To follow up my most recent post, “Introducing: ‘mission:soccer'”, I wanted to more fully introduce my son Evan to you.  To do so, I’ve added a section to the “Creative Expressions” part of this site called, “Poems of Evan Bolton“.  With his permission, I’ve posted eight of his poems there.  These were written mostly while in his late teens, and a few in his early twenties.  Some of them are missions related and so I thought they would give a window into his heart concerning his burden for ministering to the lost and needy in this world.  The rest center around Jesus Christ, and his relationship with the Father.  I have included one of these poems at the end of this post with a link to the rest of this section.  I think you will be greatly blessed by them.

To begin with, though, I’d like to first share a small piece he wrote as part of an email newsletter that he sent out while in Montenegro in 2010 helping to distribute 20,000 Operation Christmas Child gift boxes to children throughout that county.

* * * * *

* * * * *

“A Refugee Jesus”

So I found myself in Eastern Europe, in the country of Montenegro, driving into a refugee camp that was built 11 years prior in the wake of an awful ethnic conflict and an attempted ethnic cleansing.  As I entered the camp there was garbage everywhere, a smell that could not be avoided, stray animals wandering through the piles of sheet metal, boards and tarps which ended up being people’s homes.  Through the dimness of the night all you could see were the shadows and silhouettes of the utter brokenness of the place.  In the distance all you heard were the echoes of distant shouts and screams making their way across the camp.  In the midst of this broken, hopeless, dirty, smelly and rotten place, we entered the home belonging to a group of believers.  Within minutes of being there, a little girl and her younger brother were curled up on my lap, we had pulled out a guitar and a drum and had begun worshiping.  The kids were dancing, I was laughing, and their father was singing his heart out to Lord; it was beautiful.

Later that night, and honestly for the days and weeks after, I was overwhelmed by the overflowing joy, hope, love, purpose and beauty this family had.  As I reflected back on it, I came to realize that God is EVERYTHING to this family.  The food they eat, the clothes they wear, the house they live in… it is all a result of God.  They live in a country where they have no opportunity and no future because of their ethnicity, and they aren’t able to return home for fear of being killed.  They have no future, no hope at all, all they have is the love and provision of God; so in truth, God has to be their everything.  As I was thinking about this, this question arose… “God, are you my everything?.”  I mean we all sing songs that say “God you’re my everything”, we tell people that He is our everything, and we even pray prayers that say He is our everything.  But is He really?  Is He really your EVERYTHING?  I know what my answer is, and it’s NO.  Sadly God isn’t my everything.  However I am striving and longing for Him to be, and slowly He is.

Our hope and purpose is wrapped up in Jesus.  It isn’t based in the country and conditions we live in, or the job and career we have.  It is all found in Jesus.  When Jesus truly becomes the center of who we are, when He truly becomes our everything, all the outward circumstances fall away in comparison.  For the family in the refugee camp, the love that Jesus has for them transcends the dire circumstances and conditions that surround them; and the Jesus that I saw in them has impacted, changed and transformed me in a way I can’t express, and it is something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

My prayer not only for myself, but for all of you, is that God will truly become our EVERYTHING.  I am longing to be a follower and a disciple of a refugee Jesus.

* * * * *

WON’T YOU WAKE

by Evan Bolton

What have you done with my commands?

How have you used the labors of your hands?

I said to spread the seed

Giving up all for those in need

Giving bread to the weak and poor

But all you have done is built a store

* * *

What have you done with my commands?

With all the killing and war upon the sands?

I said to clothe the homeless

Giving up all pride and selfishness

But all you do is sit and wait

Saying nothing as they knock on the devil’s gate

* * *

What have you done with my commands?

With the death and hunger in distant lands?

I said to go

Even if you have nothing to show

But you expect gifts and pretty cake

Oh how I pray…

That you wake

* * *

Go to the Poems of Evan Bolton

Related:
A Shepherd’s Tale – by Evan Bolton