No Greater Love

Sorry for no post last week, but I practically had no internet connection the entire week. So that made it rather hard to post anything. But with no post last week I can give you a full update of the trip this week.
We were in a little town called Many Farms in Arizona. You have never heard of it because it isn't important to the rest of the country. It is a dusty little reservation town a few hours down into Arizona. It is a very dark community where alcoholism, and drug use is rampant. Not to mention they hold very closely to their old spiritual beliefs such as medicine men and many different rituals. 

The organization we went with is called praying pelican. 

 This was mainly a work trip with some outreach opportunities. Now some would say how can you call it a "mission trip" if you aren't constantly out in the community evangelizing? Well the main reason we were there was to fix up the personage that was in disrepair. So that the church would have something to offer a pastor since they are searching for one. A thought I had for the week with some people not liking that it was mainly a work trip, is how this trip showed how the different parts of the body of Christ work together. This was our time to be the hands and feet to prepare a place for the eyes, ears, and mouth. That is something I think we often forget is that those who prepare a way are just as important as those who do all the spreading of the Gospel. Would it be great for us to stay there for a week and go out and talk to people about Jesus? Yes it would. But it is just as important that we were able to make a place where someone can live in the community for a far longer time than a week and have the chance of a greater impact than we ever could in a week. So with that being said I would like to take you through the week.

 

We left Timberline at 8a.m Thursday the 19th. After a little over a 9 hours of driving and an hour and a half or so of stop time we made it to Many Farms Baptist church about 7ish. Where we were greeted with fried chicken and sweet tea. Needles to say I was happy after the very long van ride.

 

Friday morning we took a short 10 min drive up to the mesa that overlooked the town to pray. We took a few minutes and prayed alone and then prayed together as a group for the town and that the Lord would bless our week there. When we got back to the church property we started work on the grounds. I ended up doing landscaping around the parsonage for most of the week. Which I was totally okay with.

 

 

Saturday we got up and worked in the morning. I somehow ended up kinda leading the landscaping crew, by way of "you know what you are doing, what should we do to make this look good"? So once the crew I was on finished up and the rest of the students we grabbed lunch and drove a short ways to the White House ruins. An old Navajo settlement. We got to take a short hike down into the canyon to check out the ruins, have lunch and then come back up.

 

Sunday we lead the church service. The missionary pastor of the church Tony Sessions baptized 3 members that morning, a mother and her 2 daughters. After some songs and testimonies we had lunch with some of the congregation. Then we had an afternoon of rest.

 

Monday morning work continued. Painting the house, cleaning out sheds on the property, and cleaning up trash on the grounds. After making some shelving for the sheds me and my friend nick got to work on dismantling some fencing.  Some of the students went door to door with cookies in hand and talked to people about the Gospel and the church. (Hey you gotta have some bait for the hook right?) That afternoon we went over to Monument valley and played around and had dinner there. 

 

 

 Tuesday me and Nick finished taking down the fence and the general cleanup of the grounds while the rest of the students either finished up painting or were out on cookie ministry again. This was an entire day of work as posts were cemented in and sun baked clay is not easy to dig through at all.

Wednesday we finished touch up work around the grounds and prepped for a spaghetti dinner at the church that night. Final touches on paint, any last little clean up that needed to be done outside, we cleaned the church building also, and any other touches to the house. That evening we had somewhere around 80 people from the community show up. I lead some music, my friend Jeremiah presented the Gospel through a magic show, and then our trip leader (and my family group leader) Rob Tracy shared a story he had written, we closed with a few songs.

Thursday morning and it was time to say goodbye. I was up early to load the vans with the tools we had brought and bags. We were on the road by about 9. We topped back in Moab Utah for lunch at Milts. It was a good break after a 3 and a half hour ride in the vans. After a few more hours we stopped again gassed up and had a debrief of the trip, where we just talked as a group about how we felt the trip went and anything special we saw or were involved in. We arrived back at Timberline a little after 10. 

 

 

Every night of the trip we had a time of worship and some testimonies together as a debrief time to talk about what had gone on that day and what would be happening tomorrow.

  

Now we have a week of spring break. Some of the students (myself included) are going to Ravencrest for a few days on Monday. There will be a basketball grudge match while there. They are hoping to avenge their very bad hockey game loss. We are hoping to bring home the "W".

So while I was in Many Farms this week the song "No Greater Love" was on my mind often. The song features a man by the name of "Mincaye". This man of the Huaorani tribe of Ecuador killed Steve Saint and Ed McCully. None of us had to die on this trip but we did have the opportunity to tell a very unreached group of people about someone who did die for them.

  

Men of courage with your message of peace
What is that look in your eyes?
Why have you come to this faraway place?
What is this story you would lay down your live to tell?
What kind of love can this be?

There is no greater love than this
There is no greater gift that can ever be given
To be willing to die so another might live
There is no greater love than this

Brokenhearted from all you have lost
How can you sing through your tears?
What is this music that can bear such a cost?
What is this fire that grows stronger against the wind?
What kind of flame can this be?

There is no greater love than this
There is no greater gift that can ever be given
To be willing to die so another might live
There is no greater love than this

This is the love God showed the world
When he gave us His Son
So we can know his love forever
Beyond the Gates of Splendor

There is no greater love than this
There is no greater gift that can ever be given
To be willing to die so another might live
There is no greater love than this

Till Next Time

Love Jared

God Is God

  Only about 2 months left till I am back home in the South. It has been another awesome week out here at Timberline. The weather has been rather warm getting up into the 50's but that has made for some great spring boarding at the mountain. I have enjoyed running park laps all day with my friends on our days off.

Work day this week I threw logs for 3 plus hours. I am grateful for the manual labor. It was warm and was able to use my muscles. I have probably said it before but I shall say it again. I am so very thankful for my parents and grandparents instilling in me since I was a little boy how important work is and whether you like it or not it has to be done. I find if to be very enjoyable for me to get out and accomplish something.






On Friday night I was able to go down to a show with a few friends. We saw Mxpx and Five Iron Frenzy. A couple of old school punk and ska bands. It felt like I was back in middle school in youth group. It was a really fun night!

We will be heading out to our mission trips this coming week. We have 3 teams going to different places, Ghana, Slovenia, and Arizona. I will be heading out to Arizona this coming Thursday morning. We will be going to help do a work project at a Native reservation church. As plans often change in missions trips this is not the originally planned trip and we will not being going into Mexico. But God is in control and he knows why were are going somewhere different now.

This week Dr. Jobe Martin was our guest speaker. His topic was worldviews 101 and how to address them with a Christian worldview. His back story is pretty cool since before being saved at 27 and a bit there after had most every worldview in the book. From everything from the hippie movement to evolution. He definitely had a lot of wisdom on the subject. I enjoyed his class very much as he was very old school American values and how we need to apply those values with Jesus at the center of them.
   We spent a lot of time on evolution in the first few classes, as many of the worldviews hold to that belief for how life came to be. Aside from talking about how any evidence that is found points right back to creation, I thought the most important statement Jobe made was that "if we weren't created and we evolved then how was there the fall of man and if that didn't happen why do we need Jesus". I had never thought of it like that before. If we weren't created by and through Jesus then why do we need him as a savior. But that is what is interesting about any other worldview, it always has to remove the creator from the picture and present another way. But Proverbs 14:12 says
 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. That is what all these other ways are nothing but a path to destruction missing the straight and narrow gate.

 He talked a fair amount of how spiritual warfare is very real and present in not only our country but the world right now and how with things the United Nations is calling for and other things going on in our world right now could very well be End Times events. Now I know this could start to sound a bit like a conspiracy theory. But take a moment and think about it.
 He discussed a good bit about relativism (whats right for you is great but it's not right for me) and our culture is moving more and more towards that being the norm. Sadly as Christians I see us adding this mindset into our faith all the time. Cut and dry issues are no longer that way, whether it be movies, music, sexuality, substance, or all of the above.

The one common thing every other worldview has is common with each other is the fact that in some way it makes you the master of your own destiny. Culture would say the same that we are the masters of our own fate. It is sad to see how many people get lost in these lies. As Christians we need to be vocal about the correct worldview. You may be met with responses like "that's not loving" or "well that's not politically correct". Well there isn't anything anymore loving than speaking the truth of a Biblical worldview and if you didn't already know it, you will now  because I'll let you in on a little secret.When Jesus was here he wasn't politically correct. Hate to burst anyone's bubble there but when Christ walked the streets in his day he did just about everything that was considered a no no by the Pharisees and the Jewish rulers of the day.        
So lets go against the grain, stand out and stand up for what we know is truth.

 I love how these words describe what exactly it is that so many people refuse to except or have just not heard yet.

And the pain falls like a curtain
On the things I once called certain
And I have to say the words I fear the most
I just don't know

And the questions without answers
Come and paralyze the dancer
So I stand here on the stage afraid to move
Afraid to fall, oh, but fall I must
On this truth that my life has been formed from the dust

God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He's painting
God is God and I am man
So I'll never understand it all
For only God is God

And the sky begins to thunder
And I'm filled with awe and wonder
'Til the only burning question that remains
Is who am I

God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He's painting
God is God and I am man
So I'll never understand it all
For only God is God

Can I form a single mountain
Take the stars in hand and count them
Can I even take a breath without God giving it to me
He is first and last before all that has been
Beyond all that will pass



God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He's painting
God is God and I am man
So I'll never understand it all
For only God is God

Oh, how great are the riches of His wisdom and knowledge
How unsearchable for to Him and through Him and from Him are all things

So let us worship before the throne
Of the One who is worthy of worship alone






Till NextTime
love Jared

Bring It On

Making Dumb Faces On The Way To Love A Liftie

So there will be a little less content this week, as Timberline was hit with as it was dubbed "the plague". More than half of the students were sick, I however was spared even though 2 of my roommates caught "the plague". The night it descend upon the campus I was able to have a "servant's" heart as the saying goes, when sick roommate 1 couldn't get to the bathroom because sick roommate 2 was already in there. So about 1:30 am I was helping sick roommate 2 clean up said puke on the floor and I disinfected the room till about 2. So for the next 3 days or so I was constantly pounding vitamin C, sanitizing door knobs, light switches, and basically every surface in our room. I also used the classic technique my mother taught  me of airing out the room. My room was back on its feet after 2 days and we haven't had any other causalities.

I have decided for my student teaching I will be teaching out of James 3. I decided to teach on the chunk of verses about the tongue. I have already been working on my lesson and would say I am about 40% done. I will have to teach for at least 10 minutes and no longer than 15. So I hope and pray I will hit that sweet spot. Cause being from a big family I am due to be at least 5 minutes late and being Baptist I by very nature should be about 15 minutes late. So I think I may have to work pretty hard to be on time. I also have my progress of redemption Video up, finally.. Check it out here!

The Doc At Work

Look At Those Beauts

This was my teams last week on mountain ministry as we will be going on our mission trips the Thursday after next. Friday we were out talking to lifties once again and Saturday we were at the top of the rail yard making PB&J' and talking to whoever would have one. (Side note I am able to hit some rails now). At the end of the day we had Soup N Tune. We had a great turnout with a lot of lifties. At least three of them were at the Sunday evening service at FVBC which was really sweet because I was able to lead again. It felt good to be back up on the mic, guitar in hand, and leading the congregation in song.

Good To Have This View Again

As I was sitting in typing I had a thought come to mind about how when "the plague" descended upon us I jumped into action as to prevent me and others from getting sick. I had the tools to do the job and the knowledge of how to take care of it. I was thinking in the same way we are often tested by the enemy and our flesh throughout our daily lives. However even though we have the tools and the knowledge to handle what is thrown at us we more often than not we run or don't handle it the wrong way. When our attitude should be BRING IT ON!!! James 1 starting in Verse 2 says 

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

So when we meet trials we need to take them head on and pass the test. So that we may lack nothing.
This song just seemed fitting.


I didn't come lookin' for trouble
And I don't want to fight needlessly
But I'm not gonna hide in a bubble
If trouble comes for me
I can feel my heart beating faster
I can tell something's coming down
But if it's gonna make me grow stronger then'

Bring it on
Let the lightning flash, let the thunder roll, let the storm winds blow
Bring it on
Let the trouble come, let the hard rain fall, let it make me strong
Bring it on

Now, maybe you're thinkin' I'm crazy
And maybe I need to explain some things
'Cause I know I've got an enemy waiting
Who wants to bring me pain
But what he never seems to remember
What he means for evil God works for good
So I will not retreat or surrender

Bring it on
Let the lightning flash, let the thunder roll, let the storm winds blow
Bring it on
Let the trouble come, let the hard rain fall, let it make me strong
Bring it on

Now, I don't want to sound like some hero
'Cause it's God alone that my hope is in
But I'm not gonna run from the very things
That would drive me closer to Him
So bring it on

Bring it on
Let the lightning flash, let the thunder roll, let the storm winds blow
Bring it on
Let the trouble come, let it make me fall on the One who's strong
Bring it on
Let the lightning flash, let the thunder roll, let the storm winds blow
Bring it on
Let me be made weak so I'll know the strength of the One who's strong
Bring it on
Bring it on


Till Next Time
Love Jared

Facts Are Facts

So no class this week, as we had our progress of redemption project presentations and dare to share. After a few very long nites and early mornings me and my buddy Chris who I was working with finally finished our project. I am very happy on how it turned out. we had our normal class blocks dedicated  to presented the projects this week. The point of this project was for you to pick at least 10 scenes of the bible that are necessary in explaining the redemption of Christ. I will have a link up to the video on YouTube at sometime this week. We are having a bit of trouble exporting it. As a quick rundown through our video we basically walked through from creation to Jesus telling the stories we felt were most important in explaining why Jesus needed to come, how and who he would come through, and what he did while he was here. To be able to explain the story of redemption.

For workday this week I was again working with firewood haha. Throwing rounds, splitting and stacking. It would seem that I can not escape doing something involving wood on a Tuesday. I enjoy it though, so do a lot of the other guys who are used to a manual labor job. The joke is that workday helps keep us sane during the week. 

Me And Cody On The Door

 On Thursday Zane came over to give us a rundown of D2S and answer any questions we may have had.

Friday morning we headed down to Denver for Dare2Share. We spent Friday and Saturday volunteering at the event. We started working the event a bit before 5 on Friday and were there till late that evening. When doors opened, we were in charge of checking for wristbands on the way in and along with that we hi fived somewhere around 3 thousand people. Mainly Friday night we worked the doors, some of us worked the merch booth and others were on security.

Zane Laying It Down

  Saturday we had to be at the venue by 7:30 so we were up before 6 to leave and tidy up the church we were staying at that night. Felt like I was at a youth group lock in again. A few very crappy hours of sleep on a hard floor. (I'm getting to old for this stuff)

Once back at the D2S venue I was on door duty again. I must say it was cool to be one of the people who look out through the glass before the sea of people enter. As kids and youth leaders descended upon us once again we greeted them with smiles, hi fives, and some very energetic voices to pump them up for the morning, as doors opened at 8. (When I say "them" I mean the youth leaders that had inevitably been up many hours after their students tried to pull all nighters).  I can say with confidence that I know this happened because I did the same thing hahaha.

The Birds Eye Security View 

As the day went on I was moved to a security position complete with walkie talkie. Believe me I felt official. Making sure people did not enter a restricted area (you could say it was kinda a big deal). During part of the event we were used as stage security so the rowdy teenagers didn't get to close or even on stage.  

About To Make A Human Wall

 So pretty much the whole event was volunteer staffed by Timberline and Ravencrest students. In all there was about 55+ of us working the event. So not only did we get to see most of the conference for free but we also were treated to the volunteer break room. Complete with Jesus coffee.
We were also used to take up the offering for the event. D2S only charges 45$ a person for a ticket to the event but it costs around 90$ a person to put the event on. They do this as to keep it affordable for students. So they rely on sponsors and donations to keep the event going.   
  Our final task for the day was to help breakdown some booths and user people out of the building after the event was over.

I have to say on of my favorite parts of the weekends was being able to see rehearsal for the band that was there, Starfeild. Something I had always wanted to be able to be in the room for at an event like this.   

Warmups

But the best part of the weekend by far was being able to help put on an event where teens can come and learn how to better share their faith in Jesus with their friends and family. It truly takes a lot a behind the scenes work to make something like this happen and to be apart of it was truly special. Not to mention we got to work an event that Zane was a part of. He gave a few mentions about being at a Bible school up in winter park for some years before working with D2S. When he did so pretty much every Timberliner in the room let out a shout!

Me And Zane

      So to close I will tell you a short story. Sunday night me and some friends went to McDonald's for some internet as it was down at the lodge. After we were there for a little bit one of my friends ended up striking up a spiritual conversation with a guy there. After a week of presenting our projects about redemption and then working an event about sharing your faith I know that this was no accidental encounter. So as it turned out how I was sitting I kinda had my back to the guy so I prayed for my friends that the Lord would speak through them and he would be open to hear the whole time of the conversation. As it went on we came to find out he believed in many a different spiritual things. He was however very excepting of what we said to him. It ended with my friend Joanna who was directing most of the conversation praying over him before he left. Even though he did not make a profession of Christ right then and there we were able to throw some seeds on some soil. I hope that many of those students from D2S have many of these type of encounters for days to come.


So I will leave you with these words and DARE "YOU" 2 SHARE!


 Well I don't wanna' take up anybody's time
I'm just givin' my opinion with a rhythm and a clever rhyme
I don't want these words to sound
Like I think I've got it all figured out
But there are a few things I can say I know without a doubt

I know there's a God who knows my name
And a Son who died to take the blame
I believe that Jesus is coming back
'cause promises are promises and facts are facts

These days some say there's no one way to believe
Just keep it loose, you're free to choose
There's no absolute it's all relative you see
Calling all defenders of the truth
Live a life that spells out God's worldview
Let these words be heard in everything you say and do

I know there's a God who knows my name
And a Son who died to take the blame
I believe that Jesus is coming back
'cause promises are promises and facts are facts

As sure as there's a law of gravity
That says what goes up must come down
This is the ultimate reality
That God is, and God loves, and God can be found

Well I know there's a God who knows my name
Promises are promises and facts are facts
And a Son who died to take the blame
Promises are promises and facts are facts
And I believe that Jesus is coming back
'Cause promises are promises and facts are facts

Promises are promises and facts are facts 


Till Next time
Love Jared