I have read two books so far this month. I have to say that this is pretty cool since I don’t claim to be a fast reader at all. It is cool to see what God is doing in ‘my’ life while on the World Race. I have become a person that believes that the things that come, by the Holy Spirit, to me through The Word are just as credible as someone who has a degree in theology. I discovered that through reading a book by A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, that I can fully believe what I learn and understand from the Bible. This is a huge revelation because I have always thought that to be “educated” was the only way to fully know something.
Tozer taught me to “live in the presence.” The Holy Spirit is something that is with me always, something that I have been baptized into. It is not something that is an “experience“. I am not only in the presence of the Almighty when I am worshipping or praying or fasting. Those are times when I have my ear maybe more fine tuned to the correct FM station but God is real and really here…all the time. Even the times that I don’t “feel” Him, he is still there. How awesome a realization for me is it to say that I know the God of everything, my God, is with me always and not just when I recognize it.
I also learned that to be fully in God is to fully abandon self. Self-pity, self-pride, self-worth. I am not good at this one. These are things that America instills in us from a very young age, that we have certain “rights“. I want to say that the only right I have is to love God and love others. I don’t have the right to believe that I didn’t get what I deserve. God has blessed me with an awesome family and support system. Now it is my turn to give all that away because I am called to love others, NOT myself. I am not saying that I am worthless, I am saying that I have realized that the only righteousness that I have comes from God, and He thought enough of me to send His Son to die for me. He would have still died if it was only me. And if that was the only reason (its not) I have enough reason to just “Love God and Love others“. Do I fully understand what this looks like in my life, no, but I am so ready to try and find out.
I want to have a radical faith that is bold and knows no boundaries. I want to be “in the will of God” no matter where that is. I want to live like a barbarian for Jesus (the second book that I have read this month is The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus) I believe that faith in Jesus is all I need to go or be where and who I am supposed to be. I don’t have to live like anyone else. I can be the person that God has created me to be and through that follow God like a mad man. I want to be a violent man for God. (Matthew 11:12) I am striving for the faith to go when called and to say what needs to be said to and love like he loves me. wow. Again I don’t fully realize what this looks like in my life, but I am now on the warship to find out.
This month has been great. It has been hard but great. We are at an orphanage in Malaybalay, Mindanao, Philippines. Our main goal is to make a soccer field. We drive about an hour away, past the Dole banana plantation, to a sugar can farm where we harvest (read: dig up) grass. We then bring that back to our location and dig a hole and put a 3 inch by 3 inch square of this grass in said hole after putting fertilizer (read: chicken poo) in the hole first. We will have dug a few thousand of these holes by the time that it is over.
We are also making sure that we are staffing the orphanage 24 hours a day. There are 21 children that live here from infants to teens. Most between the ages of 6 and 10. There are only 4 girls and the rest are boys. They are a handful to say the least. Most of them understand english and this is helpful. I need to give props to my teammate Zeb for doing a bible study with the kids everyday and most days twice a day.
Another task that we are working on is building a part of a building that will be a parsonage for Pastor Larry and his wife Belen and their children. It will be cool to see pictures in the future of what that looks like. We have been tasked with finishing one of the sections of the house and other World Race teams will finish it.
So far this month I have discovered what it looks like to work when you don’t want to and it glorify God. I realized that I will not be the same when I come home, and that is a good thing, and that God will be my guide forever, also a good thing.
I love you all,
Cody
