strange land

from California to Vegas to Thailand!

2011-11-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a long 7 day road trip with our Discipleship Training School from Saturday November 5th to Friday November 11th. We went through California promoting YWAM Vegas and sharing about the great and wonderful things He has been doing through and in our lives in this last season. We met so many cool people and experienced so much hospitality; a pastor at one of the churches we stayed at even bought all 18 of us coffee at Starbucks, God is so good! Sami wasn't able to go on the trip, she had to stay back as she had already made a commitment to a lady from staff at YWAM Vegas to assist her in her birth as a doula for her birth; a doula is like a midwife's assistant. The baby was born this last Friday, the baby and mom are doing great!

I also wanted to add that we leave for Thailand next Monday but we still need about $2,500 for the trip, The money is really supposed to be in today, but as long as it is in before we leave we can still go. If we don't get it all in I will have to stay behind as Sami goes on outreach: she will go because she is leading it and I will just be support staff. So please pray four us as we scramble to get the money we need also as we make arrangements to move and get everything done before we leave. If anyone feels God pressing on them to give for our trip please let me know.

who's problem is it?

2011-09-09T14:54:00.000-07:00

I had a very frustrating discussion with a homeless man from Cambodia this morning in the alley way behind the YWAM building. He was asking about what we do so I was telling him about our different programs for the neighborhood and the different missions trips that we do and that Iw as going to Thailand soon. Then we went on to say ooh "I love Bankok, they have 100 girls lined up and I pick one and do 'boom boom' with her. He said is so causally and I say...but that is wrong and he didn't think so. He said it was ok because he paid for her. I went on to say that she was most likely not doing it because she wanted to but because she was forced and he said that it was their problem not his. then I went on to say that it is all of our problem, Jesus loves that girl soo soo much and died for her so she could have freedom, not so that she could be made to have sex with whatever man comes along and pays for her. I kept as calm as I could and ended it and walked away very frustrated and angry that someone could see that as ok. I then had to have Sami, my wife, pray for my anger and just give it to God. This was a good start,however, to start learning how to love these men that don't even think what they're doing is wrong. "Well I paid for her so it's Ok." Well Someone has already paid for her and His name is Jesus!...

July 31 update

2011-07-31T16:43:00.000-07:00

It has been a wild summer for Mission Adventures. We had a really great staff for the summer with lots of passion, energy and faith; which really helps to have a good summer, it just makes everything run smoother. We had about 9 teams come through and 101 students; teams from Colorado, California, Washington and Nevada.

One of the verses on my heart this summer has been Matthew 7:7 which says: seek and you will find, ask and you will receive, knock and the door will be open to you. As this was my fifth season doing Mission Adventures I had to really make sure I wasn't just skating along.

We have been writing the names of the people that have accepted Christ this summer on a chalk board in our building. In just a few short weeks, there are about 25 names on that board, praise God! We have seen so many people repentant of the lives they have been living and wanting so much for Jesus to come into their hearts and bring them true life and true meaning. We met a guy on the streets that was in a drug rehabilitation program, he had left a few days before. One of the staff got a word for him that he was running away from God and he broke down and gave his life to Christ right there on the strip. Another guy we met was struggling with alcoholism, after talking to some students he repented to God, accepted Jesus into his heart and called his mom to Apologize for the way he has treated her. God is moving!

I prayed at the beginning of the summer that God would open my eyes and use this summer in ways he hasn't before. I prayed that God would lead me to someone that was ready to accept Him into their heart and use me to bring them to Him. I have seen people come to Christ all around me, and God has used me to bring people to know Him, but I have never asked someone " do you want Jesus today and they said yes."

So...a few days ago I was in a mall doing evangelism with some students and I started talking to a 17 year old boy named Harlen who was with his mom' the conversation started because he was wearing a t-shirt of a painter that I like. I asked his mom if they had went to church and she said not really but she wanted them to go more. Then I asked Harlen what he thought of Jesus and the bible. He said he knew that Jesus died for him, he really liked him, but he didn't know much more. He told me that he had been going to a Christian ministry that has an indoor skate park that they let the kids skate in for free for an hour after an hour of bible study each Wednesday. So he said he has been going for the free skating, not really to learn about God. I felt God really press on my heart to ask Him if he wanted to accept Jesus into his heart today and he said yes! Praise God! He said the prayer with me to accept Jesus into his heart, then he let me tell him some more about Jesus and give him some bible verses to look up. We exchanged phone numbers and have kept in contact the last few days. I told him to find someone who he respects as a Christian leader to become a mentor in his life to help him grow in his relationship with God.

I tell you these stories to to gloat about myself or Youth With A Mission, but to brag on God. God is so so faithful, His power is limitless but the biggest thing that stands in the way of God doing great things through us is actually ourselves; our doubt our fear and our unbelief. I just wanted to encourage you all that God will answer your prayers, no matter what they are as long as it is on God's hear to happen.

God wants to move and do great things in your life, so the question is...will you let Him?

As of Tomorrow...Monday...I will be DTS staff. We will do staff training all week, then the students will start arriving on Saturday, please pray for the students to come that God wants to come and that they all arrive safely!

Thank you all for reading and God bless you all!!

Brett

July update

2011-07-17T18:42:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to update you on what has been happening in Vegas this summer. We have had three weeks so far of mission teams with Mission Adventures...about 70 students so far. This next week we were supposed to have a team, but they dropped out so we will be doing some team building and some ministry ( at a smaller scale) in the city.

We have seen about 20 people come to know Jesus in these three weeks!!! Praise God! Which I always love to see...there is something amazing about seeing someone accept Jesus as their Lord and savior for the first time. We have also seen lots of young people come alive with passion for serving Jesus and becoming world changers.

One guy we met on the streets last week said that he was an alcoholic but he wanted to change because he was hurting his family. After talking to a few of our students, he accepted Jesus into his life and decided he wasn't going to drink anymore, he left to go call his mom and told her that he was sorry for the way he has acted and that we was going to enroll himself in a rehab program.

We have also seen so many of these students break through so many obstacles in their lives. At the end of the week we challenge them to look at themselves and see if there are any idols in their lives that are more important than Jesus..God reveals to so many students that there are more stuff in their lives that they need to give him. The very last thing they do in the week is the commitment service, where we have a couple hours of wosrhip and prayer and a little message about going to the next step with Jesus. This Thursday I was praying with a student and she started crying. There had been a lot of anger against God in her and in her family for the last 7 years...she felt God leading her to ask for forgiveness. And she did right there, she said she was sorry she has been blaming Him for the death, it's not God's fault. It was really cool seeing her overcome that and give it up to God.

A verse that God has led me to recently is Isaiah 49:4 which talks about how hard it is for us that we don't see much results from our work for the Lord...it's cool when we see the fruits from our labor but really 95 percent of the time we never see the fruits, hopefully we will find out in heaven, but really that shouldn't be important. What is important is that we stay faithful to what God is calling us to do and that we keep on trying and not giving up no matter what stands in our way and always having a joyful attitude Philippians 4:4

So our last mission team will be coming on July 23rd - July 29th. Then I will be switching over to the Discipleship Training school staff. I will do a week of training with the DTS then the school will start August 8 and will end in mid January. I will update you more on that later!

The Cox's june newsletter!

2011-06-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and family,

Abolitionist DTS

June 3 2011
God has really blessed our ministry this year. We have seen lots of fruit from our efforts here at Youth with a Mission Las Vegas. We are extremely excited for what God has planned for the second half of the year.
As many of you know, we will both be staffing the Abolitionist Discipleship Training School. The school starts in August and ends in January. This DTS will include the usual material as other DTS’s, such as Father Heart of God, Hearing the Voice of God, Spiritual Warfare, etc. It will also offer three additional weeks specifically focused on learning about how to recognize and combat human trafficking. There will be two outreaches a week, on normal evangelism focused and one focusing on combating human trafficking here in Las Vegas. We have partnered with several local organizations for these. This is the first school YWAM Las Vegas has done like this, so we are hoping excited to see how it goes.
So far, there are 9 students accepted in the school. We are hoping to get at least 15 students and will take as many as 30. Slavery is on the rise in the world with an astronomical 27 million slaves in the world that includes trafficked workers and sex slaves. We are very excited to see what God does through this school.
Sami has been working on the DTS for the last ten months or so. She is the local outreach coordinator for the school- she has set up local outreaches with about five local organizations so far. Some of the outreaches will be focused on evangelizing to human trafficking victims others will focus more on helping with the rehabilitation of people that have gotten out of slavery and are trying to shed their past and move forward with their lives. Please pray that the students get closer to God during this school and that through our efforts, many people are set free!

Mission Adventures Summer 2011

The busy summer is about to hit! We have about 120 students lined up for the summer; about 12 teams. Our summer staff will be larger than usual, with five full time YWAM staff as well as seven young people coming to help out for the summer. Our staff training starts on June 7th. My summer will end July 31 and then I will join DTS staff.
We will be doing a few different things this summer than we have in the past, which I am excited for, sometimes it can be a bit monotonous for me doing the same thing every week. I have been contacting churches in our neighborhood to do some community service with them. We always do some sort of community outreach but usually is trash pick up or prayer walks. I am excited to be working with churches this summer; hopefully we can be a blessing to them and start to create a partnership between YWAM and some of the churches in our neighborhood. This may be one of the doors that God will open for us to start making a big difference in our very needy neighborhood.

Praise reports:

-We now have a car!

-Sami is in training to become a Doula which will allow her to work with pregnant traffic victims

-We were able to find a place to live!

Prayer requests:

- More students for summer MA and for the fall DTS
- Protection over our marriage as we fight against some big issues in ministry.

-Financial support

We appreciate your prayers and anyway that you would like to be apart of what God is doing through our work here with YWAM Las Vegas. To learn more about how to get involved please contact us: samiw@ywamlasvegas.org brettc@ywamlasvegas.org
Please make out all checks to YWAM with a note with our names on it (please don’t put our names on the check) and send it to:

YWAM
522 W Washington Ave
Las Vegas NV 89106

Thank you so much!
God bless you all!
-The Cox’s

2011-06-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

check out the abolitionist DTS promo!

2011-05-10T07:55:00.001-07:00

http://theabolitionistdts.org/video/

check out the new Las Vegas Mission Adventures promo video on youtube!

2011-05-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl85ltEavOo

2011 prayer cards

2011-05-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

one small step...

2010-09-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

Martin is a staff member here on YWAM Las Vegas and he wrote this about his efforts to solve some of the needs of our city:

Victims of Las Vegas

September 14, 2010 by Martin

Las Vegas is a hub of sex workers and the human trafficking that goes with it. Many of these workers are international victims of human trafficking who were deceived, threatened, kidnapped, blackmailed, or trapped in some other way. Mostly women and girls, they come to the USA thinking that they will get an opportunity to make a better life for themselves or their children but find themselves held under physical and psychological bondage. They can’t leave if they wanted to. They have nowhere to go and many can’t even speak the language.

When the Las Vegas Metro Police liberates these international victims, they get sent to a safe house managed by the Salvation Army of Las Vegas. They are just beginning to be treated as victims instead of criminals. They are able to get a new T visa which allows them to live and work in the US rather than suffer the shame of returning to their homelands. Recently I met with the coordinators of this safe house and found that these victims, after having been put in the safe house, have to wait months in order to receive services or help in order to integrate into the community. We started free English as a Second Language classes out of the Pier Community Resource Center in the poorest neighborhood of Las Vegas and we are now going to start teaching ESL to these international victims of human trafficking. Later we hope to work with them with other life skills such as budgeting, setting goals, and job readiness training. We can also share about the amazing love of Jesus and the redemptive and transformational account of Mary Magdalene. Hopefully we can help them to do what they came to the US for: to make a better life for themselves and their children.

students from Texas offering free prayer on Fremont Street

2010-08-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

August 2010 newsletter

2010-08-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

Summer 2010 update

This summer we saw God do some cool stuff: many people came to know the Lord (we figure over 20), we saw God heal people’s physical and emotional wounds, we even saw some of the students give their lives to Christ! We also saw God grow and stretch and amaze about 120 youth. It was a great summer, we saw a lot of fruit from our work for the Lord and I know there is a lot of fruit that we will never see.
I learned a lot about obedience this summer. The only right reason to do anything is to do it for the glory of the Lord. I’ve been reading a lot of the gospel of John this summer. In chapter 14 it talks about how we have authority in the name of Jesus Christ to do the same miraculous things that Christ did while he was on earth. Then it says that if we love God, we will obey Him, and to do this, we can’t rely on our own human strength, we rely on the Holy Spirit working in and through us.
This summer really challenged me. It made me think about why I serve God, it’s not because it is easy or because I get any glory out of it, it is because living my life for God pleases and blesses Him and it brings Him glory and He is completely worthy of it! I faced some challenges this summer. I had some stuff going on in my personal life that made it really hard to concentrate, but by depending on God, I made it through and God still used me to do His work here in Vegas, mentoring youth and teaching them that God can do amazing things through them if they would just let Him.
Even though at some points I wanted to just give up, I didn’t because God is stronger than anything in my life or anything the enemy can throw at me. My theme verse for the summer was 2 Corinthians 12:8 “my grace is sufficient for you; my strength is perfected in your weakness.” This summer I grew so much in my character and in being fully dependent on God. I can’t wait to see what God shows me in this next season.

Student Testimonies...

“I liked the trip a lot. It helped me learn to witness to people. The trip helped me get out of my comfort zone because I usually don't talk to strangers as much. I felt like the trip changed me and helped me get closer to God. Overall it was a very nice experience and I hope to go on another mission trip soon.”
“I think the biggest lesson that I learned was just how much God loves us. I’ve always read about it and listened to sermons about it, but I don’t think I’ve ever experienced it as blatantly as I did during this trip with YWAM. This trip was such an amazing experience and I’ll always remember it.”
“When I went down to Las Vegas my life was changed forever I realized that my life was actually really good and I could make a difference in other people’s lives. I realized that I was actually living the good life compared to most. My experience in Vegas this summer helped me realize that not only other countries but our own needs help. God has put it in my life to talk to people I know and also those that I don’t know to help people as much as I can and bring as many to the lord as possible. I have been called to the Indonesian islands in the future and I believe that we are all called to missions where we live and we should never let anyone tells us not to do what God puts on us to do and this summer God has put more things on my heart than ever before and my life has changed drastically towards the strengthening of His kingdom here on earth.”

YWAM Las Vegas in the news!!!

2010-08-12T10:39:00.001-07:00

http://www.lvrj.com/news/las-vegas-council-to-consider-new-ordinance-for-fremont-street-99882139.html

look for me in the red hand band and the purple shirt by the prayer sign...

the closest thing to an angel...

2010-08-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

God is love, true love, all good things come from Him!. I am so amazed with Him and how much He loves me, truly loves me. He has compleeetly transformed my heart and my life. He has changed the old Brett who only thought about himself and lived life how he wanted into a humble man who lives to worship and serve and honor the God that saved him from destruction. God is also a father that loves to give his children good gifts. I have been blesed with the best gift a man could be given, a strong woman of God who loves me and wants to serve and live life for God alongside me. Her name is Sami Weakley and she is the most amazing woman I have ever met. God has redeemed her in amazing ways and I got to see some of it happen this last year. She came to Vegas to do a Discipleship school with YWAM. Shortly after she came, we became really good friends, always hung out and talked about anything. We even got in trouble a few times because we were hanging out alone which we weren't supposed to do. It was suggested that students don't date, especially staff because during discipleship it is a good idea to leave dating aside to put more focus on growing in God. This was hard for both of us as we both developed romantic feelings for each other. Then a few months later, so left to the middle East to teach English for a few months. During that time we talked everyday through email and learned more about each other and how to communicate. Then she came back for a week. We had the most amazing first kiss by a pond in a park and made things official. It was a bit stressful at first because there was things about our past that we discussed and worked through. It was a really good week because we were finally able to be together and not worry about getting into trouble because we were alone! But the week didn't last very long, soon she went home to Kansas City to work and raise support as she planned on coming back on staff with YWAM Las Vegas. This was a good season but a bit stressful as well as she didn't really know if she was for sure coming here on staff. About three weeks later she found out that she was for sure coming on staff which was a reliever for both of us. During this month and a half we communicated mostly through skype. It was a good time to learn to communicate verbally and to show love to eachother while being 2,000 miles apart. This was hard for both of us as we are both quality time, physical touch people. There were a few times when I really didn't communicate good and she was left feeling unloved and unappreciated. We decided to make a rule that we wouldn't let any argument big or small unfinished. So we worked through lots of stuff, some of it was really hard, but still to this day we have never left an argument unfinished. The season apart was winding down and I was getting excited for her to return so we could actually be around each other and hold eachother and start to live life together, you can only grow so much and learn so much about eachother over video chat. I met her at the airport with five tulips; her favorite flower. We hung out at the billagio and just walked around for a bit, catching up. The next few days up until today which is Monday; she flew in Wednesday...so it has been five days, have been really good. We went to redrock one morning, hung out at Fremont and went on an amazing lunch date and had the most amazing hamburgers. We have drank soda, made pasta, went on walks and stayed up late watching movies. I thought that we wouldn't have any mis-communications anymore since our relationship was now i"in person" but that was wrong. We have had arguments, and mis-communications about big and little things. We have both been stubborn at times, but we always come to a point where we share our feelings and hurts and comet to a place of forgiveness. This is the most honest and real and loving relationship with a person I have ever been in; nothing is swept under the rug, our emotions, feelings and struggles are brought into the light. I understand God's love for me more through this relationship. We both really love the triangle analogy; God is the top of the triangle and we are the ends, the closer we get to God, the closer we get to each other. We have seen this happen in our relationship so much so far and are both so excited to see how God uses our relationship to bless Him and reach the nations. Sami Weakley is the most amazing beautiful girl God has ever made and feel incredibly blessed that she is in my life. I am so undeserving of this gift, but am so grateful for Gods good gifts and provision. It is a good feeling not having the need to find love in a person because I have God's love which is the only true love. We both love each other with God's love, it isn't a love that we make up or try really hard to get, it comes naturally because we love with the love of the redeemer, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. He don't have to try to love each other because God shows us how to each day. When we are selfish or un-loving, God convicts us and shows us how to love each other. Thank you God for this amazing gift, continue to show me everyday how to love her with your love, how to think of her above my self and how to glorify and honor you through our relationship. Everything you have given us is for your glory and pleasure and not mine, thank you father.

Jesus

2010-08-03T13:58:00.001-07:00

Jesus!

water, hamburgers and sun burns

2010-06-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was really fun as well. William,this boy that lives next door...went to church with me. This is his second time, he seems to like it. Then we stopped by Taco Bell and we talked about the sermon. The sermon was about Grace and he really seemed to understand it...really smart kid. So then he came over to do some watercolor and play some pool and stuff, he liked that, we usually play basketball but it was just wayy to hot to be outside without water. SO then William and his 3 sisters Carmen, Vanessa, and Angie came with us staff to our BBQ that we had over at Sam's apartment. We did some swimming in the pool.That was lots of fun. I threw William quite a bit in the pool and showed off my strength.. After a couple of housrs of swimming we got out and ate some hamburgers and hot dogs. William and his sister Vanessa and Katie, Rich's daughter...really really wanted to go back to the pool. So I said..fiiine..really didn't want to, especially didn't want to get wet, but I went anyways because no one else would. SO they got in the pool and I stayed back and they kept trying to splash me and they kept trying to push me in the pool. Each of them kept getting out of the pool. Then all of a sudden..after like 30 minutes of them trying to do this, somehow they all got out of the pool at the same time and totally pushed me in the pool shirt and all!...Those kids, I wasn't really mad, I was pretty impressed, I really didn't think they'd get me in. It was a really good time. It was cool to have Carmen and Angie and Vanessa around other girls and mingle and stuff. We played 20 questions which apparently I play it wrong...I play it where you pick something and they got 20 questions to get it. The way they play I guess is you just ask someone 20 questions about themselves as a kinda get to know you game thing...I like my game better. I really love being a part of their family and I feel that party was a really important ingredient of ministering to their family. I have been hanging out with William a lot, and Carmen has been around our building volunteering for different things, but it was cool to have the whole family out, hopefully, God willing they will all come to church and youth group with me. The staff really liked how I am with the kids...I was like...well they are just really good kids and I love them. God has definitely given me a father heart. I have been the replacement for many young boys' life's..its one of the things I love to do and am really excited that my friendship with William is starting to have fruit. His dad is gone, in Central America..not sure if he is coming back, its a chance...but while he's gone I'm here. It is really cool that he is right next door. Literally he is like 5 feet from the base. It is really handy like now when I am really busy he can just pop in and say hi or I can find him outside playing basketball and bug him for a few minutes. I would hate to not be in his life everyday which I pretty much am. Thank God for the callings He puts on us. You give good gifts God!

first outreach of the summer!

2010-06-07T11:22:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was really crazy and full, but wayy awesome! Sam and Beth and I prepared an amazing spread for brunch including waffles, fruit, muffins and awesomeness...then we packed up and headed to red rocks for some intense sweaty hiking. I didn't really feel like goin to Church after a long day of hiking in the heat, but I felt it was right to go anyways and I 'm really glad I did. Pastor Johnathan talked about how God is way more concerned with our hearts than with our works. He gave the analogy of the pomegranate tree; how it takes them 4 years to produce any fruit. sometimes it is like that, we have so much growing to do that we don't have much to show for it for may years...what is more important is cleaning the inside of the cup than the outside.Anyways after that was evangelism which I kinda had a bad attitude about, but that went away quickly. Man that was an awesome time...Paul and I prayed for three people. I believe them to be exactly who we were supposed to talk to. The first guy was this guy named Mike, I have seen him before; he is a street preacher. He was holding a sign that said Hell is a bad place..something like that. Immediately I get a bad taste in my mouth about those guys because the seem self righteous, and sometimes are...but I really felt like I should just go pray for him. I was sooo good, I just told him what I do in the city and told him I was thankful for what he is doing and that I just wanted to bless his work here in the city and he prayed for me and Paul too. Paul then really wanted to go inside the casino at Bilaggio, so we walked around the gaming area for a bit. Paul found this guy who ended up being from Chile. I can't remember his name......anyways, he was really cool, a real pleasant guy, kinda weirded out that we would talk to him, he said people were so much nicer and respectful in America than his country...I was like....um.........ok...not sure if I would agree, but thanks..He told us he was Catholic and that He is mainly Catholic because his family is..but also because God is good. I think he really enjoyed talking to us, he kept thanking us for what we were doing and kept saying that there needs to be more people in Las Vegas like us, he was very edifying! Then we went off walking, walked to the other end of the Billagio past the atrium. It was really cool, because Paul saw this guy sitting by himself and he leaned over to me and said Brett I really think you are supposed to talk to that guy and I will pray for ya. There was one chair open to him and it might be a bit intimidating if two guys come up to him at once..anyways, I started a nice conversation up with him right away. Turns out he's from Kansas City, so we talked about Kansas for a while. Then he asked about what I do so I talked about YWAM and India which he struck interest in and had me write down our website and my email address. I talked about missions and things for like 10 minutes and then I asked him if he was a christian; which made the conversation turn really weird. He said he was a christian, but when I asked him what church he went to, he said he didn't belong to a church because he doesn't believe in it. He said he has seen too many preachers possessed by demons that he doesn't trust that the church. I tried to tell him what I thought about church and that for me church is for the edification of the believers. Everyone, including him, has something to offer to encourage and help others in their journey with Christ. He was talking about some Mormons and Muslims that were both good and bad. He said yes there are some that are possessed by demons, but there are some that are really devout and because they have never known anything else...they will go to heaven because of their dedication...even if they have never heard the good new, which really isn't what the bible says..but we got off that and I tried to encourage him to think about joining a church. He then started saying well maybe I should just start my own church. It could be that he was being sarcastic, but I wouldn't know because I don't understand sarcasm..I was like yeah sure, and he was like maybe you should be my assistant pastor, I was like...well I don't have the pastoral gifting, at least not right now. Then he was like well maybe we can have a bar and slot machines in this church, and I was like..well sure if that's what God is doing sure.. Then he pulled out some verse from 2 Timothy..he asked me if i knew it, I said I had read it which is true because I have read the whole new testament many times. h was like..oh I'm testing your biblical knowledge...which is funny because I looked the verse up later and there is no chapter 5 in 2 Timothy..ha..jokes on him!!! It is 1 Timothy 5:23 which says " no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequencies infirmities..basically his point was that if you just focus on that verse, they you can do whatever..but that's not really the point of the verse because it is for their physical health, not to get drunk and whatever..but I did agree with him that if you focus on any one verse or part of the bible and hold it over any other parts, it becomes religious which more man made than God made..which isn't really what God wants. Anyways, it ended OK and he thanked me before he left, didn't let me pray for him, but I think he enjoyed the conversation and I did too. Usually when I get into more of a debate rather than just a chill conversation, I get a bit flustered. This time, I was really consumed by God's peace and didn't let frustrations get the best of me. I hope Ed emails me and I get to pour truth into him more. The coolest part of this outreach was that me and Paul were used equally. I picked out the first guy and we both prayed for him. He picked out the second guy and we both talked to him and prayed for him. Then He picked out Ed and I talked to him. I love the tag-team aspect of it...me and Paul were a great team, that doesn't always happen, but it's so good when it does. Then to top it all off I saw my friend Ronoldo in the bathroom at the Billagio, he is the bathroom attendant. I always talk to him and give him whatever cash I have, which isn't ever much, but he is really appreciative. I always ask him how he is doing and he always says ..no good..not very much tips...so I like to bless him..good guy, he's from the Philippines...really nice guy!

summer...........!!! I love Jesus

2010-06-03T18:18:00.000-07:00

its soo hot..but thank God for good clean water!!! So the summer staff has arrived and are amazing. I am really looking forward to what God does through us all. Today is our team building day, we spent a couple hours at the park being blindfolded and trying to recite one through ten in alphabetical order. It was much fun, many laughs shared and also some serious bonding. I am hoping to grow in my confidence in the Authority I have in Jesus in all areas...not just with the students and on the strip but around the staff and to my friends and family. I know that by dying to myself, Christ lives in me, giving me the power and Authority of Christ. Sometimes I let my self doubts or my anxiety take control and I don't end up doing anything. I'm sick of taking baby steps back and forth. I am ready to do some serious growing in the lord this summer. Pleas pray for me as I struggle through this journey.

tacos and revelations

2010-03-16T18:37:00.000-07:00

So I was walking around the neighborhood with our college group that is here this week, doing community outreach where we just bless the neighborhood in whatever way whether that be by pulling out neighbor's weeks, praying for people or just praying for churches. We talked to Bishop Macintosh in his little store that sells odds and ends groceries like cereal, crackers and soda. I met him last week but got a weird vibe...I kinda looped him in with the other christians in the neighborhood that have church once a week in our neighborhood to feel good about themselves and then go home to their comfortable homes. He was telling our group how he grew up just a few blocks down and how God saved him from drugs so now he is a bishop at a church and he has this not for profit store that he serves the community with. He owns 6 houses that he turned into drug rehab houses, they can stay as long as they want..one guy has been there for 9 years. He is a super cool guy and it really imacted my group. They saw how devistated our neighborhood is and were questioning, as do I, what are all of these 37 churches doing here...there should be peace and love sweeping through the streets instead of despair, greed and lust. So I prayed for forgiveness that I had judged him, its cool to see people really loving on and serving our community. I want to go there every week and buy a taco there and build relationship with him, and maybe YWAM will be able to partner with him and his church to serve our community together. Everything he quoted was strait from the bible..super legit which astounded me to find in this neighborhood. I told him that I will bring by all of our groups by to meet him. When I got home I read 1st corinthians 4:5 which allined with my feelings,it says: so be careful not to jump to conclusions before the Lord returns as to whether or not someone is faithful. Forgive me god for judging this honest loving man of being selfish and lazy.

craziness gospel and trams

2010-03-12T19:51:00.000-08:00

God is good. I don’t even really know what happened today, but that God moved in amazing ways that I’m not sure anyone can describe. So we had our full day of 3 outreaches today. After the second one we had supper and then debriefed after supper. It was a great debrief; there was a female student., Mary that really made some emotional leaps and bounds. She was able to bring to the group personal issues that were holding her back this afternoon. After many tears and like 25 minutes, we got through it as a team. I have never seen such a tight nit group so willing to carry each other’s burdens and help each other through whatever they are dealing with. The last outreach was just normal 2x 2’s where you just go out with a partner and go show them Jesus. I went with Meg and Val. Val really wanted to give some socks to a friend that she had made earlier in the week, chris who was homeless. We got there and after seeing he wasn’t there, we prayed right in the spot that we met him in earlier that week. While I was praying that God would show us who we were supposed to minister to…Val slugged me on the shoulder and there was Chris. We were able to give him socks and pray for him, he’s a super cool guy. He is a Christian who has been down on his luck the last few years after he lost his job and wife at the same time. Then we rode up and down the tram between casinos for a while, met some nice people, at one point got stuck on a tram and just got to know everybody, it was a cool experience. What put a capstone on the night for me was meeting our hitchhiking friends Tim and Cory from Reno. They had traveled all the way to Texas and were on their way back to Reno. We had similar taste in music so we talked about that for a while, then I prayed for them. I didn’t feel like I should go yet even though we were running out of time. I asked them what they thought of religion and they said the didn’t really know what they believed. So I layed out the gospel, who was Jesus and why He had to die. He was so receptive. I felt really blessed that I got to share that with them. I have had kinda a rough week of evangelism just because leading weeks its kinda hard for me to talk to people on my own because I am busy ministering to the kids. But this week I had less responsibility being less students, but I feel like I haven’t really taken advantage of that all week. Anyhow, we got back to debrief, by this time it is like midnight. We talk about our experiences, all of a sudden, one of the leaders, Holly, starts laughing hysterically, then laughing right after. She expressed that she didn’t talk to anybody the whole time because she was having a rough time emotionally. She wanted to feel God in a deeper way. She felt like she had been sharing that God was a certain way all week, but hadn’t actually felt Him in that way. We all really admired her courage and vulnerability as a leader to express this doubt that she experienced…not many leaders would do that. Woww….what a great night!!

rewards and gifts

2010-03-11T00:13:00.000-08:00

so Rich was teaching on missions today and he said this thing that has totally resinated and stuck with me all day and it is cool because I have been thinking about this for like the last month. So he said that the more we do, the more blessings and rewards we get in heaven which I have heard allot and never fully understoon. Why is it right to work towards having rewards in heaven, we should serve God because He first loved us and because He is worthy, not to get rewards. But then he said the reason why we should do this is so that we can lay then down at Jesus'feet in heaven. How cool is it to come to the thown with a ton of rewards that he has given you and then to lay them back at his feet to show our love back to Him. I have never really though of it that way. And then tonight the team did a chapel service at the rescue mission and during the worship I asked some of the women to dance. One of the ladies thanked me for dancing with me, she said she had allot of fun and that when she came in she ached all over her body, but after we danced, she felt no pain..I was like..wwhhaaaa..yess...Praise God!! He is so good...it;s cool because I have been dancing allot more lately, I have always loved it, but lately I have really been getting into it and kinda feel like it is a gift from God. And this experience shows me that maybe it is an anointing that God is going to use to bless people and bring back lost sheep to Him...exciting!!!

Mission Adventures 2010 week 2!

2010-03-05T18:29:00.001-08:00

so, we just had 61 crazy kids from scotsdale Christian Academy come through for a mission Adventures week. It was so hectic with that many people, plus they were here for one less day as usual which means we had to cram everything together, pretty much no free time. I learned so much from these kids. Their faith was stonger than I have ever seen in kids that age, even for being rich kids. There were a few of them that I became best friends with, I invented a game called awkard neck tag where you rub your neck on another dude when you hug him sneakily, they loved that soo much! I was so impressed with the stories they would come back with. We do an outreach called five dollars acts of obedience where we take them to a mall and give them five bucks and tell themt o ask God what to do with it. One pair of kids, we always pair them together like Jesus did in the bible, bought a locked necklace thing and gave it to a lady that opperated the carousel, it made her cry. They prayed for her as she said she was leaving in a few weeks. Another group met a lady at a kiosk and bought here a smoothie. She wondered why and they said because they love her because God loves her. Most of the students loved the surveys. I was with a couple kids on their first survey. We talked to a guy named Phil who was really against christianity. He knew that there was a higher power but refused to call it God. His deal was he had seen so much hipocracy and bad stuff in christianity that it was hard for him to view christianity as a good thing. In his eyes, religion is something that you hide behind when you want to do something but not take responsibility for it because it was done int he name of religion. He was a really friendly guy from scotland...cool accent..but he would hardly let me talk...I tried to explain to him that no matter what people do, that doesn't mean that God isnt still good. People sometimes will do things in the name of God but it isnt actually for God, it is for themselves. Then Lauren stepped in and said that she couldnt explain why God is real or why He loves her or why He is so good to us, but that she knows for a fact that He is and that was enough for her. She is a changed, new person because of Jesus. When she was talking, he seemed to shutup and not butt in..Afterwards I was like, well you guys dont need me..they defenetly could handle themseleves and they did..they had like 5 other great surveys that night. Im a little sad that I didnt get to know these kids as well as I could have due to being busy and trying to figure out my role in MA. I have came to the conclusion that my role is kinda the personable person that gets to know the students and adds an energy to the group. God has gifted me with allot of engery and a personality that allot of people can get close to. They all ended up being my best freinds. I got hugs, not normal hugs, but saying goodbye to your bestfiend hugs from pretty much each student this morning, which makes it all worth it. Our friends from the Church of the Way, whichis a church that a few staff go to, Steph and Deb, led worship like three times this week. It was some great holy spirit worhip...anyhow, Steph is really gifted in the prophetic. I was talking to them about how the Holy Spirit is so needed to lead the week or we are all skrewed and have nothing. When I was done talking she just spits out...Brett everyone loves you!!! and i was like...uh thanks..and she was like...Brett God has given you the ability to relate to allot of people, make them feel comfortable, make them laugh and just have a good time. She said it was because of my child like heart... I like dumb jokes..which apparently most of these kids didnt thing was funny..but they still loved me..and i like plaing with bouncy balls and think farts are funny. I never really thought about it I guess. But that helps allot to figure out who I am and what my role is in MA. Sam is the teacher/ explains God in a very learnable way, Beth is the organized one and I am the korky funny weird one..it works, praise God! We also had help form the disicpleship training school this week...4 staff and 5 staff, great help, it was great to see them ministering to the students. They really helped out allot, lead small groups, and just got to know the kids, I am so thank ful for them. Please pray for more short term staff this spring and summer to partner with us and help us minister to kids and bring them to the next step in their spiritual journey. Well that is enough ranting...k bye

giving party!!

2010-02-24T10:19:00.000-08:00

Man...I am still in shock with what God is doing. Last night we had a giving party with YWAM. The speaker this week for the DTS, Ben, led us out in this thing where we either prayed beforehand what to bring to give and who to give it to or to respond to god if He ptompted us to give something. My heart was a little hardened to it just because I feel awkward with giving and I was also having a little doubt that God would speak to me. I really wanted God to speak to me and use me to bless someone, but I didn't know what or who. So I prayed about every little specific thing that I own, which isn't much, but didn't feel peace about anything. so the night went on, people gave things and cried and it was amazing. God knows our heart so well that He knows exactly what we need and also how to touch our hearts. He did that last night. Andrea got like 3 cameras, one normal digital camera and two nice professional cameras. God just wanted to bless her that night even outside her need. People's outreach fees got paid, words of encouragement were given, it was beautiful. I actually had previously that day asked God for two things, a computer and an IPOD. Well I got the computer, Sami gave me her laptop..strait up...I have never owned a computer. Man I can't even express and coundn't then either, I said if I could cry I would have then. Then throughout the night, Bethany B gave me 2 blank canvases, Joshua gave me a glass chess set, Kenny gave me a Juggernaut he siad that he said represented that nothing could hold me back, through God I can go through anything. God then laid it on my heart to bless Kenny with my green racket ball that I bought a few weeks ago that I play with allot. When I was in my room looking for the ball, I remembered that previously that day I had knocked off my reflector off my bike, so I grabbed it along with the ball and went back even though I wasn't quite sure why I was giving him either of them. As I presented him with the two itemss I told him the ball was God telling him that He wanted him to be totally obsessed with him as I have an unhealthy obsession with balls...i play with them allot, I always have one around, become attatched to them so much that I am destraut and mad when I loose them. And the reflector meant that God wants to reflect that closeness to him to all the world. The whole night was the most I have felt God in a long time, I was beautiful, I can't even discribe it. So the night ended and people went to bed and such. I got up this morning early, went to Starbucks with Sam and Beth to meet about next week, I busted out the new laptop to take notes on. I got home an was playing on my computer and Trisha walks in with a big smile on her face and says I need to give you something that I was supposed to give you last night but didn't She opens up her hand and inside is an Ipod! I couln't even believe it. I have been wanting an Ipod as my MP3 player broke like 3 months ago and haven't been able to listen to music while I bike or anything. So yeah, basically God is good, God loves me, God loves you, we are his children and He just wants to bless us.

J.....,

2010-02-22T00:59:00.000-08:00

so, I met this dude named J...., the other night in the bathroom at a local piano bar that me and my friends go to occasionaly. I was using the urinal and he almost peed on my because he didnt see me as he was drunk. He then struck up a 20 minute convrsation about how he was gay and he doesn't want to be, he has tried everything to not be gay...but he has given up' he just is not attracted to girls. He said he grew up mormon, he still claimed to be mormon even though he was gay. I asked him if I could share my view on homosexuality after I told him that I was a christian and he said yes. I told him that I see it as anything we are faced with: depression, anxiety, lack of self worth as obsticles that we have the option of over coming or not. We all have issues and problems and we either have the choice to accept them as a part of ourselves or not. I wanted to share more and help him understand that Jesus loves him no matter what; but he asked me whether I thought being gay was right or wrong and I had to tell him it was wrong. And he said that was his main reason for not liking the christian church...It is hard for me to tell people that I think they are wrong, I love people and would hate to sound at all judgemental. His friend texted him to go back because she was alone so he left and went to sit down and me and my friends left. We went to another bar next door but felt compelled to ask him if he wanted to come to church with me so I walked back over to that bar. I assured him that our church would accept him and love him but he passed. Then his friend basically kicked me out of their table..." I'm not going to have any of that bible talk"..is what she said..It sucked because I feel like he thinks I judged him, but I just wanted to show him love, true love, Christ's love. I pray that God will work on his heart and that He will come to know true love.

Faith in His faithfulness

2010-02-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was handed in cash $100 from a close friend and then another $40 from a friend from church. I was beginning to get a little worried about where I would get money for some things coming up including a road trip with some friends to Denver. I just had to laugh at the amount of $40 because that is the amount that I payed YWAM a few days ago for gas money that I owed. I was skeptical about paying it because I still needed some money for rent and such. So yeah, God is good. He takes care of flowers and birds, it just doesn't make sense that He wouldn't take care of us. But first before He provides we have to humble ourselves and be true to our word even if we don't know where provision will come from.

Art In Motion

2010-01-18T18:01:00.001-08:00

So yesterday we made art with some neighborhood kids for a couple hours. It was my second time holding the Art In Motion program in our neighborhood. Right now because of my scheduling I am only doing it every six weeks or so. Yesterday I think went well. There were around 11 volunteers and 14 kids that were involved in making art. We did most of the same projects like last time including, mask making, marble/ tennis ball art, random art making and we all collaborated together to make a big mural like last time. This time the picture was a birg riding a bycycle. I was super pleased with how the mural turned out, pastels donated to us from a local art store were used this time for the mural, which is one of the variables for the good turnout. The kids and volunteers really got creative, I was impresed. We also had some really cool masks turn up. The kids were really hyperactive this time, for whatever reason and it was really hard to control them and keep them involved. Most of the boys resorted to playing catch half way through, which was alright because they included William, a neighbor kid that I sometimes play catch with. It was a little frustrating for me that they kept playing football, I wanted them to make more art, but at least they had fun. Hopefully, through this art happening, we will build strong relations with the kids and give them something to look forward to, grow from and have fun with.

Jon Burgerman

2009-12-23T04:41:00.000-08:00

http://www.jonburgerman.com/Work/category/2d_work/

Kenny

2009-12-20T00:40:00.000-08:00

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.

A beginning to a beginning beginning

2009-12-09T11:31:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-08-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

2009-08-13T14:40:00.001-07:00

June 28

2009-08-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

June 28th..ish
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!

2009-08-13T11:59:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

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.