At last there is something tangible. It is no longer just an idea or a plan. It has jumped off the paper and turned into something I can touch. Soon, I will be selling tea out of this bus and loving on my customers as the Father has loved on me and that excites me to no end.
I have officially ended my job at AIM and started another. It's
so great to be out of that cubicle but man do I miss the people I worked with
at AIM. I've loved meeting my new co-workers these past few weeks and as
strange as it sounds, it has been quite refreshing to be around non-Jesus folk.
I love answering all their questions and revealing God's kingdom to them but it
does get rough at times feeling like I'm the only one.
As many of you know, my sister got married in June, which was quite
an emotional experience for me. I cried like a little baby at the wedding! But
now I am seeing things on my sisters Facebook like "I love my husband" and it
finally setting in; my sister is married.
Tom Krats, a fellow Novas-er and great friend, just called
me to tell me he is engaged. Holy cow.
Travis "Cletus" Harris is one of my best friends and it
seems that in these past few weeks we have grown to be much closer. He is about
to leave on an 8-month mission trip around the world and to be honest I'm
having a hard time with it. It seems like every time I get a great friend they
get ripped away.
Jenny, the one who moved down to Atlanta with me, just got
back from a summer in Haiti. I didn't realize it until she was gone how much of
an encouraging person she is and how much life she brought to me. We spent the
day together in Atlanta and had an awesome time reminiscing but the more I hear
her heart the more it seems that she won't be here long. Jenny's heart is for
the nations, for the least of these, and that is where she belongs.
At the moment, I am sleeping on the floor in a friend's
apartment but come September 1st, I am out of here and I have no
idea where I will go. This is the 9th place I have lived this year
and in a couple of weeks I will hit number 10. I am so ready to settle down and
have a place to call home.
Tonight it finally hit me. My emotional meter has hit the
max. Sometimes I wonder if I can handle one more transition and suddenly God
steps in and reminds me that it is all about him.
"As I have loved you, so you must love each other."
"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples,
if you love each other. If you keep my
commands, you will remain in my love just as I have kept my Father's commands
and remain in his love"
"My command is this: Love
each other as I have loved you."
"This is my command: Love
each other."
Jesus
said all of this at the last meal he ate with his disciples.
May was quite busy working on Alabama tornado relief,
training camps and getting leaders ready for their summer trips. I felt like I
was in my car the whole month going place to place. Thank God I drive a Honda
Civic!
The first week in June I was at my parents house for my
sisters wedding which was amazing. I was asked to give a speech at the
reception and could only finish half of what I had prepared because of the
tears in my eyes and the lump in my throat. Tanner, my brother in law, is just
about the coolest guy and I am so happy they get to spend the rest of their
lives together.
A couple of days after I got back to Georgia I had the
privilege of leading a high school group from Chicago on a mission trip to
Gainesville. To be honest, it was one of the most stressful weeks of my life
mainly because the person in charge of setting the trip up before I got there
quit his job and decided not to communicate with us. Thankfully I had an
amazing staff helping out with the trip and the participants really had an
awesome time with the Father.
The day the Gainesville trip ended I boarded a plane for
Iquitos, Peru where I was helping lead a youth group from Cleveland, Ohio.
There were nearly 80 people on the trip and by the end of the two weeks I was
quite exhausted mainly because I had to translate for part of the group and the
accents in the Amazon jungle are nearly IMPOSSIBLE to understand! The whole
trip God was breaking my heart for the fatherless people and reignited my
passion for Atlanta and all the fatherless people there.
As soon as I got back home I began searching for jobs and a
home in Atlanta. Yesterday I was offered a job to be a carpenter's apprentice
and I decided to take it. It will be a great learning opportunity and I will be
able to save up a bunch of money to help start up the tea business and buy a
home in Atlanta. Tomorrow I will be attending a seminar on street vending in
Atlanta which I am hoping will give me some good insight on things and point me
in the right direction for getting the business started within the next few
months.
Though slower than I had expected, things are moving along.
Many times I find myself in these situations where I am asking, "Man, is this
really happening?" It's been a really cool thing to see a God-given dream start
out with just a thought and grow into existence. I'm beginning to realize
(finally) that life is impossible without the help of God so PLEASE pray for me
as I continue to pursue the dream God has given me.
When you are truly living on the edge, walking on the moon, perhaps, or caught in the grip of extreme poverty--there's no room at all for error. It's a luxury you can't afford.
For the rest of us, though, there's a cushion. Being wrong isn't fatal, it's merely something we'd prefer to avoid. We have the privilage of being wrong. Not being wrong on purpose, of course, but wrong as a cost on the way to being right.
As you gain resources, the act of being wrong goes from being fatal to annoying to a precious opportunity, something that you've earned. You won't advance your cause or discover new truths if you're obsessed with being right all the time--and so the best way to compound your advantage and accomplish even more than you already have is to set out (with relish) to be as open to wrong as often as you can afford to be.
I was pretty young, still in elementary school,
and Tropical Storm Alison had just flooded a large portion of the Houston area.
A day or two after the storm my dad and I went to an effected area to help
clean up. The devastation was horrific. Home after home was demolished and the
never-ending stories of death were enough to put me over the edge. My heart
broke for the people.
Fast forward a few years and I was on the beaches of Mississippi
looking at what was once a beachfront neighborhood. There were nothing but concrete
slabs as far as the eye could see. Once again there were stories of death,
homes being lost, pictures ruined. I cried. I imagined myself being in those
peoples situation and the thought was unbearable. My heart broke for the
people.
Almost a year ago I boarded a plane for Haiti, a seemingly
godforsaken place. Piles of rubble and makeshift tents lined every street. Each
person I talked to had lost loved ones. The ones that survived were left
homeless and faced disease and famine. My heart broke for the people.
Yesterday morning I got my first glance of the damage made by the
tornadoes of April 27 in Alabama. Entire communities were wiped off the map. Some
decided they couldn't live with the pain and took their own lives. Hundreds of
people were killed and still dozens are missing. But this time there was no
lump in my throat, no pain in my chest, no tears in my eyes.
Numbness.
"Father, give me compassion. I want to feel what these people feel
and what you feel! I don't want to be numb to these things! I don't want to see
this as just one more relief trip!"
Today a man told a story of how he gathered the pieces of his
grandson's body after the storm. Time stopped, my eyes went glassy, my soul let
out a horrified groan and once more, my heart broke for the people. Thank you
Father.
I arrived in Alabama on Friday. For the next
few months AIM will be sending teams here to help out with tornado relief. My
role here seemed a bit unclear when I first arrived but I am starting to find
my niche while I continue working on things for the teahouse and keep up
with my office duties with AIM. Until further notice it looks like I
will be taking care of a lot of the logistical things on the ground, keeping in
contact with AIM and making sure our host and group leaders don't drown in
their stress.
The place we are staying is calledTrue
Adventure Sports, a high adventure camp out in the middle of nowhere about
a mile from one of the best rock-climbing spots in the country. It is owned by
a God-loving, community-building, jack-of-all-trades named Israel. This man is
someone that just about every guy can look up to. He is a local hero, has a
wonderful wife and two amazing kids, seems to know how to do just about
everything and he does it all with humility.
The people here are friendly, never seizing to
offer up that good ole' southern hospitality. At times I feel like I'm living a
scene out of Forrest Gump. Just about the only thing in Lickskillet, Alabama (no joke, its the name of the town we are staying in) is a stop sign, a gas
station, and a few dozen people who are really slow at everything they do.
I am falling in love with this place, these people (no matter how
bad their driving is) and everything God seems to be doing here. I am excited
to see what he has in store for me in this unknown period of time. Stay tuned
for more updates!