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Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Kenny
So there is this homeless guy named Kenny that I met at a Mcdonalds last Thursday,9 days ago, counting that time I have now seen him four different times now. The first time he told me that he was stuck in town cause his girlfriend robbed him and I told him that I wanted to help him so I bought him some food and the YWAMers with me prayed for him. The second time was Tuesday when we were doing free prayer and free hot chocolate downtown with a team that was in town for a mission trip from Florida. I have him some hot chocolate and felt like I was supposed to tell him that he needed to check out the program at the rescue mission. It is an 11 month program; at the end of it, the Rescue Mission helps them get a job, appartment and helps them get on their feet. He said he would check it out. The third time I saw him at that same Mcdonalds. I was on my way to get my bible that I left at the hotel that my church is meeting at and he walked by and asked me for food, I thought it was not a cooincidence that I saw him again so I went in to get him food and my friends from XXX and from Current from Flordia who did the hot chocolate were there and they bought Kenny some food. Then today I was riding back from a bock party that a church in Henderson was having. I passed that same Mcdonalds and wondered if I would see Kenny. I got to the corner and there he was. He asked me for food again and felt like I really needed to lay down that he needed to get help and I was just encouraging him to stay on the streets if I keep buying him food. I encouraged him again to go to the program, I hope he does. He is still hooked on this girl though, evedently she came back into the picture and wants to see him. I tried to make him see that he doesn't need her that she is just holding him back, but we'll see what he decides. It is strange that I feel so connected and want to help Kenny like this, I usually don't let myself get so involved in homeless people's lives because I have tried to helped them in the past and am always dissapointed, but I think Kenny is different, I think I am in his life to help him.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
A beginning to a beginning beginning
Yesterday was really encouraging to me. I had quite a few good conversations about future stuff ministry related things. One of the conversations was with this guy named Jason who works for a ministry out of Florida that does allot of mercy ministry such as Laundry Love; which is were they take a group of people to a Laundry mat and pay for people’s laundry and through that, they develop relationships. Jason is bringing a mission team to Vegas next week to work with XXX church. They will be remodeling a brothel in a town a few hours away. He called me to see if we could do a few outreaches with his group. We will most likely take them downtown and give out free prayer and hot chocolate and hopefully have amazing conversations about Jesus! We also hope to join them with their laundry love project as they intend on doing one here in Vegas.
The other good conversation I had yesterday was with a guy named John Howard who is the housing manager of a government housing project that I really want to do outreaches in so that we can develop relationships with the low income families there. John really likes this idea just as long as the residents know that it is a YWAM thing and not at all associated with the housing development, which I assured him should not be a problem. It has come to my attention within the last few weeks that the source of physical poverty is spiritual poverty, a lack of Jesus in their lives. The reason why trying to solve physical needs only and never finding a way to bridge that to Jesus is that only when Jesus is in their lives, will they have the chance to get out of the physical poverty they are in. Our building, the Pier, is a community resource center, meaning we provide physical needs for people such as food, classes to teach them how to get a job, tutoring classes for kids, vaccines for kids. All of this is done without mentioning the name of Jesus. This is so that we can attract the community by serving them and not scare them away with the Christian-y stuff. However, we need to be strategizing ways we can be more intentional of bridging meeting people’s physical needs with curing people’s spiritual needs.
As it says in my newsletter, I have joined a church plant called the Verve. We are meeting in the Greek Isles at two different times, Sunday at 9:30 and Mondays at 6:45. This Monday was really convicting for me. Vince, the head pastor, had taken a poll a few weeks ago asking us how we were doing and how we though Verve was doing. Pretty much everybody said they were passionate about what Verve is doing and about Jesus, but almost everybody also put that they were weary about how the Verve Launch team is doing. The majority of people also said that they were struggling with daily spiritual discipline as well. Vince went on to talk about how as a church, we need to be abounding, meaning doing great thing in the name of Jesus and doing things that even amaze us because it is not us doing it, but Jesus. Just passion alone is not enough to abound, its just not! If you are super passionate about running a marathon, but don’t prepare, you won’t get very far. In order to abound, we need to abide in Jesus as it says in John 15. This means we needs to “live inside of Jesus” we need to be Jesus! The only way to do this is through discipline as well as passion, but we need both not one and the other. This was super convicting to me because I know that discipline is something that I struggle with. I am super passionate, but not so good about making sure I am in the word daily and taking intentional time to plug into Jesus. I do get several chances during the week to take time out to talk to Jesus and grow in him, but it is generally while I am running or riding my bike. I realized that I really need to be more intentional about reading my bible…Even if it means getting up early and reading for a half hour before work….aaah! Also I need to work on informing those that want to be involved with my ministry here about what is going on and how they can be involved, either through prayer of finances. So these are some things to be praying about.
The other good conversation I had yesterday was with a guy named John Howard who is the housing manager of a government housing project that I really want to do outreaches in so that we can develop relationships with the low income families there. John really likes this idea just as long as the residents know that it is a YWAM thing and not at all associated with the housing development, which I assured him should not be a problem. It has come to my attention within the last few weeks that the source of physical poverty is spiritual poverty, a lack of Jesus in their lives. The reason why trying to solve physical needs only and never finding a way to bridge that to Jesus is that only when Jesus is in their lives, will they have the chance to get out of the physical poverty they are in. Our building, the Pier, is a community resource center, meaning we provide physical needs for people such as food, classes to teach them how to get a job, tutoring classes for kids, vaccines for kids. All of this is done without mentioning the name of Jesus. This is so that we can attract the community by serving them and not scare them away with the Christian-y stuff. However, we need to be strategizing ways we can be more intentional of bridging meeting people’s physical needs with curing people’s spiritual needs.
As it says in my newsletter, I have joined a church plant called the Verve. We are meeting in the Greek Isles at two different times, Sunday at 9:30 and Mondays at 6:45. This Monday was really convicting for me. Vince, the head pastor, had taken a poll a few weeks ago asking us how we were doing and how we though Verve was doing. Pretty much everybody said they were passionate about what Verve is doing and about Jesus, but almost everybody also put that they were weary about how the Verve Launch team is doing. The majority of people also said that they were struggling with daily spiritual discipline as well. Vince went on to talk about how as a church, we need to be abounding, meaning doing great thing in the name of Jesus and doing things that even amaze us because it is not us doing it, but Jesus. Just passion alone is not enough to abound, its just not! If you are super passionate about running a marathon, but don’t prepare, you won’t get very far. In order to abound, we need to abide in Jesus as it says in John 15. This means we needs to “live inside of Jesus” we need to be Jesus! The only way to do this is through discipline as well as passion, but we need both not one and the other. This was super convicting to me because I know that discipline is something that I struggle with. I am super passionate, but not so good about making sure I am in the word daily and taking intentional time to plug into Jesus. I do get several chances during the week to take time out to talk to Jesus and grow in him, but it is generally while I am running or riding my bike. I realized that I really need to be more intentional about reading my bible…Even if it means getting up early and reading for a half hour before work….aaah! Also I need to work on informing those that want to be involved with my ministry here about what is going on and how they can be involved, either through prayer of finances. So these are some things to be praying about.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
June 28
June 28th..ish
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So I’ve been meaning to write some things, but aaah, things and stuff, anyhow. Last week was our first M group, both from California. I warmed up to them all quickly and they al thought I was funny, so that was cool, they really took hold of the evangelism and stuff, they had some cool stories from their evangelism times, Sal, one of the leaders, even lead two Mexican people to Christ on the cross walk, so praise God..soo good, so yeah, I think cross walk was the only one I had trouble with last week, rejection after rejection, I tried to get some girls to get some conversations, but I got shut down, one guy talked, but was open to all religions, so it went nowhere. I felt beat up, but actually kept a good attitude, I was singing songs with the other kids coming back to our starting point, ready to leave and there was a couple with a sign that said “fortune telling one dollar” Marshal goes..Dude do it…so he gives them a dollar and I say…Well we believe in Jesus, but..and they say oh we do too, they were from IHOP from Kansas city, they prophesied over me, that I had a double anointing in youth pasturing and prophesy and also that I was anointed to be a worship leader of some kind, he said I was like Elija..his wife Amy had a vision of me on a diving board an on a train in a tunnel, I was on the edge of the diving board and I was afraid to jump, but God was there saying jump and ill catch you and he was saying just a little bit further and you’ll be at the light at the end and all will make sense, just keep faith and keep pressing.
l
So I’ve been meaning to write some things, but aaah, things and stuff, anyhow. Last week was our first M group, both from California. I warmed up to them all quickly and they al thought I was funny, so that was cool, they really took hold of the evangelism and stuff, they had some cool stories from their evangelism times, Sal, one of the leaders, even lead two Mexican people to Christ on the cross walk, so praise God..soo good, so yeah, I think cross walk was the only one I had trouble with last week, rejection after rejection, I tried to get some girls to get some conversations, but I got shut down, one guy talked, but was open to all religions, so it went nowhere. I felt beat up, but actually kept a good attitude, I was singing songs with the other kids coming back to our starting point, ready to leave and there was a couple with a sign that said “fortune telling one dollar” Marshal goes..Dude do it…so he gives them a dollar and I say…Well we believe in Jesus, but..and they say oh we do too, they were from IHOP from Kansas city, they prophesied over me, that I had a double anointing in youth pasturing and prophesy and also that I was anointed to be a worship leader of some kind, he said I was like Elija..his wife Amy had a vision of me on a diving board an on a train in a tunnel, I was on the edge of the diving board and I was afraid to jump, but God was there saying jump and ill catch you and he was saying just a little bit further and you’ll be at the light at the end and all will make sense, just keep faith and keep pressing.
Praise God!
So yesterday was one of my fuller more positive outreach experiences. We split up the groups in half, free prayer and surveys at the Bellagio…We did free prayer first. I was with JC, one of the leaders, and at first we seemed to just get rejected, but we pressed through. At one point, I, Beth, JC, Tangerine and Bree were around the sign and this boisterous woman came over to us and screamed, “praise God I got custody of my kids today!!” She sat down on the ground with us and told us her story. She had been a prostitute (third generation), on heroin, and an alcoholic, she came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ a couple of years ago and God had been cleansing her life of that stuff ever since, she feels like a new creation; you could just feel the emotions, she was crying, her mascara was running, so passionate, we prayed for her and she just sc reamed out for more deliverance, because she still deals with alcohol, cigarettes a little bit, and she still deals with prostitution, more so in relationships than for money. I told her it looks like she needed to give over relations with men for a bit and just focus on God so He can have her full attention, she said well that’s just not gonna happen she wanted to, but she doubted that she could just because she has had men do so many bad things to her; she has always thrived on the adoration and physical attention of other men, so can’t see a way around that. Me and Beth told her that we have actually been praying for the prostitutes and that God would be bringing them to Him, she cried some more…and she said “that’s why I’m here…” it was soo powerful, then she was talking about karma and Christian Science…so yeah, I know a little bit about it, kinda weird stuff, she gave Beth a book on it, we’re gonna study it and be better able to lead her to the truth. We told her about the church of the way and Mrs. Levi Cooper and her heart for the prostitutes and I told her that I think that God might want to use her to help Mrs. Levi minister to prostitutes.
July 13
The last few days have been amazing. Friday we went to first Christian Church, a congregation of 17,000…and just prayed that God would use them and convict them of any sloth-ness or hypocrisy. I felt a little mean praying there...We were not really praying against it, but for it. I have a bad taste in my mouth about mega- churches, but God definitely can and does use them, it just seems like it’s harder to connect in a congregation that big. That night we went out to talk to our community, Tricia and I ran into some pretty cool people. Allot of small conversation, a couple of people that were interested in donating to us. We knocked on one lady’s door who was 90. Her daughter and grandson walked in a few minutes later. We told her about YWAM and we talked about church, they were a church going family, which was cool. Then we got a knock at the door and it was some girls that Tricia had met the day before, they wanted to talk but we were busy, they just hung out in the doorway, so I decided to share the gospel with them, I whipped out the evangecube and told them about Jesus, and of course, they wanted to try so I let them, I ended up giving it to them under the conditions that they would share it, I’m not sure if that was a good idea, because they seemed to fight allot; and probably will get some bloody noses because of it. Then Tricia had a long in depth conversation with a 10 year old girl. She was asking questions about demons, she said that she had bad dreams, so we prayed for her, she asked about what demons and angels were and all these crazy questions for a 10 year old to ask...Crazy. Then Saturday we woke up at 4:00 and went to red rock to intercede and watch the sunrise. We prayed for our community and the city. I just thanked God for His nature and being able to connect with Him in His nature. We were talking about how sad it was that most people in our community probably have never been out to red rocks and seen the beauty around their city. They are so distracted by their own situation, that they don’t realize that there is beauty in nature right around them. Then I later took the kids to church and stayed for church, Pastor Jonathan gave a long gospel message from John 19; pretty good. Then went over to Josh and Stacy’s for a little UFC action, where we watched Brock Lesner bashed some dude’s head in…man that was hard to watch, he just wailed on the dude’s ear. Then Sunday we went to the Crossing for church, my first time... I really liked the sermon, we all agreed that the sermon was a little too much with the rock star in a preppy green shirt; it seemed like a concert, where the congregation claps after every song. But the sermon was from @ kings, about Naamun who had a blemish on his skin and out of humility had to ask the king of Israel to help him with it. He told him to wash in the nasty Jordan River, at first he didn’t want to, but then decided to and got healed. The pastor said that’s us…we have gross things on us that we have to rely on God to talk them away, we have to give up all control and let God cleanse us. Then Tricia and I and Andrew had a dance party, made my heart happy, then me and Andrea. Jamie and Tricia watched the corny Brendan Frasier movie that I rented, Ink heart. Today we had intercession at the Bellagio area. I and Jamie went to the Miracle Mile for some tea and prayer…good combo. We sat on a window sill of a store facing the “sin city brewing company” and prayed against materialism of Las Vegas and just our generation in general and against sinful marriages. There is a kinda storm thing that goes off every once and a while, lights and fog and stuff, as it was going off, God inspired me to read out the passage form Matthew that talks about how Jesus was walking on water and called Peter out during the storm to walk on water but got scared of the waves, so he sank, but then Jesus rebuked him and pulled him out. I prayed that we do that. Some people here were once following Jesus in faith, they got out of the boat in the storm, but then got scared of the waves that we began to sunk, the more we rely on ourselves, the deeper we will sink. Good praying time and me and Jamie got to talk about politics and Lost…
July 7 2009
July 7
Baa…..so we have had a few days of rest, tomorrow, we are getting back into some ministry, reaching out to our community, should be amazing and fruitful, if not, then we have a problem…right?.. ok so..I am kinda on the fence about joining staff here. Sam took me and Beth and Andrea to Starbooks today to talk about MA, our roles and the mobile tour and such. I would love to join in with YWAM Las Vegas and get to work with Sam, who is one of my closest friends now. If God gives me the go and I find funding…yeah totally, where there’s is God’s will there is the resources to do it, I know it..I am just stubborn. I have had a big heart for the nations the last couple of days, looking at the map and just thinking of all the weird named countries I want to go to. I picked up a book today that really captivated me called on the streets, about kids on the streets in Brazil. So far it is about a couple who did their DTS in Holland, they were Dutch, they did their outreach in Greece and felt God telling them to stay on this YWAM mercy ship. They go home, everyone tells them they are nuts, they do it anyways, even though, she is about to pop…with a baby, she has the baby.. and yeah they both have a heart for the kids on Brazil…but in order to get to that dream, they are going to prep for it on this boat, which hasn’t been sea worthy for a year, in fact they are about out of money and about ready to scrap the whole thing, the couple had to beg them to let them join, for no other reason that because God told them to, I want to live like that, beg people to let me do stuff, not because I so much want to do it, but because God told me to and He knows best. Man I am so glad that God knows what He is doing. Jesus forgives me for not believing that He can bring me through anything. I love it and I hate it, I definitely keep in shape just sweating through life…but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was just talking to Rich from California and it was really good, he was asking about the people we had met on the streets. He has such a good heart. I told him that I was on a wall about the future; he asked me If I was still considering the youth pastor position at his church. I told him it was still an option, but I feel that I would be restricted too much and feel God leading me more towards full time missions...Maybe, still not certain, oh well, I will put it all on the line, when it comes time and I am not seeing God work, I will pray a bunch and fast…and He will come through, He always does…Remember that man….Rich wants to keep in touch with me just passing verses and prayer requests and what not. It is so good to meet people like that that truly want to help you and respect what you are doing. I love that…love love love.
Baa…..so we have had a few days of rest, tomorrow, we are getting back into some ministry, reaching out to our community, should be amazing and fruitful, if not, then we have a problem…right?.. ok so..I am kinda on the fence about joining staff here. Sam took me and Beth and Andrea to Starbooks today to talk about MA, our roles and the mobile tour and such. I would love to join in with YWAM Las Vegas and get to work with Sam, who is one of my closest friends now. If God gives me the go and I find funding…yeah totally, where there’s is God’s will there is the resources to do it, I know it..I am just stubborn. I have had a big heart for the nations the last couple of days, looking at the map and just thinking of all the weird named countries I want to go to. I picked up a book today that really captivated me called on the streets, about kids on the streets in Brazil. So far it is about a couple who did their DTS in Holland, they were Dutch, they did their outreach in Greece and felt God telling them to stay on this YWAM mercy ship. They go home, everyone tells them they are nuts, they do it anyways, even though, she is about to pop…with a baby, she has the baby.. and yeah they both have a heart for the kids on Brazil…but in order to get to that dream, they are going to prep for it on this boat, which hasn’t been sea worthy for a year, in fact they are about out of money and about ready to scrap the whole thing, the couple had to beg them to let them join, for no other reason that because God told them to, I want to live like that, beg people to let me do stuff, not because I so much want to do it, but because God told me to and He knows best. Man I am so glad that God knows what He is doing. Jesus forgives me for not believing that He can bring me through anything. I love it and I hate it, I definitely keep in shape just sweating through life…but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was just talking to Rich from California and it was really good, he was asking about the people we had met on the streets. He has such a good heart. I told him that I was on a wall about the future; he asked me If I was still considering the youth pastor position at his church. I told him it was still an option, but I feel that I would be restricted too much and feel God leading me more towards full time missions...Maybe, still not certain, oh well, I will put it all on the line, when it comes time and I am not seeing God work, I will pray a bunch and fast…and He will come through, He always does…Remember that man….Rich wants to keep in touch with me just passing verses and prayer requests and what not. It is so good to meet people like that that truly want to help you and respect what you are doing. I love that…love love love.
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