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).