summer

I always hate summer. Everyone goes home for the summer, gets a job at camp, or they just are not around. Summer is the loneliest time of the year, and this summer has the makings of being the worst. no scouts = no camping. *sigh* guess that’s just life.

update on 30hr famine fundraiser 3/17/11

Greetings readers update on 30hr famine fundraiser

I was thrilled to have 57 views of the post “DONT BUY BIGGBY COFFEE TODAY (at least read this first)”, I’m so happy to get the message out there to so many people. I even had two readers find me simply though a google search for “biggby dollar coffee”. It was amazing to see that even people I did not know read my post. God is good.

But I need to clarify a few things. I don’t hate BiggBy, or coffee. It was just the matter at hand and it was my attempt to bring light to the matter of how we as Americans spend our money and how in simply avoiding or sacrificing a little (in this instance a cup of coffee) we can give so much more to someone else.

Today I want to first talk about another $1 deal that I find myself personally falling into. Second I want to give you some more information on what I’m raising money for. And finally I want to remain accountable to you and encourage you.

So I like things that only cost a dollar because it’s a simple this or that. One of the deals that I love that I don’t know how much money I’ve spent on it, is the McDonalds $1 any size drink. A large drink, my personal favorite being a Dr. Pepper, with unlimited refills as long as you sit there….anyone want to go study with me? It’s an awesome deal. But it’s something that I don’t need. Water is better for you, and cheaper. My goal is that this week, I don’t go to McDonalds for any of their $1 dollar drinks.

So yes I’m here to educate, but I’m also here to try to raise some money. My home church has an event called the 30hr famine, students fast for 30 hours and raise money by people sponsoring them, all this money then goes to world vision and they use it to save kids lives. I loved doing this event but ever since I graduated 3 years ago I have been too old to be a participant so I’ve not raised any money in the last 3 years. But my sister is still in the youth group so all the money that I raise will go to sponsor her as she fasts for 30 hours. You can learn more about the 30hr famine here http://www.30hourfamine.org/ and if you don’t want to go though me but want to donate directly you can copy and paste the following into your browser (http://twv.convio.net/site/TR/30HourFamine/30HourFamine?px=1159474&pg=personal&fr_id=1310) and it will take you to my sisters page. Again if you want to donate remember that I’m matching up to $100 of the donations I receive to pass on to my sister.

So how did it go? Did you pass up coffee? I passed up the urge to go get more coffee than the one cup I bought. So I saved at least $4 if not more. So by donating this money I’ll save a child’s life for 4 days! How awesome is that? Hopefully your feeling inspired to cut back a little bit this week and give whatever you can to help fight the injustices in this world.

As to how we are doing so far I’ve saved $4 and my brother said that he’s got a little bit for me. That’s all we have gathered so far, remember that I’m willing to match up to $100 of contributions collected, so that $1 you give becomes $2 just in the blink of an eye. To bad the banks for double our money that fast. Have a good day readers, and thanks for giving me a few minutes of your day.

DONT BUY BIGGBY COFFEE TODAY (at least read this first)

Today I want to share with you a matter that God has placed on my heart today in chapel. One word Justice! There are so many injustices in this world today, but the balance of wealth is the one matter that’s been placed on my heart. If you have not heard biggby is having its 16th birthday today, so you can get a tall coffee for only $1! That’s so huge. I bought one this morning, and I had plans to go back and perhaps get up to 3 more thought the day, you just can’t beat that price. But today I realized just how much of a gluten I was being. I’ve always been a big advocate of child sponsorship and I’m always telling people just how far their dollar can go. Your one dollar can not only feed, but educate, provide cloths, medicine, and loving care for children all around the world! Young children hear the gospel message because of your one dollar. There is such a huge difference and it’s so very sad….here a dollar will get you a 16oz beverage that’s on mega sale…or you can give a child one day of hope and of life.

Micah 6:8 says “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (NIV)”

God has shown me what is good, and I know that he has richly blessed me so much more than I deserve. I’ve decided that there is no way that I can spend more money then I already have today on a silly thing like coffee, especially when it’s purely for myself, and my personal enjoyment. I want to challenge you to do the same thing. But I’m going to take it up to the next level. Don’t just not buy the coffee, take that dollar or two and give it to the kingdom.

I looked at my bank account and it brought tears to my eyes to see just how blessed I am right now. So here is what I’m going to do. I want to save kids lives and spread the gospel and I want you to do it with me. I will match 100% of what people give me up to a total of $100 as a special gift that will all be given to compassion international for Children. It will all go to my sister who is going to be doing a 30hr Famine. Now I don’t want your tith money, no far from that, I want to challenge to you give your coffee money, and maybe a bit extra. It would be so amazing that with your help I could give my sister $200 for child poverty.

Now it’s a great deal, perhaps get one coffee, but please no more than that. I urge you to come beside me and fight injustice around the world. And if you can’t help me fight this cause I totally understand, but please at least pray for the children all around the world who live in poverty and have nothing to eat tonight.

hurting….

Today in church I was also highly offended. It feels stupid, but my hair has become a bit un slightly in the past week. So this morning I put a ball cap on to help hold things in place. I was sitting in the very back row of the church up in the sound booth. Or course I removed my hat for prayer, but apparently that was not enough. A rather old man came up behind me and lays his hand firmly on my shoulder and tells me in a gruff voice. “Only woman where hat’s in church”. Then he was gone and went to sit back down. I just kept staring straight ahead calming my pure outrage, we had the prayers of the day and as always I removed my hat, then I replaced it on my head, picked up all my stuff and then walked out of the church. Thankfully the sermon was done and most everything was though for the day.

This gentleman who is one of the old guys how has been a member of the church forever and is in a position where what he says goes, most of the time. He’s also the same man who got after a few kids playing ball within themselves with no threat to anyone else. He angrily told them to put the ball up and one of them dropped it and moved on, and another, not hearing him, picked it up. He then he says loudly “up means up!”. I was so mad at him right then. The kids were not hurting anyone at all and were mealy entertaining themselves. The kingdom of heaven belongs more to them then it does to me, their unshaken faith is simply amazing, yet for this man, it’s just not good enough.

Worship and church can be inside or out, in the car, on a lake shore, and in a building. His tradition of never wearing a hat in the building should not apply to me. What if I was not a regular, what if I was just a visitor? It’s no wonder my church is shrinking and there are no young couples and there are less and less children in attendance. What kid wants to go to a church where you sit and listen, then stand around awkwardly, then go home? The future of our church, the future of Christianity in the nation, and the future of our nation in general rests on these children. Jesus said, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, allow them to play, and enjoy themselves. Teach them, but make it fun.

I’m so close to leaving this church that I’ve called home all my life. The lack of care for youth, the style of worship, the messages. It’s all so hard on me right now. I only come to church anymore for my sundayschool kids that I teach, I invest in them because I truly love them and care very much for them. it’s sad how little they know about the bible, middle schoolers who don’t know about Jericho. The worship is not worshipful for me, the messages leave me empty and wanting more. Today is the only time that I’ve felt fed, and then all this happens and stabs me in the heart. I want to leave, but what about my kids? Who will look after them? The entire Sunday school program could and should be overhauled. What am I to do? This man makes me feel unwelcomed. Why not just move on somewhere else were I’m more valued and I can put my skills with youth to better use?

Baptism

Today in church we were talking about Baptism. The pastor was talking about it and said “with the water”. I’m not sure how my brain made the connection, but as soon as he said that I thought of a watermark used on pictures. The more I thought about it, it makes perfect sense.

I’m one of those guys who use the internet and will grab a picture if I need one, you know how it works. Right click, save as, and done. You have the picture. Sure it’s usually not the largest or best quality image, but for most things it works. It’s always incredibly annoying when I find the perfect image and it has a huge water mark across the front of it. It’s so perfect yet I can’t “steal” it because of the watermark. But that’s just why they put watermarks on them. It protects the image from being stolen and claims it for one person who it belongs to.

In baptism God puts a huge watermark on us claiming us from Sin and the Devil. It’s meant to be bold and stick out to the world, although all too often we tuck it into a small corner of the image that can be cropped out if we so choose too. This watermark says that we belong to God, He claims us, and He places enough value on us to plaster us in a watermark. It’s true that the watermark might make us look ugly and unappealing to the world’s eyes, but we don’t seek their approval. God claims us, protects us, and preserves us by placing a watermark on us though baptism.

God Provides

So Friday was nothing less than the realization of a hard lesson to be learned.

In the small group I signed up for at school we have been talking about changing one’s heart by changing one’s beliefs. At least, it’s something along those lines. But we were talking about worry and so with the situation with my wallet there was a lot that I found myself applying. Believing that the mental image of there it had to have fallen out, and where it had to be laying in the leaves, was from God. Perhaps it was. But I believed that if I could only get to the location in question I would find my wallet and all would be fine. It was mentioned in the small group that since God promises to provide for me, my wallet would turn up. That made sense to me, and I believed it to the fullest.

So I drove the hour down there, it was a pain in the butt to find the camp. But I got there and no one was in the office. I had called earlier and the recording said you can reach the ranger after 7. So I figured I would just see him in the office, no such luck. So I grabbed a piece of paper, told who the car belonged to, told what I was doing, gave an emergency contact number, and said I would be back by dusk. Then I took off down the trail.
I had no idea how long it was going to take me to hike it so at first I w as blazing though there just pumping it out as hard as I could, basically I was power walking in the woods. Once I got to the place that had been burning in my mind I stopped to take a break. I was dripping sweet and really thirsty. So I took a quick rest, and then started searching. First I scanned the area, then I started clearing leaves back, then I widened the search, finally I sat down frustrated.

God why is it not here! Where is it! And so much more was going on in my head. I was talking out loud and just frustrated. I decided to search the surrounding area figuring that if someone found it they would take the cash and toss the rest. Still no such luck. Then I started going crazy, trying to find a sign from God. While looking down by the lake I saw a water snake coming towards me; since snakes are images for the Devil I figured that God was saying my wallet was not down there…but perhaps he just wanted me to face my fears. Then on the other side of the trail I saw a feather I went to that and looked at the direction it was pointing, low and behold it was another feather. Figuring it must be pointing the way I followed it, only for there to end up being two feathers.

I was frustrated with God because I did not know what to do next, the wallet was supposed to be there. I bargained with God, if I found it while walking on the trail I would give all the money away; that alone was hard because I could really use the money. I knew that if he wanted to, it would just appear.

Eventually I prayed for a sign from God, not much happened, but I felt the wind pick up and then knew that it was time to keep checking farther down the trail. By the time I reached the point where we turned around before and I was going to be turning around and heading back, I came to a realization. God did not need me to find my wallet for him to provide for me. The simple fact is, this week I have 4 days at work. Also I’m still living at home and all I really have to pay for is gas. So I don’t need any more money and losing my wallet is not going to make it hard for me to survive. I’m already blessed and taken care of. Funny thing is that’s what I planned to right, but I also got 2 bills Saturday.

First my Birthday is coming, *sigh*, it’s bad when having birthday’s are a day to dread because bills are due. Sometime between now and then I have to pay a $105 bill for my license plate on my car. Then there is another small bill, around $50 due to stay a member for the company that I order from.

So I’m not really expecting my wallet to show up ever, Monday I have to see about getting stuff replaced, and I just don’t buy anything other than gas.

who now?

It’s been so hard these past few months. I feel that I’m so utterly alone at times. All my friends seemed to have moved on in life, just don’t care enough to talk to me, or i cant/dont want to talk to them anymore. i’ve just not had anyone to talk to. Being left alone on the field of battle to bleed out to my death since no one cares enough to stop and help….guess it’s just me and God from here on.

So the good news is that I was able to close my computer by 12:01 and then went through my normal before bed stuff prior to sleeping. So I was not up that much later than my goal.

So now to introduce my kid to you. First off I have decided not to post a picture simply because Compassion International won’t let you right click save target as to down load the picture. This is to protect the privacy of the kids, of course my mind is flowing with many other back door ways to get the picture, still I think for now I’ll keep his picture private. I think I’m going to try to carry one in my wallet, not sure how I’m going to go about it but yea, so if you really really want to see him you will just have to ask sometime.

So Bismark Aduobe is the name of a little boy born 2 days and 10 years after I was. So when I’m going to be turning 20, yea I know scary, in about 2 months he will be turning 10. His education level is equal to that of second grade and his performance is average, but it’s really great that he’s already attending school and doing alright in it. Also it’s a huge blessing that he is healthy right now. They asked me at the time if I wanted to pay an extra $7 a month because it was in an aids infested area, but I just could not as it was going to be really close as it was. So thankfully he is healthy.

He attends Sunday school and church plus he also has Bible classes. ^_^ which means that he’s already been reached and is hearing about the gospel. Right now he does not have many chores to do but just runs errands for his family. His hobbies and sports that he plays/ does are soccer/football. I think they mean just soccer but also call it foot/ball because of European countries. But he also enjoys running.

He has two healthy parents who are married they are living with and supporting the child. So again with it being an aids area he’s already a really blessed kid. His dad works as a driver and his mom works as a petty trader. Both are only employed part of the time.

His community located 10 KM north of Accra with a population around 7,000. The houses have dirt floors, concrete walls, and tin roofs. It’s really interesting to note that March is the warmest month there with the average temperature being around 32c and the coldest month is June with an average temperature around 20c. The weather is humid and it’s made up of a coastal terrain. There are also many other stats that go on and on about the different months but I’ll spare you all the details there.

The average monthly income is $32 a month for an entire family. Which just goes to show how blessed we are in the country and how much of a difference we could make if we just gave a small fraction of what we have. If I as a single male working part time while attending school can sponsor a child think what we could do if every family in America took care of one or two children. We slowly lower our standard of living cutting back on all the “necessities” that we don’t really need.

He lives just north of this location bellow. anyways that’s the basics of who he is, what he does, and where he lives. ^_^ i need to write him in the next few days.

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Is a Daddy….

It’s official now. I’m a Daddy. Or at least that’s what Mike Ashley calls it.

A few weeks ago Mike and I took the Potterville students to soul blast. It was a good weekend. During the seventh day slumber concert on Saturday night the lead singer started talking about compassion international and asked how many people would sponsor a child if God provided them the money to do so. I instantly raised my hand. Sponsoring a child and giving money has been something that was on my mind for a little while. Anyways I just put my hand up and they passed out info packets from different children before looking at mine I told God that if he wanted me to do this I would get a boy, which one of the things that he likes to do is to play soccer. Now in looking back I feel a bit like Gideon. Most boys around the world play soccer. Now if I had asked for a little boy who liked playing with dolls as a hobby and I had gotten one it would have been an even clearer sign ^_^. But I took the packet and then just walked out into the hall where it was quiet so that I could think. Currently my pockets were tight, and to an extent still are. I had just about had the 38 dollars in my account, and the form said that once it was received they would take the first payment out. I was worried that I would not be able to cover it, that I would not have enough for the first payment. Mike came out and found me and we prayed over it. I figured that I could do it, but that it would just be very close. Turns out they did not begin billing me until last weekend; I had become quite concerned that something had gone wrong. These past weeks I have been praying diligently for financial blessings. Also I have been only letting my car accelerate at 2,000 RPMs which is much slower than I normally drive. I have no proof or evidence, nothing to validate my claim, but I believe that God stretched the amount of gas in my car as I did not seem to run out as fast as I should have. Today I saw they billed my account, today my login to compassion worked, and there was my child, my little boy….and I was filled with such joy that I almost cried, currently in just writing about it I’m getting emotional. I’m taking care of him and making a difference in his world. It’s about time I did something, will see how well I can provide for this one, but I have been tempted to get another. If all goes well and I get the job in St. Johns I would really like to find another child to adopt.

I’m going to leave it there for now; I have homework to do and would like to try to be in bed before midnight, although that might not happen, perhaps tomorrow I’ll introduce him to you so that you can learn more about him.

^_^

^_^ i have so much writing that i need to get doing…perhaps later today i can write about something that happened few weeks ago that’s now official.