Not Only Do Summers Fly By...

But so do missions opportunities! What an amazing summer I've had here at North Myrtle Beach, SC.  A quick 'bring you up to date' -- I've been on a summer mission project here in NMB, SC where 100 college students involved in Cru from the Upper Midwest region have traveled here to grow in their faith, to learn to share it, and to build community with fellow believers. Not only do the students get stretched in amazing ways, but so do staff members. Often we, as staff, are viewed as the mature ones here, but as many believers know, you never "arrive" at maturity until we reach eternity with Jesus in heaven! So, as the LORD continues to sanctify me in life, I continue to be stretched. It's hard, but I love it. I will certainly share more about that, but first I want to share some cool things about my guys I get to pour into this summer!

Their names are Alec, Brady, Brandon, Jared, and Ryan -- I've grown to enjoy my friendship with each one of these guys. Every single one of them is unique and full of quarks and gifts that the LORD has given them. Alec is a great musician and uses it for the LORD; he also is extremely easy going and fun to hang out with. Brady has a very friendly demeanor and it's impossible to get mad at him, where he walks, peace and joy follow. Brandon has the heart of a servant and works with passion behind the scenes to help build and edify the body for the sake of the Gospel. Jared is a very intentional relator and extremely intellectual; you can't leave a conversation with him feeling uncared for and like your life isn't interesting. Finally Ryan is a soft-spoken and passionate individual who's always seeking the LORD in every move and decision he makes, truly desiring what God wants for his life and the lives of those around him. Please be praying for them as they continue to grow through the rest of the summer!

Left to Right: Ryan, Brandon, Alec, Jared, me, Brady

Alec also keeps a blog you can read here!

Not only have I had the privilege to pour into these guys, but throughout the course of the summer I've been able to encourage, serve, and intercede for countless others that are around - students on project, and those who are living around us that are here for the summer to party to no end. God has been teaching me a lot about this all summer. Each day is full of opportunities to both bless believers and non-believers alike. Two verses have really spurred me on this summer:

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers."
 - Galatians 6:9-10

"Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the message, to speak the mystery of the Messiah, for which I am in prison, so that I may reveal it as I am required to speak. Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of every opportunity. Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person."
 - Colossians 4:2-6

Like never before, the LORD has been challenging me this summer to make the most of every opportunity that we have and to step out in faith and trust Him to move in all things as we are obedient to Him. It has been an extremely exciting experience.

The end of my time in NMB is fast approaching, I head back home at the end of the month with the other staff members. Meanwhile the students stay for another full 5 weeks and grow together apart from us. I'm excited to leave, but will miss this summer in ways like I've never missed a place. Seasons come and go, but the LORD remains the same. And in the sameness he is always faithful -- we can trust this as we take the next steps. Please be in prayer for me! When I return to the Upper Midwest, I'll be looking for housing in Mankato and in seemingly no time, colleges will be starting up and ministry will be in full-swing. This transition is quite possibly the biggest one I've ever been through and I absolutely am thrilled for the adventure God has been providing since it's begun and am looking forward to continuing to work it out and the LORD leads. Thank you for your prayers!

The Heavenly Man

Recently I finished the book "The Heavenly Man", a Biography on a man called 'Brother Yun' which was compiled, and edited by a close friend of his named Paul Hattaway.

The stories in this book were absolutely astounding to me from beginning to end. After reading this book, and accounting for the historical events, I don't think anyone could doubt God and His miracles in this age! What was specifically impacting about this book, is that the years mentioned in the book are from the early 80's through the early 2000's (My life span). So as I was reading about Yun's years in prison and the thousands of people being saved, I was remembering what I was doing in 6th grade. Or when I first became a Christian, Brother Yun started speaking globally about his testimony of God in his life in China.

One of the other bigger impacts about reading this book for me was that there are many things I think about and constantly try to debate in my head, and Biblically about whether or not I am right, such as how to combat evil, if you should combat evil, how to witness against those who mock you, how to both respect a government and still stand for what you believe. Throughout this entire book, the way Brother Yun lived his life is remarkably similar to how I would see myself wanting to endure through trials such as the ones he went through. -- While it's easy to know how I want persevere through trials, hearing a story of someone doing it, and seeing the fruit that was borne is amazingly powerful in my life. This is especially true when you see so much luke warmness throughout America and in the Church... more specifically, when I see so much luke warmness in my own life, and being convicted of it.

This book is a truly inspiring kick in the rear end away from the things of this world and towards the Kingdom. This is the best missionary biography I have read and would recommend it for anyone who desires to hear of God working in and through His people. This book addresses scripture memorization, prayer, church division, evangelism, generosity, salvation, and so much more in a non-evasive God-glorifying way. Please take the time to read it!

God Bless!

Integrity: True Gold in American Culture

"In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled in everything. Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us."
- Titus 2:6-8 (HCSB)

As a wee lad, I went through a phase when I was fascinated with minerals, rocks, agate stones, precious metals, etc... why? Who knows, I have a collegiate degree in accounting, not geology. Anyway, in those days, I had a big rock known as "Pyrite" which is also called "fools gold". The reason being is that throughout history, Pyrite has been commonly mistaken for gold to the naked eye. Ironically enough, pyrite veins are typically located adjacent to real gold... however - one is real, and one is not. How do you tell the difference? Well, without chemical testing and scientific analysis, the easiest way is to scratch the mineral with something abrasive. If it is gold, it will mark/scratch, if it is pyrite, it will not. There's a metaphor to be drawn here regarding integrity and hypocrisy.

In today's culture, Gold would be viewed as that which has integrity, it is true to it's form all the way through, whereas Pyrite would be considered the hypocrite, that which is an imposter to another thing, or visually appeasing. When we look at Christianity today in America, a majority of American's identify as Christian, but which are hypocrites...? We see in the Bible, Jesus picked apart hypocrites like crazy (Matthew 23). And Paul did as well (Romans 12:9-21). So, we know they exist.

We can bring out the metaphor of "scratching the surface" to identify integrity as referenced in the Titus verses, by "being self-controlled in everything, making yourself an example of good works, and preaching a message that is sound beyond reproach". To break that down, we must first know the Gospel and be invested in it at a heart level, walking with Jesus. We must know God and be seeking Him first each day. And we must be living lives Spirit-filled and directed by the Holy Spirit. This is where soundness comes from. This will lead us to good works, not that save us, but those which are an overflow of the love of Christ towards us and others: Agape.

Now our surface has been scratched and we have been identified. Our surface is scratched each day, by circumstances, friends, enemies, Satan: What is the outcome? The desired outcome Paul states is "that the opponent will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us."

"... Having nothing bad to say about us."

I cannot fathom achieving this no matter how good I think I am personally! This is not achieved by our power... in fact, in cannot be achieved through our power. Jesus Christ set this example for us, empowered by the Holy Spirit (John 1:32-34) for good works, and calling on God the Father continuously for intercession (John 17), and dependence on scriptures (John 4:1-11) as he walked on this earth. We are not Jesus, how much more should we seek these these things?

When I First Experienced the Adventure of Giving

Between my sophomore year in college and my junior year in college, I was living off campus subleasing in a CRU house at the time. During that summer, one of the housemates invited a staff member named Josh over to our house for dinner and told the rest of the house mates they were welcome to come to the dinner. At that dinner, Josh talked a little bit about ministry he was doing with Campus Crusade - at the time, he was going to be heading to East Asia to do a 1 year STINT (Short Term International Mission Trip) which turned into many years (they are still there 6 years later).

After the dinner he took some time to talk to me (I knew him a little, but we had never really talked before), and he asked if I understood everything he was talking about. After that, Josh invited me to join his ministry team to help fulfill the great commission. When he asked me to join his team, he said that I could give x amount of $$/mo while he was doing ministry abroad. This was the first time I can ever remember being asked to support someone other than seeing a collection basket go around at church. This was the first time I was ever challenged to think about investing my finances in eternal things. This was the first time that I had ever even realized that God wanted me to use my money for missions just like anything else. I was taken aback when Josh asked me that question but I played it cool with a simple "Well, Hey Josh... that sounds really cool - I will pray about it."...

... Instead of praying, I abruptly went to look my checking account to see what existed (or didn't exist for that matter). At the time, I was paying for all my school and my parents were not able to help me. After thoroughly thinking about it for 5 minutes, I made the decision: I could not have what I needed to support Josh's ministry.

Before I got a chance to hear back from Josh (He said he'd call me a couple days later), I asked one of the guys I was living with if he was going to give to Josh's ministry. He replied the he would even though he wasn't making a lot -- apparently this is typical in the college world, who knew? I said the same thing, I mentioned that I wasn't making much and had to pay for school. But then, this roommate of mine explained something I had never heard before. He said "Even though you don't think you have enough money, I think that you will find when you sincerely trust God with your finances that you will not come up lacking what you need."

I pondered on this for the following hours that evening and decided that I wanted to give an amount to Josh's ministry each month. I couldn't decide though how much... if I did $10/mo, I felt like I wasn't really trusting God with my finances. $50 a month seemed ridiculously high for me as a college student and I knew I couldn't feel right doing that. I wanted to be a good "steward" of my finances... After praying about it and waking up the next morning.. I found the happy medium and decided on $35/mo. Josh called that night and I told him my decision. This was when I first discovered the adventure of giving. From that day on, I have absolutely been blessed to learn that I enjoy blessing others, as well as being hospitable. God has shown me that he knows more about my finances than I did, even as a college student who felt like he had nothing to offer... who knew? So even though my decision 2 nights before was "I could not have what I needed to support Josh's ministry". I quickly came to learn that "God had what I needed and enough more than that to use me to support Josh's ministry".

God is greater than our limited resources; He is greater than our limited philosophies and sciences; He is greater than our biggest sin.

God is greater than...

Additional Resource: How You Can Experience the Adventure of Giving or Listen Here

The Blogger Bandwagon

Hey everyone!,

For some time now I've been hoping to maintain a ministry blog but have had a really hard time deciding what website, what colors, what name, etc. Well.. I finally decided on using Google's blogger just to make it simple and easily accessible. What really helped me to initiate the blog was part of a course I'm taking through my ministry training with Cru. New Testament Survey, a semester long course, has asked that I keep a journal regarding my thoughts on passages and articles that I read each week in the class. I thought I might best do that through a blog rather than on paper or with a chisel. So, voila!

Hope you can enjoy it as it actually becomes something in the long run, I hope!

Blessings,
- Dave