Posted in General Articles by Dan Norman on 11/14/2007
Over the past few weeks I have began to question my place in the World Race. After a lot of prayer I have decided to not go on the World Race. I want to thank those that have supported me thus far. Just a quick note AIM is going to allow me to use the support I have raise so far to go on a different AIM trip.
In planning for a year overseas and with the amazing training that AIM gives us, I feel like something has been brought alive with me. If you are interested in following that check out the new blogspot blog at http://www.dannorman.blogspot.com/
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Posted in General Articles by Dan Norman on 10/23/2007
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I know all of you have been wondering where this amazing adventure is going to take me...Below is a sample Itinerary of the World Race. This is where the January team went this year and I believe all the articles below are from the January race. There is a good chance that my route will be very similar but you never know. Nothing has been officially announced yet but I will keep you posted.
There is something stirring in the hearts of young people today - a holy unrest, a small voice that whispers, "You were meant for more." The World Race takes people on a journey in search of God's heart. Below are some stops on that trek. The itinerary changes every year, but here's a sample: |
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Mexico |
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  So, rewind back to Mexico. By the end of our stay in Arroya Palinque, the locals had let go of their watertower suspicions of us and had really started to show us their beautiful golden smiles. They finally warmed up; I loved it. It was priceless. Read more at Reminiscing Mexico over greasy chicken in Antigua
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Guatemala |
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 Today I added one more thing to my growing list of once in a lifetime experiences. I got to climb an active volcano! It was absolutely amazing! Read more at Lovin' Guatemala!!
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Nicaragua |
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  While we were finishing up our last week in Mexico, we were told about the potential ministry sites in Nicaragua. There were three possibilities - one of them being dump ministry. My home for the month is among the people who live in the barrios surrounding the dump. He is drawing me to the "poorest of the poor", the "outcasts of the outcasts," the "nobodies among the nobodies," the "forgotten among the forgotten." Read more at Down in the Dumps
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Costa Rica |
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 As we were saying goodbyes, a flood of memories came back to me of all the great things that happened here in Costa Rica… I mean just look at this picture. Does that look like the heart of a lonely old man dying inside anymore? Christ gave him back his life! And now he is living it to the full. Read more at pura vida
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Argentina |
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  I really loved the feeling of the people and the culture of the city of Buenos Aires. I went to my first soccer/futbol match and loved it. So far it wins the award for my favorite city of the World Race. Read more at Boca es mi passion
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Peru |
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  Hey everybody! We all arrived really early this morning in Lima, Peru. We got off the bus after mucho hours of travel and there were a ton of people from the church waiting to welcome us and give us giant hugs. It was so precious. I was super tired but felt touched by the love of the people. Read more at I'm in Peru!
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South Africa |
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 Our last night in Africa was spent enjoying the native flora and fauna of the land. Our kruger Safari a few weeks ago satisfied our appetite for watching the lions sleep, hearing the baboons howl, smelling the elephant dung and even touching baby snakes... Read more at "Chow Down" - Adios Africa!
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Mozambique |
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  The time we have spent in Africa has been amazing. God is so good, and I am so thankful for this adventure he is taking me on… I think we all know that Africa is in need, but to come here and see it makes me want to do all I can to help them. I want to encourage the body of Christ to come to Africa or to look at Africa and ask God what you can do. I want to encourage the body of Christ to come to Africa or to look at Africa and ask God what you can do. Read more at Consuming Fire in Mozambique
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Swaziland |
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  Here we were 3 women in the middle of the bush in Swaziland, in a place that has hardly seen foreign missionaries, showing them that God sees them and knows them and loves them... And people asked for prayer for happiness, for people in their family to stop dying, for healing for family members dying of AIDS, for children that had run away, for their babies to stop being sick, for children that were psychotic, the list continues. Read more at In the land of Swazi
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Botswana |
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  We arrived in Maun, Botswana last week. Yes...it is right in the middle of the desert. This is actually the Africa I was waiting to experience. Even desiring this experience, I am getting a glimpse into why the Israelites were so frustrated with wandering around the desert for 40 years. Read more at Life In The Desert
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Thailand |
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 I have not been able to sleep much since we have arrived in Thailand. It is right here. My mind and heart has been caught up with 'the girls'. It is happening all around you. I can hear their cries in my spirit. Look around and see it. The oppressive spirit is sinking into my bones. Though not outwardly visible, it is here. Do not be tricked. My being cannot rest... Read more at Bangkok
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China |
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 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4. That was my exact prayer today because the desires of my heart were for the Lord to touch this little boys life in ways that he couldn't comprehend. I had just come from the internet and decided to chat with Sarah outside our room when the head monk asked us if we would like to join him for a ritual. We were a little perplexed but gladly agreed. Read more at From Boy to Monk
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Posted in General Articles by Dan Norman on 9/27/2007
While at dinner with friends in a small group from church, someone began talking about Jentezen Franklin, pastor of Free Chapel, a large church in Gainesville where AIM is located. While at training in April we had the opportunity to attend Free Chapel on Easter Sunday.
Easter Sunday at Free Chapel was an experience. Growing up in a VERY small church I wasn't entirely prepared for the things I would see. Here's the short list:
-Buses to take people from the parking lot to the sanctuary
-Lions and Lambs (yes real ones)
-Kids on Hollywood style trolleys as angels dangling from the ceiling
As I was talking about this and what some of my first thoughts were, I said, "I just don't know, it all seemed a little like a big show to me." I was a little surprised when I heard someone say, "Well you're in America and that's what you have to do. Really you are competing with everything else that vies for peoples attention."
On the ride home I began thinking about this conversation. I was thinking about this "We need to entertain" mentality vs. the surge of twenty-something's who are returning to the more traditional form's of worship (hymns, liturgy, etc). I wonder how would Jesus react if he physically walked into one of the more "seeker friendly" services Would he react in the same manner as he did in the temple in Mark 11, or would he go up and give the pastor a big high five and tell him "Awesome job, dude." I wonder how much to we take away or nullify the Gospel of Christ in an effort put butts in pews.
Saying all that I guess I should say, I do go to a church with "contemporary" worship. In fact we are getting ready to put a show on for the community. We are bringing in a Christian blues player, Jimmie Bratcher, to play and tell his story.
So what's this about? Is this just an opportunity for me to gripe and complain about the flaws I see in the bride or does it serve an actual purpose? I guess what I'm trying to figure out is how do we as the boldly communicate the love of Christ and remain relevant to the culture but not feel like we are competing with everything else. Shouldn't the gospel be enough? Why do we feel like we need to dress it up to make it attractive? Are we looking at the church though cultural glasses or are we looking at culture through biblical glasses?
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Posted in General Articles by Dan Norman on 6/28/2007
Here is an article that was in the local papers. It was written by a customer in the local hardware store I've been
working in.
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Posted in General Articles by Dan Norman on 6/28/2007
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. (Mark 1:40-42 Bold Mine)
Recently I began questioning God, "Why am I going on this trip?" Do get me wrong, the thought of traveling around the world for a year, doing
"
the good work he has gotten ready for us to do" (Ephesian 2:10 The Message)
is a really exciting. But I wonder sometimes, where do I fit in? What is the purpose of me being there?
Last week as I was working at a local hardware store that I worked in before I left Georgia, I was telling one of the customers about what I had been doing and where I was headed next. He began asking me why I felt as though I need to go away to help people. "Don't you know, there are people here who need help?" I was a bit taken aback by this question.
I want to be honest, sometimes I don't care about other people's suffering. The title DOES NOT describe me. In all of AIM's planning they have us take different personality and leadership assesments, while discussing the outcomes of my assessments, I was told that my impathy for others scored pretty low. Actually, really low.
In thinking about all of this, I felt like God was taking me to the verse above. I have probably read it a 100 times, but never paid much attention to what it said. Last school year, our school director at New Horizon's made this the theme for the school year.
Jesus felt such compassion for the leper that He reached out his hand and touched him. Of course, Jesus could have just told him, "Be healed" But he touched him. He was willing to become "unclean" by Jewish law because he had compassion for him.
As I've been asking God about why I'm going, I believe that He wants to began to build a heart of compassion, but to do that, I need to see real need.
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Posted in General Articles by Dan Norman on 6/21/2007
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2.10
This verse is one of my favorites. Having done blue collar work for most of my
life, I can relate to the idea of workmanship. The pride that someone can take in a job
well done. The person that built this cabinet could tell
you about each hour he (or she) spent, or how many times they cut themselves,
building this thing. I have a friend
who every time I am in their house takes me and shows me the latest project
they have completed and I see the pride in his eyes as I admire his work. It's a good feeling!
Pretty early in my life, I felt like I was
this big cosmic joke. That whoever
created me, (I never was foolish enough to believe that there wasn't
intelligent design) was just bored on the day he planned me, or maybe he just
had a few spare parts lying around.
 Since retuning to Georgia, I have
been doing renovation to an old building.
I would guess this building to be no less than 100 years old. Needless to say, it's seen better days. The ceiling sags, the floor is uneven,
nothing is square. I am building walls
in the back for storage. Since the
building is so old, it takes twice as long to do anything.
I began thinking about the workmanship of
God restoring our lives. When we let him
into our lives, He needs to do some house cleaning. I think about the "sagging ceilings" in my
own life, all the things that God needs to fix before he can continue to make
improvements in my life, and sometimes that's going to be painful. There is cutting and measuring that needs to
happen. Then there is the leftover stuff
to deal with.
I'm glad that God takes pride in the work he
does in our lives.
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Posted in Random Thoughts by Dan Norman on 6/21/2007
Let me start off by saying, Yes! I realize this is my second blog about comic book characters. Yes! I realize that makes me a little bit of a dork. Okay. A big dork!
During the last weekend of school, I decided to take the guys to see a movie. We went to see Spiderman 3. Now I'm not really a huge Spiderman fan, although I must admit after watching the first movie I left the theater looking for building to swing off of. (Which is pretty difficult in a town where there are only a couple of buildings over 2 or 3 stories.)
Warning: Spoiler Alert Ahead!
Now I'm not someone who needs to find a huge spiritual undertone to the movies I watch. When I left I couldn't help but think about the power that hatred and unforgiveness can have in our lives.
In a previous blog, when I said that during training camp we had revival and talked about people confessing sins. What I didn't tell you was that I had some confessing of my own sins. I was filled with unforgiveness. As soon as I arrived at camp, I felt like God was saying, "Give it up. Do you want to be well?" (See John 5)
If you notice in the movie when Peter realizes the power he has with "Venom" He really starts to enjoy it. But He quickly loses anything that matters anything to him, MJ, the respect of the people and Aunt Mae. When he sees what this false power is doing to him and decides to give it up it's painful.
There are countless examples in this movie about what unforgiveness can do to you.
In the Church we talk about the power that forgiveness has. We talk about how good it is to forgive. What is the old adage, "Forgive and Forget." I think we should talk a little more about what unresolved unforgiveness can do to us and the power it yields for destruction in our own lives. I look at what this unforgiveness has done in my life, about the other relationships it has affected, I can't help but wonder what else it's done.
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Posted in General Articles by Dan Norman on 5/10/2007
I am a person who likes questions. I'm not such a big fan of answering them, I just like asking them. I began taking my student house to a new church in January. It's College Wesleyan which is on the campus of Indiana Wesleyan University. In March the Pastor, Steve DeNeff, began a series call, "...that IS the Question." He talked about the questions that Jesus asked and the questions that the disciples asked. . Jesus asked a lot of questions. He even answered a lot of questions with more questions. Which usually led to more questions by the disciples.
When I began to ponder this, I realized how much I like to ask a lot of questions. A lot of them don't necessarily have answers, at least not readily available. Some of you who have read any of my blog my have noticed that they are pretty open ended. My purpose isn't to have or get answers. My purpose is to prod us to think about what's happening in the world around us. How does this relate to scripture? What would Jesus' reaction to this be?
The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"
When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked,
"What do you want?"
They said, "Rabbi...Where are you staying?"
"Come,"
he replied,
"and you will see."
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Posted in General Articles by Dan Norman on 5/10/2007
 "X-Men, I could use some
help here!" "I don't have enough power
to do that!" "C'mon let's see what you got!"
These were the phrases that permeated from my TV yesterday as I did
something I haven't done in years.
Having the day off I decided to do nothing but play my roommate's X-Box.
(X-men if you haven't figured that out)
It wasn't so much a conscious decision, more of, "I'll play for a little
bit then go clean my truck." (People
who know me know this becomes my list of things to do when I plan on taking a
nap.) The longer I played, the more I
got into it. I can't remember playing a
game so much since I got my first Nintendo just after they came out.
Before I knew it, it was
10:00 at night. I finally said enough
was enough and turned off the game. I
went to take out my contacts and noticed how blood shot my eyes were. I thought to myself, "This was a wasted
day." Knowing I had to get up early the
next morning, I went on to bed, thoughts of the game still running around in my
head. I was thinking about what I could
have done better. What did I miss? Part of me wanted to get out of bed and go
back to playing so I could end on a more positive note, not on failing a
level. I woke up several times during
the night and what else things about the game would jump into my head. I'd close my eyes and see screen shots.
This morning I woke up, not
really rested. I couldn't help but wake
up and think about this game. This is
not a super well-made game; I really shouldn't be thinking about it this
much. A thought then came to mind, "If I put this much thought into knowing
God, how much better would life be?" I
began wondering, when was the last time that I spent all day just getting to
know God better? When was the last time
I closed my eyes and couldn't get to sleep because I couldn't help but think
about the amazingness of God? For that
matter when was the last time I couldn't sleep because I was pondering
something Jesus said in the Bible? When
was the last time I woke up in the morning and think of nothing else but God
being revealing in scripture?
May the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my
Redeemer.
Psalm 19:14
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Posted in General Articles by Dan Norman on 4/22/2007
Anyone who know's me well know's that I am proud of my southern heritage. Growing up in rural GA my favorite tv shows were things like "Dukes of Hazzard" or "Hee Haw" One thing you tend to hear a lot about in the south is a varied telling of "The War Between the States" (that would be "The Cival War" for all you yankee's :) ) I was watching a "Band of Brothers" marathon on the History channel and they began advertising a special that should play Sunday evening about General Sherman's march to Savannah. I said something to my Daddy about that is a dangerous subject around here. See if you aren't from the south you don't fully understand the level of resintment that pervaids the south about "The War" (Yes, there are still people who refer to it this way. ) Now, I have come to the point of I have my views on all this (and this surely isn't the forum for that discussion), but it was 150 years ago, get over it. (Please be aware that statement could get me shot. :) )
This morning I was sitting in what I consider my "home" church. Cornerstone Church is the church where I really started giving God more control in my life. I have been there since 1994 and have seen a lot of change go through the church. As I was there I began thinking about how it just isn't the same church (even since I moved to Indiana 2 years ago) and while this isn't a bad thing, I began wishing things were like they used to be. I wished that God would move in the assembly like he used to. Then I began thinking, "Wait a minute, how many times did God do things the same way more than once. He spoke to his people in so many ways, a talking donkey, a burning bush, in the belly of a whale, and the list could go on. Look at Jesus' mircles, one time he spat on the ground and made mud and rubbed it onto some dude's eyes, then he would just tell someone to get up and walk, or I remember some story about someone who couldn't walk and he forgave their sin's and told them to walk.
I started wondering how many times I've missed what God is saying or doing by wishing something was like it used to be. While at Cornerstone, I made some pretty deep relationship. We were a group of people who really had little else in common other than a love for Jesus and the fact that we went to the same church. God began calling us to different parts of the country roughly around the same time. How many relationships have I missed because I've been sulking because those relationships are as accessable as they once were. Or how many times have I missed something great because I've yet to give up a hurt.
How many times in the Church have we missed what God is doing because he's never done that here before, or because we are still holding on to the love of a former pastor. Maybe someone wronged us in the past and we are still angry. I want to relate it to someone who misses out on a great love because they can't let go of that old girlfriend (or boyfriend) who has long since moved on.
BE HERE AND NOW!!! BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE I AM. This is what I felt like God was saying. So when I'm 3 months into the trip and missing everything that is "normal" Stay focused on the here and now. I began thinking of a quote, I'm not sure is this is original but there is a speaker named Adrian Depres who I once heard say, " Where ever you are, be all there!"
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