Hey friends,
So the Lord did some crazy stuff today and I would love to share it with you. To start off I have been praying for the Lord to give me more opportunities, ort maybe just open my eyes to them. So today the Lord put them right in front of my face. It was a BIG DAY!
So I wake up this morning to take a much needed run. (I'm trying to get back in the habit) Here recently my forge brother and sisters have been sharing our prayer requests to keep up with everybody and what they are going through. (this is awesome, I feel like it has already strengthened our community and brought us closer together in the short time we have done it) As I was running I began to pray about getting more opportunities and I see this guy coming towards me as I run, I think to myself "Lord is this one?' as I pass him by. I regreted not stopping and talking to him, but the Lord is gracious and gave me a 2nd chance. On my way back I came by him agian and stopped.
This guys name was James and he was from Marshall. (whoop my granny is from Marshall....love ya Jimbo) Anyways we began to talk and I eventually asked him if he attends church anywhere, he said he has been to a few but needs to get pluged in to one. I then asked hom if he was a believer. He then goes in to sharing a little of his testimony with me. He said when he was about 21 he had a lot of hatred for people and he was out to hurt then. He said he was involved in a lot of bad things. But he opened up his bible one day randomly and just looked down and started reading and he said the Lord spoke to him through the word. The verses he read dealt exactly with seeking revenge and not hurting other people out of anger. He said ever since then he has been following the Lord.
This was a blessing for me to remind me of how intentional our God is, that He care for us so much that He would guide us in His word to tell us what we need to hear. We serve and amazing and an intentional God.
After that I went home and then went to work. Work was crazy today, so crazy that I didn't get to take a lunch brake until 6 pm. Needless to say I was hungry, so I set off into the mall for food. On a last minute decision I decided to go to chick-fil-a. As I looked up in from of me there was a Jew that I had talked to several weeks before and hadn't gotten the chance to talk to him agian, unitl today. He remembered me and said hey then I asked if I could eat with him. We started with some small talk, me asking how long he is here, what does he want to do, where does he want to go, stuff like that. Then I asked him if he was religious and he said yes and then I started asking him questions about his beliefs. It turned into a really good conversation, one where I got to share the gospel with him. He responded well and said he would like to talk more.
How great is our God, that I shoud ask for more opportunities that before I'm even thorugh praying He is already throwing them at me. Praise be to our God who gives so graciously even though we are so undeserving.
Grace and Peace,
Esteban
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
This stuff just happens to me, really, all the time...(chauncey)
As many of you already know, and most likely have posted on my facebook about, today is/was my 22nd birthday. And I think birthdays seem to get stranger the further along I go. It's kind of hard to describe really.
It started off slow, the normal morning routine. A few texts, a couple e-mails, and a nice letter from my grandmother. Then just passed the time before I went to work at 2:00. It was a nice day here in Tyler. Which is always a blessing when you work with energetic children. We spent the majority of our time outside enjoying the evening. This may sound like the normal day at work, but let me assure you, today was a blessing. We normally spend a good amount of time inside working with the kids on their homework. So to have a day that breaks the cycle of things was huge.
Now, the day progressed normally. Parents taking their children, staff cleaning our area, you know normal stuff. Finally we were waitng on only one parent to arrive. He was a friendly dad who I normally made small talk with and he would shake my hand then they would leave. Today was a little different.
As he was talking to our site director I asked him how he survived the storm last night. The next 30 minutes went from eagerly awaiting leaving work, to hearing this mans life testimony, a sermon, and finally him praying over me right there in the cafeteria of the elementary school. I said maybe 10 words through the whole thing. He had something, or many things to say, and I did what I do best. It was amazing listening to this man talk, right in front of his kids, about how good God has been in his life. All the way from a past lifestyle of drugs and prison, to visions and dreams, and on to his current walk in the faith. At the end I thanked him for blessing me on my birthday. Then he gave me 10 dollars. Which I am grateful for.
I've learned in these times to stop and listen. This isn't my first experience with these sort of things. I add input where I need too, or correction or affirmation, but for the most part, I listen. I honestly determine where I am with God, what He has been teaching me, and what He may be telling me now. It makes things much more interesting, you also become much more patient with your to-do list. In this specific instance I feel I benefitted. Philemon 1:20 "yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ." I didn't really feel dried out or disconnected from Christ before hand, but still so good is the refreshment, and prayer from a brother, especially when you don't expect it. I had a similar experience a little less than a year ago, a man gave me a blessing. Quite literally, those where his words, "I've given you a blessing". His name was Nathan, which means "giver". Neat stuff really. I don't know the name of the man who spoke to me today, but I plan on finding out. It is wild how the Lord, after these people talk to me, will continue to show Himself through something as simple as a name. There are another handful of those experiences as well. (that was a little bit of a rabbit trail)
Back on task. I made it home, then the 806 went to applebees for dinner, then watched "The Book of Eli" in theaters. I didn't have much expectation for the movie, mainly because I had only seen one trailer for it some time back. Without giving too much away, I'm not sure where to start, or what to say even. We left the theaters and didn't say anything until we got back to the apartment. My perspective is that I was trying to process what just happened. To put it plainly, the movie was really challenging, for me that is. It also only made sense, as I came to find out after the movie, that "Eli" means "my God".
Anyway, a great birthday, thanks for all the wishes, I hope they turn to prayers.
May the Lord bless you, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your father who is in heaven.
-Chuncey
It started off slow, the normal morning routine. A few texts, a couple e-mails, and a nice letter from my grandmother. Then just passed the time before I went to work at 2:00. It was a nice day here in Tyler. Which is always a blessing when you work with energetic children. We spent the majority of our time outside enjoying the evening. This may sound like the normal day at work, but let me assure you, today was a blessing. We normally spend a good amount of time inside working with the kids on their homework. So to have a day that breaks the cycle of things was huge.
Now, the day progressed normally. Parents taking their children, staff cleaning our area, you know normal stuff. Finally we were waitng on only one parent to arrive. He was a friendly dad who I normally made small talk with and he would shake my hand then they would leave. Today was a little different.
As he was talking to our site director I asked him how he survived the storm last night. The next 30 minutes went from eagerly awaiting leaving work, to hearing this mans life testimony, a sermon, and finally him praying over me right there in the cafeteria of the elementary school. I said maybe 10 words through the whole thing. He had something, or many things to say, and I did what I do best. It was amazing listening to this man talk, right in front of his kids, about how good God has been in his life. All the way from a past lifestyle of drugs and prison, to visions and dreams, and on to his current walk in the faith. At the end I thanked him for blessing me on my birthday. Then he gave me 10 dollars. Which I am grateful for.
I've learned in these times to stop and listen. This isn't my first experience with these sort of things. I add input where I need too, or correction or affirmation, but for the most part, I listen. I honestly determine where I am with God, what He has been teaching me, and what He may be telling me now. It makes things much more interesting, you also become much more patient with your to-do list. In this specific instance I feel I benefitted. Philemon 1:20 "yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ." I didn't really feel dried out or disconnected from Christ before hand, but still so good is the refreshment, and prayer from a brother, especially when you don't expect it. I had a similar experience a little less than a year ago, a man gave me a blessing. Quite literally, those where his words, "I've given you a blessing". His name was Nathan, which means "giver". Neat stuff really. I don't know the name of the man who spoke to me today, but I plan on finding out. It is wild how the Lord, after these people talk to me, will continue to show Himself through something as simple as a name. There are another handful of those experiences as well. (that was a little bit of a rabbit trail)
Back on task. I made it home, then the 806 went to applebees for dinner, then watched "The Book of Eli" in theaters. I didn't have much expectation for the movie, mainly because I had only seen one trailer for it some time back. Without giving too much away, I'm not sure where to start, or what to say even. We left the theaters and didn't say anything until we got back to the apartment. My perspective is that I was trying to process what just happened. To put it plainly, the movie was really challenging, for me that is. It also only made sense, as I came to find out after the movie, that "Eli" means "my God".
Anyway, a great birthday, thanks for all the wishes, I hope they turn to prayers.
May the Lord bless you, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your father who is in heaven.
-Chuncey
Work or play (esteban)
Hey friends,
My first time to put a blog on the site so I hope you enjoy it. The Lord is great and I want to share with you just how great he is by what He has been doing in my life. I'll start with the fact that the past month or so I have really been going through a dry spell spiritually. (not feeling the Lord's presence, reading has been tough or not at all) I have been dealing with the lack of desire to read His word and spend time with Him. Questions started to fill my mind; where has my desire gone? where is God? Is it wrong to view reading His word as work? These are just a few. I struggled witht the fact that I would get up in the morning and not want to read, or if I did I would just struggle through it. Is christianity really suppose to be like this? I was asking these questions to the Lord and I didn't feel like the Lord was answering any of them. Then I had a friend confront me on the lack of initative in my life. It was a hard talk and definately caught me off guard but one that was a good check for me. After the talk though I began to experience some serious spiritual warfare. It started getting crazy. (all this needless to say wasn't helping the dry spell)
Now my sister who lives in Bentonville, AR and is due at any time called me the next day to inform me that she was goign to have the baby on Tuesday. So I get everything ready and leave for Bentonville the next day on a 6 hour trip to meet my nephew. I love long trips by myself because it gives me time to just talk to the Lord, and this trip is exactly what I needed. The Lord really spoke to me during the trip.
One thing was about the initative conversation the day before. Thinking over some things I can see where I could grow in taking initative, but the scarier thing was of how I have been lacking in initative in my spiritual walk. Each day I would wake up and not feel like reading, so I would pray for the Lord to give me the joy and desire of His word again. Now I'm not saying that that was the wrong thing to do at all, but thats all I was doing was praying for the joy and desire and not putting in the effort or work to help get it back. The thing I was mistaken about was that in my head I should have been past that, that growing in my spiritual walk meant reading scripture and quiet times get easier when that is not the case at all. The christian walk is not always rainbows and butterflies, smiles and grins. Sometimes its hard work with no feeling of growth or joy from it. But is that ok? Is that ok to view reading the scriptures as work is the question I kept asking myself. And the answer I feel like i received is yes. We go through seasons in our walk when we feel the presence of the Lord and when we don't. Just because we don't feel the Lord doesn't mean He isn't there and thay He is not working in our lives. A book I'm currently reading speaks directly about this:
"There may be times when you feel that God has left you to fight alone. That is when your faith must do its hardest work. Hold fast to the assurance that God is watching every move of Satan and will not let him have the final victory. He can, when God allows it, rob the Christian of much joy, but he is always under command. When God says "stay", he must stand like a dog by the table while the saints feast on God's comfort. He does not dare to snatch even a tidbit, for the Master's eye is always on him. You lose much comfort when you forget that God's hand is always raised above Satan, and His loving eye is always on you."
- William Gurnall
To wrap this all together: We don't just read our bible to feel good, but because it is vital for us in our daily lives. The fact that we don't feel like reading or we don't feel like we are growing is temporary and they will soon pass, but the neccessity of God's word in our lives on a daily basis is a truth that should not be ignored. So friends let us work if it feels like work or get joy if it is joyful, for the Word of the Lord is worth all of all energy and strength.
To close I'll share with you about the blessing I received Tuesday afternoon: Parker William Knight. He came into this world at 1:59 pm on Tuesday at 7 pounds 7ounces. I stood amazed at him, he was perfect. He had little toes and fingers with little toe nails and finger nails. It blew my mind how God had formed this child down to the smallest details and it just spoke of the power of God to me. It humbled me to realize that we did nothing to form him or make sure the delivery went ok, but it was all the sovereign hand of God. The most memorable thing was that as I held him for the first time I had the opportunity to be the first person to pray over Parker. It is something I feel honored that I got to do and will never forget.
Grace and Peace,
Esteban
My first time to put a blog on the site so I hope you enjoy it. The Lord is great and I want to share with you just how great he is by what He has been doing in my life. I'll start with the fact that the past month or so I have really been going through a dry spell spiritually. (not feeling the Lord's presence, reading has been tough or not at all) I have been dealing with the lack of desire to read His word and spend time with Him. Questions started to fill my mind; where has my desire gone? where is God? Is it wrong to view reading His word as work? These are just a few. I struggled witht the fact that I would get up in the morning and not want to read, or if I did I would just struggle through it. Is christianity really suppose to be like this? I was asking these questions to the Lord and I didn't feel like the Lord was answering any of them. Then I had a friend confront me on the lack of initative in my life. It was a hard talk and definately caught me off guard but one that was a good check for me. After the talk though I began to experience some serious spiritual warfare. It started getting crazy. (all this needless to say wasn't helping the dry spell)
Now my sister who lives in Bentonville, AR and is due at any time called me the next day to inform me that she was goign to have the baby on Tuesday. So I get everything ready and leave for Bentonville the next day on a 6 hour trip to meet my nephew. I love long trips by myself because it gives me time to just talk to the Lord, and this trip is exactly what I needed. The Lord really spoke to me during the trip.
One thing was about the initative conversation the day before. Thinking over some things I can see where I could grow in taking initative, but the scarier thing was of how I have been lacking in initative in my spiritual walk. Each day I would wake up and not feel like reading, so I would pray for the Lord to give me the joy and desire of His word again. Now I'm not saying that that was the wrong thing to do at all, but thats all I was doing was praying for the joy and desire and not putting in the effort or work to help get it back. The thing I was mistaken about was that in my head I should have been past that, that growing in my spiritual walk meant reading scripture and quiet times get easier when that is not the case at all. The christian walk is not always rainbows and butterflies, smiles and grins. Sometimes its hard work with no feeling of growth or joy from it. But is that ok? Is that ok to view reading the scriptures as work is the question I kept asking myself. And the answer I feel like i received is yes. We go through seasons in our walk when we feel the presence of the Lord and when we don't. Just because we don't feel the Lord doesn't mean He isn't there and thay He is not working in our lives. A book I'm currently reading speaks directly about this:
"There may be times when you feel that God has left you to fight alone. That is when your faith must do its hardest work. Hold fast to the assurance that God is watching every move of Satan and will not let him have the final victory. He can, when God allows it, rob the Christian of much joy, but he is always under command. When God says "stay", he must stand like a dog by the table while the saints feast on God's comfort. He does not dare to snatch even a tidbit, for the Master's eye is always on him. You lose much comfort when you forget that God's hand is always raised above Satan, and His loving eye is always on you."
- William Gurnall
To wrap this all together: We don't just read our bible to feel good, but because it is vital for us in our daily lives. The fact that we don't feel like reading or we don't feel like we are growing is temporary and they will soon pass, but the neccessity of God's word in our lives on a daily basis is a truth that should not be ignored. So friends let us work if it feels like work or get joy if it is joyful, for the Word of the Lord is worth all of all energy and strength.
To close I'll share with you about the blessing I received Tuesday afternoon: Parker William Knight. He came into this world at 1:59 pm on Tuesday at 7 pounds 7ounces. I stood amazed at him, he was perfect. He had little toes and fingers with little toe nails and finger nails. It blew my mind how God had formed this child down to the smallest details and it just spoke of the power of God to me. It humbled me to realize that we did nothing to form him or make sure the delivery went ok, but it was all the sovereign hand of God. The most memorable thing was that as I held him for the first time I had the opportunity to be the first person to pray over Parker. It is something I feel honored that I got to do and will never forget.
Grace and Peace,
Esteban
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Reunion (Annecks)
If you know anything about me, you know that I love reunions. I am not a fan of connecting with someone, and then being separated from them for long periods of time (though it seems to be happening more and more in my life). So today was an especially good day because I had the opportunity for two reunions: one with Mandi, a member of my Forge family; and Marty, a truly godly man if I ever saw one.
Martin Patrick O'Connor was one of our speakers last year during the Forge, and he also served as our tour guide on our journey through Israel. Let me tell you, you haven't traveled until you've gone to Israel with Marty. Some phrases you are bound to hear on such a trip: "Come, friends;" "Keep drinking" (water, that is); "Big, BIG day;" and "How big is your God?" For those of you who have been on a trip with Marty, you know what I mean when I say that he makes the trip what it is. It is no "sight-seeing" trip, but a spiritual journey through the land of God. I really can't get too far into discussing my trip to Israel with Marty, because we could be here for days. Suffice it to say it was the single best trip I've ever been on; and hardly a day goes by when I don't think about it or something I learned there.
Anyway, back to the reunion. After much discussion last night between me and Chauncey about where to take Marty for lunch today, we finally ended up at Cheddar's. Because of a little miscommunication between me and Chauncey, I ended up at the restaurant about 20 minutes before the rest of the crew. So I decided to take this God-given opportunity to grab a little peace in the midst of my busy day.
I'm gonna take this moment to chase a rabbit trail, because I'm the one blogging and I guess that's my prerogative. (And it has some bearing on the rest of the story, I think). In recent weeks I have been thinking a lot about the word "shalom." It is generally translated into English as "peace," but in Hebrew it goes so much further. It carries connotations of well-being, quietness, rest and completeness. As Christians, it is something we are given through the blood of Christ ("And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" -Phil 4:7). I am also learning that I need to be still, both in body and in spirit, at points throughout the day in order to maintain this shalom. So, being gifted with these 20 or so minutes at the restaurant, I decided to be still before the Lord and feast on His shalom.
Chauncey, Mandi and Mary finally arrived, and we all sat down at our table. The rest seems like a blur. There were so many thoughts and emotions to go with this reunion that none of us could seem to find where to begin. We had so much to say to this man who had spoken so much into our lives; we had so much to say to this man who has been such a blessing in our lives; we had so much to say to this man who has inspired us with his life of faith and obedience. We had so much to say that we could hardly say anything at all. I know for myself there were a lot of moments I caught myself saying nothing at all because I was remembering things he had taught me, or digesting things he had just said. His prayer alone brought back visions of that trip to Israel and all that God accomplished in me during those 10 days.
As if that weren't enough, the blessing continued. I had been sharing with the table about what God is teaching me now about peace and shalom, and about the importance of being still before the Lord in order to hear Him. Marty then tells us all about what God has been teaching him about having God's peace in his life. It's not so much about just having pockets of peace during the day where we are still before the Lord, but about allowing God to fill us with His peace throughout the day. It's not so much about removing yourself from the world to find peace (although that is a good thing to do from time to time), but about not letting the busyness of the world creep into your heart and steal your shalom. Sometimes Jesus removed himself from the crowds; sometimes he was too busy to eat. Sometimes he took time to get away and rest; and sometimes he didn't sleep all night because he was doing so much. The secret was that He kept His communion with the Lord, and the shalom of God never left His heart. It should be the same with us--never too busy nor too late, but letting the shalom of God always fill our hearts as we stay in constant communion with Him.
I soon found my mouth shut once again, this time as I began to process all that Marty had just said. The lunch ended pretty soon after that, as Matt wanted Marty back by 2:00 (and Chauncey didn't want to be on Matt's bad side again). And as if all that had happened thus far wasn't enough, the blessing continued: Marty grabbed the check before any of us could even flinch. It was a quick hug and goodbye in the parking lot, with me missing the opportunity to pray for this man of God before he continued on his journey, and then he was gone yet again.
As it is with so many encounters I've had with Marty, I will probably be unpacking the conversation for weeks to come. His comments about shalom, his wrestling with the question of "How big are your prayers?", and his discussion about relationships, Adam, and Eve are still ringing in my ear. I can only imagine the ways God will use these words in my life in the coming weeks.
And so for now, I say so long Martin Patrick O'Connor. Thank you for the many blessings you have given to me. Your words to us have been both encouraging and humbling to me and my fellow Forge family, and the example of faith and obedience that you set in your own life is inspiring. I pray safe travels to you as you go back to Michigan, and especially as you lead another group of eager young hearts on the journey of a lifetime. May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make His face shine upon and be gracious to you; may the Lord turn His countenance upon you and give you peace. Shalom aleichem, friend.
-Annecks
Martin Patrick O'Connor was one of our speakers last year during the Forge, and he also served as our tour guide on our journey through Israel. Let me tell you, you haven't traveled until you've gone to Israel with Marty. Some phrases you are bound to hear on such a trip: "Come, friends;" "Keep drinking" (water, that is); "Big, BIG day;" and "How big is your God?" For those of you who have been on a trip with Marty, you know what I mean when I say that he makes the trip what it is. It is no "sight-seeing" trip, but a spiritual journey through the land of God. I really can't get too far into discussing my trip to Israel with Marty, because we could be here for days. Suffice it to say it was the single best trip I've ever been on; and hardly a day goes by when I don't think about it or something I learned there.
Anyway, back to the reunion. After much discussion last night between me and Chauncey about where to take Marty for lunch today, we finally ended up at Cheddar's. Because of a little miscommunication between me and Chauncey, I ended up at the restaurant about 20 minutes before the rest of the crew. So I decided to take this God-given opportunity to grab a little peace in the midst of my busy day.
I'm gonna take this moment to chase a rabbit trail, because I'm the one blogging and I guess that's my prerogative. (And it has some bearing on the rest of the story, I think). In recent weeks I have been thinking a lot about the word "shalom." It is generally translated into English as "peace," but in Hebrew it goes so much further. It carries connotations of well-being, quietness, rest and completeness. As Christians, it is something we are given through the blood of Christ ("And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" -Phil 4:7). I am also learning that I need to be still, both in body and in spirit, at points throughout the day in order to maintain this shalom. So, being gifted with these 20 or so minutes at the restaurant, I decided to be still before the Lord and feast on His shalom.
Chauncey, Mandi and Mary finally arrived, and we all sat down at our table. The rest seems like a blur. There were so many thoughts and emotions to go with this reunion that none of us could seem to find where to begin. We had so much to say to this man who had spoken so much into our lives; we had so much to say to this man who has been such a blessing in our lives; we had so much to say to this man who has inspired us with his life of faith and obedience. We had so much to say that we could hardly say anything at all. I know for myself there were a lot of moments I caught myself saying nothing at all because I was remembering things he had taught me, or digesting things he had just said. His prayer alone brought back visions of that trip to Israel and all that God accomplished in me during those 10 days.
As if that weren't enough, the blessing continued. I had been sharing with the table about what God is teaching me now about peace and shalom, and about the importance of being still before the Lord in order to hear Him. Marty then tells us all about what God has been teaching him about having God's peace in his life. It's not so much about just having pockets of peace during the day where we are still before the Lord, but about allowing God to fill us with His peace throughout the day. It's not so much about removing yourself from the world to find peace (although that is a good thing to do from time to time), but about not letting the busyness of the world creep into your heart and steal your shalom. Sometimes Jesus removed himself from the crowds; sometimes he was too busy to eat. Sometimes he took time to get away and rest; and sometimes he didn't sleep all night because he was doing so much. The secret was that He kept His communion with the Lord, and the shalom of God never left His heart. It should be the same with us--never too busy nor too late, but letting the shalom of God always fill our hearts as we stay in constant communion with Him.
I soon found my mouth shut once again, this time as I began to process all that Marty had just said. The lunch ended pretty soon after that, as Matt wanted Marty back by 2:00 (and Chauncey didn't want to be on Matt's bad side again). And as if all that had happened thus far wasn't enough, the blessing continued: Marty grabbed the check before any of us could even flinch. It was a quick hug and goodbye in the parking lot, with me missing the opportunity to pray for this man of God before he continued on his journey, and then he was gone yet again.
As it is with so many encounters I've had with Marty, I will probably be unpacking the conversation for weeks to come. His comments about shalom, his wrestling with the question of "How big are your prayers?", and his discussion about relationships, Adam, and Eve are still ringing in my ear. I can only imagine the ways God will use these words in my life in the coming weeks.
And so for now, I say so long Martin Patrick O'Connor. Thank you for the many blessings you have given to me. Your words to us have been both encouraging and humbling to me and my fellow Forge family, and the example of faith and obedience that you set in your own life is inspiring. I pray safe travels to you as you go back to Michigan, and especially as you lead another group of eager young hearts on the journey of a lifetime. May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make His face shine upon and be gracious to you; may the Lord turn His countenance upon you and give you peace. Shalom aleichem, friend.
-Annecks
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Still Amazed at the places God puts me
Today I had planned to have lunch with a good friend of mine (Brent or I'm Taken). My retriever side had been missing his company and wanted to stay in touch, especially since he is in the same town. Brent, if you're reading this, we should probably still stay in touch more. After I'm sure much debate in his mind as to where we should meet and eat, McAllister's was the final call. Which is good because I couldn't think of anything, and when he mentioned it I couldn't think of anything that would be more fitting.
The time was well spent in good, friendly inquiry of the other's life. We covered just about all of the bases, past, present and future concerns, discussing what it may be that the Lord has for either of us, and the anticipation of those things. The conversation I'm sure could have lasted much longer. I'm thinking now of all the things that have happened that we could have discussed, dang. Well, the time was well spent wither way.
You may be asking yourself... ...."What does this have to do with the title of your blog Chauncey?"... " "...Well, I will tell you. To understand fully you will need some background information. The past about a year ago I was in a discipleship program at Pine Cove called the Forge, not a whole lot of time to get into all of that if you have questions we can talk. In this program we took a trip to Israel, again, not enough space on the blog to contain that trip, sorry. On trip trip we had a very special tour guide, a man of God who has deeply impacted all of the lives of the people who were involved with that trip. His name is Marty.
Marty has had an impact on my life personally in how he was used by God to speak into my life, as he did for all of us. But what he said to me I have seen played out first hand. Marty told me that although my name is "Chance" that I don't take chances. Now, as he says this in my mind I'm thinking, "Marty, you don't know me, I do crazy stuff all the time, surely, you must be mistaken". He continued, "you need to take chances knowing that God has ordained those and that actually there are no chances because God is in those and will use those".
This is what he said to me a year ago this week. As we have seen with the last blog I put up, this has played out nicely. That the Lord will show me things for people, and to the outsiders, it looks like I'm taking a "chance" in that, but that Lord has ordained those things for those times, and as we saw, He uses that. This blows my mind, often.
Background info complete. While I was sitting in McAllister's today, just earlier, I see a current Forgie pass by, then another, and my mind goes through this process as follows: oh, a Forgie. Oooh, another one, oh wait, this must be their speaker lunch. Who is there speaker this week? Marty! Is he here, yes he is here!
I had a short but sweet reunion with a man who has taken the Lord at His Word, and continues to faithfully point others to Him. I giddily (I know, not really my style), related to Marty what the Lord had been doing, and hopefully encouraged him through that. I offered to have another reunion while he was in the area, hopefully with the whole 806 clique in attendance. Then I let him go to pass on his legacy with his current disciples.
I am still amazed at the places God puts me.
-Chauncey
The time was well spent in good, friendly inquiry of the other's life. We covered just about all of the bases, past, present and future concerns, discussing what it may be that the Lord has for either of us, and the anticipation of those things. The conversation I'm sure could have lasted much longer. I'm thinking now of all the things that have happened that we could have discussed, dang. Well, the time was well spent wither way.
You may be asking yourself... ...."What does this have to do with the title of your blog Chauncey?"... " "...Well, I will tell you. To understand fully you will need some background information. The past about a year ago I was in a discipleship program at Pine Cove called the Forge, not a whole lot of time to get into all of that if you have questions we can talk. In this program we took a trip to Israel, again, not enough space on the blog to contain that trip, sorry. On trip trip we had a very special tour guide, a man of God who has deeply impacted all of the lives of the people who were involved with that trip. His name is Marty.
Marty has had an impact on my life personally in how he was used by God to speak into my life, as he did for all of us. But what he said to me I have seen played out first hand. Marty told me that although my name is "Chance" that I don't take chances. Now, as he says this in my mind I'm thinking, "Marty, you don't know me, I do crazy stuff all the time, surely, you must be mistaken". He continued, "you need to take chances knowing that God has ordained those and that actually there are no chances because God is in those and will use those".
This is what he said to me a year ago this week. As we have seen with the last blog I put up, this has played out nicely. That the Lord will show me things for people, and to the outsiders, it looks like I'm taking a "chance" in that, but that Lord has ordained those things for those times, and as we saw, He uses that. This blows my mind, often.
Background info complete. While I was sitting in McAllister's today, just earlier, I see a current Forgie pass by, then another, and my mind goes through this process as follows: oh, a Forgie. Oooh, another one, oh wait, this must be their speaker lunch. Who is there speaker this week? Marty! Is he here, yes he is here!
I had a short but sweet reunion with a man who has taken the Lord at His Word, and continues to faithfully point others to Him. I giddily (I know, not really my style), related to Marty what the Lord had been doing, and hopefully encouraged him through that. I offered to have another reunion while he was in the area, hopefully with the whole 806 clique in attendance. Then I let him go to pass on his legacy with his current disciples.
I am still amazed at the places God puts me.
-Chauncey
Monday, January 18, 2010
This Past Weekend (Chauncey)
This was this weekend (Fri.-Sun.)
It starts off with me heading back home to Salado to judge a power lifting meet at my high school for the 3rd year in a row. It became me also participating in a wedding party, seeking to meet every Forgie in the area, meeting with friends while I was in town , seeing family, and anticipating doing something that would make the top of the list of weekend highlights. Myself and my roommate James embarked in our journey Friday evening with intentions to meet the Forge ladies who reside in Austin for a nice visit. It was raining and quite inconveniently my driver-side windshield wiper stops working and moves to the side so that I could see clearly the rain hitting the windshield, but not the road in front. This happened about thirty minutes from my house, a little over an hour from Austin. As I drove leaning over into james' bubble, (him having the only working wiper in the vehicle) I decided that home would be most safe, and comfortable option for the night. So after giving my regards to LG over the phone, we made it home. The next day was an early start to just what I had been expecting. I judged at the power lifting meet. It was entertaining, and reminded me of how dumb we were in high school. It also kind of made me want to start working out again. Anyway, I made it back home to rescue James from his day of rest and get him out into the world. I found out that he had a great conversation with my grandpa. If you ever have the opportunity, listen to what he has to say, he will talk to you for about 30 min. straight, even if you don't have anything to say back, I know because I done it.
This is rather long, sorry, but I think you may find it worth the stuff I'm getting to.
We left out in search of cheap Mexican food in Salado, only to find the one of the places was temporarily closed due to something or another, the only other had been completely cleaned and moved. It was almost like a movie where something is clearly destined or almost foreshadowed. I could almost hear the mysterious music as I was pulling out of the Texaco (that used to house the latter of the two mexican places) only to see the appearing side of a small trailer with a blinking "open" sign parked next to the station. Amazing breakfast burritos.
Next was the wedding party. A nice gathering of friends and a game of bowling. The bowling put us close to Austin, which James still hadn’t visited. Around 12am we head down to a favorite coffee shop of mine. There is a lady there playing her guitar, of course I’m going to be interested. I went over, introduced myself and started listening to her play. Her name was Dava (pronounced dave-uh) Sophie Lucas, which I found out later before I left. I told her that I had my mandolin and asked if I could play with her. We continued to play and have small talk about Jesus. She claimed to be a believer, but was a little different than the “traditional” believer. God was real for her basically, and she struggled in churches. As we are sitting there the Lord began to give me a word for her, so I began discerning what it was he was telling me to tell her. It had to deal with “safety”. It just so happened that all of her friends got up together and walked away leaving James, Dava, and myself. I began to tell her what it was the Lord was telling her. As I did she looked at me and told me she knew exactly what I was talking about. This was a relief to me, although I knew it was from the Lord it is always great to have confirmation. She goes on to tell what it is exactly that He was referring to. Later, I recognized that her name most likely was derived from David, which means “beloved”. As I asked her where her name came from she went straight into how her name lines up exactly with what the Lord has been telling her to do, which also goes along with the word that He told her that night. He name basically means “beloved wisdom that brings light to the world“. God has been calling her and has been preparing her to be a life coach. I told her that we had studied about that and how I can say the same about my name. It was great to encourage her to do what the Lord has called her to do, and to not be ashamed of who she was. I think that I have had an encounter like this every time I go to Austin.
Crazy stuff.
The next day James and I headed out for Tyler, we finally made it on the road after saying goodbye to friends, then family. Down the road as we were driving through Waco I had the urge to call my good friend who is always encouraging me and spurring me on in the Lord. I visited for awhile talked about what the Lord had been doing and prayed for him. Normally he prays for me then I leave, since we were pressed for time he wasn’t able to. The next stop was to visit Ben. We stopped by, checked out his very ghetto apartment complex, took a picture, visited, then left. As we were leaving he asked to pray for us.
I figured I’d try one last stop to see a friend who frequents a nearby coffee shop. When we arrived he wasn’t there, nor was he answering his phone. However, as we were leaving there was a man sitting outside who looked like he needed help. As I walked on by the Lord was telling me to give him a brand-new set of socks that my mom had gotten me but I wasn’t going to wear. As I got to the door of my car he came to us instead asking for help in anyway. I asked him if he needed socks, he lifted his pants revealing a sock-less ankle. I don’t really know what to say about this. God is big.
After all of this, the Lord blessed a smooth trip back to the 806, where I am relaying this message of God’s hand at work.
Be encouraged. Be resolved. Be STEADFAST.
-Chauncey
It starts off with me heading back home to Salado to judge a power lifting meet at my high school for the 3rd year in a row. It became me also participating in a wedding party, seeking to meet every Forgie in the area, meeting with friends while I was in town , seeing family, and anticipating doing something that would make the top of the list of weekend highlights. Myself and my roommate James embarked in our journey Friday evening with intentions to meet the Forge ladies who reside in Austin for a nice visit. It was raining and quite inconveniently my driver-side windshield wiper stops working and moves to the side so that I could see clearly the rain hitting the windshield, but not the road in front. This happened about thirty minutes from my house, a little over an hour from Austin. As I drove leaning over into james' bubble, (him having the only working wiper in the vehicle) I decided that home would be most safe, and comfortable option for the night. So after giving my regards to LG over the phone, we made it home. The next day was an early start to just what I had been expecting. I judged at the power lifting meet. It was entertaining, and reminded me of how dumb we were in high school. It also kind of made me want to start working out again. Anyway, I made it back home to rescue James from his day of rest and get him out into the world. I found out that he had a great conversation with my grandpa. If you ever have the opportunity, listen to what he has to say, he will talk to you for about 30 min. straight, even if you don't have anything to say back, I know because I done it.
This is rather long, sorry, but I think you may find it worth the stuff I'm getting to.
We left out in search of cheap Mexican food in Salado, only to find the one of the places was temporarily closed due to something or another, the only other had been completely cleaned and moved. It was almost like a movie where something is clearly destined or almost foreshadowed. I could almost hear the mysterious music as I was pulling out of the Texaco (that used to house the latter of the two mexican places) only to see the appearing side of a small trailer with a blinking "open" sign parked next to the station. Amazing breakfast burritos.
Next was the wedding party. A nice gathering of friends and a game of bowling. The bowling put us close to Austin, which James still hadn’t visited. Around 12am we head down to a favorite coffee shop of mine. There is a lady there playing her guitar, of course I’m going to be interested. I went over, introduced myself and started listening to her play. Her name was Dava (pronounced dave-uh) Sophie Lucas, which I found out later before I left. I told her that I had my mandolin and asked if I could play with her. We continued to play and have small talk about Jesus. She claimed to be a believer, but was a little different than the “traditional” believer. God was real for her basically, and she struggled in churches. As we are sitting there the Lord began to give me a word for her, so I began discerning what it was he was telling me to tell her. It had to deal with “safety”. It just so happened that all of her friends got up together and walked away leaving James, Dava, and myself. I began to tell her what it was the Lord was telling her. As I did she looked at me and told me she knew exactly what I was talking about. This was a relief to me, although I knew it was from the Lord it is always great to have confirmation. She goes on to tell what it is exactly that He was referring to. Later, I recognized that her name most likely was derived from David, which means “beloved”. As I asked her where her name came from she went straight into how her name lines up exactly with what the Lord has been telling her to do, which also goes along with the word that He told her that night. He name basically means “beloved wisdom that brings light to the world“. God has been calling her and has been preparing her to be a life coach. I told her that we had studied about that and how I can say the same about my name. It was great to encourage her to do what the Lord has called her to do, and to not be ashamed of who she was. I think that I have had an encounter like this every time I go to Austin.
Crazy stuff.
The next day James and I headed out for Tyler, we finally made it on the road after saying goodbye to friends, then family. Down the road as we were driving through Waco I had the urge to call my good friend who is always encouraging me and spurring me on in the Lord. I visited for awhile talked about what the Lord had been doing and prayed for him. Normally he prays for me then I leave, since we were pressed for time he wasn’t able to. The next stop was to visit Ben. We stopped by, checked out his very ghetto apartment complex, took a picture, visited, then left. As we were leaving he asked to pray for us.
I figured I’d try one last stop to see a friend who frequents a nearby coffee shop. When we arrived he wasn’t there, nor was he answering his phone. However, as we were leaving there was a man sitting outside who looked like he needed help. As I walked on by the Lord was telling me to give him a brand-new set of socks that my mom had gotten me but I wasn’t going to wear. As I got to the door of my car he came to us instead asking for help in anyway. I asked him if he needed socks, he lifted his pants revealing a sock-less ankle. I don’t really know what to say about this. God is big.
After all of this, the Lord blessed a smooth trip back to the 806, where I am relaying this message of God’s hand at work.
Be encouraged. Be resolved. Be STEADFAST.
-Chauncey
Welcome to the 806 Click (Annecks)
Many of you have heard stories of the things that go on inside the confines of Grande Hill #806; or among the family members of what is affectionately referred to as "the 806 Click." Maybe you've seen pictures on Facebook. Maybe you've been regaled by a telling of a story about homemade t-shirts or flying box cutters. Maybe you've even been to one of the Bible studies that happen every Monday night. Maybe you've never heard a thing, and have no idea what I'm talking about. Whatever interaction you've had with the 806 up to this point, we invite you to come a little more inside.
On this site we hope to keep you up-to-date with all the happenings of the 806. Well, maybe not ALL the happenings, as no blog could withstand that kind of madness. But we do hope to give you glimpses of what our life is like: our successes and our failures, our crazy nights and our calm mornings, our times of depth and our times of shallowness. We hope that by sharing with you these things your lives can be blessed by all that God is doing with us, even if that is nothing more than a smile being brought to your face.
So come on and take a ride on the wild and crazy train that is Life in the 806 . . .
--Annecks
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