Seeing God in the Coolest Places

So i've been meaning to blog on this for a few weeks now, but i've been crazy busy and well just didn't get around to it. A few weekends ago, I rode with my family to Dallas to visit my great grandma who is in the hospital. I went because I needed to drive my mom (who couldn't find her way out of the metroplex if her life depended on it) and my sick mawmaw back home. The trip was a little unexpected, but it was cool to spend some time with the family. We got into Cisco a little later than planned, so I decided to stay the night and ride back home with my mom that Sunday morning. Anyways that's not really the point to this blog, but in true Mr. Henson form, I'll just say, "I told you all that, to tell you this."

I have an amazingly cool pawpaw and what's even cooler is how much of a Godly man he is. We were sitting around the table, just talking about life and everything in between, when he handed me a newspaper and started telling me about this article about some students that were taking Greek and Hebrew classes to better understand the Bible. He knew that I was also taking Greek and was fascinated about what different passages looked like in the original text. You have to know this about my pawpaw. He grew up in a family of 6 kids, down in the swamps of Louisiana, DIRT POOR, not only did he not finish high school, he never even finished 8th grade, he has worked 99% of his life in the oil field or some occupation that deals with it, the other 1% of his life was either spent on a river fishing or on a ship in the navy, his entire family is Pentecostal (or LDP), he has lost not one, but two of his three kids, and he still gets up everyday at age 69 to go to work because he doesn't want my mawmaw to every HAVE to work to support them. As we sat around that table, he told me story after story of how he would be reading his bible and pondering it's meaning, when God would speak to him and not only help him understand it, but also show him where he could apply it in his life. He told me a few stories about how he would share God's love with some of the field hands he works with everyday.

For much of my life I really didn't know much of his story. I didn't know that for much of his life he shunned everything that had to do with God because of his families background. I didn't know that one day he felt like he should take his family to this small country church because he didn't know where else to turn.

God has blessed me with an amazing family. God has blessed me with an amazing Grandfather who LOVES God and people. I only pray that one day, I will be half of the man that he is, because if that happens the Kingdom will look different.

If you say Go, I will go....maybe

So I've been doing some research for a couple of my classes and thought I would share some stuff I found.

• Ever had that tugging on your heart for the nations. Ever thought that you would love to go serve lost people overseas or even hear in the states, but have no idea where to even begin. Ever thought that only if you didn't have to give up a few months of your schedule. Ever thought that mission work would be interesting, but it doesn't really fit in with your job or skill set. Well the people at RightNow may have an answer for you. Here you can freely use their program to find the right spot for you. You can select the country or area you want to serve in, the organization that you want to go with, the time frame that you have to serve, and also the different skill set that you have such as business, church planting, or even a passion for sports. RightNow then takes this information and instantly gives you agencies that need help from someone like you.
• Here is a few facts on unreached people groups I found here. There are approximetly 16,451 people groups in our world. Of those groups, 39% (6,412) consider themselves Christian, whereas 6,850 are considered to be unreached. And for me this is one of the most shocking stats: Of the 236 countries in the world, 169 (72%) are considered to be Christian, yet there are almost 7,ooo people groups who are unreached.

Just a few things that I've been looking at the past few days and thought it might make you think. Pray for the nations.

Weekend Review...a week late!

I'm trying to be slightly more regular with my blogging, but it's been a crazy week and I haven't had time to update on the past weekend. So here we go:

• Went to work Friday afternoon, which is usually crazy at the bank, and then grabbed some food and prepared to make the long drive to Denton. It always seems like a really long time in the car, even if your an experienced veteran like myself.
• Got up on Saturday morning (freaking early) and got to go serve with some of my friends as Overflow ministries join up with the city of Denton in an effort to clean up some of the local waterways, which means we picked up trash out of a creek. Needless to say, it was amazing to see what God is doing with that ministry. There are some amazing people involved, who really understand what it means to serve a God bigger than any of them could imagine. I love being able to go back and see what God is doing and being able to serve right alongside these people is awesome.
• Saturday afternoon was spent lounging around, helping Kaylen do some dishes, and most importantly watching The Horns absolutely dominate Arkansas. I love watching college football. It can make any day even better.
• Saturday Night was spent celebrating a birthday of a very Godly guy and close friend. A group of us traveled to Ft. Worth to enjoy some great Posados Mexican Restaurant. Can't beat Mexican food!!
• Sunday morning, Kaylen and I joined a couple friends and went to Fellowship Church. I'll be honest, this could be a blog by itself, so I'll keep it brief by saying, "I won't be back."
• Sunday afternoon I spent doing laundry and doing a little more lounging around. It was good to spend some time with Kaylen. I really miss her so every chance we get to just hang out, we usually take it.
• Sunday night I stayed around so I could attend the Sunday night service at FBCD, Overflow: The Gathering. I really enjoyed being back and hearing from Scott. He is a great communicator of the Word and I really believe God is using him in big ways there in Denton. Worship was amazing as usual. Kaleb and The Starks did a great job of leading the group into worship and are defiantly a group of guys who use their musical talents for the glory of God.
• Leaving was really hard. I'll admit there were a few teary eyes, and a few hugs/sandwiches given. I really miss those guys. I miss doing life with such a Godly group of men and women.
• I then may the drive back, getting back about 1 AM, which made for a long Monday.

That about wraps up my trip this past weekend. Be praying for Overflow ministries and the people that are involved in them. Pray that God would use them to reach not only the campuses of UNT and TWU, but the city of Denton as well.