Life is NOT Boring!

I haven't been writing much lately, but it's definitely not because there aren't things that I want to share! I have struggled with what to use this blog for and up until this point I've used it to update friends and family around the world on what God has been doing during my time in Charleston and the transition I've gone through from coming here with nothing to now having a career and almost a permanent home. God has used me in awesome ways and provided for me in miraculous ways, but our adventure isn't even close to over! 

This will begin a new era of blogs focusing on the adventures, spiritual and physical, that God leads me on!

My parents are visiting Charleston for the week so last weekend we spent some time exploring some of the surrounding natural areas. My dad has been trying to take pictures to further develop his website (www.wildriversgalleries.com), so I took them on a short trip to Patriot's Point trail, which is a narrow stretch of woods between some sports fields and a golf course that often produces some good birding.

We got skunked! I think we saw less than 10 birds along the trail, and I was about to turn around and go back to the car when I remembered that there's a field at the end of the trail that I've seen some cool stuff in, so we continued to the field. We actually found a good number of dragonflies and butterflies along the road on the way to the field, so my dad finally got to snap a few pictures. I've also seen some green snakes along the road here, but I wasn't able to find any of those when the camera was around... fairly familiar story for wildlife photography. They can sense the Nikon, but even more the Canon!

We got to the field and the trail around the field hadn't been mowed recently. It was still fairly early, so the grass was still wet with dew, but we decided to walk through anyways. I ended up soaked up to the knees and literally had puddles of water in my shoes. Waterproof shoes are an awesome invention, until you get water on the inside because waterproofing apparently works both ways!

As we were walking I looked up and saw something walking along the trail ahead of us, so I lifted my binoculars to check it out and it ended up being a coyote. There's actually a sign at the beginning of the trail where we had parked that says to beware of coyotes because they can be found in the area and they're dangerous!

Well, as I'd grown up believing, this coyote was by no means dangerous and took a quick turn off the trail as soon as it was able to catch our scent walking up behind it. It's interesting to me that something as wild as a coyote lives in areas that are so populated by humans. We build fences and throw concrete and asphalt down as many places as we can think to put it, but some animals adapt and continue to call it home. It reminds me of the bubble we love to pretend we live in. We try to keep our mind and eyes off of those things that are clearly around us so that they don't bother us. It's not just the coyotes and spiders we choose to ignore, but we also avoid areas of town where we might encounter hurting people or might get asked for change by a homeless man on the street.

Everything starts to blend in as we choose to put our blinders on, but I want to challenge you to ask yourself what your purpose on earth is. I believe that it's not to make a name for myself or dwell in my riches, but to live out the story that God has written for me. And I think for myself, and for everyone else, God's story for us is to share His love and His Son with whoever He puts before us. I want to invest my time into those people who need hope, because I've found Hope and it's very available to anyone searching for it.

Worship through Obedience

Most people attempt to live a life without regret. It's easier to do whatever we want within the moment, then try to turn those actions into something with a positive outcome later. Lots of people my age wander into this lifestyle through alcohol or drugs, which consumed in excess clouds judgement and results in choices that wouldn't had been made otherwise. Some people find themselves battling to find financial security within an addiction to consumerism. Even relationships, if entered into without caution and intentionality, can be extremely harmful to the life we form, or more importantly, our relationship with the God we love and serve.

You can pick up any magazine, newspaper, or open any news website and see a story about someone in a position of fame or power who was living a life without eternal intention. Bill Clinton decided it was worth it to have an affair. Justin Bieber decided it was worth the DUI. A quick google search finds a list of 66 professional rappers who thought their choices were worth the risk of jail time and found themselves behind bars. Every day we have a choice of whether to just take what the day brings in whatever form it comes, or whether to live intentionally and with a purpose.

There's a word going around in the church recently called "legalism". Some would say that legalism is failing to understand the power of Christ and turning a faith into a religion, an outline of do's and don't. I think the power of Christ is actually best understood when considering those things most people would consider "legalistic". Instead of saying the word and running away from it, let's dig in a little deeper.

The modern day church seems to completely divide the Trinity into three parts. Most denominations focus on one member of the Trinity and fail to discuss the other two members. Even the newest movement, non-denominational, focuses more on Christ and not much on the Father or the Spirit. It's easy to consider certain thoughts or mindsets legalistic if the entire Trinity isn't taken into consideration, but it's important to see the whole picture if we're truly going to live our lives in faith and in worship.

The Old Testament teaches a lot about who God is as our Father. God continually laid rules and regulations down in front of His people in the Old Testament as ways that He would be glorified through their actions. He was so just in those rules that when they were broken, He often made the decision to end their life as punishment. In Genesis 19, Lot's wife turns around after God tells her not to and she dies immediately. In Numbers 25 24,000 people die because the culture had grown sexually promiscuous. In 2 Samuel 6, God ends Uzzah's life because he touched the Ark of the Covenant. In 1 Kings 11, God removes the lineage of David from kingship over all but one tribe of Israel because Solomon started building idols for his many wives. God is too just to allow sin to be present around Him. We often forget who God is as our Father, or we ignore the past because Christ has come. We fail to recognize that Christ didn't come to remove the opportunity to worship God by being obedient in the things He taught in the Old Testament, but because the only way for us to receive salvation was for Him to die on a cross. The opportunity to worship God through obedience is still present as much as it ever has been. Thanks to His love and His Son's obedience, we can now find forgiveness in our moments of weakness.

This is not to say that rules and regulations can't become legalistic. It's important to look at Biblical lifestyle guidelines as opportunities for worship and not as a checklist of do's and don'ts. Following the rules and guidelines for a Christian lifestyle that are set forth in the Bible shouldn't be looked at as a list with gray spots, but as a template for how to live a life above reproach. We never want to give anyone a reason to question our faith, our relationship with God, or God Himself.

Let's take a quick look at how something can be seen as legalistic versus how it can be seen as a greater opportunity for worship

It can become legalistic to teach that people should give more to the church than a 10% tithe. It would definitely be an opportunity for worship and financial obedience to give more than 10%, but no one is going to be cast into judgement for not giving.

We can be legalistic in views on alcohol and drugs. In Ephesians 5, we're told to not get drunk, but beyond that there aren't any restrictions. Proverbs 20 tells us perfectly though that "Wine is a mocker and strong drink is a brawler." It would be legalistic to teach that alcohol needs to be avoided, but it's another opportunity to show God our obedience in greater ways. Teaching that alcohol should be avoided in certain social settings could be considered "legalistic" if taught as a rule, but could be a great guideline and recommendation for how to live above reproach.

It's even possible to be legalistic in church attendance, dating relationships, words that we use, activities we participate in and many other things. So many people make the mistake of seeing these things as a list of do's and don'ts, when the way that worships God the most is to see it as a list of "do what you can's". 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 both explain that leaders in the church should be above reproach. This isn't referring to just pastors and elders, but to the entire community of saints who would be identified as Christians outside of the church community. We should desire to live lives that attract people to Christ in an open and honest way, not lives that could be considered fake or hypocritical due to acting in ways that differ from what people believe Christians should act.

What can we do to worship God in even greater ways?

Instead of living every day looking to take advantage in the freedom of gray areas, let's use those areas to be above reproach. It's very easy to live in a way where we seek the approval of man, and when we have their approval, we assume we're doing everything the way we need to be doing it. Instead of finding comfort in the approval of man, we need to find comfort in knowing that we're living exactly how God wants us to live.

Worship is shown outwardly but is experienced by God inwardly. If our inward mindset toward worship is not seeking to serve God in every opportunity, then our outward actions and emotions are only meant for man to see.

The truth about the Trinity is that God is worthy of all of our worship and all of our obedience. Fortunately, He understood that human nature is sinful and gave His Son for us to be free from the harsh punishment of sin. The Holy Spirit is now available to be present in our lives to help us understand God's word, and to lead us and convict us in ways that allow us to be obedient in ways that God experiences as worship.

What areas of your life are you standing around looking for God in where you should be on your knees with hands raised knowing that He's already there?

Settling Soil

As 2014 came around I had some decisions to make regarding my career and current location. Was the company I was working for and the position I was given something I was going to commit myself to for a long time or was it a stepping stone for something else? I prayed and reflected on that question for almost all of last year and knew as I watched the Flip-flops drop on New Years Eve at Folly Beach that I had to make the decision.

I had pretty much decided in early December that things were going really well. I always ask myself if what I'm doing is something that God is using, and I really felt like the answer to that was clearly that He was. So, I waited for my yearly review at work to determine how my company was viewing me as an employee. When the time came I was blown away by how well they had perceived all the time and effort I had put into the company over the last year, so I knew that this was where I was supposed to stay.

I started looking for a house in mid-January. I had originally hoped to find a fixer-upper that I could spend a couple years putting money into then sell it when the time was right, but I wasn't having any luck. I changed my thought process a little and decided I could possibly invest in property instead and just live cheaply while I allowed my savings to develop into something that could afford a house to start a family in. I ended up finding the house below and the owner has accepted my offer!

It's a double-wide home on a permanent foundation, so the only thing that shows from the exterior is the low roof pitch. It's on a half-acre lot a block from the marsh bordering the ocean, and two blocks from a kayak landing where I can walk my kayak to go on weekend adventures! It's north of the city, so I'm hoping it'll be a little quieter and a lot more peaceful than where I'm at now. It has 4 bedrooms, so I hope to rent a couple out in order to have some community in the house, but it'll be great to have some help with the bills too!

My closing date is set for March 31, so as long as I get financing and an acceptable inspection, I'll be moving into this baby in a little over a month! I hope to set aside one room as a guest room, so please come visit. I'll even cook a meal or two!

Life in the office has been pretty crazy over the last six months and a lot of changes have happened, but I'm feeling more and more comfortable with the jobs I'm given and the responsibilities that have fallen onto me. My work load increases and decreases depending on the week, which initially stressed me out, but now I get pretty close to throwing a party for myself on the quiet weeks!

I'm hoping to start taking bigger steps toward starting up work through A Helping Hand once I'm in the house. I had prayed about where to start and have a specific neighborhood I've been praying over for a couple weeks now. Once I'm settled into the house, I'll start distributing some marketing materials and hopefully picking up a few side jobs until I can provide enough work to hand it over to someone else.

I also started dating this really great girl named Laura! She loves Jesus with everything she is and she loves adventure almost as much as I do! I'll tell you more later though. She may end up being the topic of the next blog if she keeps impressing me the way she has been.

The number one prayer request: Pray about coming to visit me in my new house!

Love you all!

The Netherlands

I was recently blessed with the opportunity to travel overseas with a small group from my church in order to do ministry alongside a sister church of ours in Hilversum in The Netherlands. I jumped on the opportunity when it came up for a lot of reasons, but mainly because I want to continue to discover my passions in ministry through obedience to God's word. Also, I'm half Dutch and I had a strong desire to go and see where my ancestors came from. As our flight entered the airspace above The Netherlands I was overcome with emotions. It was such a huge blessing to have the opportunity to return somewhere where my ancestors had lived their lives and followed the same God I was going back to proclaim.

Most of our time was spent painting areas of the church. They had an interior decorator that attended their church who went through and discussed with them how to make the church look more inviting. Every day the team would paint and I would be given all the random handyman jobs around the church. There were some awesome people there that we were able to work alongside. There are two American missionaries that are part of the church who took care of us every day. The wife made sure our stomachs were always filled with the most amazing foods, and the husband was able to spend quality time with many people on our trip building into them. The facility dude, Rudy, was always around to encourage us and make sure we were doing everything the way it needed to get done. And, the intern, Floris, made every job I had to do so much easier by knowing the answers to every question I could think to ask about what I was supposed to do and where to find certain tools. The pastor, Sebastian, was really encouraging to our entire team with his passion and his vision for Thousand Hills International Church. So many other great people supported us while we were there.

We also spent some time working alongside the children's ministry. We helped with a Christmas story night where parents from the surrounding area brought their children to church to walk through multiple scenes of the Christmas story. We also got together with the children's ministry volunteers one night and we were able to brainstorm with them about ways to improve the children's ministry for the church, the parents, and the children.

I was cutting drywall on the second day and ended up slicing my thumb open pretty badly. It was quickly decided that I needed to go to the hospital, so I got to experience the Dutch ER first hand! It was very similar to the American ER, except that due to the absence of an Urgent Care, there are a lot more emergencies.

I felt like we were really able to help the church accomplish some things that would've taken a lot longer without us, but even more-so, I realized the importance for our church to build a deeper relationship with their church. I've always been very passionate about the way churches communicate and live together. I've never agreed with the fact that Christian churches, who all serve the same God and are asked to be obedient in the same ways, fail to come together in community. It was awesome to spend time with a family that loves the Lord as much as I do, that I didn't even know existed.

God really used this trip to deepen my passion for international ministries and relational evangelism. I'm sure that at some point in my life God is going to call me to be a part of something large in ministry. I could honestly sit here for hours in awe of how amazing it felt to be a part of the church service at Thousand Hills. I literally feel like I met family members in that church, and after only a couple hours I felt like I was a part of what was going on over there. Thank you so much for praying and for those who were able to financially support the trip! I hope that not only through this trip, but through my future, you'll be able to see the fruits of your gifts.

THANKSGIVING / CHRISTMAS

I just wanted to quickly tell the story of how God maneuvered my plans to get me home to Wisconsin for both holidays with hardly any money out of my pocket! I had originally decided it was going to be too expensive to come home for the holidays so I was trying to figure out what I could do to get home at some point when my boss came up to me and mentioned a work trip to Chicago. It took me a few minutes before it hit me, but I ended up making it work out that I could go home for the weekend after finishing the job on Friday. My business trip ended up switching to Monday, so I changed my plans around a little, then came home and the entire trip actually got cancelled Monday morning after I was able to spend the weekend with my family!

On the way back from the Netherlands, we missed our flight from DC to Charleston due to weather delays coming out of Amsterdam. As we were trying to reschedule flights and get back home I decided it would be worth pursuing the option of switching my flight to Chicago instead of Charleston. A couple strings had to get pulled but I ended up being able to fly home for a few days for Christmas and I was able to see my parents and some really close friends that I hadn't seen in a while. I also got to go snowboarding, but my body is still telling me that that was actually a bad thing.

But, God had plans that were greater than mine and far above mine which allowed me to go home and see my parents twice in this season when I had no idea that it was going to happen at all!

Thank you for all your prayers! There are a lot more pictures from Holland posted on my facebook page for you to look at. And please, ask me any questions you might have about my trip! If it's a good question, I might even just write another blog to answer it!

Love y'all!

Mission Trip to Holland

In a few days I'll be on an airplane travelling to The Netherlands. It's approached so quickly!

I just wanted to quickly thank everyone who has walked alongside me so far on this trip by either financially supporting me or praying for me. I was blessed by friends and family and was able to raise all of the financial support necessary for the trip. Thank you all for your loving hearts and your missional passion! I love that my passion to go out to the world in Jesus' name was accompanied by the passion of many to send someone out in Jesus' name.

I have learned more about what we might be doing over there since I was last able to update everyone. The church we are going to visit wants to function the same exact way my church in Charleston functions. We're going to walk alongside them and share ministry ideas with them, along with encouraging them as a church, and directing staff/volunteers on how our church in Charleston does certain things to improve the weekly worship experience.

I'll be part of our team's Construction team. I'm not sure what we'll be doing yet, but I can't wait to get my hands on some tools and go to work!

I'm really going to value the time away to really reflect on where God is leading me and "pause" from everything that life is continually throwing at me. The places I've always heard best from God are the times where I'm uncomfortable and surrounded by things that are unknown, similar to when I first moved to Charleston. I know that God is going to use this time to break me, to build me back up in His mission.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Please pray for great communication and growth within the team.

Pray for personal growth. That I would experience God in a new way and that our relationship would grow to a deeper level.

Pray that my life would be open to where God wants me to go.

Love you all and cannot wait to tell you how things go!

The Road Ahead

When I sit back and look at where I am and where I've been, it's hard to believe. I'm sure there are times in your life when you have felt the same way. Maybe there were some rough areas you went through and after you escaped from them you looked back and could not believe you managed to get out of them. Or, maybe like me, you just had a completely different plan for your life than the one that unfolded. I didn't ever think I'd be where I am today, but as I look at the possibilities ahead of me because of where I am right now, I can't help but be filled with so much excitement for the adventure God has in store for me!

PREFACE

When I originally went to school for Communication my thought process was that I had two choices. I could either go to school for something that could make me a lot of money, or I could go to college and do whatever I needed to do to go into full time ministry. As I was thinking about that decision I ended up reading a passage in the Bible that discusses how difficult it is for a rich man to get into the kingdom of Heaven. The passage compares the difficulty to that of a camel going through the eye of a needle. I don't want greed and the idol of money to blur my vision of God, so I chose a degree in Communication, believing that it was going to be the first step into full-time ministry. I had dreams of going to remote villages and living life with the people there in order to tell them about Jesus. Well, I got diagnosed with diabetes when I was 19, which made me completely dependent on insulin, putting an end to any dreams of being anywhere away from doctors and pharmacies for an extended amount of time. I thought the dream was behind me and ended up moving into an engineering degree a few years later, assuming that God had shut the door on a paid position in ministry.

RECENT REVELATIONS

Ever since I settled into the working world I've felt distanced from ministry. Even though most of my spare time goes into it, I haven't been able to feel like I'm fulfilling the passion God has put in my heart for it. I've been thinking and praying about what God might have for me. I know there must be a way to serve Him in greater amounts, but so far I've failed to figure out what that might be. Well, for the last two weeks I've been trying to decide whether it was God's desire for me to go on a mission's trip to Holland or if it was my own desire. Most of the time when I receive a support letter or know a friend raising support for something, I judge whether to give and how much to give based on their passion for what they're doing and whether I think they're doing it for the right reasons. I understand that has a lot to do with how I feel, which could easily involve human error, but I figure it's the best thing I can do to keep from emptying the bank account every time I know someone that goes on a mission trip. Well, I wanted to make sure that the people I am asking for financial assistance were being asked by someone who was being led to go on this trip by the Lord and not choosing to go on it out of his own will.

The more I prayed about the trip and thought about why I was going, the more I realized that this is a great opportunity for God to speak to me about my future in ministry. The ability to go to another country on a mission's trip always opens up your eyes a lot more to what's going on around you and gives a much clearer vision of what God's plan might be for your life. Someone shared with me a few weeks ago that short-term mission trips are more beneficial in bringing change in the lives of the people going than the lives of the people being served, and I believe that that's probably true most of the time. I definitely hope to go on this mission's trip to serve the people of Holland, but I also have a strong feeling that God will give me direction during this trip into how I can shape my life now in order to devote myself to ministry better in the future. At some point I would love to do full-time ministry, but I'm completely lost as to how that might happen right now.

So, I've pretty much realized that I don't really want your support to go aid a church in a different country for a week, but I ask for your support to help me discover the vision for a ministry for the rest of my life. I love that I will have the opportunity to work alongside a church, and I'm sure we will do some great things! But, I also know that there are probably people there capable of doing those things as well. I want to develop the passion I have for ministry and allow God to feed wisdom to me on how to develop my life into one of full time ministry.

What I need from you guys is a lot of prayer. I need advice and wisdom. I need financial assistance. God can teach us a lot through the Bible. I consider it my manual on how to love God, my playbook, and my owner's manual on life. It definitely has a lot of answers and gives a lot of direction, but God created the church to create community, and I need the benefits of that community. I really don't know what I would do for full time ministry or how to transition into full time ministry from where I am right now. Or, maybe my life and my schedule just need some rearranging and I just need to get myself into a different type of ministry. There are things people on the outside see about my passion and my skills that I can't see about myself, and I need to know those things in order to determine what direction to go.

Financial assistance is always a hard thing to ask for, but that's why I wanted to share my heart. It's easy for some people to see giving money for someone to go on a mission's trip as giving money for someone to go on a glorified vacation, and that's what I've spent the last two weeks praying about. I didn't want to go on this trip if it was just going to be a glorified vacation. I want to show God my obedience in the small things, in hopes that He will trust me with the big things, which in this case would be a glimpse at the future and vision for my ministry. As of right now I've raised $75 out of $2000, and it's been about a month. That's a long way to go! Based on my blogs from the past, I know there are going to be about 100 people that at least open this page, and just $5 from everyone would make a huge difference. No gift is too small. Please pray about it and consider helping me develop a vision. God is going to put it on some people's hearts to support me in this way, and He won't with others. I trust that He will supply for my financial needs if He truly wants me on this trip.

Cut and paste this link if you would like to give. seacoa.st/thewellholland

I truly love everyone who takes time to read these posts. If there is any way I can share more about my life or any questions that have come up, please ask. I'm an open book!

Love you all!

The Valley - Desolation Transforming into Wells of Life

I went to the beach after work today. I found a raised area of sand to sit on because I hadn't thought to bring a chair. I began to read the book "Love Does" that a friend let me borrow after I agreed to read it as quickly as possible. I paused shortly after beginning to read. I'd allowed myself to get so busy and caught up in life and the activities taking place that I completely forgot why the beach had so often been my safe haven, my mountain top.

I looked out over the water and remembered a time God had spoken to me letting me know that just as the waves appear out of the sea without ceasing, so is His presence in my life. 

I looked up to the sky to see some terns fly over my head and remembered when God had told me that with Him I can fly on wings like an eagle. I've wanted to fly away so badly lately. If I could just launch myself in the air and remove myself from life I would feel so free!

I looked at the children playing in the water, the old man and his wife walking through the surf, and the teenage boy learning how to boogie board. These are the people that I'm living for. God didn't reveal Himself to me so that I could live a great and successful life for myself. God revealed Himself to me so that I could live a great life for those around me.

I started to feel refreshed. The more I read the book, the more I felt the problems that entered my life last weekend slowly fade to mere raindrops from the hurricane that they seemed. God has this awesome quality that whenever we seek Him earnestly, He grants us comfort and shows us that He's in control.

Last Wednesday I was boarding an airplane to Jackson, MS for a two day work trip and I got a call from Wells Fargo telling me that they wanted to review some potential fraudulent charges on my account. She began to read off charges in the hundreds of dollars for online game sites, non-profits, hotel rooms, and all sorts of stuff. It sounded like someone had emptied my bank account overnight! Fortunately, Wells Fargo was able to keep the bank from processing a lot of the payments and refunded me for the few that they couldn't stop, all in the few minutes before I boarded!

On Friday I called my doctor's office to ask whether or not they had received results from my diabetic testing yet. They told me they hadn't but they'd call the lab and see if they had finished them yet. While I was waiting I drove to a fairly secluded beach about an hour away and just sat there reflecting on everything going on in my life- from my job, to volunteering with the college and 20s ministry at church, to the dreams I had for my life that I still hadn't accomplished. While sitting on the beach I got a phone call letting me know that they got my results and that all three tests came back negative. I had originally had testing done to see if I was producing my own insulin, and because I was producing some in small amounts I was eligible for the genetic testing. The doctor had made it sound like I was going to be one of three types of type MODY. Well, I guess I misunderstood because the tests came back negative and the nurse told me that I am a type 1 diabetic and will have to continue taking insulin injections. That was tough to hear. I had been running all kinds of scenarios through my mind of new possibilities that could present themselves if I could take an oral medication.

On Saturday morning I drove out to a sod farm halfway to Columbia in hopes of finding a bird that I hadn't seen yet this year. I'm not sure if I've discussed this yet, but I have been trying to see 300 species of birds in South Carolina this year. For those of you who have seen The Big Year, it's very similar. I like to think of it like one of the I Spy books that I used to read as a kid. I'm at 280, but the birds I still need to see can only be seen during migration. As I was driving down the dirt roads of the sod farm I almost got stuck in a few areas where the road was soft because of the recent storms we've been having. I never found the bird and right before I was going to leave I hit a pothole and my front shock started making a lot of noise. My car air conditioning hasn't been working, but I've been hoping to keep it running for a while in order to get through all the traveling necessary for my goal of 300. Toyota Corollas get much better gas mileage than trucks! I've decided not to drive it until I can determine what's wrong with the shock, then hopefully I can fix it on my own.

Sunday morning I woke up shivering as one of our house guests enjoyed sleeping with a lot of blankets on and I wasn't prepared. I decided that instead of going back to sleep I'd take advantage of the 5:30 wake-up time and take a trip to a new location where a different bird I needed had been seen on Saturday evening. I ended up having a potty attack and had to drive down the first dirt road that I came across. The dirt turned to mud very quickly and I was sliding all over the road before I could react. I ended up stuck perpendicular to the road. I guess God was trying to show me that they make 4-wheel drive for a reason! First, a visit to the woods, then I started trying to rock the truck in and out of the muddy rut that my back tires were in, but I only seemed to make it worse. I began to collect branches and sticks to jab under my tires in hopes of gaining some sort of traction, but it wasn't enough to overcome the 6 inches of mud I had sunk into. My phone didn't have any service, so I walked in prayer a mile back to the gas station. I had only asked God that getting out would be easier than it seemed it would be. My original intent was to enter the gas station and ask for the phone book and if I could borrow the phone. I was going to break the bank calling for a tow truck in that area of the state at 7 am on a Sunday, but it's the only option that came to mind. I was on my way to the door when I saw some older men talking and hanging out on the side of the building. I approached them and asked if they knew anyone with the ability to tow someone out of 6" of mud. I explained what happened and that I didn't have 4-wheel drive. God answered my prayer as they got a strap out and we all loaded into a mid-sized SUV. I finally figured out the definition of the word emasculated.... it describes the way you feel when your tough truck gets pulled out of the mud by the vehicle of a middle-class soccer mom! 

I proceeded to my destination where I spent 4 hours looking but missed the bird. During the drive back the truck started beeping with a low-pressure tire alert. I stopped every half hour to try to figure out what tire it was, but everything looked fine the entire drive home. I took a nap when I got home and woke up to my truck being 4" lower in the front than I left it.

All this happened on top of the fact that we're losing a couple employees at work and my work load feels like it has tripled over the last week. All I could think was that I was getting punished for something I had done. How did all that happen in the matter of a few days? I learned that my health was not going to improve. I nearly lost all the money I had saved. And I broke both of my vehicles. On top of that, I could've gotten up to 282 birds, but I was still stuck at a lousy 280!

Well, nothing great has happened to suddenly overwrite everything that happened. God has done a lot of teaching over the last few days, and reminding me how critical it is to let Him carry my burdens for me. I'm continually trying to work on the idea that it's selfish to not let Him help, but the man in me wants to do everything without the help of others. I was fortunate enough to get the tire fixed for free, but the solution to everything else will have to come in time. 

I don't know why all this happened, but I do know that God has a plan. I was once again comforted with the image of me walking behind God, staring at His back, knowing that as long as I didn't stray from the path He was leading me on, everything was going to be greater than I could imagine! Sometimes God allows us to be attacked as He did Job, and in those times He promises to never leave us or forsake us. So, I'm resting on those promises. I'm giving my burdens to Him to carry, and I'm blindly following where He leads, knowing that life is an adventure and God is my trail guide.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Please pray that I would not get discouraged, but that I would continue to seek God and His will for my life right now.

Pray for the opportunity I've recently been given to be a leader at theWELL ministry at church. That I would effectively reach people by planning community events and that those people would be led into relationships with churches and Christians because of the events.

Pray that my vision would be a reflection of God's vision.

Pray that my heart and mind would be prepared for what ends up taking place during my trip to Holland in December. Pray that I would be in a state of mind that allows the Holy Spirit to speak through me as He promises. More information about this trip can be read about in an event I recently created on facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/432200530232227/

Love you all!