bobby reynolds in the philippines

Jesus Wrecked my Life

2008-07-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

While this statement may seem a bit harsh and even sometimes disturbing, it is very true (keep reading).

My life before I came to the Philippines was a breeze. I was a zombie of sorts. I would wake up the same time every morning and either go to school or go to work; in a truck mind you. I would be in class all day or at work and have a normal redundant day. I would go home to eat dinner where either one of two things would happen. I would eat the dinner that my mom had already cooked or I would go out to eat, two very simple things. Then at the end of the day I would either watch tv, hang out with friends or head home. That would be followed by a warm shower, clean clothes (cleaned by my loving mother), and then off to bed to perform every single thing the next day.

My religion if that is what you like to call it, was worthless, even the week before I came to the Philippines. Sure I would sprinkle some David Crowder in my truck during the day and maybe read a chapter in Psalms all while dozing off to bed. I would attend my church Christ Fellowship on a lovely Tuesday night in Bowling Green(which is led by several amazing men who love the Lord with their whole heart and where the people of the church actually live for Christ and share in each others burdens together as one body and where a member is not judged by his social status or his attire or even if he has alcohol on his breath or if he may have slept downtown the night before and where the one and only Father is worshiped and glorified by his people and where His name is made famous in the downtown area and throughout Bowling Green(christfellowshipbg.blogspot.com)and this is a plug not because someone told me to but because this is the image of the church in Acts and because the church needs to start acting like the church, and they do that there). So who am I to say that I worshiped the Lord in Bowling Green at all? Sure I would sprinkle in some God like He was some pepper I was going to put on the green beans my mom had made. Why? Where did I go wrong? The God who made me was being treated like He was an episode on tv or a book I could just read and feel convicted of or a song I could listen to and feel warm inside. Wow, I had never been more wrong about something in my life.

I am currently sitting in a dark outdoor church in the middle of a rural Philippines baragauy (city). I am 12,000 miles from home. From my mom, from my dad, from my brother, and from my friends, oh how I miss you all; from Jan to Jt, from Mike to Tim, from Hootie to Monkey, and from Sassy to Lance.

I have been on a plane for over 24 hours. I have been on ferries. I have been on jeepneys (google it). I have been on motorcycles with four people. I have swam. I have walked miles upon miles. I have slept in churches. I have slept on grass. I have slept in tents. I have slept in more tents. I have slept on school desks. I have slept on boats. I have eaten rice and more rice. I have eaten corn beef. I have eaten coconuts. I have eaten squid. I have eaten plants from outside. I have made my own meals. I have jumped off of many cliffs into water. I have jumped in puddles. I have sat and enjoyed sunsets. I have laid down and enjoyed the stars. I have raked with brooms. I have showered outside with a bucket and a scoop and cold water every day. I have urinated in lots of places. I have pooped at very inconvenient times. I have climbed mountains to meet people and enjoy sunsets. I have dined with a homeless man. I have been asked to shower with a homosexual man of which I declined but did sit and enjoy conversation with. I have played with thousands of kids. I have been called Joe or Bob more than I could ever imagine. I have fallen in love with a boy that I cant understand and whom cant understand me. I have eaten with him. I have shot slingshots with him. I will cry with him soon. I have loaded up a backpack of clothes and basketballs and toothbrushes to give to him. I have preached a sermon. I have been terrified to preach a sermon. I have become a Philipino chef. I have been on the beach. I have been in the forest. I have been sick. I have been exhausted. I have had diarrhea. I have been constipated from too much rice. I have danced with high school students. I have shared bible studies. I have shared my testimony. I have developed a new testimony. I have been overwhelmed by the grace and mercy of the Lord. I have worshiped the God of the world not just the God of America. I have adored the God of the homeless not just the God of the wealthy. I have fed the hungry. I have clothed the naked. I have loved the God of the prostitutes not just the virgins. I have worshiped at a Catholic Church. I have believed in a God of all people. I have been afraid. I have been homesick. I have been miserable. I have been frustrated. I have cried in the internet cafes multiple times. I have seen Jesus in the eyes of children, the homeless, the homosexual, the corrupt, the rich, the poor, the hungry, the homesick, my team, and myself.

Truly meeting Jesus has truly wrecked my life, and I will never be the same again.

In Luke 15:2 it says, And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man (Jesus) receives sinners and eats with them.

In Luke 7:34 it says, The Son of Man (Jesus) has come eating and drinking, and you say, Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!

Jesus was persecuted and belittled by those around Him because He didn’t always hang out with the people who thought they were most Godly. People confused Him for a glutton and a drunkard because He was with sinners and people suffering more than with anyone else. He opened his arms and hugged the little children. He opened his doors and housed the homeless. He walked and dined with the sinners of the world.

And we think that we have it together living our God sprinkled lives. How wrong were we?

Why is it that we treat God like a side of mashed potatoes in our main course of living a worldy life? Are we really that blind?

As Christians (or at least titled that) we live our live as far from the live that Jesus as we can. We want to be comfortable and complacent. And we have our cute little words about how we are saved and about how we do our good deed for the day. We sing worship songs to God on Sunday but forget Him on Monday. We welcome our friends to church but wont ask the people we don’t know. We watch the homeless man over the bridge of I-65 sit and beg for food. We watch as the woman struggles to work at the strip club and pay her bills at the same time. We wont sit by the homeless man at church because he smells too bad to suffer sitting by him for an hour and a half. We are too scared to walked up front and bow down at the alter because of what other people may think or say. Let me tell you my friends, I don’t care what people think. If you care what people think then you will spend you life never having fun, letting go, and always worrying who is watching. And we even worry what people think at church? Wow. I hope that when the rapture happens someday that maybe it happens to be on a Sunday, and the people who just attend church as a social gathering or because they have to (not me I am saved by His grace alone) are sitting around and looking at each other wondering why they are still there. I know that seems morbid and awful but it is the truth. Just because you go to church and do your good deeds doesn’t save you. The local church needs to do a lot of searching inwardly and focusing on becoming the church. And if you are at church and you are spreading lies and gossiping then you have more self searching work to do that outward watching to do. Local churches, not the church¸ is full of deceitful people but also very full of beautiful people. So be aware, and be alive.

Let Jesus wreck your life. It will take you to places and let you experience life in the way God meant for it to be experienced. Put all you faith in Him. Not just figurative faith, but faith that He will provide for you. He has provided me meals here when I thought I wasn’t going to eat. He has provided me a place to lay my head when I thought I had none. Jesus Christ owns my life because I owe it all to Him. Not just my spare time. Not just when I can fit Him in. Walk with Him. Take Him to Wal-Mart with you. Take Him to the ballpark with you. Take Him to the Philippines. Take Him to Tennessee. Take Him to college. Take him to work selling used cars and insurance. Wherever you go in life, take Him with you. I know first hand that Jesus loves a good adventure.

Jesus wrecked my life. Let Him wreck yours.

a sweet old lady...

2008-07-03T23:54:00.000-07:00

one love...

2008-06-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

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...

its just a little typhoon...

2008-06-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

just some pics....enjoy...

Make His name Famous...

just a fun read...

2008-06-18T01:19:00.001-07:00

http://www.nehemiahteams.blogspot.com/

breast feeding and naked babies

2008-06-18T00:33:00.000-07:00

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...

a cup of coffee and some rooster friends...

2008-06-11T21:40:00.000-07:00

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...

never fly from LA to Hong Kong...

2008-06-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

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...

i'm not there yet...

2008-05-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

so as many of you all may have learned i am not in the Philippine's quite yet. I am currently writing this in the weekend of May 23. This week has been very unexpected and very unplanned.
As some of you may, I received a phone call from my friend Joe on Wednesday morning after receiving text messages all night of which I didn't know of because I was sleeping. I had gotten a text from my friend Atticus asking me if I knew my best friend Jt was in the hospital. I had know idea of this. After quickly trying to scramble around and find out an answer to why this was, in short, my world was shaken. My friend Joe finally called me back and informed me that Jt had collapsed when running on Tuesday night with his girlfriend and that he had been rushed to the ER for emergency treatment. I suddenly found out from several others that it wasn't looking good. I did what I only knew to do and hit the highway as quick as I could.
My mom by my side we flew up I-65 and bluegrass parkway to lexington, KY. This seemed to be one of the longest drives of my life. You are trying to concentrate on not being run off the road my the 18 wheeler that is veering into your lane while trying to text and call to see the latest update all the while thinking to yourself what in the world is going on.
We finally reached the UK hospital and headed to the floor where he was to meet my friends who were there and his girlfriend Emily. As a side note, I had kept it together pretty well until now. Emily and I embraced and a couple of tears fell but the thought still lingering in my head was, where is my buddy? I had been thinking on the ride up of what he was going to look like, was he going to speak, how did he feel, even just trying to prepare myself for this. Needless to say I had not prepares enough.
Emily led me into his 8th floor room in the ICU unit. I walked into his room. I stood at the doorway shaking as I saw my best friend in the world(one of two) laying lifeless in this hospital bed. It seemed as though he had a tube coming from every orifice in his body. His lifeless body just lay there. The only thing that moved was his chest. A machine had to keep my buddy alive, he couldn't do it on his own. His eyes just stared lifeless into space. I will tell you this much, seeing your best friend in the world laying in this hospital bed, having a machine breath for him, with his eyes open, his chest pumping, and nothing at all that you can do for him is the worst feeling in the world. Me and Emily just stood there. Afraid to touch him, afraid to speak, afraid to do anything. I will have this image in my head for my life.
At this point of the blog I just want to say that this isn't a blog about me and my troubles, it is not that at all. This is all about my best friend Jt. It is about anyone who has a best friend or a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a mom or a dad or a grandma or grandpa. This is for the people who have been made who they are by the help of someone else.
I can say today that Jt has made me who am I today. He has my history, he knows my emotions, he feels my humor, he knows my pains, he has seen me naked. He is my best buddy and he is me. Everything that he is, i am and everything that i am, he is. And nothing will ever change this.
After that being said just a word of update. Jt is doing better. The problem with his collapse while he and Emily were running seems to stem from his heart. Over the last couple of days he has seen major improvement. He can now breathe on his own, he is eating and drinking, he has his long term memory, he knows who we all are, he is starting to understand where he is and why he is in the hospital, and these are all good things. Jt is still having small problems with his short term memory. He recognizes people and different things but may forget that 5 minutes later. The doctors are still trying to learn more about his brain and his heart in the upcoming days.
If anyone who reads this is a praying person you can use the following things as a guideline to pray for him:

That God would guide the doctors and the nurses to be with them when working with Jt and working with developing a diagnoses.
That God would keep Jt from any kind of hurt or pain while going through these next few days.
That God would give him good rest while he is there.
That God would give good rest and patience to his mom Kerry, his dad Bob, and Emily while they are there spending the majority of their time with him.
Pray that his strength may be regained in the next couple of days so that he will be strong enough to have the doctors work with him.
Pray that God would give protection to him and his family and his friends who are traveling to see him.

Pray that God would be glorified through all of this.

I hope that those people who read this will find it not informative but more useful than anything. From going back to Lexington for this i have learned several things.

Cherish you friendships more and more each day.
Pray constantly because God never gets tired of hearing from his children and he also never gets tired of answering people prayers.
God plans things in peoples lives for a reason.
I am glad that i have people in my life that I love and that love me.

So with all of this being said, continue to pray for my friend Jt in the following days and weeks. He has fought through the beginning he just needs to keep on fighting to the end.

I love you Jt...

three week count down...

2008-05-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

Just last week I received a phone call from the IMB saying in short, "Get ready, you are going to the Philippines!" This was an all of the sudden moment where my dreams and prayers had finally come true. After applying for a mission trip to the Philippines back in February and not hearing back for a while, just the words "You are going" were very startling. So now getting this news has been a reckless blessing. I have been scrambling and trying to get immunizations which include japanese encephalitis, typhoid, and malaria. I have been trying to purchase travelers insurance and a plane ticket and all of this I have been trying to get accomplished in a month! It has been a challenge and I know it is driving my mom and dad crazy. But all of this is truly blessed by God that everything is working out the way it is.

I will be leaving for Camotes Island which is just east of Cebu, Philippines on June 5 and I will be there until July 30. I will be sleeping in tents on the ground and eating dehydrated meals, yumm. My team that I will be working with currently is made up of 3 girls, one guy other than me and one more member that I don't know about. I am very excited about the weather in the Philippines where it is a toasty 88 degree average. My team will be involved in general evangelism with the people of Camotes Island including children and adults. On some days will be having backyard bible studies, playing with the kids, having bible studies with the adults, hopefully playing some Philippino basketball, maybe even planting some rice with the farmers of the region. I will just say that I can't wait. I know that God is going to take care of me just as He has taken care of me so far. I can't wait to see what God has in store for my life this summer.

I just want to make sure that this summer is all about Him, and not about me. This summer will help me focus on Him and loving the people of the Philippines. I won't have television, sports scores, internet, electricity, running water, warm showers, refrigerated food, juice, disc golf, or any of the things that I enjoy in my life. But I will have no distractions. I will also have kids to love on, adults to share the word of God with, teenagers to play sports with, farmers to help on the farm, and new friends and God to lean on. In short, I cannot wait!

When I think about this summer I can only think about one song. I have found myself mowing on a big John Deere mower during the middle of a hot summer day, while listening to this song on my ipod, and I have really started crying. It is just my prayer for my life and for my summer and I pray that all of the words to the song are true of my life for Him this summer.

Hosanna in the Highest

I see the king of glory
Coming down the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes
I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing, the people sing

Hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

I see a generation
Rising up to take the place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a new revival
Staring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees, we're on our knees

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart for what is yours
Everything I am for your kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

Hosanna

I pray that God breaks my heart for what breaks His, I want to give Him my life for His kingdom's cause. I want God to open up my eyes to the things unseen.

I continue to see Him moving in my life even in Bowling Green. I will continue to keep this blog posted as I can and let you all see God moving in my life. I would ask for your support and prayer. Pray that the people of Camotes Island would be accepting to the love and Gospel that we are presenting to them. Pray that all of my accommodations will continue to work out and that God prepares my heart in the weeks to come. I thank you for all of your support and all of your prayers.