NMC Adventure - Not interested in Religion

Carl Medearis - Author and speaker.

National Ministry Conference (NMC) is where Canadian, and some international YFC'ers meet up once a year. We talk, we chase our kids through the crowd, catch other peoples kids, and listen to speakers.

As I sat in my comfy chair I watched this middle aged man who looked more like he spent most of his time relaxing in Hawaii than doing missionary work between Christians and Muslims. His name was Carl.
Some people called him Mr. Carl.

He was introduced as a man who "truly knew Jesus" and it made me curious. He didn't strike me as the super pious of the group. He looked more like he would sit back and relax with a beer and tell you a tale of his childhood. A funny, but relaxed man.

As he came up on stage to speak he began with what he did and how he managed to start into working between Muslim and Christian organizations. He had a hearty laugh and was a great story teller.

He finally came to the place where I now remember his talks. He was talking about one of his first times speaking at a Mosque. They had asked him to speak about Jesus. As he was going up to the stage area,  the man who was in charge of the place ran up behind him. Carl thought for sure the man had decided to call the whole thing off. But instead the man said..

"Carl ... Carl..." running up behind him. " Please, only speak about Jesus. Not about Christianity or religion. Only Jesus".

A remarkable statement really.

So Carl, went up on stage and began to tell all the parables from the gospels. He avoided the books of Paul and just tried to keep directly to the 4 gospels. After he was done he simply said he was finished at which point the peopled said..."More...More Carl! One more Hour!!"
So He said he tried to continue and got maybe about another 20 good minutes in before he started petering out.

And then it dawned on him that he only knew Jesus enough to talk about him for and hour and 20 minutes.

But that's all they wanted to know.
Skip all that church part and religion and Christianity and everything else. Tell me about Jesus! what is HE like?? Who is he??

Carl doesn't associate himself with the title Christian because he noted that over the years the real meaning in that title has been lost and now almost anybody will call themselves that. So he specifies that he is a follower of Jesus. When people say their not interested in religion. He says "good. me neither". because he finds no worth in religious or pious acts. But only in knowing his Lord Jesus.

He's written a few books on his travels into lands that are strong muslim areas. Places where many Christians won't go.

Christians, Muslims and Jesus
and
Speaking of Jesus - the art of non-evangelism.

Carl Medearis
Here is a site where you can view more of this guys speaking or books.

http://www.carlmedearis.com/free-stuff/audio.php

Ghandi once said...."I like your Christ but I don't like your Christians" (parapharased)



What are we sharing with the world?

Do we share our church? or do we share our Lord?

Are we excited to show off our church programs and how attractive our pastors can speak? Or do we want people to be introduced to our amazing Lord Jesus and to experience his awesomeness?

Do we know our Lord? Or do we only know our religion?

Close to Home

If you knew that your child was somehow ill because they were eating rotting food each day, you would definitely act to the best of your ability to stop that.  The fact is that rotting food can and will make a person sick and over time would lead to awful conditions in a persons physical makeup.



But what if I told you that food allergies and sensitives are just like that too.

Here's my story.

My oldest son is now 4 and doing very well. But it wasn't always like that. He was one of those children that just was not a very content baby. Then he moved into being an extremely moody toddler till finally at the age of nearly 2 he became uncontrollable in his behaviour and I didn't even want to leave the house or go anywhere with him. Me, my son and my new baby at that time became shut ins as it were.  My husband was working long farming hours and tried to be of assistance to the growing problem, but wasn't really aware of the seriousness of it until near the end.

My oldest son who had started out with huge moodiness at around 1yr old or so had grown into all out tantrums that would include throwing himself to the ground and continually banging his head on the floor with no regard for the pain it was inflicting. It was extremely painful to see. And would go on for an hour at a time and several times throughout the day . He also had begun to bite himself on the arm in frustration.  He would yell and cry and scream these schrill screams and then lash out with hitting.  Underlining things I didn't notice until after was that he would often grip his stomach or head and never had a solid stool ever. These should have been warning signs but he was my first child.
Now any person would easily say, he needs to go to the doctor. His aunt has extreme autism and most probably were suspecting that he had autism as well.

I'm a Christian so I was praying all the time for healing or that God would teach me to be a good mom, because obviously I was doing something totally wrong for my kid to act like this all through the day. Near the end I just prayed for deliverance because quite frankly I thought some evil had got ahold of him and I had no idea what was going on.

One day I finally gave in and went down to the health unit in town to get a professional opinion. I wasn't sure what they would think of me as a mom. I was afraid they would take my kids away telling me I was doing it all wrong! I was more afraid they would want to put him on some medication that would just dope him up. But I just couldn't let my son go on like that. It was horrible to see and have nothing console him.
They did an assessment briefly and said they'd send someone over to observe him at home. At the same time I finally made an appointment with my family naturopath for some food allergy testing. I myself have a particular egg white allergy that makes me moody.
I had the appointment with the lady from the health unit the same day I had the naturopath testing in the afternoon. When the lady came my son played on the floor with one car back and forth over and over. She noted his non enthusiastic attitude. He was pale. Although I wasn't sure how to fix that. And sure enough after a little bit he threw a tantrum on the floor with his head banging away.
I just sat there and waited for him to finish. She looked at me surprized slightly at my non action.
"If your wondering why I'm not doing anything..." I said "its because this is what people have advised me to do. To ignore him when he acts like this. To walk away and give him no attention. That this is just a phase and it will pass. But its just been getting worse. I've tried to comfort him but he only gets worse from that too." She paused and thought about the situation. Then comforted my efforts and said she would come back with an action plan on this.  To this day I am glad that she actually viewed what had been going on because so few people had seen him lash out.
That afternoon I brought him to the naturopath for the food testing.  After we arrived I dreaded the idea of sitting through even a 15 min wait for fear of him lashing out and screaming. Those days I often got to carrying him around like a bag of luggage under my arm so that I wouldn't be kicked in the exit.
I gave him my cell to watch netflix and the doctor did the test, 10 minutes and it was done. No scratching or anything like that. Just an current from a machine through your hand and back to the machine.
It came out Wheat, Egg Whites, Cows Milk, All the food colours, sulphites and oranges.
I knew the egg whites well. This allergy had caused me many an argument and yelling at my home.  It was like a thorn in my side that when I stopped eating eggs I wondered how I ever survived emotionally before that point. It literally just changed the way I looked at life and the people around me.

We took my son off everything for 6 weeks. However, within the first 4-6 days of taking him off the food we seen a drastic difference. We could go outside again. He was calm. He had solid stool. He was content. Smiling. He was like a different kid.
As time went on off the foods he's felt better and better. His speech is increasing and so are his social skills. The lady from the health unit helped to get him into regular daycare to give me rest and help him grow. Fantastic. But I know even she noted the huge difference it had on him.
Turned out that the wheat and cows milk were giving him a reaction similar to a gluten allergy. So it damaged his intestinal track and he wasn't able to absorb nutrients. This added to his paleness, lack of reaction, grabbing of his stomach and diarrhoea. The wheat/gluten also gave him headachs. The egg whites contributed to his sever anger and mood swings. The food color gave multiple problems like headaches and attention span issues.

I work at a youth centre and since that time I have noticed two separate youth who have got the food testing done and had anger issues. One is just on the 6 week stage and I hope it will give the life change it did for our family. The other one had different allergies than mine except the egg too. But she noted the anger and paranoia that came with eating egg whites.

For a better understanding of how these food have drastically changed peoples lives there is a great article on this and how it affects people with schizophrenia, alcohol addictions and much more. The education that food can actually change the way your brain works is new to the medical field but very relevant.

This is the link to topics of foods and how they can affect the brain function,
http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/brainallergies.htm

We often complain that our kids are on too much prescription drugs and acting out. But like my son, it wasn't his actual normal behavior. It was his REaction to what he was eating.

Here's another site to finding a great naturopath in your area.
http://findanaturopath.com/301/
The allergy testing they do at the doctor is different from the one at the naturopaths. However, I don't have the information here to explain the differences.

In conclusion, as I work in a youth centre and am around youth all the time I so often see your average young person, diagnosed with some odd thing like personality disorder or bipolar or whatnot. Or I see a average person who is unusually skinny and tired. And I can't help but think to myself...I wonder if its what they are eating.

High School

Being at the high school reminds me of being in high school. Many many years ago as it were.

The lighting is still in need of improvement. The halls are still packed at break and there is a overwhelming sense of insecurity in the piles of teenagers who are still trying to figure out who they are and what they want to be.

Its a society all of its own. No wonder teens often spout off to their parents that they don't know what their talking about and its like their from a different planet. They are! Parents are from the reality outside of school and teens live in the society within school. Which now happens to include txting and social networking.

So here is a crash course on High School Society. First. Learn to dress. Which never is learned. Either your too colourful or too dark. Too masculin or too femine (and thats for both guys and gals). Your too fat or too thin. It doesn't matter what you wear or what you look like - Its never whats in style!!!

Confidence is in style.

Next, you need to choose if you'll do your work well or slack off. Because this will make you accepted into totally different groups. If you are good at your work and get good grades, don't brag.

Could I dare to venture to say that sports are for kids from families with money??? well. That's not 100%. Its just that quite frankly sports participation costs. And if its not in the equipment, its in the travel.

What if your an introvert.?? Well keep your head low. Forbid that you should say something and draw attention to yourself. Who knows what kind of attention it would bring. Best to keep in the books. Hang out in the library. Hang out in the music or computer rooms. Anywhere where you can disappear!

In the high school there is so many different groups its hard to keep track.
But one thing remains the same.
They really just want someone to make contact. To say hello or even notice that they exist!. To cheer them on or sit quietly and share the space.

You think I'm talking about myself. But I'm not.

Jesus is like that. He shares your space.