one more time...

So it's been awhile since I updated and I wanted to give you a heads up on what's been going on in life. Finished up my summer classes at the end of July, and then gladly took the month of August off from school. Took a much needed vacation with the family, and then started my last fall semester of college. It really didn't feel much different than all the rest but with 18 hours staring you in the face, with a possible 20 in the spring, I guess that will come in time. School's not too bad right now, but it will get tough and I'm preparing for it. All in all I know that no matter what's thrown at me, God's taken care of it and whatever happens, it's because he's got it all under control.

I read a blog called Stuff Christians Like, written by John Acuff. In one of his posts, he talked about how he has struggled with consistently reading his bible and at the end he challenged his readers to take a journey with him through the book of Proverbs during the month of September. We would read a chapter a day, then send a tweet about it to keep each other accountable. I really enjoyed the journey and I really believe God taught me some really cool things. Here's some verses I learned from:

• "One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor." Pr. 29:23
• “Don’t wear yourself out to get rich” Pr. 23:4
• "He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend" Pro. 22:11
• "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion" Pr. 18:2
• "A friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity" Pr. 17:17
• "whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm" Pr. 13:20
• "whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent" Pr. 11:12
• "My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver" P8:19

Just a quick review of my time in Proverbs this month, but some really good stuff.

Storming the Gates of Hell

Ever seen the movie UP? If not, it is a story about an old man who has lost his wife, and his pursuit to fulfill her one desire while on earth. There is a lot of in between, but without ruining the movie for you, that is one of the basic plots. This old man does everything possible to get his wife's desire accomplished, even using balloons to float a house and then pulling it with a water hose. After I saw this movie, I could not stop thinking about my pursuits and what I would do to see them completed. It caused me to think about the things that I do that really don't serve a purpose, or are even a hindrance to the cause that I am working towards. I'm not very good at pulling my house with a water hose so that I can reach the spot I want it to land. I lose track of where I am going. I get tired, worn out, disheartened, and just plain lazy. But I serve a God who still loves me even when I feel like giving up. That loves me with a love that my human brain cannot come close to understanding. This same God has called me to obedience to him. Called me to love him. Called me to love people. Called me to live a life that points to him. Called me to do whatever it takes so that people hear his message. Called me to storm the gates of hell.

That being said I have been giving the amazing invitation to join a team of people that has set out to do just that. To become beggars that tell other beggars where to find food and do whatever it takes to help them find it. So after many months of praying, talking, pondering, waiting, thinking, and letting God shape me, I have this to say:

To Mr. Nic Burleson and other members of the Launch Team at your future church plant,
I, along with Kaylen, would like to accept your invitation to join the team. We are whole-heartedly committed to doing whatever it takes to reach lost people. We believe that God has great plans for this group. We believe that the Kingdom will look different because of the obedience of this group to the calling he has placed on our lives, and because of the saving power of his grace that he has bestowed upon us. I am beyond words excited for what is to come. I cannot wait to get started serving with such an awesome group of people who have a true desire to reach lost people.

Father,
I thank you for being who you are and for loving us enough to send your son to die for our mistakes. I thank you for creating each and everyone of us specifically to fit your plan, so that when it all comes together, we can say nothing but that you showed up and did your thing. I pray for the members of this team. Strengthen, encourage, build up, shape and mold us to what you want us to be. Get rid of the things hindering us from being lights in a dark world. Prepare us for what you have to come. Give us hearts for the poor, hurting and lost people. Be with us father.
Amen

Impact Weekend Review

Here is a quick review of Impact weekend at The Connection Church.

• Got to hang out with some of the coolest high school guys around. No, seriously, I've hung out with a lot of students and these guys had it going on. We had some great conversations and I know that God has a huge plan for each one of them.
• Friday night we played/supervised/stood around during one of the most unorganized games of capture the flag ever, but the students had a blast, and my group helped win, so it all worked out.
• Taught 3 sessions on Love. I'm probably the worst DNOW leader, but God moved and the guys heard what HE wanted to teach them.
• Saturday afternoon learned my way around Kyle, TX as we took part in a scavenger hunt. I think we got screwed, but we did our fair share of cheating, so no hard feelings.
• Saturday Night Nic Burleson BROUGHT it as he shared with the students in an old train car downtown.
• Sunday morning we got to see people being baptized outside of the PAC in a portable baptistery. After the second service, one of my students got baptized, which was awesome!!
• The people serving students at TCC are UNBELIEVABLE!!!! These people have a true understanding of what it means to love God and people. They pour everything they have into those students!!
• I was blessed to stay with the Barnes family. They have an amazing house, and incredible faith to open it up to a bunch of high school guys for the weekend!

I had a great time helping out. I couldn't be more blessed to be able to serve with such an awesome team for the weekend, but more importantly almost forty students found out just how much God loves them.

Father,

I want to thank you for the opportunity to serve this past weekend. I know that you moved among your people and that lives were changed. I pray that the things that you taught these students and the commitments that they made will stick. Help them to see that you don't just love them because they have done something, but that you love them unconditionally and that love is poured out freely. I pray that you would help them to share that passion that they have for you with their friends. I want to thank you for the people that you have placed in Kyle that are working with these students. It was amazing to see the work being done. These guys really have a heart for you and care about the students they are working with. I pray that you would continue to use them, and not let them get down because of hard times that come their way. God I thank you for what you are doing through The Connection Church. People are finding Christ and seeing your love for them. I pray that you would continue to move among your people.

Community

So I'm taking a class this semester where we are studying mission theology. I've never really been a big fan of the word theology, just because well to be honest it scares me. I know I have some theology, and that really it's just thoughts on God, but for me it's a lot bigger and different than that. Anyways, that's not the point of this blog. In this class for most of the semester, I sit in the room and pray that I can mentally stay in the classroom for an hour and a half. It's hard because half of the time I have NO idea what we are talking about. It's been a real struggle for me and I know that my grades show it. I have had no motivation for the class, and on most days dreaded going. Then on Monday I got to experience one of the coolest things I have been apart of since my HPU experience began. We started off the class with some lecture and then she handed out an exam. When everybody was done we went upstairs and got into groups. She then had us discuss with each other our answers and come up with a group version of what we thought the answers were. We then had to take the grade that the group came up with. Afterwards, we took the Lord's supper, with a sort of spin on it. We all got to pick from a list of different types of problems that we would have in our lives. Then we encouraged each other to rely on God to help us through these problems, and then invited each other to take the lord's supper. After we had taken the bread, we shared stuff that was going on in our real lives, and got encouragement from the group, before taking the wine (grape juice).

This concept blew my mind. Every time I have ever been apart of a Lord's supper service, we have always been asked to examine ourselves before we took part in it, but this was a totally different concept. Instead of just examining ourselves, we were able to get real with the people around us, and then receive encouragement for the situation. I think in our churches today we almost totally throw out community. We are more concerned with what we do as an individual, and not what is happening in the lives of our brothers and sisters. I think when we are asked to examine ourselves and share with the others around us, we are forced to deal with the issue, and then also we see that those around us truly care for us and want to encourage us in our struggle. It felt like as we took the Lord's supper, I was more free of the struggle than before because my community around me was helping my lay it before Christ.

Father,
I pray that we would not forget about those around us. I believe that you have placed these people in our lives for a reason, and so many times we forget about that. God, help us to take the focus off ourselves, and remember the needs of the people around us. I pray that you would open the eyes of the church and allow us to see the impact that the community of believers can/should/will have. Allow us to move from seeing ourselves as individuals but as one body whose purpose is to glorify you.

Misson Arlington/Misson Metroplex Weekend Conference

nSo this past weekend, I attended the 1st Mission Arlington/Mission Metroplex Local Leadership Conference. It was an incredible weekend and this blog won't even do justice to the things that went on, but I'll try to paint as best a picture as I can.

Here is the schedule of events, just to give you an idea of what we did during the weekend:

Friday
We all met for supper, which was some Mexican food cooked by two of the missionaries, and had an introduction time. We then took a tour of the whole complex. I probably could have led the tour for the most part, but we did get to go into the dental and medical clinics which I had never seen.

Saturday
We met and had some breakfast, then headed off to do some work projects. (I chuckled to myself at all the preacher types who showed up in slacks and button up shirts.) Our group got to sort through a mountain of toys that have been donated to the mission for their annual Christmas store. This year the gave away a ton of toys and they literally start gearing up for the next year the day after Christmas. After lunch we split up into teams and went with a few of the missionaries to their complexes, where they showed us around and let us do some work for them. They answered questions on what their life was like and how they did ministry in the apartments that they served in. We then headed back to the mission for our breakout session. This, for me, was the best part of the weekend. Some of the staff members offered up their advice and thoughts on different subjects, and then answered questions from the group. I'll go more in to detail later, but this was a really cool time where the missionaries got to share their hearts.

Sunday
This was probably the best day overall. As a youth going to Mission A, we always had to be back home and couldn't stay for the Sunday services. On this trip we were privileged to be invited to attend church at some of the local apartments. My group went with an elderly couple to a bible study that was comprised on almost all Hispanics. We sang songs in Spanish and English, heard a bible story and then broke up into groups for further study. I went with the group of school age kids as the took part in an acting out a meal with the 12 disciples. It was really cool to see these kids sit around a table and read cards about the disciples as they shared a meal together. They really paid attention to each other and seemed to really want to learn more about each person.

Next I want to give you some highlights that I took from the breakout sessions that I attended:

Transformed, Not Transplanted: Building a church out of lost people, not church shoppers. Dr. Jim Burgin

• We are all missionaries, we just get to sleep in our own bed at night
• 3000 people living in the same area form their own culture and we must recognize that
• We have reversed the Great Commission...COME IN HERE!!!
• We have made it about the Church, not about the KINGDOM!!
• You will have failure in your life, church, ministries
• Prayer is HUGE...it keeps you connected, and it takes HARD work
• We have to have a love for people...God loves them
• We have to have a willingness to take a risk, or two, or three
• This might mean leaving our 11am Sunday service
• We have to be consistent
• We have to build up a strong team, and be accountable and together!!
• Building up trust take time and patience
• Trust the Gospel to develop, and God to save
• We can't make mission just an outreach of the church, but what the church itself is
• We limit the harvest because of our preconceived ideas of teachers

I Started a Bible Study.....Now What? How to take the second step. Matt Hart

• You CANNOT plan a move of God
• People will know they are a project if you make them one
• Jesus meets people where they are
• The Great Commission is not multiple choice
• Do people around you say: "It looks different because the Christians have been here!"?
• You have to prove to people that you love them as a person not as a statistic
• Are we: Acts 2:42-47
• Devoted to teaching and prayer: Involving the Gospel in everything we do
• Together with everything in common: Just be with the people. Eat, play, live with the people
• Giving to anyone who has need: Find and meet needs: physical, spiritual, emotional, educational, etc.
• Praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people: Make sure that God always gets the glory for everything that happens
• More complicated and more expensive is not more effective than simple gifts of time
  

This was an amazing weekend. Friday and Saturday night I got about 4 or 5 hours of sleep because I was too excited about what God was going to do with the things people took from this conference. I think that the weekend could be summed up in the words of a black pastor from Mississippi that I had a conversation with Sunday before we left. He had just got back from one of the apartment churches and he said this: "I never understood why people didn't want to come to my church, but this morning I saw God move in the lives of people who would never step foot in our church building. God showed up this morning and we had church, right there in a run down apartment, it was AMAZING!!!!"

From Xmas to now...and beyond!!

Well it's been awhile and I wanted to catch you up on what's been going on here lately.

• Finished up my first semester at HPU. Not too bad grade wise, really ready to be done and move on, but it's been an interesting experience so far and I'm being stretched in ways I would have never imagined.
• I've spent a lot of time at work since school's been out, which is good for in the money category, but isn't always my first choice in things to be doing.
• Spent a day or two with the family. I absolutely love my family and every minute I get to spend with them is awesome.
• Kaylen got two weeks off from work and has spent most of it down here. Although we didn't spend as much time as we would have like together, we did get to spend a ton more than usual which was really a blessing.
• Also got to spend some time with some friends that I haven't seen in a while. It made me realize how much I MISS doing life with them. I can't wait until our lives cross paths more frequently.
• One of the big things that happened the break is that I move from the Wood back home with my parents. It's been a pretty big change so far and defiantly a little different.
• Although not having to pay rent or bills is going to be freaking sweet for a little while, my real reason for moving back is that this summer I am hoping to have an internship somewhere. I really want to get out and get involved in something that is going to help me down the road when I get finished with school. I've applied at a few places but who knows where I will end up. Be praying that God would be moving in this decision and help me to gain what he wants me to from whatever I end up doing this summer.

That's really all I've got right now. Got to get some sleep because of a few more days of work before another semester of school starts.

Love and Life

So I'm writing this blog with the hopes that I get it finished in time to post it by midnight, because you see, December 15 is a big day of the year. Kaylen and I have been dating for 4 years now and I have to say that it has been amazing. What is even more amazing is that God has allowed me to be in this relationship. I can honestly say that she is my best friend. From times when I am a total jerk to the few times I get it right, she is always there for me. She keeps me grounded when I want to fly off the handle or forget what I'm about. She pours out her love no matter what I do. There are no words to describe what she means to me. I thank God daily for blessing me with her. I literally can't wait to spend the rest of my life with her and to see what God has in store for us.

God,
I just want to thank you for creating Kaylen, for knitting her together the way you did. She is an amazing, beautiful woman. I thank you also for blessing me and allowing me to share in life with her. I would not be the person that I am now, if not for what she brings to me. I pray that you would be with us and help us to not only grow closer together, but also grow together to you. Amen