Leaving For Mexico in the Morning

Tomorrow morning I leave for my 5th Mexico Mission trip! This is the 4th trip that I have led, this year with 32 others (a combination of high school students, college leaders, and adults). If you have been reading this blog at all recently, you know that I just got home on Monday from the Middle East. I have never traveled this much, and I still have more to come in May. It makes it tough having a pregnant wife at home that I want to be with... Will you pray for us that when I get home and Jane gets home (she's going up to Oregon to be with her family for the week) that we will finally find some good time to be together? At least until the end of May when I go back out to Kansas City for seminary.

Here are a some ways you can pray for our trip this week:

• Pray that God would transform the lives of our students
• Pray that the work we do would bring glory to God
• Pray that even with a language barrier, we would make a connection with our families
• Pray that we would finish our homes
• Pray that our vehicles don't have any issues
• Pray for our health
• Pray that the homes we build would play a significant role in building God's Kingdom in Mexico
• Pray that we would come home and give more than lip service to the change we want God to make in our lives
• Pray that our eyes would be open to what God would have us see
• Pray that our hearts would desire to move towards God
• Pray that he would order our steps and help us make the changes necessary

PS: On April 4th, Jane and I go in to find out the sex of the baby!


Here's a classic Mexico picture many of you may remember!

I am planning on posting a final installment to my series on my Trip to the Middle East when I get home...we'll see how I feel though! ;)

Grace and peace

My Trip to the Holy Land...part 4

WOOOHOOOO!! It finally happened! My jet lag is over! I woke up this morning wide awake for the first time since I got back, and I feel like a new man. It only took falling asleep at 7 pm last night, right in the middle of what was supposed to be our date night...But don't you worry, I will make it up to her. (Hopefully before I leave for our Mexico Mission trip on Monday)


No, Jane didn't go to Israel with me..this is a picture from her birthday last month when I took her to San Francisco for the evening. If you look in the mirror on the left, you can tell I am taking this picture. We are at the Stinking Rose, a very good and very garlic(ious) restaurant. We also went to Alcatraz for Jane's first time.

On to my trip to the Middle East...

Many of you likely know Dave Curtiss. First of all, his last name is my first name, which has caused all kinds of confusion for those who know both of us (especially since he spells it wrong anyway). Second, Dave was senior pastor at Discovery in Livermore when I first started attending there. He played a significant role in helping me identify the plan God had for my life to be a pastor and has been a mentor to me ever since. When I found out he was going to Israel for this Youth Ministry Summit, I wanted to go even more. We had great conversations and I had the opportunity to be sharpened during my trip through our interactions. And most importantly, he was an ally in making fun of Mike...Mike was constantly abusing me physically and so I was forced to gather allies to help me abuse him emotionally! :)


These, and the last picture of Dave were taken at Petra, back on Day 2. These two are from an ancient Roman temple dedicated to Baal. It actually set right next to an even larger temple dedicated to several gods, but the cool thing about this one was the access we had to it. As you can see from the picture on the right, there were staircases up in the back of the temple that were open and gave you access to the top of the temple. And so naturally, Mike and I climbed to the top. From the picture on the left, you can tell we are about 40 feet up. Directly below me were an altar, some of the original 2000 year old marble floor, and a couple of preparation chambers. One thing to note about Jordan: we had rediculous access to all kinds of stuff that in America would be fenced off, enclosed in glass containers, and put under observation lights in a museum. We touched rocks, statues, and even pottery that was really old. And we had access to places that would be considered litigiously very dangerous in America. They must not have lawyers in the Middle East. We could do with less in California, that's for sure.



The Jordan River...not as large or glorious as I imagined in my head. Thankfully, our guide shared with us how much of the river has been diverted for irrigation and other uses. In other places we could see how the river 2000 years ago (and even longer ago during the time when Joshua brought the Israelites into the land), would have been much larger and more difficult to cross. A couple people from our group were even baptized in the water up at a location to the North. Archeology has uncovered an area where many believe John would have been baptizing, where Jesus would have come to get baptized, and where the Israelites would have crossed the Jordan. Very exciting...though not much to see there, since the river has been diverted and no longer flows through the spot.


In Jordan, a shepherd leading his sheep. Seriously, has anyone ever really seen a shepherd? I haven't. I wonder if in Jordan, when you are about to graduate from high school and you are sitting across from your academic advisor, if they ever say to a student, "you know, your grades and your abilities really show that you would be an excellent shepherd!" But seriously, this is a job that no longer exists in America as far as I know, but yet is such a powerful symbol in the Christian faith and a motif that is found all throughout the Scriptures. Many of the images we find in the Psalms come straight from the shepherd profession and describe God shepherding of us. One of the earliest images used within the Church was not the cross (this image would have been considered incredibly disgraceful to those who lived amongst the Romans), but it was of shepherd carrying a sheep over his shoulders. Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd." Driving through the Middle East helped me to understand just how difficult the job of the shepherd was and still is, as they must find clean water for the flock, they must know where to find food for the flock, and they must know how to defend the flock and keep it safe.


Amman, Jordan. The first three pictures are all from the ancient city of Ammon, of the Ammonites. Right outside these city walls are where Uriah the Hittite was murdered when the army of David was fighting the Ammonites, but then to protect his sin David ordered his commander Joab to send Uriah to the front line to get killed. This is where that would have happened. Like every other major city in the region this one was built over by Romans during their reign, then the Byzantines (the Roman Empire under Christian influence), then the Muslims. Remains of each ruling group have been found, one stacked upon the other. It is quite impressive. The fourth picture is the ancient Roman ampitheatre. This was also the site of the only recent attack on a tourist in the region over the last several years. Many don't realize that both Jordan and Israel rely heavily on tourism for revenue. Most people realize this, and thus attacks on tourists are rare.

I still have more pictures...so I will make tomorrow my final installment.

Until then, grace and peace.

My Trip to the Holy Land...part 3

Here is part 3 of my picture and story series on my trip to Jordan and Israel last week.


This guy on the left is Brian. He was our tour guide for 2 days of our touring through Israel. Mike and I are still debating which of us had the bigger man crush on him! Seriously, this guy knows the Bible better than anyone I've even met. His Biblical Hebrew is incredible, and the way he recalls entire passages of Scripture and then can put them into the appropriate geographic or cultural context is incredible. In this picture we are standing in a field that is considered to be the place where Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount.


This is a small cave in the Galilee region. Often the Gospels mention Jesus getting away by himself. Our translations often say he goes away to the wilderness, but as Brian helped us understand the word translated as wilderness can also mean pastureland. If Jesus were retreating to local pastureland for rest, a small shepherd's cave like this one would easily have been one that he would use for rest and refreshment.


In Nazareth, the city where Jesus spent his childhood growing up, training under his father as a "techtone" (likely a builder with stone, rather than the traditionally assumed carpenter), and being raised in all things Jewish. Part of the ancient city of Nazareth has been excavated, and a significant amount of work has been done to recreate the Nazareth of Jesus' childhood. Mostly, people want to understand what life would have been like for him. I got a sweet book that has a lot of that information in it, but in the picture I am standing in a recreation of the Nazareth synagogue, where Jesus would have learned the Scriptures and then taught the Scriptures as "one who speaks with authority." As you can see, I am reading from the Torah in this picture. Actually, I'm not. I can't read Hebrew, but if you would like to donate money to the "Send Curtis back to Israel for 6 weeks to learn Hebrew at the Hebrew University" you may send a check addressed to me to my house or to the church. :) Side Note: in a synagogue, the Rabbi would read the Scriptures standing up, then would seat down in order to teach. If the Rabbi read from the Torah (5 Books of Moses), anyone could respond, challenge, or question the Rabbi's teaching which usually created lively debates (which was encouraged). However, if the Rabbi read from the Prophets, the Rabbi's teaching was to be considered his own opinion, and thus he had the freedom to say just about anything he wanted about them.


This is in Capernaum...part of the Evangelical Triangle or Golden Triangle as different people call it. This is one city of three that Jesus spent about 90% of his ministry in, doing miracles, teaching, and gathering followers. This eight sided structure excavated a few years ago is a church that was built over another church, which was built upon the very house of Peter's mother-in-law. There is at least one story that we know of for sure in the Gospels that talk about Jesus going to this house, but again there is very little to see of the original, since the way of doing things in the Middle East is to build over buildings.


This a picture of some steps that lead down to a pit. This pit, which is connected to a series of prison cells are connected to an ancient palace believed to have belonged to Caiphas, the High Priest who was an active player in the crucifixion of Jesus. If this is Caiphas' Palace and personal prison cells, this is likely where Jesus was kept during the night between his illegal trials after
being betrayed and then hauled from illegal trial to illegal trial.


Don't know if you can see it, but some sources believe this is the skull mentioned in the depictions of Christ's crucifixion. The text says he was crucified at the hill of the skill, or Golgotha as it is translated in Aramaic, or Calvary in the Latin. As I said in a previous post, most of the major sites are contested between a few places. This is definately one of those. Some argue that the traditional picture of the three crosses on a hill is not accurate, while the Biblical passage mentions a hill some will say the text never says the crosses are on top of the hill. Others who cite historical evidence say the Romans usually tried to use crucifixion as an example, so the most common forms happened right next to busy roads. Archeology suggests there was a Roman road passing in front of this skull image in the hill. There are some who even argue that Christ wasn't hung on a traditional cross, because it wasn't common for the Romans to take the time to do that. More traditional was to strap the cross beam to the person's shoulders, nail the cross beam to a tree along the side of the road, then nail in the wrists, and finally lift the feet off the ground and nail the feet up. Clearly, we have no way of knowing one way or the other. But we can continue to learn the context through historical references.

One thing this trip reminded me of is this...most of the details aren't really that important. How did Jesus die? Where did he die? And on and on...why? Because He Is Risen! Praise God! We follow a Savior who is more powerful than death and who isn't laying in a grave somewhere, but is risen and is sitting next to the Father interceding on our behalf! Amen...

Speaking of empty tombs...Here's one of contested sites for the tomb, this one is about 100 yards away from the skull faced hill. The Gospel of John says the crucifixion site is right next to a garden where the tomb was.


I have one more post to share with you tomorrow...keep checking back so that you can see the final installment for my Trip to the Holy Land!

Grace and Peace

My Trip to the Holy Land...part 2

As promised here is Part Deux of My Trip to the Holy Land. More pictures, more stories, more holiness...or something like that.

Looking back at yesterday's post I realized I didn't actually describe the last picture. That was a picture I took of the giant wall the Israelis have constructed to fence the Palestinians into the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This wall has been set up, at times arbitrarily defining the boundaries between Israel proper and the Palestinian territories. There are many on both sides of the wall issue...some view it as necessary, others view it as a harsh social injustice. Since we in America tend to be pro-Israel, here is a link to a site that wants to see the wall building stop. www.stopthewall.org


Here are two of many of a certain type of site that you can find all over Israel. It turns out that all you need to do is put up a sign and say Jesus did something right there and tourists will flock to it, weep over it, and find themselves getting emotionally attached to that specific site. In many ways, it is almost as if people are looking more for an experience than for the truth. The mountain in the left picture is referred to as the Mount of Temptation, because tradition holds that it was that mountain that Satan took Jesus to in order to tempt him in Matthew 4. The Scriptures give few details about where this might have happened, clearly it is conjecture. And then the picture on the right reveals the discovery of the very birth place of Jesus' mother, Mary! There are at least two distinct sites for most of Jesus' ministry, including 2 tombs, 2 caves where Jesus was born, 2 places for the Sermon on the Mount, etc. And the most amazing thing is how many churches: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and even some Protestant have been erected at all of these many locations. For almost every Roman Catholic holy site the Eastern Orthodox have one right next to it. It's crazy...


All that being said, there are places that have been authenticated fairly accurately as Biblical sites where Jesus did his ministry. This is the excavated pool of Bethesda, just down and below the Temple Mount. This is where Jesus healed the man who had been waiting by the pool for many years.


This is an authentic mikveh, or what we would call a baptismal. There are many of these that have been excavated around the city of Jerusalem. In one location, right outside the entrance to the Temple Mount they have excavated over 40 smaller mikvehs just like this one, and 2 large ones - one being the pool of Siloam which is one location the Scriptures tell us Jesus spent time at. These were right outside of the Temple Mount gates so that people going up to offer their sacrifices to God, could make themselves ceremonially clean according to the Levitical laws.


One of the things you don't really consider when you are going to the Holy Land is the reality that all of the places Jesus would have walked are over 2000 years old. Not only that, but a city like Jerusalem has been conquered about a bazillion different times by Romans, Muslims, and Christians, each then attempting to make it its own city. In America we don't really get the whole "building a city over another city," but in the Middle East they have perfected this form of city building. This picture is from the top of the Southern Steps, the steps just south of the Temple Mount leading from the mikvehs up to this Gate, that would have led up and into the beautiful Temple Courtyard. You can see how later conquerers found this gate to be problematic for defense, so they filled it in. Then, support structures were built over it to hold up the aging walls.


This is the view from our hotel balcony. Mike and I sat out here and spent time with the Lord as we watched the sun come up over the Mt. of Olives (to the left). Jesus spent much time around the Mt. of Olives. Just over to the other side of it was the town of Bethany where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived. In all of his travels to Jerusalem, Jesus never actually stayed in the city. He always stayed with his friends in Bethany, which was less than a Sabbath's journey away. Also on the Mt. of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane (which actually means Olive Press), and a large graveyard of both ancient and modern Jews.

More to come....grace and peace.

My Trip to the Holy Land...part 1

Today is my first day home from the NYI Youth Ministry Summit in the Middle East. What an experience! The last 12 days have been a combination of hearing the stories of Christians in the Middle East as they try to faithfully do the will of God in a region of the world not very open to Jesus, viewing and walking in the very lands where our most sacred Scriptures find their origin and setting, and connecting with youth workers from around the world. Oh yeah, and visiting the Eiffel Tower during my 12 hour layover in Paris (That was quite an adventure in the middle of the night).

I have hundreds of pictures and stories to share, so this may end being in several parts. To be honest I don't even know where to begin.


So I will start here, on Day 2 at the entrance to Petra. Here is a picture of Mike Tennyson and I in front of the very large pictures of the previous king and current king (the previous king's son) of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. These pictures were all over Jordan. Two things to note: I had such a great time with Mike. He's such a great friend, and he definitely got a raw deal by having to room with me. And then, being in a country that refers to itself as a "kingdom" really creates the opportunity for some intriguing dialogue with local believers as to what the Kingdom of God is and how "competing kingdoms" both encourage and challenge the Church.

BTW - Day 1 was an awesome day that we spent with Jordanian, Syrian, and Israeli pastors, youth workers, and young leaders. I can't share pictures for safety sake. But I am excited to share stories with people curious how God is alive and moving in the region of the world where all we believe got its start.



This is one of the incredible site at Petra. One overwhelming reality I encountered in the Middle East: we don't know history in America. If we go to anything man made in the states, it is max 300 years old, give or take a few years. The ancient treasury of the Nebateans was carved 2 - 3000 years ago. It's beautiful and magnificent and its old. I'll say one thing for sure, in a day where people are intentionally building crappy buildings (planned obsolescence), I really appreciated the longevity of craftsmanship in the region. I have lots of Petra pictures, but I figure you're more interested in some of the Biblical sites.


Day 3 - This is the incredible view from Mt. Nebo. Mt. Nebo? That's right, the place where God instructed Moses to go so that he might view the Promised Land. The morning was misty so we could only see about half the distance we could see on a clear day. Even so we could see Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan River valley. About 3 steps to my left is the platform constructed for the visit of Pope John Paul II about 10 years ago. And standing next to that is a giant statue of a snake on a pole. Mt. Nebo is also considered to be the place where Moses raised up the snake on the pole, so that all who looked up to it would be saved from the poisonous snake bites they had received. We realize that this passage is an early picture of what Jesus would come to do as the snake represents sin, and Jesus would as Paul puts it, become sin for us...and as we look to him on the cross we are saved from the poison of sin in our lives. We had an awesome time of worship together on top of the mountain that reminded us how important it is to finish strong.


One of the aspects of our trip that I wasn't expecting to be confronted with was the political realities of the region and how American naivety can result in the continued persecution of a group of people. No doubt the situation between Israelis and Palestinians is messy, but the reality of the situation is that the Palestinians have been herded onto reservations much like the Native Americans in the USA. We were challenged by our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ that we in America who are often quick to be pro-Israel, forget the while God may be for Israel, he died for all, making him pro-Palestinian too! God is for everyone! Amen! Do we really believe that? If we really did, I wonder how it would change our politics and the way we live out our faith. What if rather than calling a people group part of the Axis of Evil as our current administration has been so quick to do, we realized that the largest group of Christians in the Middle East are Arabs? The Church is alive in the Middle East! Arabs are coming to Christ, Jews are coming to Christ, God is alive and moving.

May we continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

More to come...Grace and Peace to you...

Baby news

As you may have noticed, we are HORRIBLE bloggers. Without consistent internet at home, and no access to this website at work, it makes it difficult. But, as you may have guessed from the title of this latest blog endeavor, we are pregnant! So, perhaps I can try to be more consistent so that all of you can see my growing tummy (and it already is!) and sometime in September can see pictures of our beautiful new baby.

I am 14.5 weeks pregnant. We find out in less than a month if it's a little boy or girl-I can't believe how fast, yet at times how SLOW, this pregnancy has gone!

The first trimester was a bit rough-I can't complain much, because I have friends who throw up all day long AND have other children at home. You deserve awards. But, I was feeling rather yucky all day long, no energy, my poor house and husband didn't get the attention they deserved, etc.

But, the second trimester is wonderful! I feel so much better, so much more like myself, except for those crazy bouts of hormones where I feel like the world is over because my students are acting like teenagers (fancy that!) and I am SO upset. Or when I'm convinced I've probably killed our baby because I didn't eat enough veggies that day. Wow. My doctor told us that pregnant women all hop on the crazy train and that I need to just get off at the first stop. So, every now and then, my wonderful husband encourages me to get off the crazy train. :) It really does help.

More to come!