Come join in the adventures and contemplations of my life!
1 Corinthians 2:2 - It's not what you know, it's who you know.
The Ministry of Availablity
I was asked by my pastor to share about the College Ministry that I am helping lead. Basically he wanted me to share for 3 to 5 minutes about what we’re all about and ways that people can get involved. When I began to think about it, I could list out a few tasks that we do such as our meeting once a month and the small group that has formed, but it didn’t seem to convey what we are attempting to accomplish.
As I thought about it, I came up what type of ministry we do. We do the ministry of availability. Most of the things we do create a space for our college students to grow in an unofficial way. Our ministries are unconventional ones. We have ministry through texts checking up weekly or daily with our students. We spend time meeting our students where they are at. We do campus visits for students that are not in the immediate area. We will go and encourage our students who are involved in on-campus ministries by visiting their groups and participating with them. We will go on campus with our students and eat dinner with them in the commons or take them off campus to get away for a little bit. We will sit with them and study. In the midst of this we get the opportunity to see how the Lord is leading them and have great opportunities to have solid spiritual conversations. When we are able to meet one on one with students we have opportunities to open the bible and share scripture. It is often that on a Sunday I will have the week completely open. At the end of the week I look back and may have had one evening open.
The ministry of availability is based on being available and willing to meet the students where they are at. Though we are not often a large group, we do our best being resources to help our students get involved in different and continue to grow in their spiritual walks in and in maturity.
See you at the cross. Went on a night hike at The Oaks Camp and Conference center and ended up at The Cross. It’s a cross made out of metal tubing with two benches in front of it. You get a 360 view of the camp from there. It is quite marvelous.
Just another evening at the Seal Beach Pier. For the past 2 or 3 weeks straight there have been some amazing sunsets. I decided yesterday that I was going to head down to the pier to take some shots of the sun setting. At the moment that I had that thought I looked outside and saw that dusk was upon me. I proceeded to check online to see when the sun would be setting. My calendar said that the sun was headed down at 7:12. I looked at my clock and to my surprise (and saddness) it was 7:12 on the dot. I quickly grabbed my camera threw on my helmet and headed out. I could see the sky getting darker as I went. I thought I could make it since the pier is only about 10 min away from my house. As you can see, I did not make it. Still got some pretty sweet pictures though.
This was taken in front of a friend’s house! Not sure what kind of flower it is, but I thought it looked picture worthy!
Play day at #CSULB with #JECCollegeGroup (Taken with Instagram at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB))
Thoughts and Questions on Tragic Events
I’m sure you have already heard about the shooting out in Aurora, CO. I was talking to my friend a few weeks ago after he had just gotten back from a short term trip to Japan. He said that he had heard that there are churches out in Japan but that for the most part they were so spread out that there wasn’t really any unity, but his experience was that the Tsunami had caused the churches to become united and there was the beginnings of spiritual revival. They were united because alone they could not make a difference, but together they could serve the communities of the disaster areas. I texted my friend who works for Compassion Intl in Colorado Springs this morning to chat about the shootings. She told me that though tragic, there she was seeing the church unite together to be the church to the community.
I am reminded of the song “He is our King” and how God is constantly doing as much as He can to draw his people back to himself. Throughout history people only seek when they are in want. Israel cried out to the Lord most whenever their enemy was upon them. A person also tends to find the Lord when he/she has reached a low point in life.
If, in fact, God allows these horrific events in the world to happen so that his people would return to him, then we as the church need to respond by serving the community during those times in a way that will point them to Jesus.
The questions I wonder are:
1) Why does it take a tragedy for people to return to the Lord?
2) Why does it take a tragedy for the church to be the church?
3) How can we make it so that the Church does not pop-up in the midst of tragedy, but instead it is looked to?
Journey Youth Grad Music Video. ”Miss Us Maybe” (Carly Rae Jepsen Parody)
Finding The Perfect Fit
I have never been good at puzzles. From the time I was young I never had the patience to match each piece together to create the big picture. Often, in frustration I would resort to trying to force pieces together. Sometimes if the two pieces were part of a sky or something of a solid color, it seemed like it would be fine in the end. I learned that in order to get the puzzle to look the best, each piece need to find where it fit so that when they’re all in place and you step back, you can see what the puzzle was intended to look like.
Interestingly enough, my life has looked similar to this situation. I sometimes try so hard to force myself to fit into a section of the puzzle. This can be in a social group, an area of ministry or even at work. I do this because it is where I believe I can be the most effective. When I find that I am forcing myself into a portion of the puzzle that I do not belong to it can be easy for me to give up, but I remember that the one in charge of the puzzle is putting everything together. He is the Lord and in His time he will place me exactly where I am supposed to be. Once He does that, the picture is complete and it is beautiful. Allow the Lord to place you in the place where you become a part of the picture that He is trying to create through His church.
