This month has been a strange journey for me. this month was manistry month, that means that all the dudes on my squad got together and formed a team for the month. Now what do you think when you hear manistry? I think of dudes doing hard construction work getting the feeling of being a man. And as far as I know that’s what world race suggest to our host. So I came into this month expecting hard heads and calluses.
But that isn’t what I got, I did get calluses but I wasn’t met with hard hardness. Now if this month wasn’t about being a man what was it about? Well it was my leaders vision to step away from our bible and all of the stuff we use to “connect” with God. He wanted it to look like the early church. What did the early church have? well the didn’t have sermons on YouTube, Christian books, or even the bible. They did have access to letters from Paul though. so my leader hand wrote the book of Galatians out in letter form, No chapters, No verses. We sat down studied the letter alot, commonly as an group. I can honestly say I never understood a single part of the bible better. What did ministry look like though for this month of being with dudes?
well every morning at 9:30 we would sit down with our hosts Tim and holly for 2 or more hours and just talk about real things and struggles it was a give and take type cvonversation where all parties would benefit. After that we did a series of different things from working at an orphanage to paneling a wall inside their house. we commonly broke up into 3 or 4 teams. Joel was in charge of painting at the orphanage, colby was with Tim doing the wood the paneling inside, I was in charge of a team tearing up concrete pads and building a fence, Conner was in charge of making and editing videos for Tim. So why was this month strange for me? sounds pretty basic right. I mean sure there are things that are super cool and are different from most months, But that’s not why this month was strange for me. Well for that I have to go back to Chile.
The last month in Chile God started walking me through journey and an area of growth that hurt and broke me. I took alot of time to myself that month. He started giving me freedom from my past. Then during our week long debrief in between countries he told me that he wanted me to give away what he’s been walking me through. Now for the people who don’t know me and don’t know where I’ve come from I HATE vulnerability. especially in something God just started walking me through. So. What did I do? What could I do? Disobey God (which has never gone good for me) or obey God. Obviously I’m going tf o obey God. The thing is that he was calling me to vulnerability that maybe 3 people on the planet knew. None of them was anybody in the U.S ethier.
I hated that but he told me that he didn’t want us wasting time playing little church games acting like we were all okay. We arrived on a Tuesday night and the next night I obeyed… I SAW THE IMMEDIATE FRUIT OF IT. The vulnerability I walked into allowed others to be completely vulnerable as well. I saw people find freedom from they’re past, Find God again, And know Love. And for me God walked me through so so much. I have found so much freedom. I have heard God’s voice more constantly then ever before, But also have been attacked by the enemy more than ever before. For awhile it was constant every hour But so was God’s voice. I planted my flag and started fighting, But the journey God’s been walking me through since training camp is depending on his strength and not mine.
So I begged God to plant his flag and fight on my behalf so he did. When my flag got pushed back and I lost ground the Lord’s flag stayed strong and steady. I have seen God in past parts of my life I frankly excepted I would never find God. So why has this month been so strange for me? because I have found SO MUCH FREEDOM. If I’m being honest it scares the hell out of me. WHY? because I’m scarred what God has next for me. God has given me so much freedom and that makes me think he has something big in store for me coming up. I guess that all I can do is wait and see what’s next.
Thanks for reading this blog I am only about $1,000 dollars from being fully funded. I get between 600 to 1,000 reads per blog so if each one of you would donate jus t one dollar then I would be fully funded I beg you for your help please don’t delay. thank you for reading. I have alot of blogs written and I am working on two v-logs right now so catch y’all next time.
