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