Seek His face and not His hands..

"..But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ..." -Paul

You know, people don't really talk like that anymore. When we ask people about what is going on and how they are doing, we get these responses that say, "yeah yeah everything is good, just waiting for this to happen." or "im just getting ready for this next thing that is coming up." I even find myself talking about this or that and the next thing. I find myself putting my focus on different things, trying to get ready for them, or a goal that I'm striving for or whatever it may be. And Paul just says, "I don't even care about those things..." He uses these words and calls it "the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ." He says, "I don't even care about those things because my focus is completely on my relationship with Him."

I find myself so distracted on the things in life that I must get done or getting ready for the next thing and the whole time I'm missing out on the one thing I was really created for. I get so distracted that I forget to think about my relationship to Him; I forget to dwell on His words. & when I do that, when I get distracted by everything that is going on, I know that I am missing out. I am missing out when I don't spend time with God. If I don't constantly have communion with Him and have an on going conversation with Him throughout my day, I am missing out! Not even that I am missing out on something that He's trying to tell me. Yes, God might be trying to say something to me, and I would miss out on it because I wasn't listening but I'm talking about missing out on just being with Him. Intimacy with our Father, our Maker.

I'm talking about when you first meet somebody, you have to talk and converse with them. You have to both listen and speak and get to know each other, but over time, after spending lots of time with someone and finding out who they are, you get comfortable with one another. And all of a sudden you find that you don't have to be talking all the time. You ever find yourself riding in a car with someone that you are really comfortable with, because you have spent so much time with them. You'll notice that it can be completely silent for quite some time and both of you are totally ok with it. You just enjoy being with that person. You just enjoy being in their presence. If you try to do that with someone you don't know well or perhaps you just met, you will probably find that it will be awkward between you. Your thinking, "I don't know you, you don't know me and we're here not talking, just being silent." It will be awkward.

I find that a lot of students start their relationship with God and after several months or so they say, "I just don't hear Him speaking anymore." There might be many reasons for that. You might not be listening, or maybe it's a test of faith etc, but I believe that a lot of times God wants to take the relationship to the next level. Can you imagine the level of intimacy it would take to ride in a car with Jesus (or perhaps a donkey) and not say anything at all. You know Jesus so well because you've spent so much time with Him that you just ride in the car without having to say anything. Just being with Him is good enough, and it's not awkward at all.

I think a lot of our youth today need to get over the "awkward" stage with God, and just spend time with Him without looking for direction or what to do next, but simply to spend time with Him. Just to be with Him.

His name is Jesus, He is my King!

The last week of the mini DTS is complete. We've wiped our tears, said our goodbyes, and laid hands on our students one last time. These last 4 weeks have been amazing, just watching God transform lives daily, and being able to be apart of it. God has made an impact on these students that will last a lifetime. Though these students have come from backgrounds that we can never understand, may they remember what God has done in and through them during this time. Our DTS may be over, but they will never stop growing in their relationship with Jesus. Everyday spending time with Him, following His ways and becoming more like Him. They have had but a taste of how good and faithful He really is, but then again probably so have i. Every time I think i understand how good He is, He blows me away all over again.

God has really been challenging me lately with this DTS. We are here to be leaders and help them in anyway possible, but the truth is we were all just growing together. I've been thinking a lot lately about the future and going into missions full-time. Of course with missions theres always a big fuss about money and support and everything, and sometimes im a little worried about it. But God has been reminding me with these students through this DTS. During the day i would tell them "give your life to God, he will take care of you," "He is your provider" and "He is so faithful" "He loves you so much and He has the best interest in mind for you." and then i would go home at night & worry about my future and different things. It's ridiculous!! How can i believe these things for other peoples lives and then wonder about my own. I know that He is my provider, and things may not happen the way i want or at the time i want, but in the end i trust Him..Because I know that I know that I know He has the best interest in mind for me. Bless you Lord.

Find me here, Speak to me..

Our 2nd week spent with the Korean DTS was absolutely amazing! We had a guest speaker come and talk about the Father heart of God and the power of forgiveness. We talked about what God intended for a father's role to be in nurturing his children. He has such good intentions. Together we looked back at & discussed the shortcomings of our Earthly fathers. Most of these kids have been through things that we will never understand or ever have to experience. We helped them come face to face with the reality of the hurts and pains that they have been through. The truth is there are things that happen in this world to us that can't be explained away with words. Things that have hurt us very deeply. But I believe that we serve a God that looks down on us with compassion, and if we let Him, He will bring healing. We had many ministry nights, spending time in the presence of God and watching Him work in the hearts of these students. We were able to walk many of these students down the path of forgiveness torwards parents, brothers, sisters, and anybody else that may have hurt them. The power of forgiveness is amazing. God has begun the healing process in many of them. After every night we couldn't do anything but thank God for His faithfulness. We ask Him to show up and He does. He is so good.

Though the world seems to forget, we will not forget who you are and what you've done for us!

Well the 1st week of the DTS school is done, and God is already doing some amazing work in the hearts of the students we are working with. We pretty much started at the beginning and explained the Gospel from God to creation to Jesus and us and everything in between. There are a lot of students that have never heard any of this, but also a few who have heard before and have really good questions. So with some students we are going deeper and some students we are starting brand new with the gospel, it is so awesome! This week we talked about hearing God's voice and how He speaks to us. We talked about having a relationship with Jesus and what that looks like and what that means. God has been speaking to our students and they are learning how to quiet themselves & get away from the things around them and listen.

As always on outreach we are reminded that we are very blessed, it's not about us, and God is good. Along with many other things that i could talk about now, but i just want to focus on this God is good thing. Especially spending time with these Korean students, i have seen that the hardest part of them understanding and believing what we tell them about Jesus and the Bible is that they don't realize that God is FOR them! God is for us. He is on our side! The reason they don't understand that God is our Shepard, Father, Provider, Protecter, Judge and our friend among many other things, is because they don't see that God is on their side. Anyways, we can tell them that God is good all we want, but the truth is that they will have to experience it for themselves. But we will have patience and we will be there when He does.

You provide the fire, and I'll provide the sacrifice.

Well my team and I are now in Korea. We are leading a mini Discipleship Training School for about 90 students beginning tomorrow. We will be with them for a month straight doing everything with them from eating to sleeping to pretty much everything. We will be an example of Christ 24-hours a day! We will have teachings about God's character and His father heart along with many other topics everyday. Our team will also be small group leaders where we will have discussion time of everything that we have been learning. Together we will worship the Lord and put our focus and attention on Him, the author and perfecter of our faith. He is our King and He is worthy of our praise.

Pray that God will speak through our words and actions.

Pray that the students will open up and have hearts ready to receive.

Most of all, pray that God's will would be done.