i just stepped off the podium at the church that we attend from preaching my first ever sermon...and what else should i preach about but love....
in 1st corninthians 13 it speaks about love in its truest form...it speaks of never ending love...it speaks about faith and hope and love and that the greatest of these is love...
we are called to love others...
it is biblical...
before we are ever supposed to tell people about the gospel or pass out stupid tracts and stupid dvd's(to be explained in a later blog)we are to show them love...however we can...
whether that means eating lunch with a homeless man...sharing a coke with a drunk person...talking about love with a whore...we are to show the world love...
the Lord is showing me things on this trip that i would never have learned about or even known about...i have been reading a book called the irrisistable revolution by shane claiborne and it is changing my perspective on life...
just because a person may be drunk or homeless or a whore doesn't mean that they don't deserve our love does it?
i mean if you think about it, jesus was kind of homeless...
he went from place to place with only the love of other to live on...
living on love...now there is a concept...
i talked this mornign about how love never ends and the old quote that love is contagious...if love never ends and in fact it is contagious then why are we as believers not showing more people our love...a never ending contagious love sounds good to me...
i know that i have talked in past blogs to stop what you are doing and hang out with stangers...have you done that?...we are called to love and called to tell people about the Lord...
so i continue to reiterate that concept...hang out with people...eat with someone you don't know...invite some people over for dinner...just be a good person...and through our love others will see the love that He has shown to us...
that is all for now...
Make His name Famous...
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
breast feeding and naked babies
oh my oh my...
the breast feeding and naked babies are bountiful in the philippines...
just a thought for you all...
i am currently writing to you on wed june 18 in the middle of san fransisco, cebu, philippines a municipality of camotes island...
as i have said in my previous blogs i am learning newer things every day...
i have recently learned that while some tracts and dvds may be useful, they cannot contain my God...
my God is the God who is bigger than any 6 page tract that someone may hand you...He is bigger than any dvd you can make...
my God cannot be comprehended in a short bible study...while studies do help to introduce Him, a study alone can't do Him justice...i see the Lord moving in my life daily...the only way anyone of us will understand Him more is to be in His word daily and to be in prayer multiple times daily...nothing that we do is so important that we have to put God on the back burner...God deserves out whole lives...He deserves it all...our love...our passion...our desire...the death of Jesus Christ on the cross was enough to consume us all...
we are not missionaries in a foreign land...we aren't on a mission trip...we aren't americans staying in the philippines...
we are living our lives as living testimonies and sacrifices to Him...the one who deserves it all...
i know these are all just words and words cannot do Him justice, but they do glorify Him if another person can read this and see my light...
this is not a blog to tell you of my struggles, it is not to tell you how much i miss you all, it is not to tell you of my accommodations or the food i eat, it is not to tell you of the people here or the people on my team...
it is to tell you that God will be glorified in my life, persecution or not...the persecution that i face could never in a lifetime be as awful and what Christ suffered, and that is why i owe it all to him...
Jesus Christ's sacrifice deserves our discomfort...i am not comfortable here...this is not my home...but the bible says nothing about our lives being easy sharing the word of God...
So to end the blog i want to say that whatever you are doing this week even today...
stop...
turn off the tv and the cell phone(i promise it will be ok off)...
get off the internet for a while...
be still...
be quiet...
and know that He is God...
He will have his way with you...
meet a stranger...
eat with a sinner...
walk with a drunk...
comfort the widow...
talk to the whore...
He did...
why can't we...
don't worry what people think about you with them...
they are the ones with the problem...
spend time with a philippino..
talk with an african...
smile to an asian...
the world is made up of people...
God loves people...
the people that He created...
so love on them, feed them, show them His love through your life...
Make His name Famous...
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
a cup of coffee and some rooster friends...
i am currently in camotes, cebu philippines....finally...
it took way to long to reach this city...but after many flights...many boats...many jeeps...many motorcycles(no joke)...and lots of sandal steps...i am here...
the people of camotes island are incredebly friendly and open to americans and we are somewhat of celebrities here...me and matt got pulled from the back of their independence day parade today in front of a thousand people and pulled down front to sit with the mayor...it was awesome and they brough us drinks...
camotes is sunny and 105* all day every day...it is one of the prettiest places on earth...
yesterday i woke up and showered...by the way this is at 5:30 when all of the roosters are yelling and i use a bucket and a scoop to shower outside with the dog...the water is cold and the curtain that surrounds me is barely rip high....but it is outside and the view to the morning sky is worth it...like i posted in my last blog i am getting even more keen to the philippine cuisine...i love rice and it only took 3 days...
all 8 of us sleep on the ground in a small room...start the fire to boil water for coffee...start the rice in a bowl...and this morning we had a delicasy...canned pinapples...oh they were good...
God is moving in amazing ways already...we have countless, really countless bible studies set up with unbelievers...we are focusing on doing these weekly bible studies with people instead of just evangelism from house to house...we are really praying that the people of camotes will accept christ for what he has done for them not what they have to do(catholic religion here)...the people we have met are the sweetest of all...the kids have innocent smiles and the old people are laid back and get in a hurry about nothing...
me, ate(ati) lisa, and kuya jetter rode a motorcycle all over the large island of the philippines...we went to many schools where some of the children had never seen a real live white person, only in the movies...it is very odd...
our group is awesome and we all accent each others abilities...we all have a love for children and for these people and we desire to make His name famous in this beautiful place that he created...
my challenge for those reading this is to make yourselves less as i am learning so that we can make others and Him more than us...His sacrifice deserves it...
i am having a great trip and the time is already flying by too quick...i still miss my mom and dad and hootie like crazy...i miss lance and monkey(becca)...i hope you are well tim and i am praying for you...keep up the fight jt...i may be in a different country but i still have you in my minds...i even miss many people that i met at orientation who are on different groups including dapitan, manila orphanages, augusan, can-avid and many more...i am praying for you all...
it is so awesome to have no cell phone here...to tv...to internet except when we seek it...to make what you eat...to clean what you where(not put it in a washer and dryer, you become both of those in big buckets)...i am learning new things every day...
be calm...
slow down...
talk to the lonely lady...
play with the anxious children...
sit with the eldrly man...
plow with the hard working farmer...
love people...
that is it for now...i was going to put up pictures but forgot my cord....so until next time...make His name famous...
it took way to long to reach this city...but after many flights...many boats...many jeeps...many motorcycles(no joke)...and lots of sandal steps...i am here...
the people of camotes island are incredebly friendly and open to americans and we are somewhat of celebrities here...me and matt got pulled from the back of their independence day parade today in front of a thousand people and pulled down front to sit with the mayor...it was awesome and they brough us drinks...
camotes is sunny and 105* all day every day...it is one of the prettiest places on earth...
yesterday i woke up and showered...by the way this is at 5:30 when all of the roosters are yelling and i use a bucket and a scoop to shower outside with the dog...the water is cold and the curtain that surrounds me is barely rip high....but it is outside and the view to the morning sky is worth it...like i posted in my last blog i am getting even more keen to the philippine cuisine...i love rice and it only took 3 days...
all 8 of us sleep on the ground in a small room...start the fire to boil water for coffee...start the rice in a bowl...and this morning we had a delicasy...canned pinapples...oh they were good...
God is moving in amazing ways already...we have countless, really countless bible studies set up with unbelievers...we are focusing on doing these weekly bible studies with people instead of just evangelism from house to house...we are really praying that the people of camotes will accept christ for what he has done for them not what they have to do(catholic religion here)...the people we have met are the sweetest of all...the kids have innocent smiles and the old people are laid back and get in a hurry about nothing...
me, ate(ati) lisa, and kuya jetter rode a motorcycle all over the large island of the philippines...we went to many schools where some of the children had never seen a real live white person, only in the movies...it is very odd...
our group is awesome and we all accent each others abilities...we all have a love for children and for these people and we desire to make His name famous in this beautiful place that he created...
my challenge for those reading this is to make yourselves less as i am learning so that we can make others and Him more than us...His sacrifice deserves it...
i am having a great trip and the time is already flying by too quick...i still miss my mom and dad and hootie like crazy...i miss lance and monkey(becca)...i hope you are well tim and i am praying for you...keep up the fight jt...i may be in a different country but i still have you in my minds...i even miss many people that i met at orientation who are on different groups including dapitan, manila orphanages, augusan, can-avid and many more...i am praying for you all...
it is so awesome to have no cell phone here...to tv...to internet except when we seek it...to make what you eat...to clean what you where(not put it in a washer and dryer, you become both of those in big buckets)...i am learning new things every day...
be calm...
slow down...
talk to the lonely lady...
play with the anxious children...
sit with the eldrly man...
plow with the hard working farmer...
love people...
that is it for now...i was going to put up pictures but forgot my cord....so until next time...make His name famous...
Sunday, June 8, 2008
never fly from LA to Hong Kong...
the flight from LA to Hong Kong...i have nothing good to say about that...it was long, hot, sleepless, 15 hours of sitting upright, and they ran out of toilet paper...it was just short of unbelievable.
but never the less...i am here...
the philippines is amazing...the people are very friendly...instead of smiling at you when you see them they will raise their eyebrows which means hello...i found this our very quickly after thinking that all of the females were checking me out...that theory got shot down...
the journey has been nothing short of exhausting...i have slept in more places, eaten more things, and already learned to love rice more than i ever thought i would...
we just now got to cebu which is west of camotes island...we leave for camotes in a couple of hours...we will be taking an evening boat ride to get there...we all have just finished training for the evengelism we are about to do...we have learned to speak some of the Sabaylan language which i also hope to perfect by the time i come home...i have met people who are the most amazing people in the world and who i can already tell are going to be lifelong friends...we all part today in a couple of hours...it is going to be a little sad but we will all reunite in 6-7 weeks for debrief...all of the people here have a truley undefiled heart for the lord and they are all also crazy...sometimes we dont know when our next meal is going to come, where we are going to sleep, whether our tent is going to withold a philippine monsoon(which makes us 0 for 1), they dont know the people that they are going to meet on a daily basis or whether they are going to take a shower that day or not...i currently have a pretty sweet beard in the making...
i met a group of friends who are the coolest people ever on my flight to Hong Kong...they are all in a band that plays alongside the likes of Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and many more...they are some of the nicest people i have ever met...they saw a skinny southern boy who isnt the best at navigating big international airports and helped him out...they showed me things, talked with me, ate with me, and took me under their wing...and for that i am ever grateful...
to keep up with them you can check:
http://lightchild.wordpress.com/
http://inyaear.blogspot.com/
now to my mom and dad...
i just wanted to tell my momma that im ok(her request)...i couldnt be better...the people who are with me are amazing...they love people and they love the lord...i love you both...tell hoot i love him too and give sass a treat for me...keep praying...
pray for my group...that we would be bold for the cause of christ and that we would all rely on Him when we are weak...pray for the rest of our journey that everything would go as planned...just be on your knees and be filled with Him as we as the Camotes group are trying to do...pray the Holy Spirt would move even before we are there...pray that our group would bond and become a group thats goal would be to reach the unreachable...pray for my dad and brother that they would grow in christ through world changers...and pray that my mom would rely only on christ and be dependent in Him alone...and if you are a mom reading this you should prob call her to see if she wants to go out and eat with you...i bet she probably does, just keep her company...
i have to get off because i only have so much time until the boat leaves but until the next time...i love you all...im still prayin for ya jt...and keep in touch...
mayguen boontage...
but never the less...i am here...
the philippines is amazing...the people are very friendly...instead of smiling at you when you see them they will raise their eyebrows which means hello...i found this our very quickly after thinking that all of the females were checking me out...that theory got shot down...
the journey has been nothing short of exhausting...i have slept in more places, eaten more things, and already learned to love rice more than i ever thought i would...
we just now got to cebu which is west of camotes island...we leave for camotes in a couple of hours...we will be taking an evening boat ride to get there...we all have just finished training for the evengelism we are about to do...we have learned to speak some of the Sabaylan language which i also hope to perfect by the time i come home...i have met people who are the most amazing people in the world and who i can already tell are going to be lifelong friends...we all part today in a couple of hours...it is going to be a little sad but we will all reunite in 6-7 weeks for debrief...all of the people here have a truley undefiled heart for the lord and they are all also crazy...sometimes we dont know when our next meal is going to come, where we are going to sleep, whether our tent is going to withold a philippine monsoon(which makes us 0 for 1), they dont know the people that they are going to meet on a daily basis or whether they are going to take a shower that day or not...i currently have a pretty sweet beard in the making...
i met a group of friends who are the coolest people ever on my flight to Hong Kong...they are all in a band that plays alongside the likes of Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and many more...they are some of the nicest people i have ever met...they saw a skinny southern boy who isnt the best at navigating big international airports and helped him out...they showed me things, talked with me, ate with me, and took me under their wing...and for that i am ever grateful...
to keep up with them you can check:
http://lightchild.wordpress.com/
http://inyaear.blogspot.com/
now to my mom and dad...
i just wanted to tell my momma that im ok(her request)...i couldnt be better...the people who are with me are amazing...they love people and they love the lord...i love you both...tell hoot i love him too and give sass a treat for me...keep praying...
pray for my group...that we would be bold for the cause of christ and that we would all rely on Him when we are weak...pray for the rest of our journey that everything would go as planned...just be on your knees and be filled with Him as we as the Camotes group are trying to do...pray the Holy Spirt would move even before we are there...pray that our group would bond and become a group thats goal would be to reach the unreachable...pray for my dad and brother that they would grow in christ through world changers...and pray that my mom would rely only on christ and be dependent in Him alone...and if you are a mom reading this you should prob call her to see if she wants to go out and eat with you...i bet she probably does, just keep her company...
i have to get off because i only have so much time until the boat leaves but until the next time...i love you all...im still prayin for ya jt...and keep in touch...
mayguen boontage...
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