Contagious.
How would you describe this?
This word is so simple and yet so powerful.
Contagious, its like I cant even control it.
It affects everyone around us.
It spreads whether or not it was intended to.
The people. The culture. The surroundings. The way they worship God. The way the Bible is real to them. It is all contagious. An infectious disease that seems to have major issues with those that do not have it.
This is how my Hawaii trip was. It was contagious. I honestly had such an amazing time and really really want to thank all of you that have supported me through prayer and donation I can not express how blessed I was through that trip. It had rocky times and there were times I just wanted to go home but that was not an option and God was faithful delivering me and my team from our times of discouragement. I made some great friends during the trip and deepened old relationships. Wow just wow God is so good and He was alive throughout that entire trip. People that know me know that I am fairly easy to get along with but am very blunt and will often if not always say what is on my mind. This tends to get me in trouble and the Holy Spirit was constantly reminding me to shut up, either through teammates or just little kicks in the butt.
If i had to say what the best part about this trip was it would be this. I saw over 300 kids stand before their entire school and proclaim that Jesus is Lord. They not only stood and walked up to the front but many of them were crying. High School boys CRYING! I have never seen that before especially on such a mass scale. These kids were so broken, they were as kutless says "God im falling to my knees, im bowing at Your feet, im giving all of me without You im incomplete its all because of Love im not who i was and who im meant to be, without You im incomplete." This is so true and I saw kids denying themselves, letting go of the pride of not looking "cool" by the worlds standards. I saw over 300 kids join our eternal family. God is so good and I am so blessed to have these kinds of opportunities.
So how do we become contagious? How do we start to live a live full of a contagious disease that others have no choice but to take apart in?
We begin at square one with love.
I read this in a book "The world doesn't need a better sermon on Love they just need a better example of it."
How true is this?
At youth group we play this game called "Do you love your neighbour" and if you say yes, you say what you dont love. "Yes, but i dont love people with or that smell like ______"
But how true is this in Christianity? We love the people that put on their church face every sunday and the ones that act like everything is alright. What do we do when the people of our church are struggling with Homosexuality? Pornography? Anorexic? Adultery? Alcoholics? Drug Addicts?
I pray that the church of america can begin to overcome this. We were meant to Love not to judge!
Jesus said that He did not come to save the righteouss but to save the corrupt. (Matthew 9:13)
We need to begin to love all people. We need to get back to the heart of the Church and extend out our love.
Love All.
Save many.
Train a few.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Hula Hoops and Bubble Wands!
Hawaii is awesome and so beautiful and I am happy to be able to write to you all again. Our team had been deeply discourage after the first couple day because we didn’t feel like we were doing enough. Lucky for us, God is faithful and is always looking to turn our disappointments and our struggles into praises and times of growth. I learned that I have a lot to grow in. Jesus said in John 4:35-38 “... behold the field for they are already white for harvest... I have sent you to become laborers.” (my paraphrase). Am I taking this to heart and being a laborer? That is what I am praying to be and I am faithful that God will answer my call.
Like I said though we had been discouraged. That all ended when we got to HbA (Hawaii Baptist Academy) and something to know about me is that I love high schoolers. There is so much I know now that I wish I had known in HS and I feel that I can really help them out. God has blessed me with an extremely extroverted personality, which makes it extremely easy for me to relate to HS and just interact on their level. I hope to give them stuff to think about, things to talk about in their circle of friends. I really hope to enlighten them on topics that were never addressed by spiritual leadership to me.
This school, HbA is so great. They have an entire week dedicated to just seeking after God. Its called Christian Emphasis Week and what they do is amazing. They have awesome speakers, a guy Nic Vujicic who was born with no arms or legs, a man Roy Yamamoto who was in prison and almost was sentenced to life imprisonment. God is working amazing things through these men and it is such a blessing to get to hear them talk. We as helpers are participating solely on loving these kids. We interact and just live to talk and hang out. There are also some of us that are leading seminars. I am doing one and it is just another opportunity to connect with the kids.
God is moving in this state! They are going before the state government on Friday and submitting a reform that would ban gay marriage. While I see that as a minor victory in part of the whole battle it is a start and it encourages the Christians to be just that. Christians!
God is speaking to these churches. Let us go back to the times of the churches of Acts. Let us go back to actually being a family and not just calling ourselves one. Let our actions speak louder than our words. My eyes are really being open to how little the things of this world actually matter and when i stand before God and He asks me who I brought and not what I brought I will be able to proudly answer that question. Let us not live on the outer courts of God’s blessings and begin to experience the richness of the inner courts.
I love my time here and we are really a great service to these kids! I love you all and thank all of you that are praying for me. I hope everyone is having an amazing spring break (if your on it).
Like I said though we had been discouraged. That all ended when we got to HbA (Hawaii Baptist Academy) and something to know about me is that I love high schoolers. There is so much I know now that I wish I had known in HS and I feel that I can really help them out. God has blessed me with an extremely extroverted personality, which makes it extremely easy for me to relate to HS and just interact on their level. I hope to give them stuff to think about, things to talk about in their circle of friends. I really hope to enlighten them on topics that were never addressed by spiritual leadership to me.
This school, HbA is so great. They have an entire week dedicated to just seeking after God. Its called Christian Emphasis Week and what they do is amazing. They have awesome speakers, a guy Nic Vujicic who was born with no arms or legs, a man Roy Yamamoto who was in prison and almost was sentenced to life imprisonment. God is working amazing things through these men and it is such a blessing to get to hear them talk. We as helpers are participating solely on loving these kids. We interact and just live to talk and hang out. There are also some of us that are leading seminars. I am doing one and it is just another opportunity to connect with the kids.
God is moving in this state! They are going before the state government on Friday and submitting a reform that would ban gay marriage. While I see that as a minor victory in part of the whole battle it is a start and it encourages the Christians to be just that. Christians!
God is speaking to these churches. Let us go back to the times of the churches of Acts. Let us go back to actually being a family and not just calling ourselves one. Let our actions speak louder than our words. My eyes are really being open to how little the things of this world actually matter and when i stand before God and He asks me who I brought and not what I brought I will be able to proudly answer that question. Let us not live on the outer courts of God’s blessings and begin to experience the richness of the inner courts.
I love my time here and we are really a great service to these kids! I love you all and thank all of you that are praying for me. I hope everyone is having an amazing spring break (if your on it).
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Life at the Pagoda
Hey everyone! Hope all is well and I am excited to write my first update.
Our day started off at 4am PST and did not end until about 4am PST so needless to say it was a long but joyful day.
My goal for this trip is to interact and impact. If i can leave a lasting impression on one individual each day then I will consider my trip a success. I hope to touch the lives of many and impact the men at the high school i will be speaking at.
The trip in my eyes started the moment we stepped onto the plane. I was seated next to a women and with my excitement rising I struck up a conversation (it was either my excitement or the double-shot espresso i had). I learned she was pregnant and on her way to Hawaii for a last ditch vacation before a life of responsibility fell upon her. It was casual talk until I asked about her beliefs in which she responded Jewish, her husband was raised baptist and she said they were very confused. I asked her what she was confused about and she immediately shut me down and was moved seats minutes later. Oh well, hopefully she will begin to search out to solve her confusion.
Oh ok so I don't know who has experienced turbulence but i have a new appreciation pilots. It started rumbling mildly for a few minutes and so the captain put on the fasten seatbelt sign. At that point I had started praying, I dont know why and I wasn't praying because i feared what was about to come. The Holy Spirit was convicting me to pray and so I did. I am glad I did. After a minute of praying the plane began to shake a lot more. It was steadly increasing for the next 10minutes and it was very obvious that people were worrying. It really tests your faith in that moment, do i panic or continue in prayer. My heart rate was increasing and palms were sweating I knew it would get worse before it got better. Within another minute I was right and the plan free fell for what felt like an eternity. In reality it was maybe 2 seconds and it was enough time for people to freak out. The pilots regained control and pulled us out of turbulence. It was a scary moment and one I will not quickly forget.
Lastly the Pagoda. Lets just say our hotel is not a normal hawaiian hotel. I am pretty sure if it were any ghetto-er it would be a motel 6. Life at the pagoda is extremely strange.
I have had some great conversations and great encouragement. Hawaii is beautiful and I look forward to writing more about my experiences.
God Bless!
Numbers 14:15-20 "... The Lord is slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression..."
God be with you all, and may we remember how awesome He really is.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Welcome
To everyone that has been blessing me I give many thanks and I only ask for you to continue praying for my team. We are extremely excited to be going to Hawaii and are eager to spread God's wonderful message.
Ya we are going to Hawaii and I know tough mission right? RIGHT! We will be battling the urge to go and lay out on the beach, the urge to do nothing and just relax and have a normal spring break vacation like the rest of our school. So in that aspect yes it will be a tough mission; but will we be roughing it on the streets? no. will we be walking a lot? Probably not. But I can guarantee that we will be striving to spread the message of Jesus Christ and what He has done for you and me.
I want to briefly share my heart with you all and then I will close the first message.
My message is that God's word will reach the World. That the Holy Spirit would be in the workings of ALL men and women. Not to much to ask for right? Ya I dont think so either, Christ welcomed opposition and challenges from His disciples as we read in Mark 10:35-45. Did you read it? Im not typing all that out, im a lazy college student come on now. Basically the disciples ask for BIG things and I feel that if I continue to ask God to change the little things He will only see it as an insult. How big is our God?? So I want to reach the nations. Reach His people. Fulfill the Great commission in Matthew 28:18-20.
For so long I have sat on my hands and closed my mouth feeling that my religion was my own. Well no longer will I keep my mouth shut. I am a Follower of Christ and His message is way to urgent to keep within myself.
RHP
Ya we are going to Hawaii and I know tough mission right? RIGHT! We will be battling the urge to go and lay out on the beach, the urge to do nothing and just relax and have a normal spring break vacation like the rest of our school. So in that aspect yes it will be a tough mission; but will we be roughing it on the streets? no. will we be walking a lot? Probably not. But I can guarantee that we will be striving to spread the message of Jesus Christ and what He has done for you and me.
I want to briefly share my heart with you all and then I will close the first message.
My message is that God's word will reach the World. That the Holy Spirit would be in the workings of ALL men and women. Not to much to ask for right? Ya I dont think so either, Christ welcomed opposition and challenges from His disciples as we read in Mark 10:35-45. Did you read it? Im not typing all that out, im a lazy college student come on now. Basically the disciples ask for BIG things and I feel that if I continue to ask God to change the little things He will only see it as an insult. How big is our God?? So I want to reach the nations. Reach His people. Fulfill the Great commission in Matthew 28:18-20.
For so long I have sat on my hands and closed my mouth feeling that my religion was my own. Well no longer will I keep my mouth shut. I am a Follower of Christ and His message is way to urgent to keep within myself.
RHP
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