I have always had a distaste for American TV News because 90% of what is being broadcast is negative (the other 10% is the traffic and the weather), but lately it has become fear mongering about the economy. I don't want to just stick my head in the sand and ignore what is going on, but at the same time I want to dwell on the good that is occurring. People are still being cured of life threatening disease, people are living longer, and the poorest people in America today have a great advantage over the poorest Americans in the 1930s. So I'm just wondering is it really that bad?
In response to this fear mongering, I have decided to stop watching the American News Networks, including the local news.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Burning Ones 2008
This past weekend, I attended a short 2 day conference in Austin, TX called Burning Ones. It was a gathering of youth and young adults that desperately longed for everything that God has in store for them and to see the power of God become real in their lives.
It was an exciting weekend of passionate worship, practical teaching, and going out into the community and doing what we learned. The best part was going out and doing it. So on Saturday, our conference was split into 8 teams and sent to various shopping centers for a treasure hunt. We knew that if we made our self available to God, He would show up and that was exactly our plan.
On the drive over to the shopping center, our team prayed and simply asked God who He wanted us to pray for today. As we listened, we made a list of the things that came to our mind. We had everything from a target, a blue cast, a star, snow boats, a baby, and blond hair lady. With the list, we split up into groups of 3 to 4 people and went into an Academy (a sporting goods store) looking for the people on our list. It always surprises me that we always find these people on the list (this wasn’t the first time I’ve done this).
Here are a few of the stories:
From our group at Academy:
1) One of the leaders keep getting really bad chest pain but keep thinking it was from the anxiety of doing this. But as they made their way through Academy they spotted a woman and for some reason knew they needed to talk to her. As they approached her and made conversation with her, the leader’s chest pain was getting worse. So the leader just asked if she had any heart conditions or pain in her chest and this lead the woman into talking about the recent loss of her son and how her chest hurts from the loss. The woman refused pray from the group, but God cared enough about this woman and the loss of her son to send a group of strangers to encourage her.
2) As we were about to leave, I noticed a blond hair lady that was one our list. So one of the youths and I approached her and made conversation with her. We simple told her that she was on our list that God gave us (yep… I don’t lie and figure that it’s already awkward that we are approaching her so why not tell the truth). We asked her if she had any back pain because that was on the list for her. She said no but her husband did. So we simply prayed for her husband’s healing and encouraged her as she was the pillar of faith in her home.
From other groups
1) A guy approached one of the groups saying that he was having car problems. As the group walked over to his car, he confessed that his car was fine and just needed someone to pray for him. So the group prayed for him, lead him to salvation, and experienced the love of God for the first time in his life. How easy is that?! I'm thinking we just need to make ourselves more available.
There are a lot more stories but for time sack I'll share them another time. So that was this weekend. Just a lot of fun while seeing God move in some amazing ways.
It was an exciting weekend of passionate worship, practical teaching, and going out into the community and doing what we learned. The best part was going out and doing it. So on Saturday, our conference was split into 8 teams and sent to various shopping centers for a treasure hunt. We knew that if we made our self available to God, He would show up and that was exactly our plan.
On the drive over to the shopping center, our team prayed and simply asked God who He wanted us to pray for today. As we listened, we made a list of the things that came to our mind. We had everything from a target, a blue cast, a star, snow boats, a baby, and blond hair lady. With the list, we split up into groups of 3 to 4 people and went into an Academy (a sporting goods store) looking for the people on our list. It always surprises me that we always find these people on the list (this wasn’t the first time I’ve done this).
Here are a few of the stories:
From our group at Academy:
1) One of the leaders keep getting really bad chest pain but keep thinking it was from the anxiety of doing this. But as they made their way through Academy they spotted a woman and for some reason knew they needed to talk to her. As they approached her and made conversation with her, the leader’s chest pain was getting worse. So the leader just asked if she had any heart conditions or pain in her chest and this lead the woman into talking about the recent loss of her son and how her chest hurts from the loss. The woman refused pray from the group, but God cared enough about this woman and the loss of her son to send a group of strangers to encourage her.
2) As we were about to leave, I noticed a blond hair lady that was one our list. So one of the youths and I approached her and made conversation with her. We simple told her that she was on our list that God gave us (yep… I don’t lie and figure that it’s already awkward that we are approaching her so why not tell the truth). We asked her if she had any back pain because that was on the list for her. She said no but her husband did. So we simply prayed for her husband’s healing and encouraged her as she was the pillar of faith in her home.
From other groups
1) A guy approached one of the groups saying that he was having car problems. As the group walked over to his car, he confessed that his car was fine and just needed someone to pray for him. So the group prayed for him, lead him to salvation, and experienced the love of God for the first time in his life. How easy is that?! I'm thinking we just need to make ourselves more available.
There are a lot more stories but for time sack I'll share them another time. So that was this weekend. Just a lot of fun while seeing God move in some amazing ways.
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