"GLORIA A DIOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Which when translated means "Glory to God!" That is one of the most used sentences in the life of a Mexican who lives for God. And they don't say it softly either!!! They'll scream out to God and not care who hears them. That sentence is used in prayer, preaching, or just having a regular conversation with someone. Sometimes it can be distracting and sometimes it can be uplifting, but it really just goes to show that the people who use often use it because they have an understanding. An understanding that everything should be for the glory of God!!!

            This past week my team and I were given the opportunity to go to a community four hours south into Mexico. It's a community called Los Quiotes and it is home to some amazing people of God, but also home to the strongholds of the enemy. Although we'll get to the enemy part of the story later because more background is needed before we can go in depth on the adventure!!! Los Quiotes is pretty much in the middle of nowhere!!! It's in the jungle area of the providence of Tamaulipas Mexico and it was more than just a beautiful place. For the time that I've been Mexico I have only been living in the area where everything is flat...I don't like flat, I love the mountains!!!!!!

And that's exactly where I got to go!!! The transition itself from the flat lands to the mountains was breathing taking enough, but when you get to wake up every morning to the view of A HUGE MOUNTAIN it's just immaculate. The community also known as an ejido has about 25 houses in it and is filled with a lot of problems. But there's something there that's stronger than the problems...it's the love that God has given to those people to give back to others.

Now to the story:

             I finally got to drive!!!!! After two months of not even getting to touch a wheel I got to drive!!! The whole way there too!!! So we got there on a Saturday and were getting stuffed full of food the moment we stepped out of the van. Sure the food is good, but there was just SO MUCH!!! I guess that's how Jesus might have felt from time to time because he was at people's houses eating food with them for ministry so I guess maybe we were being fairly Christ like without even knowing it. The most amazing part of getting all the food was that it just went to show how people who have so little can still give so much.

             The ministry that we got to do there was not only uplifting for the people that we got to help out in anyway that we could but it was also uplifting for my teammates and I. We were doing house ministry, construction, and six o'clock prayer time every morning. The whole week was just too amazing, even through the sickness where I had to stay in bed for two days because I was sick...again. But through the staying in bed I got some amazing time with God. Just talking with Him, reading His word, and how often the pain would just subside whenever I would hang with Him. I also got a new grandmother named Alecia and a sweet jacket that she gave me. She is the woman who gave me a place to stay the whole week with our translator. I also got to give a sermon which was awesome because I love giving sermons...I don't know why, but I just do.

              The entire week was started on probably the best foot though. On Sunday we were doing house visit ministry just going around to the people's houses that God led us to and just did our best to see a need fill a need. So at this one house we were sitting down on this front porch when they people asked us if we could pray for they're mother. She is this really old woman who was bed ridden because she was having just this awful pain in her leg, hip, and stomach and was just crying in bed unable to even roll over. So we started praying immediately for her. I got down on my knees and was just asking God for healing for the woman. I was on the verge of tears by just looking at how much pain she was having to suffer through. So then I just asked the Holy Spirit to let me use the authority that we are all given as Christians to just heal her and take away her pain. Out of nowhere I felt an explosion all over my body!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't really even explain it properly but that's probably best because our words alone can't even describe our Father properly. So then I felt the explosion jump out from my hands into the room and then I could see it descend on her.

              So then after a few more minutes we ended the prayer in Christ's name and then left for lunch. We had a church service at five that day where this man Benito, who started the ministry there nine years ago, gave a sermon. The best part of it all though was the fact that the old woman WALKED TO THE CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never felt or seen anything like that in my entire life and I don't think that I will ever forget it. And I just want this to be a reminder for everyone that you can do it to. It's like I said in one of my previous blogs that we all have the authority to do things like that by the Holy Spirit. So just "Come near to God and he will come near to you." James 4:8   Build that relationship with God and you won't believe what happens.

 Gloria a Dios

 

 

"A heart attack is sleeping in your chest, waiting until the timing's best

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So through a whole ton of prayer and just listening to Him he revealed my course of action to take in this pursuit of Him and the knowledge that He posses and gives out to those who seek it/her. He first showed me to take action with the sign of an owl, the base here in Mexico is home to a pair of owls and I know that the owl is a symbol of wisdom. Of course like most people when they look for wisdom from God they think of the one man who God gave it/her to as a free gift just because he asked for it without selfish ambitions. So that man would be Solomon the son of David (a man after God's own heart...which is also something that the growing men on this trip are trying to grasp and achieve!!!) So the one book of the Bible that is dedicated to wisdom and brings about the lessons and gifts/blessings that wisdom brings is the book of Proverbs. 

Before I go any further I would like to tell you all about a man who truly is a man of God and achieved so much for the glory of the kingdom by seeking after wisdom. His name is Mister Austin. He has been working at a camp called Camp hope in Dahlonaga Georgia since before I was born and has been given the task to spread wisdom to the children and teenagers that he encounters. Well he figured that the best way to go about the task and to make it's results bare fruit was to study the book of Proverbs, but he didn't quit there...HE MEMORIZED THE ENTIRE BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you shoot out a reference to him from Proverbs he can give you the verse, sometimes in different translations, and the meaning behind it and how you can apply it to your life. Now of course with age comes wisdom or visa versa so that just goes to show that he has a lot of years under his belt and those years have been spent in his pursuit of God and the wisdom that He possesses.

So I started this study of Proverbs and the words that were given to Solomon by God!!! It has been so amazing and such a blessing to me and to my brothers and sisters around me in this family because God has placed this on my heart so that I may share it with others!!!!!!! I'm really hoping that this doesn't come across as me tooting my horn cuz God, through Solomon, says it quite often that God opposes the proud and brings destruction to those who seek the world with prideful ambitions. So I just want to express that to you guys that everything that is given to you is a blessing from God...EVERYTHING!!!! So give thanks and make sure that the gifts you are given can be used for the benefit of others so that glory can be given to God. It's just like my grandpa tells me all the time, "Take nothing for granted" especially because it's all a gift.

Fear of the Lord is stressed SO much in Proverbs. Many people, when they think of fear, run and and hide in cowardice when scared of things. But it's a totally different ball park when you have fear of the Lord. God isn't the one chasing you around with your deepest fear!!! He's the one who blesses you when submit yourself to Him and kneel before Him in fear. 

"In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and His children shall have a place of refuge."

Proverbs 14:26

Even in the very first chapter God revealed to Solomon what the basis and beginning of knowledge was.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but FOOLS despise wisdom and instruction."

Proverbs 1:7

If you didn't see earlier how when I was talking about wisdom I would refer to it as an "it/her." I only do this because that is what wisdom is!!! When you are interested in...I don't know, let's say the girl of your dreams, you are going to pursue her with all of your heart right?!?

Well that is what is commanded in our pursuit of her, her being wisdom. Once you have come to the understanding of fear of the Lord you can truly pursue wisdom as if she were a woman and if treated and pursued with humility and desire for growth you find her and be given understanding.

"Exalt her, and she will promote you. Love her and she will remain in you. 

 She will give your head a blessing of grace, a crown of glory will deliver unto you."

Proverbs 4:8-9

I know that I have many more years to, MANY more years!!! until I have truly found understanding and wisdom. But it's a good thing because good things come with time. And at the moment, I have a lot of time to pursue God in the way that He has instructed me to do so. And FYI: the stuff that you just read here is barely scratching the surface of the things that are exploding and being burned on my heart. So I encourage you to seek God in the way that He instructs you because it can only lead to glory through the fruit that He will bare through you.

"Take these hands, and turn them into weapons.

 Change these plans, and make them into yours.

 Take this man, and turn His sight from demons.

 All I am...is wanting you more!!!!!!"                                      Destroy the Runner

I'm not gunna lie...I was pretty pissed. It was gone!!! In what strange way could it have come back!?!?!?!? So I had to come to a decision of telling one of my leaders or just brushing it off thinking that it would just be a false alarm. I knew what would probably happen if I told a leader and I really didn't want to but I knew that with our ministry project coming up I needed to get this out of the way once and for all. I ended up telling my leader Tana and she took me to the doctors the same day. And then the word was spoken at the doctors office that I never wanted to hear or have such things come to...colonoscopy.

Doctor Ybarra, who is awesome by the way, said that it would be best to get it taken care of ASAP and since I was so willing to figure out what it was that was wrong with me my only option was to say okay. For those of you who don't know what a colonoscopy is it's a medical procedure where the doctor puts eight feet of tube into your rectum (butthole) and look around with a camera in there for anything that is not supposed to be fooling around inside of my body. The only reason I really went through with it is because I knew that I was going to be completely knocked out so that was quite convenient. I know people who were partially awake for the procedure and they said that it was not something to enjoy.

I got really scared though. I've never been in a hospital and been the one to be operated on. I'm always the one visiting new born babies or family members so this was definitely something different for me. And I love different, for those of you who know me quite well different is something that i thoroughly enjoy! But for most people there are exceptions, being worked on in a hospital is definitely the exception for me. Also because I'm very stubborn about my health.

When I'm sick with serious health issues I don't enjoy people hovering over me all worried and things like that. I don't even enjoy prayer on it. I don't mind it if people and friends pray for me on issues like that, I just don't want to have to hear their prayers cuz I think that's something that they should only talk to God with and not have me hear it. So this whole ordeal was and still is very important for me cuz it's God's way of breaking that spirit of stubbornness and just showing me how to submit all of my fears and inhibitions to Him. 

So they put me in the hospital on Sunday evening and I was there till 9 at night on Monday. Everyone on my team/family wanted to be there with me but I was only allowed one person to stay the night with me. So an old friend of mine and soon to be a leader in Nicaragua volunteered. That friend being Seth Barnes Jr. He stayed with me the whole time. We watched football, movies, and funny commercials with each other for hours. It was the most television we've gotten to watch in a long time!!! 

Finally it was time for the procedure which happened at 2 PM, Monday afternoon. They gave me some kind of anesthetic that worked wonders during and after the colonoscopy!!! Apparently I was saying crazy wild things, singing, and fidgeting around like a little school girl when I started to wake up. I can't remember most of it all but I was told that at the beginning I kept on saying things like "I need to defecate!!!" and "Roll me to the bathroom!!!" to the nurses. 

But I was also told that I was ministering to the nurses at the same time. Saying that I was in "God's hands" and asking them if they "go to a Christian establishment." I would say that because WE being the people who have the faith that Christ died for our sins and rose again are called the church!!! So a thing that we call "church" is just a building or two where people go to worship God when we can do that anywhere. So it was definitely awesome to hear that the Spirit was moving through me and out of me like that even when I was high lol.

  It was very reassuring to hear that people back home were praying for me through all of this and thinking of me because it let me know that I wasn't alone in that hospital bed. Not alone with Seth being there, not alone with the thoughts of my friends and family, and not alone with God sitting in the bed with me. 

This is an edit:

I also just forgot about telling you guys that the doctors did figure out what is wrong with me and that it is easily fixed and already is fixed. All I have to do is let my body take control back and use a little bit of the medication and then it's all good. Thanks for the prayers, cuz they worked.

This was the original copy of the blog :p

"THE WALLS OF A CHURCH DON'T MAKE IT HOLY!!!!!! IT'S WHAT'S AUTHENTIC THAT COMPLETES THE SUM OF THE WHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

August Burns Red  

 

This is going to be a journal entry from a few days ago

He has given us all a desire to grow in Him and to die unto ourselves through sacrifice, discipline, and pain!!! And sometimes, things like that can be scary...especially for a few on this trip.

We've been learning what real church is and it's igniting feelings of rejuvenation in us and a desire to be lights to the world and salt to the sea!!! It all started with many of us, excluding me, having feelings of apathy and contentment with our time here in Mexico. The feelings were making many of us want to leave and just go to our destinations that we'll live in for the next 6 months. So we knew that something had to be done!!! And the leaders with the guidance of the Holy Spirit have been showing us and giving us opportunities to make these desires a reality! With the help once again of the leaders and the guidance of the Holy Spirit we've all just been growing with God through scripture, each other, and the power of Jesus Christ!!!!!!!

The teachings in these past two days have just been flowing int eh Spirit...not to mention Monday's storm filled with a force and magnitude like none other I have ever taken part in!!! And so now we got to apply it all and everything else we have been taught in today's ministry!!! Every team experienced and showed Christ in ways that we never expected, and all this started at FIVE A.M. THIS MORNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So through the mud, through the heat, through the pain and construction we were blessed by God and blessed through the people we ministered to. And the best part is is that through all of this we're experiencing what Christ's life was like on a daily basis!!!! And something that's not that important is that there has been puppies everywhere!!!!! Random I know but I love puppies.

And so also one of the things that we've done this week and will keep on doing in accordance to modeling ourselves after Jesus Christ is that we've been doing prayer shifts. In scripture (I wish I knew where it was but i'll just have to ask a leader) in one of the gospels it says that sometimes Christ would stay up through the night and pray. So that's what the prayer shift is about...a small group of us gets up late at night and spends time with God and each other through prayer and fellowship to the Father. My shift is from 12 A.M. to 1 A.M. and it has been working wonders in our spiritual walk!!!!!!! 

end of journal entry...

God can be prevalent anywhere and in anyone's life as long as you allow Him. You must die unto yourself (the flesh) and take up your cross. The road may not be easy for the enemy is never thrilled when the army of the Lord is strengthened, but you can always achieve victory in the name of the Lord for we have all been given the authority to do so by the power of the Holy Spirit. Never stop seeking God, and never stop fighting against the devil.

"FIGHT LIFE WITH LIFE!!!!! ENEMIES WILL COME FOR YOU THROAT!!!! WE CAN FIGHT THIS!!!"

Devil Wears Prada 

 

So for about two weeks now I've been pretty sick. It's a come and go thing but when it's at the "come" part...well, lets just say that It's something that's not comforting.

 

Everyone here has told me that when in Mexico or even other countries around the world is that  when you're sick you're supposed to get a shot in you butt. Well I went to the doctors twice here and yet still no shot...they made me poop in a cup for three days but that's something that doesn't need to be explained. So finally the leader who works with my team decided that enough is enough and that I needed to be taken to a doctor in the states. 

So I didn't want to go in the first place mainly because 5 minutes prior me knowing that I would be going to the doctor an announcement had been made that the guys were going to play paintball.

I was dressed and ready for the occasion and then shot down. Later on I got shot up :p

 

So the doctor was a really cool dude...we even had a small discussion on our faith and how he knows that God is the ultimate healer but is also a strong believer that God uses doctors for that too. So he was really giving all the glory to the Father. After describing all of my symptoms and talking about the things that might have to take place if I get worse or if tests prove that there is something seriously wrong with me I received my shot....in the butt...and it hurt...a lot.

 

But I just prayed and God gave me some peace on the whole ordeal but that is definitely something you readers can pray for me about. 

 

This may have nothing to do with the title but I am now officially going to be growing my first beard...SO excited!!!!!

      Airport, family, patients, guns, a tower, the Word, a toothpick, and VICTORY!!!! All of those have been the basis of this trip so far.

 

      So I almost didn't make my second flight. My first flight was just about the tenth in line to take off so we left an extra twenty minutes late therefore causing me to almost not be able to get on my second one. But thanks to my speedy running and the willingness to scream "WOULD SOMEBODY HELP ME PLEASE?!?!?" I managed to make the flight. And the really cool part is that some of my teammates were on the same flight!

      Getting to see and spend time with my Novas family has been great!!! We've all been growing together in a way that only God can do! From just playing volleyball to climbing trees, to a late night mosquito infested baptism!!! We've all just been mirrors of God's love to each and it's just SO amazing!!!! You can really see the Holy Spirit moving in everyone!

      So in the first real three days of being here in Ejido Buenos Aires Mexico were spent in the spiritual discipline of solitude. No talking to anyone but the Father. I did everything i could from reading my Bible, to writing in my journal, to just listening to the wind. And I'm a very talkative kind of guy so being around everyone and not being able to see what's going on with them was very difficult, gave me a chance to show patients and to really get to spend time with God. So it was totally worth the struggle!

      As soon as the time of solitude was over some of the guys and I were taking a walk down the street when an armored truck and a military grade hummer drove by us full of Mexican military personel. It was the first time I've ever had an automatic rifle pointed at me...no I did nothing wrong for those of you who I know will probably be thinking that when you read this. I thInk one of them just saw some "dumb Americans" and wanted to mess with them.

       Eloi (my God) is definitely my strong tower! And with him knowing this he gave me a tower in real life here to climb to spend some real windy quiet time with him. Prayer, dancing, singing/screaming, and listening is what I do up there with Him. OH MY GOSH i LOVE IT!!!!!

      In the training and teachings that we have been doing we're really digging in the the Word AKA the Bible AKA Jesus Christ!!!!!!! I've learned that the more that we live by the word the more the way can be showed to other just by them observing a life that is truly modeled after Christ so it's just so amazing to see God work that into us all!!!! Being in the Word has just been so eye opening for all of us especially me because for the first time God used the Word in my life in an inexplicable way!!!! 

     The toothpick was an unfortunate happening with a friend and a sister of mine here. Nothing too sever but sever enough to the point where it brought everyone of us here to the front lines of spiritual warfare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We now, as warriors, have tapped into and realized the authority given to us through the power of the Holy Spirit to heal the sick, raise the dead, and to cast out demons!!!!! The battle that we have fought so far, guaranteed to be the first of many, was fought with prayer, yelling, singing, and marching just as if we were marching to break down the walls of Jericho!!!! And so this battle ended with a victory for God just as the war will. And so until then we've all vowed to be vigilant and ready for anything that the enemy throws at us next so we can then "kick Satan in the teeth!!!!!"

 

    For those of you praying for me out there I thank you and can't wait to hear from everyone!!!

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So people ask me all the time how God called me to this 9 month mission field and I typically tell them the same thing because the same thing is how it really happened. But instead of me verbally telling you I am assigned to write about it. So here it is:

 

So my freshman year of college during second semester at the University of West Georgia is when it all started. I had just gotten into my dorm room from my Astronomy class that I attended every Tuesday and Thursday and I was sitting on my bed and it dawned on me that for some reason I was not where I was supposed to be. Not that I was not supposed to be in my dorm room or anything but that I was not where I needed to be in life. So I was at a point in my life that I was praying a lot so that was exactly what I did. So there wasn't really much I could do besides praying about this feeling besides investigate the reason why I this was going on in my head and my heart. And so that weekend the Big Guy showed up immediately with where I was needing to go. 

 

So I went home from college that weekend and was hanging out with my best friends that Saturday night when a friend and mentor of ours came over. Seth Simonson is his name and he took part in a program with AIM and also works there now. So told him about my predicament and he suggested that I take a look at some of the things that AIM offers for college age students. And so after that God just kept on sending me sign after sign that I should take a year off of college and pursue what he has called his people to do which is to make disciples of all nations! And now because of His grace and love I now have the chance to do so by going to Nicaragua for a 9 month trip.