The Bridge: Monday

We arrived on friday night at The Bridge around 9 o'clock, and there we got to hang out with kids as it was open hours at The Bridge, it was really great getting to share the love of Christ with some of the kids that do not get to see it all that often.  Relationships were built that night not only with our team but also with the Bridge staff and volunteers so that the Gospel could be shared and discipleship can begin to take place. We ended that night with cleaning up after open hours and then going to bed after a long car ride.

The next was a good day, we worked for a little bit preparing the Bridge for the students cleaning tables in the cafe, and making sure everything looked good.  After we finished cleaning we got to hang out with some kids.  I got to play four square with a few kids and there I had the opportunity to talk to a few kids about sportsmanship and why we should act kindly to our "enemies."  It was a great opportunity for me to share some of the things that I had leaned in my own life.  After that we were exhausted so we went to bed.

On Sunday morning the team got up early to go to a local church where our team leader had been to before when he was working at a camp in Missouri, and it also turns out my Uncle Auddie and Aunt Melodie attend there as well, so it was great to see them and say hi.  After church we were able to take a break and go get some food in Springfield at Lamberts Cafe, Home of Throwed Rolls, it was an experience.  After Lunch we got back to the Bridge to help out with a skate competition.  Because this was not a Christian event we had the opportunity to share our testimonies with some of the people that we interacted with.  I got the opportunity to share my story with a kid who attends Southern Missouri State and I know that in the least a seed was planted.

Today we have been cleaning a spackling all over the Bridge in order to prepare for a community even that is happening the 27th of March.  Our work that we do this week will help those that are soming to prepare the Bridge for a fresh coat of painting and many other things that honestly we are not sure about, but we are glad to be here doing it!

Thank you everyone for your support, with the prayers I know that we will have a huge impact on this place throughout the week.

Aaron.

Completed!

Praise the Lord!  As of today all of my support has come in for my trip to The Bridge!
A week from tomorrow I will be leaving for Joplin, MO in order to help fulfill the Great Comission!

Work

Hey All!

It is a nice day in Manhattan, the sun is out and I have been enjoying it!  Life has been good over the past few days, I have been feeling less sick, and a lot less tired.  Next week I have most of my midterm exams and I am getting a little nervous, I have been busy doing homework and studying.

I have been told that support has been flowing in over the past couple of days but I am not positive how much money I have raised so far.  However, I do know that many people have committed to prayer and I thank everyone for your prayer support.

For those that have been praying for, thank you! I am doing well, and I can say that God is at work in my life, I am not positive how yet, but something is happening and I can't wait to share the fruits of your labor in my life, Thanks again!

Everyone have a great evening and if you are in a place where the weather is nice go outside and enjoy it!
Aaron

2 More Weeks!

Hello to everyone that is reading this!

Two weeks from tonight I will be leaving for Joplin, MO.  I am getting excited!

God is teaching me to trust him in all things.  I have recently given up drinking soda, and it is probably one of the hardest things that I have done.  It has been about two weeks since I have been off of pop; however, I am starting to see some of the physical effects, I am no longer drinking as much caffeine as I used to so even just one cup of coffee can make keep me up for hours.  This is an interesting experience for me as I have never lasted more than probably a week with some form of carbonated caffeine.  But it is a great experience for me to truly lean on God, and whenever, those cravings for a nice cold pop come to me I have learned to fall on God and ask him for help.  Thought it may seem something small I think that God is really stretching me in this experience and I rejoice in every moment of it.

I received my first prayer support card today!  Thank you to who has offered to pray for me.  Out of my forgetfulness I forgot to put a section for you to mark who you are when you send in your support card for prayer, so I may not get a thank you card to everyone, but know that God will bless you.

Financial support: I will not be able to be as up-to-date as I would like to be with my financial support, but I do know that I have $25 out $325 so far!

Thank you to those that are praying for me.  It is a blessing to know that I am not going into this mission trip alone.

Thanks you!
Aaron

Homework and Life Change

Welcome followers and supporters,

If the mail is running popular many of your supporters will be receiving my support letter within the next few days. I am excited to share my life with those that are sharing in their resources to support me. Well I think that it is important to see where your prayers and financial support is going to so through this blog I will hope to update many of you on my life and my mission.

My mission: I am on a mission by God to change lives. God has laid many things on my heart lately, one of those things is a passion to be a disciple-maker, and also a disciple. Part of that process is finding those who will disciples me and teach me various life lessons, I have found a good group of friends here at MCC that are a part of my life and are daily encouraging me to follow God whole-heartedly, and allow me to encourage them to follow God in the same way.

Not only is my mission here at MCC but also in Manhattan the city that I live in. Recently I have made a decision to not just let this be the town where I go to school, but also be the place that I live. I am currently praying about my involvement in Faith Evangelical Free Church, and praying that God will use me in this Church so that I might be a disciple and a disciple-maker. With this I hope to be a part of a community larger than MCC and myself.

My life: Currently life is busy; however, Praise the Lord! I got a job at Extreme Kansas camp this summer! I am excited for this opportunity, currently I am not exactly sure what I will be doing at camp, I know that there is camp during first month and a half, give or take a week, and then we will travel across the Midwest to offer encouragement to Churches. I will be sending out support letters for this summer as well, asking people to support me as I minister to churches. This support will be similar to the support I am asking for while I go to The Bridge. As you read this, you might consider supporting me in prayer for one opportunity and financially in the other.

I started working at Dairy Queen again, though I am not taking on many hours, I am just in need of a paycheck, this job might make things hard being that I am enrolled in 18 hours, but I think that through this I can learn about time management and maybe grow, at least I hope so. At Dairy Queen I hope to be a witness to God while I am there, and that through my actions and words I might preach the Gospel. Pray for me that I a witness to my co-workers at DQ.

School work is starting to get to me, I have been able to procrastinate most things until now; however, now I am not getting much sleep. I pray that I might finish the homework that is due and then once again grow from this struggle and continue on with the work that is necessary. Pray that I learn time management and that I don't fall further behind.

Life for the most part is good, I cannot complain. I love being back in Manhattan surrounded by Christian principles, I can only ask that God continues to use me and prepare me for my life in ministry, and that through my time at MCC I am molded into the person that God wants me to be.

I thank God for each and every one of my supporters, recognizing that I cannot do the things that I would like to do without God's provision. I ask for prayer, that God will prepare my heart for these opportunities, and that God gives me opportunities where I must rely on Him.

Your brother in Christ,

Aaron

PS. I will post the amount of support I have received, in my next few posts, I will try to post daily, due to the small amount of time between the time that you will get my letter, and the time that I need the money. This update will show you how much money I have received for the Bridge Trip. If I send out support letters for camp, I will make sure to mention how much support I have received for that opportunity as well. Once again thanks for your support.

The Bridge Financial Support Update: $25. Praise God!

Update and Life

For those that read this or follow at least I will try to write more now that I am doing more stuff.  I guess I have been longing to write because I have been learning many things and enjoying the things that I have learned. 

I hope you enjoy hearing/reading an update on my life because that is what I am going to write.  Life is GREAT.  I have moved into an apartment with a friend of mine and am enjoying most of it.  I like the independent feeling; however, I almost wish living without responsibilities at home.  My apartment is huge and that is almost strange for me having friends over in an apartment that most families could not afford, but I know that I will grow through this experience.  A few things that I miss about living in dorms is that I don't have the same community that I did.  I liked being able to go to a friends room when I was bored or even doing homework with people in my classes and now my roommate and I aren't in any of the same classes so its not that we are doing the same homework.  It was also great to have someone to talk to about problems, that confidant, not that I can't do that with my roommate but I had a good friend at mcc who I really was able to talk to about things and I almost feel that I lost that moving back to Wichita.  However, I know that God wanted me in wichita this semester and I know that God will bless me if I stay in the word.   He has already allowed me to grow stronger with my parents which I know I will need in the future. 

I decided to move back to WSU last semester in May.  It was an easy decision at the time, but it gets harder and harder.  It was in 1 week that I completely just had a bad experience and God said that I can't stay there, but as I look back I didn't hate the entire semester in fact I miss all my good friends and all the people that made MCC fun and exciting.  I also miss having a the ability to mentor new freshmen not as an RA but as a sophomore, someone else who lives in the dorms and can kind of explain what the school is like.  I don't know that I will get to have that experience at the next school that I go to, but I will try. 

WSU is fun I don't really have much to complain about other than the classes that I am taking are kind of kush classes that I don't need for my major(s) (Physc. - Health, and Youth Ministry).  And I don't know that I really enjoy them I don't really like being a student at WSU, it just doesn't have any appeal to me, but I know that it is cheaper, and I am only there for one semester (hopefully).

God has decided to be difficult with next semester, in that I am back to square two in deciding schools.  I had earlier decided to go to Northwestern College in MN, which I just love every time I look at it and think about it; however, visiting was different I think maybe it was just the travel.  In previous semesters my mom has asked me to think about John Brown University.  I don't really like that option and I had discarded it a long time ago; however, this past May my cousin got married to a JBU graduate and through that I have been asked to take a campus visit and I will; however, I really want to go to NWC.  JBU  is a good school and has the degree programs that I want and it is near family.  Hearing about it I see that I should at least check it out.  I am leaning very much towards NWC but if I get orders otherwise I will have to apply at least.  

 

In Wichita, I am working at Wichita Public Schools as an AVID tutor (There is an AVID program in schools close to NWC), and I am the Children's Minister at Westside United Methodist Church.  These both are answers to prayer because they provide me with enough financial support to pay for my life; at 18 years old I can officially afford my life w/o Health Insurance and my Cell Phone bill.  That was such a huge answer to prayer that I can't even believe God would love me so much.  But God is GREAT.  Both of these jobs at least required a year long commitment; however, I entered into both with my employers knowing that I will only be there six months and they still hired me which was completely God!!!

I don't know where God will lead me but where ever it may be I pray that God will continue to use me, and I pray for where I am at now that God will use me in ways much larger than myself.   Hope to update more.  I will try and post more what God is teaching me as opposed to my life so far until I run far away and people could use some constant updates.

Aaron

College and Userpations

College is a great time for students such as myself, a time where I can learn about myself and about God. Over the past month that I have been at college I have learned so much about God, but I feel that I am in the same predicament as I was when I was at home. I am too comfortable. Philosophers of the 19th century were focussed on transcending about human expectations, above human culture, and above human society. The only way they were able to accomplish that goal was to go into nature, pure, wonderful, untouched nature. While studying such philosophers I have often wondered why our culture does not practice the philosophy of the 19th century writers. The idea has great value and when practiced it has provided intended results, unlike the experiences that we face today. In order to answer said question I must discuss the philosophy, along with the society of the 19th century. After I have discussed the situation I then must compare the both today's society and the society of the 19th century.

The philosophy of the transcendentalists was that in order to gain happiness or enjoyment for life one must go back to his roots and experience nature and existence for himself. The way that the 19th century writers experienced this was to go into nature and find true beauty, they must completely live in nature and experience life in the way that the first men experienced it. The belief is that the original homosapiens did not experience trivial problems such as fear of recieving a promotion fear of not providing for your family. The belief was that the things created by humans to make lifes easier in turn made life stressful and the only way to get rid of that stress is to get into nature and simply be. "Be" without worrying about ones job, "be" without worrying about the community, "be" without the man made objects that have caused so much comotion.

This belief seems radical to the people of the 21st century because we live in a time where most of the world population lives in urban or suburban areas. However, in order to understand this philosophy one must look into the life of a typical 19th century writer and his society. A typical philosopher of the 19th century was of the elite culture, he was educated, probably gone through years and years of schooling, and possibly living off the wealth of his family. Truthfully most of the 19th century philosophers lived a comfortable life and they were able to coast on their families money for quite a while. When a philosopher would go and try to discover the simple things that make him a human and that make him unique, essentially when he tries to discover himself, he has trouble, because up until the point that he is able to question who he is, he has not had the opportunity to be himself, but rather the person that his parents and university proffessors have made him to be. Thus he must find a way to discover who he is. As he looks into society he constantly sees a barage of people telling him who he should be, what he should, and how he should act: society presents "manners" as a necessity and not a simple commodity which helps society function more appropriately and thus "manners" force one to act in such a way that he must immitate the actions of everyone around him. Where would one look? because one did not live in a world where he could fly himself to the jungles of south america, or drive north to a culture that is far different from his own. He must dig deep to a place where life is not defined by what one does and how he acts but instead look to a place where he can simply be. That place is nature. nature would not be a far off choice, in the 19th century there was still accessable nature where one could rome safely contrary to our culture where if one does decide to live in nature he must face harsh cold climates of Alaska, or be in fear of undeveloped cultures attacking in the jungles of South America. Nature was present and not hard to find, though scary, it was accessable by many.

In our 21st century culture we are not confrontated with as much livable nature, much of the nature that we can see has been set aside and used by the government as a tourist trap to allow its citizens to see beauty which had been discovered previously rather than allowing us to observe beauty for ourselves (refer to the Phiolopher Berger). But though we do not have an abundance of nature we have transcended beyond the need of nature. We have created for ourselves situations that seem far off and crazy situations that allow us to "be" and "be happy." In the United States of America we are able to experience many different cultures in a way that allows us to choose which culture fits us, which culture makes us happy. Not only do we have this in the United States but at this time continental travel is becoming easier and easier (which due to politics is now becoming slightly harder, but still much easier than it was in the 19th century). As humans we long to find out who we are, and it seems that due to the beliefs of the transcendentalist we must become uncomfortable by leaving the life we have become accustomed to and go to a place where we can simply "be."

Though must of this has nothing to do with what I am going through, I think it is great to think about as I process my choice of where I will end up next semester. I have come to Manhattan Christian College because it is close to home and it allows me to live comfortably, if I ever have a problem I can either be home in two hours or I can find someone who i knew from highschool and be comfortable again. As I think about the transcendentalist I try to imagine myself leaving the culture which I have grown accustomed to and leaving to a very cold culture where I do not have to ability to drive two hours to see family or where I will not have friends from home to talk to, I simply cannot bring myself to do it, even if I do it to transcend. I cannot see myself transcending but I can see myself leaving Kansas. I guess as I write this I have realized that my entire reasoning behind college is based on what I want to do with my life, and how I should live it in order to gain true satisfaction, though I am not looking at the bigger picture here. There is a God who has seen it all, who has seen me stay in Kansas, the same God has also seen me move to Minnessota, and the same God has seen me move to California. I should not be looking for my own satisfaction, because I do not know what will happen no matter where I go, if I go oneplace my life could be completely destroyed and I will live in pain for the 70 years. If I go another palce I could be happy, but I don't know the outcome of anything that I do. Only God knows what is best for my life, and I must seek his direction in anything I do. I shouldn't worry about transcending in order to find out about who I am but instead I should just listen and Go! I will learn so much about myself and God will teach me so many great things if I just listen to him for he has a plan for my life and I know that he is a perfect God.

So basically disregard everything and listen to God

AMH