Spring Break 2009

This spring break (next week) I'm leaving Georgia Tech and going on a mission trip to Nashville (TN), Birmingham (AL), Dodge City (TN), and back to ATL. This sunday I will get the chance to sit down with Ed Stetzer who's a mover/shaker in the Lifeway machine. I'll try to describe my trip as I go (assuming I have internet).

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?

Birmingham... Quickly...

Birmingham was awesome. The first day (Saturday) we painted two people's houses, and Chris and I fixed one lady's computer. Then we ate greek food and went to Five Points. There we walked around to talk to some homeless people. My group initially had a difficult finding people to talk to, but I think this was part of God's plan. After walking around with no luck, we went to this fountain (with running water, unlike ATL) and sat down. Less than 5 minutes later, a man sat down on a little wall by a church across from us. We went over and talked to him for the rest of the time we were there. He recently got out of a maximum security prison and was living in a halfway house. I don't know how much we helped, but i feel like we mattered. I know we were there for a purpose and I pray for him daily.

Sunday we went to David Platt's church, Brook Hills. His sermon was on the rich young ruler. It was an great sermon and completely biblical and I agreed with every part of it. However, I don't know if it's his style or that I didn't go to Confluence, but I haven't seen anything really special about him. It just seemed like everyone except me was obsessed with him on our trip, and I felt a little awkward. Anyways, after church, we planned a church service for "people living in some apartments." What we weren't told (at least I wasn't) is that these people were patients waiting for organ donors living in UAB apartments. The idea was to "preach about joy" and to inspire these people. I've never felt so humbled in my entire life. They weren't feeling down, they didn't curse God and they certainly didn't act like people low on joy. If anything, by the end of the "service" I felt like I was being preached to by a bunch of people who seemingly had no reason to be happy. They were so thankful for us, for getting organs, for the community there, for churches donating supplies and for a cheap place to stay. They literally lived each day as if it could be their last. And I don't...

Monday we either painted or fixed up a soup kitchen. I stayed and fixed up the soup kitchen at Urban Ministries (the ministry we partnered with for the painting). Just working there in this little church in the heart of Birmingham was eye opening. These people receive no recognition or fame for their work. They've got every excuse to be lazy and just "bury their treasure." But they have used what God has given them and used it to completely bless the entire community. I think Mark put it best when he called the people he saw at Catalyst "superstars" but he described
Michael as a "hero."

Do we want to be superstars or heroes?

after painting, we ate bbq and went back to atlanta
the end.

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...