an unforgettable weekend / patience

unforgettable, amazing, surreal....those are are just a few of the words to describe my weekend in Hershey, PA. My best friend Jon was married to his amazing bride Jennie. From the karaoke on Thursday to my drive home Sunday night it all seemed as if it was a dream....

God has allowed me to interact with some amazing people in my lifetime and this weekend was no exception. I was able to meet amazing and Godly people and also reunite with some old friends. It was special to see Jon and Jennie get married because they did it right. In so many ways they waited on the Lord in the process leading up to getting married. To me its an amazing story of God's love and plan for His people. God's word talks of patience and living a life for Christ in the first book of Colossians:
¹⁰And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light
Jon has focused on God and in-turn God led his steps along his journey with Jennie.

I think its hard for us to wait on God like Jon and Jennie did. We are human and we put limits on ourselves and how much we can take. I quickly forget how a God-pleasing life exemplifies patience and a steadfast spirit of obedience. I pray that I take that example of patience from Jesus in to next year in South Africa. He, himself, was patient for thirty years leading up to a three year ministry. I desire a patience with a new culture, patience with the distance between myself and friends from home, patience with building new relationships. My trust is in Him...

VMA

So I dont watch MTV very much but I did catch some of the highlights and low lights of the award show the other night. the best moment had to be Jay-Z's and Alicia Keys performance of "The Empire State of Mind'. It was just done so well and not to mention the song is hot...it really makes you want to be in the City. I figured I would put it up for anyone who hadnt seen it.

At 81% raised...South Africa is comin on soon.

a week in the Rockies

Last week I returned from Colorado after having one of the most incredible weeks of my life. At Copper Mountain Resort Campus Crusade and all its ministries, including Athletes in Action, gathered to train all the individuals going abroad for the coming year in areas such as: what its like to share your faith in the country you are going to, how to resolve team conflict, and how to love your ministry team. As for attendance at this briefing in Colorado there were about 5 people specific to the ministry of Athletes Action among 200 some others with Campus Crusade.

It was an amazing week to get to know so many others giving a year of their life to go and share Jesus with the Nations. There are two people in particular at the briefing that impacted me in a tremendous way...

Riley Wogamon is on staff with Athletes in Action. She played soccer at Syracuse and like me was a goalkeeper. Riley and I will be on the Johannesburg team together doing ministry with a few others in the athletic communities of South Africa. She is an awesome person and it was just great to get to know her and I so look forward to serving alongside with her. We shared our visions for reaching the lost athletes in South Africa and it is just mind blowing to know that our great God is preparing in advance so much for us there in Joburg.

Barrett Grant is a life long friend from Forsyth, Georgia. Our dads attended their residency programs together in Roanoke, Virginia back in the 80's. Barrett and I are 4 years in age apart but that didnt stop God from aligning us together here in Colorado as he is leading a ministry team with Crusade in Durban, South Africa. It was amazing to catch up with him and see how God has matured him. I am so excited to be serving just a few hours north of him next year and I am sure our paths will align in our time abroad. His team going to Durban includes many students from all over the southeast. We met several times in breakout sessions with other teams going to the same region of the world. I am so excited for Barrett to take this step of faith and leadership in the year to come...there team will depart January 2010.

Currently I am at 62% of my support raised. I am sending out a prayer letter soon to keep people up on my ministry even before I get to South Africa. I am so thankful for you following my approach to my year in South Africa. Please continue to pray for my financial needs to be met and for a steadfast approach to my relationship with the Lord as that relationship takes priority before any other...

here are a few pictures from my time in Colorado at the briefing...

getting away

Im heading up to Hershey, PA for the weekend to take part in the Jon Small Bachelor Bowl 2009. My buddy Jon is having a weekend full of sports and fun to celebrate his getting married in september. Such a momentus occasion!

After the weekend though I am headed to a Cabin near Covington, Va to get away and get quiet with God. I have never done this before but after getting encouragement from friends and REALLY feeling the Spirit's call to get away I will be stepping away for a couple days of being still before Him.

I need this time with Him more than ever. If anyone is out there reading this I would so appriciate your prayers for focus and restoration with God as a result of my couple days on the river.

now we are free

The past few months for me have been up and down spiritually. Even in support raising for Africa I havent been living in right alignment with God. Its hard for me to put that in words and tell others that I have lost my focus. Now I feel like I have it back...I feel like I restored in the freedom of Christ (Ruth 4:15). It has come through confession and through realizing alot of pain from poor decisions but I am free in Him.

I press on now in life knowing that God's ever flowing grace is just as abundant now as it was when I first received Him. I wanted to put a video up that Ive been searching for. The song in it fits redemption through Christ's atoning sacrifice...the title is 'Now We Are Free'. It comes from the Gladiator soundtrack but this version is live by Andrea Bocelli in the opening ceremony of the 2009 Champions League final in Rome. This whole intro gave me goosebumps watching it. I really wanted the commentators to stop talking so you could just turn up the volume and feel this moment. I have found a feed where these commentators for the most part are silent and giving respect to the moment. I so wish I was a player for one of these teams walking out of the tunnel at this match...but for now I just watch in awe of the moment.

We are forgiven and free in the arms of Jesus....He is always enough...

stepping out of mediocrity

I think all of us have that thorn in our flesh (2 Cor 7). We have those struggles that really keep us down and behind in full pursuit of God. How many times do we struggle with that thorn before we know that God's strength is made perfect in our weakness? 5, 10, 20 times? You find His strength when the desire for righteousness outweighs the slide of sinful nature.

I hate falling down on my face at times but it really wakes us up to what we need to do and where we need to go. for me I feel like the past 5 months I have been sitting comfortable in a very mediocre form of Christianity. When we are in a very comfortable form of living for Christ we make Christ seem like a mediocre God...and He is by NO means mediocre. I need to truly see and savor Jesus Christ with all that I am to show this world who He really is.

So today I am really stepping out. I am going to step up my time spent with Him, my prayer life, my devotion to guarding the Gospel with all that I am and really knowing it with all of my inmost being. I need to not be afraid to eliminate all distractions to living for those causes either. I have done enough justifying to friends, accountability partners, pastors. Its time to step out of the boat and step it up to a new level of relationship with Jesus.

go Hoos!

in honor of the UVA - Johns Hopkins game tomorrow at noon on ESPNU I am putting up the highlights I shot in Baltimore from the first meeting of the year. Go get em boys...one more till Foxboro!

back in Tally

in Brew and Bean coffee shop (tallahassee, fl)

so after about 5 months I am back in Tallahassee. Its kinda bittersweet to be back. I really did like this town. I especially like the people I met here. I miss them more than anything. It has been great catching up and hangin out with some amazing people.

I certainly would have loved to be here longer at FSU. I feel like the rug was puled right out but I gotta go forward! In Romans 8:28 it says 'God works ALL things for good to those who love Him...'. That verse has been really saturating my heart over the past week or so. I think a large part has to do with me going through John Piper's book Future Grace. IT has dived in the that promise that God makes to work in us no matter what ish goes down in our lives. I think it is a tremendously hope-filled promise that we all should go do daily.

So this weekend though I took a road trip with my friend Scott to Athens, GA this past weekend...highlights included:
-crashed my first wedding...(Scott was playing mandolin)
-heard Andy Stanley preach at North Point...a great sermon on God and our country.
-finding and hearing more affirmation through prayer about going to South Africa in the fall.
-The Original Pancake House in Atlanta
-experiencing encouragement in the body of Christ by just meeting solid believers


so all in all it was a great weekend listening to worship and bluegrass and experiencing the great spring weather of the south. Now I'm off to meet with the coaches Bible Study I was a part of last semester at FSU....should be a great reunion!

pursuit

He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life...John 12:25

what does that mean to you? God is really pressing in to me and helping me understand what it means. Life can be so trivial and made out to be something so important when in all reality all that matters is not your own life or own ambition but really throwing that all away to follow Jesus Christ.
Scripture is so clear that if we do this we will gain eternal life and I dont know many who dont want that.

This is one of those statements by Jesus that has really shaken me to my core over the past few weeks. And the verse before this one in John 12 that talks about a grain of wheat having to die in order to produce fruit is another point of really dying to your own desires in life. How do I die now in life....well I know that I have things I would love to accomplish in my life...desires that I even wish to see come true before I leave for South Africa but honestly I need to die to these desires. I need to pursue what He has given me here and really abandon myself to this call to reach the nations.

Desires may be realized in this time before I leave or in my lifetime but only when the focus isnt on myself or on the desires themselves. The pursuit needs to be on the true pursuer...Jesus.

my sister is headed to cville

so today my sister found out some amazing news! She was accepted to the class of 2013 at the University of Virginia! Her hard work has been rewarded and I couldnt be more proud of her. She has just persevered though soooooooooo much to get to this day and I really feel this is straight from the Lord (James 1:17). I wish I could visit her next year but I know that I will be able to when I get back. She will have an amazing time!

I need to update this blog more often

I am at 15.8% in raising support for South Africa...God is good!