Saturday, November 28, 2009

November Happenings

Well it’s been almost a month since I’ve written anything on my blog which seems strange because it does not seem that long yet so much has happened. God is awesome and continues to work in amazing ways in my life and in the lives of those around me. I guess something that’s been hard is that a lot of the growth hasn’t been bamb! Or sudden stuff. If you aren’t looking for it you don’t see it. But when you look back at where I was or we were as a DTS a few weeks ago you really go Wow! We’ve really grown.

Since I haven’t posted in a while I figured I’d write more about events than anything else. One of the major things that has happened is that our leader Chris was in the hospital for 2 weeks with an ulcer. It was pretty major, he was in the military hospital first and they thought it was just dehydration but I guess he was bleeding internally. But God is faithful and Chris is completely restored to health.
Not this past week but the week before we had Troy Sherman come in and talk to us about relationships. It was rad. We spent about 15 hours going through 1 Corinthians 13 and what love is and how it was been skewed so much by society etc…Everything he said was really captivating and really made you think and wrestle with what you truly believed. One of the things that really hit me was that he said “If you pray for something you better be willing to be the answer to your own prayer or shut up.” (his words not mine) Now this doesn’t mean if you pray for China that you go to China. Maybe it does. But say your praying for China. As your praying ask God what you can do. Maybe he’ll call you to move to China, maybe he’ll call you to take a trip there, to give money there, to write a letter to some missionaries that you know there, etc…A lot of times we as Christians just pray and then we say okay well done with that and we forget that we can actually not only offer up the prayer to God but be the answer as well. We are God’s vessels, the hope of glory here on earth, he entrusted us and Jesus proved it by leaving. The world needs us to respond.
Another thing that hit me was during base intercession this week Troy talked about human trafficking. He and his wife do a lot to help end human slavery. I knew it was an issue in the world, but I had no idea the severity of it. 27 million people are currently held captive in human trafficking. Slavery is bigger today than it has ever been in history. And yes it is happening in Minnesota and South Dakota. About half of those trafficked are kids (KIDS! Like 10 years old kids sometimes younger), a lot of time going straight to the sex trade bought and sold as prostitutes. Anyway so I felt called to include that in here to help raise up awareness and I want people to think about ways they can get involved to help end it. Research it, tell others about it, give money to organizations working to end it, write letters to your representatives asking for laws to come hard against those caught. Need ideas or more info? http://www.freedomprojectinternational.org/The_Freedom_Project/Take_Action.html or http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/ This is not something that is impossible to end but if we want it to end we each need to decide individually to do something about it. I have decided to make a video about it for outreach and we’re hopefully going to show it to churches that we work and serve in so they can know that this is going on in their city and they can get a heart to help stop it. There’s like a million other things I could say about what Troy talked about like how we as the church answer questions the world isn’t asking which is why they don’t care and don’t understand us. 42!!! Or how it sometimes breaks God’s heart to do a miracle because if we had or were doing our job He wouldn’t have to do it. Or how Americans spend $450 billion a year on Christmas and yet it would only take $10 billion to give everyone in the world clean water for life (1 person dies every 3 seconds from bad drinking water). Or how hybrids are actually bad for the environment, but I won’t go in depth on these things cuz then this would be a book not a blog.
Couple holidays have happened since I last wrote. My birthday was great thank you everyone back home for your birthday wishes or cards etc…Also we had Thanksgiving as a base yesterday it was awesome. We had tons of turkey and mashed potatoes and corn and rolls and Martinellies. Then we went to the Madsen’s (the base leaders) house and had desert, pecan and pumpkin pie, apple cheesecake and all sorts of good stuff.

Then finally today was a really awesome day. I got up at 7 and we went to Colonia Sinaloa and took some siding off a house because they are moving a house there. Then Antonio, Laura and I went and talked to some homeless guys we know. The first guy Rafael I’ve been talking to a lot this week. He is crippled and always is lying down by this one fisherman’s boat because he can’t stand up to walk. (Don’t worry God’s in the process of healing him) Anyway we talked to him some more today and he accepted Christ and Lord and Savior today!!! Wahoo!!! Then we talked to this guy Antonio brought to Christ earlier in the week his name is Armando. And he was just saying like how he didn’t even know things he was doing were sin like praying to saints but now that he knows what sin is he can live a better life. When we asked him at the end what he wanted prayer for he said he wanted prayer for wisdom and strength to help his brothers. This dude has only been a Christian for a week, SO AWESOME!!! Then later we were swimming and Antonio asked me to baptize him so I did. That was awesome. Then we ate tortas and pizza, it was good.
Anyway that is life in YWAM Mazatlan 2009 DTS. I love you all back home thank you for your support and prayers. Happy Thanksgiving!!! And God bless!!!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Sculptures and Deserts

I have been here at YWAM Mazatlan for over a month now and I cannot express the joy that I have of being here.  I have really learned to love this place and the base and the city.  I am already feeling thoughts of how much I’ll miss this place when I don’t live here anymore.  Part of these feelings come from the amount of peace God has given me about being here and what my role is here. 

My DTS so far has been one of brokenness and tears, repentance and forgiveness.  And for the first few week so DTS I wondered why my growth didn’t seem to be coming in these huge ways.  God seemed to be showing everyone else these huge chunks in their life that they needed to take a sledgehammer to and for me I felt like I wanted that because I wanted God to do something big. 

However I have come to realize that my chunks are already gone.  It’s like an artist sculpting a huge stone sculpture.  At the beginning, he takes out the bigger tools and takes off chunks at a time here and there.  These chunks are fairly big and isn’t very tedious work.  However once those chunks are gone its time for the details.  The artist is taking of less stone with each movement and it takes more time.  It is a more tedious work.  It takes patience and concentration.  This is where I feel I am.  God has already broken off the big chunks.  Maybe there’s more but for me I see it I just gotta make sure I don’t put big chunks back on.  While I’m here I feel this is a time for God to do the tedious details of forming me and molding me.

Another thing God has shown me is the importance of the desert.  A lot of times we see the desert as a time when we don’t feel God and we are stretched thin.  I’m not talking about this kind of desert.  I’m talking about the kind of desert the forms us and prepares us for ministry.  For example Jesus was baptized then immediately went into the desert.  Right after the desert, he began his ministry.  Paul after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus spent 3 years in the desert chillin and making tents before he began his ministry.  John the Baptist spent most his life in the desert before starting his ministry, at ministry that only lasted about 18 months.  Moses spent 40 years in the desert before he was ready to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.  All these people spent significant time in the desert before beginning their actual ministry.  It was a time of getting close to God in intimacy and going through trials and temptations so when the time came they would be ready to do the task God has for them. 

God has shown me that this DTS is kind of like my desert time.  The calm before the storm.  A time of preparation that needs to happen so things that will seem more important will happen later.  When we look at Jesus we see his time of healing people from sickness as a bigger event than his 40 days in the desert.  For example we would see Paul and say him raising the young man from the dead in Acts 20 as a bigger event then Paul’s 3 years in the desert.  Yet without the 3 years in the desert Paul probably wouldn’t have been able to raise that man from the dead.

Tedious sculpture work and deserts are both things that require patience, time, and endurance, but they are very important for God to mold us into people who are intimate with him, obedient to him, and are able to be used by him.  These times are not a waste but vital and important to our faith.  Intimacy is the source of ministry.  Intimacy does not come in one night.  So let’s stop thinking of waiting on God as a waste of time and start seeing it for what it truly is so that we can be found worthy of the calling He has on our lives.

Love you everyone!  God bless from Mazatlan,

Brother Chris

P.S. KALLEY AND ANDREW ARE MARRIED CONGRATUALIONS!!! YAH!!!