Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

Let me start by telling you a little story about how awesome God is.  Doing the Word Race has allowed us learn so much about how God interacts with us and has given me the ability to actually recognise it.  This happened in Nicaragua, several of my teammates have been reading Isaiah and it gave me a desire to read more of the old testament.  I had the desire to read Nehemiah, so I started reading it and bam God spoke (it was not audible).  He showed me through his word that we were going to be doing construction for our Ministry in Nicaragua.  I was pretty excited that God had revealed something to me, but I didn’t tell anyone I just wrote it down because this isn’t normal for me and what if it didn’t come true.  Well sure enough we get to Nicaragua and what is our ministry, building an adobe house!  I get to tell my team what God had shown me and that we were right where we are supposed to be, but God wasn’t done yet.  We went to our new church the next day and painted on the front wall is the globe with Nehemiah 2:18 written on it.  Nehemiah 2:17-18 are the exact verses that had stood out to me, that we were to be building and doing a good work.  Holy confirmation, we are so blessed to be exactly were God wants us doing exactly what He had planned.  We are working with Pastor David, an amazing joyful man of God, cleaning up the community and helping build houses.  It isn’t going to be an easy month. We are living with all 50 people doing manual labor in the hot sun while walking 3km just to get to our worksite and then home again.  But what an opportunity to be God’s hands and feet, knowing He truly does have a purpose.

(this is a picture of the church's wall)

So I have finished reading Nehemaih and have decided that I want to be like him!  Nehemiah was a man of conviction and character.  He was raised in the courts of the King of Persia, he grew up to be the cupbearer for the King.  He was a man of great stature, but he left all of it when we heard about the terrible state Jerusalem was in.  He knew God has more for his people and wanted more from them, and he was not going to sit idly by while the situation got worse.  

This is what we need in America is men who know God’s best and aren’t willing to sit by and watch the decay and degradation of our country.

There have been multiple times on the race already when Jenn has confronted me about seeing others not being all that God has created them to be and standing up to the highest standard and my first reaction is that it’s not my problem or that it isn’t that big of a deal.  Well, no more, I want to be a man of character and conviction, I want to be like Nehemaih.   I am learning what it means to be a leader and to be a man of God.  Before starting the race, I would tell you that I hated confrontation, I was ok with the concept of just minding my own business and let others handle things between them and God.  Since starting the Race I have learned what it means to walk in community more and to be a true brother in Christ.  That means to not let others get away with less than God’s standard to call people into the person God created them to be, to see Christ in them and know they are greater than the choices they are making.  When you know you love them and God loves them it enables you to speak truth and not stand by while your brothers and sisters continue to stumble or cause others to stumble.  

Pray for our growth in Christ, this is going to be a huge month for our entire squad!  we are going to have many opportunities to choose selflessness and honor others.