I could do this

Only about a month until I go with a team to Liberia, and about a month and a half ago I was in Colombia.  I'm honestly beginning to think that I could really do this.  Nothing makes me feel so alive as when I'm serving people somewhere in the world.  There is just something about it, when I'm in the midst of all the chaos of international travel... I just know that there is nothing else that I'd rather be doing.

That trip to Colombia last month really did something in my heart.  It wasn't something that anyone said to me, but still I got back from that experience, and I realized that I was really serious about going anywhere in the world to serve God and part of me had been still holding back. I know it sounds simple, but I broke through another layer of surrendering that I didn't even know was there.

So here are a few more pictures from the Colombia trip that happened in March. I hope you enjoy them!

First Time Travelling with My Guitar.  I borrowed my Dad's guitar case,  and I will probably not do that  again since the case is so thin. 

We worked with the Community Mother's and the Kids she took care of everyday.

The Community Mother's PARROT!!

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Maria Camila! My new sister and translator. 

Maria and I singing in the church during some down time.

This was one of my favorite moments.  Maria and I had stopped to talk to this one lady.   She had been living with the father of all her children, but they had been living together so long when she accepted Christ that when her life started to transform the man who has been her "informal" husband for 10 years or so did not want to actually marry her, so she felt trapped in a life of sin... the church started to put pressure on her, but she felt trapped.... These kinds of situations, I know I'm not qualified to give her advice on, but I did pray for her.  But then while we had been sitting outside a group of twenty or so kids started to gather around, so we shared the gospel with them.  It really was an incredible moment because I can tell when a kid is engaged, and those kiddos were dialed in.  Ugh!! I love it!!   

The Team!

Trash Man and William Hung

The person I'm writing about, I don't have a picture of, but these kids will do right?  Aren't they so cute!

I'm mulling over my experiences from my last escapade to Colombia... and I just can't get over this one thing that happened.  One of our main tasks in Colombia was to have conversations with people about faith.  Now you have to forgive me, almost my entire experience with strangers talking to me about Jesus has made me feel like they are straight up messed up the head, and I'm already a Christian.  You know what I'm talking about?  And because of those horrible experiences I have my own barriers when it comes to me being genuine about sharing my faith with others.

It's kinda like those people who try out for American Idol... you know, the people who are genuine about how good they think they are... and they're not good. (Ex: William Hung & Pants on the Ground Man) YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?! Thinking your ok/good in doing something is a dangerous place to be especially when your actually not good or ok.  In American Idol, I'm talking about talent.  In talking to others about Jesus, I'm talking about something altogether more intangible and creepy.  

ANYWAYS

that's where I'm coming from.

So in Colombia we were given all kinds of opportunities to share our faith with people, and now that you know some of my pre-conceived notions you can tell why I'd be a little nervous.  There's nothing worse in my mind then thinking that I'm wooing everyone with my beautiful voice when really they're just distracted at how self-deceived I am... It's be like thinking I'm sharing the most beautiful story in the world (the gospel), but somehow it's been misinterpreted to be something that people run away from.

All these thoughts were mulling through my mind when a man walked up to me as I was standing out in front of the church.  We were already in one of the poorest neighborhoods around.  The place resembled more of a slum then anything, and yet this man looked like he didn't belong there.  Dirty, Depressed, nearly Desolate ...carrying nothing but a little cart of trash.

The man looked at me and said,

"Are you an American?" .... "Yes"

"Are you a Christian?" .... "Yes"

"I just so desperate, I used to work with the drug cartels.  I could spend $500 in one weekend, but now I have nothing.  I have nothing, and don't know what to do..."  He went on about his sorrows in Spanish, and I didn't get it all.

His emotion, although washed-out through my translator, was still deep.  He was literally begging me to tell him about Christ.  My translator and I stood there on the porch explaining the gospel to him, we prayed with him there to accept Christ, and a new countenance of joy came over his face.  He walked away, and I walked into the church stunned.

"You are the Light of the World.  A town on a hill cannot be hidden." (Matt 5:14) 

And now I'm giving leadership advice? ...ok

This past weekend I was training with a group of young leaders going to Liberia to teach John Maxwell's 5 Levels of Leadership on an upcoming trip to Liberia in June.  We are really just a bunch of goofy kids.  I don't know how we got this opportunity.  Nonetheless, we're going for it.  I've been to Liberia a couple times before with teams, and it's obvious that whenever we open our mouths people are listening to what we say whether or not it's dumb.  So we're trying extra hard to not be dumb.

We may be at the turning point for us now in our preparation which is kind of nice.  I'm sure we have the trio of kind gentlemen of the older generation on our team to thank for that... and John Maxwell.

We're getting ready to get together some of our Liberian friends, business leaders, and pastors in Monrovia in June to go through the 5 Levels of Leadership. Should be pretty awesome.  It's some legit stuff.