Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Manhattan

This past friday we had the chance to go to Manhettan. I will start by saying it is a huge and very blessed corps.
What have I learned about myself and my Faith?

For the past week or so I have been trying to stay focused on what is the most important.. The Lord.. I have found out that I have really opened up about myself and my faith. I have grown in so many different ways. Being able to go to all of these different corps and to see how things work and be able to participate has been incredible.

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Friday, February 15, 2008

This week we read a little chapter by Mueller Walt called “Understanding Culture”

There was a specific sentence in this article that really got to me, it said

“Culture has been created by God and has been given to humanity to use and enjoy”

I think it is awesome to think of it in that way. “Culture has been Created by God and has been Given to humanity to use and enjoy.

 

He created each one of us different, black, white, dark, pail. It doesn’t matter we were all created by the same God. He has given us the opportunity to grow up in different cultures to learn different things. Doesn’t mean we have to stay within that culture alone, but to take advantage of the differences around us, and be willing to learn more from others from those different cultures.

 

~B~

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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Youth Work Leadership

This week we have read an article written by Paul Borthwick “A missiological perspective on youth ministry”.

Something that really hit me in this article was where he talks about speech being one of the big principles in culture. I have wanted for the past few years to travel to a different culture and tell them about the Lord. But something I didn’t consider for some reason is this.

He says in this article “The youth minister (Us) must be able to show that God speaks all of our languages.”  I think this is a very important thing for everyone, and I wish more would decide to take the time to learn a different language for our Lord. I think that it would be an incredible thing to go and see someone from a different culture be able to understand me. To be able to communicate and help them see the truth about Jesus Christ.

I pray that the Lord will give me such an oppertunity!

~B~

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Monday, February 11, 2008

Preview weekend/Brooklyn

What a week! :-)

This week has been a very good week, last wednesday me and my team had changed from the Newark team to the SFOT team. So, we are now staying here at the SFOT to work with all the kids here, it is an amazing difference. Both places are very good and love the Lord. They are just huge opposites.

What have I learned about being a servant Leader?

Well, last week we had Preview Weekend. It was an amazing weekend, I think it really gave each one of us here a huge chance to take a leadership role. It was amazing to see how fast we all just jumped in. I loved it, we were constantly on the go (I wasn’t crazy about that) and it was like we just didn’t even think of what we were doing we just did it. It was really cool, everyone really enjoyed it.

Me and a couple other students had the chance of leading 4 groups of worship. I have to say that was one of my favorite things ever. We were in our lobby and there were about 10 of us there. And to see how the Holy Spirit really was moving through each group, and moved through me at one point for each group was just awesome.

On another note, we had the oppertunity to go to Brooklyn corps this past friday. It was an incredible corps, they had so many kids and so much help, it was great. When we got there one of the first things they did was introduced us to their teen mentors. That was great to me. I love seeing teens getting involved in this stuff, but I really love knowing that they enjoy it as much as the kids do.

It is an amazing corps, and from what I have seen it is growing and going to be even greater than we can imagine. I know I will be praying for them and for their church to continue to grow aswell..

~B~

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Thursday, February 7, 2008

Thirteen!

This week we had watched the movie Thirteen. It is a story about this girl named tracy and I bet you can guess her age.

Something that really caught my eye in this movie was her desire to be liked, through the whole movie. But, being liked by her real friends wasn’t what she wanted, she wanted to be like but the cool ones. The ones that expected her to do different things than she normally would. She starts out being a sweet girl who goes to her friends to do her homework and seems like she is pretty laid back and nice. But in time, as she starts to walk around her school, she is teased by how she dresses, so she begins to have the desire to dress like the cool kids.

That is where it all begins. She desires for one thing after another, and next thing you know she had it all. She was liked by everyone because, she would smoke, she would drink, she would go out and party all night long when she was supposed to be back at a certain time. She became someone different so she could be liked.

As time goes on, things get worse. Her mom gets upset because she is lying and always disrespectful to her, and she starts to see all these different things, her bellybutton ring, her tongue ring. Then it leads to finding all the objects she would use with her friend while the door was locked. The stuff she used to get high, the stuff she used to cut herself. And all these things were brought to her, and in time she broke down.

I think in my oppinion when she got into this and got all this attention she had a desire to get out of it. But wouldn’t push herself. She was doing this now for a while, and we all know it is harder to stop than to start. I believe she wanted to change, but she felt she had no reason to.

We all have desires. My question is what do you desire? To be like by your friends? or to be Love by our God?

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Myspace

 

I recently watched a video about Myspace. It talked about how kids today have a myspace but do not know how to properly use them, and use them for things that should not be used for. Myspace has become such a big thing. As I watched this movie and they interviewed these students from the ages of 12 to 17 we heard story after story. One student was not very happy with herself and started making herself very pretty and seductive and gave herself a nickname and a new myspace. She was 16 but looked 21. She was starting to feel good about herself, as she would hear people talking about her all around the school. No one knew it was her, cause she had a nickname and looked way different in the pictures than in school. Her parents knew nothing about it. I think she was afraid if they knew, they wouldn’t understand her reason for it, they wouldn’t understand that this made her feel good about herself, to hear them talk about her in school and stuff made her happy.  She wasn’t very popular in school and to me that was her goal, to be one of the popular ones, even if no one knew it was really her.

I think as a youth pastor, we need to really focus on our youth and help them realize it isn’t how the look, or what they do. But it is who they really are that matters, not only do youth pastors need to do so, but parents, Officers.

The point of this is just to say from my point of view, Kids have to much freedom when it comes to the internet now days. Kids have computers in their rooms, or other rooms no one comes into, and they always have opportunities to look up things and do things that would not be approved of. I think that parents should put parental blocks on their computers. Myspace is an easy way for someone to track someone down. You have all your information on it.

These websites are not safe, and is not good for young vulnerable teenagers. That is my opinion.

~B~

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Monday, January 28, 2008

Friday Night Ministry Site

ok, so this past friday we went back to Springvalley. It was really cool this time cause the kids were more familiar with me because of the previous week, so they were comfortable and ready to talk and ask for help and ask me to play games. I had the chance to sit and play a couple games of sorry, and connect four, and all different kinds of things, and it is just exciting to have a connection to the kids.

How has my understanding of God grown?
As i said already, it was neat to see the Lord work through the kids and have them asking us questions wanting our help and wanting to play, it is nice and makes it easier that way. The Lord has really blessed their corps in many ways. I have seen how these kids open up and I see how God is using the staff there to help each of these kids in many different ways. I know the Lord is going to continue to help that corps grow, and build the kids up. He has something great in-store for them. Just want to say that I was very blessed by being there over the past few weeks.

God-Bless
~B~

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

How has my understanding of God grown?

Well, this weekend we went to Spring Valley. It was a very neat experience. There were quite a few more kids here than at any other corps we have gone to so far. The kids were so friendly and so loving, it was incredible. As soon as the kids had seen us they were all raising their hands, can you help me, can you play with me? They were as excited to have us there as we were to be there.

When we first got there, they were giving us a small tour to show us the many classrooms they had and all the places we could go to assist. As we went around, in each room as the director stepped into the room and asked for their attention they didn’t hesitate. They were very respectful to their teachers and you could see the relation ships that they had built over the time they have been together.

As I hung out with the kids, I was watching and thinking of how God can take so many different kids/adults and put them into one program and make it work amazing. I realized that God works in mysterious ways, but He works. God has really blessed this corps, and all the young people in it, and I am looking forward to seeing them all again.

God-Bless

~B~

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Sunday, January 13, 2008

Friday Night Ministry Site

So, this past Friday we had the chance to take a trip to China Town and visit The Salvation Army. I must say for me it was a very awesome experience, to see the kids passion to learn and spend time with eachother was just too cool. As I continued to spend time at the corps I began to really watch the children and how they acted, and I started thinking to myself, this place is really quite. The kids were so well behaved and so well mannered it was excellent.

What have I learned about being a church community?

While I was in China-Town, we had asked a few questions about how many of the kids attend the church on sundays, and they had mentioned that not many of them attended for church, because one of two reasons.

1. They didn’t want to learn more about God
2. Their parents didn’t aprove of them learning about God, and Christianity.

But while we asked questions and they were answered very well, I started noticing that even though they don’t all attend the church, they still considered them a part of their Church Community. That really stood out in my mind because I think we often consider the Church Community just those that attend on sunday, and there is no reason for that. The kids come to the same church on different days, but still hear the word of God in one way or another.

So to hear that they considered all of the children and the elders a part of their Church Community weather they attended church or not was just totaly awesome for me.

Have a great week,
God-Bless

~B~

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