Left Caterpillar

So a lot has happened since our last post. Crusing along at Caterpillar, been there almost 10 years, makin great money with a bonus big enough to buy a new car. Life can't get any better right? As most of you know, I've never been satisfied (nothing against Cat, a great company tow rk for) there and always wanted to try teaching. I love kids and love math and science.

On Monday, August 11th at 9:30 a.m. I get a phone call from Cornerstone Christian Academy saying the 6th grade math and science teacher just resigned, would I like the job. Oh yeah, school starts in 2 weeks and we need an answer tomorrow.

So lets see, leave a safe secure high paying job for one that pays 1/4 of the engineering job to stand in front of 11 year olds. Well, call me crazy, but I chose the teaching job. I've always wanted to do it and I get a chance to talk about Jesus...pretty cool.

Needless to say this is an extremely scary step of faith for Lisa and I. I'm two weeks into this teaching gig and just like any job, it has its days. I also didn't realize how hard teachers work, it takes a lot of work and the kids are rude and the pay sucks, but you konw you are making a difference. Please pray for Lisa and I as we take this next year in stride together. Pray that this would bring us closer to God and closer to each other. Also pray for our future, we want to start a family in a year or so and not sure where/what we will be doing 1 year from now!

Randomn thoughts on a Sunday

So I used to get up bright and early and work out..but this week I decided to give that time to God. Starting my day on my knees and in the Word of God in only 7 days has a made a world of difference. My situation has not changed at all..but man has my attitude and perspective.
I've heard for many years from multiple people that you need to do this, give the very first of your day to God, but I never put it in to practice.

This is one of my favorite verses I read this week. Jesus was hungry and went to get some figs from a tree, but there were no figs and Jesus commanded it to never bear fruit again and it whithered instantly. Then he continues in Matthew 21:21..."I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to this fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea', and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive everything you ask for in prayer."

Lisa and I had the awesome opportunity of attending an identity class at Pastor Bob Smart's house this summer. The main focus was to recognize the lies that Satan pumps into our heads..and replace it with the truth of who we are in Christ. There is so much good stuff in that class..but this is one of the favorite things I took from it...justification. Justification is an act of God's free grace, where in he pardoned all our sins, and accepted us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

Such a powerful statement...its an act of free grace...we didn't do anything to deserve it..we can't earn it..we can't work for it. He pardoned all our sins...past..present..future...and accepts as righteoues (free from sin or guilt) only through the righteousness of Christ...and all we have to do is receive it by faith.

And the cool thing is..God doesn't stop there...he adopts us and we have full rights as sonds and duaghters of God. Jesus is our big brother..pretty powerful thought. 1 John 3:1 and John 1:12.

I think a lot of our thinking, the way we live is pretty screwed up because we have such a messed up view of who God is. For me, I picture this grumpy old man sitting in heaven shaking his head at me with a frown everytime I screw up..but so not true. Zephaniah 3:17 gives us a completely different perspective of how God looks at us...

"The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

August 3rd

Man its hard to come back to real life after a week like that in New York. Going to a job to sit in front of a computer and design heavy construction equipment...not too fulfilling.

We want to stay in Blooomington-Normal, for one main reason, our Church. Christ Church is an amazing group of believers going after God's word. We love it there and can't imagine finding another place like it.

If you read our blog please pray that God will give us wisdom and guidance as we seek at what he has for us.

Friday - July 25th

Lisa and I got up early, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. We then grabbed our suitcases, caught the F train (subway) to the Jackson Heights/Roosevelt stop and caugh the Q33 bus to LaGuardia. Not a nice airport. Lisa passed out at the airport and we met up with our Bethany Baptist friends as well. 2 hous plane ride home, 2 hour car ride and we were back in Bloomington.

I really can't say enough about this trip. I loved New York...a great city. I also loved being surrounded by believers and doing what we are called to do, to spread the good news that Jesus died for our sins and saved us from the grasp of the evil one. I loved seeing my wife so bold with the Gospel. Stopping giant, mean looking men that most of us were scared to talk to. I saw God work in ways I never would have thought and my faith was strengthened. My passion for sharing the Gospel was awakened. I'm tired of wasting my life and being afraid or offending someone. The Gospel is offensive...I will be rejected (as I was many times in New York), but its what we are called to do!

Thursday - July 24

Last day...very sad!
Dr. Jeff VanGoethem gave a great sermon on climbing under the burden of God. The jist of it was to stop going to God with our list of demands and ask God to lay his burdens on our heart. Kind of like the new Brandon Heath song "Give me your eyes".

We took the Subway to Washington Square Park (as seen in the movie August Rush). By the power of the Holy Spirit, I got on the subway and stood up, announced who I was, and proceeded to tell those about the Gosepl. A white boy from rural USA preaching the word of God on a subway in NY...crazy! I was paired up with our leader Dustin. We did surveys this day. The first man we approached was a gentlemen by the name of Julio. Julio was a quiet man who was living in a shelter and just hanging out on the bench. Dustin did most of the talking, quoted tons of scripture and after an hour or so of chatting, Julio gave his life to Jesus. Was an awesome thing. We gave Julio a Bible and some guidance for what to read. We took down his information so that someone could follow up with him and get him some more material. We also gave him a list of churches in his neighborhood to check out.
Then it was my turn. We approached two gentlemen who reluctantly agreed to do the survey. Drew quickly announced he was a christian and didn't want to talk to us. Dustin asked Stax, the other man, what he thought. He knew about Jesus but wasn't a Christian. Dustin pleaded with him and quoted scripture, and it was incredible to see the power of Scripture. You could just see the Holy Spirit working on the man as Dustin continued to speak scripture. He took a phone call and after that seemed annoyed, so we left him a tract and broke for lunch.
We came back and met Brandon, a gentleman from England who was not interested at all in what we had to say. But as Dustin quoted scripture, you could just see his demeanor change. The bible says the Word of God is like a double edged sword, and I saw it today. Question after question, answer after answer, you could see the wheels turning. Brandon had to go but we know a seed was planted.
Our last man we talked to today was a homeless man by the name of Mike. Mike had 9 children and knew the bible inside and out, but had no faith in Jesus and no interest in putting his faith in him. We left him with a tract and that was it for the day. 4 deep conversations and I learned from Dustion how to plead in a gentle, non condemning way to come to Christ.

We had a closing worship service from 6-8 with story after story of incredible things that God had done. Spreadtruth.com is compiling them and will eventually publish them. We headed to time square again for some last minute shopping and some soft serve ice cream. Oh yeah..we ate at a Turksih restaurant as well. We gave the workers gospel tracts...they gave us cards for a belly dancing show!

Wednesday - July 23

Today we had the pleasure of listening to Jerry McCorkle's (founder of Spread Truth) father speak. I believe he was 76 and had that Grandpa voice to him...but man did he bring it. He told us a story of how a little child fell out of his bed while sleeping. He asked his parents why he fell out, and they told him he fell asleep to close to where he got into bed. An analogy to show that many of us become Christians and just go to sleep, we remain babies in Christ and never mature.
Good stuff.
We then headed to "The Hub" to set up a Prayer Station. I was challenged by our leader to do some open air preaching on the Subway, but just couldn't do it. After a long subway ride, we arrived in the Bronx. The Hub is a crazy huge instersection where 5 or 6 roads come together and tons of people are on the move. It was an incredible day.

Before we had even started unpacking, Lisa was out in the middle of the intersection stopping people and offering to pray for them and sharing the Gospel. She stopped a man named Randolph who had obviously been seeking. She shared the Gospel with him, walked him through the tract, then asked him if he would like to become a believer in Christ. He did, the man wept and prayed to receive forgiveness from God and place his trust in Christ. Before we had even gotten anything set up, my wife had led someone to the Lord..pretty cool. Many many people were prayed for, the gospel was presented many times, and several decisions were made to accept Christ. Two men listened to Lisa present the Gospel and then proceeded to tell her how beautiful she was and ask her for her phone number. She told them to talk to me, since I was her husband...pretty funny. We gave away 3 cases of water along with Gospel tracts. Several believers stopped to thank us and pray for us. Lisa met a lady who was saved 10 years ago at a Prayer Station. 3 years ago she needed a job, stopped by a prayer station, and immediately got a job that she still has today. Now she has a man and wanted prayer for their relationship. One lady needed a job, members of our group prayed for her, as she was walking away she got a phone call where she was offered a job and could start tomorrow. Hundreds of stories like this, God moving in incredible ways.

That night we went with Dustin to a great seafood restaurant near Rockerfeller Center. Lisa and I saw Mary Poppins, it was pretty cool.

Tuesday - July 22

Today we had the pleasure of Brandon Grant from Fuel (Eastview) speak. He spoke about judging those outside of the church...DON'T DO IT!!! But we do need to rebuke those inside of the church. Not about silly things, personalities, or preferences, but those things specifically listed in 1 Corinthians 5.
We then headed to Union Square, a small park in Manhattan. I was paired up with a mailman from South Carolina named Jerry. Jerry handed out Gospel Tracts and matching bracelets to anyone and everyone. Most of the morning I walked around with Jerry handing out bracelets and tracts. We were called blood thirsty pagans by one gentlemen. We broke for lunch and although I enjoyed handing out tracts, I felt God prompting me to get deeper. I left Jerry alone and paired up with one of our high school students named Spencer. We approached a group of 5 high school kids and asked if they would like to take the survey. We sat down with them and Spencer facilitated about an hour and 1/2 conversation with these kids. One was catholic and believe his works would get him to heaven. Another believed in God but thought there were many ways to heaven. Another was raised Muslim and attended with his father sometimes. One was agnostic and one was atheist. They started debating each other and Spencer did a great job of defending the Gospel and pleading with them to think about it.

That night Lisa and I attended a Yankees game (for those of you who donated, your money did not go to fun events at night..just an FYI!!). We ran into my H.S. math teacher..pretty crazy. After a few days of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, watching millionaires get payed to play a kids game seemed pretty boring/pointless. We left very early and went to Grand Central Station. Lisa and I turned in early as I was still very sick and we were getting pretty wiped at that point.

Monday- July 21

Monday started off much the same. Worship service from 8-10. Our leader Dustin Webb preached on Isaiah 6: 1-8. Reminding us that God is on the throne, in his presence we are made aware of our sinful state, that God provides a way to be redeemed, and after we have been saved we need to go out and tell people about God's plan for salvation. He also reminded us that we are adopted into God's family, justified, not by our works, but by grace alone by Christ's righteousness imputed to us. No surveys or subways today, just a short 5 minute walk from our hotel. We set up a prayer station just off Jay street in Brooklyn. (We stayed at a Marriot that was within walking distance of the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn). The second we raised the prayer station banner, we were met with resistance by a lady who couldn't believe what we were doing. She sayed that we needed prayer and she would be praying for us, and how could we do such a thing. We thus realized the importance of saying can we "pray with you"...not "can we pray for you". Not gonna lie, it was way beyond my personality to do this. I struggled big time. I pretty much handed out Gospel tracts and prayed for those that approached me. On older gentlemen who did not believe in God approached me and asked the question, "if there is a God, how come bad things happend to good people, and vice versa." I did my best to answer the question, we talked for some time, and he was on his way. Lisa was born to evanglize, with her smile and warmth she was stopping anyone and everyone and asking if she could explain the Gospel to them. She stopped one man who offered to take her home..good thing I was there. This would happen more than once. That night we went with Kevin Gustafson and the Bethany crew to Times Square. The place is crazy, have never seen anything like it. Lights everywhere and tons of people everywhere. Oh yeah..it smells.

Sunday - July 20

Monday July 21st - First day hitting the streets. Our day started with some awesome worship and some great preaching from a pastor from South Carolina. It was good, trust me, but memory fails me as to what he talked about. After that, we hit the Subway. Our chord leader stood up on the subway, announced who he was and presented the gospel to those on the subway!!! Crazy I thought. We handed out some gospel tracks and got off at our stop - Central Park. Lisa and I were paired up together and headed off into the park to do surveys. After a long while praying and a long while trying to figure out what the heck we were doing, we decided to start asking people if they would like to take a survey. After many rejections, a man named Chad agreed to take our survey, however his family was waiting for him so he politely answered the questions and we let him go. Quite a few more rejections, and Lisa approached a sweet old lady eating an ice cream cone. She was wonderful to talk to. She was Jewish, but told us a story of how her mother was hiding from the Nazi's in a Christian's house in Germany. The owner of the house gave her mother a cross and told her that Jesus would always protect her. One day the owner of the house was out, the Nazi's stormed in and this ladies mother held up the cross and the Nazi's did not see her. Her and her family had a great fondness for Jesus because of that story, but not a saving faith in Him. Lisa did a great job of presenting the Gospel and asking her if she would be willing to place her faith in him. She wasn't ready to, but we had a wonderful talk and found out here husband who was blind had just completed an olympic triathlon. We than ran across a man who quoted tons of scripture with the answers to our survey questions. It was a relief to run across a fellow believer. However, he did not believe in churches because they had failed him so many times. We talked with him for about an hour and he encouraged us and I would like to believe we encouraged him. Then after about 9 million rejections, a wonderful lady name Katarina from Czechoslovakia agreed to take our survey. We had a wonderful conversation with her. She did not believe in God. Her husband had committed suicide some time ago and with all the strife, depression, and greed in this world there was no way there could be a God. We pleaded with her that all of that strife is a result of sin and that one day God would restore us to Him and all these terrible things would go away, but she graciously declined to agree. After 4 hours, we headed back to the hotel. We met up with our friends Nate and Tara and Nate's parents and went to Little Italy for dinner. We tried to catch the Statten Island Ferry, but we missed it. Oh yeah, forgot ot mention that I had a terrible sinus infection/cold as well. Amazingly, I felt sick in the morning and at night, but when we were witnessing...I felt fine. Being totally exhausted, we crashed for the night.