A good reminder.

"You remind me of a guy I went to high school with!"

"Is it because I'm goth?" 

"No, it's just that your face that looks like his."

"Oh. Well I am goth and it's completely different from punk. We're like two different gangs. Punks are rude." This was my first interaction this week with the self-proclaiming goth freshmen who went by the pseudo name "Oliver." As our conversation continued we discussed his love of roleplay, manga, anything goth related, and how he really wanted to eat some beignets. After telling him that we go to the French Quarter on Monday the next thing I knew we were planning on getting beignets and cafe au lait together. He seemed to have a lot to talk about for being the guy who sat in a corner next to his quiet friend, who was engrossed in drawing a sci-fi looking ship. Out of 63 students--17 of them actually attend the youth group--I immediately spotted the loners in the mix. These guys seem to remind me of myself and my friends in high school. 

After leading Club that night we debriefed at staff meeting where I learned that Oliver was considered the "problem" teen and had already broken the strings on one of our guitars. That was when I knew God had led me in some way to talk with Oliver. Out of 63 people I felt like I could connect and get to know the one who was already causing trouble. Due to this knowledge I made it my priority to get to know him which led me to visit the service site he was attending today. 

At this service site they were split up with different age groups and asked to get to know the kids at the site. Oliver and his artist friend volunteered to work with the "high school group" which was 12-14 here; Oliver assured me it would be a good match for him. After a few minutes of checking on the other groups I went and checked on the high school group. Oliver was surrounded by a group of guys, had a huge smile on his face, and was sharing his story with them. 

As it turns out, Oliver has asbergers and told us that he's often negative and does not like people. However, he found his niche at this service site. He found he could share his story with the young kids there and that they could really relate. We learned that this troublesome youth has a lot to him and I am excited for the conversations we will have over beignets. 

Today I was reminded why I feel a call to work with teenagers. It's teens like Oliver who remind me of my passion. It's to the loners that I want to share the good news that they are loved and that they matter. I am thankful for Oliver coming into my life for this week to remind me that people still need to hear that hope and they still need to be able to share their stories. 

Will you tell your stories? 

Unity in the Spirit

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? ...in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

‘In the last days it will be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,

    and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

and your young men shall see visions,

    and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even upon my slaves, both men and women,

    in those days I will pour out my Spirit;

        and they shall prophesy 

(New Revised Standard Version. Acts 2:1-8, 11B-18.)

"When there is unity God is present." These were the words preached on this past Pentecost Sunday at Grace Evangelical Lutheran church in the beautiful city of New Orleans. I have found that his sermon has really spoken true to the YouthWorks mission. 

Later that day three different groups of multiple denominations arrived at our church ready to serve together this week. From the first hour on site these groups did an excellent job at intermingling with one another and not differentiating between whose denomination was better. They were all getting to know each other and learning about who would be serving alongside them. It was unity that brought them together.

That night three of our team mates performed our first Youth Orientation of the summer and it was a success but, ended way too early. We had an hour to spare before our next activity so immediately we led them in multiple group activities. After about an hour we were able to start Club, our evening service. There were only minor mistakes and all were one's that were able to be fixed. It was unity of my team that allowed all to go well. 

This morning I rode off with an Evangelical Free and United Methodist church ready to serve at Arc Nola--a nonprofit that sorts and sells recycled Mardi Gras beads and provides jobs for the mentally disabled. It was a beautiful sight seeing the daughters and sons of God working together alongside the employees despite what their backgrounds and doctrines may have been. I was blessed to work alongside Eric and Peter, two of the employees with disabilities. I learned all about their lives and was even taught how to dance to the song Wobble. Everyone had their own part to play in the sorting and everyone used their abilities in various ways. It was unity that allowed this mundane job to be one that flourished. 

God's Spirit empowers us to work together in unity. Scripture says when two or more are gathered then God will be present. When we are willing to allow our diverse gifts to be used then the Spirit moves and we became aware of the Spirit's presence. I am learning we need to allow room for our daughters to prophecy. We need to allow room for our sons to prophecy. We need to build each other up as equal partners to be unified in our diversity. Our God is a God of Unity in Diversity and I am thankful of that.

These are simply my thoughts from the dust during this day after Pentecost Sunday in our first programmatic week of YouthWorks. I hope to periodically update how my summer is going and what the Lord is teaching me in that. May the words of my mouth and meditations of my life be pleasing to our Lord. 

My prayer is that God will continue to breathe His pneuma, ruach, spirit into us and empower us into unity. 

New Orleans: City of Culture and Food

"Ya'll need to try the beignet's and coffee."

This is the typical response we have received when we have asked locals what they would recommend for us to try as we attempt to navigate the culture of the beautiful city of New Orleans. My team and I--Janie Lynne, Rebekah, and Matt--all arrive here about a week ago after a week long training in Birmingham, AL. We had a 5 1/2 hour drive here where we focused on getting to know each other individually. Throughout our training week we were given times to get to know each other, however, we were also trying to get to know our area and others we had met that week. It was an interesting week of trying to find the balance of hanging out with my team from last year and getting to know this new team. I was finding that I often was comparing both teams subconsciously. As we drove through Alabama, Mississippi, and finally Louisiana I began the process of letting go of comparisons to allow myself a 'blank slate' summer. There are times where I will still compare but, for the most part I can tell that we are a very different team compared to last year. We are a great team with very similar and very diverse personalities. We all balance each other out and create a really good dynamic. I am ecstatic to grow closer to this team through the trials and adventures that await us.

We have spent this week preparing the church site for participants to arrive, exploring the city, and truly experiencing Southern Hospitality. We have attended BBQ's, dinners at local restaurants, and have even been invited over to houses that are over 150 years old! From very early on in the week we have seen the European influence here in New Orleans, especially how they view time. Everyone seems to be functioning on event time and are very relationship oriented. Another cultural element I have noticed is how big the food is here! There are all kinds of different foods here especially Cajun, Creole, and French foods. There is one delicacy that I have been especially fond of which is called a "po-boy" or "poor boy." A "po-boy" is like a  sub sandwich but you can order anything on it. New Orleans also has many different "snowball" stores that sell their own version of snow cones, however, you cannot ever call them 'snow cones' because "snow balls" are much better according to true New Orleans.

Other than experiencing the culture here we have been privileged with the opportunity to visit the Lower 9th Ward and Brad Pitt's "Make it Right Campaign." We were able to see the levee that broke during Hurricane Katrina and every Tuesday night I will be explaining to 60 plus teenagers how the "Make it Right Campaign" created gentrification in the Lower 9th Ward--the most impoverished area in New Orleans--and how even though Pitt had good intentions he did not necessarily help those who needed it most. It has been fascinating getting different perspectives from the locals on the effects of Katrina and even New Orleans pre-Katrina. I still have much to learn from New Orleans about all that happened and about the surrounding culture; I am excited to adventure farther into the summer with an open mind eager to learn.

These are my thoughts from week 1 in New Orleans--week 2 for YouthWorks this summer--and I am ready to see what God has in store for my team and I! Hopefully within the coming weeks I will be sharing about the stories that God writes with us. Here's to a great summer serving as missionaries in the beautiful city of New Orleans!

The Art of Stories.

Stories. Our lives are comprised of stories in and all around us. We are writing our own stories as those around us are writing their own. Often times our stories overlap with others stories. We should all learn to share our stories so that they can be used to impact others. I have developed a love for stories and storytelling.

Ever since I was a child I have wanted to write stories. Starting with my first journal I have always tried to write fiction stories but, I could never finish them. I have recently decided to start a second blog dedicated to posting these unfinished stories. Sometimes I will post stand alone stories that have no ending, sometimes I will post short stories that have endings, and other times I will post different parts of one story. My goal is to share these stories with the blogger world in a hope to inspire and encourage others to become storytellers. I also hope to learn ways that I can perfect my stories.

If you look on the right side of this blog, under the heading "Life is an adventure", you will see a link to my storytelling blog. It is entitled "Stories from the dust" for these are simply stories from a man who was made out of dust. You can also click on this link Stories from the Dust to view my other blog. I hope you enjoy the stories as they are posted.

Here's to the art of storytelling and using stories to inspire others! Here's to taking part in writing stories like our Creator, the Great Storyteller.

College Students do not need another book discussion group.

Heaven is for real but, another book study is not. I thought as I walked back from the book study that no one showed up to. It was our second night leading a discussion group on the book Heaven is for Real but, tonight not even our Pastor or my Co-leader came to participate. This has been my reoccurring thought since we were assigned this intern responsibility: College Students will not attend another book discussion group. 

At one of our recent intern meetings our Pastor presented us with the opportunity to lead this discussion group on this controversial book. The interns all felt skeptical about leading a group on this particular book but, we listened to the will of our Pastor and planned out who would lead what. The first night our Pastor went to the group which allowed the two interns leading to discuss the book with him. Tonight was the second night and no one came out for the discussion. As I returned to my apartment I thought through all the possible reasons why people would not have come out: they were too skeptical about the book, the promotion was lacking, or even that the week before finals week was one of the busiest and most stressful weeks of the semester.

As I analyzed this situation I realized why I was not passionate about this discussion group. It was not completely because of the book choice. It was not because of my busy week. It was simply the fact that college students do not need another book discussion group. We live in a busy world of overbooking where we are surrounded by textbooks and discussion groups. When we aren't studying or involved in an extra curricular activity, we are spending quality time with those we are closest to. College students, also known as millennials, do not need another book discussion group but, instead they need a place where they can simply be.

In our crazy, busy, hyper-connected world we are filled with different groups and events to be a part of. We do not need the Church providing more events and groups for us to join. We need the church to love us. We need the church to provide times where we can simply be in one another's presence. We need to be able to relax. We need to feel free to ask questions, explore answers, do fun things, and simply be. We need to experience God's love in the presence of one another so that we can be energized to go out and serve others. We can not give our best serving others if we do not stay energized. Book discussion groups won't always energize us. Simply being in the presence of God and others can.

These are just the thoughts from a drained, recovering chronic overbooker.

Malfunctions that create stories

There are many times in our lives where everything goes according to our plans. There are many other times in our lives where our plans turn into break downs, wrecks, and malfunctions. We go through our lives making plans and when all seems well something happens. This evening I was with a group of friends visiting my incredible girlfriend and as we were leaving we accidentally got the vehicle stuck in a ditch right outside her house. Fortunately we were able to call someone to tow us out quickly but, this was something that did not go according to plan.

This event brought to mind a time not too long ago when Brianna and I were leaving a nice Mexican dinner date and her vehicle spontaneously broke down. Or another time when we were driving her father's car back from Pennsylvania and the ignition died. This has led to an on going joke that I am bad luck for other people's vehicles. All of these events were unplanned but so accurately symbolize how life goes.

No matter what our plans are they cannot prevent wrecks, malfunctions, and break downs. Plans get changed, things come up, and where we thought our life would be three years ago may be drastically different now. We live in a world where "break downs" happen all around us and cause us to analyze how we are living our lives. Break downs do not have to be bad things but, they can be adventures that create stories to tell to others one day.

So here's to the malfunctions that make life more interesting and help us create inciting events and exciting stories.

Noah

This past weekend I was able to view the much anticipated and highly controversial movie Noah. I went into the movies with the expectations that there would be many artistic liberties because many of the Christian reviews I had read did not enjoy the movie. I was still rather excited to see an action-packed adaptation from Hollywood; after all it did cast Russell Crowe, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, and Anthony Hopkins. After walking out of the theater, I was very impressed and thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

Now I would like to address the big qualms that Christians have had with the film. There was an uproar that Aronofsky, self-proclaiming atheist, made the decision to have God be referred to as "The Creator" throughout the entire film. Though that is true, I found it to be more of an accurate understanding of what they may have called God (Although if Christians truly wanted accuracy in the name then it would not have been in English). I found that it was a beautiful way to view God because He, after all, is the Creator of all things and that would make sense that they would view God in that way. Another issue that was raised was that there was an Environmental agenda in the film. Now this is something that I would say was prevalent but, at the same time it did not take away from the overarching message of the movie. If we read Scripture we see that God does have a care for creation and was not going to destroy the World, just its' inhabitants. The movie showed how corrupt the world had become which we clearly read in Scripture was the case.

Another issue that was presented was the rock, Tolkenesque, creatures that helped Noah build the ark and fight off the tribe of Cain. These were considered the "Watchers" who were fallen angels who had tried to help humanity after the Fall. The only reference in Scripture that I could find to back this up for the story of Noah is from Genesis 4:15-16 which says, "Then the Lord said to him, “Not so!Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden" (New Revised Standard Version). I wonder if they took this Mark that the Lord had given Cain and turned it into these "Watchers." Either way it was one of the artistic liberties that they took and I find it to be okay because it does not take away from the overall message and ultimately their story shows that God is loving, merciful, and forgiving.  

The final issue that I have found people had with it is the way that Noah was portrayed throughout the entire film. As the movie progresses we see Noah as this passion driven, obedient, confused, and possibly crazy older man who believes that He must kill himself and his family to eradicate evil from the world. This is certainly not a concept we see in the Biblical Narrative but, nonetheless, it is an interesting concept to explore. One of my favorite aspects of the film was that Aronofsky was not afraid to make it intense, raw, and even show things that the Bible does not explicitly show. He showed Noah dealing with the conflict of why God would kill everyone except for His family. Even though He was obedient to the Creator, He wondered why they should not be killed for the wickedness inside of them. After the flood in Genesis 9:20-21 we read that "Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent" (NRSV). This could lead one to believe that Noah was dealing with a lot and still having this "wickedness" in him it would make sense that this confusion would lead him to drunkenness. 

Overall I felt that the movie beautifully showed God's care for both creation and humans (through the acts of Emma Watson's controversial character), God's promise to never destroy the earth again, and God bringing about the flood due to the wickedness of man. Though this film has many artistic liberties I find that it is a rather enjoyable film that really looks at how intense, raw, and thought provoking the time likely was. I am sure we can all agree the real Noah would not have been a happy-go-lucky guy knowing that his family were the only ones not dying below the water depths. There would have more than likely been an internal conflict that He had to deal with.

Noah turned out to be a very enjoyable movie just as a movie in and of itself. The artistic liberties added were an interesting interpretation and adaptation that made for a great story. Is it imperative that they got all of the facts right? No. Can it lead people to further investigate what Scripture says? Absolutely. Most movies that came from books lead many viewers to the original book. Does it show God's love and care? Yes, along with the confusion of man when dealing with matters of God.

I hope this gives you a reason to want to watch Noah because I would greatly encourage it. Don't listen to every negative thing you hear. Go out and watch the movie and then make your own decision. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OSaJE2rqxU