Him We Proclaim

So I finally edited the second part the IYG videos sent to us. Thank you everyone who helped out! I appreciate it so much. I hope the you are able to step into the youth group for a minute through these clips.

Today I worked with Signature again. We're building a team challenge course. In the mud. We've gotten our machines stuck an embarrassing amount of times. It's been raining many days, and all of us workers are betting that there used to be a septic tank right where we park the machines and store the tools, and slosh through ankle deep mud. Gross.  Yesterday we sunk anchors for for the guy cables. Guys are those cables you might notice coming down from  towers and poles. Their purpose is to provide stability for a structure, so when the wind blows, or the tower is stood upon--and it rocks, the guys hold it in place.  Using a skid steer, we screwed these six foot steel anchors into the ground. (This is not the actual machine--we were deep in the woods and mud valiantly fighting off mosquitoes and man-eating vines) We drove 8 anchors in for one side of the course. Today, I attached cable to the anchors, and my fellow workers attached the cable to the structure. ...

(Students can skip to the bold text.) Quick update: I have been sick this month for about two weeks. I was able to make it to some meetings and a wedding, but I spent a lot of time in bed. This is strange because I rarely get sick enough to stay in bed... ever. The last time that happened I think was the Spring of 2009, when some wonderful dishcrew people brought food up to my Culby 4 dorm room (thanks, Diego!) and my wonderful girlfriend got me a can of soup. Ok, so she wasn't my girlfriend yet--I actually asked her out on our first date on our way back from taking me to the urgent care center (full disclosure here--not my brightest moment). (she said yes, and ended up marrying me, so I must have done something right later on!) But I digress. We're full steam back to raising our support now (support raising doesn't get much attention when you have a 102 fever). We've reached the point where might just know enough people to reach our full budget now. We'r...

*This Article or Blog does not reflect the opinion of ReachGlobal or the EFCA. This Article is based on personal research, experience, and opinion.* This last weekend my mother in law had an open house for her art and for our ministry. When asked about the demographics of our sending team many had a common question: Why do only two churches support you? We have over 75 households supporting us--and two churches. The question came not as one of suspicion (if there are only two churches, you must be doing something wrong) but one of disbelief (how could they not want to support you?) While that was flattering, with all modesty it was a good question. We know many missionary candidates and field workers who have similar church statistics. Not only that, but we were advised numerous times to not   try and connect with churches because of the low result ratio and the bureaucracy behind the long time spent waiting for churches to make a decision. I saw my parents finish their support...

I'll just go ahead and use the fact that we are now at 71% of our monthly support as the reason we haven't posted. With that being said, we've been blessed to see God work. We've gained 11 new partners and are praying for more as our campaign comes to a close soon...   When we were in Knoxville for a prayer conference, we had lunch one afternoon at Chick-fil-a. After receiving our yummy food, Patrick went up to the counter all by himself and asked "Can I please have some ice cream?" Jonathan, the lady at the counter, and I all laughed, and we went on our way to the play ground. About 20 minutes later, the lady came up to Patrick with a bowl of ice cream with sprinkles (I didn't know they had those at Chick-fil-a). I had Jonathan take a picture of Patrick with the ice cream he received by simply asking. It brought to mind the following Scripture:  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be...

Happy Easter! We had a wonderful day celebrating our Risen King at church in the morning, and with family in the afternoon. It was a great time of reflection and worship. May the Savior ever give us eyes to see the depth of his unwavering love and the heights of its cost. -Jonathan, Maggie, and Patrick

I recently watched the following video and had great food for thought. Please watch the video below and know that Jeff Gordon (the driver) is a professional racecar driver. Also, sorry for all the bleeping. After watching this funny video, the car salesman's final remark stuck out to me, "Can we do it again?" This was coming from the man who freaked out during the whole ride. Why the sudden change of heart? Because he knew that he could trust Jeff Gordon in the midst of the crazy driving. Part of him probably knew that he would have enjoyed the thrill of the drive if he had felt secure with the knowledge that he could trust the driver. So true is this for our experience with God. If we forget that we can trust Him as the driver (and He has the track record to prove it) we're in the same boat as the salesman during the driver... we're scared out of our mind. But if we remember God's faithfulness and that we can trust Him, we're on the best and wilde...