Mitch Rumppe – 7th-12th Grade Leader

A year ago all I knew was that God wanted me to commit to a life in full time ministry. God had spoken to my heart and told me to dedicate the next two years to Snohomish, my hometown. I figured that it was probably a good idea to obey what God had spoken to me. So I interned with Central Christian Church, a church that I had been attending for 5 years with my family. Over the course of the year my life was wrecked, stressed, strained, tested, redeemed, rebuilt, but most importantly I had a confirmation in my soul that I was taking my life on a path that it was designed for. There is a peace in that confirmation that can surpasses all the chaos that surrounds.

That peace was tested this summer when some major chaos stirred the waters of my day to day. Central’s leadership felt called to take the church in a new direction, and with that there were some changes that took place. With any change there is always a ripple that is caused, and it is our responsibility to choose how we react to these ripples in our waters. I was offered an opportunity to take over the Jr. High and High School ministry at Central Christian Church, and that offer was overwhelming to say the least. It led me to a place of doubt. I am twenty years old what do I know? What do I have to offer? Who can I help? I found myself in a tough place, but I could not forget the calling God had given me to stay in Snohomish for two years. It wasn’t stay in Snohomish till things get tough, tricky, or complicated. It was stay in Snohomish for two years. After solid time on my knees praying over the situation, I found myself in the prayer room of another local church before their nighttime service. Spirit filled hands were placed on my shoulders, and all the weight that they were carrying was taken away. I hadn’t expressed my concerns to these people, as a matter of fact I had never met them before, but when they began to pray they named everything I was doubting in myself as if they had known me for years. They spoke hope into my life, and confirmed that God not only wanted me to take the opportunity, but he was going to be by my side the entire time.

Long story short I accepted the offer, and am taking my life on a brand new adventure. Last week I launched my Wednesday night youth group, and I knew that I was exactly where I needed to be. Amongst the hectic surroundings of games consisting of kids shoving chicken nuggets into their mouths, pool stick being used as jousting spears, kids giving each other noogies, and climbing up walls like Peter Parker I felt at home. That peace in my heart surpassed the chaos, and all I can say is glory to God. This year is a year of looking at ripples as opportunities, letting Jesus claim every aspect of my life, and offering my body as a living sacrifice Holy and pleasing to God.

I am excited to see how God is going to show up in my life, and in the lives of my students. Each week I will be recapping the lesson and the response that took place at youth group, and hopefully I can offer some encouragement to anyone who chooses to read. If you’re reading this I want you to know that I love you and that you are being prayed for right now.

God Bless,

Mitch Rumppe

My wonderful friend Leeana wrote an amazing book called Found Art, which I highly recommend. In it, she tells the story of her first year of marriage, which so happened to take place in a foreign country, while her husband was serving in the military. After many years back in the United States, Steve is again stationed in Bahrain, and Leeana is with him again, and this time they have children. In a recent blog post, Leeana quotes her own book, and recounts how she had been walking around, with the lights out in her own soul, and yet in the souq, she felt that she was coming alive. In a souq of all places. It was an unusual place, in a foreign land, that God used to heal her. She had this to say about it:

“God has a way of taking the most unsuspecting elements and using them to bind us up. When the miracle happens, when he touches our eyes with these elements and we are able to see, we realize that even dirt and spit contain a beauty all their own. . . .”

I think that I allowed a part of me to grow dim some time ago. I realized it last week, about the time that I read Leeana’s blog post, that deep inside, God is healing part of me. I have a tendency to compartmentalize my life, and there are some compartments that have been almost rusted shut. I couldn’t feel anything in those parts of my life, I couldn’t see anything. They were just there, in the background, but not really there at all. Broken, and yet I didn’t spend the emotional energy to ask God to heal them, to allow Him to do work on them, I just journeyed on. I concentrated on what was easier, what wasn’t so broken, and ignored the part of me that felt incapable of emotion. Until recently. Until God just showed me that He has every desire to make me completely whole. That He won’t allow me to live only half alive. He is healing the very part of me where my lights had gone out, in ways that I couldn’t see. He is using unusual things, things foreign to me. I can’t describe it really, I just know that I was driving home one night and realized what it was like to feel something that I didn’t know I ever would again. And I know that ability to feel came from God, from His healing mixture that He placed on the broken parts of my soul.

The thing that I can describe is the beauty of it. How as I come to feel alive in every way, how much I love the freedom that comes with it, and how much I long to praise God for it. I can’t believe that He cares so much more then I thought He did, and I can’t believe how wonderful His gifts are. I read somewhere, I can’t remember where, that one day, we will reach a place where the difficulty of our journey will be eclipsed by the joy of what we receive from God, that the difficulties of our journey will be nothing in light of eternity. And in the meantime, I think we should take the time to allow God to heal the parts of us that are dim, or dying. I know He longs to. I know He longs to do it today, long before we reach heaven. I believe that He wants us to start experiencing wholeness here on earth. It won’t be perfect, but it’s a glimpse of heaven. It’s part of living life to the full (John 10:10).

Seriously, everyone should go get Leeana’s book. It’s so good.

This last few months has been interesting for me. I have had highs and lows. I’ve cried so many tears of pain that I can’t imagine that I could even have tears left, and laughed hard enough to cry any tears that I did in fact have still in me. I have been hit with things that I would have never seen coming, both for the good and the bad. I’ve said tough goodbyes, that have left empty spaces in my heart, and questioned why we must disconnect from those we love. I’ve felt numb so often, putting up walls to try to keep emotions at bay because I didn’t even know how to interact with all that was going on, but ended up allowing myself to enter the deep pain that was indeed residing in my heart for the sole purpose of pushing through it. The levels of frustration, stress, and anxiety in my life reached record highs, and record lows. I’ve hoped, and felt let down for doing so. And yet, I’ve chosen to hope again. I have bemoaned the grey northwest days, claiming that the skies matched the feelings in my hurting soul, and a few short days later realized that I might actually be ok with living in Snohomish for a long time to come. In case you weren’t aware, that is quite the claim for a sunshine-loving big city girl. I’ve taken risks that I normally wouldn’t, done things I would have never thought, and experienced more joy and peace in those times than I would have thought. I guess this season, with all its highs and lows, is somehow, someway, good for me. Because somewhere along the way, I’ve learned more about God, and myself. I hate saying that, because it feels so very cliche, like what every Christian should say in the midst of craziness, but I’ve found that it’s just so true. I have actually reached a point where I don’t regret all bad that’s happened, although I’m still in the middle of the messy process of grieving some really tough losses, and I am well aware that more losses are ahead. Despite knowing that pain is still surrounding me and in front of me, I can say that I am beginning to truly believe that God loves me, and that that love will, in the words of Rob Bell, win in the end. I guess I am learning to look at things a bit differently. God is moving, albeit in His timing, and His timing doesn’t match mine. I am also realizing that our moments of greatest pain can lead us to a time of fantastically joyful memories. What we do to survive, the ways we reach out for help, the prayers we pray in desperation from a feeling of emptiness, allows something new and different to enter in. When we are empty of all we think we know, of all the things we think are perfect and right for us, when we remove all that we hold tight to and ask God to help us out of the despair, we get to experience something that we would have never imagined, and usually that something is truly beautiful. I know that it’s beautiful because that’s the pattern, that’s the story of God. That’s what redemption from sin is, God creating something beautiful out of the despair. I don’t know what will happen next in my life, but I do know that even if it really sucks, God will create something beautiful with it. That doesn’t mean I would be super excited to walk a hard road, but it does mean that I am willing to walk it.

A recent article gives information on how much sleep teenagers need, and how to help them get it. Check it out here, and then let me know your thoughts below.

I don’t know what I thought that not speaking for 25 hours was going to be like, but it’s different than I imagined so far.

I am participating in Invisible Children’s latest global event 25, during which participants are asked to be silent for 25 hours on behalf of the children in Uganda and the Sudan who haven’t been able to speak for themselves for the duration of a 25 year war. Participants are supposed to carry paper with them, so that they have a way to communicate, and they are supposed to make sure that they’re not using the silence as an excuse not to work, or to be a trouble maker. I figured that could handle that. I’m sassy, but I don’t normally purposefully cause trouble. Starbucks already knows my coffee order, so it’s not like I have to say anything there, and I can google chat my intern for our meeting on Monday morning. It should all work out. 25 hours should be no big deal. At the conclusion of the 25 hours, you’re supposed to go to a Break the Silence event, but the closest one for me is in Portland, and a 3 hour drive each way is not something I’m feeling for a Monday night, but other than that, I figured I could rock this.

And I don’t want to say that I can’t do it, because I can. I’m fairly determined. But this is way harder than I thought. So far, I have only broken the silence once, to tell the dog “no” because she was trying to eat chocolate. That seems reasonable I guess. And I almost completely gave in when a friend called and needed my help, but Facebook chat saved the day there. Oh yeah, did I mention that I’m still texting and Facebook chatting? I’m definitely only as silent as an American can be I guess. I feel like I’m cheating. But even with those cheats, this is tough! Which got me thinking…that’s kinda the point.

Sure, this attracts international attention. The event was on Oprah before it even happened. But there are now 90,000 people out there that understand what its like to not have a voice. I can’t imagine not being heard. And not being seen. Crying out for help and no one is coming to your rescue because they can’t hear you, or the ones that can hear simply don’t care to rescue you. That would be absolutely horrific. I feel like you would plummet into the depths of a type of loneliness that words couldn’t even describe.

I don’t live near my family. I don’t live near many of my closest friends. And the cost of a plane ticket to be with them is often beyond me, so I definitely get lonely, but I know without a doubt that I am not alone, and that I am seen, and heard, and cared for. I literally feel sick when I think of people who are not as lucky, especially when they’re children. I don’t understand why it’s that way, why I am here, in America, and others are there, in Uganda and the Sudan, but I know that’s how it is. So I want to do all that I know that I can do…speak up on their behalf. I want to be an advocate for those without a voice. And for the next day, I will do that without speaking at all. Kinda weird. And definitely a challenge. But it’s good to think about things differently.

I use my voice a lot, I like to talk. And I really do try use my voice on the behalf of others as often as I can. So maybe I can learn a different way of doing things. How can I help someone without talking? I guess I can listen more. Or I can think more, write more, and read more. I can definitely pray more. And listen to God more.

I don’t have to talk to express care to someone. I don’t have to talk to be an advocate. I don’t have to talk to change the world. I really don’t. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have something to say. I’m just going to have to be more creative in how I express it. Good thing that I’m up for the challenge!

If you’re a 25 participant, say holla! Just not out loud…that would defeat the point.
Leave your comments below.

I tend to say that I’m obsessed with things. I don’t mean to say it to minimize the importance of the term, because I know that there are those who deal with obsession as part of a disorder, and I know that’s serious. But for me, the term is simply my way of expressing the fact that when I get into something, I get super into it.

And one thing that I am fairly obsessed with is people’s stories. I love to hear where people have been, and where they are now, and where they want to go. But recently, I have become obsessed with another type of story: redemption’s story. Actually, maybe it’s more the theme of most individual’s stories. At least the good ones.

Redemption’s story is taking what has been, and watching God breathe life into it, redeem it, and heal it. And we all have areas that need healing. Not one of us can say that our life has been so perfectly easy that it doesn’t need to be redeemed. But while the conclusion of redemption’s story can be so lovely and life giving, it is not an easy process to live through. Healing comes after pain. And pain is…painful. And I find that often in an effort to avoid pain, we choose to live in a way that seems like it will be easier so that pain will not come. But if we do that, so often we take away our chance to live redemption’s story.

Because unfortunately, the more we try to live in safety, the more closed off we are to God. It isn’t our intent. But it happens. Because in order to be safe, we have to try to shut things out. Usually what we are ultimately shutting out is love. We try to put up walls in order to make sure that what comes into our lives is pre-approved by us, and we only want to let the safe in. Safe is mediocre though. And true love, love that is not mediocre, is certainly not safe. And God is love. To know love, and to give love, and to receive love, is to risk.

I will risk a lot. I will take chances with my work and with my physical safety sometimes, but with my heart, I am not so willing to risk. I want to protect it from brokenness, because it has been broken before. So I tend to try to keep people away from my heart. Because if you let them in, if people get near to your heart, you don’t have control over what they will do with it. But in keeping people at arm’s length, I also keep God at arm’s length. I hold Him away, because honestly, when it comes down to it, I just don’t understand love. I want to, if I could ever figure out how to do it…without pain, and with total safety. But I know it doesn’t work that way.

And I don’t know why that is. I don’t feel like that’s fair. If love is so awesome, it should be awesomely safe. I know that in a broken world, that’s simply not possible. I know that in my head. So my head says to take the risk, because God is worth it. And I do love God. I just don’t always let Him love me. And I love people. I just don’t always let them love me. I know that’s fear. I know that’s my need to be in control. I know that’s pride too. I get it. But what I have been finding is that God is forcing me to give up those things, those walls of fear, control and pride that bring unintended isolation. He’s doing it a bit at a time, but He’s doing it. Through people. Through His Word. Through stripping away what I thought I knew and what I thought I could count on. So that at the end of a day, I might not know anything else, but I will know His love.

The other night I was driving and I heard this song. I must have listened to it on repeat for over an hour, just drinking in the lyrics, praying them, and owning them. It reminded me of all of this that I’ve been processing through. And these the lyrics express it all better than my rambling mess of thoughts could.

There’s a better version of me * That I can’t quite see * But things are gonna change * Right now I’m a total mess and right now I’m completely incomplete * But things are gonna change * Cause You’re not through with me yet

This is redemption’s story * With every step that I’m taking * Every day, You’re chipping away what I don’t need * This is me under construction * This is my pride being broken * And every day I’m closer to who I’m meant to be * I’m a change in the making

Wish I could live more patiently * Wish I could give a little more of me * Without stopping to think twice * Wish I had faith like a little child * Wish I could walk a single mile without tripping on my own feet * But You’re not through with me yet

From the dawn of history * You make new and You redeem * From a broken world, to a broken heart, You finish what you start in everything * Like a river rolls into the sea we’re not who were going to be * But things are going to change

Hey CSM! If you are planning on coming to the Spring Break Extravaganza, download a permission slip for Sky High Sports here: http://sea.jumpskyhigh.com/downloads.php and have your parents sign it and bring it with you on Wednesday at 1pm. See you all then!