Jennifer and I had an AWESOME Sunday! We went back home, to the mountain where God resides, Liberty Mountain. Yes, we visited Liberty University for the first time in a while. One of our former students, Whitney, just moved in as a freshman and we went to help her find her way around Lynchburg and scout out all of her classes.
While there we got to go back to campus church for the first time in forever! Johnnie Moore is the teaching campus pastor and one of my favorite communicators. Man I miss that place! I’m pumped Whit is getting to experience all of the awesomeness!
Here’s a picture of a new fountain in front of The Demoss Hall (the main classroom building) and a shot of campus church, which meets in the basketball arena. I’ll throw up some videos later.
Thanks Jordan for giving me the opportunity to preach out at Lakeview Baptist for youth Sunday! We had a blast being there and meeting new people. Thanks Lakeview!
(first things first-if you didn’t read the first part, you MUST click HERE and read it!!!)
Hopefully nobody will read the prior post and think I’m trying to puff us up for giving money. That is not the case at all. I don’t seek after people’s approval via good works, and I don’t think giving to a family in Africa makes me better than you (that’s something religious people think). Believe me, I wish it DID make me a better person like liberals buying carbon offsets to make themselves feel better for flying around in private jets instead of going with Delta (again, another topic altogether…).
I wanted to share this with you to show what a profound impact a little money can have on other people. I know this is getting long, but stick with me. Most people think they can’t do anything to solve poverty in the world (some people think it can be solved with Socialism, but that’s another story…).
What if the millions and millions of people in this world who claim to follow Christ would sponsor a child and/or send a little cash to a needy family abroad or in our own communities? We give $35 dollars a month to Helena. That’s it! $35 covers her basic needs and gives us a chance to communicate with her how much we love her, how much God loves her, and how special she really is!
How many people could scrape together 35 dollars? Here are a few things that cost about 35 bucks:
1 family dinner at a restaurant (and that’s eating pretty light…)
5 or 6 combo meals (super-sized)
a pair of jeans
a shirt and tie (you know you already have enough of these)
about 7 lattes
a haircut for some ladies
the phone bill
a couple of hard-back books
2 cd’s (3 and a half if you use iTunes)
Let’s face it, if we all stood back and looked at our spending, we would see just how much money we waste. We would see just how easy it is to serve someone living in poverty on the other side of the globe by sacrificing a few luxuries.
Here’s my challenge: look at your money situation and consider sponsoring a child. That’s it. Your call. Here’s where to go to do it: Worldvision. I completely trust and believe in these guys. They do a lot of great things (they are also the 40 hour famine people that a lot of churches are familiar with). You can even pick your child’s gender and geographical location if you’d like. You’ll get reports and letters from the child. You;ll get the opportunity to send him/her birthday, Easter, Christmas cards, etc.
I think Jesus said something about whatever we do to those in need we do for Him…something like that…right? If you decide to sponsor a child, I’d love to hear about it. Drop me a comment!
Jennifer and I have been sponsoring an awesome little girl in Mozambique for almost 2 years now through Worldvision. Her name is Helena and it costs $35 a month to provide everyday necessities, school costs, clothes, medical costs, etc.
Since going on staff with That Youth Thing, we have been visiting lots of different churches and giving financially to help each of them. We recently took some of this money and set it aside specifically for Helena and her family. Call it the right or wrong thing to do with a tithe, oh well. We believe in building the Kingdom and I’ll show you why this definitely did just that!
We recently got a letter from Helena about what her family did with the money. It was so cool to read everything they purchased, and at the same time it burdened me to do more. I wish we could sponsor all of these kids! (and adopt a few too by the way….) Here are all of the things her family purchased:
1 bicycle
1 set of thermic bowls (whatever that means)
1 small blouse
6 plates
1 bucket
3 pans
1 basin
1 jug
2 mugs (go coffee!)
1 radio
1 set of glasses
1 pair of trousers and a shirt for her father
2 pieces of wrap around cloths
1 skirt and 2 blouses for her mother
2 small dresses and a blouse
1 pair of sandals
1 pair of sports shoes
1 set of bed sheets
1 blanket
1 school bag
1 dress
underwear
1 small blouse
1 suit for her spare time (I’m guessing that means wind suit or something?)
soap
washing powder
2 pairs of shorts
1 skirt
t-shirts for her brother
Here are a couple pictures of Helena and her family (sorry they are pictures of pictures, but I don’t currently have a scanner).
Our time in Moss Point is coming to a close. Barring rain, we’ll be driving back very late tonight. Allow me to recap a great trip:
We got to spend several days hanging out with kids, playing games, building crafts, doing puppet shows, wrestling, laughing and hugging. It was great loving on all these really cool kids!
We cleaned up 3 baseball parks and some tennis courts that were extremely run down and neglected. Hopefully this will be a boost to the communities.
The tennis courts were across the road from a school which was knocked out of commission by Hurricane Katrina and never reopened. Some ladies across the street were former teachers there and were so happy about having the courts cleaned up. They are working hard to get their community unified and back into shape.
We’ve had an awesome time of worship and Bible study each night as a group, and I’ve gotten to know a lot of cool new students.
Wednesday we hosted a community youth rally and local youth groups showed up to worship with us.
Got to celebrate my baby’s 25th birthday down here. We had birthday cake and I finally got to give her the iPod Shuffle I bought her a month ago. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Today, as a reward for all of the kids hard work and efforts this week we’re taking them to a huge water park nearby. We’re just going to play around and have fun on our last day in Moss Point.
We learned there are about 18 billion fire ant hills in Mississippi. Just about everybody on the trip got bitten. One poor girl got them 4 times. They’re EVERYWHERE!!!
We learned Mississippi time is similar to “Island Time” where everything just sort of happens, and with no bug rush. It was kind of nice at times.
Fish factories smell bad.
Fish factories a few blocks from the center where we were working with kids smell even worse.
Jumping into a pool filled with teenage boys is not a good idea. They all tried to drown me, some more than once.
Last night we went to a concert/4th of July celebration at a local church. The bands were pretty good, but the fireworks were amazing. The fireworks display this church put on (Full Life Assembly of God) was one of the best I have ever seen. It was probably a 15 minutes show. Here’s a little blip.
We made it to Mississippi for our mission trip after an extremely long drive and lots of bad for you food (my favorite). Jennifer and I are down here with North Albemarle Baptist’s students. Not sure what all we’ll be doing tomorrow, but we’re excited about it. I’ll keep you posted.
My favorite parts so far:
playing “fun with Phil’s iPod in the van
talking like truckers with Torrey via the walkie talkies
being asked by teenage girls (not part of our group) to buy them cigarettes at the gas station. I responded politely no, and that they should save their smokes money and invest it in an educational savings account (ESA) to help pay for college. (I drink the DAVE RAMSEY kool-aid)
Last night, to cap off our anniversary we went to help out at Fusion, First Assembly’s youth ministry. Jennifer and I got to help lead worship with Paul and a bunch of students. Then I got the opportunity to teach. The theme for the month was wisdom, so who better to ask than myself to teach? (Actually I can think of many, many, many…….many better teachers to ask)
Anyways, the evening was a blast! Thanks Pastor Matt for letting me hang out!
We have the video of the Bridge up over on the 704 Blog. Click HERE if you missed the first 2 links to go over there and watch it. You’ve got to go see this to get a little of our perspective!
Got the chance to hang out with Fusion Youth at First Assembly Church tonight. Given the task to teach about kindness from the Fruits of the Spirit, I hit service up hard. I know I have blogged about it a lot, but I just can’t get over Jesus’ words in Mark 10,
“whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Prior to this comment, His disciples were all worried about who was the best and about sitting beside His throne in Heaven. However, Jesus tells them that if they want to be great, they better work on being very small.
Thanks Fusion for letting me hang out! Jenn and I had a blast! Go serve others through the overflow of KINDNESS that God used to lead you to repentance! Let His love POUR out of you this week all over everyone you come in contact with!
