Things have never been so different in my life from previous experiences. I came back from camp and didn't realize how much my life had changed. I look at everything from a different perspective. Being a part of Team 2 changed my life dramatically. Not just because of camp but because I really realized what it meant to say that God is number 1. I finally realized what it means to take the Word to all the Nations. God is a big deal. God is a savior, my savior.
I am back on campus and was excited to see everybody, excited to make a difference in freshman's lives. I had kind of built myself up over the top with reading books about discpleship and community. I ready irresisitble revolution followed by crazy love. I started thinking pretty radical and people thought I was crazy sometimes I thought I was crazy myself. I stepped back to realize that I wasn't radical, what was radical was God and His Word.
People are different, life is different, events are different, living is different, I'm different. Some things will always remain the same but passion for God and sharing His love and what He has done in your life is big, huge and the most important thing you can do. I no longer understand how people, especially people who claim to be Christians can't/don't buy into that.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Sissy
In life we run across people who make a difference in our lives or the ones around us. Sometimse we are fortunate to have these people around for long periods of time, sometimes its only for a couple of minutes. Many people have made a difference in my life, one man made a difference in my life for 4 years.
I was luck to have known Sissy. I was lucky to have been coached by him. He is a man that I respected a lot not because of his knowledge of his game but also his attitude towards the players. For four years struggled through softball. Between my coach and some of the players emotions ate at me. Sissy was the person that gave me the courage to keep going. He knew what the love of the game was and He's the one that convinced me to fight the better fight. Sissy retired my junior year but he was still around.
After being done with high school and softball for two years I still saw Sissy on occasion. When I worked at Kroger's he would come in and ask me about life and what was going on. He always had words of encouragement to offer. Before I left this summer I saw him at Walgreens two days before I left and He told me that I was going to do great things. Two days ago I saw Sissy walking down the street, this time it was just a little wave and a smile, nothing more, nothing less. Sissy made a difference and now as I sit ready to go back to school, wishing time away, living a busy life. I find that I will not longer see Sissy around or find those words of encouragement from a man of great wisdom and character.
RIP Sissy, I love you and will always miss you
I was luck to have known Sissy. I was lucky to have been coached by him. He is a man that I respected a lot not because of his knowledge of his game but also his attitude towards the players. For four years struggled through softball. Between my coach and some of the players emotions ate at me. Sissy was the person that gave me the courage to keep going. He knew what the love of the game was and He's the one that convinced me to fight the better fight. Sissy retired my junior year but he was still around.
After being done with high school and softball for two years I still saw Sissy on occasion. When I worked at Kroger's he would come in and ask me about life and what was going on. He always had words of encouragement to offer. Before I left this summer I saw him at Walgreens two days before I left and He told me that I was going to do great things. Two days ago I saw Sissy walking down the street, this time it was just a little wave and a smile, nothing more, nothing less. Sissy made a difference and now as I sit ready to go back to school, wishing time away, living a busy life. I find that I will not longer see Sissy around or find those words of encouragement from a man of great wisdom and character.
RIP Sissy, I love you and will always miss you
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Let go, Let God
Let go, Let God
Take a deep breathe, God is in control
Too bad you can't do anything about it...
These are all things I say when running into a tight conflict, problem, anything really.
I convince myself that God is control and that I can do nothing. God has it all figured it out. These are things that sometimes I believe and sometimes I would like to believe. Sometimes I find myself just wanting the geniuness and comfort of people around me. Other times nothing in the world matters as long as I know that God is on my side. Most of the time I find myself in a weird middle. Knowing what I believe and what I want to believe don't always align 100%. With life going on a million miles a minute all around me I sit back and wonder why, how, what, when, who.
Why is life going so fast?
How can I make a difference in this crazy life?
What am I suppose to do
When am I suppose to do it?
Who can help me impact a world for God that is so stricken by grief, greed, and selfishness?
Things happen that we have no control over. Problems occur and and we ask God why instead of trusting in Him. I come back from camp knowing that as a jesus follower I am gospel minded. As a Christian I am self minded. God is calling me for something great, something I'm not supposed to question but as time creeps closer the human instinct in me calls out fear, fear of what exactly to do, how to do it, and who do it with.
Impact a campus as a jesus follower,
impact a campus that sees christians as hypocrites instead of sinful people just like themselves. Proclaim His love,
Encourage fellow believers,
And live life for CHRIST no matter the cost
After all He gave the biggest cost for me, His life.
Believe it, share it.
This is me letting go of fear and letting God take the drivers seat
This is me taking a deep breathe and knowing God has it all under control
This is me saying I can't do anything, but GOD CAN DO ANYTHING THROUGH ME!
Take a deep breathe, God is in control
Too bad you can't do anything about it...
These are all things I say when running into a tight conflict, problem, anything really.
I convince myself that God is control and that I can do nothing. God has it all figured it out. These are things that sometimes I believe and sometimes I would like to believe. Sometimes I find myself just wanting the geniuness and comfort of people around me. Other times nothing in the world matters as long as I know that God is on my side. Most of the time I find myself in a weird middle. Knowing what I believe and what I want to believe don't always align 100%. With life going on a million miles a minute all around me I sit back and wonder why, how, what, when, who.
Why is life going so fast?
How can I make a difference in this crazy life?
What am I suppose to do
When am I suppose to do it?
Who can help me impact a world for God that is so stricken by grief, greed, and selfishness?
Things happen that we have no control over. Problems occur and and we ask God why instead of trusting in Him. I come back from camp knowing that as a jesus follower I am gospel minded. As a Christian I am self minded. God is calling me for something great, something I'm not supposed to question but as time creeps closer the human instinct in me calls out fear, fear of what exactly to do, how to do it, and who do it with.
Impact a campus as a jesus follower,
impact a campus that sees christians as hypocrites instead of sinful people just like themselves. Proclaim His love,
Encourage fellow believers,
And live life for CHRIST no matter the cost
After all He gave the biggest cost for me, His life.
Believe it, share it.
This is me letting go of fear and letting God take the drivers seat
This is me taking a deep breathe and knowing God has it all under control
This is me saying I can't do anything, but GOD CAN DO ANYTHING THROUGH ME!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Team 2 because God is number 1
This summer led to lots of different things for me. I learned a lot, made friends and family all over the country, and played a lot of sports with kids for Jesus. I worked for Infinity Sports and made a couple of new friends in my teammates: Jessica, Kayla, Amber, Jake, Evan, and Tiffini. Although these guys were my teammates they became true brothers and sisters. We fought, poked fun, aggervaited, laughed, cried, plotted, discipled, grew together. We did life together for 8 weeks. We became the best family we could. We also all knew that all of us have given our summers to do things for God. The church in Acts talks about getting rid of everything they had to follow Jesus! We may not have given up everything but as college students we did the best with what we had. My teammates and my summer taught me a lot. The first sunday we spent together the sermon was about breaking down your walls and letting people in to see you and not the picture you had painted for everybody to see. I had been doing this with just about everybody and as my friends back very thing, my teammates had discovered the importance of it quickly.home and I were working on doing that
During our training week we got to see kids get baptised in the pool at Camp Liden. It was one of the best experiences we could have asked for. After spending a week with these kids and getting to see some of them get baptized was a beautiful thing! We all knew what were there for that summer and what could happen. We played soccer in the rain that week as a team and knew that we were all playful kids that were old enough to leave home and travel together. Nothing ever changed except our closeness.
This summer taught we what it really means to do life together. Not only can you joke around with each other but you must be encouraging to one another. We worked together, ate together, traveled together, and sometimes slept together. The only real time apart we got was in the shower. We knew what kids everybody was dealing with and the struggles that went along with it. I learned that although on campus we may do things a little differently we are still doing things for Christ and that in itself can be hard in todays world. Therefore, encouragement is HUGE!!! We must look past the jokes, the words, the acts and make our actions known and really make people wonder what is so different in ourselves. However, in today's world its hard not to do it with the support and encouragement of your fellow brothers and sisters in christ!
That brings me to another thing I learned this summer was transformation. We were in business to transform these kids life instead of conforming them to a religion. In today's society it is so easy to conform to the way people believe, the way they act, the way we do things. It's not easy to transform your life for chirst. That is our mission though and mine doesn't stop from this summer. Our team motto read: Team 2 because God is number 1! He was in control this summer and we were in business to Glorify His Kingdom!
Joshua 1:9 was my verse for this summer. It says that God is with you where ever you go. I had to trust God this summer for things to work out. I was apprehensive about spending 8 weeks with people I had never met and going into homes of people I had never met and doing some kind of mission work I had never done before. After having done it though I wouldn't change it for the world. God was with us all summer from traveling, to dealing with kids, to being tired, to the homes were walked into week after week. Once I got there there was never a question in my mind as to whether I was doing what God wanted me to do this summer! It was an overwhelming joy to know that God played a hand in my summer and in my life!
I can't tell you the joy it puts in my heart to know that there are truely Godly people out there willing to open homes when we would have no where to rest our heads. We relied on God to supply and provide and God did just that from food to kids to homes to friends. I have learned that you can go through the motions or you can put everything at the throng of God and let Him deal with it and become a Jesus Follower instead of just an oridinary world viewed Christian.
Thanks to my teammates who made my summer amazing! The people I now call family all over the US for helping me keep my lifestyle of being a kid! The growth I experienced will follow me back to school where nothing changes except my mission field will go from elementary age kids and playing sports to college age and living life. Thanks for the prayers and the support! And as we put it all summer YOU ROCK MY WORLD!....after God of course!
During our training week we got to see kids get baptised in the pool at Camp Liden. It was one of the best experiences we could have asked for. After spending a week with these kids and getting to see some of them get baptized was a beautiful thing! We all knew what were there for that summer and what could happen. We played soccer in the rain that week as a team and knew that we were all playful kids that were old enough to leave home and travel together. Nothing ever changed except our closeness.
This summer taught we what it really means to do life together. Not only can you joke around with each other but you must be encouraging to one another. We worked together, ate together, traveled together, and sometimes slept together. The only real time apart we got was in the shower. We knew what kids everybody was dealing with and the struggles that went along with it. I learned that although on campus we may do things a little differently we are still doing things for Christ and that in itself can be hard in todays world. Therefore, encouragement is HUGE!!! We must look past the jokes, the words, the acts and make our actions known and really make people wonder what is so different in ourselves. However, in today's world its hard not to do it with the support and encouragement of your fellow brothers and sisters in christ!
That brings me to another thing I learned this summer was transformation. We were in business to transform these kids life instead of conforming them to a religion. In today's society it is so easy to conform to the way people believe, the way they act, the way we do things. It's not easy to transform your life for chirst. That is our mission though and mine doesn't stop from this summer. Our team motto read: Team 2 because God is number 1! He was in control this summer and we were in business to Glorify His Kingdom!
Joshua 1:9 was my verse for this summer. It says that God is with you where ever you go. I had to trust God this summer for things to work out. I was apprehensive about spending 8 weeks with people I had never met and going into homes of people I had never met and doing some kind of mission work I had never done before. After having done it though I wouldn't change it for the world. God was with us all summer from traveling, to dealing with kids, to being tired, to the homes were walked into week after week. Once I got there there was never a question in my mind as to whether I was doing what God wanted me to do this summer! It was an overwhelming joy to know that God played a hand in my summer and in my life!
I can't tell you the joy it puts in my heart to know that there are truely Godly people out there willing to open homes when we would have no where to rest our heads. We relied on God to supply and provide and God did just that from food to kids to homes to friends. I have learned that you can go through the motions or you can put everything at the throng of God and let Him deal with it and become a Jesus Follower instead of just an oridinary world viewed Christian.
Thanks to my teammates who made my summer amazing! The people I now call family all over the US for helping me keep my lifestyle of being a kid! The growth I experienced will follow me back to school where nothing changes except my mission field will go from elementary age kids and playing sports to college age and living life. Thanks for the prayers and the support! And as we put it all summer YOU ROCK MY WORLD!....after God of course!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Who Are We
When I came home from camp people kept asking me different things. One of the questions was what did you learn at camp. I didn't realize the change that had occured had happened until I got put in different situations. I sat around and realized that as a Christian we don't tkae notice on how different we should be versus the rest of the world. However, the language we speek rather that be verbally or with body language. What makes us stand out from everybody else? When nonchristians see us what do they say? Are we prime examples of what nonchristians call hyprocrites?
I've learned that we must encourage eachother in this broken world were we are challenged day in and day out to live a life that is Christlike. God calls us to go out and make disciples. Who are we to sit and live our lives making jokes and doing things that aren't pleasing to God. We can make a huge difference in lives on our campus if we make a mission to be Christlike instead of looking out for ourselves. We must encourage one another, we must make an effort!
Who are we to take away life when God gave it to us?
Who are we to live our lives for ourselves?
Who are we to say what is right and what is wrong?
Who are we to claim to be a Christian but not show love and mercy that God showed us?
Who are we to not want to share God's love when it is the most important thing in our lives?
Who are we when we aren't who we claim to be?
This is my challenge, this my dare to you: Are you ready?
I've learned that we must encourage eachother in this broken world were we are challenged day in and day out to live a life that is Christlike. God calls us to go out and make disciples. Who are we to sit and live our lives making jokes and doing things that aren't pleasing to God. We can make a huge difference in lives on our campus if we make a mission to be Christlike instead of looking out for ourselves. We must encourage one another, we must make an effort!
Who are we to take away life when God gave it to us?
Who are we to live our lives for ourselves?
Who are we to say what is right and what is wrong?
Who are we to claim to be a Christian but not show love and mercy that God showed us?
Who are we to not want to share God's love when it is the most important thing in our lives?
Who are we when we aren't who we claim to be?
This is my challenge, this my dare to you: Are you ready?
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