didn't Google?
SPEAKER_05We just looked this up. Number one was Techilla Maki. I can't even quite see, but I think I haven't read most of those.
SPEAKER_01Lord of the Flies, no, not everybody is The Giver, that's a good one. These are this is a crap list. Okay, well, nice things about Mr. Garner. Um, man, he is good at his job, and I'm so excited for you guys to hear this conversation. What do you got?
SPEAKER_05Mr. Garner, I'll tell you what, one time, I don't know if I should say this, one time when he first worked here, when he first got hired, um, he had to pray in a faculty meeting. Just or I don't know, he volunteered. He just prayed in a faculty meeting, and I heard his prayer and uh hadn't met him yet. And then after shortly after that, I approached him and I was like, hey man, can we start hanging out a little bit? Because the way you pray is moving. It's like you really believe it works. That's it. I wanna I want to know more about that. So that was the start of my friendship with Bill Garner.
SPEAKER_01I love those stories.
SPEAKER_05I've been walking pals ever since. Well, that's all we got today on whatever this is, with my highly literate friend Johanna, who is hesitant to recommend whatever she's read.
SPEAKER_01And the the most hydrated teacher on campus, and he's got the receipts to prove it. Receipts for water, that is.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you shouldn't have. Oh my god. I'm still not quite sure what we're doing here.
SPEAKER_01Hey everybody, welcome back to the Blue High Pot. I am excited always to have Mr. Garner with us on the podcast because he is just first of all great to talk to, and second of all, is an expert in all things missions service. He he runs the whole program, he's excellent at what he does, and we are just going to touch base, talk about what's new, what's coming up, and if you're not familiar, maybe even a little bit of history about where the where missions and service started and where it's going. So hi, Mr. Garner.
SPEAKER_00Hi, thank you for that introduction.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh my goodness. Expert is realizing um I'm always gonna be a student. I mean, oh yeah. So uh we continue to learn every every step of the way. So um, yeah, I don't know about expert, but I think I'm expert at learning. How about that? Yeah, I love it. Like, definitely.
SPEAKER_01I think that is just also a good life lesson for our students here. You you don't graduate and stop being a student, you're forever gonna learn things.
SPEAKER_00Life will never stop teaching you. I mean, well, our father will never stop teaching us, right? So yeah, God forbid the day I get to a place of thinking as a Christian, I got it all figured out.
SPEAKER_01Besides missions and service, do you want to give a little bit of background about what else you do here?
SPEAKER_00Sure. Uh so I'm starting my sixth year here at Lutheran High School. Um came in as a social studies teacher, and over the course of time, uh those have kind of you know ebbed and flowed. Uh more service emissions, less teaching. Uh, but I still teach two classes. I moved from 10th grade world history to ninth grade world geography this year.
SPEAKER_03So nice.
SPEAKER_00I'm pretty pumped. It's a uh yeah, I I I I I like hanging out with freshmen, go figure, you know, and uh and then also from the mission standpoint, I don't know, maybe teaching world geography and being the missions guy. Yeah, something there compliment each other, yeah. So um, but yeah, so that's that's that. And uh um I at my old school, we had a service at missions guy. And I used to walk by him all the time and wonder, what the heck do you do all day?
SPEAKER_01And now you know.
SPEAKER_00And now that I'm saying that publicly here, I have I should call him, you know. There you go. Be like, bro, I I don't have enough minutes in the day to breathe. I don't what did you you know? So um, yeah, it missions, it it keeps us busy. Service uh keeps us even busier. And uh yeah, it's great to be here. Love serving at Lu High.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I think that's a good launching off point. Like, let's just give some background about the missions and service program at Lutheran. Um we've always had a heart for service and mission. That's not new to us, but having something uh like a regular rhythm and something established and it really being like a program um that people can can get involved in versus like just an organic thing that happens. When did that start?
SPEAKER_00Well, from a service standpoint, um, because there's kind of two stories there. From a service standpoint, uh when I arrived and Dan Gherky said, you know, kind of pointed me in the service direction, uh, the first thing I had to do is kind of do the fact-finding, like, well, what's already going on? And what I found was that there's a ton of service that has been going on here just forever. And uh, you know, I think about Mrs. Hollenbeck's efforts, um, I think about everything the athletic department does. Um, and it was very spread out. And I I think it's actually more effective if you have lots of different people doing lots of different things, like um, more's gonna get done, I feel like. Yeah, um, so we tried to, along with those things, uh, kind of centralize a little bit of a service hub for those students and everybody else who's maybe not already in a natural orbit with an entity at school that's doing service as a part of whatever they are. Yeah. Um, and to create as many opportunities. Well, let me rephrase not to create as many opportunities as we can. We create some. Um, really, though, to try and find good partners, good matches, good fits uh out in our surrounding community and Lou High students. And in my experience so far, uh people love when our students show up. And that was always a goal of mine that people would smile when they see the Lou High van, you know, pull up. And uh, and it's been like that, like the feedback we, you know, um, and that makes me proud to be here, to be doing what we're doing, to be partnered with the families that we are. So service, come alongside things that are already going on and just try and build onto that. Missions when we got here, or when we got here, when I got here, um had a history, but it was essentially just kind of dormant, and that was the result of COVID. Uh, there were uh a handful of different trips led by different teachers. Uh, Mr. Stelling was involved in one up to Alaska. I heard a lot about that. Uh Colway talked about some others, Obermulers everywhere doing everything. Yeah. Um, but then COVID hit and like much of the world, the short-term missions just shut down. So um, so 2223, I think it's my second year here. I'd have to do the math. But 2223, I know it was that year. Uh, Macy Linz, student senior, comes to me and says, Hey, do you want to help me plan a uh spring break mission trip for uh for my senior year? And I said, sure. Uh so we did that. And longer story short, uh, her dad, Doug Linz, gets involved, who's now a core uh anchor point in our missions leadership. Um, but he gets involved, him and I start working together. It's one of those trips that are lightning in a bottle. I mean, everything just came together so great on this trip. Um, doesn't always happen to that degree, but it does. And when it does, oh man, so it did. Uh, down in Grand Isle, Louisiana, and Doug and I were standing up on top of some roof of a building that we were in the process of demolishing, and said, Don't you think every kid at Lou High would benefit from this?
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_00And uh, and that's when, and and it that just kind of left that there. And uh, but when we got back, we got to work. Um and shortly thereafter, a vision of uh wanting to build a missions program where every student at Liu High could go on at least one trip sometime in their four years. And uh, and that's what we're kind of still in the process of building towards. We thought last year maybe maybe we were about there as far as like uh how many student slots and trip count, and then this year everything just grew. So I don't know if we grew unnecessarily, but I something tells me that we're still gonna fill out all the trips. Again, I I come from uh an old youth ministry background. Yeah. And um back in the late 90s, early 2000s, like maybe uh numbers just seemed to be a really big deal. And uh I was around a lot of people who were growing really big youth groups and big churches, but it seemed to be a lot about the numbers. And uh and I became a little disenchanted with things at that time. I mean, we're back 99, 2000 now, in my story. Um, and maybe learning that and getting here for now, like the growth is great, but if I just want to make sure things are staying healthy, you know, and uh make sure our leaders are having good experiences, our our parents are you know feeling all the right things that they should feel during an experience like this, from yeah, being a little nervous, but also having a sense of safety. Like this program really does look out for the well-being of my kid. Um, and then obviously the student, you know. Um, whether we do one trip or 22 trips, uh yeah, it it doesn't matter if students aren't having a meaningful experience. Um, and we're making some sort of little difference on the other end.
SPEAKER_01Uh so have you had to turn students away yet?
SPEAKER_00Um every year, no matter us adding student slots, it's we've gotten to the end of our team placement process, and there's less than 10 students still sitting on an unplaced list. Oh wow. Um and it's weird because no matter how many we've added, we've always ended up with that like five to eight number of students. And uh so, and then that is and if they don't go on a trip, I'll usually be able to still get half of them. Uh like, hey, this trip still has spots. I know you didn't sign up for it. Here's what they're going to go do. Um, and if you think that you can fit in with that, what do you think about going there? And and I love the students who are like, Yeah, I just I'm stoked to go somewhere, you know, and then that gets me really fired up. Yeah. Um yeah. And then, but every year, maybe two, like there's two people where they they weren't able to get on the trip that they originally wanted, and they just decide that they want to back out. Yeah, exactly. That's fair. Yeah, so um, and we'll see. Uh this is year four. Yeah, thanks for doing the math for me. Uh, but year four, and uh, we're going trip count-wise. Uh we went 13 last year, and we're sitting at about 20 this year. Okay. Um, so tr student slot-wise, that should get us up to about 250. And uh and I think, yeah, and again, I there's gonna be the year-to-year flux. Like we talk about a lot of stuff long term, you know, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, like some things that we could, you know, run into from year to year. Um, and I'm just excited that we're talking about things related to the program 10 years, 20 years from now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's no, it's so good to have that vision. Who who goes on these trips? Like, I know you mentioned you want all students to go. Yeah. We have over a thousand students. Yeah. So 250 over four years. Nope, not gonna do that math. But that is about that's about right.
SPEAKER_00We're we're in the ballpark. We're in the ballpark. And so when we say uh every student at Lu High is able to go on at least one mission trip, um that accounts for the fact that there's some people who just aren't able to fit it into their schedule. Yeah. We run into that a lot. We're trying to, I don't want to say to accommodate that, but but we're trying to spread out when we offer our mission trips in hopes that you know, spring athletes can find something in the summer or you know, something along those lines. Uh, we continue to try and figure out how to offer trips in the fall. There's some struggles uh with that.
SPEAKER_01What are some other barriers? You mentioned kids being involved in lots of things, which is just our area. What are some other barriers that you often hear that like that kids hesitate to go?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh besides the kids who are too busy, there's families who just, you know, aren't interested. Um, you know. But there is there is one area that has not been super loud, but it it's made its presence known. And it's the idea or the question that I'll get at some events. How do you justify the amounts of money uh that you're raising for these trips and going and doing these things that last for a week halfway around the world when there's so much need in Parker, in Denver, in the US? And uh interesting.
SPEAKER_01Or even I'd imagine if you follow that down all the way, like if you follow that thought all the way down, just send them the money. Just go and send like send them the money that you're raising and you Yeah. Okay. So okay. Interesting. Interesting question.
SPEAKER_00If it's forty two thousand dollars to send thirty students to Alaska, why not just send the Just write just cut them a check.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm so curious what what your answer is.
SPEAKER_00Well, there's there's a couple of things going on here. Um first off, getting kids to sign up for local stuff. Um so if you approach me and you say, hey, how do you justify that? I immediately embrace the fact um that what you're saying is a true statement. Yes, I I completely feel that point.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_00The thing is, is that we can't we don't get students, we don't get an overwhelming amount of students to sign up for local stuff. Like we're constantly putting things together, opportunities to go serve. You don't need to raise $4,000 to go to South Africa. Yes, exactly. Let's go cook breakfast, you know. I'll buy you food, you know, like you'll make money. Well, you know what I mean. Um so you're right, but students don't necessarily sign up for this. What it seems like they're signing up for are these trips and what I'm experienced and the experience and what I'm finding longer term now is the kids who are signing up for the local stuff, they're the ones who went on these trips and came back.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that is that is fruit. That is fruit.
SPEAKER_00It's an expensive lesson. Yeah. Um, and I mean, from a social psychology standpoint, we could break that down into a lot of pieces, but um, it seems like what it takes to kind of just shake a little bit, and I mean just kind of, hey, to get them to realize there's a lot of other things going on around the world. Um, you know, you take them to South Africa and they walk through these shanty towns, and it's incomprehensible like what they're seeing, or the team that was in Ecuador, and every student that I talked to commented how nobody had floors there. Like you'd see different kinds of buildings, and some were a little nicer than others, like in this community that our team was serving in, but they're like, but nobody had floors, it was just dirt. Like, and and so they come back with these experiences and these impacts. I think they're seeing the world around them here in Denver differently. Um, and I think that's a win. You know, you were saying fruit, and I I think that is I think that is the fruit. Um that's getting them involved in terms of just write them the check. Yeah. Uh that actually comes up in a in a pretty popular book from a few years back called uh Toxic Charity.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_00And the whole book goes on just to uh and rightfully so, lay out all of the damage that short-term missions has done around the world.
SPEAKER_03Interesting.
SPEAKER_00Um, just and really coming out of the 70s into the 80s, uh there was just uh a lot of unhealthy practices, a lot of manipulation, um, dishonesty, greed set in. I mean, some of the stories that you can go back and read, um, it was it was a sham. Nobody was getting helped. It was it was money, you know, and uh and a lot of that fake aspects, the hollowness to that is laid out in this book and just said, you know, kind of this is creating a toxic environment. Um, we can help people better. In that book, they asked that question. Why aren't we just raising the $42,000 and sending it to them? Like, why are we going down and building a house? Let's just send them the money and they can use it to hire local people to, you know, which is again an awesome idea. You're right, supporting local economy is a long-term investment. How are you gonna raise that $42,000? Right. Like I I could do a lot of things to try and raise $42,000 to send down to Mez Catal. Okay. Um and I may or may not get there. But if we employ 15 students who are gonna raise their part of that to go down, uh see what's happening there, meet the people there, learn names, come back with a sense of relationship, um that longer-term investment may far exceed $42,000. Yes. Um, and so on the one hand, I don't know if that $42,000 ever exists unless the trip is coming together around going down there. Students are talking to family members and friends, they're letting them know, hey, there's these people at this place, and here's what we're doing. Um it it may not even equal a dollar amount, it's an intangible value. Uh but that's kind of where we land on that. And uh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, maybe it's a I'm gonna try to work this thought out on air. We'll see how it goes. Maybe it's a misunderstanding of what the kingdom of God is, because yes, we could think of it as okay, the end result is a house gets built, but it's not about the house being built like with all things in the kingdom. It's about the very nature of spreading the kingdom is about going. And you can do this locally, you can do this other, you know, internationally. It's about going, it's about learning what other people how how how do they live, not just to come back with knowledge of, oh, I've been to a country where they don't have floor, like it's just dirt, like no floors there. That's how they live. Not good, bad, or otherwise, that's just their reality. Yes, it's nice to have that knowledge, but maybe it's even a step further of I have seen the way God provides in a whole different context. I have seen how a whole different set of people love the same Lord that I love. Maybe it's not about the end result, it's not even about the experience in the sense of like, my kid got to go to another country. It's not even about the money, it's about the larger idea of like what do we believe about the kingdom of God? What do we believe about it? What do we believe do we think it's uh do you think do we think it's a good thing for our children to see how the Lord shows up and what it means to live in a different place that is on that's part of his creation? Like these are his love children and they're over there and they're over here and they're at home and they're and I I don't know, I'm not saying that well.
SPEAKER_00I think you're saying that wonderfully, you know, it the parallel. So we gotta go somewhere else to be able to s see what we need to see when we come home. Yeah. I wonder if it's that same sense of seeing God at work, seeing God provide. Sometimes we become a little blinded to it in our everyday, normal life. Like we and maybe it's that same thing. I leave, I see those things, I see gratitude, I see how God works, and when I come back, oh man, yeah, new eyes. Um, yeah. And I would think that's a win.
SPEAKER_01I would think it's a win, yeah.
SPEAKER_00In the kingdom. And I love that you brought that up. I I've never said it's not about the money, but it's not about the money. It's not about the money. It's really not.
SPEAKER_01And I would even think it's not about the experience of like I'm getting on a plane to go to a different country. Because I think that's a a big thing that draws kids in. And that's great. Like I have no qualms with that. I think our kids should go and experience and the EF tours are another amazing way they can do that. But it's not even about that. It's about it's a reframe of like what is the focus of this? The focus is to see God's kingdom at work, I'm participating in it, but they're participating in it. Like we are we are all God's children. Yeah. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I I think that's the big beautiful process. Now, one thing, and and this also came as a result of reading that book. Hey, if anybody out there is listening to me and or watching this and you hear that book, Toxic Charity, I would encourage you to read it, but read it this way. Read the last chapter first.
SPEAKER_03Oh.
SPEAKER_00You have to read the last chapter first, then go to the front of the book and work your way all the way through it.
SPEAKER_01Because the frame of the last the whatever the last chapter does, like frames it up.
SPEAKER_00Because honestly, if you read the first eleven chapters, um all short-term missions are bad. We should burn them down. It's the worst thing that ever happened. And then you get to the last chapter, and it's like, unless we do it this way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there you go. Don't bury the lead authors, just out with it.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and that's why it's a really and then when you have that understanding of, and that's where it was for us. It was like, um, that book came across our path in year one, and it was like, this book is fantastic because look at all the warnings we have from all of these past mistakes. Yep. Um and a lot of it was becoming too focused on yourself. And I I feel a little guilty that we've been here so long talking, and so far it's been all about us. Like it's been about Lu High Missions, Lu High. And I mean, and that's why we're here to talk about that. But uh, but it I think it's I think it happens subtly, and I think it's a slippery slope that once we start becoming too focused on our experience, um that's where some of that unhealthy toxicity can kind of start to to set in. And that that kind of gets us to the the other part of this. It's missions and services really upside down because um so the vision, you know, every kid to be able to go on a trip. The purpose of this whole thing is to create meaningful experiences. And Mr. Black really cornered me last year. What do you mean by meaningful experience? And it took me all year.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00He tormented me. I would dodge him in the halls because I was like, I don't have an answer to that yet. Please don't ask me. Um, but honest, uh, if I was honest, uh life transforming. That's what we mean by meaningful. We want students to come back in a positive, different way. Like you're different as a result of that. And that's where um, you know, in order for students to receive that meaningful experience, they have to spend the entire time preparing themselves that it's not about them. Like the only way you they get to achieve a sense of meaningful experience is to is to make it not about them. And in saying this has nothing to do with me, I'm not about me, I'm not here for me, I'm here to serve. It's then at that point then that we start to hear the testimonies that we hear. Um, it doesn't happen in reverse order. It's not like uh and so in our preparation, that that's what we spend a lot of time uh hammering on is it's not about you, it's not about you, it's not about us. Yeah. Uh whatever they need, we want to be flexible, want to be able to do quick pivots, um, we want to be able to roll with dinners that never get served on time. I mean, you know, or just whatever it may be.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and and, you know, and hopefully be a service, because my hope would be just like locally, uh, Lu High has a good reputation. My hope is that around the world, like as we continue to go out to different places, um, that people would come to know and expect a certain just level of respect, a certain way that we approach things, um, just how we embrace culture, you know, and not and try and fit into it instead of trying to make it fit around us. Um, and all for the sake of sharing the gospel. Yeah. You know, I mean, that's why we're doing it all.
SPEAKER_01That's wonderful. I'm thinking of I haven't done any real study on this, so don't quote me on it, but I'm thinking of like the times in like Jesus' ministry when he heals someone and it says like and he slipped into the crowd, or he said, Don't tell anybody, or and I wonder if a piece of it is because what you were talking about he's like, because it's not about me. But it is about him. Like we know that is true. But it was he modeling for us, like I am going to heal and come and bring the kingdom and you know, repair and restore, but I don't want you like I don't want you to look at me not yet. Like, no, don't look at me yet.
SPEAKER_00Wait till I'm on the cross, and that's you know, maybe but even to replace that with the local churches that we're partnered with. Yeah. I mean, it this isn't about us. If it's about anybody, it's about what Christ is doing through that church.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We're just down here helping out. Yeah. You know, um, we have no savior complex, like right. Our impact is minimal. Yeah, you know. And if we're able to make an impact at all, I mean, sometimes you come back and you're really like what is what just happened?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I my head is full, my heart is overflowing, and I'm not sure what I just did. Yeah. Oh, that's so wonderful.
SPEAKER_01So I just I in my head I'm like picturing uh a a Luhai missions team like going and building a house and then Jesus saying, like, come on, let's like slip back into the crowd. Like, you know, let's get out of the picture here. Go away. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Except they keep painting them purple.
SPEAKER_01They do. I know.
SPEAKER_00We have the all the home builds in Acunya with Huger and his teams. Um purple. They keep painting them lying purple. I mean, no.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's a good color, but wherever Nathan Hynem just went, I believe that they did a mural or something with the ASL. They did something in a mural that was like Lou High and and that's sweet, and I love that. That's so cool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Hey, on that, I want to do a quick plug because uh you brought up Nathan Heynem and what God's got going on through him with our ASL program just here at Lou High. Yes. Uh, and then how he's branching that out into missions. Um the deaf community in Jamaica uh is is a large one. Um they have a couple of different schools uh that you know serve this community. And Nathan has done a lot of work connecting with these organizations, uh, you know, building mission trips to bring our ASL students uh to those schools. And I think one of the best stories I heard out of the entire mission season last year was out of Jamaica when Nathan and his team showed up for spring break. The the person there who ran the school, he still didn't register that all of our people knew how to sign. And he told Nathan, like, we've never had a team show up where everybody could sign. Like, usually there's a a person or two who can interpret, um, but it's it's a struggle. Like there's that language barrier. Not this time, not not with that Jamaica team. And I, you know, and you know, Nathan's telling me the story. He's you know, he's tearing up and he's telling me the principal just is weeping like he's so happy.
SPEAKER_01Um, we talked a little bit about trips and trips that happened last year. I'm super curious what's on the docket for this year.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, um, a lot of you know, continuing to return to uh the trips we were on last year. Uh things that are getting added that are new. Um we're it looks like we'll be headed back to South Africa in the summer. So we have a great relationship with Oceans Ministry uh base there. Um so we'll continue to go over spring break, working with uh some people about getting a summer visit going. Nice. Um hoping some football guys can get signed up for that. Yeah, there's a there's a football push to that one. Okay. Um trying to get Coach Johnson.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that would be amazing to come.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then uh might partner up with a local rugby club there, not to play because we got to bring guys back healthy, but we could still interact, you know what I mean, and do things.
SPEAKER_02That is that is different.
SPEAKER_00So American football players from Colorado and South African rugby players. I I think that'd be a hoot, you know. So um, so yeah, so that's that's a new one. Uh we have a trip heading out in July, it looks like, to Romania. Um that is uh partnered with a local church and some outreach, some youth outreach, and then they're going to get on a train, go up to Transylvania, and then help serve out a Youth for Christ uh cool uh rally. Super cool. Yeah, yeah. So that's that's a fun one. Um we currently have Mr. Rosinski in Ethiopia on a vision trip. Yeah. Uh and that's kind of a cool partnership with some LCMS churches, and uh, we're just one small piece of a much larger, larger thing going on there. Excited for some of our Liu High students to get to see what's going on there. Yeah, um, he keeps sending the phrase culture shock back, like it's different here. So I can't wait to to hear what that means. He found a good new partner in Alaska. Um we were just there this summer, had an amazing experience. Uh, they were looking for somebody to send teams up over spring break.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00He's like, it's still dark, there's still eight feet of snow on the ground. Everybody's on spring break, but nobody comes out because there's nothing to do. Yeah. Uh and he said, I'm working with some local churches about maybe doing a spring break type VBS. And uh, would you guys be willing to bring a team? So we're putting the word out, uh, trying to get onto one of the Native American reservations, um, down at a gallop, maybe getting down on the Zuni reservation. That would be um, and like the gal said on the phone, because I kind of explained to her, here's here's my situation. I need the domestic trip. And uh said, the Native American reservation, what do you think? And she said, that is the most international domestic trip you could possibly take.
SPEAKER_01I believe that.
SPEAKER_00And it was like, yeah, yeah or I mean, technically we are in another country, you know. So um, so yeah, so there's some things we're still even working on before missions night. And uh, but by missions night, we'll have this all squared away. There's a a chance that Megan Obermuller may be kickstarting that uh all female trip down to Costa Rica again this year. Oh, yes, um really excited, excited, yeah, uh about that. And uh, and again, um it's all exciting, it's amazing getting to see God work through all of this. This has been him all the way through. Uh, but the hope at the end of the day is can we make a little bit of a positive difference wherever we're going? Um, and can our kids come back different?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know?
SPEAKER_01So I love that. Okay, to close out, you mentioned it, but I wanna I want more details. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Missions night is our biggest event of the year. Uh, it is open community-wide. Uh, there's a small little like 15-minute um thing for everybody gathered in the gym. We had to move to the gym, it's awesome. Uh, it gets crowded, so you might want to get there on time. Um, but then after that little 15-minute spiel, we have every mission team that we're or mission trip that we're going to be offering that year, uh, and the team leaders in different classrooms. Uh, we have four breakout sessions. So out of the you know, numerous trips that will be offered, hopefully you can kind of narrow it down to four. Um, you can go hear those more about those trips, you can ask questions. Uh information for all of those trips is available and uh yeah, and you know, ways to follow up. Like I need I wanted to check out six of them, and I was only able to go ask about four. Um, but usually by the time it people seem to kind of know what they're looking for.
SPEAKER_01And uh and I think some of them are like VBS kid driven, some of them are you know, get your hands dirty, do some work driven. And yeah, I think we have a good offering of just a good variety.
SPEAKER_00And I and please, please, if you're thinking about going on a Luhai mission trip, right now ask yourself, how do I like to serve?
SPEAKER_01Like great.
SPEAKER_00What is fun to me? Like, and use that word, that's fine, because that means you're getting enjoyment out of it. Yes, you know. Um and start there, like you know, we keep using the kids one, but it's like every time I work with kids, I go crazy. Yeah, okay, don't go on a BBS mission trip.
SPEAKER_01Right, it will not be your cup of tea. And that's okay, because that's how God created you. Lean into your gifts.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. So um, so hopefully people show up with that. Um, and then the big thing after uh the information uh reveal is the applications open up that night. Um Is uh a a somewhat detailed application. Um I encourage every student to take those questions seriously. I know for a fact that leaders read those and will often use those answers to determine I got one spot and two people.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What did they write on their application? And usually it's it's the meaningful thought out, you know, ones that get chosen, you know. So um, and then there's a whole rest of the process about placement and all these choices and show up to missions night, we can tell you all about that. Yes. Uh but October 4, Sunday, October 4, uh 6 o'clock. It starts in the gym here at the high school. Okay. Um, Sunday, October 4, 6 p.m. I think that's homecoming week. Uh holy cow. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So less than a month away. So put it on your calendars. Yes. Carve it out now.
SPEAKER_00And it's a busy week already. So, you know, like roll right into Sunday night. It's nice and relaxing after all the hubbub and see if God is maybe knocking on your heart to take you somewhere and do something with you. I love that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So if you guys are on the fence about missions and this is, you know, you don't have to go this year, like Mr. Garner said, just sometime in the four years you're here. We would love it for you. Um, but you can get involved in service now and anytime. So we'll have to have you back on to talk just a little about service. But we do have service specific episodes as well, um, that I will link in the show notes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Anything you want to say about service, there's always things going on. Like if you just wanna, if you're just bored one weekend and you're like, I want to go do something, just email me. There's something. We're doing something somewhere with somebody. So um, but I would say uh just one last thing about missions. Um, we are getting a steady increase of parent involvement, and we're going to have to. Um and it's not like any parent, you know, can just join any trip. The a lot of trips are specifics this way, that way, and the other way. Um, but it's clear God's bringing just some really solid people along, and uh and it's a big reason why we're able to continue to grow. So uh so if a parents out there listening, you got a heart for it, you got some experience in it. Um yeah, get a hold of me.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Sorry, one thought about the service thing. Um if you've never if you don't know how to answer the question for your missions application, if you don't know how to answer the question, how do I like to serve? A good way to start to figure it out is just to serve. So yes, please do get a hold of Mr. Garner. He can plug you into lots of different things. It's easier to do it locally. Yeah, we do a lot of stuff, so talk to him and that will help give you a good understanding direction of oh, how do I like to serve?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Because it is just how who's God made me to be? I mean, and what a wonderful question to spend the rest of your life answering. Because I think there's chapters to answering that.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it is not a one and done. We are constantly being formed. Yeah. So amazing. Mr. Garner, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Mr. Garner, thank you so much. It's always great to talk to you.
SPEAKER_04Therefore, as God's chosen people holy and dearly love.
unknownJesus, patience each other. Forgive one another.
SPEAKER_04If any of you as great, forgive us all, forgive me. Welcome to the bottom.
unknownWelcome to the little library.