Quote: Henry Nouwen

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”

- ~Henri Nouwen

Quote: Frederick Buechner

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

- Frederick Buechner

Together...

...one step at a time.

Quote: Erwin McManus

"Before we can ever begin to explore how the church can really live, we must first be willing to die.  We must be willing to die to our conveniences, our traditions, and our preferences - everything that places us above the mission."

- Erwin McManus

A Daily Prayer

Hey gang.
I came across this prayer today and thought I'd share it with you.  I heard another pastor share that he was praying this each day in an attempt to invite the Spirit in his life.  Don't know what to pray?  Try this.
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O Holy Spirit of God, visit now this soul of mine and tarry within until eventide.  Inspire all my thoughts.  Pervade all my imaginations.

Suggest each of my decisions.  Lodge in my will's most inward citadel and order all of my doings.

Be with me in my silence and in my speech, in my haste and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and the weariness of the evening; and give me grace at all times to rejoice in thy mysterious companionship.  

- John Ballie

kingdom worker card

i dont have much to say and i dont know who will read this, but i hope someone does.
i decided to open my kingdom worker card at CIY and once i read it, compared to other cards i heard about, i thought i got it easy. my card read "lead a devotion with your family every week. pray that God will MOVE you. start with mark". tonight was the first of many nights were my family will spend time talking and telling stories and reading the bible to one another. already, ive learned much about my mom, and hope to learn more about my dad as well. my mom usually keeps me in check with my life on a daily basis but we rarely ever have talks about bible stories. the chapter i read tonight talked about jesus being sent into the desert for forty days and why God did that. he sent jesus to the desert to test and challenge him. while in the desert, jesus was tempted by satan. my mom then asked me what desert God had set in my life. i only had thoughts of hard times in school and other temptations as my desert. what is your desert? how will God challenge you and test your faith to he brink? will you be like jesus and overcome?

Like i mentioned earlier, my mom told me stories in her life when God tempted her and set her in a desert. i dont think many of you know this but my sister, Sara, was diagnosed with crohns disease when she was about 9. at the time, i was 7, she was working for a buisness named nortel (which eventually tanked), and her work engulfed her life. the only day she had off from work was sunday. as a result, my parents did not attend church. my sister was diagnosed, and my mom asked for a break from work. nortel allowed her as much time as she needed to be off from work and care for her sick child. a few weeks pass by and sara isnt making much progress. my mom decides on her own that it was time for her to go back to work for a day. the very next day, sara endures many seizures. my mom believed that this was Gods way of telling her "you did not handle your desert well and decided to go to work and willingly leave your sick daughters side". i only remember visitng sara a few times in the hospital, what i didnt know was that she left sara to go to work.

i am glad that God put that kingdom worker card in my hand. i feel that i will begin to grow more with my family and get intouch with my parents more. my relationship over the next year with them will be a major influence in my life and i am forever thankful!

(read the red bold words)

A Week to Remember

I'm gonna go ahead and say it: this week was one of the most important of my life. As you all know, the week started with me commiting to UNCG for golf. That is an obviously exciting event in my life and something I have put thousands of hours of practice into, but what was more significant about it was how easy of a decision it was. This was one of the most important decisions of my life, I have to choose where to spend 4 years of my life as well as the people I want to spend that immense amount of time with. The funny thing was, that this was one of the easiest decisions in my life. I really felt God speaking to me, and He wanted me at UNCG and I have not second guessed that for a second. For someone that has trouble picking what to eat for breakfast in the morning, this was incredible (in fact I'm still beating myself up for eating that breakfast burrito first morning). My confidence convinced me it was gonna be a special week.

Too many great things happened to talk about it all so I am gonna talk about two days in particular, the first and the last. I have always been the person who stays up all night thinking about every single stupid thing I did that day. If I hurt someone, it stays in my mind for weeks, and sometimes months or years. These burdens had hurt my self confidence to the point where I didn't like myself all that much. That first night about Grace erased those "red cards" immediatly. I no longer stay up at night thinking about what an idiot I am, instead I realize that I am human, ask God for forgiveness and know that I am forgiven. I then ask Him for the strength and wisdom to not repeat the mistake again. This has lifted an enormous weight off my back. I have never liked who I am as a person more than I do right now.

The single most emotional night of my life came on the final day. The evening sermon was one of the most memorable events I have ever witnessed. The band was great and Blake delivered such an emotional sermon that my mind was overwhelmed. I started thinking of all those dreams I had as a kid of how I wanted to change the world. I never dreamed of money or fame, but of helping those in need and being a role model to all around me and somehow those dreams have gotten lost during high school. I decided that night to devote myself to helping others, and working as a kingdom worker and I don't plan on backing down. That was followed by D Group that night, and the emotions running around that room were astounding. I realized how close we are as a youth group, we are truly a family. I prayed for Chelsea that night and it felt great to let her know that all of us have her back. I could feel God in that room looking over us.

The last thing I did that week was play nine holes of golf on Sunday night, spending a good chunk of it absorbing and processing what I had learned that week and made my last shot of the day from 120 yards (only the 3rd or 4th time I have ever made one from over 50 yards). A perfect end to an amazing week. I want to fight to live a Godly life, but I know I need help. You guys are like my family and I know together we can accomplish some amazing things. If anyone ever wants to talk, or even just hang out don't hesitate to call me.


Alex / Lebrondo