Good day my fellow saints!
I pray all is well with whomever is reading this post. Your boy is doing Tony the Tiger greaaatttt over here in Ethiopia!!! It feels so good to just blend and not be stared at like I’m an alien for the first time in 9 months. Well kind of, they stare at me when I go into the villages due to my rather large ISIS beard but I’m okay with that!!! I can get them to show all 32 teeth by either doing a smooth wink or doing a “wassup” head nod (they like this move and I like it even more because they break their neck trying to do it back because they’ve never done it before). Or when I’m really feeling called to love one of the men, I do a Ethiopian traditional handshake by us double or even triple tapping our shoulders together. Any whom, we are serving at HopEthiopia this month! Check out their website if you get a chance! It was founded by a great Canadian visionary named Ralph. We were blessed with an opportunity to be with him the first week before he had to head back to Canada. That man is a dreamer. He instilled a whole different level of believing in our God given dreams within the entire squad. This place is special. God has spoken to just about everyone in regards to their Kingdom Dream. I’m so glad your interested in wanting to hear about my dream!! Here is my Kingdom Dream:
So over the last four months I’ve been praying that God gives me the desires of my heart (Psalm 37:4). And what a freaking surprise, He answered my prayer! So before that prayer, my dream was to be a international speaker/pastor. I wanted to spread the message of the power of dreaming big but praying even bigger. I’ve always had a heart for young boys and men so I wanted to create a create a discipleship ministry for my fellas. Well now God has shifted the dream just a little bit. Do I still have the gift and desire to be a public speaker? You’re darn right I do. The feeling I get before I speak in front of any audience is a feeling that’s indescribable. Almost as if God created me just for this. My purpose. However, I no longer glorify to be on a large platform like I once did. I realized that we live in a society where everyone wants to be known and #1. Now He’s given me the heart to just want to hear “well done my good and faithful servant.” when I’m kneeling in front of here during Judgment Day. Whether he’s calling me to give up my sandwich to give to the Ethiopian van driver, or speak to a thousand men, I will do it with a loving heart and to the best of my ability to glorify Christ. Also my dream is to empower men to develop an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ by standing shoulder to shoulder living out God’s Word. He has given me a strong desire for the biblical Church. Not the church of entertainment, but the church that is called to love his or her neighbor like God loves them. Not the church that is all about membership, but the church that’s all about going out into their community and making disciples. Loving on the people that the world sees as less than. Just what if the American church didn’t have to have a famous guest artist or pastor come just for people to swarm into the church doors. What if all of the members including the holiday members came just to get on their knees to praise God? Imagine a church that just gets lost in prayer and doesn’t worry about the Sunday football game after 90 minutes of sitting twiddling their thumbs in the pews. I’ve realized the American church as a whole has a consumer faith. We go to church to get fat off of the Word, but we don’t exercise our faith throughout the week. When’s the last time you’ve seen a random person at the grocery store praying for someone? Or overheard a Christian talking about about what they learned in church to a waitress at Sunday brunch? Or better yet, see a Christian choose not to go out for Sunday brunch but instead sacrifice that money to buy a loaf of bread and peanut butter to make sandwiches for the homeless? All of this is biblical. It’s what God has called us to do. To not just be hearers of the Word but doers of the Word. Now, imagine a group of men activating their faith in their community and across the world. That’s exactly what I am going to do when I get home. Get my bros to come together as one. Read the Word together. Do the Word together. Worship together. Pray together. Love together. Dream together. Laugh together. Cry together. Go out into the community and show people what Christ looks like together. I know without a shadow of a doubt that God is going to reveal Himself not only to my bros that don’t truly know Him, but to the people we are going encounter. Imagine what God can do with just five ol average young men that are devoted to prayer, love, His Word, and the dependency upon the Holy Spirit. Forget the worship team. Forget depending on the pastor to feed us the Word on Sunday. Forget waiting on the once a month homeless outreach team. Forget all the 21st century fancy entertainment to share the Gospel. Now remember how Jesus Christ chose the 12 to model what it means to love the prostitute. To love the less fortunate. To love widows and orphans. To love the prisoners. They didn’t need a $100,000 venue and the top Christian artists to gather people across the country to worship God. All they did was show supernatural love to a world that has never experienced God’s love. My dream is to activate God’s Word with just a small group of men at a time so they can not only experience the power of Jesus Christ, but their family and a world that is watching them can experience it as well.
I just want to encourage everyone I talk to truly be doers of the word. Including myself!!! We can always grow in loving our neighbor like Christ loves us!!!!
I love y’all,
Chocolate Man
