July 20, 2013 Update. School of Biblical Studies.

I've been home from my Discipleship Training School (DTS) for almost 2 months now.  During DTS, I didn't know what I wanted to do afterwards.  I had a few options to choose from.  But since being home and after a lot of praying, I've made a decision. 

I am going to dedicate the next season of my life continuing to serve with Youth With A Mission (YWAM).  I will be participating in a 9-month school called the School of Biblical Studies (SBS) in Lakeside, Montana.  The school begins in mid-September of this year.  In this school I will have the opportunity to study the Bible in depth and learn from some incredible teachers.  I feel like this is the next step I should take, and it will give me a solid foundation for the next mission in my life.  I’m not sure what that will look like.  But I know that God has called me to go and to serve; I’m just on the journey of discovering where that is. 

But for that to happen, I need your help!  If you could help me through prayer, I would really appreciate it.  Prayer is huge.   

And if you’re able to do so, I would really appreciate your financial assistance.  The total cost of SBS is $7,650.  To be honest, raising this amount of money is terrifying, but I trust that if God wants me to participate in this school, He will provide.  I have a job and I’m working, but I can’t do it on my own.  I know that God can do incredible things.  I’m just trying to have the faith to fully rely on Him to provide.   

The truth is, I get anxious.  I get nervous about support raising.  I get nervous about money.  This is the third time I've been in the position where I'm asking my brothers and sisters in Christ to give money out of their own pocket, and that's difficult.  It's hard continually asking for help.  I worry about what you think of me for asking.  I worry about not raising enough.

But I do find peace about it.

Matthew 6: 25-26

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

What Jesus tells us here is awesome.  You can look at the birds who literally don't do anything but fly around, and God takes care of them.  And then Jesus poses the question, "Which is more valuable, you or birds?"  The obvious answer is that you are more valuable.  Not "future you" when you've figured everything out.  Not "sinless you."  Not "perfect you."  You.  Right now.  You are valuable to God.

That calms me down.  It doesn't take away all the doubts and it doesn't answer all my questions, but that brings me peace. 

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Back Home Again In Indiana. Thank you.

DTS is finished.  I had the experience of a lifetime and to be honest I'm bummed that it had to come to an end so soon.  It felt like those 5 months were just a blink of an eye.  But they were jam packed and I learned so much.  I learned about God.  About myself.  About love.  About missions.  About people.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I was able to live in Brazil for 2 months of my life.  I was able to take this desire in my heart to go, and I got to live it out.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for all of your overwhelming support.  Thank you for keeping up with me and what I've been doing.  Thank you for genuinely caring about what's been going on, even when I was thousands of miles away.  All the thoughts, prayers and support have not been forgotten.  I think about you all the time.

I don't take what you've done for me lightly.  You've poured into my life more than you realize.  Without you, none of this could have been possible.  You're a world changer.  You're a life changer.  And if you don't believe me, at the very least you've impacted my life directly.

Yeah, we went to Brazil with hopes of seeing God use us to impact lives.  And that totally happened.  But on top of that, the students' lives were changed.  My life was changed.  I feel different.  I still mess up and I'm far from perfect, but my identity has a foundation now.  My life has a purpose even when I don't know where it's going.  So thank you.  I can't say it enough.  Thank you so much, for everything.

I got home 2 weeks ago.  I'm back in beautiful Indiana.  Believe it or not, I've really missed the Midwest.  I don't really have culture shock.  I'm more just bummed that I probably won't see most of my DTS team again.  That group was like family.  We're brothers and sisters.  They're awesome and I'm gonna miss them.  Even though I probably won't see most of them again, I'm excited to Facebook stalk them and see what God's doing in their lives.

On the other hand, I am so stoked that I get to see my friends and family back home!  It's exciting every day because every day I see somebody that I haven't gotten to catch up with yet.  You'd think I'd be sick of telling the same stories, but I love it.  It's been rad sharing stories with close friends and family.  And I love hearing about everything that they've been doing while I've been gone.  It's cool catching up.

I'm working on figuring out my next step.  I don't know exactly where I'm headed next, but I have a few options to choose from.  I'm sure you'll be reading a blog on here sooner or later about where I may be headed... but we'll see!

Thanks for tracking with me on this awesome adventure!  It was huge, but it was just the beginning.  I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Recife Update

My team of 13 (I think..) is nearing the end of our outreach in Recife. In a couple days we'll be headed back to Rio for our final 2 weeks in Brazil. Our time in Recife has flown by. I cannot believe we've already been here 4 weeks.

We've been partnering with the JOCUM Recife base doing lots of different things. I'll do my best to remember all of it..

-Digging out the foundation for a new wall surrounding the base
-Mixing cement and laying the foundation for a brick factory on base
-Digging trenches through the jungle and around other parts of the base to get wiring to the brick factory
-Teaching English to students at the nearby school
-Playing soccer and discipling students in the soccer program at the school (Show De Bola)
-Basic cleaning around the base
-Running a youth group service at a nearby church
-So much more...

The past 4 weeks here have been drastically different than our first 2 weeks in Rio. In Rio we were doing street preaching and programs at local schools. In Recife we've been working hard doing lots of physical labor. It's cool that we get the opportunity to try a little bit of everything during our time in Brazil.

The JOCUM base in Recife has so many awesome things going on! It is so cool to practically help them out because they are doing great things. Such an awesome place full of awesome people.

I love my team, more than they probably realize. I am so lucky to have an awesome group of people around me that are always ready to do work and get dirty, and actually enjoy it. I've been enjoying it, and I have my team to thank for that.

These next couple days are the last I'll be with just this smaller team. In Rio all 50-something of us will be back together for the last 2 weeks. And that's gonna be awesome. I can't wait to hear what the rest of our DTS has been doing!

Love Regardless. And Go.

It's so cool looking back and seeing God answer my prayers so practically. A few years ago during a church service, I shouted at the top of my lungs, "I'll go anywhere! I'll do anything! At any cost!" I meant every word, but I didn't think God would actually send me anywhere. Now I'm in Brazil. Sweet.

I never thought I'd be one of the few that get the opportunity to be a direct part of positive change in this world. That's for better people. That's for people who have everything figured out and have their lives in order. And that ain't me.

God meets us right where we are and He will answer us, no matter how jacked up our lives are. No matter how messed up my life still is.

I wanna love people like Jesus loves me. I wanna actually care about people, whether we agree with each other's lifestyles or not. I wanna love people for who they are. Not for who they may become and not for who they used to be, but for who they are. Right now. I wanna love people like Jesus loves me.

I wanna love, regardless.

Grace, Grow, Go.

Recife, Brazil

Our team of over 50 has split up for the next 4 weeks. The team I'm on got to fly out of Rio and into Recife. We're staying on the YWAM (JOCUM) base in Recife and we will be partnering with all the things they're a part of. They do a lot of stuff so it'll be cool to work with them here. Hopefully I'll be able to do a more in depth update later!

I Made It!

I'm in Brazil!  The team is staying at a YWAM base outside of Rio.  YWAM is called JOCUM here, so if you look up JOCUM Rio, you can probably find where we're living.

It's been eventful to say the least.  We've done what we call an 'open air,' and at these open airs we play songs, share testimonies, perform dramas and skits, and preach the Gospel.  We set up at a park, plaza, or something like that, and talk to the people.

We also got to partner with a local church in the area.  Our contact there lead us around a few slums in the area and we got to worship and pray in those areas.  We got to meet a few people that lived in those areas as well.

Lots of things have been happening already!  We're praying, expecting God to use us while we're here in this season!

 I love it when people ask why a bunch of young people from America, Australia, Norway, Cambodia, Thailand, and South America wanted to come to Brazil together.  I absolutely love telling people that God told us to come here, and that we want to share God's love with them.  I LOVE saying that Jesus loves them so much that He'd get a bunch of young people from all over the globe together to share His love with Brazil.  Freaking sweeeeeeeet.  I love seeing their faces light up when we tell them.

Soooooooo good.

Less Than 9 Days until Brazil!

It's been a long time since I've had a really detailed update, so I'll try to catch everyone up on what's been going on.

It's crazy to think that I'll be in South America on March 18th.  The entire team will be in Rio De Janeiro for a couple weeks, and then we will split up going to Recife, Sao Paulo, and Curitiba with one team staying in Rio (4 teams total).  I'll fly into Rio and stay there for a couple weeks.  I'll then fly from Rio to Recife and stay there for about 4 weeks.  And then I'll fly out of Recife back to Rio for a couple weeks, and then the entire team will fly back to the States.  If you could pray for safe travels for our entire team, that would be super awesome!

SEATTLE
We spent a week in Seattle doing ministry and evangelism.  We did everything from street preaching to talking to random strangers in the city.  We even had the opportunity to partner with a church in Bellevue, WA that has plans to plant a church in Seattle.  During our time there, we still had lectures every day focusing on Personal Design and Team Dynamics.  We spent every morning broken up into our outreach teams building team unity and just having fun hanging out.  And every evening we went out into the city.  It. Was. Sweet.

ASSIGNED READINGS
While we're here in Montana for our lecture phase we have to read 3 books.  I'll give you a brief description of the three I chose..

Is That Really You, God? - Loren Cunningham
This book is about the foundation of YWAM.  Loren Cunningham was the one who had a vision of waves of young people going to the nations, and this book is all about his journey with following what God told him and living that vision out.

Crazy Love - Francis Chan
This book is so loaded.  It challenges you and pushes you to quit being so lukewarm about your faith and go do something about it.

Streetwise - John Goodfellow
This book, written by my DTS leader's dad John Goodfellow, is all about his life.  I've only finished a little over half of this book, but this story is crazy.  I'm not big on reading, but this book has been hard to put down.  John Goodfellow has lived a crazy life, that's for sure. 

GIVING NIGHT
A couple nights ago, we had a "Giving Night."  Here's the deal.. God has given us every good thing we own.  Everything that's "ours" is God's.  It's all his.  It's scary to fully grasp that, but it's all his.  We've been challenged to hold everything we own with an open hand, not a clenched fist.  Everything we own is God's, so if he wants someone else to have it, who are we to say otherwise?
On Giving Night, we were told to pray about what we should give, who to give it to, and actually do it.  Whether it was money, junk food, clothes, an encouraging word, a hug, whatever.  Whatever God told you to give, you were challenged to actually go through with it.  Before any giving started, we were informed about how much money people owed for their outreach phase of DTS.  Not everybody had their money in, and there was approximately $6,500 that needed to come in for everyone to go on outreach to Brazil.  During Giving Night, so much stuff was exchanged.  Food, jackets, hats, shoes, guitars, money, jewelry, and more.  By the end of the night, all the outstanding debt for outreach phase was paid off and everybody was so flipping encouraged!  It was so cool to see how tangible God's love really is, and how much of a blessing it is to simply give when God says give.  Awesome.

WHAT HAVE I BEEN LEARNING?
These past few months of lecture have been life changing to say the least.  God has been constantly teaching me about my identity.  I didn't realize how much stuff God wanted to work through with me, but it's been liberating.  Every single day I'm learning what it means to be a son of God and how to truly live that out.  There are so many things that happened in my past that have defined me and how I live day to day.

Don't be afraid, for I am with you.  Don't be discouraged, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you.  I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. - Isaiah 41:10

You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil.  As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you. - John 15:16

But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.  It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. - Romans 4:23-25

It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.  Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. - Ephesians 1:11-12

This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God-WHO DOES NOT LIE-promised them before the world began. - Titus 1:2

This is what God has been constantly telling me and reminding me of, using these verses as an example...
"Grant, don't be afraid!  Why are you so discouraged when you know that I'm gonna lift you up?  I have claimed you.  I chose you before the foundations of the Earth; right before Genesis 1:1.  Right there, I chose you.  And I've forgiven you.  I have verbally declared you righteous, in spite of all your struggling and shortcomings.  You're forgiven of everything.. All of it.. Believe me.  I have so many plans for your life, greater plans than you can even imagine.  Grant, it's all true!  I wouldn't lie to you; you are my BELOVED SON.  Keep doing what you're doing.  I'm so proud of you.  You are not a loser.  You are valuable."


CAFE NIGHT
During DTS, we split up into different "tracks" where we could choose to spend some of our school time focusing on different things.  Those tracks were music, art, dance, community, or snowboarding.  Here's a video where we got to show each other what all the tracks have been working on the past 3 months.