Sunday, August 24, 2014
Saturday, August 23, 2014
C4 youth dreamcenter team celebration
Please Join us this Sunday at 12 noon to welcome the team home. It will be at the aritas home. Please let me know of you have any questions.
Encourage These Young Men In Their Walk With Jesus
As we wind down from this mission trip, I can tell you that all the boys did great. This week they truly had an encounter with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...amazing worship/prayer, being His hands and feet to those in need, serving at the DC, time in the word journaling, and experiencing being a part of a biblical community. They truly were a small group navy seals team that focused on glorifying God and building each other up.
I have no doubt that this spiritual encounter with Jesus will be something that will deepened their relationship with Jesus...you can see that in their testimonies. However, we all know life change takes time...I want to humbly ask that we as a family encourage these young men in their walk with Jesus. It took a lot of courage for them to be transparent and vulnerable in their testimonies...we don't want to ever use it against them.
The best ways we can encourage them is to:
1. Continue to pray for them every day.
2. Personally focus inward on your own walk with God. Ask them for forgiveness, be open about your own weaknesses, share with them if you need prayer
3. Discipline in LOVE and extend grace as the Holy Spirit leads. Use your words to build up NOT to tear down.
4. Encourage them to get involved with Iolani FCA with Dom and C4 Collide. Getting involved by serving and being a contributor not just an attender.
This is how the Lord is personally challenging me and I wanted to also share this word with each of you. Grateful for your prayers and support. God is truly faithful.
I have no doubt that this spiritual encounter with Jesus will be something that will deepened their relationship with Jesus...you can see that in their testimonies. However, we all know life change takes time...I want to humbly ask that we as a family encourage these young men in their walk with Jesus. It took a lot of courage for them to be transparent and vulnerable in their testimonies...we don't want to ever use it against them.
The best ways we can encourage them is to:
1. Continue to pray for them every day.
2. Personally focus inward on your own walk with God. Ask them for forgiveness, be open about your own weaknesses, share with them if you need prayer
3. Discipline in LOVE and extend grace as the Holy Spirit leads. Use your words to build up NOT to tear down.
4. Encourage them to get involved with Iolani FCA with Dom and C4 Collide. Getting involved by serving and being a contributor not just an attender.
This is how the Lord is personally challenging me and I wanted to also share this word with each of you. Grateful for your prayers and support. God is truly faithful.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Testimony by Troy
Serving God Brings Me Joy
My expectations for this trip was a little bit both ways. I was excited to go, but at the same time I was a little bit hesitant about the all the ministries that we were going to do. We had to go to places like Skidrow and thoughts in my mind about drive-by-shootings and other bad things were flowing in my head. Before the trip I never served for the joy of serving God before other than Levites, but now my mission is accomplished. I helped move furniture, painted walls,gave food to the homeless and poor, and even babysitted kids, but it was all worth it because we made not only the people happy, but also God happy. Before this trip although I kind of still had that spark for God after going to the Legacy camp, I felt that I still needed to prove myself to God and get closer to him. I have only been to collide for about a month or so, but hopefully after this trip and when school starts I will still be able to go unlike last year.
What impacted me the most on this trip was the food truck and the worship seasons that we had on both Tuesday and Thursday. First off, the food truck was just a great experience overall. It showed me how fortunate we are that we are allowed to afford to go to a great school and have food on the table everyday. I realized that when I saw so many people lining up to get food. Many of them actually came around and got seconds and some of them even took two out of my hand even though they were only suppose to have one. Towards the end of our first stop, there was even a lady that took three bags from me and that's when a lot of them started to plead and get an extra bag. I learned when you serve for God, although you feel tired on the outside, you still feel spiritually filled on the inside. Although there were so many other ministries, the second thing that stuck out to me was the worship. The men's ministry worship on Saturday reminded me of the worship from the Legacy camp; everybody sang with all their hearts and it was super loud. I learned that I don't only have to have a joy of serving God, but also joy of worshipping God.
Because of the food truck, when I get home I will appreciate whatever it my mom buys and makes at home. I have to learn to appreciate going to a great school even though sometimes it may get hard. When I get home and when we go to church or collide I will just worship to The Lord even harder than when I got back from the legacy camp. But most importantly I have to do all these things not because I have to, but because I love doing it.
Sent from my iPad
My expectations for this trip was a little bit both ways. I was excited to go, but at the same time I was a little bit hesitant about the all the ministries that we were going to do. We had to go to places like Skidrow and thoughts in my mind about drive-by-shootings and other bad things were flowing in my head. Before the trip I never served for the joy of serving God before other than Levites, but now my mission is accomplished. I helped move furniture, painted walls,gave food to the homeless and poor, and even babysitted kids, but it was all worth it because we made not only the people happy, but also God happy. Before this trip although I kind of still had that spark for God after going to the Legacy camp, I felt that I still needed to prove myself to God and get closer to him. I have only been to collide for about a month or so, but hopefully after this trip and when school starts I will still be able to go unlike last year.
What impacted me the most on this trip was the food truck and the worship seasons that we had on both Tuesday and Thursday. First off, the food truck was just a great experience overall. It showed me how fortunate we are that we are allowed to afford to go to a great school and have food on the table everyday. I realized that when I saw so many people lining up to get food. Many of them actually came around and got seconds and some of them even took two out of my hand even though they were only suppose to have one. Towards the end of our first stop, there was even a lady that took three bags from me and that's when a lot of them started to plead and get an extra bag. I learned when you serve for God, although you feel tired on the outside, you still feel spiritually filled on the inside. Although there were so many other ministries, the second thing that stuck out to me was the worship. The men's ministry worship on Saturday reminded me of the worship from the Legacy camp; everybody sang with all their hearts and it was super loud. I learned that I don't only have to have a joy of serving God, but also joy of worshipping God.
Because of the food truck, when I get home I will appreciate whatever it my mom buys and makes at home. I have to learn to appreciate going to a great school even though sometimes it may get hard. When I get home and when we go to church or collide I will just worship to The Lord even harder than when I got back from the legacy camp. But most importantly I have to do all these things not because I have to, but because I love doing it.
Sent from my iPad
DC testimony by Jake
God's Plan
Prior to this mission trip people living in poverty didn't really mean much to me. I was selfish towards my family when they called me to do something. I didn't know what to expect on this trip, but I knew we were going to work hard and serve God. Before this trip my feelings were up in the air. Most of the days I couldn't wait to go. But two days before we were supposed to leave my doctor believed I had a broken thumb and he said I couldn't go on this mission trip. When I heard that news I had so many thoughts in my head. I was confused, distressed, and asking God, why did it have to happen to me. But luckily as we were leaving the doctors he called me back in to do more tests. After he examined me, he told me it was just a bad sprain and I could go on the trip and to that I was very relived. I left the doctors office with a much better result. In my mind I knew I had to make this trip count.
During this mission trip we did many activities that helped people. One of the activities that impacted me was working with the kids. It was really amazing how just the little things put on a smile on the kids face. When we first got there many of the kids were crying, screaming, and not listening to the workers there. We had to play with them, watch the kids and feed them. Some of the small things we did that made a difference in their lives were giving them a high five when they did something good. Or helping build blocks. All of these things put big smiles on their faces. When I fed one of the kids, he was a rascal and didn't want to eat. He went as far as biting my finger. Then we went outside and made some play dough. We had to make sure that they didn't take more then they needed to and didn't make a mess. They were always hanging around one of us. This showed me that they needed attention and didn't get much of it. We then finished talking to the parents of the kids.
Overall this trip was a very humbling experience. I have learned that it's not about me, it's about serving God. This trip made me really think how lucky we are as kids to have the things today. We are so fortunate that are parents can provide for us unlike the parents at the dream center who live there. We are able to get an incredible education. I am also fortunate for a hot meal everyday and a roof over my head. Before this trip my parents always told me how fortunate I am I usually said yes and brushed it off. But now I truly do understand how uniquely fortunate I am.
Prior to this mission trip people living in poverty didn't really mean much to me. I was selfish towards my family when they called me to do something. I didn't know what to expect on this trip, but I knew we were going to work hard and serve God. Before this trip my feelings were up in the air. Most of the days I couldn't wait to go. But two days before we were supposed to leave my doctor believed I had a broken thumb and he said I couldn't go on this mission trip. When I heard that news I had so many thoughts in my head. I was confused, distressed, and asking God, why did it have to happen to me. But luckily as we were leaving the doctors he called me back in to do more tests. After he examined me, he told me it was just a bad sprain and I could go on the trip and to that I was very relived. I left the doctors office with a much better result. In my mind I knew I had to make this trip count.
During this mission trip we did many activities that helped people. One of the activities that impacted me was working with the kids. It was really amazing how just the little things put on a smile on the kids face. When we first got there many of the kids were crying, screaming, and not listening to the workers there. We had to play with them, watch the kids and feed them. Some of the small things we did that made a difference in their lives were giving them a high five when they did something good. Or helping build blocks. All of these things put big smiles on their faces. When I fed one of the kids, he was a rascal and didn't want to eat. He went as far as biting my finger. Then we went outside and made some play dough. We had to make sure that they didn't take more then they needed to and didn't make a mess. They were always hanging around one of us. This showed me that they needed attention and didn't get much of it. We then finished talking to the parents of the kids.
Overall this trip was a very humbling experience. I have learned that it's not about me, it's about serving God. This trip made me really think how lucky we are as kids to have the things today. We are so fortunate that are parents can provide for us unlike the parents at the dream center who live there. We are able to get an incredible education. I am also fortunate for a hot meal everyday and a roof over my head. Before this trip my parents always told me how fortunate I am I usually said yes and brushed it off. But now I truly do understand how uniquely fortunate I am.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)