A Beautiful Relationship

No, not with a girl. I have a beautiful relationship with the God who created me and saved me and loves me with an unfailing love. Mostly when I blog about what God has been teaching me it's always some attribute of his character that has really stuck out to me, or something specific on my part that I've been learning such as rest, or humility. This week, I couldn't for the life of me think of something specific that has stood out, although I've learned a lot. I was explaining this to my friend Thomas Tran who wisely told me "sometimes its more about enjoying the fact that the relationship exists." It's been 6 years now since I put my faith in Christ, which probably seems like nothing to some of you reading this, but sometimes I forget what it was like before I knew Him. I forget the emptiness I felt, and the dissatisfaction. I'll never forget what it was like when I asked him into my heart though and that all became a thing of the past. Psalm 51:12 says "Restore to me the joy of your salvation" and I think that captures the essence of what God's been teaching me. It's a beautiful thing that I never have to experience condemnation anymore, never have to feel unloved, I always have hope, I always have joy and satisfaction, I'm guided and empowered as I'm going through life and encountering situations such as sharing my faith, picking leadership for project, and making important decisions. I read the Word with a Helper who brings it to life in my heart, I speak with my God and he speaks with me. I can be totally honest with Him, fully known and yet fully loved. I can be refreshed at any time simply by His presence, or one of His promises such as the fact that I have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in heaven for me. I have a loving heavenly Father (and a loving earthly one too). Speaking of my dad, this is totally unrelated to what God was teaching me this week but in light of Father's day I want to give him a shout out. I'm disappointed I couldn't be there for it to show him how much I appreciate him but I think I do more this year than ever before. I've been thinking about him a lot lately, and there have been lots of moments seeing cool cars or watching basketball or whatever that I've wished he was here experiencing it with me. I miss you and I love you dad!

Visiting the Golden Gate Bridge!

Teaching Carlee how to shag dance at the Barn Party!

I want to move on now to what actually happened this week. The two biggest things were the Barn Party we had on Saturday night, and then a conversation I had with my friend Nichole after church on Sunday. Also, on Monday we picked the leadership for the whole project that will take over after the staff team leaves so I suppose that was a pretty big deal too. On a more fun note, not related to ministry at all, the staff team took a really fun trip to San Francisco yesterday. The Barn Party was a ton of fun! We had corn on the cob, ribs, brisket, pulled pork, baked beans, watermelon, banana pudding, and dirt pudding. I'd say between 30-40 of our coworkers were in and out throughout the evening including Nichole who was attending her third straight cru barn party! I got to sit in on a conversation where one of our project students, Carlee, got to share her testimony with her coworker Lucas. I also got to go through the gospel with this guy Rafael who was sitting by himself at the end of the party. It was a really interesting conversation but he said things didn't add up for him and I hope to get to talk with him again. I was really excited to see Nichole becoming closer with some of our project girls, since I'm going to be gone in a week and a half (isn't that crazy?) and I'd love for her to stick around and get close to those girls. I wanna give a shout out to Morgan Robinson for really being awesome about trying to get to know her! I also taught like half the project how to shag and that was a lot of fun. :) The next morning Nichole came to church with us, which was exciting because after the barn party I was barely able to drag myself out of bed so I was impressed! The pastor was starting a new sermon series on the book of 1 Peter called Living Hope. Afterwards she and I had a great conversation about it, she opened up and told me that she knew she didn't have that kind of hope and she saw it in us and believed what we were saying was true but she's scared to death of giving up control of her whole life. It's the only thing that scares her more than going to Germany. Please pray for Nichole as she's very torn about all of this, and she desires a relationship with Christ but is scared to take that step of faith. I'm praying for God to continue to show her who he is and that he can be trusted, for courage for her to surrender, and believing God through prayer that she'll begin a relationship with Him this summer. Before she goes to Germany, she'll have that living hope in her life! The trip to San Fran yesterday was both a lot of fun and exciting but the only way to really describe everything we saw is through images so look for an album to get put up on Facebook soon. Last night after we got back, one of the girls on project fell while learning to long board and broke her ankle and had to go to the hospital. Her name is Shelby, will you pray for her to have a speedy recovery and that it wouldn't stop God from changing her life this summer?

Prayer Requests:

- Pray for me to continue to find rest in my Savior, to know him more and better each day and overflow the fruit of the Spirit.

- Pray for the leaders that God has raised up (answered prayer). Pray they'll find strength in the Lord as they give direction to the project this summer, that they'll be respected by their peers. The best is yet to come for these students after we leave.

- Pray specifically for Victor, Damon, Branson, Sam, and Greg as my coleader J.P. and I take off for the summer. Victor will be leading the action group after we leave, Sam will be leading the prayer team, and Branson will actually be one of the project directors. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for them.

- Pray for those in Santa Cruz who don't know Christ, pray that God would go before us and prepare their hearts to hear the message of his unfailing love for them, what he did for them on the cross, and his desire to have a relationship with them.

- Pray for continued unity among the staff team, and for that to be contagious to the students that they would really work as one for the summer especially once the staff have left. Pray for safety as we're going to Yosemite soon. Some of us will be hiking half dome, which is a 17 mile hike.

- Pray again for Nichole. Pray for her to see God clearly, for courage to trust him, pray that she'd find lasting joy, satisfaction, and a living hope in Jesus Christ.