I’ve needed my passport for three different trips.

On those trips, I’ve visited 7 countries on three continents, been to the top of the tallest building in the world, touched ruins that were almost 1000 years old, and hiked in to the world’s second largest boiling lake.

But I’ve seen more than attractions. And those amazing things are not why I care about the world.

I’ve seen God’s most amazing creation, his beautiful people in much of their diversity. I have seen God so clearly at work, powerfully, through men and women who put themselves at risk to share God’s love with a world that needs to know.

Santa Cruz

Man in church, telling me about the barrios, kids soccer camps, sharing the good news of Jesus.

Outside Dharwad

Bouncing around on potholed roads, pulling into villages with children chasing us everywhere we went.

PICTURES: car chase, porch kids, Santosh

Santosh, showing us churches that meet on porches and in homes. Share and care. Afterschool programs.

Santosh who was recently beat up and needed police protection to stay alive just a few months ago.

Why do I care about the world?

It’s beautiful, it shows God’s creativity… I love new things, new cultures.

But mostly, I care about the world because God does. Because it’s a way for me to get outside of my narrow vision of my little world and gain a wider and better perspective on my life.

Last week, we talked about giving.

Our giving begins first in the heart and character of God, who is a giver by nature.

One of the reasons we give, is because we want to be like God. Giving does that; it helps us to get outside ourselves and our wants and needs and use what we are given by God for the good of others.

We have a dream that Newberg Friends as a church will care about what goes on in the world, and join what God is doing in it: we’ll serve and give and care in ways that bring honor to God.

It’s a dream that begins in the heart of God; from the first words of Genesis to the coda of Revelation, God acts in ways that show his love and his power and his grace to the entire world.

God blesses Abraham to be a blessing; he establishes David and Solomon and their kingdoms to show the world his power. There is a constant reminder of God’s promise to draw the whole world to himself…to the mighty mountain of God, it says sometimes, or to the holy city of Jerusalem, it says in other places.

“When I am lifted up from the earth,” Jesus says in John, “I will draw all people to myself.”

“The earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea!”

These words of the prophet Habakkuk sound out God’s purpose and promise, the one only Jesus can bring to fruition. As Jolene read earlier, Jesus, the lamb, is the one who is able to take the scroll and open the seal, “because his death purchased for God members of every tribe and language and people and nation.”

God’s work in Jesus Christ makes it possible for all of us to be delivered, and shows how all things in heaven and earth are being brought under the lordship of Jesus.

We’re part of a worldwide movement! Our gaze has a way of narrowing, but God’s words, whether through the bible or in our own minds and hearts, God’s words have a way of pushing us to broaden our vision and see more than our own little corner of the world.

Sometimes it’s simply the pressures of day-to-day life that narrow our vision. Other times, it’s wrong beliefs about being the chosen people of God, more special than other people in the world…and we Americans can be as guilty of this as the ancient Israelites were.

God has chosen all peoples!

And he works through those who follow him to create new hearts and minds that will show the world his love and power.

Ezekiel speaks this hopefully and powerfully to the people of Israel who had been scattered in exile. In their pride, they had turned their backs on God and lost the land he had given to them as a punishment.

God reminds them through Ezekiel that his work on Israel’s behalf is for his glory. [READ 36:22-26]

God’s glory will be seen in all the peoples of the world!

The earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. It’s one of those “future tense facts” that God puts throughout the bible. This is what he’s doing and accomplishing through Jesus…and through Christ’s body, which is us-the church.

We’ve set a goal as a church to channel resources and people to the world.

But it’s not just goals that we need, or hard work. We need God’s promise through Ezekiel of a heart transplant, a heart transplant from cold stone to living flesh. A heart transplant that will give us a love for the world that reflects God’s deep love for all that he has made.

Why do we care and talk about the world? Because God is actively at work in every corner of the globe fighting injustice and demonstrating his love. We want to do what we can to have a piece of God’s heart.

More than the things I’ve seen on the trips I’ve taken in other parts of the world, I think it’s the new heart from God that has made the difference.

God can give you a new heart as well, even if you haven’t seen the world yourself. And like we said last week, our giving, our money can be part of our transformation.

Steve Fawver told me this week about Randy Alcorn’s book the Treasure Principle. One of the main points in the book is that our heart follows our money.

When you buy a new car, you all of a sudden start noticing it everywhere. When you invest in a stock, say, of IBM…you start paying attention to news stories about them.

It works the same way when we give money to support people like David and Debby Thomas in Rwanda, or Arun Massey in India, or Karen Swenson in Hungary, or Barbara Morse in Mexico. When we are invested, our heart and mind go there often. We pay attention to the news we hear.

This is one of the reasons I want to ask you this morning to plan to give money through NFC to global outreach this year.

Giving to support what God is doing in other parts of the world changes our hearts. When you write a check designated to global outreach, it supports people from our congregation going on short term trips, like Michael and Melissa Chapman and Vicky Scott and Lisby Rogers, all of whom we prayed for last week. Many of us are finding our hearts changed by what we’re hearing from Lisby and Vicky already through e-mail and Facebook.

When you write a check designated to global outreach, it supports more than 20 full time missionaries on four continents. God’s glory and name are being lifted up as churches are planted and new people hear the good news of Jesus. Not only that, but so many of our missionaries are helping the poor and needy in tangible ways; Jeff and Christine Stanfield at Tenwek Hospital and the baby center, David and Debby Thomas planting trees for nutrition, Ann Mansfield’s work in Nicaragua to establish a microloan program that is still continuing to help people even as Ann has returned home to Newberg…

Through Global Outreach giving, we can support people we know and love in their work to help the poor and needy.

As I share a few of the practicalities, remember that this is a way for us to have our heart for the world become like God’s.

As we give, we find our heart and our attention will follow. Just like I’m asking you to consider giving personally to Global Outreach, we do it together as a church from our regular budget as well.

More than $100,000 this year will be given to our Yearly Meeting from our budget, and about half of that goes around the world.

In 2008, about $50,000 additional dollars were given to Global Outreach, dollars which supported missionaries from our very own church, our connection with Caring Hands in Dharwad, and many people who took short term trips around the world.

Those gifts changed lives! They changed lives overseas, and I firmly believe they changed lives here, as those who gave found themselves with a sense of greater ownership in what is going on around the world among Friends.

Because God is SO alive and active! We’re hearing amazing stories of miracles and life transformation in the middle of persecution in Bangladesh and India. Revivals are breaking out, even back here in the United States, when people hear what God is doing.

I hope you will plan today to join the party!

We used to call “Global Outreach” “Faith Promise.” Faith promise is a specific way of giving that you may want to try, because it helps with the heart transformation.

You pray and ask God for an amount of money that he wants you to give this year. Then, you ask him to provide that money outside your normal income.

Some people donate all unexpected income, like tax returns or speaking fees. Others hold garage sales or mow lawns or take on extra work. Some, like 2^nd Grader Caleb Muthiah from our church, organize a fundraiser. He got a whole bunch of us to raise money for Evangelical Friends Mission by holding a “Friends Walk” the last two years.

Whether you have the unexpected joy of a faith promise experience, or the discipline of planned and regular giving, your gifts to Global Outreach are a way of joining God in his amazing work in the world and of transforming your heart to be more like his.

During open worship, would you consider making your own plan to give to Global outreach in 2009?