A Lamb to the Slaughter

This morning I was awakend by the strangest sound. Hamza was sharpening his machety. After Jay was through explaining to him that it was too early for that kind of work, Hamza moved somewhere else to finish his sharpening. Since I was awake by now, I went ahed and got out of my tent to write a couple of letters. Hamza cam by and asked me where Anna was, and I told him that she was in the tent sleeping. Then he asked:

"Do you want to help me?"

I never thought in a million years that what he needed help with was to slaughter a lamb (well I watched Hamza and William do it, but I was still there to see it happen) The whole scene got me to thinking.

Jesus was led like a lamb to the slaughter to die as a sacrifice to give me life. I guess I just never realized what that really meant until today. The lamb knew that it was about to die, yet it never fought, bleeted, or ran. It just came, silently and willingly, just like Christ. Jesus knew his fate and he was willing to follow God's will for his life, even though it meant death on a cross.


This place is teaching me so much and as subtle as things may look, their messages are powerful. We have just under three weeks left and I know that there are still things to be grasped.

God Teach ME!

Band of Brothers

Last night we watched an episode of Band of Brothers and after reading Phillipians 2:5-11, one of the characters really stands out to me.

You see the EZ Company had this really horrible CO named Dikes. One quote that I really grasped a hold of was :

"Dikes wasn't a bad leader because he made bad desisions, he was a bad leader because he made no desisions."

He was always off making calls or just falt out trying to avoid the action.

However, there was this first Lieutenant named Lipton, and he was an amazing leader, but he never realized it. He was just doing his job to the best of his ability and his company followed suit. He was the perfect example of a servant leader.

We are having a lot of fun with the leaders here at leadership camp. I am learning a lot about myself as a leader. I think Everyone's favorite time is Banana time.

And man do we enjoy playing with the kids. Soccer isn't the same over here (it is much harder).

What a load they have on the boat.

Greece is Amazing

So we are now a month into our trip and things are going great. From kids camp to refugee camp, we are just having a blast serving the Lord. Even without running water and electricity, we are still proclaming the name of the Lord to the people of this country. I thought that I would talk about one of my greatest moments so far.

During the refugee camp we had Koreans, Afghans, Morocians and Greeks. I got to lead worship one night and we sang Blessed be your name. When the last Chorus hit I was taken aback and couldn't play anymore. I heard the name of the Lord be praised in five different languages. It was the point when I felt God cultivating my heart for the nations.

I can't wait to get back home and share more stories like this and some more pictures. Keep praying.

The Barbarian Way

There is a group of guys here (Jay, Nate, Keoni, Ben and Luke0 who call themselves the Barbarians. When they are back home in Seattle, there are an acountability group. They desided to read through a book as a group. The book, The Barbarian Way. I desided that I wanted to read it to see what all this Barbarian talk was about.

The author starts out talking about how domesticated christianity has come from its barbaric roots. The funny thing is that he was describing me to the letter. I guess I just never realized that the way I was thinking about my faith was blinding me (keeping me) from a true barbarian heart.

I learned that I want to be and inovator, not an adaptor. I want to fordge my own way and not alway rely on othere to be there to lead me in the right direction. The Barbarian spirit in iinside me just waiting to burst out. I want to go back to that time when all I could do was talk about what Christ had done for me. I want to be a Barbarian.

Lessons From Esther

And who knows but that you have come to a royal position

for such a time as this. -Esther 4:14

When I look at these words of the book of Esther I begin to grieve. How many times have I been put in the right place at the right time and done absolutly nothing. There are a number of people that have crossed my path that I should have talked to, and didn't. Their deliverance will come from somerwhere else, and I have missed out on the blessing that was for me to take.

It is no coincidece that I am here in this place at this point in time. God has a plan for me being here. I know that I have grown closer to him in the past three weeks and I hope to never stop growing (eve nwhen I reture home).

First Trials

So today was the first day that I have really been tried since being here, and I don't think that I passed.

The kids showed up today for our first camp of the summer. It just had to be one of the hottest days that we have had to date. So what did the kids and counselors jump at first? The water! By lunch it was gone. We had no drinking water left on the property and the next water run wasn't due for another hour.

I just had to get away from the stress. I grabbed my bible an ran to my quiet spot. Then I remembered the passage that we had been reading all semester at UAM, the woman at the well. I open my bible to John 4 and verse 13 popped out at me:

"Jesus answered, ' Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst"

This made me think of the well that is being dug on the property. A fresh water well would provide so much for this camp. When the water starts flowing from that spring there will be nothing but praising and dancing going on and all of it in the name of Jesus.

Spring up oh well!

God's Word Alive

So today was pretty amazing and I loved every minute of it. We took our tourist day and went to the Acropolis. The parthenon was magnificent and it was really cool to see history come alive on the top of that hill.

But the most amazing part of the day was when we went right next dorr to Mars Hill. Acts 17 is a story of Paul talking to the Areopagus. Athens' city market was full of objects of worship to gods. Paul stood in front of them and declared:

"Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription : To An Unknown god. Now that which you worship as unknown I am going to make known to you."

He then went on to tell them about Jesus and a number of them were saved that day. And even later many more were saved. Paul used their culture to teach them about Jesus as Savior and Lord.

It was like the word of God came alive in the moments I was studying and reading his word on that hill. For the first time I really understood that the God of Paul in the same God we worship now 2000 years later. It just really hit me hard and is was a great realization.

I GOT MY PASSPORT!!!!!

Finally and I am so excited to finally have that off my back...now all I have left is raising the rest of my money...

Passport is Coming (in theory)

So I have really been stressing on this whole passport thing. I know that I shouldn't be because I know that God is in control and I shouldn't worry. But I guess I am worried because I don't have the control. Well I talked to the Passort Information people and they said that it was completed and should be in the mail and to me by the end of the week.

Now that my passport is hopefully on its way, I still need to raise some money. This weekend I am holding a garage sale to maybe get some money and the rest is up to God.

Keep praying for me and my team.

Two Weeks to Go

Well I am now two weeks away and I am getting a little nervous. You see, I still havn't gotten my passport and I am not sure about how much money I still need to raise. I am about to have a huge Yard/Bake sale here in good ol' Texarkana and I know that that will bring me a little cash, I am am still not sure.

But after doing a little studying I have come to this little point where I know that God's will is what I want for this (not mine). If it is God's will for me to go, I will get my passport and I will have raised enough money. So there is no need for me to worry anymore, I am in good hands.

Continue to pray for me and my team.

Praying for Rain

I bet a lot of you (if not all of you) have seen the movie Facing the Giants. Well I loved the movie. And even though there are a lot of great quotes to choose from here is my favorite:

"If you're gonna pray for rain, you have to prepare the field"

So I am going to prpare my field for the rain that I know that God has in store, and this is how I am going to do it. Over the last month I have been raising money for my mission trip to Greece. To date, I have a little over $1000. Which means I am about $2000 short. But after talking to Rob yesterday and praying about it, I have come up with this: If 200 people are willing to donate $10, I will have $2000 in no time.

I am preparing for a rain that I know God will send.If you are willing to be one of the 200, contact me at hawkspg@aol.com or leave me a comment on here and I will get in touch with you on how to go about making your donation.

I have prayed for rain and prepared my field, now the rest is up to God.

PS- If you have any questions you can call me at (870) 723-7707

Why do you Worry?

So, lately I have been boggled down with a lot of stuff. With classes winding down, finanicial deadline for my trip coming soon, and with just so much other stuff, I have been feeling very overwhelmed lately. And last night was no different.

I had to go with the Choir to Little Rock (I am a part of an ensemble that plays for the choir). I kne wthat with a couple of tests this morning that I didn't need to go, because it would stretch me a little too far for comfort. After talking to Dr. Skinner and finding that he was going to require me to go, I wrote Rob an email and told him that I had to go and about feeling overwhelmed. Well I got a reply:

"Hang tough. God has a plan"

So I had to go to Little Rock and I desided that I was going to study on the way down there, so Mr.Meggs let me ride with him so that we could get back early. Well after studying and a little small talk, Mr.Meggs got around to telling me that he got my letter and was asking me how to send in money and all that, and I told him. But this is when the God thing started. He asked me why I had been stressing out lately and I spilled. Afterwards he asked that instead of sending in money, he asked if he could pay for my plane tickets to orientation and back from debrief.

WOW!!! That was one of the things that I had no idea how I was going to do. God just reminded me that there is no reason to worry, he is going to take care of everything.

Waiting isn't Always Bad

So in preparation for my trip, PIONEERS wants us to do a study of Acts (as this will be our main focus at orientation and throughout the summer.

So where else did I start but at the beginning. Acts 1 starts with Jesus ascending into heaven, but not before giving this command to the disciples:

"Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father has promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." -Acts 1:4-5

I can only imagine what was going on in the minds of these guys at this point. In the last forty dayys they have seen Jesus die, raise again, teach and now he has left. But he told them not to scatter, and stay in the place that they killed him. I probably would have been terrified. But Jesus knew that without the Spirit, they would be nothing. The Spirit cam t ogive them power and wisdaom and was exactaly what the were seeking.

So I guess waiting isn't all that bad.

Going to Greece

If you haven't heard by now, I am going to Greece this summer on a mission trip. I am going with an organization called Pioneers. My team and I are going to spen eight weeks serving the Lord through camps and anything else that we get asked to do.

Here is a look at our tentative Itinerary:
- June 16-19: Participation and serving at the annual Missions conference held in northern
Greece at a Christian campground.
- June 20 – 25: Preparation of camp and ministry grounds at Porto Astro for the sports camps
(Hellenic Ministries sea-side property situated on the Mediterranean, 1 ½ hours north of Athens.
Porto Astro is a rugged olive orchard with intrinsic beauty used as a base for ministry.)
Serve at “Go Wild for Jesus” Extreme Water Sports Camps” – 7, 1 week camps
- June 26 – July 1: Pre-teen camp
- July 2 – 6: Refugee camp
- July 10 – 15: Leadership camp
- July 16 – 22: Teen camp
- July 22 – August 5: German youth camp
- August 6 – 12: Young Adult camp

it looks like we are going to have a great summer and I can't wait to see what God has in store for us (as a team and individually)

So this will be my update blog for my mission trip this summer. I will try to update ya'll at least once a week, if not more, on my preparation, trip and everything else I can think of.

My team:

Anna Vaughn- Texas Christian University
Jarred Pike- Montevallo
Zeb Gill- Fort Lewis University
Becca Carter- San Diego
Jenn Sisco- Abiline Christian University
Margaret Harrison- Central Washington University