Sing a New Song...

I have not written in my journal for two days now. We have been busy helping to set up the site, meeting community members, shopping for work supply items, and getting to know the Tony, Amanda and Anna. It has been great doing all these things, but I miss journaling because it helps me to process the day’s activities and what they really mean to me. I know I may not have time to journal during the week once the participants are here, so that is why I’m doing this everyday now since we do have time. Once the youth and adult leaders get here we will be going from 6:30am to 12:00pm. We made a covenant as a team that lights go out for the participants at 11:00 then for the team no later than 12:00. I can’t imagine going through the whole summer with those hours, well I guess I actually can because I did this last year :).

Today’s devotion was on singing a new song taught by Christ. He is the great composer of the song that we will be sharing with those around us. The song of hope and glory of what He has done for us. It’s a song of triumph that Christ has taken all our burdens, all our hurts, all our needs and made them His own. As we serve and love Him, He is adding to the lyrics and verses. He is composing a song that will be sung by the saints and angles….It is interesting how God coordinates and brings things together. Tonight, after dinner, the team was going through the songs that Amanda is going to be playing for our “club” time. Club time is a time of worship and prayer. We must of sat here for two hours going over songs we are going to share with the youth. We ran across “There is no one like you” which so reminded me of worship class and Dr. Gould would start of with 1 Chronicles 17:20 "There is no one like you, O LORD, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. This is in the middle of a prayer by David right after God made a covenant with David. David went before the Lord and simply stated that he was not worthy of all the blessing that God had bestowed on him. David is humbled at what the Lord is doing and recognizes that there is much more to the Lord than what we know are even can fathom. God is powerful, God is mighty, God is gracious, God is magnificent and God is so much more than anything we can imagine.

I’m really just in awe at the blessings he has given to me. He has blessed me with a wonderful family, with great friends, with a Godly woman as a girlfriend, and with just an awesome team this summer. I get so much encouragement from all the people in my life and the good news is God is in the middle of all these relationships. Isn’t God good?

Clinging to Christ

I am blessed to be able to be on a team where friendships are being created. We encourage each other, we laugh with each other, we challenge each other, and we listen to each other. That, I believe is a good start to a wonderful friendship. I know there will be times when there will be disagreements, but when we have Christ in the middle of our relationship, it is hard to stay upset at another person.

Today’s devotion was about clinging to God with all our might. Just like Jacob clung to the angle on the plains and insisted that the angle bless him, Jacob clung because he had the hope and the desire to be blessed. God doesn’t bless us because we insist that he blesses us, he blesses us because we are in his presence on a consistent basis. Like Jacob, I want to be blessed and the only way I know to be blessed is to be in the presence of Christ, so I’m clinging to him every chance I get.

We are so blessed to be here in Cortez, the people are so gracious and welcoming. We went to two churches yesterday, both Assembly of God churches. They were very different than what I remember other AG churches to be like. Pastor Don talked about Romans 5:12-17, emphasizing grace that goes before and continuing to sanctification and being made perfect in the image of Christ. I came to realize that we are not all that different, that denominations are really that far apart. We all love to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those around us and though we may have different ideas about how we share the love of Christ it is still the love of Christ.

The Lord's Day...

It is a wonderful day; it is the Lord’s Day. All honor and glory are directed to Jesus Christ this day. I am so blessed to be in a community where there is evidence of the Lord’s presence. I haven’t been able to venture out much, but can tell from the two churches we have visited that they are faithful and are loving of Christ. Today the devotion was directed to turning all the worries and anxieties over to God for he wants to take all the problems in our lives away; he wants to be a blessing to us; he wants us to succeed in life. Philippians 4:19 is a key verse, because God will meet all the needs that we have. We must have faith as a child in all that we do and say. When we allow Jesus to come into our lives, he will help the blessings to overflow from out lives.

Yesterday went so very well. We got the opportunity to rest and chill and then we hit it hard. We were able to get all the material down for summer from the attic. We all made great progress in getting everything inventoried. It was an amazing feeling to have that down. I even got the work project boxes set up for the 1^st week. Now I need to tackle the paint and get all that inventoried. I can’t believe we have gotten this far in this short of time. We have been very blessed. Today is Sunday and we are going to our home church. They are an Assembly of God congregation and are so friendly. I know it will be a blessing today. After church we are invited to a potluck dinner with all the fixings. The team seems to be coming together quit nicely and we are actually bonding with one another. We went through the “conflict” stuff last night and learned how everyone deals with conflict. The ladies said this morning that they actually dreamed about conflict last night. I think it is healthy to talk about things like this because this summer there will be times of conflict; it’s just the nature of humanity. If we can minimize conflict all the better. I’m looking forward to a great summer of growing in the Lord and building friendships and relationships with the people I serve with and the people that I love.

Every day I am thankful for Lee Ann and her encouragement. We are growing closer each and every day because our hope and trust is in the Lord and he is at the center of our relationship. I miss her terribly, but we are in this summer for a reason and I think it is to strengthen our friendship so we will rely on the Lord for everything that we do. So I thank God for our relationship and trust that he will form it and mold it into the relationship that he wants, not what we want.

We made it....

We made it to Cortez last night about 7:00pm. The drive took us through Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Alamosa, Durango and then on to Cortez. It was about a 11 hour trip with stops for lunch and breaks along the way. We also went through Wolf Creek Pass where snow was still present on the side of the mountains, but not on the roads. It was a sight to see as we took pictures out in the snow and on top of a rock overlooking the valley. God’s creation is so beautiful, I am so thankful I am able to experience this and to praise God for what he has done. I’m reminded on Psalm 65, where we are to give thanksgiving for the earth’s bounty and all God as done in the beauty of the earth. God has richly rewarded us by giving us this beautiful land to enjoy and praise him. Praise be to God.

When we pulled into Cortez it was like pulling into home. Pastor Don was waiting for us with anticipation to show us the church and the parsonage where Amanda and Anna will be staying for summer. Pastor Don took us around the church and pointed out each and every room where we will be setting up. He gave us keys and told us to use the facilities as we needed them. He then sat us down and gave us his expectations of what the church wanted from us this summer. He is an instant friend that I will look forward to getting to know over the course of the summer. He invited us to come and talk with him anytime we had the opportunity.

I was able to see all the paint, ladders, tools and every thing I have to work with this summer last night. That was a great relief as we can start going through that today sorting and figuring out what we need to organized and need to buy. I’m so thankful for that opportunity so early in the prep week. We were able to sleep very soundly last night, I slept on the couch of the parsonage and took a hot shower and felt great this morning. My prayer today and has been for a great while now is that I don’t compare the last summer to this summer. I want this summer to be its own entity. I have a wonderful staff serving along side of me and have some wonderful prayer partners back at home. Not to mention I have a wonderful girlfriend who is so encouraging and loving. It makes my heart glad that I have friends and family who are people of God. God is so very faithful and worthy to be praised. I couldn’t do this without his guidance and loving hand upon me. Thanks be to God.

God knows...

^NIV Psalm 33:11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

God knows what is going on, we don’t have to be concern about what the future holds because when we are faithful to his glory and his plan for our lives then our future will be bright because of him. We have the assurance that the Lord has a plan for each of us and wants us to succeed. He blessed Abraham with a child, with a nation and he wants to bless us with a promise that last for all generations. We are part of that promise that God made with Abraham. We are the descendents that are charged to go out and be a blessing to others. I’m excited to be a blessing to others. I want others to succeed. I want others to have prosperity because I think that is only enhances their self worth and gives them confidence to carry on through life. Christ is the only one who can instill a sense of hope in people and it is our pleasure to introduce and show the love of Christ to a hurting world, to a broken people, to a lost society that quite frankly has taken for granted the blessings that have come from the Lord. The Lord is willing and able to give blessings and wants to all his children to know the loving grace and majesty of the Father.

The team seems to be coming together every day now. I can see the love of Christ is each and every one of my teammates. They are all very enthusiastic of what the Lord is doing in their lives and wants to share that with each other. They are recognizing the gifts and talents that God has placed in their lives and they are willing and encouraged to draw on those gifts to glorify the Lord in everything they do. I am in awe at the way the Lord is faithful as to place people in my life to encourage me and to challenge me to be better than I am. I firmly believe that the Lord is working in each of our lives encouraging us and challenging us to be a blessing to each other. Jonathan said yesterday that the honeymoon time with your staff will soon be over and that once we are with each other for entire weeks at a time we will need to draw on the strength of the Lord to see the love Christ brings to each of us through each of us. God wants us to succeed, he wants the summer to succeed but most of all he wants to be a blessing to us for always. I have confidence that when we draw on the strength of the Lord he will not fail us and will lift us up to a higher plain.

Poverty....

Todd from YouthWorks spoke about poverty yesterday and challenged the teams to consider what poverty really means within our communities and in the lives of the young people who will be coming to serve. Poverty is a real problem and the Bible has some incredible things to say about how we are to respond and treat poverty. God doesn’t want poverty, God didn’t create poverty. God wants all his children to have everything they can to sustain them and to give them a hope and a future. One thing that struck me was that people fly all over the states, even all over the world to do missions which is great. But when we travel to our locations we are bypassing mission fields that are all around us. That got me thinking about my grand ideas about wanting to be in Georgia when I leave Asbury.

Better grasp....

I have a better grasp on why I am here. I’m thinking that I am supposed to be here to learn more about myself and how to deal with contention and controversy. I believe that God wants to grow me in my spiritual maturity and help others walk in the way of the Jesus Christ. That’s exciting to me, that I get to lead others along the path of mercy and grace for at least the summer and maybe become friends with some that will last well after this summer in Colorado. God is good and faithful, this I can attest to. Yesterday my prayer was that God would take all that I worry about and all the anxieties that I have and take them away from me. I believe that He is beginning to do that. I was able to continue to build relationships and start new ones yesterday. I am beginning to be open to the possibility that God wants me here and wants to do a mighty work in my life this summer.

Yesterday we continued orientation as we looked at our specific roles as staffers this summer. Even though I have heard this idea of being the hands and feet of Jesus who will lead some 70 or so youth each week this summer, I got the sense that I was learning and experiencing something new. One thing that fascinated me was that these youth and adult leaders will be watching me and looking to me for answers to all types of questions that they may have. I was reminded that I need to model for them what it means to be Jesus to everyone, which I need to love my neighbor no matter what they look like. We are all children of the living God and we need to come together as one community of believers to honor Him and to glorify Him. So I need to model that for these young people so they will understand we are here to come along side our family to encourage and the help them be complete in the Lord. It’s not at all about the work that we do; it’s about the relationships that are built within the community.

Incredible People

I have met some incredible people already. I believe that I will truly enjoy working with Tony, Amanda, and Anna for the summer. They all seem to have a true and pure heart for the Lord. From the first impressions I got, they don’t see this summer as just a “summer job”, but a ministry for the summer. They want to grow in the Lord this summer, they are humble, they are passionate, they are enthusiastic about what the summer hold for them. I join them in these expressions and expectations because I know the Lord is going to work in the lives of all of us, in the lives of the youth, adult leaders, and the community. What an exciting time it will be.

Today will be a packed day once again, we will continue to get to know each other. We will begin to get a feel for our roles. We will begin building team unity, which I’m very excited about. I’m sure there will be a lot going on today, but right now I can’t come up with everything.

Father I pray for today, I pray that your loving and guiding hand will upon this site today. Holy Spirit I pray that you will be present with us as we seek your face in all that we do today. When we are weak from exhaustion, I pray that you will infuse your energy into us and make us excited about this ministry that you have brought us to. I pray for all the leaders today that you will give them confidence and assurance of your presence. Thank you for their leadership and their willingness to follow you. Thank you for all that you are doing and all that you are going to be doing today, tomorrow and all our days.

Why me Lord?

I’m not sure what I’m doing here. I thought I would have a better clue this year why I was here, but I find myself searching for an answer to the same question I had last year at this time. I do think I have a better grasp at what is expected of me and what opportunities I have that I can bring to this group of new people. It must be that I don’t know anyone well that is here and trying to figure out how I “fit” into the lives of these that I’m going to spend the next 11 weeks with. It is a daunting task to try and wrap my brain around. Lee Ann and I are reading the same devotional, Streams in the Desert, throughout the summer. Today’s reading was Psalm 37:5 – Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act, was speaking about giving everything we have, all our cares, all our worries, all our anxieties, all the stuff that we carry around in the palm of our hand and give it to God. Let him hold it, let him grasp it, He will take care of everything that He holds in His hand. We may be tested and we certainly will, but we need to have faith that He is working in every situation in our lives. God acts, God works, God loves, and God is faithful. So, I need to cast all the worries into the loving hand of my heavenly Father and baste in His presence. Right now, I am turning this entire summer over to God, where He leads I will go, what He ask I will do, and the people He puts in my path I will love with the love of Christ. To Him be the Glory.

The night before......

I said goodbye to my house, close friends and Wilmore, Kentucky this morning and hit the road for an adventure that will take me through Atlanta to Denver to Cortez, Colorado this summer. Even though it was hard to say goodbye, I'm anticipating it will be a great summer as I get to serve with three college students who are on fire for the Lord. I'm looking forward to how the Lord will be working in the lives of the four of us this summer.

My prayer is that the Lord will use me in a mighty way this summer. That I will be open to what He wants from me and how He wants to work through me as the summer progresses. I pray that I will not only be a light for the youth that will be coming to Cortez, and a light for the community in which I serve, but that I will be an encouraging friend to my teammates. Please join me in these prayers.

This is my second year serving with YouthWorks, my first was in Eastern Kentucky. I will be serving as the Work Project Staff finding work for youth groups to do. The groups will be serving clients by painting houses and doing minor repair work.