Outreach

Here is a photo of the outreach team I'm leading with my amazing partner Ayshka. We're off to Puerto Rico which is truly a blessing. We'll be there for 4 weeks working with a church there running meetings, evangelising and a whole bunch of other stuff. Our name is Team Fuego. Fuego is Spanish for fire. They are an amazing bunch of people and God using all of them amazingly. Also they're absolutely hilarious. Please keep us in your prayers when we go there for the month of July.

song of the moment #1

I'm going to start a section on what song I'm listening to the most from time to time. Currently my favourite song is by Jars of clay entitled "Oh my God". Its a very honest what I'd call an epic song. It speaks to me because it deals in some way with injustice apathy and it lays it out there. That's kind of where I am right now. I'm fed of being someone who is up and down all the time in certain areas. I want my relationship with God to be one of constant passion, where I yearn for him so much it hurts when we're apart. I'm hungry right now for something more in my relationship with God. Its so deep and I just want to keep digging. Anyways here are the lyrics. Enjoy:

"Oh My God"

Oh my God, look around this place
Your fingers reach around the bone
You set the break and set the tone
Flights of grace, and future falls
In present pain
All fools say, "Oh my God"

Oh my God, Why are we so afraid?
We make it worse when we don't bleed
There is no cure for our disease
Turn a phrase, and rise again
Or fake your death and only tell your closest friend
Oh my God.

Oh my God, can I complain?
You take away my firm belief and graft my soul upon your grief
Weddings, boats and alibis
All drift away, and a mother cries

Liars and fools; sons and failures
Thieves will always say
Lost and found; ailing wanderers
Healers always say
Whores and angels; men with problems
Leavers always say
Broken hearted; separated
Orphans always say
War creators; racial haters
Preachers always say
Distant fathers; fallen warriors
Givers always say
Pilgrim saints; lonely widows
Users always say
Fearful mothers; watchful doubters
Saviors always say

Sometimes I cannot forgive
And these days, mercy cuts so deep
If the world was how it should be, maybe I could get some sleep
While I lay, I dream we're better,
Scales were gone and faces light
When we wake, we hate our brother
We still move to hurt each other
Sometimes I can close my eyes,
And all the fear that keeps me silent falls below my heavy breathing,
What makes me so badly bent?
We all have a chance to murder
We all feel the need for wonder
We still want to be reminded that the pain is worth the thunder

Sometimes when I lose my grip, I wonder what to make of heaven
All the times I thought to reach up
All the times I had to give
Babies underneath their beds
Hospitals that cannot treat all the wounds that money causes,
All the comforts of cathedrals
All the cries of thirsty children - this is our inheritance
All the rage of watching mothers - this is our greatest offense

Oh my God
Oh my God
Oh my God

...

Things are good. Its great having no reason to complain. I'm just really happy with where I am right. There's still a deep hunger within me for the things of God but in terms of life in general I'm excited. Its summer time here and the sun has been shining for the last week and a half, its great. I've nothing really profound to say which is kinda a regular occurrence for me so I'm basically rambling a blog post. Saw Spiderman 3...kinda depressing. The one thing I enjoyed was the redemption of the character Harry Osbourne. He was the one thing I enjoyed in the movie. Otherwise I found it frustrating. People just need to shut up and listen sometimes. We're often so inward focused that we view the rest of the world in relation to how everything suits us. We get caught up it ourselves, that's what happened to Peter Parker. Anyways, I also played mini golf this week which was fun. I'm now slowly becoming a bass player having played bass this past week at our Show me Your glory conference. It has been a real blast. Yeah, that's it really

Overwhelmed

I sometimes get moments, where I'm overcome with gratefulness and thankfulness. The things that I've done and seen are so amazing. Whether it be peeling oranges in New Jersey, jet skiing in Perth or playing football on a sunny summer evening in Ballincollig. All these things are moments in my life that I'll treasure. I so often get bogged down with situations and circumstance but its so good to just take time to reflect on the blessings we have received. I look out my window and its sunny, that's an answer to prayer. I'm slowly learning to life life to the full potential that God has given me. Its such a journey with many twists and turns. I've come to a point where I'm excited about the next turn because I don't know what to expect or what its going to look like. Sometimes its best for us to just not know.

Responsibility

This topic is something that has been on my heart recently. The question was put to me today "Where does my responsibility in situations stop and someone elses begins?" In my role here as a small group leader its sometimes hard to say "Ok I need to draw a line here and give it over to God". We often place false responsibility upon ourselves without even realising it. We feel like certain situations are ours to be responsible for and when a consequence or outcome isn't one we wanted or ever intended we often blame ourselves. Blame that should never have been ours.

This is one thing God has been really laying on my heart. He's been saying "Let me take responsibility". Its in his hands that situations, relationships, issues etc are safest. Even something as simple as praying out a situation and verbally giving it to God helps. He wants to take our burdens and those things that weigh on our minds. I'm now choosing to give the situations in my life to God. Sometimes we don't want to give these things up because we want to be in control of the things in our lives. I've found that as I'm more intimate with God and as I get to know him more its easier to give every aspect of my life to him. I trust him. We're often slow to give things to God because we don't know him well him enough to trust him with the things that are most important to us. So I encourage you to get more intimate with God. Work on your personal relationship with him, then release situations in your life to his will. Relationships, choices, the future, finances, family. He wants the responsibility and its safest in his hands

memoirs of a bogwatcher

I couldn't think of a title for this post so this was provided by my fearless leader the great gordini. Not only is he an amazing leader but also a jedi knight. Anyways I'm trying to blog more. I now have scheduled a half hour everyday for emailing blogging etc. So hopefully this will the last post about me meaning to blog more. I guess its just not high on my priority list. There's a load of other things i need to do before blogging but hopefully this scheduling of blogging etc will help the regularity of the blogging. So yeah. God bless

What's next

My apologies for lack of postage recently but lack of motivation and ill health have been a factor. Things have been really interesting over the last few weeks. The main thing going on with me now is what's next. I know I have 4 months left here and I'm really excited about that but my next step has been on my mind. I have a bunch of things open to me and I could do something completely new and different. The biggest thing for me is to do what I feel God is leading me to do and I'm not quite sure what that is right now. At this moment in time I'm truly up for anything and I mean anything because I now realise that god is bigger than what society thinks is "best". That often translates as playing it safe and whats accepted. I don't want to be "accepted" or do something for the sake of doing it. Is a college degree something that has to be done now, not necessarily. I'm just at a point in my life where I want everything God has for me. That could definitely be something regular, I have no problem with that but I'm just in the place where I'm open to what's irregular.

Krispy Kreme

Us small group leader guys are just sitting around our desk just discussing Krispy Kreme, the best doughnut place in the world so I said I'd capture the moment. Its just so good. Milk and doughnuts. I just want to cry because they're so good. Its my kinda hangout. 50's style decor, doughnuts and milk and good friends. Boston cream, raspberry, cheese cake. I'm learning to appreciate doughnuts a lot more. They're a really good thing.

Intimacy

God's been speaking to me a lot recently about this topic and I'm finally starting to hear him on the whole thing. I believe intimacy is the biggest key in our relationship with God. It is so much more than reading our bibles or worshipping. They are only part of the bigger picture of intimacy. Intimacy is about getting into the presence of God and staying in that place. Intimacy is communication. Talking with our Father. If you take the example of a marriage and contrast it with the relationship between us and God. In a marriage communication is so important. Sharing how our day is going, how we're feeling, our dreams, our desires, our frustrations. I believe our relationship with God should be the same. Honesty and vulnerability are so important. God wants us to be vulnerable with him. He wants us to want him. He created us for relationship and He's calling each of us by name back to him. I encourage and urge you to not forget why we were created, for relationship with our heavenly Daddy. He's waiting with open arms.

My apologies

Our wireless has been down since I got here so I haven't been able to post or email or anything but thankfully its now fixed so my posts will be more regular. All I really have to say now is stay in the presence of God, everyday. Its so key.