Being Sick

I haven’t posted for a while, but part of that has to do with me being sick, and starting work.  This past week I started training at the Hartford, but had a sore throat, runny nose, cough, and pink eye.  Yeah, I was a real treat to be around.  But after moping around for a while, I realized how dumb I was being.  I was reminded of  David Brainerd, a guy Charlie talked about in one of his Skool Klass talks.  To the layperson, Brainerd lived a real difficult life.  He was always sick, throwing up blood and all sorts of other great conditions, had little to no warmth during the cold winter months, all while ministering to a group of people that he struggled to love.  Oh, and did I mention that he died at a young age?

And yet through all that, Brainerd persevered and considered to minister.  And here I am complaining about some sniffles and some goofy looking eyeballs.  I was reminded again how little I believe in the privilege mentality.  I think I deserve perfect health all the time.  But I was never promised health, and who am I to think that being healthy would also make me happy?  I was given all I needed when Jesus died for me, and because of that, I have the promise of eternity.  I would say that once I realize that, this sickness seems like nothing.

Reading Fiction

Lately I have been reading the Circle Series by Ted Dekker, which is an excellent three book series I am reading for the second time.  I am reading them again partly because they are very good, and partly because Dekker has written a fourth book for the series, entitled Green, so I want to refresh my memory.

I highly recommend these books because Dekker has the ability to intertwine the Gospel within these fiction tales.  For someone like me, who so often becomes cold to the Gospel message, a book like this not only reminds me of how powerful the message is, but truly how much I am loved.  These books are not only entertaining at face value, because Ted Dekker is such an excellent writer, but because it paints the Gospel message in a new in different way which stirs the affections in my heart for Jesus.

For me, reading Christian nonfiction all the time just doesn’t work.  I don’t get excited for Jesus as I should.  But having some variety in my reading is awesome!  It allows me to be reminded of the power of the Gospel in many different ways, which is something that I suggest you try.

Ahhh…Sleep

So lately I have been reading CJ Mahaney’s book “Humility: True Greatness,” and have been struck by a number of things, one of which was his discussion of sleep.

Never before have I given much thought to sleep, it was always just one of those things you did when you were tired, hopefully getting enough so you were ready to go the next day.  If you got enough sleep you were generally in a good mood, and a lack of sleep often led to being somewhat crabby. While he provides many good thoughts on the subject, I think the next paragraph or two are helpful:

“The fact is, God could have created us without a need for sleep.   But He chose to build this need within us, and there’s a spiritual purpose for it.  Each night, as I confront my need again for sleep, I’m reminded that I’m a dependent creature.  I am not self-sufficient.  I am not the Creator.  There is only One who ‘will neither slumber nor sleep’ (Psalm 121:4), and I am not that One.

“Sleep is a gift, but it’s a humbling one.  It’s a matter of only hours, at most, before you’re ready to again receive God’s gift of sleep.”

What a great thought, and something I hope to incorporate into my daily life.  Simply being thankful for sleep can help in your process of learning humility.  So what about you, are you thankful for sleep?

The Job Search

Boy it has been a long time since I’ve done this blog thing, but I was encouraged by my roomie Drewbie, who by the way now has his own blog (check it out at drewkirch@wordpress.com).  After getting back from project I was able to spend a little time at home with the fam, and now am back up in the Cities looking for a job.

I have the opportunity to look for a job now that I’m graduated, and boy, is it a sanctifying experience.   I see how much I lack in trusting that God will provide for me.  I think I should receive a job on my time table, with exactly the hours I want and the pay I think I deserve.  But I have slowly, and I mean slowly, begun to learn that God is not held to my sinful, human time table.  I am becoming more aware of the fact that my time table is not nearly as good as I would like to think, and go dtruly does know what’s best for me, even in a frustrating job search.

So if you think of me, toss up a prayer, because I want to continue to trust that God’s timing is perfect, and mine is not.

Less than a Month

It’s amazing to think that there is less than a month left of Project. My last post I mentioned the church we attend burning down, an d how crzy that was.  While it looks like the church will have to be completely rebuilt, the response by the members of the church has been incredibly encouraging.  Last week, just hours after the fire, the pastor spoke on how God is sovereign and good in all circumstances, and how the church can use this experience to minister to those around them!  Talk about encouraging.

This past week was a busy one for me, as the India team came down for a week, started planning for my team’s week this upcoming week, and gave my first talk at evangelism training.  If you have any interest, you can either listen to the talk at the SBP Blog or search ‘Summer Beach Project’ on Itunes.  Also please watch the Matt Chandler clip I shared at evangelism training that is on the blog, I think it is definitely worth while. While I was nervous to begin, I grew more confident as I continued, and truly enjoyed it.  Myself and one other team leader, Jack, dropped the India team off at the Charleston Airport this morning, and they will fly to India this coming Wednesday.  It was great to have them at the Project for a while, and they will be truly missed!

This next week looks like it is going to be pretty busy, with my team in charge of the week, giving my second talk on Wednesday and a lot of other necessary tasks.  I’m excited for it, but also prayer would be greatly appreciated so I don’t get too stressed.  Hopefully I will have a chance to update my blog during the week, but if not, I hope to get to it asap.

Prayer for our Church

Please be in prayer for the church that a couple of our teams go to, Garden City Baptist Church, because there was a fire there this morning.  I don’t know a lot of details, but here is a link for the story describing what is known.

Pray for the church congregation, leadership of the church, and the surrounding community, that through this the church can reach to non-believers.  I will pass on more info when it becomes known to me.

The Privilege of Wal-Mart

The other day at Wal-Mart was hard.  I spent most of it in the dairy cooler scrubbing and scraping the floors under the milk section of the cooler.  In my mind, it was bad.  The smell was bad, I had to get down on my knees, and I smoked my head a couple of times on the metal racks above.

But the Lord was patient with me and reminded me a number of times (like 30 or 40 at least) that it was a privilege to be scraping up milk drips.  I don’t deserve.  Intstead, I deserve to be burning in hell, but fortunately we have a gracious God who rescued us from hell by sending His son to die on the cross.  It was because of anything we did, but because He, yes He, the God of the universe, loved us!  Cripes, after thinking through that, I had no place to complain.

So please be praying that I can continually remind myself of that in a day in, day out basis.  I need Jesus!  Also be praying for us as leaders because staff left today, so now we are running the project.  Pray that we will be able to hold short accounts of sin, lead well, and think for others above ourselves.  It’s a little scary, but very exciting.  One other thing you can be praying for is the India team, who comes down this weekend, and will be here for a little over a week.  Pray that they will have a productive time!  Can’t wait to see them!

Paul attempting to catch some whipped cream as we send off the staff

Gospel For Exiles

For those of you who didn’t know, our theme for the summer is exiles, based on Hebrews 13:11, which says, “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”  The other night Matt Reagan gave a talk entitled “Gospel For Exiles” which can be found on the blog. I highly recommend listening to it, I think it can be truly life changing, so consider taking an hour out of your day, because I don’t think you we leave disappointed.

I Can’t Believe It!

It’s hard to believe that in one week, staff leave.  What does that mean?  Students take over the project…yeah, I think I’m intimidated by that too!

It’s weird to think that we have been down here for over three weeks already.  Part of me is excited for staff to leave, because we will be officially thrown into the fire, and I think a lot of growth opportunities will present themselves.  I’m already a little nervous for having to prepare and give four talks, and knowing that it’s  just on the horizon is crazy, because I feel like I just got down here a few days ago…

As I think about what lies ahead, I realize I need to pray all the more, and your prayers along with that would be greatly appreciated.  Here a just a few prayer requests for me personally:

1) That I will continue to love when I’m tired and worn down

2) That God will give me wisdom in writing my talks

3) That I won’t try and do it myself, but lean on God and His goodness

I’m sure there are others, but I’ll try and keep you updated as I think about them.  Know your prayers are impactful, not only for me, but also for others.  It’s awesome to see how God uses something simple like the Beach Project to change lives!

Working Hard at Registration

Beach Project Update #1

It’s been such a long time since I updated this blog, but since I have been down at beach project for a couple weeks I figured I’d drop a quick update.

Ever since the disciples came down on whatever date that was, I feel like project has been a blur.  I also feel like I have been down here for a long time, much longer than the 2 weeks that it has been.  But it’s been great!  I’m so thankful for all the people that are down here.  It has been a blessing and privilege (yes, I brought up privilege) to be able to form all sorts of new friendships, as well as continuing to develop relationships that I had previously made.  To give you a good idea of what I have been up to, I’ll give you a quick look in to my schedule:

Sunday: Life Training followed by Church at Garden City Baptist, leaving the afternoon and evening open for free time

Monday: Staff meeting in the morning from 9-12:30 or so, open afternoon, and then Bible study training at night

Tuesday: Work from 7am-4pm, and then Theme training that night

Wednesday: Leaders training in the morning, Dgroup I leader for the room leaders on my team, and then Evangelism training, followed by going to the beach to share our faith

Thursday: My official off day, hopefully will be used to relax some, work on my talks, and look for jobs for when I get home, Project social at night

Friday: Work from 2pm-11pm

Saturday: Generally Dgroup with Polley (the Project Director) and the other team leader guys, work from 2pm-11pm

While there seems to be a lot of open gaps in there, my time is filled with reading the Bible with guys, hanging out with guys, and taking on other leadership roles around the project.  It has kept me busy so far, and I’m truly enjoying myself.  Please continue to pray fro my summer! I’d love to hear how your summers are going, or if you have questions feel free to contact me!

Also check out the Official Beach Project Blog!