31

31 New Members to the fam.

Welcome!

Rejoice!

Camps are over.

We have one week left in Estonia, 2011.

My head cannot wrap around that idea.

"Glorious One, Glorious One,

Light of the World,

You outshine the sun.

There is none more beautiful,

There is none more wonderful."

Beauty From Dust

We are in the midst of our last camp in the town of Viljandi. We have today and tomorrow left. This camp has been tough. Satan is lurching around the corner at all times attempting to discourage our team. In Viljandi there is a single church. Regular attendees are few and the youth is pretty wild. We have no rules such as no alcohol or smoking in the church facility and they really obey strictly to only the rules the way they have been said. Point: There was a student who came and left his six pack outside of the church door and whenever he would get thirsty he would disappear temporarily to take a swig. During the talks at main sessions students are constantly in and out. Most of them come to the church because they are bored but hey, at least they are choosing the church to come to. At least a seed can be planted. There is also a stronger language barrier here compared to that of the other campers. But despite all of this God makes us many promises and God can do wonderful things. Just like this song says "You(God) make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of the dust". The chorus doesn't end there though, it then says "You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of us." He is molding and transforming our hearts throughout this camp as well. I truly believe that God is going to make a beautiful youth group in this town and that will church will grow.

As we go into these last two days bless the conversations, the last talk, the labyrinth, and the afterparty. Be apart of God making something beautiful out of the dusty town of Viljandi.

Prayer for Norway

This is on my heart so much because when I first heard about the tragic attacks I immediately saw all of my students from this summer and thought of all of the students in Josiah Venture and my heart was crushed. Sending mad prayer towards the people of Norway.

Thank You Francis Chan!!

My heart has been hurting for the brokenness of the world lately. Horrible things happen and like mentioned in this video, people, even Christians, are rejoicing and condemning them to hell. Right now this video describes how I feel about not only the Osama Bin Laden situation and the Casey Anthony Situation but about the Norway Domestic Terrorists attacks. Those people who were/ are responsible for such wicked things need Jesus so badly. My heart desperately hopes for Casey Anthony and Anders Behring Breivik that God may shed His true and pure light radiantly into their hearts.

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture

1 Corinthians 15:3

1 Timothy 1:14

The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Going to bed with a heavy heart.

Sometimes, the world breaks me at the core.

Praying for people in general tonight.

In The Beginning...

Well, it started with a challenge. Viljar, one of my fellow interns, has challenged a few of the kids who know Christ from our last camp in Kuressaare to read the whole bible by January 1st. Well, after talking to Henry I decided that I would join in on the challenge. Well, I am sitting here reading Genesis One. I have discovered that I am probably not going to make it by the deadline but only because I want to really go into depth as I am going through the chapters. I have two different versions opened up on my computer and one of Arthur Pink's books opened as well. I have been spending all day reading about it.

Pink spends a good bit of time talking about the first two verses of the bible and how foreshadowing is already in the first two verses in relation to the fall of man and sin. Verse two said the earth is formless and empty in darkness however, "the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters".

So I read Pink's insight and kept reading the first chapter. I read the chapter in both NIV and in a Literal Hebrew translation.

As I was reading I noticed that "And there was evening and there was morning" is repeated after each of God's additions to the world. Something that really stood out to me was the fact that morning is always after evening. Morning here can refer to light and evening can refer to darkness. This makes it so that light comes after darkness. Light always prevails even after darkness. Because of the fact that it is repeated it is like God really wants us to remember that; He wants it to sink in that He, the light, always prevails. Then I was reminded of the end of Psalm 30:5 that says joy comes in the morning.

So that was my short revelation that is really quite simple but I really enjoyed the simplicity of such a strong message. My conclusion is that there is always joy to look forward to in Christ with each new day.

Soul Cries Out

Here We Go Again

My heart hurts.

I'm weak.

The only thing keeping my going right now is knowing that the Lord delights in my weakness because in them He is made strong.

We said goodbye to a majority of Kuressaare tonight.

The rest of the goodbyes will take place in a few hours at the bus station.

See on Nome.

(English Translation: This Sucks)

My heart aches to remain in Kuressaare the rest of the summer.

Pray that I can focus on Tartu, Parnu, and Viljandi.

That I can focus on God's needs in the three places I will be the remaining of the summer.

How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you - you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences - like rags and shreds of your very life. ~Katherine Mansfield