We had a little gathering on Saturday for the Worship and Arts team here on Saturday that was a time of vision casting (or recasting as the case may be) and sharing about our trip to Africa this past January. I gotta tell you, seeing the pictures and video, hearing the story of one of our team members got me thinking about what an amazing time we had.
I posted a video about the trip about a month ago that was designed to be a recap, but I remember on Saturday that aside from all of the “stuff” we did there, we also had a really fun time; many of those fun times were caught on video, so I thought I share with all of you.
My wife and I watch American Idol. There, I said it. We record it, fast forward through all of the commercials weigh in on all of the people we think should be going home or staying.
All in all, it’s fairly trivial. I mean, does the world really need another pop star? In the middle of this show that celebrates our love of reality television and celebrity all in one, however, is Idol Gives Back.
Last year, this show changed my life. Watching Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell holding the hands of hurting people in Africa made me ask myself, “why are they there and I’m here?”
Jenn and I couldn’t live that way for too long and so we decided to go. Since last year’s show we: challenged a team of people, they prayed and were led, we raised money, prepared spiritually, coordinated with a team over there, went, had an unbelievable experience, and came back.
As we flew back into the states I remember thinking that my life would be forever changed, and that I would never forget. Well, I have forgotten, and my life, unfortunately has gone pretty much back to the way it was before. That is, until Idol Gives back came on again.
I haven’t seen the show yet (it’s waiting for us on DVR), but seeing Forrest Whittaker and his wife last night and their story along with some of the stories we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks of hurting people in Africa, I have to ask myself again, “Why am I not there?” or at least, “why am I not doing more, praying more, telling more people?”
I’ve heard it said that the church is the hope of the world. If that’s the case, why do only 3% of Christians nation-wide say they would give to help fight AIDS? Why do we buy up things and take vacations from our Disneyland lives to go to an even more Disneyland type of place?
I spent 12 days in Africa that I thought would change my life. It took less than 12 days for me to get back into my normal routine and to stop thinking about it.
Buying stuff and taking trips are not bad things. Having fun and enjoying the blessings God has given us are not bad things. When we can’t see past those things into the lives of people with nothing, however, then we have missed it.
Let’s pray for those who are hurting. As a church, let’s remind each other about the things we have seen. Let’s be a people that care about things beyond our bank account. Let’s be the church.
Believe it or not, there will come a day when American Idol is no longer around to raise money and sing songs that inspire. Who will do it when they’re gone? Who will do it now?
The last couple of months in my life have done a lot to change my perspective on worship. For the last year and a half I have had the opportunity to regularly lead worship in front of almost 2,ooo people every week. Somehow, getting to lead for full time missionaries in Africa and in front of 15 people on Monday, though, just felt bigger.
 For our trip to Africa we took three acoustic guitars and a cajon. We had no sound system, no amps and no confidence monitors, but we got to provide live worship for people that love it and have craved it for so long. Our friends over there don’t get the chances that we do in the states to turn on radio or go to weekly services where worship is happening.
On Monday, we were asked to lead to close the World Vision Aids Experience; a four day exhibit that gave people an opportunity to see life as a child in Africa, affected by AIDS.  Everyone in the band came from work and got there early. Jen came in on her day off and set up the entire stage and ran sound for us. We played ten songs (we sounded great by the way) and really worked hard to bring that whole thing together. After all of that work and effort, 15 people showed up. The amazing thing is that we still had an unbelievable worship experience!Â
It’s so cool to me what happens when we let God strip away all of the stuff of worship; the things that we think are vital to a great set or a great experience that, in the end, are just extra things. I think the last two months have reminded me that worship isn’t about amps or lights or huge crowds, it’s about humble hearts, and people who desire to draw closer to Jesus.
Praise God for a chance to dive in to worship and to strip away all of the stuff that doesn’t really matter.
After a week of trying to figure out this new camera and importing 10 plus hours of video, I have condensed it into a five minute video. This was our trip (the highlights anyway). What an amazing time!
I’ve been back a week and the blog is silent. My bad. I’m working on a video and getting pics uploaded to Flickr. It’s a big job along with getting ready for a new series and Easter. I’ll be working on it this weekend, but for now you can take a look at Dana’s blog and his pics.Â
the internet is not very fast in East Africa, but I wanted to write quickly and tell you that the trip has been a blast! There will be a lot of pictures and video coming, but for now, just know that it has been unbelievable. I have been riding the d-train a little bit today and am hoping that everything clears up by tomorrow. We have a long flight home and I’ll need some time to recover, but it has been unreal!
We leave for Africa in on Sunday and there is a lot to do (much of which I should be doing now instead of blogging, but that’s beside the point). Jenn and I went shopping for travel-type stuff and dropped 200 bones at Target. Granted we bought some clothes that we didn’t need for the trip, but still. It was friggin’ expensive.Â
We’ve got our itinerary now which is jam packed and has us teaching English and music at a school 4 times in our two weeks there, putting on a concert at an orphanage, making some visits to homes and praying for the country and people a lot. The details make it so much more exciting for me. It allows me to have a better idea of what we’ll be doing let’s me see a little of how we’ll be able to impact people. The fact that we get to do a lot of playing is nice too.
Between now and Sunday I’m celebrating my birthday, figuring out how to pack for this thing and preparing for the long flight over there. Honestly, the 15 - 17 hour flight over there is the thing that has me the most apprehensive. I deal pretty well with adapting to new places and the idea of being out of my comfort zone in Africa is not too scary, but I don’t sleep well on planes and so I’m trying to get all my music, books and other forms of entertainment in order so that the time will fly (pun very much intended).
This weekend our Rock the Horn ‘08 team was presented in front of the entire church, prayed for and sent out.  I am so excited about this team and what we’re going to get to do!  We found out a little more of our itinerary and we’ll be spending a lot of time teach music and english to kids and leading worship at a local orphanage as well as making visits to homes and drinking a lot of coffee (a major export in the part of the world we’re going to). Â
When Jenn and I were searching for a church to hire me, we spent 10 months learning what we were looking for. We felt like we wanted to be in a place where we could be involved in other areas of ministry in addition to music and in particular, we wanted to be involved in missions. Well ask and you shall receive I suppose because now, Jenn and I are going, with 10 other people from our church to the horn of Africa. In January we’re taking off for two weeks and helping missionsaries that are already there impact the lives of the people there. It’s really exciting. Perhaps the coolest part of this whole thing is that a bulk of the team is made up of people from our Worship and Arts department here at the church. Three of the guys from the band and two singers are going which is incredibly exciting. Because of the make up of the team, the name of our trip is "Rock the Horn ‘08." I’m pretty excited about it so I thought I’d share the logo with you, which was designed by one of the guys on the team, named Justin.
We’ve got a long way to go with support raising and preparing spiritually and culturally, but it’s going to be an exciting time for sure!
My name is Paul Haugen and I am the Music Director at Clovis Hills Community Church. This is me; no pretense, no show, just who I am, quirks and all. This is the Open Door.
