Cranberry Limeade, Yes Please.

I miss Julia.

That's about it. About a week ago she decided to go home to be with her mom who recently got surgery. This came as a surprise to me (good thing I went ahead and bought a one-way ticket back to Wisco in a few weeks), since we had drove down here together. I had to quickly pack up some of my things and send them with her, since it all won't fit in my one suitcase! It warmed my heart earlier to have her share, "your box is chilling in my room so it's like a part of you is here!" :) Oh, such a goof!

This would be the girl and I. Oh, and my lovely black eye... You should see the bear.

The whole crew chillin' at Sonic!! Yeah for Cranberry Limeades's :)

PS -- Today the Mayfield's (Sarah and I house-sat for them a while back) invited us terns to go boating with them on the lake. Such a great idea, and an offer we could not pass up! It was so refreshing, and I got to try water skiing for the first time! Definitely failed, but it was a blast!

A Familiar Face

One of my professor's from Bethel came to visit me and the other two interns here at River City this past weekend. It was a fun time, and it's always great to see a familiar face! In a nutshell, we had a blast listening to some Cuban flute and whistle players, and over the course of the three days he was here, devoured way too much Mexican food.

Sarah, Me, and Joe -- The "Terns"

Saying our goodbyes to Brandt!! Thanks for the visit!

Hey There, Shiner!

Six hours until I have to be up and getting ready for church, and I have so much on my mind. My sincerest apologies on how I have been slacking with this whole blog thing. I have felt like I haven't been able to breathe deep or even think too hard for a while now. I've just been so exhausted, yet super alive. Haha. Bear with me now, as I try to update you.

This entire week was devoted to VBS at the church. Such an insane time, with roughly 300 child folk running around with their heads chopped off.... oh, wait... that was me! Yeah, pretty much. The theme was a rock concert titled, Backstage With The BIBLE. Lots of glitter, dancing, and singing, it was definitely one heck of a week-long party. My roomie Sarah has a girl in her fan club named Sarah also, who decided to receive Christ's love and give her life to God. How incredible!

Check out this fun video on Youtube -- VBS '10

Now, the week before this week full of VBS was Master's Camp for River City's youth (both jr. and sr. high). It was entitled "Engage". Similar with very little to no sleep, this was an incredible week. We had about 70 youth from both campuses through River City, and then there were around 200-300 total campers including several other local (and not-so-local) youth groups. The speaker for the week was Jeff Mangum, one of several teaching pastors at a church in Austin, Texas, where Chris Tomlin leads worship when he's around. Let me tell you, he brought the truth. For those of you who have been listening to the Radical series by David Platt along with me, or have heard of him elsewhere, Jeff has a similar teaching syle. It is captivating. Truth is captivating. The musical worship leaders were Chris and Conrad, two guys who passionately sought out the Spirit of our Lord with us throughout the entire week -- praising His holiness and seeking His face.

I was able to connect with a girl named Ali, who is going to be entering the seventh grade. My heart breaks for her, and she blew me away. There was one night in our River City time, where it was just a time of worship and all the leaders were spread apart in the back. She and a friend of hers came over to me and just clung to me. After a few moments, I said, "What's up?" And she just looked at me and said, "I just wanted to come by you, because you make me feel comfortable." Wow, that rocked my world.

The last morning that we were there, Joe remembered something that a speaker at Bethel over this past year did with everyone first semester. So, we gave it a try. First, all the guys (including the leaders), circled around all the girls. Then vice versa. It was a time of prayer, apology, encouragement, honesty, and pouring out our hearts. Powerful to say the least.

Such a jam-packed and wonderful week. And oh, I walked away from with with a nice shiner. A black eye. You see, it was Thursday morning. Around 7am. I was getting ready to go to breakfast. I felt rather dizzy and just all-around nautious, so I sat down on a bench in the community shower area. The next thing I knew was another leader, Lisa, was rubbing my back on the concrete floor. I had blacked out and hit my face. They called another volunteer with our youth, Jon Shepherd, a trauma nurse. He came over and sat me up. I blacked out a second time. I remember feeling miserable. Him and another guy carried me out and laid me onto a mattress out in the lobby area. He gave me an IV on the spot and called 911. He stuck me three times before a vein was good enough.... ugh! Once the hospital dudes got there, they took me to the ER in an ambulance with a neck brace. I think it probably seemed a bit more dramatic than it needed to, but I guess I did lose consciousness. The hospital was a good 45 minutes away, but they did tell me that they normally helicopter people to the San Antonio hospital, since we were pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I am actually thankful that wasn't the case for me. It's kind of embarrassing to think about it. I found out that they would have had to stick something up my butt. It's common procedure. Noooo! So, I'm still counting my blessings! Once I was there, they just stuck more needles in me and made me pee in a cup after giving me two liters of fluids through my IV. I was so thankful Jon was there with me, because they were trying to make me sign my life away with the around $4,000 bill. You see, I have no insurance. This is bad. But the camp I was at has a policy that anything that happens to anyone on their grounds is covered completely. Wow. So, if this had to happen, I am glad it happened while at camp.

Delightfully So

Here are some quotes from various worship leaders and pastors. I received them in the mail about a week ago as encouragement, and now it's your turn to be encouraged. RECEIVE IT! (I have put my favorites in italics!)


“Worship is the believers’ response of all that they are – mind, emotions, will, and body – to what God is and says and does.”

~Warren W. Wiersbe


“Worship is the proper response of all moral, sentient beings to God, ascribing all honor and worth to their Creator-God precisely because he is worthy, delightfully so.”

~Robert Shaper



“Worship embraces relationship, attitude, act, life . . . Robert Shaper asserts that worship, like love, is characterized by intuitive simplicity (everybody ‘knows’ what worship is, just as everyone ‘knows’ what love is) and philosophical complexity (the harder you press to unpack love or worship, the more difficult the task).”

~D. A. Carson



“Worship is to feel in the heart . . . it is an attitude and a state of mind. It is a sustained act, subject to varying degrees of intensity and perfection . . . Real worship is, among other things, a feeling about the Lord our God . . . It is in our hearts. And we must be willing to express it in an appropriate manner. If we love the Lord and are led by His Holy Spirit, our worship will always bring a delighted sense of admiring awe and a sincere humility on our part."

~A. W. Tozer



“Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God . . . it whets our appetite. Our need for God is not taken care of by engaging in worship . . . it deepens. It overflows the hour and permeates the week.”

~Eugene Peterson



“Worship is the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing god . . . Continuous implies relentlessness . . . outpouring implies lavishness and generosity.”

~Harold M. Best



“Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of his worth. Now we see that the mirror that catches the rays of his radiance and reflects them back in worship is the joyful heart . . . the chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever.”

~John Piper



“We begin with one fundamental fact about worship at this very moment, and for as long as this world endures, everybody inhabiting it is bowing down and serving something or someone.”

~Harold M. Best



“We worship God purely for the sake of worshiping God.”

~Franklin Segler



“Worship is an end in itself because it is the final end for which we were created.”

~John Piper



“The one priority we shall never fully discharge, the one priority that shall never grow old or become unnecessary, is the worship of the Lord God. We will spend eternity loving Him and worshiping Him and enjoying Him. There is nothing higher.”

~Bruce Leafblad

I'm Dangerous

So, over this past weekend at the lake house in Franklin, TX with my host family, I learned something about myself.

I am dangerous.

Now, to those of you who know me well this may not come at too much of a surprise. After all, you probably has associated the words: clutzy, dainty, clumsy, distracted, etc.... at some point in our friendship. You can now add dangerous. Hmm.

My roomie and I had marvelous moments together and plenty of obnoxious laughing sprouts -- yes, this is true. On the flip side, here goes it...

Day Two: went TUBING! This is always a ton of fun, and there was even a gorgeous rainbow that decided to make itself known while we were dodging waves. At one moment, I was so excited that I screamed at the top of my lungs "Look at the rainbow!!" Long story short, I gave Sarah a mild concussion. My distraction turned into a slip, which ended up as a punch in the face, which then led to a bruise, and finally led to loss of vision for roughly 10 seconds. Oops. Oh, but that's not all. Before we even started, I shared with Sarah that if I was going down, she was going down with me. Well......... as my right hand slipped off the grip, I grabbed her leg. I ended up going under -- she survived... with a massive welt on her upper thigh.

Night Three: learned how to ignite lighters and played with sparklers! My sparks got a little carried away and decided to jump onto Sarah. Ouch! Again, oops. Dahhhh....

Okay, are you starting to see the picture?

After a few thoroughly embarrassing moments here and there, I am starting to think we are nearing up on almost even. This is a good feeling.

TaTa for now :)

He WILL Be Strong

Relationships. Ah, they're exhausting. Yet super incredible and wholeheartedly worth it. But what do you do when you don't have all the answers (which is a lot)? When your burden is so heavy for someone, it almost consumes all your thoughts and makes you wanna punch Satan in the face.

Lord, I lift my friend to You, I've done all that I know to do
I lift my friend to You
Complicated circumstances have clouded his view
Lord, I lift my friend up to You

I fear that I won't have the words that he needs to hear
I pray for Your wisdom, oh God, and a heart that's sincere
Lord, I lift my friend up to You

Lord, I lift my friend to You
My best friend in the world, I know he means much more to You
I want so much to help him, but this is something he has to do
And Lord, I lift my friend up to You

'cause there's a way that seems so right to him
But You know where that leads
He's becoming a puppet of the world, too blind to see the strings
Lord, I lift my friend up to You
My friend up to You

Lord, I lift my friend to You, I've done all that I know to do
I lift my friend to You 
(From Casting Crown's Prayer For A Friend) 

From one of my favorite songs, For The Moments I Feel Faint by Relient K...
"You're telling me there is no hope, I'm telling you you're wrong. When the world around you crumbles, He will be strong. He will be strong."

Not A Castle In The Air

God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way. Every vision will be made real if we will have patience.

Think of the enormous leisure of God! He is never in a hurry. We are always in such a frantic hurry. In the light of the glory of the vision we go forth to do things, but the vision is not real in us yet; and God has to take us into the valley, and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the place where He can trust us with the veritable reality. Ever since we had the vision God has been at work, getting us into the shape of the ideal, and over and over again we escape from His hand and try to batter ourselves into our own shape.  

 

The vision is not a castle in the air, but a vision of what God wants you to be. Let Him put you on His wheel and whirl you as He likes, and as sure as God is God and you are you, you will turn out exactly in accordance with the vision. Don't lose heart in the process. If you have ever had the vision of God, you may try as you like to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never let you. 

~Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

"And the parched ground shall become a pool." Isaiah 35:7

Kitchen Table Quirks...

Quote of the week:

Sarah: "Keith, can you drive a boat?"
Keith: "Yepp."
Sarah: "Well, I was wondering because I asked John earlier and I think he thought we were hitting on him."

*By "we" she meant me and her. Ohhhhhhhh that was hilarious! Kitchen table quirks... gotta love 'em.

PS -- So you prolly had to be there, and know the people at least some-what for you to get any of this. Just laugh along, and we'll be good.

A Bit Jumbled? Hmm.

Recently, I’ve been learning a lot about warring for other people’s souls through prayer.  

I just got back earlier this evening from an extremely fun weekend at my host family’s lake house for the Fourth. I can confidently say that it was the best Fourth I have had yet! There was swimming, LOTS of swimming (and tubing, jet skiing, boating), games, southern food, pranks, lots of guitars, and tons of people. It was pretty much a family reunion for them -- definitely a super fun time! To get to my point, my host mom’s sister has a son named John. He had a friend named Alec, and then there were the neighbors who had a sweet little girl named Savannah. The first night we were there, my roomie Sarah and I had great conversations with them. Alec just started asking us questions about why we’re Christians. That he could see the passion, but just doesn’t understand how we can make it our life. And what if we’re wrong? How can we be so sure on Christianity? It was hard, but I loved the conversation. He asked us to share the reasons of our hope, and so we did. Then he shared his life. It pretty much sucks. He was raised by his grandparents  in San Diego – cool that we shared that commonground though. John was definitely a “charmer meets difficult”. And the main neighbor guy, Pete, is a cop. From what he shared, super desensitized to life, and sees everything as black and white. And according to him, YOU define what black and white is to you. After the first night, my heart was just so hurt – not BY them, but FOR them. For disillusionment in their lives, and how they try to fill the obvious voids. So, what to do? PRAY! (Not as an excuse, or a way to ignore them, but to actually PRAY!). 

That is example number one.

Second, I also just got back last Saturday from being a female counselor at Royal Family Kids Camp. It's a camp for abused foster kids who are wards of the state. The purpose of this camp is "to provide safety, fun, positive memories, and a positive role model for abused and neglected children within a context of Christian values; to press into service the skills that I have; to listen; to express genuine empathy and to love unconditionally without requiring anything in return for my investment." They aim to treat the kids "royally"..... it costs over $700 a camper, but it's all raised through supporters, etc. Anywho, it was totally set up by God. I found out super last minute because three female "counselors" dropped out cuz of things that couldn't have been preventable (getting surgery, losing a job, etc). It was absolutely incredible, and super exhausting at the same time. My girl Neissa asked me to pray with her to receive the love of Christ the last night we were there. It was so unbelievable, and something i will never forget. Angels have been rejoicing ever since!  Sarah (my roomie, in case you forget), had a 10 year old girl named Doris, who in the past six months, saw first-hand, her mom get shot by her mom’s pimp. These kids speak with no hope, and they believe they have no hope. So, warring for people’s souls through prayer. I think you get it.

Sorry if this is a bit jumbled. This is me processing -- and you are getting stuck in it!