The power of youth

Its amazing how God works, no matter what your age! We just had a speaker who was telling about his teaching a 3 day conference on church growth even though he was 23! Because God has no age limits, whether young or old, everybody gets to be in the party!

God has really been showing me and a few others the power of being child-like. You see, children have everything else that we need to be complete Christians. Because Christian means "little Christ," we need to have the faith and boldness that Jesus represented all day long. Many Christians have the knowledge and wisdom part down, and I feel like God really wants to remind many of us, no matter how old or experienced we are, that need to be like children to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Children have dreams that are amazing! Have you ever met a kid who didn't believe in his heart that he could be an astronaut, brain surgeon, professional sports player or world peace hero? I mean kids have such faith and vision for the future that it just gets you pumped! When I was 5 years old, I believed in my heart that anything was possible! I thought I could win the lottery, no matter how crazy the odds were! If we can unleash a spirit to dream like children, we could really see the whole world revolutionized by the power of Christ.

Another thing that children really have that everyone needs is acceptance. A child will get to know someone, and they have had no time to develop preconceived notions that will be used for their judgments. I think you get the point, that children are just awesome! So innocent, honest, accepting, faith-filled and bold. Could you imagine if every christian was child-like, and filled with the holy spirit and wisdom? I pray to God that this will be restored!

And how much more amazing will the body of Christ be if everyone has the exuberance, adventurous spirit and gung-ho attitude that every 18 year old has? If we could take a generation that has been walking away from church doing the peak of their high school years and show them that they can go travel the world and make a huge difference right out of high school, how much greater will the body of Christ be? And where does it say in the bible that you have to go to seminary or get a degree first to make a difference? By the way, I love education and hope to spend the rest of eternity getting one. But seriously, why go to college to get a degree that you won't do anything when you can just go to the mission field where you'll do some serious learning? Now, its totally different if God calls you to get an education, which is awesome! But don't let the world tell you that you have to meet their requirements to be effective for Christ. All that God cares about is your heart to know him and make him known.

What if we could grab every young person that is walking away from the church during their late teens, which is reaching 90% these days, and tell them that they can make the change? What if we could tell them that their anger towards the church is a good thing if it motivates them to BE the change? Could you imagine! I declare over this generation that their passion will be used for the good of the kingdom of God. We need a restoration of the early new testament church, and I declare that it will be through all generations partnering together and getting a fire under our buts that will do it!

A whole world tasting the goodness of God through child-like faith, 18 year zeal and elderly wisdom... sounds pretty good doesn't it? I just really pray that we as a body can harness the power of youth.

Video and pictures

I put together a few tours of the campus, some videos from friends and its on vimeo: YWAM Hallelujah!, and all the pictures that I will be taking will be on Facebook!

The first week!

This has been an amazing week so far! Praise God for all that he's been teaching me! We have been learning so many things just in this first week! Every day we have 3-4 hours of lectures in the morning, with amazing teachers from 21 to 40! They all love the lord and have had some really amazing God things happen to every single one of them!

We also spend at least 2 hours monday, wednesday, friday in the prayer room, worshiping and interceding before the lord. For those that don't know, to intercede means to stand in the gap, just like Jesus is interceding before God the father on our behalf.

One of the coolest things is learning to hear God's voice! How cool is our God that he still speaks to us no matter how deserving we are! Once we ask God's heart for something, whether its a country, people group or sphere in society, we pray God's heart back to him. Intercession is extremely effective because we ask God what he wants instead of simply praying what we want!

We are also learning to cultivate intimacy with Christ! I am getting taught a whole new concept from God, that the most intimate thing we can do is rest with someone else. Just like a child in a fathers lap, if we just relax in God's presence it really brings us closer together. A great example of this is shown in Genesis. On the 6th day God created man, and then next day he just wanted to hang out with him! It sure seems like God just wants to hang out with us! And the cool thing is, intimacy with him makes our missions SO much more effective because he will give us his heart for things and we will be able to hear his voice so much clearer! PRAISE THE LORD!!!

By the way, if anyone has any prayer requests, I would really love to pray for everyone of you!

Peace out with the Prince!

God is Good

I don't know really what to say except that God is just so good! This whole world that he has given us is just filled with his goodness. Its amazing, even the suffering that hes taken me through seems awesome in hindsight, like he was just giving me a hunger to be where he wants me to be, so now that I'm here its just the best feeling ever! God is so faithful that he can use any situation and any suffering for his glory and the blessing of those that he carries through.

Thank You and Goodbye!

So this is my last day in Sisters! It has an exciting 3 1/2 weeks leading up to this moment! There is so much thankfulness to given out!

I would like to thank God first and foremost for putting so many people in my life, his provision, faithfulness and love.

Much thanks to my parents, who have prayed with me, cried with me, forgiven me, bought me underwear, helped me pack, encouraged me, support me, gave me a house to live in and food to eat, and believed in me even when I didn't believe in myself. I am forever in debted to them, and I think the only time they will get paid back is in heaven.

Thank you to my teachers, Mrs. Spear for doing my recommendation and praying for me when I really needed it. Mr. Rexford for helping me get tough and always encouraging me. To Mrs. Johnson, for being full of life and letting me pray in class. To Mr. Cotner, for being a friend even when we're not at church. To Mrs. Sampson, for giving me so much freedom in school to work. Thanks to Mr. Hodges for hosting an epic year of FCA. To Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Novotny and the rest of the aspire volunteers.

Thanks to Mr. Macauley, for being an encouraging and positive coach no matter the record. To Mr. Stewart for giving everyone the "ticket to the show" and always smiling when you did it. Thanks to everyone in the office, to Pinky, for being kid's second mom, to Shelli, for getting the transcripts and everything together for kids, to Dan and Cindy for keeping the schedules and credits in line, to Mrs. Nielsen, for keeping the funds together! Much thanks to the janitors/custodians for keeping it clean!

Thank you to everyone at Sisters High school for 4 great years of awesome education!

I would also like to thank everyone that has been praying for me ever since I was born. I know there's a lot out there, and I hope you're encouraged by the way that God has totally rocked my life!

Also, thank you Jesus for dying for our sins, and rising from the dead to prove what you said!

Thanks to Tim Kizziar, Dan Keels, Kevin Marks, Paul Rawlins, David Yost, you guys have pastored an awesome flock! Truly shining the light, and its just shows that God truly has a hold of your lives completely!

Thanks to Sheryl Whent, Stu Ehr, Mindi Cotner, for just the church an enjoyable place to be!

Thanks to Kelly and Eli Pyke, for taking us into the wilderness without once wondering if we were going to die!

Thanks to John Colter, the Bensons, and everyone else at Younglife!

Thanks to all my friends, for always wanting to have fun no matter what, and I hope all you guys continue to seek God with all of your heart, for if you seek him faithfully he will never disappoint you!

Thanks to YWAM for letting me in! Praise the Lord!

Again, all glory to God forever and ever.