This poem is dedicated to all the students at Harvest Baptist Church that I have grown to really love and appreciate over the last few months. This is a result of my journey with the Lord and learning who I really am in His eye as opposed to who I see myself as. So often, we are tempted to think little of ourselves because of how messed up we are, but if we really see ourselves as God sees us, we will realize that there is greatness and worth tucked inside this fragile frame. No matter what the world tells us, or what we tell ourselves, we are wanted by the Eternal Creator.

--- --- ---

 

You.

Yeah, you.

I'm speaking to the real you.

 

The you that only you see

When you're hiding from His mercy.

The you that you cover up

When ashamed of that other love.

I'm talking to you.

Y. O. U.

Do I know you?

I don't think that I do.

I know a facade.

I see a mask.

I know there's something more.

I know there's something past

The happy face that you wear,

That pretty lace in your hair,

The cozy space that you share,

Your high school days - like you cared.

There's someone inside of you

   You'd rather not meet - 

      Mysterious and hidden - 

         You don't know what you'd see.

You've been hiding so long

You don't remember yourself - 

Your real self, the true you - 

Not the pictures on the shelf.

Are you a monster or a prince?

The question makes you wince.

Are you the drop-out or the dancer?

You don't know how to answer.

But I'm talking to you.

Y. O. U.

Do any know you?

My God knows you through.

 

"You have scoped me

And You have known me.

You know when I'm down,

And when I'm in town;

You discern my thoughts for days

And are well-acquainted with my ways.

Before I speak a word,

You might as well have heard." (adapted from Psalm 139:1-4)

 

But the story won't stop here.

You don't need to live in fear.

He knows you every night

Because He made you very right.

"Your craftsmanship is awesome.

You made me with wonder.

I know I'm tailor-made.

I am never going under." (adapted from Psalm 139:13-14)

 

I'm calling out to you.

Your heaven-made self - 

Come out of that shellf;

Get off of that shelf.

 

Come alive and meet Him - 

The One who knows you - 

Stop hiding from your past;

Find a love that is true.

 

Stop faking you.

You're not too far.

He'll take you in

Just as you are.

 

He's calling to you.

Y. O. U.

Don't fear to be true.

He loves the real you.

I wrote this as a outburst of my heart after singing the hymn Sovereign by Chris Tomlin this morning in church. I was overwhelmed with the sovereign tenderness of my Heavenly Father, and how much he takes joy in any little attempt I make to love him back.

In a tender moment

In the eye of my mind

I see a father weeping - 

With tears, soft and mild - 

In the fragile embrace

Of his loving child.

"Daddy, are you sad?

Did I do any wrong?"

"No, my child, I'm not.

There is no sadness here.

I cry because of love - 

There is joy in these tears."

The the moment is done.

I wake and then I see

That You were the Father,

And the child was me. 

--- --- ---

I can't remember how many times in my life I have felt like the least important person in the whole entire world, or the one with the dirtiest secret or the heaviest burden, or the most inadequate person for the job I was picked for, and so on. I wrestle so often with inadequacy and insufficiency. I almost never believe that I am loved or good enough. And maybe you are like that too. Maybe today you are feeling worthless, or horrible, or dirty, or a combination of any of those.

The Lord reminded me this morning of Romans 8:37. It says,

"But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us."

It's nice to know that we conquer, but why do we overwhelmingly conquer? Because Jesus lives in us and he is THE Conqueror. He conquered life and death and everything in between. You are, by nature, a champion if you belong to Jesus. Believe it! When the most powerful force in the entire universe, the Creator of Everything, is on your side, there is nothing you can't "overwhelmingly conquer"...ever.

So my little encouragement to you today is this: It is a denial of your identity to think you can't overcome and conquer. Get back up, and fight again. You are a champion.

You just did that thing you told yourself you would never do...

You looked in the mirror this morning and realized that you grew up to be just like your dad...
You woke up this morning and realized what happened last night...and why he is laying next to you...
You just said something nasty that you know you will never be able to take back...
You just went to that website, and you know she will find out...

Sin makes a huge mark on our lives. It cannot be erased. It stays in your story, always haunting you, and never letting you move on. Often, we go to great lengths to cover up what we did. We even, in extreme cases, think of ending it all so that we don't have to deal with the consequences.

Sin has consequences. But we often don't realize it until it is too late. Then what? Is there hope? Is it worth it to suffer through the consequences? Is there a light at the end of this tunnel? Better question: is there a light at the end of my heart? Will I ever give up this pet sin? Can I overcome? Is there such a thing as grace?

I was just reading this morning in Matthew 26-27. In particular, I was reading two accounts of extreme sorrow. Peter was wrecked over denying Jesus. Judas was wrecked over betraying Jesus and seeing him condemned. Both had committed extreme sins against the Son of God. But there was an essential difference between these two men. Peter returned to Jesus - sin and all - and found redemption and grace (cf. John 21:15-17). Judas just took his life. He couldn't handle the thought of bearing the consequences of his sin.

Something that hit me as I was reading about these two men this morning was that they represent a choice that all of us must make. All of us make mistakes, and sometimes we make huge ones. We sin, and there is no denying it. And when we do, we must face the consequences of our sins. But here is where the choice comes in: we can either face the crushing weight of our sin and let it overwhelm us like Judas did, or we can turn to Jesus and find strength and hope and grace to make it through like Peter did.

This seems like an easy choice, but so often I see people choose to act out of hopelessness, whether they turn to cutting, porn, running away, or, in extreme cases, suicide. Why is it so easy and compelling these days to run to pseudo-saviors? Why do we turn to these things to hide from the consequences of our sins?

I have three suggestions as to why I think people don't turn to Jesus to find grace in their disgrace:

1. They don't think they deserve it. This is a legitimate problem today. So many people out there don't think that they will receive God's grace because they don't deserve it. They usually will think they have to do more good works to muster up favor with God, or do more penance, or perform three more sacraments, or cut one more thing out of their life, or fast longer, and so on. They think they have to earn God's grace. But that's what grace is all about. You can't earn it! It is a gift - that you don't deserve! That's the whole point. If you deserved it, you wouldn't need grace. It wouldn't even be grace; it would just be your wages - what you earned.

So I encourage you, if you are feeling like you can't get grace because you don't deserve it: lay down your pride and turn to Jesus with all of your garbage. He will forgive. That's real grace.

2. They don't know they can turn to Jesus. Most people don't know that grace can be found with Jesus because they don't even know Jesus, and think he is just a religious symbol on a cross necklace or bumper sticker. This is a tragedy. People don't know that they can find grace with Jesus because they don't even know about Jesus.

So I encourage you, if you are a Christian reading this, pray for those who don't know about the grace of Jesus. Pray that millions today would find the healing and restoring grace of Jesus.

3. They don't want to be humble enough to ask for grace. This is something that I see around me everyday. People are too proud to ask for grace. They think they can figure it out on their own. They think that they can navigate the spider's web of their mess on their own. But when they mess it up even more, they don't want to admit they were wrong in the first place. But we have made it so much easier these days to medicate our messes with apps, social groups, drugs, pursuits, and other false gods of this century (read my post on medicating our pain here), that the grace that Jesus offers gets lost amidst our plethora of "saviors." So that when our sins confront us again and again and again, we are not told to give it up and run to Jesus for forgiveness and hope and grace and redemption. Instead, we are told, "There's an app for that!"

So I encourage you, if you are lost in the middle of your false saviors who promise healing, but give more needs, turn to Jesus. Lay down your pride and admit that you can't do this on your own. You need Jesus. Today.

"Here He comes!"
"He must be The One who is to come."
"He will rescue us from the Romans!"

Hours later...

"Who does he think he is?"
"I could have sold those for lots of money!!"
"Who gave him the right to ruin everything like this??"

This was the attitude of the people the day Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey - just a week before his crucifixion. As he entered, his welcome party was boisterous and excited. They laid their coats and big palm leaves to give him the best red carpet welcome that they could afford. They shouted his praises. In that moment, he was their hero.

Everyone knew he was coming to conquer their enemy. Yet they were confused about which enemy he came to defeat. They thought he had come to oust the Roman soldiers from their midst. This is why they were so confused and offended when he immediately entered the temple turning over money tables and cracking his whip at business men (literally!) and yelling, "My Father's house is called The House of Prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves!" He was furious that sin had so overrun their lives that even The House of Prayer was merely another business venue to them.

Yes, he had come to vanquish the foe. But this foe was much more oppressive than the Romans. He had come to conquer sin.

So often in our lives, we get excited about the King of Glory entering our lives, but are so offended when he begins to shine the light of truth on our own sin. We want the privileges of being known as God's child, but it too much for him to ask us to clean up and give him 100% of our hearts.

We are a culture so used to popularity charts. We have the Grammys, the Emmys, the Oscars, the Golden Globe, the Golden Boot, the Golden Compass. Everywhere we go, we want to know who is the #1, the chart topper, the first. And we do that in our own lives too. If we are really spiritual, we might give Jesus first place in our lives. He can be #1. But you only have to have 51% popularity to be #1. Jesus wants 100%. He wants to be your everything. He wants you to hold NOTHING back.

So I challenge you, when you so gladly accept the Jesus who comes to conquer, expect a Jesus who comes to cleanse...because he wants to conquer your sin.

There are three main uses of the word "medicine":

1. any substance or substances used in treating disease or illness; medicament; remedy.

2. the art or science of restoring or preserving health or due physical condition, as by means of drugs, surgical operations or appliances, or manipulations: often divided into medicine proper, surgery, and obstetrics.

3. the art or science of treating disease with drugs or curative substances, as distinguished from surgery and obstetrics.

 

   Often, we like medicine to serve us in a way very much like the third use. We like it to treat our pain with drugs. We just want to forget about what is hurting us. Yes, it might be better to treat the actually cause, rather than the symptoms, but our first priority seems to be pain-removal. Problem-removal is usually a secondary goal of ours. Remove the pain, then let's talk about removing the actual problem.

 

   Unfortunately, this is how we often approach our emotional pain, too. We just want to forget about the pain. We won't go to the source of the pain until we are absolutely staring it in the face. But most of the time, we would rather just medicate our emotional pain with quick fixes. This Aspirin Generation is also an iPhone Generation. We just want something to help us forget about real life, and sometimes the pain it brings, without ever having to face the real issues and problems and monsters beneath the surface. We are scared not only of all the work it takes to discover what is wrong with us, but also the uncomfortable soul surgery it takes to fix those problems and destroy those monsters.

   But we will never grow and defeat our monsters if we are constantly medicating the symptoms of a tough life. No it is not wrong to play video games, read romance fiction, watch TV, party with friends, or spend time on Facebook or Pinterest; but if these things keep us from discovering the real issues in our life - and from discovering the person inside us - we never experience the amazing life God has for us. If we are constantly running from who we are, we will distance ourselves from God's amazing grace to live for him, no matter how broken he finds us.

Today, I got rid of my iPhone. I had been noticing how much it was a source of emotional aspirin for me. If I was feeling stressed, I would go on Facebook on it. If I was bored, I would play my FIFA 13 app. If I wanted to learn more about coffee, I would get another coffee app. Every time I needed healing, I would turn to it instead of to God and to my real life relationships. So, despite how fun and convenient it was to have an amazing tool with which I could access the entire world, I knew that it was a pseudo-Savior for me. So I switched back to a "dumb phone." I have never felt so free and connected to God and others. Funny how that works...

   So I invite you to join me in discovering who you really are underneath all the soul medicine you are using to hide your pain. Be courageous enough to take out anything in your life that is acting as a pseudo-Savior, and run back to Jesus. You will find freedom and connection that you had totally forgotten about. It is there that you will find the grace that you had been looking for all along.

With the color palette of my imagination
I expressively begin to paint
Four walls
Four cold walls.
There are no lights on, so everything is dark.
No light is present but that which creeps through
One solitary window in the corner.
Enough light is present to make out the vague forms
Of a few objects in the room.

Four walls.
Four cold walls.
Four cold, empty walls.
Four cold, empty, looming walls.
They remind me how lonely the room is.
They remind me how lonely the figure in the middle is.

He is curled up on the floor,
Gripped by fear,
Thrashed by his own selfishness,
Sucked of life by depression.
He is merely a skeleton of what he used to be.
The stretched skin draped across his ribs
Reveal how thin he has been pulled
By the demands of an image;
An unrealistic image he daily projects upon himself.

This scraggly silhouette raises his shamed head.
He casts his weary gaze to
The corner of the darkened room:
The corner with the only shed of light.
He makes out a small box
Occupying the only illuminated piece of the floor.

During the next few hours,
He slowly makes his way across the floor
To reach the box.
Upon his arrival, he stares at its golden luster.
Until now, he knew nothing of its incredible worth.
This, this golden box could afford him anything.
Everything.
Healing.
Freedom.
Anything he ever wanted to buy.
This box,
His faithful companion in this miserable room
Was the best thing that ever happened to him.
He had all he needed....

Now if only he could find a way out

So he could experience its worth...

 

 

Jesus, even when the lights are turned off,

You are just as shiny.

Even though nothing in the room reflects you,

You are just as brilliant.

 

Even when it's cold in this room,

You are just as valuable.

No shred of heat could compare

To your infinite worth.

 

Even when the walls are caving in,

Even though I am terrified,

Even in the midst of my brokenness,

You are just as safe.

 

 "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." Psalm 43:5

“Rise up; come to our help!

Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.”

Psalm 44:26

   Lately, as I have been reading through the Psalms, I have been asking God to reveal to me a name of his that I can meditate upon. A while ago, he revealed to me Father. I love dwelling on the concept of his Fatherhood over me. A few days ago, he revealed to me Lover and Pursuer. He is constantly pursuing my heart and a relationship with me.

   Today, as I was in Psalm 44, I came upon this verse where David is calling upon God to redeem him from his enemies. At the exact same time that I read this verse, I was listening to Came to My Rescue by Hillsong United. This hit me because it is exactly what I need in this time of my life. I get so overwhelmed with life, and school, and my pursuit of personal holiness. Sometimes, it feels like I need God to come into my situation, take everything I've broken and messed up and make it new again. I need him to redeem me.
 

   I believe that God is in the business of redeeming people. He is the Redeemer. It's funny, though, that I always imagine myself in the pre-redeemed side of the story. I think that I am lousy, messed up, not good enough, and that God will redeem me, or even is redeeming me, but I never stop to think that he already HAS redeemed me. I am not in the introduction to the story, I have already been redeemed. I have been delivered from my enemy – sin. I am free. And every time I make another mess of my life, God is right there to pick up the pieces and make it new again. He is always redeeming me. I AM REDEEMED! And though my heart is ever so prone to wander, God has sealed it for himself and I will never be a mess again.

I have heard the phrase YOLO (you only live once) tossed around a lot lately. It's a pretty cool term. It basically is the modern I-want-to-have-a-cool-catchphrase-that-is-easy-to-say version the timeless Carpe Diem (seize the day). I actually really like the concept. It basically says that we don't know how much time we have left on this earth, so we need to give this life all we got.

From an temporary mindset, I can understand this. And I like it. But I don't live with a temporary mindset anymore. I am a child of God, and as such, I know that I have eternity ahead of me. I will be spending the rest of eternity with Jesus, the one who smashed YOLO to pieces. He didn't only live once. He died and was resurrected three days later. Romans 4:25 says, "He was delivered up [to death] for our trespasses and raised for our justification." He said, "No, yo" to YOLO because he had something bigger in mind. Jesus was doing something cosmic and larger than this life. He died on the cross, yes. But a dead Jesus would be ineffective to save us. He rose again the third day to bring us to life too. He stole the keys of death so we could have the key to life.

This is why I want to flip the idea of YOLO around. I don't want to believe that we don't know how much time we have left on this earth, so we need to give this life all we got. I would like to say that we do know how much time we have - eternity with our risen Savior - so we should give it all we got. We will be spending all of eternity with Jesus, starting now. I don't know about you, but I want to spend it in total gratitude for what he has done for me and for you. I want to be pleasing him every day. I want to be telling everyone else about what he did instead of settling for YOLO. YOLO is a poor substitute for the resurrection power of Jesus. I want to live every day with Jesus in mind, not YOLO.

Sorry I haven't written anything in the last few days. They have been rather busy. And even now as I am writing, I am very tired and ready to turn the lights off soon. We are going to be leaving for London tomorrow at 7:30 am to do a little touring...

One of the older couples dancing at the Ceilidh

On Saturday, the day started off in typical Men's Ministry style - early morning, lots of food, and warm fellowship... Did I say early morning? Leaving that table, I needed to loosed the belt a little, however. A "Full English Breakfast" is most definitely full. It was so filling that I actually didn't need much a lunch; I just had a hot cross bun and some tea. The afternoon was spent preparing for the evening's main event - the Ceilidh (again, pronounced kay'-lee). This is a traditional event here which involves lots of food and dancing. Much fun was to be had by all. Somewhere in the ballpark of 100 people showed up. At this event, we did eat a lot (it was almost a glorified potluck). After the eating, our team performed a few skits, ranging from silly to serious. Then, Justin preached the gospel. This was one of the most clear gospel presentations that I have heard in a long time. He did a great job and God really used him. Soon after, the dancing started. It was such fun to dance with young and old alike. I danced with teenagers, moms and dads, and grand parents alike. At the end, we were very tired, but very happy.

The next morning, I was on again to lead singing for church. I made sure I got some practice in before I began to sing. I had the privilege of leading a discussion for the teens' Sunday School on the practical nature of holiness. It was really cool to hear from the teens about what holiness will look like in our lives and how God's holiness affects that. After church and dinner (lunch), the boys and I went to the astro turf park to play some footy (soccer). But we were kicked off by the local women's field hockey team. That felt great... Haha. But we shrugged it off and went to the Duke Street park to play instead. Though it wasn't astro turf, but grass, we played for as long as we could. We got really wet and dirty because the grass was really slippery from the rain. It made for some good laughs. In the evening, we had church again. This time, my only responsibility was to open the service up with a greeting and prayer. I was able to sit back and enjoy the music and the message from the viewpoint of everyone else. God really spoke to me through Justin's sermon. He preached about how we should follow Jesus' example in sacrifice, service, and submitting to God.

This morning, we had the pleasure of going to St. Thomas Church of England Lydiate school to lead their assembly. The kids there range from (what we would call) Kindergarten to 5th grade. We performed two skits and Emily preached the gospel. After that, the oldest students took us on a school tour and eventually to their class room. There, they asked us questions they had been preparing for us. It was funny to hear their pre-conceived ideas about Americans coming out in the questions. I was asked about gun laws, music, and the weather where I'm from. Haha! When we left St. Thomas', we went to the church to prepare for a ministry on Thursday to 7-11 year olds. It's a special presentation about the life and death and resurrection of Christ, anticipating the coming of Easter.

To be honest, I had to take the afternoon off after that, however. As an introvert, I will occasionally need to force some alone time. I haven't had much this trip. I was good to recuperate by myself for a bit. This evening, we played some games at one of the church member's house. It was much fun to reunite with the team again and just enjoy each other.

Yesterday was a long and tiring day.

We started by taking a trip to Liverpool. Our driver and guide, Robert, a member of Formby Baptist Church, took us to a lot of really cool spots in Liverpool. We started by visiting the Liverpool Cathedral. It was an enormous and beautiful church building. It is one of the biggest in Europe. This building was designed with very high ceilings. This is for the purpose of drawing us to look up. Similarly, when we worship, we are drawn to look up. I loved how these two ideas corresponded so beautifully here. After that, we went to the Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool. Not as amazing, but cool nonetheless. From there, we walked to a place to eat our lunches after which we walked some more to The Cavern Pub. This is the sight where The Beatles played many of their concerts. It was a small dinky street that had clearly seen much traffic in its days. Next, we traveled to some huge art museum. I was rather tired by this time and just wanted to be done. Truth be told, I really wanted to see if I could go shopping for some Everton FC gear, but our guide was set on giving us the cultural experience. I am grateful for his insight and generosity. Maybe next time I go to Liverpool I can do some shopping.

When we returned, we had a team meeting. This was to get prepared for Kings Kids, the ministry for the 4-11 year olds. It was a fun evening, but this was something that I really had to have a mentality that said, "This is for these people, not necessarily for my ease, convenience, or enjoyment." God blessed me with a good attitude and I enjoyed interacting with the kids and teaching my mate, Frank, about the virgin birth. Imagine how creative I had to be explaining to an 11 year old the significance of a virgin giving birth! Jesus gave me wisdom and I think he got it without learning "too much." Haha!

Following Kings Kids, I stayed at the church to take part in the guys group that meets weekly. This is comprised of some of the guys in the church who have taken initiative to meet weekly and encourage each other in their faith. It is truly an amazing thing that God is doing in them. It was a humbling experience to say the least. They are really growing in their faith and it was cool to encourage them in that.

I was really tired when I got home, but I had a great Skype chat with Christine after everyone else here had gone to bed. I really miss her.

Today was not as busy, but still as tiring. We just had a meeting at midday. After the meeting, I went to Caffe Nero, one of the local coffee shops (I miss Joe's). I got to read my premarital counseling book for a good bit. I read a really powerful chapter on the blessing of singleness, surprisingly.

God seems to shine through even the
weakest attempts to reflect his glory.

Then tonight we had Pr1me, the church's youth group. It was an energetic and impactful evening. We started off by playing some games. Unfortunately, some experienced the bruised caused by over-competitiveness. Once we had calmed down a bit, I got up to speak. As I was speaking, I did not feel confident at all. I felt like my words did not make it past my shoes. I was all spent when I said my final prayer. I felt real shaky about my sermon. But I am trusting that God moved through my foolish words. I was able to have an amazing conversation about faith and reason with a young man in the youth group who has yet to put his faith in Jesus. Please be praying for him. I have heard it said that often preachers feel like some sermons were home runs and others are strikeouts, and that this is in no way indicative of their effectiveness. I really pray that this was the case tonight. I am trusting God is working through by feeble attempt to proclaim the glories of holy living.

This is now day five that I have been in England. It is the middle of week number one already. Wow time flies!

On Tuesday, our team did not do much beside preparing for the rest of the week. On Friday, we will be leading youth group (called Pr1me). On Saturday we will be participating in an event called a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee). It is a big group line dance interspersed with skits and loads of fun. So we were preparing our skits and messages for then. In the evening, the ladies had a ladies-only-night filled with fellowship and loads of chocolate. The men, on the other hand, went out a to Chinese buffet. I am still over stuffed from that. Haha.

Today, I got to sleep in. It is feeling so great to not have morning obligations other than preparing my heart for the rest of the day. I am getting to know my way around Formby much better. However, the coffee here is not what you would call their strongest emphasis. But I am really enjoying the frequent tea breaks. Tea is everywhere. They don't say, "What kind?" when you ask for tea. they just bring you the typical English tea because it is such a commodity. I think I will drink much more tea when I return. Mmmm :)

Tonight we had a Bible study and prayer meeting at the church. Michael prepared an excellent study from Mark 5. Afterward we chatted about its significance and how God's plan applied to us. Then we prayed. I really felt God's presence at that meeting. He was so peaceful and strong. It was so restful to talk to him about the deeper things of my heart. I am excited to see what God is going to do not only through me these next two weeks, but also in me.

Sorry I haven't written in a day. We have been rather busy and my computer's connection to the internet is pretty dodgy. We have been having loads of fun in the last two days as we build relationships and minister the Word and fellowship to the people here.

On Sunday, we got to the church around 7:30 am. We met to pray for Michael as he was going to preach the first sermon of the trip and for the rest of the team as we were going to be leading different parts of the service. I was asked to lead singing yesterday as I played my guitar. I was accompanied by Lydia on piano and Kara singing. I was a bit nervous but we did fine and all were encouraged. Praise Jesus. After the service we had tea and "biscuits" (cookies and brownies) as we enjoyed fellowship with the congregation - about 30 strong. Though it is a small church by America's standards, there is incredible love and hospitality present. I love it here. If God called Christine and I to live and labour here, I wouldn't fight too hard :)

After returning from church, Mrs. Griffiths prepared an amazing pot roast. It was so delicious. She was shocked that I ate it all! So much for my Lenten fast from meat. I simply can't resist the amazing hospitality of the Griffiths and Formby Baptist Church. I think God will understand as I am seeking him and his heart in a new way for these next two weeks.



Once dinner had settled a bit, Josh, Andy, some other boys from the church, and I went to the astro turf field to play some "footy" (pick-up soccer). It was really fun. I was expecting to get owned by the English boys, but I held my own alright. I was rather surprised. I had to leave early, however, because I had to get to the church to prepare for my sermon that night.

I got to the church about a half hour before everyone so I could prepare and pray and align my heart with God. I don't know exactly what the Spirit was doing during my message, but after the sermon, a few came up to me to tell me that it was just what they needed to hear. Praise Jesus! Then, all the youth went to Josiah's (the youth pastor here - and MBI alum) flat to hang out for the evening. Good times had by all :)

This morning we all got up early to make it to the church on time so we could leave to travel to the Lake District, an absolutely gorgeous spot in N. England. I felt a small bit like James Herriott as I was walking across the idyllic and rolling hillsides dotted with local sheep and moss-covered rocks. It was very surreal. I had a hard time taking it all in. In one particular moment of the day, I was standing by myself, looking out at the snow-capped hills, any town out of site. The thought came to me that no one would venture up there anytime in the near or distant future. It was too snowy to climb or explore. It was not snowy enough to ski or sled upon. It was just there, standing, smiling in the sun, radiating idyllic beauty. In that moment it hit me that its significance was in no way defined by human presence. Often we like to think that our presence in a situation or area is what gives meaning and significance to our land or art. But no one would come near those hills at all. Yet in their own still way, they transcended and human definition of beauty. They just were there, radiating God's glory without thought or concern for what anybody else thought, whether or not anybody noticed. In my life, I need to realize more often that it is not my presence that bestows significance upon a situation but the imminence and majesty of the God who is infinitely creative.

After a long, cold day of sight-seeing, we finally stopped in Keswick (pronounced Kez-ick) to grab some fish and chips and tea. It was a very welcome meal. And all of us enjoyed it to the fullest. It was a wonderful day and the glory of God is beginning to take on a fuller meaning in my mind and heart. Please pray that I continue to grow closer to Him.

Hello everyone!

This is where Formby is

Currently I am in Formby, England where I will be staying for the next two weeks. While I am here I will be with my team of fellow students from Moody Bible Institute serving the Formby Baptist Church. We will be doing a variety activities ranging from leading church services and youth services, to sharing our testimonies in a local "college" (high school), doing doing outreach events, to building relationships with the wonderful people here. So for the next two weeks, I will be posting my daily reflections on our activities so you can follow the action and keep us prayed for.

"Today" was a long day. It started when we drove to Milwaukee, WI just to fly back to Chicago O'Hare (because it was cheaper... America...). We then flew toward the rising sun, gaining 6 extra hours in our day - so when it is 4:00 pm in Chicago, it is 10:00 pm here. However, the flight brought something I didn't expect. The air is so thin at a 11,500 foot altitude that I couldn't sleep because I was struggling to suck air. I had to consciously try to breathe. It was kind of scary, to be honest. I'm not looking forward to that on the way back. But now that I am here, the air is so fresh! I love it here!

When we arrived, we were shuttled to our host homes. I was taken to Dave & Linda Griffiths' home. Their two sons, Josh (16) and Andy (21), also live here. They are all really cool. I like them a lot. They are so welcoming and hospitable. Dave is a teacher and one of two deacons at FBC. Linda is a nurse. Josh is in college (high school), and Andy has graduated and is currently in the job hunt. We watched Everton v Wigan Athletic today because we all share a love for Everton football (soccer). They even offered to take me to the Everton v ManCity home game! We'll see if we have time for it. But I am really enjoying staying with the Griffiths'. Please pray for Dave. He is also in a job search due to cutbacks where he is teaching.

A typical street view here in Formby

After spending the day with the Griffiths', we had a team meeting at the church. The last thing we did as group before settling down for the evening was dinner and tea with a group of the adults from the church. We got to know some really great people. I got to talk to a man named Dave who drove up from southern England just to see what God was going to do through us in the next two weeks. He is really cool and definitely has a heart to learn, even at an older age. I also got to talk to my host parents, Dave and Linda, about marriage. It was so encouraging.

It's getting late, and I am exhausted. I will continue to keep you updated. Please continue to keep us in your prayers!