Giant Jenga

When was the last time you played jenga? You know… that game where you insert and extract wooden blocks stacked on one another.

Now picture that exact same game, but maybe 10x bigger. When was the last time you played Giant Jenga?

We decided to use our giant jenga set as an outreach to griffith university this past week. Our idea was to set this 5 foot tower of wooden blocks in a central student friendly area, and hope that through curiosity and crowd, we would be able to get our name out and build some new relationships.

No more than 15 minutes after we had set up, we had at least 20-30 people circling our giant jenga set with an amazed and bewildered expression. The buzz had started…

After about 3 hours, we had seen God lead us to some great conversations and relationships. One of the highlights was meeting the president of the student services club (equivalent to the student body association). She approached one of my teamates and expressed how impressed she was with our club this past semester.

“There is something special about your club”, she said. “You have a way of reaching and serving this campus that I havn’t seen in other clubs”. She then proceeded to say that if we as a ministry needed anything from the student services, including advertising online or on their facebook page, they would be more than happy to help.

What an amazing opportunity we have through this partnership with Student Services. What a great reminder that this campus and its students are watching.

 

Piercing the Heart

You may know the feeling.

This morning you decide to read the bible.  You may be diligently going through a certain book of the Bible, or attempting to read from cover to cover, or you decide to play spiritual roulette and begin reading whatever passage you open up to.

But then suddenly it happens.  A few words that perhaps just yesterday seemed average and unmemorable, now suddenly grips your eyes and then cuts relentlessly into you heart. Just one word, one sentence, one paragraph.

Romans 12:9 reads, “Let love be genuine”…”Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”

Ouch.

God has been so gracious to me and I have had the great blessing and responsibility of ministering to students here in Australia with a very loving team. But with humility, may I submit to you one of my very, very deep secrets: I am good at faking love.

Its true. My love is very conditional. Conditional in how I receive it, and so often in how I dish it. I will love you, AS LONG AS…. (fill in the blank).

This year I will be working with international and aussie students that will fail my expectations and hopes. That is reality. This year I will be working very closely with 4 other americans whom I have met for the first time last week whom I can promise you have different backgrounds and ideas. Will conflict arise? Undoubtedly.

God’s word is indeed living and active, discerning and exposing the heart. I suppose Romans 12 will be a verse I frequently visit this year as I continue to ask for forgiveness and grace to love genuinely.

Prayer with a Purpose

 

This past sunday, we had 3 college students visit us here in Brisbane for a Campus Crusade for Christ vision trip.

Vision Team: Bo Katie and Juli

 

For one week, they will be here on our campus, serving with us and learning what a ministry here in Australia is like, with the hope to cast vision and the need for workers back home in each of their campuses.

Yesterday morning, we agreed to all meet in our living room early before walking to campus to pray. It was an awesome time of thanking God for who he is and what he did followed by a time of praying specifically for things to happen that day and that week.  Of the many things we specifically prayed for, one that we continued to echo was for God to reveal himself and to save a student that very day.

I am guessing you know how this story ends. Four hours later, Katie, one of the vision trip girls met Lizzy, a first year chinese student. After getting to know her, Katie asked if she could share her story about life and spiritual things and how God was her Lord and Savior and the freedom it brought. No more than 20 minutes later Lizzy echoed those same amazing words trusting Christ to be her Lord and Savior.

When was the last time you prayed specifically for God to do the amazing?

Why do we tend to not ask God for the small details?

May I submit to you that your prayers, and how you pray is a direct correlation to how you view God.

You wouldn’t believe how specifically I prayed this morning.

Tags: prayer

Back in Brisbane

I apologize that its been a while since I have updated this blog. Two days ago I arrived  here in warm brisbane and have already jumped into ministry since university started a week ago. Below are photos I took yesterday on the way to the campus (about a 15 minute walk).

Our apartment off campus (15 minute walk from campus)

Main entrance to Griffith University (right across our apartment complex)

The main pedestrian path up to campus

The “hill of death” we walk up everyday to get to campus. Especially fun in the summer

Johnson Path- Main path that runs through the middle of campus

One of the student lounges on campus

Downtown Brisbane

Downtown Brisbane post flooding. Water levels are still high and muddy

A New Chapter Begins

442

This number represents the number of days that I have been here in the US since returning from Brisbane, Australia. And in 7 days, by God’s grace and through his power, I am returning to a country that my heart beats and breaks for.

I can’t explain the joy and excitement in my heart and soul, but also the sobering reality of saying goodbye to people and places here in the US that God has taught me to see as gifts.

It is my sincere pleasure to invite you to continue to follow and cojourn with me into this next chapter of my life in Australia. My hope for you reader, is echoed in Psalm 38:4:

May you “taste and see that the Lord is good”.

“People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it”

“All organizations and careers function on 3 levels. What you do, how you do it and why you do it. The problem is, most don’t even know that why exists”

-Simon Sinek

This is a very thought provoking perspective of  understanding and utilizing the power of why. I believe it is very relevant to anyone in ministry, business, and relationships. Its just under 20 minutes but so when you have time, I recommend you watch the clip.

A Key to a Glad Heart

“For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his Holy name”

Psalm 33:21

Why is it so hard to be thankful?

And when we are truly thankful, why is it predominately due to brokenness in our lives?

Pastor and writer, Steve Cole believes this is because trust is not a natural inclination of our nature.

“By nature, we’re not trusting creatures. We’re creatures of necessity. We trust God when we’re forced to trust Him because our problems go beyond our abilities. The rest of  the time, we get along just fine by ourselves. If we can solve the problem by ourselves, we don’t resort to prayer and trusting God, because we don’t need to trust Him. But it’s only when we come to the end of ourselves and cast ourselves in total dependence on then we begin to experience genuine praise and thanksgiving.”

So a real heart of gladness can only be a result of  a real trust. Deep satisfaction is found by trusting in something that we can rely completely on and acknowledge we are incomplete without.

But here’s the thing. I dont think trust is where we fix the problem.

Sure I can work on trust, but then why does my thankfulness and satisfaction still seem cheep and only last a day or a week before I quickly replace it with something else? This whole year, but specifically this past month, I have often prayed that my satisfaction would be found in the Lord. Lord may my heart be glad and thankful in you!  Yet only hours later, my source of satisfaction and life is cheaply replaced by facebook, pornography, relationships, technology, or even ministry.

Maybe the key to cultivating a true thankful heart isn’t to focus on strengthening my faith or becoming more “trusting”.  Maybe the key is rediscovering and enjoying the object of my faith and understanding my utter need for him. Daily.

Maybe my prayer tomorrow morning shouldn’t be “God help me trust you better so I can be more thankful” but “my God may I rediscover you and my utter need for you this morning”.

And when we experience the latter, may I submit to you that a genuine, glad, satisfied heart will surely follow.

Tags: satisfaction, trust