Mission Trip

Im back and have enough time to write about the spring break mission trip called "Numbered"

The breakdown (by day)

Saturday:
we drove to Nashville, TN and stayed at the Lamb's house

Sunday:
we attended First Baptist of Hendersonville where Ed Stetzer is the interim pastor. Afterwards we ate lunch with him and discussed his research and the Church

Monday:
we worked at the Feed the Children organization and we opened boxes. Then we ate lunch with Jeff Slaughter (creator of VBS music). In the afternoon we went to Vanderbilt and checked out their BCM. Then we drove to Dodge City, AL to a lakehouse.

Tuesday:
Spent the entire day at the lakehouse...

Wednesday:
Drove to Birmingham, AL and worked at an urban garden with Urban Ministries

Thursday:
Worked with the BBA apartments with people who are waiting to receive organs, in the afternoon we visited the Civil Rights museum and the 16th St. Baptist Church (where the four girls died in the bombing). Then we drove back to ATL.

Friday:
We painted rooms in the bottom of First Presbyterian Church of College Park (I think thats the name) and then we ended...

it was very tiring and exhausting

Life

This week has been influential in my life for many reasons.

1. One of my best friends is inching ever closer to Athens and I need to be happy for him, but I'm sad. I'm selfish.
   
2. I just got back from the BCM at UGA and it was so much cooler than ours. People were simpler and more open... and I mean that in the most awesomest way possible. Tech people are sometimes hard to relate to...
3. School isn't fun. I can do the work, but I don't like it at all. Engineering seems to be focused on clawing your way to the top. that's not me. I don't think I could make a living out of this. Would God call me to something I hate?
4. The BCM as a ministry is at a crossroads. The most influential person is leaving and there will be a power grab, and after the dust settles, things will be different. People will have to step up, Staff will have to step up... it makes me scared
5. One cool thing is that several people at the BCM have run with my idea of a cookout/chill-time with other freshmen christians (aka CCF) but we're a long ways from getting this off the ground.
   

Advance 2009

This weekend was the Georgia Tech BCM's annual retreat. The theme was leadership, the object: a slingshot. 9 freshmen (including me) led the small groups. It was a great experience being with great leaders in the BCM. Hopefully great things will happen because of this.

There were several things God revealed to me spiritually during my experiences at Advance:

1. Friday night I used my free time to lay down by the lake and stare at the stars. I started thinking about how intricate and unique every star was. This led me to wondering about God's infinite glory and how humans (and Satan) fit into the picture. The glory of God is something huge that we cannot fully comprehend, but we want it. We as humans desire our own glory, our own importance. When we grab glory, we yank it away from God and build ourselves up. Instead of reveling in His perfect glory, we fabricate an imperfect, broken substitute to empower us. This flawed, dim view of what glory is keeps us from growing closer to God because we are enticed by the idea that we can be self sufficient with our own glory... (I'm still working on this thought and its definitely got some holes...)
2. Waterfalls are amazing things to watch. The way the water pours out and swirls in endless circles at the bottom is mesmerizing. If I run out of little things that amuse/amaze me, it will truly be a sad day

What I learned about the BCM and where it needs to go:

1. We're on the verge of something: we can talk about it and let the opportunity pass, or we can buckle down and hit the trenches.
2. Christ is bigger than the BCM will ever be. It's merely one out of many ministries at Tech... we must see this bigger picture and how we fit
3. The BCM is divided, there are different people groups (even at Advance) where people are comfortable. One group has substantially more leaders than the others... This is bad, they should branch out and empower others. (i still don't know how to deal with the people who participate but show not interest in stepping out of their comfort zones and into leadership)
4. Leadership is a scary thought.
5. Listen to everyone. People bring new perspectives and much more wisdom.

Faith and Perseverence

This monday was gonna be really cool for my freshman city group. we were supposed to get together and come up with discussion/conversation starters about faith and perseverance. unfortunately i didnt try... i put the entire email off until tonight, and now its too late to group up. so im gonna come up with stuff on my own (and hopefully bring something to the table) Ive decided to focus on people who are considered "great" christians, but have some sort of huge failure in your life. so now im gonna make a list:


People who are (preferable in the hall of faith Hebrews 11) great Christians:

1. Paul - persecuted Christians (acts 9)
2. Abraham - had Ishmael with Hagar (genesis 16) but had faith with Isaac (genesis 22)
   
3. Jacob - stole the birthright from Esau (genesis 25)
4. Moses - struck the rock without giving credit to God (numbers 20) but had faith to lead the Israelites out (Hebrews 11:24-29)
5. David - slept with Bathesheba and killed her husband (2 samuel 11) but was "a man after God's own heart" (acts 13:22)
6. Samson - let lust and pride destroy him (judges 16) but destroyed the philistines (judges 14-16)
7. Peter - denied Christ (luke 22) but is the rock of the church (matthew 16)

(sevens a good number...)

great in the fact that they made a difference but others remembered them for what they did for the kindom and not for their sins

Snow, Mountains, Ridgecrest

This weekend I had the awesome opportunity to go to Ridgecrest, N.C and help with a discipleship focused retreat for middle and highschool students. I went with Jacob, Alex, Cody, Andrew, Ches, Jessica, Aaren, Anna, Abbie, Prisca, and Summer. Mike, his wife Helen, Ashley, Cyndi, and Nanette (cyndi's friend) were our chaparones. Without going into too many of the unimportant details about the trip, I'll describe my feelings and have a massive brain dump.

people or things i enjoyed or thought were funny:

• creating new friends (jessica and cody) and having honest conversations with people I already knew (andrew, jacob, mike)
  
• our room ('cept the toilet... cody...)
  
• frozen lake and ducks/swans
• music1- the music was from buckhead (yea, thats my awesome church) and i actually got a chance to talk to carlos who is an incredible yet humble person (he also wore a funny head wrap when i saw him walking around)
• music2- they sang (its kinda bad that i can remember this) Take it All (Hillsong), From the Inside Out (more Hillsong), Everlasting God (Chris Tomlin?), No One Like You (David Crowder Band), Glory to God (unreleased Steve Fee)... but the whole experience was wonderful (except for the little girl that gave me weird looks when i sang... ) and freeing... it was so inspiring to see kids from my group with smiles on their faces as they sang. simply a smile...
• watching the sheer joy and excitement on Ches's face as he played with snow for the first time
• zaxby's
• getting stuck (temporarily) in an elevator with a bunch of ppl
• harvard taking really neat photos
• rocking out in the minivan
• watching others
• this slide place in the stairway
  
  

things i didn't like or that bothered me (this isnt a rant or anything):

• i was battling a really bad cold, but i discovered something called NyQuill which was an experience...
• i also had an epic battle for a small life... with a friend... over 300 miles away... that drained me...
  
• the food... (it made brittan look really good...)
• large group teaching... it seemed disconnected, the kids (and me) kinda zoned out after about 10 minutes. i honestly felt like i was in class, in a lecture
• small town churches- my hometown church used to be a small town church, but we've been really blessed and grown in numbers and leadership... many of these kids seemed scared to talk about things because as one kid said "if you keep doing it [I dont remember what he was referring to] then you'll go to Hell..." which is true in a sense, but here it seemed to mean dont talk about it, or people will think you are going to hell...
• Throughout the weekend, i kept hearing "churchy" answers to "churchy" questions which really bothered me, i wasn't convinced these kids really knew how to apply these lessons in their everyday lives. one of the points of christianity is not to stop and think about the rules, but to obey God without thinking... pure instinct
• the cold wasnt something i really enjoyed...
• we had to wake up at 6:45 one day...

i enjoyed ridgecrest, and i think God used it to strengthen areas of my life i usually dont get the opportunity to do... such as supporting a teacher and hanging out with highschoolers...

Guitar

Since it's Christmas and I got a new effects processor for my guitar (a Boss GT-10), I thought I'd blog a little about my guitar adventure.

It all started April/May 2008 when I decided I wanted to play guitar. I've played the trumpet in various school/church/orchestral settings, and have liked music. My first guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul I bought with birthday money, and I now also have a seafoam green 50s Fender Stratocaster (MIM). I also got a VOX AD-15 amp (solid state, cheap) and a Korg AX-3000g effects unit (cheap, but works). I took lessons over the summer from a friend of my grandmother's who is an accomplished (read: very very good) classical guitarist, which wasn't the direction I initially wanted. Classical guitar is acoustic (I used my electric with no amp for lessons) and with fingers. Somehow, over that time I came to enjoy classical guitar and I miss it.

My love of music has now become an obsession. While I am not currently taking lessons (hopefully this will change in the next year or so) I spend a lot of time looking up tabs (guitar music) online and learning how to play riffs from songs. I'm not really into the whole "metal" or "hard-rock" genre, I usually play Christian (Hillsong, etc) or pop/rock with my biggest influence being U2's the Edge. Most of their songs are simple chords, but with delay and a little effects, they sound anthemic. The delay and shimmer make the songs sould alive

I do play in the freshman band for Freshmen City Groups at the Georgia Tech BCM, which I love. It gives me an opportunity to play with others (who are much better than me) for God. In a few weeks we are playing for everyone at Connector, so I gotta tweak my GT-10 and practice songs (which we haven't picked out yet) before hand.

One last note, my Church (Buckhead) has soo many amazing worship leaders and musicians that every Sunday I show up, I'm inspired....

Bringing Alabama to ATL

Having been inspired by working in Alabama, I want to do something in ATL. God does too, and I think everyone on the trip knows this. So i googled and came up with a couple sites that are a good starting point for helping those in need:

Crossroads Community
Atlanta Urban Ministry

I don't know how this will work with city groups, and other things at the BCM, but here's the vision:

Christians from GA Tech (Baptists, Presbyterians, EVERYONE) coming together in teams based on what gifts God has given them, serving with local churches. Together, everyone impacting Tech, churches, and Atlanta.

College students don't have money, but we can volunteer our weekends and maybe even some weekdays to help. Churches have the resources to support volunteers, but maybe not the manpower to create a large enough impact. But together? It could be huge... or it could just fade...

How big can this get? How big is God?

Alabama Love

At exactly 8:11p.m. tomorrow (Friday) I will join about 17 other people on a trip to the great state of Alabama. It's technically a "mission trip." I cringe when I hear that phrase. We sometimes stuff missions into a box. A box we pull out from time to time, depending on when our church's next trip is. But honestly, missions is so much more... It's not something you have to go and do... you don't have to go paint someone's house, or serve in a soup kitchen. You don't even have to go visit the homeless or bring the message to an apartment complex... though that's what we're doing this weekend.

All we need to do is love...

We don't have to go somewhere like Alabama, or the ghetto... For most of us in college it's in our dorm rooms, it's on our halls and in our dorms... People needing love... that's our mission.

Do we really love our neighbor as ourself? (Luke 10:27)

Do we love the weird kids, the whiz kids, the smelly kids, the fat kids, the short kids, retarded kids, the foreign kids?

Do we as Christians love the rejected?

Loving the unlovable...