Interesting fact: The day our dear Titus left for the Philippines, Timothy did one of those double-takes where you read a scripture that you’ve surely read before as though it were the first time. You know what I’m talking about. The verse was 2 Corinthians 8:16-17:

But thanks be to God who put the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus. For he not only accepted the exhortation, but being more diligent, he went to you of his own accord.

We also heard through the grapevine (and yes, it’s a very long vine) that his wallet was stolen somewhere in transit. The whole thing, which I’m told was a little over $800. Titus being the guy he is, though, expressed relief to our reporter that he is really learning to trust in his Provider.

Keep him in your prayers.

That’s right. The light of Christ is shining in the punk rock subculture and it just got three times brighter! Look forward to seeing dirty, bearded, mohawked, plaid, pierced and tattooed young people in your congregations soon! (Maybe start showing some slides or something to prepare people …)

Color me psyched. Let me start at the beginning. If you’re on Battle Cry, you know this already, but just be excited with me again. For purposes of brevity I won’t explain “zine.” If you don’t know what a zine is, wikipedia actually has a really good definition.

I started a zine before I got saved that was met with very good reviews. I had fans, man. My mailing list extended to the Philippines. No kidding. That’s not to put my hand to the plow and look back (Luke 9:62), but just to say I know how to stinkin’ zine. (Ya, it’s a noun and a verb for those of you who are new to this.)

So then I met Jesus, and He has a way of changing things … even zines. The new, resurrected zine was not met with … well really anything. It’s been written about in review zines, but I wouldn’t call them reviews because the writers don’t actually analyze the zine at all. They just harass my faith for a few sentences and put my POB address at the end. Marketing rule #2: There’s no such thing as bad publicity.

I got a couple letters, mostly from prisoners, but not nearly the response I was used to. It’s easy to get discouraged. Monday, though, that discouragment was banished.

I had to go to the post office anyway, so I thought I might as well cruise by the box. Not one, but TWO packages waited to greet me. They sat on my passenger seat for the 30 minute drive home, and I admit I wasn’t excited yet. It wouldn’t have been the first time I’d gotten a “shut up and die” letter. Not this time. Both were very excited Christian ziners who had also been searching desperately for other Christian ziners. Every time I meet a Christian ziner (I’ve met three now, which is still “every time”) there’s (1) the expression of relief to have found kinship and (2) the inquiry for more. “Do you know anyone else?” Now I can say Yes!

If you’re natually skeptical – like I tend to be – you’re wondering how Christin these zines are. I wish I had the copy of Scallywags that matte sent so I could quote verbatim, but one of the stories was about a small troup of people presenting the gospel via puppet show in a brothel in Brazil. After each performance one of the guys would speak a little about Jesus’ love. The second time, as he took the “stage” he wrote, “I felt the Holy Spirit come on me so strong.” I was elated to read that in a zine. Dozens of prostitues (and a few pimps) came up for prayer with lots of crying, by the way. That’s a good zine.

I’m so excited. Now I have this huge vision for a Christian distro. Four zines and one button machine is enough to start a distro I think. And with the kind of favor and grace we’ve got – shoot. In no time at all it’s going to be so un-punk to not love Jesus. Jesus and plaid will go hand in hand. Basements will be packed out with dirty teenagers singing painfully simple songs about Jesus completely out of key. The pro-choice movement will come to a screetching halt as half its supporters slap red tape over their mouths instead

Mark my words. You heard it here first. Five Stones Printing is bringing the real Jesus – in glory and power – to punk houses everywhere!

That was us praying goodbye over Titus the evening before he left for a six month mission stint in the Philippines. We’re not sure if he’ll come back … or if he’ll come back for very long before leaving again. I got the following email last Monday, in case anyone’s wondering how it’s going:

Hey dudes,

I made it to the Philippines. After some tough work at the airports, I got through. British Airways decided they wanted to go on strike, but only for about an hour. So my flight was delayed an hour, which was long enough to cause me to miss my flight to Taiwan. I ended up getting a hotel for free and my meals for free from United, praise God. I caught the next flight, and I arrived safely.

I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting that, at all. But praise God that I went through it; I learned a lot. God provides, and He shows favor. I got a nice seat next to the emergency exit, with all of the leg room I wanted. And on the next plane, I met a Filipino Christian, who gave me his number incase I needed anything. So that was awesome. He was truly a great person, and I lift him up to God for being a friend to someone who needed one.

I am in Manila now, and I will leave here tomorrow in the morning. We’re going to take a plane to Lagaspi and then from there we will take a ferry to the island. So all will be well. The house has running water and electricity. I am very thankful for that. From what I was told, we were going to have none of that for a long time. But God is a God who provides, and I know that I will be calling on Him a lot while I’m here, which was the plan.

Well, anyway, I thought I would email to let people know what was going on.

Keep me in your prayers,

T