So what’s a guy supposed to do with a Bible degree? I used to think ministry was professional begging with some sort of dignity still attached. All I saw preachers do was talk a good talk and ask the people for a tithe (church word for donation) to support the ministry that they lead, in other words, their salary–any extra would be put back into the church to ensure a good show, and the bare minimum was given to missional programs to make sure that the congregation still felt good about themselves, and therefore good about the church (for a bigger tithe).
And there I went diving right into the system that I used to hate by getting a bible degree.
But I tell you what– there are actually real Christians out there. I didn’t meet many who actually followed Jesus (as opposed to acknowledging his existence and living in the Christian subculture), but when I met them, they were impacting. Maybe I’ll tell you some stories sometime about some of those people that impacted me… but this is still about me.
I’m an American mutt, born in Southern California, raised in Atlanta, grew up in rural Tennessee outside of Murfreesboro, and finished college in Knoxville, TN. After being in JROTC for 4 years in high school, I went to college under the guise of being an officer in the Army since I found out that if you know how to follow commands and run, they’ll pay for college. I thought it was a good deal for a while. Then I became a Christian. And by that, I mean that I knew about Jesus, but never cared; now I tried to follow Him.
That’s when my life started sucking.
So I dropped a 4-year scholarship (not because I didn’t believe in a great Army or I became a pacifist, for other reasons), moved to New Orleans to help out my dad, started going to church, almost committing suicide because I thought love was impossible (love never fails right? It always did for me!), became confused by different doctrines, became confused by the “witness” of most Christians, become even more frustrated with my only Christian friends who acted worse than my non-Christian friends.
I knew I needed to get some better training.
So I looked up some Tennessee Christian colleges and found Johnson Bible College. I read the statement of faith and it sounded awesome to me. I went, I graduated, and now here I am.
What I’m aiming to do is plant a community center–and if you want to know more about that, feel free to explore the site.
I have completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Bible and Counseling at Johnson Bible College as of December 2009. Ideally I would like to do some work in Africa and then continue working as an advocate for refugees and/or as a missionary care counselor in the United States. I felt the call into cross-cultural missions as a freshman in high school. I know many people, friends and family, probably thought (and hoped) it was just a phase. Now, almost 10 years later, I am still seeking out how God could use me in a cross-cultural setting…I am beginning to think it was more than a phase–it was a calling. It is a calling that continues to get louder and louder as time goes on. I feel an urgency to reach out to the the impoverished and marginalized people that we often do not think about because they are located on the other side of the world. Not only do I feel called to go, but I also believe that one day, I will no longer be the one who goes but the one who enables others to go–through financial, logistical, psychological and prayerful support.
One thing I know for sure: I am blessed! I am married to the man who captures my heart everyday–he just happens to be my middle-school sweetheart. That’s right–we have known each other since the 6th grade! We broke each others hearts a few times as most middle and high school kids do. We eventually reconnected in our college years and our life stories and visions for the future seemed to tell us that our lives would soon connect and become one. We were married on May 12, 2007. I can honestly say that we love each other more everyday! We look forward to serving the Lord side-by-side for the rest of our lives and sharing the rich experiences that come with allowing such an awesome God to work in and through our lives.
I feel like “church” is a bad word. When I describe to others what I do and what I’m interested in, the word always comes up, and every time it gives me a funny feeling… I hesitate to even say the word.
I think I know why now.
Somehow the church has lost credibility with the public. Our ultimate vision is to see that relationship between the church and the people restored, but my part in that restoration is building a community center.
You see, every church we have been a part of has backed themselves into a corner and limited their reach by fitting a mold. The mold isn’t bad, it’s just an incomplete picture. It’s another way. Everyone understands in the West that we have several major parts that make up our SELF. Most would say there are 3 or 4 parts.
Spiritual – Obviously, churches zone in on this major and very important aspect of a person. Most of the time, they do a pretty good job.
Physical – The church drops like a rock on this.
Emotional/Social – Since most of our emotions are ultimately done in a sort of community (or lack thereof), we group emotional and social together. We think churches do this pretty well (sunday school, bible studies, congregations). But there’s still the elusive third places like bars, clubs, and coffee shops. We think newer churches are paying more attention to this aspect.
Mental – We think this is another aspect, separated from the rest. This is the academics and philosophy part of the person. Some parts of the philosophy would overlap with spiritual, but most of the time, it’s this aspect that differentiates people, not necessarily the spiritual aspect
Why do we think caring for any of the other aspects should matter to a church? Easy, it’s the complete Kingdom of God message that Jesus preached about. Notice that when Jesus preaches and teaches, he’s always talking about the Kingdom of God and how had arrived. Then watch what he does! He walks around healing people, setting some theology straight, He is called the Wonderful Counselor, and surely with all the walking around he did, he was physically apt.
He didn’t just sit at the synagogue and set theology straight. He cared for the entire person.
We want to be like Jesus.
We would like to share our hearts and thoughts about our journey to discover God’s desire for our lives in ministry in the United States and abroad. We are pleased that you are interested in hearing our experiences thus far in our journey and we are elated to share them with you! So, here we go…
So far, we have visited Zimbabwe on a planned short-term mission trip and South Africa on an “unplanned” mission trip. We are currently exploring our options for a longer-term experience in Mozambique. In early 2010, we plan to travel to Nampula, Mozambique and the surrounding areas to explore and research the environment, the people, the needs, and most importantly, how we could possibly be used as a catalyst for the spread of the Gospel to all people groups in those areas.
In order to make the two month trip to Mozambique, we need to raise $8,000. Most of this is used in getting there and back. We are willing to use our own money from savings in going on this trip because we are dedicated to exploring what God is doing in Mozambique and believe that he may use us there, however this poses a problem when we return and will need that savings to get settled back in before we begin graduate school in August. So, we are stepping out in faith and putting our own money on the line; but how may God be asking you to join with us in this mission? We need three things:
1.) Prayer partners who are willing to “go deep” with us while in Mozambique.
2.) Financial partners who are willing to lessen the financial burden by making a donation toward our trip.
3.) Field partners who are interested in joining with us physically in Mozambique to explore how God may be asking them to devote their lives in this mission.
If you are interested or have any questions about these opportunities, please contact us! You may also make a donation online through Paypal below. Thank you for visiting our missions’ page and for considering partnering with us!
Support
You’re really going to make us ask for money?
Here, we’ll just put in an emotional image, pull your heart-strings a little.
Do you know of any companies that said “sorry” to the public… when they weren’t getting sued for something? For instance, like Microsoft apologizing to the public with a statement “we are sorry for the troubles we’ve caused you,” and then gave you something to prove it… like Windows 7 for free? Not that that’s actually happening- in fact they’re selling Windows 7 for a little cheaper for a limited time, but it wasn’t an apology, it was a sales tactic. How about the government? What would we do if Congress publicly apologized to citizens for misrepresenting them? I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I probably wouldn’t do anything since it’s still so disconnected with my everyday life, but has it happened? I know they’ve “served us,” but have they ever apologized to us for something they did wrong?
Sometimes, it is easy for us to read the Bible through our modern lens and forget that it was written in a very different time than we live in now. The passage found in Mark 7:24-30 is one of those passages that, if we read it without considering the context, we end up thinking that Jesus is a racist jerk. For a long time, I had struggled with this passage and had not read it for awhile until recently. Upon reading it this time, I have come to realize that Jesus is not a jerk at all (not that I had actually ever seriously entertained that thought). Rather, he is a man on a mission of compassion who loves using parables that we sometimes, in all our Western wisdom, fail to understand.
Vision time. When you walk into a church building, do you catch how the atmosphere captures their theology? For instance, the Greek Orthodox church has incredible icons and they emphasize the grandness and majesty of God- through their expensively gold embroidered frames and icons plastered all over the place, with elaborate hand painted murals in the traditional orthodox way (halos around the saints, a slight creepiness about Jesus’ posture, and a little monster dude in the river shrugging “why are you standing like that? that’s wierd.”). The way they design their building indicates what they believe and how they theologize it. Kinda like a motorcyclist- the louder and more obnoxious the “muffler,” the more rebellious and BA the person is. The more gold and grandness- the more they honor and show the glory of God through their architecture.
Are you married? If you’re married- do you feel like God’s paired you with the perfect person to complement you? You’d know the saying- “you complete me,” and I think that’s how God pairs us with soulmates- that God pairs a driver and a navigator. The driver is good at getting lost and the navigator is good at keeping them unlost; together, they make a good team and together they intend to stay on track. If you’re not married or dating, then God bless you and your GPS and may you both live a happy life. With football, you have a quarterback, some receivers, some defense, and a kicker. The kicker is good at kicking, the defense is good at defending, the receivers are good at catching, and the quarterback is good at being tackled. Together, they make a good team and together they intend to win the game.
I thought it was entirely appropriate to talk about the subject of giving when our mission team was coming back from New Orleans. I’ve had the honor of going on this trip once two years ago, and then last year going to Africa, and maybe sometime within a year me and my wife Celia may be going to Mozambique. Africa was an incredible experience and I highly recommend that all of you take a risk, do something without thinking so much about it, and just go somewhere. Get out of the US and go to South America or Asia or Africa- open your eyes to a culture other than ours. It’ll make you think about how 1) blessed we are 2) self-cursed we are.
This is a video developed for an organization about making choices that better the lives of individuals in the community around you. I love it, it’s a bit odd and somewhat dark with a childish cartoony animation- so all that together makes the video interesting to watch. I haven’t really heard much about United Way (which my wife tells me that I’m just uninformed. I must’ve lived under a rock). Here’s my opinion on it: this organization is awesome– it’s just lacking one thing.
Do you know of any companies that said “sorry” to the public… when they weren’t getting sued for something? For instance, like Microsoft apologizing to the public with a statement “we are sorry for the troubles we’ve caused you,” and then gave you something to prove it… like Windows 7 for free? Not that that’s actually happening- in fact they’re selling Windows 7 for a little cheaper for a limited time, but it wasn’t an apology, it was a sales tactic. How about the government? What would we do if Congress publicly apologized to citizens for misrepresenting them? I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I probably wouldn’t do anything since it’s still so disconnected with my everyday life, but has it happened? I know they’ve “served us,” but have they ever apologized to us for something they did wrong?
