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.