Ministry Site

In this chapter they say that “A theology of culture is the way we approach, think about, and interact with culture in view of God and God’s mighty works in the world.”

How do we think about our cultures? How can we do this in a Godly way? I think for me, I love looking at the different cultures, I like to see how God has blessed them and to see how in all of the cultures we have so many different styles of worship.

How do we approach different cultures? Someone recently was telling me about a friend of theirs who went on a missions trip, when he got to the village that he was going to be staying at, all of the people were so excited, they were so happy to have him there. He came out of the vehicle, went unloaded his stuff and told them, I am here, and I bring the Lord with me. Now, the man didn’t mean anything insulting, but the way he approached them, it seemed as if he thought the Lord wasn’t already there.
We must approach in a Godly way, the Lord is already in all of these different cultures, but he send us there to do the work that he commands us to do to “Go and make disciples.”

And interacting with them, there are so many different kinds of cultures, many here in America. Interacting is something that is very important. I often have a hard time interacting with people, I like to sit in my room and get my work done. But in doing that I miss many oppertunity’s to witness to someone, and also to be witnessed to…

These things are very important when visiting a place you are not familiar with. But we mnust trust the Lord, and believe that he will guide us as we prepare for this journey that he has commanded us to go on.

~Brennen~

As I was reading this article there was something said on page35 that really struck me and made me think a lot, it said “without reflecting on consequences we have become preoccupied with creating favorable images of America. Yet by doing so, we may be defeating ourselves. Almost everywhere today Amereican IMAGES overshadow American IDEALS.”

This kind of got me thinking, but they are right. What we see here in america today and outside America it covers everything we think and everything we want to fix. We want something to stop, but then we look at the pictures and it covers everything we think. It makes us think well, this is just how things are going to be. Nothing we can do about it. Our Ideal things need to be in the light, we need to bring them to others attention and not hide them under all of these images.

~brennen~

This section of the chapter was cool and very true, Prayer is the way we keep in contact with our God, but Prayer can be done in many ways, prayer to me is a conversation with the Lord, you don’t have to use any big special words, just talk to him tell him whats on your mind, and enjoy your conversation. I like the part in this section where it talks about “The Holy Spirit makes the presence of Christ living and real”. I love feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit, you can feel him when he is moving people, you can feel his presence as if he is literally right there.
In this setion it says this “So wonderful are the possibilities of the life of prayer that those who have penatrated farthest into its secrets are most vividly concious of the fact that there is much more to learn and far deeper depths to explore.” I think that is so true and powerful in itself. Through pray you really do realize how much more there is to God, and how much more you have to learn. I have come to realize though, that there is no end, you will never know enough or too much. The Lord will always have more for you.

God-Bless
~B~

Achievement Motivation, is when a child is motivated to do well in school.

I think that this is one that is often shoved aside and people don’t think much of. For me, growing up this was very important, I needed to be motivated to do my work. All I could think of was how bad I was doing, I was going to fail, I am no good at school why bother.

My family caught on quickly that I needed to be reminded that there are things I am good at, and that I am good at school, I just learn different. I thought for a while that that was just an excuse, but it wasn’t. I do learn different. We need to be willing to help those that learn different and be willing to encourage them to keep doing better and better, and to not give up. It isn’t easy, but they can do it.

Brennen

When we were sitting in class discussing this asset it hit me, and I began to really think, How often now days do parents check on their kids to know where they are going? what they are doing? who they are with? How many times are the parents clueless and really aren’t too interested?

I remember when I was growing up, everywhere I went, my parents had to know, they needed to know where i would be, when i would be home, who I would be with. Every little detail was needed. I thought they were such pests, I hated it. My neighbor though, didn’t have to tell his parents anything, they didn’t care how late he was out where he was or anything.
As I got older, I really began looking at the different lifestyles and realized how much I appreciate my parents being such pests. I realized that my neighbor, really wanted some attention, he was lonely, he wanted someone to care and to ask what he was doing, how his day was etc.

It’s important to keep up with the youth. They really need all of us leaders to help them stay on track as they ontinue to grow as we have and still are. We need to be pests to our kids, and be sure to know that they will one day thank you for it.

Brennen

From Hatred to Healing:

~B~

~Brennen~

so today we went to our last community visit. Brownsville. I will start by saying it was amazing! The kids welcomed us and started to play with us like they have known us for a long time. They were all very respectful and responsive. We stood in the front as we introduced ourselves and about 100 kids said would shout hello to each one of us. It was incredible

God-Bless
~B~

So, this past friday we had gone to the Westbury corps in Long Island. It was a really incredible corps. As soon as we got there we were greeted with an incredible hug to start our time there, and then a brief run through on how things work. Not long after the kids started showing up, but to be honest I never realized it. They were so quite and very well behaved it was incredible.

When I first got there, I was helping one of the kids with their homework, and after that, I had the oppertunity to just be an extra hand and play with the kids. They started showing me these new games that they play, telling me about themselves, and how they Loved being there. They really seemed like some incredible kids. Would Love to return again.