Hidden Among the Baggage.

On August 27th I will start my first day of classes at Northwest University. It is a long time coming as I graduated from high school 4 years ago. I spent about a year just lollygagging, after that I worked with YWAM for about a year and a half and the last year I’ve spent working with my youth group. Part of me wishes I had gone straight to college after high school. “I’d be graduating this year” and "I’m going to be a 22 year old freshman” are both common thoughts floating in my head. However, when I examine all of the things that have taken place to get me to this point, the sane part of me realizes that this is the way it had to be. I also realize that God has known that since the very beginning.
I spent two months at home after my first five months with YWAM. During that time I was made wildly aware of how badly the youth, whom I am not far removed from, needed discipleship. They even longed for it, but most didn't have anywhere to find it. It was at this point that I first thought about going into youth ministry, but for reasons unknown to me at the time, I quickly put that idea on the back burner. I then returned to Switzerland to spend another three months with YWAM participating in a traveling Bible school. At the end of this course we were required to write a topical study for our final. I wrote mine on discipleship; I learned that the best way to disciple is to be a shepherd (to lead by example, be always watchful to protect your sheep, and to know the condition of your flock.) Upon handing in my topical study my passion and drive to disciple young people was once again kindled.
I spent the rest of my time with YWAM staffing a Discipleship Training School, and then eventually leading a two-month outreach of 11 people to Togo with my friend Sarah. It was during this time that I learned the most about myself- some good things, some bad. First off, I learned that I had the ability to lead and to lead well. God also illuminated many things within me that I hated. I realized that I didn't love well; I am naturally apt to jump to judgment. I had the revelation that only the King can pass down judgment. It was also revealed to me that I have a tendency to be led my emotions instead of by my will. The statement "your feelings are real, but not always true" was never truer to me than then. While I cherish every minute of it, those were two of the hardest months of my life. However, I still came home thinking that I would do it again. I also came home severely burned out; the idea of leading anything seemed tedious.
I came home with the intention of leaving again in two months to be a full-time YWAMer. I immediately started working with the youth group at my church. I was enjoying it, but still thought it was just temporary and didn't want much responsibility. After conversation with Mike and Kari Levang I decided to stay home at least through the summer to help out with our summer wakeboard camp. Still, I had every intention of returning to Switzerland in the fall. As the days burned away and we reach the waning moments of summer, God rocked my world. It was one word that I did not want to hear: "STAY." To me, at that time, To go meant excitement, adventure, new friends and what I thought was my "calling." To stay meant struggle (I would have to earn my living doing one intense, physical job after another). It meant losing the community of believers I had in Switzerland, it meant the hard way to me. However, it also meant becoming part of a whole new incredible community at my church, a community that has come to be a massive influence in my life. It also meant being able to work long-term with the church's youth group. I've been home now for 14 months. I'd be a liar if I said it has all been sunshine and daisies; I've had some very distinct valleys. However, God has guided me out of all of these things with a new hair of wisdom and a badge of knowledge. I have so loved working with this youth group. It is actually become one of the main things I spend my time doing. I've spent much of this year feeling like I was swimming in circles, like what I was doing wasn't enough. But, in true God fashion, he has been rocking my world again over the past two months. The scales have fallen off my eyes and I have seen that God has actually been doing great things through me in both the church and its youth group. I say this not in a conceited way, but the with great gratitude that God has indeed watered seeds that I have thrown down. I find myself once again having this passion to disciple young people being stirred up within my heart, so much so that a raging inferno might just burst out of my chest.
Now that I have begun to yield to this idea of one day becoming a youth pastor, it is becoming clear why I resisted it in the first place: Fear; The fear of such responsibility, also the requirement of preparing and giving a message week in, week out. For a long time God has been continually putting it right in front of me, but for the sake of my fears I've turned a blind eye. I can't do that and more.
I am reading through 1st Samuel at the moment. I just recently came across the part where Samuel was going to crown Saul as the first king of Israel. We read previously in the chapter that Saul had already been anointed as king. When it comes time for Samuel to present him as king, Saul is nowhere to be found. So the people asked "is there a man still to come" and the Lord said "behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage." I asked myself, "Why in the world was Saul hiding behind the bags?" The only conclusion I could find was that he was scared. Imagine that: a man, whom God had already anointed, was afraid of what God anointed him to do. I first thought "that's pretty lame of Saul" then I realized "I am the same as Saul." Right now is when God is calling me out. He's saying "Josh, come on. Baggage, really? You're hiding behind bags? I already anointed you, just stand up and walk in the direction I have pointed you." He's calling me out from behind the baggage to face my fear, which I'm realizing is nothing to be afraid of. So that's what I am doing, I'm coming out of hiding.
I know I'm not the only one. I think it is human nature. My question to you is this: why are you hiding among the baggage? Is it fear? Fear of what? Whatever it is, my encouragement to you is this: push the bags aside, as a matter-of-fact burn the darn bags! Whatever you do, for the love of God, stand up. 1 Samuel 10 goes on to say "When he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward." This might come as a surprise to you but God might just desire for you to be a giant in whatever it is that he has called you to do.
Stand up. Burn the baggage!

God Is a Pretty Great Artist.

Just beautiful! I love my city... Notice the grandur of Rainer over the city though.. God's creation triumphs over man's any day!

On the Matter of:

On the matter or Temptation: A test of loyalties. That is what it boils down to. Not something to be feared or abhorred, but a gift. We will be tempted many times every day. Some more than others, this fact is scary. However, we have hope in the fact that with every temptation we have the ability to respond rightly with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. At every temptation we hit a fork in the road. We can go left or right, one way is sin and the other is holiness. The first look at a girl places this fork before us, the temptation. At that moment I have a choice: Look again, or set my eyes upon Jesus. To take a second look is to indulge in sin. To divert my eyes is to pursue purity, holiness, and righteousness. In life we are daily tempted with a “second look.” Daily we are presented with this test of loyalties. Are we loyal to Christ? or to our flesh? Every day, multiple times a day I choose the flesh. But every day, multiple times a day I get another chance to be loyal to Christ. That is the gift. It goes all the way back to Adam. He was tested with the tree. He chose the tree over relationship with God, but from that moment and on... every day, multiple times a day he was presented with an opportunity to be loyal to God. This changes everything. With this revelation we are now free to decide against that second look, not because of requirement, but because we have Jesus in us. Every temptation is an opportunity to reflect Him.

On the matter of Holiness and sin: Rather than being the purpose or the aim, overcoming sin is merely the byproduct of the purpose which is relationship with Christ. In this there is freedom.

The.Best.Lies and Our.Lives.

I think it was my friend Clive... That would be Clive Staples Lewis who once said that the best lie is 90% truth.

I've made a lot of mistakes.. A pivotal one being allowing myself to live a lot of my life in 90% truth.

I think most people unknowingly live their lives in that 90% rather than the full 100... Sadly, that 10% lie is like leaven in bread... It will spread through the whole of it and contaminate it with itself... So that while there is 90% truth... that truth still has this underlying falsehood hidden within. It is something that is subtle but slowly corrupts the truth in our hearts... C.S. Lewis also wrote "The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."

It is necessary to always check ourselves to make sure we're not on the safe road to hell... It sounds brutal, but that's the simple truth. Because it is easy to let this 10% run rampant and grow without realizing. It is easy to not acknowledge the leaven. But that is suicide.

Let's examine our lives... Are we living in 90% truth or 100% truth?

I don't know what this looks like... I don't know how to extract the leaven from the bread. But I do know that 90% is dangerous...

So, this ended up kind of being an expose on C.S. Lewis. Haha.

The Truth, Honestly.

So this is going to be a short one.

A few days ago.. Ok maybe a week or two I ran across this verse: "The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." -Psalm 145:18.

What does it mean to "call in truth?"

What does it mean? It's a good question. I guess to answer that question you need to think about what truth is... I think in most instances when we think about speaking the truth it means to be honest.. So, when this verse says that the Lord is near to all who "call on him in truth," I believe the Psalmist is telling us to call on him with honesty!

Could this mean that we are to call out, to cry out to God with honesty on our hearts and on our lips? To lay our hearts out, to be honest with our struggles? Are we to be "straight up" with God? No facades, no sugar coating? YES!

I think this is a beautiful promise! When we are humbled to come before God and just say "God, I am scared. God I need you... and I sin in this, this and this way. I Think wrongly in this way. Sometimes I don't trust you! I love you though, and I'm trying.. God I need you so bad!!" The promise we have is that the Lord is "near" to all who "call in truth" or as I believe those who are honest when God. Not that He doesn't know all these things already.. But He is concerned with our hearts, because He is a personal being. God wants us to tell Him what is up with us.. It's like when a child breaks a vase and the parent says... ok, who broke this vase?? The parent knows it was the child.. But they ask because they want their beautiful child to tell them on their own!

This is why we are to call out to God in truth. God wants us to tell him the truth on our own.. And His promise is that He'll be near to us. He'll protect us and watch over us. He'll comfort us in His arms. He is a Father.. An amazing gracious Father!!

Christ Knows ALL Our Temptations!

Ok Ok... It's about time!

Gosh, I'm sorry. I suck at keeping up my blog! Please accept my deepest apologies!

So While is was in Israel I was reading through Hebrews and as I read Heb. 4:15-16 then, these verses just jumped out at me. I think maybe because at that time the fact that I definitely needed Jesus' help with my temptations to sin was clearly evident to me.. Something that as time goes in becomes even clearer. I was on a long bus ride so I had some time and decided to look a little deeper into these two verses. And that time is where I got the bulk what is in this blog. But then about a week ago, my Friend Isaac posted that verse on his status on Facebook and so I was prompted to look at it again.. And Now I guess I just felt like it's probably time to put it into a blog!

So, here's the verse- Hebrews 4:15-16:

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

1st: You notice that we have a promise of help when we are being tempted to sin.

Then we have the question: Wy does He have authority over sin?
1st: Because He IS God incarnate.
2nd: Because Christ humbled himself and became a man, he had to suffer every temptation like we do. He knows exactly what we are going through (you read this in Phil. 2), he knows our suffering because He has endured it! Since he triumphed over the temptation to sin, he has the authority over sin.

So the next question is: Jesus humbled himself to become fully man, so, being fully man, how did Jesus overcome sin?
1. As a man he had potential to sin. Some people think that it wasn't possible for Jesus to sin. in Latin the term is "Non posse peccare" but that isn't true.. It wasn't impossible for Jesus to sin.. But it is possible for him not to sin. The term is "Posse non peccare".. Meaning that he had potential to sin, but he was able to not sin.. He was able not to sin because he had direct communion with God the Father and was empowered and strengthened.
Now, because of Christ's death, resurrection and ascension we have received God's grace and The Holy Spirit who through God's grace welcomes us into the family.. Into relationship and fellowship with the Father. Through this relationship and community with the Trinity we too are strengthened and empowered by God to fight temptation.

Jesus stands holding our hand and he pulls us into this relationship and he makes it possible.

So, how are we supposed to respond to this?
1. Allow the Holy Spirit to work to empower us.. In John and Acts the Holy Spirit is talked about as a Helper.. He helps us.
2. Trust- Trust that God has given us authority over temptation. Believe it!
3. Act in this belief- Walk in God promise that we will find help to resist temptation... Put on the shoes and walk in them. Start living in a way that suggests that we believe what is written in this passage!
4. Take the practical step of having someone to be accountable with!

That's just how I worked through it.. A person could probably spend many many hours diving into these verses.. They're very rich verses! As is the whole book of Hebrews!

My trip was fantastic BTW! Keep me in your prayers as I prepare mentally, spiritually and financially to go out one more time! In the Fall I will be going back to Switzerland for another round of DTS(Discipleship Training School). This time I will be a staff member!!!! Woo.. But seriously.. pray for me. Haha

Thanks,

Josh!

Smashing Apples.

Friday morning the DTS got together to have a huge session of prayer, repentance, and forgiveness... They weren’t forcing anyone to do anything, but they encouraged us to let go and forgive people, also to repent of sins and turn to God.

As hard as it sounded to me and as much as I didn’t want to, I decided that I needed to do all these things. (repent, forgive, pray)

My friend Edward went up first and repented on his knees and forgive a bunch of people. Surrounded by friends (or by this point family) praying for him. He broke down in tears. It was very emotional. As I was listening and praying with my face buried in my hands, I started crying, no, not crying.. Sobbing. The first time I can recall crying in 10 years. No exaggeration. It was an amazing release. As tears poured out of my face I couldn’t help but think “Holy crap, I’m actually crying, I forgot what this felt like.”

I decided it was time for me to go up there and do the dance. I let go of some pretty heavy things. Forgave lots of people. repented. It felt good. Another release of things that were pent up inside of me. I still felt super heavy though. I can’t explain it. I felt like God wasn’t done with me. He wanted more. I wanted more.

I was done with the forgiveness fest and the rage of repentance.I just sat there on the ground with my legs crossed. Praying. Listening to all my friends from my YWAM family crying and breaking strongholds and running to God. I wanted more! I didn’t feel like I had actually fully let go and repented of my sins and such. Even though I could already feel a great weight was lifted off of my shoulders.

A thought popped into my head. “Go, walk in the woods.” I kinda pushed that thought back. “This isn’t the time to go and galavant in the woods.” We were supposed to have worship and some other stuff that I thought I shouldn’t miss. It was a persistent thought, however. “Go, walk in the woods.” Finally I succumbed to the thought. “OK! I’ll go.” I grabbed my coat, left the rest of my stuff where it was and bolted without telling someone where I was going. I didn’t want to interrupted anyone. In retrospect I probably should have told someone. But It worked out ok.

Back to the story.

We find me in walking into the woods.

About 2 minutes into my walk. I found an green apple laying in the ground. It had some haggard brown spots, as most apples would if you found it on a trail in the woods. I picked this apple up and took it along with me on my walk. I walked for a long time. Probably about an hour. After I had gotten to a point where I had no idea where I had ventured to, I stopped. Looking down at the apple I had grasped in my hand. The thought slipped into my head “Hmm.. This apple is kinda like my sin.” A cliché reference to Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit. So I decided to try and smash it on a huge tree in front of me in a vain symbolic attempt to dash my sins.

So what did I do? “If I’m getting rid of this sin I’m going to do it with power and glory!” So, I Chucked the apple as hard as I possibly could at this tree!

And......................................

.......................................

........................................................................................... I missed. I missed the huge tree. It was right in front of me!

Then I thought “I tried too hard.” In trying so hard to smash this apple with style I tried to throw it too hard and just missed completely.

Then I got this beautiful piece of graceful wisdom from God. “You’re trying too hard with your sins. You’re trying so, so hard to dash all your sins on this huge figurative tree, and in your vain attempt, you’ve missed. Just let go of your sins and give them up to me. Run to me.” I rummaged deep in the forrest past the tree and finally found the apple. I went back to where I was standing and just tossed the apple and it EXPLODED on the tree. I finally realized what God was telling me.. “You can’t do this. All you can do is let go of these sins and turn to me, and my Son has already done the rest. you can’t save yourself.”

Hahahahaha. I just started laughing with this big stupid grin on my face. I turned and started walking back singing worship songs. “I love you Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you, Oh my soul rejoice. Take joy my King, in what you hear, let it be a sweet sweet sound in your ear.” I finally opened my mind to what God was telling me: I can’t be my savior.

Somewhere during the walk home I started to think about how long I walked through the woods with that apple clasped in my hands. It was at least an hour. I thought to myself “Wow, I held that apple and walked with it for a REALLY long time!”

Suddenly the apple/sin reference filled my head again. I realized that just like with the apple, I held on to my sins for soo long! Wayy too long. I carried these sins for way longer than I needed to or should have. All I had to do was let them go and run to God.

Not only did I finally get the idea of repenting, and that I cant do anything on my own. But, I had gotten a word from God and for the most part understood it and realized that it was from Him. Which was a huge answer to prayer in-and-of-itself.

I got back to the Chalet right before lunch. I’m not really sure how long I was gone. But everyone was like “Where’d you go, Josh?”

I just told them that I had to talk with God in the woods. They understood.

Clenched to This Pyre

Ok, so this is basically like a conversation back and forth between me and God.. Call and answer.

I can feel it in my bones

Something, about to break.

“It’s about time

Love is an action not a thought.”

“It’s your pain now

You’re grasping to the hurt.”

I’m holding on, growing weary

“Let go and experience rest.”

I’m clenched, helpless to this pyre

“Let go and dress your wounds.”

I’m stuck, clutching my shackles

“Let go and explore freedom.”

Letting go, letting go, letting go.

“What took you so long?”

I believed the lies.

“Well, you’re free now.”

What a beautiful gift?!

"This is forgiveness..."

To live is Christ.

I'm so excited, I might barf!

Today is my last day of work! Holyyyyy Smokes. I leave in 12 days! I paid my school fees. Now it's all just minor prep. before I leave!

Thanks Sooo much to everyone who has helped me out. Either financially or through prayer, or both! Like I said, I paid my school fees. So the first half of the money that I needed has come in. I still need another $3000, for the outreach phase of my trip. Luckily I don't need that for another 2 months or so. Your continued prayer and support is MUCH MUCH appreciated, as this is something that I am worried about!

Pray for my mental and physical health! Thank you! :)

Here's something I was thinking about today:

It's not only important/ AMAZING that Jesus died for our sins. But it is, I feel, also very important that He humbled himself and became flesh, so that He could LIVE for us. Jesus is our only pure example of how we should live our lives. God created us in His image. When original sin came about we lost our example of how we should live our lives. So, when Jesus came to earth, He not only came to die for our sins, so that we are eternally forgiven, but He came to live on earth as a man and show us how to truly reflect God, as men, to the rest of His onlooking-fallen creation.

Isn't that incredible?!

Love!

Love. Love. Love.

Well, I am no longer counting down to my departure day in months. We’re down to the days. 18 days to be exact. I am unexplainably excited and at the same time I am scared out of my mind!

I recently heard Mission defined as: “Reflecting God to an onlooking world.”

What does this entail? We have to show people, believers and non-believers alike the love of God, through our own love for them. Every second of our lives we should be living out the Gospel. You never know who is watching and you never know who’s life you could change forever, just by reflecting the love of God.

We are the glory of God. He created us in His image. We cannot forget this; He created us to love as He loves. God created us to be in relationship, in community; In the likeness of the Trinity.. Always in community. Loving and watching out for each other.

We have all forgotten the importance of love. Everything else spins outwardly from this. When we truly love as God loves, everything follows. On rare occasions when I briefly put this into practice I have experienced true joy; Unexplainable joy. God created us to love.

Philippians 1:9-10

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,"

Love: Love the world with all your heart.

1 Peter 4:8
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

How do we put this into practice? Don’t ask me. I’m not even close to finding out how. No matter how much you talk about it, it’s hard to actually love everyone, all the time. Especially people who are mean, rude, annoying, prideful, etc. the list goes on. Guess what, love those people MORE!

All I know is that instead of praying for God to make you love people, or to help you love people, pray that God would show you how to love people. We’ve all heard it before “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.” I feel like this applies.

One of my constant struggles is that I feel inadequate. I see good and bad parts in me. I see qualities that I know reflect God. But more often than not, those qualities are over-shadowed by the bad qualities. It scares me. I see anger. I trampled down my anger that I formerly couldn’t control, but I still feel the anger deep down. I lust. My eyes want what they shouldn’t. It’s hard for me to love people that I think I am better than. Even though the truth is: I’m no better than anyone. I’m probably worse. My mind is constantly going where it shouldn’t. My thoughts are constantly at war with my heart.

Compare the good or redeeming qualities (for those english majors) and the bad with two fighting dogs. One dog being the glorious qualities, the ones that we would consider a reflection of God. The other dog is all of the dark, sickening traits that are the result of satan’s whispered lies. Which dog wins? How could one answer that question? My best answer is one that I didn’t come up with. The dog who wins, the dog who triumphs is the dog you feed the most..

*Please pray that God would show me how to love people. That love would bubble up out of my heart. To quote Mewithoutyou: “A glass can only spill what it contains”. Pray that my heart would be overfilled with love, that it would spill out onto/ into everyone I meet, everyone I see, all of my friends, my family. Pray that all goes well with my preparations. With only 18 days to go, I am getting pretty nervous about all of my planning. Pray that all of the support comes in. I still need about $2000 dollars. I believe it will come in. Pray for my fellow teammates. Pray for community within our group. Pray for safety.

Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

P.S... I'm feeding the good dog Kibbles n' Bits with Beggin Strips.. ;)

Thank you. :)

Glory.

I turn and face the facts;

We’ve ruined God’s fair world.

With our lies

and addictions

and with dripping lust.

I’ve pulled up my chair and tuned in my television set

to watch the fall of God’s good creation.

Sitting around, no action took.

Is it not my job?

I put Him on the cross, I’ve no cross to bare.

How did it come to this?

This garden once was perfect.*

Now, over-grown with weeds. I can barely find my way.

I am supposed to be His glory? What a glorified mess.

Although I am a broken man, my minds at peace,

Because I find beauty in God's love as He mends my shattered soul.

*This line is adapted from lyrics from The Hush Sound.

P.S. Sorry, I've slacked a bit on the blogage... I've been busy.

Hunger!

If I opened my bible half as much as I check up on my Twitter, I’d be a theologian by now.
I am a day in to this fast; I have already realized how much time that I have free to do other stuff in the day when I am not preoccupied with Facebook and Twitter. I have more time to pray and read my bible. It’s actually pretty spectacular.
Another thing being made apparent to me is that I am a glutton. You may not think so when you look at me. But, spend a day with me and you’ll see how much I eat. My close friends can attest to that. I really do just do it to pass time. I totally enjoy it. As of right now I am pretty-dang hungry. This whole not eating thing is super foreign to me. I think I’m slowly getting used to it though.

So far, I haven’t had any spiritual revelations, yet. However, I have definitely had some really great prayer and bible time. I am looking forward to where tomorrow takes me.

Pray that God reveals himself to me during this time. Pray for me to seek God, not just hide and wait for him to find me. Pray for God to give me strength.

The Fast.

So,

I've decided to do a 3 day fast. Today(Friday, July 24th) through Sunday, July 26th. Not a long one, cause I'm starting out small. I don't want to bit of more than i can swallow.

For the past month or so, I've been evaluating myself and my relationship with Christ. I've come to the conclusion that I have become to focused on things other than God. Such as: Friends(as much as I love them, they can't go before Jesus), food, facebook, girls and other such things. Not that friends or facebook or food is bad.

Hopefully, during this fast my walk with Christ will grow stronger as a result of leaning on God for support.

I am fasting food, other than like, soup and such. I'll be drinking water and juice. I'm also fasting Facebook and Twitter.

We'll see what happens. Please pray that this would be a beneficial fast.

This is Really Happening...

I wish my words came out poetic, but they don’t. I wish I could write a thousand words and woo everyone reading. I can’t.

There are so many thoughts and feelings in my head that know no one will get to understand, because I can’t say them in tangible words. Most times I stumble over my tongue and I just sound chaotic... I hope that with this blog I can write it all out, and have it make sense. That’s my goal.

My life is going to be changing drastically in the next few months. I will be embarking on a life changing journey.

In September, I leave for Lausanne, Switzerland. Located on Lake Geneva. I will be part of an organization called YWAM (Youth With A Mission). This amazing organization has been impacting lives for decades. I am so excited to be a part of it.

While in Switzerland I’ll be taking part in a 3 month DTS (Discipleship Training School). Throughout this time I will be learning SO MUCH about the bible. I am so excited for how my relationship and personal walk with Christ will grow! There will be speakers every week, along with intense bible study and prayer. (I’ll also have chances to explore Switzerland and surrounding countries).

After my 3 month stay in Lausanne, I will transition from learning and preparing to actually putting that stuff to use. I have no idea where I will be for the next 3 months of my journey. All that I know is that wherever Christ takes me, I am so ready.

So, this is where I’m at. 2 months away. and I’m shaking in my boots. So scared, yet so excited... Still much to do.

Pray that I will be emotionally ready, spiritually ready, mentally ready. Pray that I will get to know people right away and build relationships that will last a lifetime. Pray for support to come in. Pray for a sound mind, for purity. Pray for my leaders and for my fellow YWAMers. Pray that I can put myself aside and serve others, without hesitation. Pray for my flight. Pray for the speakers. Pray that I can spread God’s love to EVERYONE I talk to. Pray for my public speaking. Pray for courage over my fears. Pray for me to love others.

This will be my attempt to articulate my thoughts, feelings, emotions, experiences, and things that I learn along the way. Hopefully I can paint an accurate picture of what it’s like to see the world and God through my eyes. Here it goes. This is really happening...