All or nothing

It seems that just yesterday I was getting ready to fly off to Belarus. So here I am in Berlin and Belarus is a folder full of memories.
I can say that I will forever be deeply affected by my time in Belarus and look forward to spending more time in Belarus. Too sum up the time there is difficult. Because that involves telling the stories of the people that I spent time with. Everything memory is jam packed with people and their stories. Even the stories of the team of people that I had the privilege of being with.
There are the kids from the 3 days of camp that I spent time with. All different ages, me not speaking their language, yet frisbee is played the same way in Belarus as it is in the USA. There was one young boy, probably 10 years old that I spent lots of time with. I'll call him J. The first day we threw the frisbee for hours. I showed him how to catch with one finger. He's a very good soccer player and plays for an elite team made up of kids from the villages around Pinsk. But for the three days I was with him we threw the frisbee and tried hard to communicate with each other. His dad is an alcoholic and his mom tries hard to raise the three kids, and work full time. J has never had a significant male in his life, so for three days I was an adult male for him to learn a little bit from, not just about Jesus, but also about being a man of God. I sang with him, learned with him, looked at his crafts with him, signed his Bible and shared a Bible story with him, just sat around with him, and of course played lots of frisbee with him. On the last day of camp as the kids were leaving we hugged and he didn't want to let go. I waved to him as he got in the bus to go home and with tears in his eyes he waved back.
Another young man, I'll call I is 15 and is an amazing young man. From a good family he's struggling to find his way. Why we hit it off I'll never know, but we did. He was the ring leader of four guys that sat in the back each day at camp. Separate the first day and involved all the way the last two. He tried to be cool, no different than the average US teenager, but gave up and just had fun. I saw him later on after the camp when I spoke at a youth club in Pinsk and he has committed to live his life for Jesus.
And the stories go on. The father of family I stayed with, the single guy that works at the heating plant, the pastor who plants village churches, the mom whose husband refuses to stop drinking, the church that meets in a flat illegally.
All stories about real people who are no different than me. Except they put their faith on the line everyday. They have chosen to go against the people around them and have to fight to be faithful everyday, especially with those closest to them.
I will never look at a frisbee the same way again. I will never talk about a Harley the same way again, I will never look around my condo the same way again, I will never talk to another man the same way again.
Everything I do is changed and why I do what I do has changed. No more pitiful attempts at living life. It's time for all or nothing. Because my friends in Belarus are all about all or nothing every day.
Jesus tells us throughout the Gospels and in Revelation that it's always about all or nothing. There's never a halfway in the Christian life. We either are or we aren't. We are either hot or cold. And the cold option isn't for me.
I thank God for my time in Belarus, yes it was beautiful and reminded me of the Pacific Northwest. I'm forever thankful for people and their willingness to share their lives with me. I've included some photos of people. My friends, old and young, who are now my family.