I have worked for a youth group ever since I my first year of college here in Starkville. It has been a great experience on top of a whole lot of fun. God has shown me great things there and I have witnessed God's hand in a lot of things at First Presbyterian Starkville. But all of the things I have seen over the past 3+ years were belittled by one thing that God did last Tuesday.
My first thing to do with the youth group was a Disciple Now my freshman year. I had the 7th graders. Jesse was one of the kids in my group. He has truly been the only one of those kids who has consistently come to youth ever since. Well his 7th year he was a tough bigger kid who always got picked on, but was funny and seemed to have a niche as being the class clown. But God allowed me to see past that and I saw great potential in him, that is to say that I saw God wanting Jesse to be an amazing Christian leader. Upon talking about it with another youth leader, he kind of laughed and pointed to another youth that I had grown close with over the weekend, but I never forgot what God showed to me that weekend in Jesse.
Over the past 3+ years since that 1st DNOW Jesse has grown up a little but has still been the same bigger kid who tells crazy jokes and is picked on by most everyone else. He is now in the 10th grade.
This past weekend was the last DNOW that I will probably ever do in Starkville. Jesse was one of my guys again, just like he has been every year. During the weekend, he was the oldest guy that we had so he was lumped in with all of the younger kids.
Let me rewind a little to the beginning of this school year. We felt like God was calling us to get the 10th graders together and just have a "group" with them on Tuesday nights. This group would talk about God and the Bible and answer tough questions that they had, as well as be a safe place for them to talk about what was going on in their lives. Up until this past Tuesday the "group" had been really fun and we had talked about some things that we youth leaders had just started to grasp. It was good but I hadn't felt like anyone had really grasped or truly understood or took to heart anything that we talked about.
Well on Tuesday we met for the "group"(that's the name of our 10th grade group, very creative i know). One of the youth leaders wasn't able to make it to DNOW so he asked the guys what their favorite parts were. They started talking and pretty soon we began talking about "Mountain Top" experiences or "spiritual highs". This escalated into some very good conversation about God and how He interacts with us.
Then the question came out...... "I don't understand.... How was God not created? I mean everything was created.... this blows my mind and it doesn't allow me to see Him anymore than just like my principle.... just scary!" Me and the other youth leader Clay looked at each other and nearly burst into song right then, but God spoke some words of truth through Clay that left Jesse with his head in his hands saying "I just don't understand it..... He is so amazing and so big and so huge that we can't understand Him? That is mind boggling.... And He actually wants to know me and to love me and get to know me?" Clay and I could no longer contain our excitement as we spilled out inadequate descriptions of how amazing our God is!
Jesse was and is changed.
He grasped it... He understood it and still does! It is amazing. Every time I see the kid now He is asking questions and is wanting more and more of God. He is thirsty. He is David in Psalm 63 "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dr and weary land where there is no water."
God rocked Jesse's, Clay's and my world in about 3 minutes.... more like 3 seconds! and He is still rocking them now....
I challenge all of you guys, open up your mind to the greatness of our God and let Him blow you away by his vastness and I promise you that your world will be rocked.... over and over and over again!
Be blessed.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
what to do?
Here lately I have pondered this one question a couple of times... What is next? I am about to graduate college in about 4 months, have a little over $5,000 worth of loans to pay off, have a huge heart to go to the nations, especially Thailand and have a calling to live on the streets of America as a "homeless" person for some amount of time.
These are a good bit of road blocks and things to do. I have been praying a good bit and feel that God will lead me in the direction that He wants me to go.. and I will follow with a joyous blind faith. Because just as it says in Jeremiah He knows the plans He has for us!! And they are to prosper!! It is good to hear God's voice, but He doesn't work on our time table. God is timeless, not constrained by time space or anything that we are limited by... He is limitless. So I will sit here and wait on Him until He leads me to where it is that I am to go.
Things I know:
-I will graduate college in May with a double major in Spanish and Public Relations.
-I will sometime end back up in Thailand, I have no clue when but I will be there... I can feel it inside my core.
Things I feel like I will do:
-Pay off my loans by working for a small amount of time.
-Go to some type of school that teaches me more about God.(this could include anything from a YWAM school to the school of hard knocks.
-Live on the streets of America for some amount of time.
Well that is about it for right now. I'm not sure about anything or even have a feeling about anything else in my life right now. So here is a small peek into my life and where I am headed at least for a little while. Be blessed.
How are you all?
These are a good bit of road blocks and things to do. I have been praying a good bit and feel that God will lead me in the direction that He wants me to go.. and I will follow with a joyous blind faith. Because just as it says in Jeremiah He knows the plans He has for us!! And they are to prosper!! It is good to hear God's voice, but He doesn't work on our time table. God is timeless, not constrained by time space or anything that we are limited by... He is limitless. So I will sit here and wait on Him until He leads me to where it is that I am to go.
Things I know:
-I will graduate college in May with a double major in Spanish and Public Relations.
-I will sometime end back up in Thailand, I have no clue when but I will be there... I can feel it inside my core.
Things I feel like I will do:
-Pay off my loans by working for a small amount of time.
-Go to some type of school that teaches me more about God.(this could include anything from a YWAM school to the school of hard knocks.
-Live on the streets of America for some amount of time.
Well that is about it for right now. I'm not sure about anything or even have a feeling about anything else in my life right now. So here is a small peek into my life and where I am headed at least for a little while. Be blessed.
How are you all?
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Knowing the Answer but Not KNOWING It
I have written this post 100 times in my head, and have actually written it twice on here, but never finished. Maybe i will this time.
Since I have been home God has hit me over and over again with this phrase or this understanding: that we know a lot but we don't KNOW much at all. This is a very hard thing to understand and even more difficult to truly understand.
We have all been gaining knowledge since the day that we were born. We first began by learning how to use our different senses and how to function outside of the womb. We then learned how to speak, walk, read, write and everything else that comes along with all of that.
But somewhere along the line we stop KNOWING things. We go to school to learn and we start to separate what we think is relevant and non-relevant, really the things that we can use and the things that we think are just bullcrap or things we are unable to fathom or not think we can live up to.
I want everyone to catch this next one and really let it sink in. Don't just cast it off but really think about it and let this fester for a moment. WE HAVE DONE THIS TO GOD. We think that we have God all figured out. We think that we know everything about Him, but the truth my friends is far from what we believe.
We have stopped KNOWING things about God! We just file away the sermons, the ideas, and everything else away in our heads like it is something. We just put it into the file cabinet that is our brain and just leave it there for some rainy day or to try to back up an argument later.
We are fools.
It is as easy and as hard as that.
We have lost what it means to KNOW things with our heart, and not just know it with our head. We have managed to disconnect everything from our head and heart. Man....... how did this happen? How did we forget that God was who He said He was and is? How did we stop believing that God's Word is truth?
I don't know... maybe it is because we are lazy and because we are so lukewarm that we have forgot all about God.
All I know is that we have to snap out of this! There is no wanting to, or needing to; but we absolutely HAVE to snap out of it. There is no choice. This is something that we have to do in order to grow in our walks. If we continue to have this disconnect nothing will make sense for us in the world of God. We will continue a lukewarm born again lazy life style, until we completely fall away from God all together.
We look around and wonder why everything is messed up and why the world has gone to hell and a hand basket; or why there are so many people leaving the church or falling away from faith and we think that there has to be something wrong with God.
But let me speak some truth. There is absolutely nothing wrong with God. He is perfect the way He is. His plan is flawless, His being is flawless. He is perfect. If there is flaw than it is in me and you.
Let us look unto this issue and mediate on it, and after we notice that this is truth in our own lives let us dive into God and let Him defeat it!
Man I love Jesus.... He always rescues me from myself... and from the fool that I am. It does say in 1 Corinthians that God uses the foolish to shame the wise.
Since I have been home God has hit me over and over again with this phrase or this understanding: that we know a lot but we don't KNOW much at all. This is a very hard thing to understand and even more difficult to truly understand.
We have all been gaining knowledge since the day that we were born. We first began by learning how to use our different senses and how to function outside of the womb. We then learned how to speak, walk, read, write and everything else that comes along with all of that.
But somewhere along the line we stop KNOWING things. We go to school to learn and we start to separate what we think is relevant and non-relevant, really the things that we can use and the things that we think are just bullcrap or things we are unable to fathom or not think we can live up to.
I want everyone to catch this next one and really let it sink in. Don't just cast it off but really think about it and let this fester for a moment. WE HAVE DONE THIS TO GOD. We think that we have God all figured out. We think that we know everything about Him, but the truth my friends is far from what we believe.
We have stopped KNOWING things about God! We just file away the sermons, the ideas, and everything else away in our heads like it is something. We just put it into the file cabinet that is our brain and just leave it there for some rainy day or to try to back up an argument later.
We are fools.
It is as easy and as hard as that.
We have lost what it means to KNOW things with our heart, and not just know it with our head. We have managed to disconnect everything from our head and heart. Man....... how did this happen? How did we forget that God was who He said He was and is? How did we stop believing that God's Word is truth?
I don't know... maybe it is because we are lazy and because we are so lukewarm that we have forgot all about God.
All I know is that we have to snap out of this! There is no wanting to, or needing to; but we absolutely HAVE to snap out of it. There is no choice. This is something that we have to do in order to grow in our walks. If we continue to have this disconnect nothing will make sense for us in the world of God. We will continue a lukewarm born again lazy life style, until we completely fall away from God all together.
We look around and wonder why everything is messed up and why the world has gone to hell and a hand basket; or why there are so many people leaving the church or falling away from faith and we think that there has to be something wrong with God.
But let me speak some truth. There is absolutely nothing wrong with God. He is perfect the way He is. His plan is flawless, His being is flawless. He is perfect. If there is flaw than it is in me and you.
Let us look unto this issue and mediate on it, and after we notice that this is truth in our own lives let us dive into God and let Him defeat it!
Man I love Jesus.... He always rescues me from myself... and from the fool that I am. It does say in 1 Corinthians that God uses the foolish to shame the wise.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Ear Drums and Stateside
About two days before I left Thailand I busted my ear drum knee boarding with my good friend Big. He wanted to do something special for me so he took me to this really nice water skiing park. It was a lot of fun. Right before we left I decided to go one more time just to top it off and that was a mistake. About two minutes later I had some good blood coming out of my ear and couldn't hear a single thing.
I went to the doctor in extreme agony and pain; I had never had anything happen to my ears before. The doctor said that my ear was going to hurt for around 1 1/2 weeks and that i wasn't going to be able to hear for around 2 1/2 weeks with it not fully healing for around 3 weeks. He then wanted to make a follow up appointment, I explained to him that I was flying home in 2 days and he responded "Wow, that is going to hurt a lot." He gave me a lot of drugs and told me to rest.
I went back to my dorm and laid down in agony. My whole right side of my face had swollen up and my neck was starting to swell. My jaw bone felt like someone had laid a good left hook on it and I was dazed and confused. So as I laid in my bed crying out to God I finally got to a point where I was just like, "God, I don't care if you heal it or not, just take the pain away." I then fell into a deep sleep and awoke an hour later with absolutely no pain or swelling. I was in shock and awe of our Awesome God. I still couldn't hear out of it, but it didn't hurt at all!
So later that night I was playing my guitar praising God for all the good He had done in my life over the past 21 years and for His latest miracle He did for me, and my ear drum popped and and I could hear. It was amazing. After that happened I knew that my flight home was going to be a piece of cake and that my God was going to take care of me no matter what.
So I flew home with out any hurt in my ear at all... praise be to an awesome and good God yea?
Being back home has been good and God is doing good in it. I spent 2 days in Houston with my older brother and then 4 days in Wesson with my parents and now am in Starkville about to start school. I am excited to be where God wants me to be but sad to be away from my friends in Thailand. Thank you God for being good.
I pray you all are experiencing the REAL God just as I am. Be blessed.
I went to the doctor in extreme agony and pain; I had never had anything happen to my ears before. The doctor said that my ear was going to hurt for around 1 1/2 weeks and that i wasn't going to be able to hear for around 2 1/2 weeks with it not fully healing for around 3 weeks. He then wanted to make a follow up appointment, I explained to him that I was flying home in 2 days and he responded "Wow, that is going to hurt a lot." He gave me a lot of drugs and told me to rest.
I went back to my dorm and laid down in agony. My whole right side of my face had swollen up and my neck was starting to swell. My jaw bone felt like someone had laid a good left hook on it and I was dazed and confused. So as I laid in my bed crying out to God I finally got to a point where I was just like, "God, I don't care if you heal it or not, just take the pain away." I then fell into a deep sleep and awoke an hour later with absolutely no pain or swelling. I was in shock and awe of our Awesome God. I still couldn't hear out of it, but it didn't hurt at all!
So later that night I was playing my guitar praising God for all the good He had done in my life over the past 21 years and for His latest miracle He did for me, and my ear drum popped and and I could hear. It was amazing. After that happened I knew that my flight home was going to be a piece of cake and that my God was going to take care of me no matter what.
So I flew home with out any hurt in my ear at all... praise be to an awesome and good God yea?
Being back home has been good and God is doing good in it. I spent 2 days in Houston with my older brother and then 4 days in Wesson with my parents and now am in Starkville about to start school. I am excited to be where God wants me to be but sad to be away from my friends in Thailand. Thank you God for being good.
I pray you all are experiencing the REAL God just as I am. Be blessed.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Bubble Bursting
Whenever I was a kid I always hated bubbles. Whenever my sisters would blow bubbles, I would always run around and try to pop every single one of them. I always thought that they were an anomaly, and this was way before I ever knew what that word meant. I always saw this thing that you had to play with outside that if it was supposed to last would have to play with inside. Everything outside is rough so no matter where the bubble lands it will burst, but if play inside it could land on a smooth surface and rest for a little while before it burst.
The thing is that bubbles can only last for so long. They either burst when they hit something or rest for a moment until they can't hold all the air inside of the thin outer shell breaks and then the bubble is gone.
It is the same with our bubbles that we make around our lives. Our Christian bubbles are the things that I see being constantly burst, we set ourselves into these bubbles and then when we get a taste of the world and our bubble burst and we start to become discouraged as well as whatever else comes a long with that.
I had a good taste of this a couple of days ago. Again I was into the area of bursting bubbles. About 2 nights ago a student of mine(I teach 2 English Classes) asked me if I wanted to go out and eat with a couple of her friends and her, she also just said something else that I didn't understand. Well a friend of mine named John, one of my Thai friends and me all hoped into a taxi with 2 Thai girls who then explained that we were headed to a night club where there would be a lot of beer and dancing.
Immediately my Thai friend started to freak out. The Thai church is extremely conservative so just going to a bar or a place where there is some type of dirty dancing can have people think that you are falling away from God and are turning back to your heathen ways. Well we talked him down and went to the club anyway.
It was a load of fun. I really enjoyed the time, I loved hearing rap music and just dancing with people. I definitely was in the area of bursting bubble that night. I burst my Thai friends bubble as well as the bubble of my American friend who hadn't been anywhere in Thailand where it was really outside of his Christian bubble. I praise God for that.
I pray that God continues to burst all of our bubbles everyday. I have noticed all of the small little bubbles that I have made in my life. Hanging out with just all of my Christian friends because I don't want to be put into a situation where it would be awkward or it would be uncomfortable for me, or even something more simplified by trying to stay away from doing anything that keeps me away from the world(instead of living in the world and not being of the world).
God burst our bubbles and let us go all out for you. Let us live with and for you all out everyday. Thanks for being an awesome God and for showing us that we are still in the world but that we are not of the world. Thanks Buddy for all that you do for us. Amen.
The thing is that bubbles can only last for so long. They either burst when they hit something or rest for a moment until they can't hold all the air inside of the thin outer shell breaks and then the bubble is gone.
It is the same with our bubbles that we make around our lives. Our Christian bubbles are the things that I see being constantly burst, we set ourselves into these bubbles and then when we get a taste of the world and our bubble burst and we start to become discouraged as well as whatever else comes a long with that.
I had a good taste of this a couple of days ago. Again I was into the area of bursting bubbles. About 2 nights ago a student of mine(I teach 2 English Classes) asked me if I wanted to go out and eat with a couple of her friends and her, she also just said something else that I didn't understand. Well a friend of mine named John, one of my Thai friends and me all hoped into a taxi with 2 Thai girls who then explained that we were headed to a night club where there would be a lot of beer and dancing.
Immediately my Thai friend started to freak out. The Thai church is extremely conservative so just going to a bar or a place where there is some type of dirty dancing can have people think that you are falling away from God and are turning back to your heathen ways. Well we talked him down and went to the club anyway.
It was a load of fun. I really enjoyed the time, I loved hearing rap music and just dancing with people. I definitely was in the area of bursting bubble that night. I burst my Thai friends bubble as well as the bubble of my American friend who hadn't been anywhere in Thailand where it was really outside of his Christian bubble. I praise God for that.
I pray that God continues to burst all of our bubbles everyday. I have noticed all of the small little bubbles that I have made in my life. Hanging out with just all of my Christian friends because I don't want to be put into a situation where it would be awkward or it would be uncomfortable for me, or even something more simplified by trying to stay away from doing anything that keeps me away from the world(instead of living in the world and not being of the world).
God burst our bubbles and let us go all out for you. Let us live with and for you all out everyday. Thanks for being an awesome God and for showing us that we are still in the world but that we are not of the world. Thanks Buddy for all that you do for us. Amen.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
See you later
So the past couple of days have been quite weird and a little sad at the same time. It has been filled with a whole lot of good byes. These good byes have been in a lot of different ways, like saying good bye to half of my beard after not trimming it for a little over 4 months; saying good bye to my team; and saying good bye to a good bit of my Thai friends who just went to China to perform some art for God.
This has been strange and a good bit sad as well. I have grown close to a good bit of people over the past 4 months and am sad to know we won't be able to share in "church time"(living life together) face to face. I have also been excited and praised God daily to see where all of these people are headed... pretty much where God is taking them and what He is going to do in and through them.
Saying good bye to my closest friend since I have been in Thailand was also a very hard thing to do.... I prayed so hard that I wouldn't have to do it, but God constantly reminded me that it is not about me. He said that I was to die to self daily and know that It is not about me. So I took the blade and did away with what I felt God was telling me to get rid of. Good bye old friend, my beard for 4 months... I shall miss you, until I can grow you longer and even more beautiful. R.I.P.
I shall be here for another 10 days saying good byes and really trying to instill the lessons I have been teaching my friends in them as well as repeating the discipleship patterns that I have been practicing all summer; really just pouring all of God into the people that I see Him pouring into. I have started to try and do "only what I see the Father doing" really just trying to follow the example that Jesus gave us in doing what He say God doing and only that... I have been failing miserably but the moments where it all clicks are quite beautiful like an amazing mixture of a plethora of different colors.
Pray for strength and that I will follow what God leads me to do. I am saddened to have to leave Thailand but very excited to see where God is taking me.
Be blessed.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Dream, The Vision, and The Update
The title is my version of C.S. Lewis's book "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". I figure I would try to write this update sooner than later because God has been doing a load of things over here in old MuangThai(Thai way to say Thailand), and God has allowed me to play some part/witness a good bit of stuff.
4 of the last 5 posts have been about me and my own spiritual battles or what God has been teaching me, and not necessarily about the ministry that I have been doing here in Thailand; so I promise that this post will be about the ministry that I have been doing, with a little future vision cast in there.
I will start from the tail end and talk about the update 1st.
THE UPDATE
Over the past month God has made some huge changes in my life as far as ministry and my thoughts on it. We have hosted some short term teams and fired them up about missions and really pressing in to find God more each day. This was awesome. I really enjoyed serving the teams and will do more here in the coming weeks.
We have been doing a couple of different ministries over the past couple of weeks. These ministries are: Teaching English to college students as well as teaching English in the slums; Destroying and building houses in the slums close to where we live; Building relationships with college students on campus; Discipling the college students that we live with; Helping plant a church in the slums; Translating; Teaching Bible and English to children; Visiting different ministries to see what they are doing and what God is doing through them; Leading Bible studies; Going into the Red Light Districts to talk to the men, and the women; and other things that I am not able to think of at the moment.
I'm just going to pick a couple of these things and give you testimonies of how God is working.
CHURCH PLANTING IN THE SLUMS
Planting a house church in the slums has been awesome! God has been doing this in an amazing way, and it has an awesome story how it came about! There is this family of new believers who live in the slums and the mom of the family has become extremely charismatic. So about 3 weeks ago she approached one of the Thai girls who has become one of our good friend, Kwan, and she asked her if she could start teaching them the Bible 1 or 2 times a week. Kwan then approached me and my team and asked us if we could help her (she was too scared to lead the Bible study by herself and didn't actually know how to lead one), so we prayed about it and God gave a definite yes! The 1st 2 weeks that the Bible study was led, we had 2 girls from our team teach on the characteristics of God and Kwan translated. The 3rd week I was supposed to teach, but knew that I didn't want this "Bible study" or "church" or "fellowship of believers" become just like all of the "Churches" that I know to well from the ole U.S. of A.
So I began praying about what to do and how to allow the "church" to be organic and spread like wildfire through out the slums and Thailand. A leader who is scared to lead, but desiring more of God; a group of young believers who are open to God and still believe in His power and how big He really is(This is something that as we grow in God we usually start forget, we start to box God in... He is no longer the Almighty Powerful Lion that He really is, but He is more of a kitty cat with special powers, and He only uses them every now and then.... We need to stop trying to box God and just let Him be the Powerful Lion); and a broken idiot who is trying to listen to where the Holy Spirit is taking this amazing opportunity (me); these were the materials that I had to work with, and God was about to start showing me His master plan on how these materials were going to make a master piece.
He started to speak to me saying share and learn together... have no teachers. He said "Let me teach and reveal my will to them." He also said "Let it be Thai." meaning that the foreigners would only play the part of maybe being elders, or advisers to the elders during the early stages. He told me "We all have something to bring to the table, so bring it." Well through all of this, God was talking to 2 other teammates of mine Grant and Jenn (they actually plant churches in Mexico and are my leaders). All 3 of us sat down and talked about what God was revealing to us, we all agreed that Kwan was going to have to be the leader at first and that we were going to only have to advise and help her along the way. We didn't want this "church" to be built on a white pillar (pillar of white people) but rather a purple pillar (the majesty of Jesus Christ), so we opted to be phased out as soon as possible(which we were hoping would be that week or the following week).
Now that God had spoken to us and we were all on the same track, we moved into the second step, teaching and talking with Kwan. Kwan is on fire for God and is being filled with the Holy Spirit more and more each day, so she was fired up about learning new ways to experience and find God. So we spent the next couple of days training up Kwan on leading, but not leading a church(very strange concept, but the 1st will be last and the last will be 1st.... also we are called to serve, and servant leaders are the best leaders). Kwan accepted, and we told her we would hold her hand and walk her through the 1st week.
Now was the 3rd step. This step was application of what God was telling us. So on Thursday night 2 weeks ago, Kwan and I, all prayed up and excited/nervous about what God was doing/about to do, headed to the slum to let this thing become organic. The thing went off without a hitch. The Holy Spirit fell and God's presence was there. The meeting had only 1 time where English was needed and that was the 1 time I shared for about 30 seconds. Kwan led, God opened doors and the whole group learned, shared and most of all experienced God together. It was amazing. Although I didn't understand around 50% of the conversation I could tell that light bulbs were turning on in peoples heads and they were realizing things in their hearts. It was beautiful.
This past week Kwan led the "church" by herself with no help from any foreigner, just the help of the Almighty God! It was beautiful. They actually had 3 new people come in and say that they were going to come back and hear more about this God who loves them so much! How beautiful is that? How good is God? My answer too good.
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING WITH COLLEGE STUDENTS
We have been building relationships with college students on the campus that we live by (Ram 2). Here lately I have started to build a relationship with this guy named Ice. He is a Thai guy around 20 years of age who speaks ok English and desires to learn more. We have been talking and on an average day he calls me 6-8 times a day! He loves to talk and has actually started to come to the worship service that we hold every Tuesday night. We have had some conversations about faith and what he thinks... he is still quite confused and lost; he enjoys smoking weed and getting drunk, but has started to see that life is a little bit more. He has started to see that it is not fulfilling to live this life alone and trying to fill it with the things of this world. We are building a good foundation for what others will be able to build on in this young mans life. God is good and has provided these opportunities for me to minister to this guy buy just loving and being a friend to him. Praise God for that.
There are many more stories that I can tell about what God is doing, but I don't want to write a novel so if you want to hear of them just email me or leave a message and I will email you with details (Inhisgrip26@gmail.com).
THE DREAM
A couple of nights ago God gave me a dream that spoke to me about my future and what He wants me to do on campus at MSU. This dream was also followed by an interpretation after I prayed about it.
THE DREAM
The dream was like the following:
I was standing in a field by myself flying a kite. As I started flying my kite I started walking and I somehow ended up on the campus of MSU, close to the walkway by the Student Union and Mcool Hall. As I walked up I notice a group of my friend, all of whom were student ministry leaders. These guys were relaxing on a couple of tables and waved at me as I walked on the campus. I started to walk up to them and before I reached them I felt a strong wind at my back. I thought, this would be the perfect time to fly a kite, so I looked down at my back pack and my kite was sitting right there. I took it out and assembled it, while all of my other friends had started taking out their own kites and started assembling them. All of the kites were different sizes, shapes and colors. Before I could pick up my kite to fly it, another one of my friends walked up beaten bruised and dirty all over... she had cuts all over her face and arms and looked as though she hadn't showed in weeks. I noticed at this point, that the other guys were all extremely clean. She walked over to me and asked me, "Zach, can I fly your kite." Without hesitation I gave her the string and walked to pick up the end of the kite to throw it in the air to get it started for her.
My other friends had started to fly their kites, but were pulling on them and running around in circles trying to make their kites fly themselves. They weren't flying at all... they were constantly crashing and never staying in the air for more than 3 or 4 seconds. I grabbed my kite and threw it in the air, entrusting it to the wind, the wind caught it and it started to fly with my dirty and beaten friend on the end flying it. I watched as it soared and flew. I then walked over to each of my friends kites and majestically picked them up and threw them into the air and each one was caught by the wind and took flight, one by one until all of the kites were in the air soaring as we stood and watched in amazement. I then awoke remember the dream as if it was real!
THE INTERPRETATION
I awoke and immediately started praying into the dream, confused by what was the meaning but knowing it was from God (I had been praying for around 2 months for God to give me dreams and visions).
As I started praying God took me through the whole dream explaining to me what it meant. He started with me in the field. He said that He gave me a vision of what He wants me to do and the part where I was in the field was me in the mission field getting prepared for what He had me to do on the place that He was sending me.
I walked on the place where He wanted me to go (MSU Campus) with the vision and the plans that He had for me in my hands (the kite). He told me that His' Holy Spirit (the wind) would beckon me when the time was right to start to fly my kite(or to enact the vision). My friends and other college leaders all have different visions and plans that God has given them to take care of as well. This was the reason they all had kites as well. God then told me that I would assemble the kite by myself as would the other people. So I would get the plans and vision ready by myself.
Then my dirty and beaten friend approached me and asked to fly my kite. This, God said symbolizes that I will pass on my vision and plans to someone before it gets off of the ground (because I hadn't even started to fly the kite). He said that the person will not be the most amazing person in the world; it will be someone who has been away from Him but is coming before Him humbly with all of his or her sin open for the world to see. This person will not be the most likely candidate (because there were over 6 different clean and pristine candidates standing before me) but this person will make the largest impact because this person will lead all the others, lead them humbly.
He said that the others will be trying to fly their kites (their visions and plans) without the Holy Spirit, completely on their own strength. But the dirty friend will allow the Holy Spirit to take it. I picked up the kite and threw it into the air and the wind took hold of it and made it fly. This means that we can't do these visions without the Holy Spirit doing it with and through us. My part in picking each kite up "majestically" was to symbolize that I would be overcome by the same Holy Spirit to help lead/advise the other guys on how to let go and let the Holy Spirit make it happen. Then we just sit back and watch in awe of the Holy Spirit.
This dream was just the thing that allowed me to let go of God in the wrestling match and know that He will bless me; know that He knows the plans He has made for me. I am excited to see these things come to fruition.
THE VISION
The vision is what God wants me to do with what He has given me. God has told me and confirmed over and over again, that I am to have an "elder" role in the church when I get home. I am to advise and lead by following, to lead and not lead at the same time... to never be the head.
He has given me vision to start a 24/7 prayer house or room or something that we can pray in. To start slow and small like days of 24 hour prayer, then weeks, then months and ect...
He has then told me that I will be leading short term teams to Thailand and Mexico over Christmas and Spring Break. So get excited! Start praying on these things to see if you are to be a part of it.
He has told me to disciple and be discipled by guys that I know He has big plans for (He has given me a couple of faces to do this with).
God revealed to me some people who have strayed from the path and have been away from Him for some time... He told me He misses them and it is time for them to come home. So I don't know what this means or how that looks, but maybe some reconciliation is in there somewhere.
God has also told me to do some other things but hasn't given me the ok to share them. But I am excited none the less!
God is good my friends and family! I am sorry that this was such a long post; I pray that each of you has been blessed by hearing what God is doing in my life and in this area of the world! I have been blessed to be able to share! I love you all.
In His Grip.... and Completely Humbled by God.
Zach Cawthorn
4 of the last 5 posts have been about me and my own spiritual battles or what God has been teaching me, and not necessarily about the ministry that I have been doing here in Thailand; so I promise that this post will be about the ministry that I have been doing, with a little future vision cast in there.
I will start from the tail end and talk about the update 1st.
THE UPDATE
Over the past month God has made some huge changes in my life as far as ministry and my thoughts on it. We have hosted some short term teams and fired them up about missions and really pressing in to find God more each day. This was awesome. I really enjoyed serving the teams and will do more here in the coming weeks.
We have been doing a couple of different ministries over the past couple of weeks. These ministries are: Teaching English to college students as well as teaching English in the slums; Destroying and building houses in the slums close to where we live; Building relationships with college students on campus; Discipling the college students that we live with; Helping plant a church in the slums; Translating; Teaching Bible and English to children; Visiting different ministries to see what they are doing and what God is doing through them; Leading Bible studies; Going into the Red Light Districts to talk to the men, and the women; and other things that I am not able to think of at the moment.
I'm just going to pick a couple of these things and give you testimonies of how God is working.
CHURCH PLANTING IN THE SLUMS
Planting a house church in the slums has been awesome! God has been doing this in an amazing way, and it has an awesome story how it came about! There is this family of new believers who live in the slums and the mom of the family has become extremely charismatic. So about 3 weeks ago she approached one of the Thai girls who has become one of our good friend, Kwan, and she asked her if she could start teaching them the Bible 1 or 2 times a week. Kwan then approached me and my team and asked us if we could help her (she was too scared to lead the Bible study by herself and didn't actually know how to lead one), so we prayed about it and God gave a definite yes! The 1st 2 weeks that the Bible study was led, we had 2 girls from our team teach on the characteristics of God and Kwan translated. The 3rd week I was supposed to teach, but knew that I didn't want this "Bible study" or "church" or "fellowship of believers" become just like all of the "Churches" that I know to well from the ole U.S. of A.
So I began praying about what to do and how to allow the "church" to be organic and spread like wildfire through out the slums and Thailand. A leader who is scared to lead, but desiring more of God; a group of young believers who are open to God and still believe in His power and how big He really is(This is something that as we grow in God we usually start forget, we start to box God in... He is no longer the Almighty Powerful Lion that He really is, but He is more of a kitty cat with special powers, and He only uses them every now and then.... We need to stop trying to box God and just let Him be the Powerful Lion); and a broken idiot who is trying to listen to where the Holy Spirit is taking this amazing opportunity (me); these were the materials that I had to work with, and God was about to start showing me His master plan on how these materials were going to make a master piece.
He started to speak to me saying share and learn together... have no teachers. He said "Let me teach and reveal my will to them." He also said "Let it be Thai." meaning that the foreigners would only play the part of maybe being elders, or advisers to the elders during the early stages. He told me "We all have something to bring to the table, so bring it." Well through all of this, God was talking to 2 other teammates of mine Grant and Jenn (they actually plant churches in Mexico and are my leaders). All 3 of us sat down and talked about what God was revealing to us, we all agreed that Kwan was going to have to be the leader at first and that we were going to only have to advise and help her along the way. We didn't want this "church" to be built on a white pillar (pillar of white people) but rather a purple pillar (the majesty of Jesus Christ), so we opted to be phased out as soon as possible(which we were hoping would be that week or the following week).
Now that God had spoken to us and we were all on the same track, we moved into the second step, teaching and talking with Kwan. Kwan is on fire for God and is being filled with the Holy Spirit more and more each day, so she was fired up about learning new ways to experience and find God. So we spent the next couple of days training up Kwan on leading, but not leading a church(very strange concept, but the 1st will be last and the last will be 1st.... also we are called to serve, and servant leaders are the best leaders). Kwan accepted, and we told her we would hold her hand and walk her through the 1st week.
Now was the 3rd step. This step was application of what God was telling us. So on Thursday night 2 weeks ago, Kwan and I, all prayed up and excited/nervous about what God was doing/about to do, headed to the slum to let this thing become organic. The thing went off without a hitch. The Holy Spirit fell and God's presence was there. The meeting had only 1 time where English was needed and that was the 1 time I shared for about 30 seconds. Kwan led, God opened doors and the whole group learned, shared and most of all experienced God together. It was amazing. Although I didn't understand around 50% of the conversation I could tell that light bulbs were turning on in peoples heads and they were realizing things in their hearts. It was beautiful.
This past week Kwan led the "church" by herself with no help from any foreigner, just the help of the Almighty God! It was beautiful. They actually had 3 new people come in and say that they were going to come back and hear more about this God who loves them so much! How beautiful is that? How good is God? My answer too good.
RELATIONSHIP BUILDING WITH COLLEGE STUDENTS
We have been building relationships with college students on the campus that we live by (Ram 2). Here lately I have started to build a relationship with this guy named Ice. He is a Thai guy around 20 years of age who speaks ok English and desires to learn more. We have been talking and on an average day he calls me 6-8 times a day! He loves to talk and has actually started to come to the worship service that we hold every Tuesday night. We have had some conversations about faith and what he thinks... he is still quite confused and lost; he enjoys smoking weed and getting drunk, but has started to see that life is a little bit more. He has started to see that it is not fulfilling to live this life alone and trying to fill it with the things of this world. We are building a good foundation for what others will be able to build on in this young mans life. God is good and has provided these opportunities for me to minister to this guy buy just loving and being a friend to him. Praise God for that.
There are many more stories that I can tell about what God is doing, but I don't want to write a novel so if you want to hear of them just email me or leave a message and I will email you with details (Inhisgrip26@gmail.com).
THE DREAM
A couple of nights ago God gave me a dream that spoke to me about my future and what He wants me to do on campus at MSU. This dream was also followed by an interpretation after I prayed about it.
THE DREAM
The dream was like the following:
I was standing in a field by myself flying a kite. As I started flying my kite I started walking and I somehow ended up on the campus of MSU, close to the walkway by the Student Union and Mcool Hall. As I walked up I notice a group of my friend, all of whom were student ministry leaders. These guys were relaxing on a couple of tables and waved at me as I walked on the campus. I started to walk up to them and before I reached them I felt a strong wind at my back. I thought, this would be the perfect time to fly a kite, so I looked down at my back pack and my kite was sitting right there. I took it out and assembled it, while all of my other friends had started taking out their own kites and started assembling them. All of the kites were different sizes, shapes and colors. Before I could pick up my kite to fly it, another one of my friends walked up beaten bruised and dirty all over... she had cuts all over her face and arms and looked as though she hadn't showed in weeks. I noticed at this point, that the other guys were all extremely clean. She walked over to me and asked me, "Zach, can I fly your kite." Without hesitation I gave her the string and walked to pick up the end of the kite to throw it in the air to get it started for her.
My other friends had started to fly their kites, but were pulling on them and running around in circles trying to make their kites fly themselves. They weren't flying at all... they were constantly crashing and never staying in the air for more than 3 or 4 seconds. I grabbed my kite and threw it in the air, entrusting it to the wind, the wind caught it and it started to fly with my dirty and beaten friend on the end flying it. I watched as it soared and flew. I then walked over to each of my friends kites and majestically picked them up and threw them into the air and each one was caught by the wind and took flight, one by one until all of the kites were in the air soaring as we stood and watched in amazement. I then awoke remember the dream as if it was real!
THE INTERPRETATION
I awoke and immediately started praying into the dream, confused by what was the meaning but knowing it was from God (I had been praying for around 2 months for God to give me dreams and visions).
As I started praying God took me through the whole dream explaining to me what it meant. He started with me in the field. He said that He gave me a vision of what He wants me to do and the part where I was in the field was me in the mission field getting prepared for what He had me to do on the place that He was sending me.
I walked on the place where He wanted me to go (MSU Campus) with the vision and the plans that He had for me in my hands (the kite). He told me that His' Holy Spirit (the wind) would beckon me when the time was right to start to fly my kite(or to enact the vision). My friends and other college leaders all have different visions and plans that God has given them to take care of as well. This was the reason they all had kites as well. God then told me that I would assemble the kite by myself as would the other people. So I would get the plans and vision ready by myself.
Then my dirty and beaten friend approached me and asked to fly my kite. This, God said symbolizes that I will pass on my vision and plans to someone before it gets off of the ground (because I hadn't even started to fly the kite). He said that the person will not be the most amazing person in the world; it will be someone who has been away from Him but is coming before Him humbly with all of his or her sin open for the world to see. This person will not be the most likely candidate (because there were over 6 different clean and pristine candidates standing before me) but this person will make the largest impact because this person will lead all the others, lead them humbly.
He said that the others will be trying to fly their kites (their visions and plans) without the Holy Spirit, completely on their own strength. But the dirty friend will allow the Holy Spirit to take it. I picked up the kite and threw it into the air and the wind took hold of it and made it fly. This means that we can't do these visions without the Holy Spirit doing it with and through us. My part in picking each kite up "majestically" was to symbolize that I would be overcome by the same Holy Spirit to help lead/advise the other guys on how to let go and let the Holy Spirit make it happen. Then we just sit back and watch in awe of the Holy Spirit.
This dream was just the thing that allowed me to let go of God in the wrestling match and know that He will bless me; know that He knows the plans He has made for me. I am excited to see these things come to fruition.
THE VISION
The vision is what God wants me to do with what He has given me. God has told me and confirmed over and over again, that I am to have an "elder" role in the church when I get home. I am to advise and lead by following, to lead and not lead at the same time... to never be the head.
He has given me vision to start a 24/7 prayer house or room or something that we can pray in. To start slow and small like days of 24 hour prayer, then weeks, then months and ect...
He has then told me that I will be leading short term teams to Thailand and Mexico over Christmas and Spring Break. So get excited! Start praying on these things to see if you are to be a part of it.
He has told me to disciple and be discipled by guys that I know He has big plans for (He has given me a couple of faces to do this with).
God revealed to me some people who have strayed from the path and have been away from Him for some time... He told me He misses them and it is time for them to come home. So I don't know what this means or how that looks, but maybe some reconciliation is in there somewhere.
God has also told me to do some other things but hasn't given me the ok to share them. But I am excited none the less!
God is good my friends and family! I am sorry that this was such a long post; I pray that each of you has been blessed by hearing what God is doing in my life and in this area of the world! I have been blessed to be able to share! I love you all.
In His Grip.... and Completely Humbled by God.
Zach Cawthorn
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