No More Superheroes?

A few evenings ago, I had an interesting conversation with my 21 year old son, Nathaniel. He was sharing about a discussion he had with some friends about why many of his generation seems so disconnected and uninterested in church or other ministry endeavors.

“Every since we were little,” he said, “we’ve been surrounded by fantastic stories, cartoons, video games, and movies where young heroes take on the challenge of some amazing quest—a quest that ultimately defines their life purpose and inner character. And despite incredible odds, those superheroes are able to vanquish their threat and win the day, usually in 90 minutes or less!” By the time they hit college age, the dividing line in their minds between fact and fantasy has actually become somewhat blurred to the point where they too feel their own lives should be about striving for some great quest. But instead, he explains, when his peers measure real life experience (including church) against these imaginary heroes and situations, the excitement of reality pales in comparison. “It seems they end up with one of two different reactions,” he continued. They either become frustrated, un-enamored, and disengaged adopting a “what’s the use of trying?” attitude. Or else they adopt a radical spirit and charge into some cause or another in order to “fix” as many wrongs of the world as possible. In either case, Nathaniel noted, they are not finding many existing Christian institutions able to satisfy the seeds of “super-heroism” planted for years in their subconscious minds and be meaningfully involved in a quest where they can make a difference in the world—especially one that can be accomplished quickly.

So, what do we say to a generation that has been raised believing that Star Wars, Iron Man or Lord of the Rings are more real than real? Do we simply tell them to “grow up” and put away their childish fantasies? Or is it possible that there is a new type of “hero” we could introduce them to, one involved in equally meaningful quests in our world today?

Here at Partners International, we have the unique privilege of creating partnerships with national ministries led by incredibly visionary men and women. These folks are tackling some of the toughest challenges imaginable right within their own communities. From rescuing young women in Bangalore brothels to caring for the distressed of Darfur to creating sustainable business opportunities on the Tibet plateau, these ministries are demonstrating the Good News of Christ in realistic, practical and sustainable ways. True, their solutions are not always quick and easy, but they are certainly effective in changing their corners of the world.

I’m convinced the more we have a chance to connect my son’s generation to these real-live “superheroes” of today’s mission world, the more Nathaniel and his friends will find plenty of opportunity to find personal fulfillment and life purpose by participating in God’s ultimate quest: proclaiming Real Hope to a lost world.

New Thoughts on Real Hope

Our byline at Partners International is: Real Hope. Real Change. Real Partnership.

To me, these words grab the essence of what we want our organization to be known for. But words like hope, change, and partnership can be easily get overused, and lose their significance.

Yesterday at breakfast, my wife and I were reading in a devotional book by J.I Packer and came across this outstanding quote on the concept of hope:

While there’s life, there’s hope, we say, but the deeper truth is that only while there’s hope there is life. Take away hope, and life, with all its fascinating variety of opportunities and experiences, reduces to mere existence—uninteresting, ungratifying, bleak, drab and repellent, a burden and a pain. Hope generates energy, enthusiasm and excitement; lack of hope breeds only apathy and inertia.

I believe what Partners International has to offer brings hope at several different levels. First, it’s positioned as an organization that is ready to seek out and enable national, indigenous leaders, especially emerging leaders, and come along side them with resources and training that specifically gives them hope of fulfilling their God-given visions. Second, when those visions take on substance as mature, national ministry organizations they, in turn, bring hope to so many other people struggling both physically and spiritually in the hard places of the world. Finally, the bottom line of all this partnership and ministry effort is that many more people would come to see and know Jesus Christ as the ultimate Real Hope both today and for all Eternity.

As Packer says above, where there’s hope, there’s life. What a privilege it has been to see people, leaders and ministries alike take on new life as they experience renewed hope that has resulted from caring partner relationships.

Million Milestone

Yesterday, I ordered this cake made and brought it up to the Spokane Airport with the following letter.  Thought it would be fun to share it with all of you:

Dear United Staff, Spokane Base,

Last Friday, June 4, 2010, coming home to Spokane on UA 0583, I passed the one million milestone on United Airlines!

I’m sure you have a lot of customers who have flown much more than that on United, but for me this is a significant milestone because it represents God’s graciousness to me for an incredible number of hours in the air that have all happened safely and without a single significant mishap.

Actually, these one million miles on United are only a fraction of the total amount of flying I have been involved ever since 1977. When we moved to Spokane in 2003, I decided to start keeping track of and logging every single leg of a flight I have made here in the US and around the world. (Perhaps it’s part of a habit I developed years ago as a missionary bush pilot in Africa.) As of last Friday, I’ve flown 776,697 miles and spent 1,733 hours in the air on 614 individual flights just during these past seven years.

Because of my role in leading an international non-profit Christian mission organization, my role takes me to many unusual and remote places around the world. My guess is that for every mile on United, I spend another two miles on other airlines—particularly those in Third World countries. As a result, there are a lot of stories I could tell. And, although I am so thankful that I’ve never been on any flight that has had a major incident, there certainly have been plenty of “interesting” moments, such as:

• An Ethiopian Airlines 727 that ingested a large bird over the Nairobi, Kenya game park that totally demolished the center engine. The pilot had to dump fuel to make it back for a safe landing!
• An Air Mongolia landing at Beijing, that was so hot and fast the pilot had breaks screeching down the entire length of the runway and only got stopped at the VERY end!
• An Air France 747 with one of the very first auto-landing systems that made it on the ground at Charles DeGaul, Paris in zero-zero visibility only to have to shut down right in the middle of the runway and be guided by a “follow-me” truck because it was impossible to see even the edge of the taxiway.
• An Air Afrique Airbus out of Mauritania for Marseille with a furloughed Pan Am crew who finally invited me to sit up front with them so I could translate from French to English in order to understand what the cabin crew and the tower were trying to tell them!
• An Air Zaire 737 where the pilot also invited me up front only to discover he was using a portable GPS unit on the dashboard as his main navigation gear!
• A charter flight in Congo on a Shorts 360 with so many passengers, the pilot just decided to have me STAND right behind his seat for the entire flight!
• The coldest flight ever in a Tupolev 134 in Kazakhstan where I was literally scraping the ice off the INSIDE wall and window next to my seat.

As you can probably imagine, I could go on and on.

What I would like to say to all of you, however, is how much I have appreciated the service I have received over the years on United. I know that circumstances always arise to make air travel difficult, especially during the present time we live in. I’m sure you all deal with plenty of passenger complaints of one type or another. I’ve probably heard as many of them as you have. But, from my experience over all these years of flying commercial airlines is that United has provided me with a solid consistency that I have grown to appreciate.

So, although the food may be better on South African Airlines, the flight attendants younger and cuter on Air Asia and the entertainment system a lot more entertaining on Singapore Airlines, I, for one, am quite satisfied and grateful for the safe and dependable service I have received in traveling all of those one million miles on United Airlines!

Thanks for all you do in keeping up the “friendly skies!”

Jon Lewis