Day 25: One more day in the open

Today was wild!

There was hardly anyone one out for some reason but I knew that God would provide me with someone to talk to so guess what happened . . . HE DID!!!

I ran into this girl who was from Italy and was raised Catholic. She is agnostic now and we had a pretty good chat.

. . .

I figure I could provide more details and maybe a picture but I didn't take the picture because the conversation just sort of happened.

As far as the FULL story goes I would give details but honestly the important part has already been said. I went out to share Jesus and God provided a way for me to do that.

PRAISE GOD!!!

I would like to ask anyone who reads these posts to please pray for the people who are on here and share the good news in your own corner of the earth.

God bless and goodnight kids :-)

P.S. I'm still sick so feel free to pray for me too :-D

Lesson relearned

God goes beyond my wildest dreams :-)

Bonus:

I have one of the greatest praise reports EVER!

This week God not only provided more than enough money for me to go to school fulltime this quarter but I also got an email that last quarters fees have been refunded!!!

PRAISE GOD!!!

The story is beyond imagination and I can tell it to whoever would like to hear it. Simply put.

IT WAS A MIRACLE!!!

ALL OF IT!!!

PRAISE JESUS!!!

His love is sooooo beyond anything we can fathom

God bless :-)

Day 24: God is sooooo good :-)

I'm sick . . .

. . . as in ill.

Feel free to pray for me.

Inside I still feel like this ->->-> :-)

because Jesus loves me and I and have a relationship with God.

I had one of the greatest talks of my life today.

Pray to God that He will be accepted by the person I talked to today . . .

. . . and everyone else too.

Wow, He is soooo awesome!!!

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming"

Praise the Lord for He is good.

Praise the Lord.

I know you don't know her it's just that I feel like it wouldn't be cool if I shared her name. Please pray that she gets a 4.0 next year and that she would know it was totally God so He could get all of the glory.

Just so you know she is one of the hardest working students I know . . . so yeah. She pretty much always gets A's . . . maybe always.

Either way . . . thank you all and God bless :-)

Please, go.

P.S. You know what I mean :-)

Lesson relearned

Share the Gospel even when the world is crazy busy and you feel like you don't have the time.

God will show up.

P.P.S. Someone got saved today!

PRAISE JESUS!!!

Read all about it at, "No Turning Back!"

One last question.

Would it be worth it if one million people went out and shared the Gospel and one out of all the people who heard it accepted Jesus?

I believe God would say one person was worth it by a magnitude that we will probably never comprehend.

Another thing I'm pretty sure of is that if one million people went out there may just be more than one person who accepts Christ.

Just something to think about.

Day 23: I'm sooooo tired

This is gonna be a short one guys.

I can almost here the tears as they hit the ground.

Tear.

Today as I was getting out of school I was in a mad rush to get home when I saw this guy outside Nester Hall and I just couldn't say no.

I REALLY wanted to just go home today and I mean REALLY!

Once we started talking I was glad that I didn't. My new chum was raised Jewish and had a ton of wondering going on in that head of his.

He told me that he has never read the New Testament but would like to. Bonus.

His mother used to be Catholic but now isn't and I was just shocked at the fact that he still seemed to be pretty open to checking out Chi Alpha or a Bible study.

We chatted for a little bit and had a good ol' time before I mentioned that I should go.

We traded contact info and he even made sure he knew my email before I left by going over it out loud!

Praise Jesus.

Lesson Learned

When you feel you are just beat down and have nothing you realize even more than usual that it is ALL GOD when it comes to sharing Jesus.

God bless kids and Goodnight :-)

P.S. I know things are probably getting busy with school starting for plenty of you and all but don't forget to have a quiet time. I'm positive that I'm feeling just terrible due to my lack of judgement on the amount of sleep I need and quality quiet times the past few days.

Remember to fill up on God everday kids. You can't give someone what you don't have.

Day 22: So, how about that job?

Does anyone remember needing a job and the RELIEF that came from getting one?

Perhaps it was that dream job that you had always wanted and looks soooooo good on a resume.
Than again, maybe it was one of those I NEED TO PAY MY BILLS NOW JOB, LOL!

Whatever the case may be God provided for you and the stage was set.

Now I can . . .

1) Give to God
Bonus: Missions/Sponser someone

2) Eat something other than noodle bricks
(Though they are pretty tasty. Go BEEF flavor, haha!)

3) Ease the weekly stress of our campus Pastors by maybe spotting them a meal once or twice :-)

4) Bless someone who is in a tight spot no matter who they are

5) The list could go on and on

Now think for a second.

. . .

Did I leave something out?

After all of that brain crackling I'm about to let you in on something you may already know very well.

Being a good witness at work is part of the deal :-)

I won't say that I have always done this perfectly or that I'm doing it PERFECTLY right now.

Still, I try.

Jesus helps me :-)

Today I got the chance to bring up Jesus with a girl who was helping me out with something and it was pretty sweetness.

She believed in Jesus and even goes to church but the life she is living stands out in her mind as a big thing that keeps her seperate from having one of those great relationships with Him.

By the By:

(Even though it was at work and we do have rules that would make you think it wasn't a good idea to bring up subjects like religion, there isn't anything against telling people about our lives and what we are about.)

I'm hoping who we are is so about Jesus that there is no way around it.

I told her some scripture to give her some clarity on certain things and to encourage her. We even continued talking after she had to leave to go do something else. What was really nice was that she came back as soon as she could to keep the conversation going.

PRAISE JESUS!!!

By the time the conversation was ending she was even encouraging me to do missionary work now :-)

Again . . . PRAISE JESUS!!!

I don't think we can do that enough :-D

Do I know what will come of all of this?

Not really, but . . . it was good.

Lessons learned

God will make a way.

If you try to make a habit out of inviting excuses into your life, guess what?

They will come.

Have faith and pray and He will provide for us. Remember that He want's His Kingdom to go forward and for His glory to be made known to all the world.

What then can get in the way?

I'm sure there are a few things you could think up that seem reasonable enough.

Than again . . .

Romans 8:31-39

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Goodnight and God bless :-)

Day 21: When the world is on your mind . . . don't forget your family

I walked out onto the Oval tonight thinking I was going to bump into people and talk to them about Jesus . . .

. . . things worked out a little differently than I had planned.

Jumping back a little just imagine me ALL jazzed up, yet calm, and ready to go out on the Oval :-)

While I was sitting at the computer getting ready to leave I felt like I should IM my sister. I asked her if I could call her since it was a little late and she said that it was fine. The deal was that God has been doing the most AMAZING things in my life and AIM just wouldn't cut it.

We talked for a bit outside in the parking lot and I told her about one of the STRIGHT MIRACLES God has been doing in my life when she tells me that she is on her way to pick up Jacob. A few minutes later he hi-jacks the phone and we have the longest conversation we have ever had.

It started with a question he had about Mary and it just sort of spun into everything else.

Looking back I don't think I have ever had such a balanced conversation with him.
It felt so natural.

My guy is in the 9th grade and is playing football so with the world coming at him faster and faster each day it just felt like there was no time to waste.

When our talk was finished I let him know that I was always available and that he could call me up whenever he wanted.

As I walked back I couldn't help but think, "This was a good thing"

Lesson learned

Share Jesus with your family because it's not guaranteed that someone else will?

Bonus:
The fire is catching at No Turning Back Now!
WHO'S NEXT!?!?!?

Day 20: It's all about Him

All I can say is this has been just about the best week of my life!

Today I ran into a guy named Paul who worked for a company that was doing some work for Meijer.

I was walking around with Jeff and the boys looking for a fantasy football magazine of all things when Jeff asked this guy where the magazines were. After some directions were given Jeff headed out and I can't remember exactly how it happened but I just sort of stuck around and got this guys attention. We started talking about Jesus :-)

He told me he has read The Bible and was now on the Qur'an
which he found to be similar to The Bible. I explained to him that a HUGE difference was that in the Bible Jesus claims to be the Son of God.

This is a big deal!

From there you have to make the decision to believe this to be true or not.

Jeff mentioned another point when I spoke with him later about it being more than moral truth on the table. We have a claim being made by Jesus Christ and it must be taken seriously.

After all, if what Jesus said is true which I totally 100% believe than it is the most important fact in the history of mankind. A fact that will change your eternity that begins right now.

I was surprised at Pauls thoughts as he was thinking them outloud. This guy was literally coming to the conclusion right before my eyes as I was standing there listening that maybe the Bible did have all of the answers. I told him about how the Bible tells us that we should believe no other Gospel than the one given by Jesus Christ.

For those who wish to read what I'm talking about here you go:

Galations 1:6-24

No Other Gospel

6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

10Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul Called by God

11I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

13For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

18Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. 19I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord's brother. 20I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. 21Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." 24And they praised God because of me.

This is a BIG deal.

We chatted some more even as his co-workers walked by giving quizzical looks. He even had me wait for him to take care of some customers just so we could finish the conversation properly.

WOW!

GOD IS AWESOME!!!

Lesson learned

You will never run out of reasons or ways to praise God for all that He is and has done.

Live for Him.

The moment God shows you what real life is you will notice that everthing else was just a dream. And unlike the movies, the life He has for you is better than any dream you can imagine.

God bless kids and remember. Love. We will show Christ with love.

Day 19: All Deliberate Speed???

I felt a breakdown was needed

All
1 a : the whole amount, quantity, or extent of all the courage they had> all night> b : as much as possible all seriousness>
2 : every member or individual component of <all men will go> <all students were present>

Deliberate
1 : characterized by or resulting from careful and thorough consideration (a deliberate decision)
2 : characterized by awareness of the consequences (Deliberate Truth)

Speed
1 archaic : prosperity in an undertaking : Success
2 a : the act or state of moving swiftly : Swiftness b : rate of motion: as (1) : Velocity 1 (2) : the magnitude of a velocity irrespective of direction c : Impetus
3 : swiftness or rate of performance or action: Velocity 3a

That helped.

Today was the return of the cable man . . . another one :-)

With the sweetness of sharing with the last cable guy still in my head I was pretty cheerful waiting for the next one.

"How will this talk go!?" I wondered.

Than the knock came . . . and he was HUGE!

I'm usually not too intimidated by big guys because I've had the chance to throw around a guy once or twice that was a hundred pounds and some love over my weight but this guy was something else. His arms were about my waist size and everything else was just nuts.

I seriously wondered if I should share Jesus because he could easily kill me and JT who was in the other room and no one would be able to stop him.

My imagination was in overdrive and I could see him leaping on top of me while on the couch and just beating me to a pulp. How long would it take before I would go unconscious?
What if I didn't???

SNAP!

Reality came back to me and I thought about it for a second. He's a guest in my home, he wouldn't hurt me . . . right?

Ah well, sharing time :-)

I was pretty sure that he had been really busy so I tryed to take the edge off by asking him how his day went and other questions that might not be so kaapow, ya know?

The talking was going well and he was going fast so with no time to waste I asked the question after making sure he was cool with a different sort of topic.

"What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you here the name Jesus?"

If you haven't guessed it by now I'm just going to let you in on something. I don't have alot of material as far as starter questions. I figure if it ain't broke why fix it, right :-)

We start talking and I find out that he was in the military and his mother is very relgious but he is not one to think about that stuff too often.

He told me one moment in his life that made God real to him was when his two kids were born and while talking about the experience he apologized for tearing up in my place. I love that guy so much!
He was so real.

Another story he had was about when he was getting mocked on a plane once before jumping out of it because he had a cross on his chest. He found it odd when the first thing those same people yelled when jumping out where calls of help to God.

We didn't get a chance to pray which is something I would have wanted to do now that I think back on the whole deal. Still, it was good. His whole vibe changed and he opened up. Maybe even to a whole new life . . . at least the chance of one.

I really don't know. That's the hope.

There were other little run-ins throughout the day but really I just wanted to inject a sense of urgency today. PEOPLE NEED JESUS! What's taking us so long?
What are we waiting for?

I say "we" because it's got to be us and it's not just about joining some special group of outreachers. It's bigger than all that. It's about us getting down on those knees and figuring out how God wants us to spend these days.

After it's all said and done this is not supposed to be some slam sort of post by the way.

I figure I just want others to get a mission in their head that makes them as happy as I am right now.

Before you go all I ask is that you think about the next few lines.

Mae - All Deliberate Speed

You said you'll meet us in the middle of the afternoon
we said we're frusterated.
and you tried to take us.
"Go on, get ready, cause it's coming soon"
Well no thanks, we'll make it.

So it brings us back to this.
Something's got to give.
So are you listening?
Or are you coming around again?

All deliberate speed- Lately you've been comtemplating.
Is this real or is this fading? What brought you here in the first place?
Everyone around us screams "It's got to be and it's got to hit you."
Well, you and me, well we can change the world.

It's all for Him

Day 18: Let the good times roll!!!

It's breathtaking to think of You,
and to learn without faith the sky isn't as blue
It's mindnumbing, to think of yesterday
We'll look toward the stars and dream that we're airplanes

I heard you say, "It's enlightening, think of the breeze"
We watch the sunset, "Think of Me"

So here we go, let's show them how to live
Accept the pain
Always forgive
Watch the sun go down
Learn the sound of following, all that's complete

This Day and Age - Second Place Victory

My very good friend and brother Eric came into town from his new home in Florida today. I was VERY happy that we could share in the joy of talking to others about Jesus along with Rob and Erin at, YOU GUESS IT, Skyline chili :-)

This was yet another day I thought I was going to tromp around the Oval with a survey until I got a call from Eric. Hours passed and BOOM, we end up going to Skyline. Since I had already eaten I figured I would go to Krogers to run into some people. I'm lovin' it!

We arrived at Skyline in no time and one bathroom break later I'm feeling I should just chill and talk to our waitress. Strange how it all happens but I'm just going with the Holy Spirit ya know?

She was really cool and grabbed all 3 of her orders without a notepad when I just busted out with the Jesus question. I didn't want to mess up her memory order system so after more chatting I said we would pick it up after she came back.

When she came back with the food (in a very quick and polite manner I might add) I told her to forget about the first time and tell me what's the first thing she thinks about when she hears the name Jesus.

:-)

I have to smile while all of this is going on. It's MAD joy kids, believe me!

We talked some and after some cool back and forth she said that she was 92% sure she was going to Heaven. I know all too well what this is like because I lived a looooooong time with the same doubts she had talked about.

I encouraged her the best I could with some good Bible Words because really nothing else is going to do it and let her know that God wants to seek us out more than we seek Him out. He's not trying to find an excuse to let us go ya know? That was another good bit of knowledge that gave me security and confidence that God was more than AMAZING!

By the by, she ended up being from the same place in Cinci that Erin was from and even took a class with her at OSU once. We all got to talking with the help of chatmaster Rob and were having a blast if I do say so myself :-)

God is sooooo very awesome isn't He?

Lesson Learned

Go out and love someone kids.

There is so much in the balance that it's not even funny. By not going all you are doing is cheating yourself out of a life full of joy and excitement that God has in surplus for you :-)

Some days are tough but everyday you are 100% guaranteed that you're life meant something in between the time the sun was going up and down.

I'm not saying that I'm perfect by the way and I have PLENTY to get done with my precious hours that don't always get done . . . but I will do better. God is there with strength and wisdom to help us get whatever we have to get done, done, as we live a life centered around His will.

I hope you guys didn't miss that last bit. It's about His will.

That's HUGE!!!

We all have to get there.

The best part is . . . we all will find our hearts most crazy awesome desire by doing His will anyways.

I'm out.

Be blessed, pray for eachother and ME :-D

Never forget how much God loves you all.

Day 17: "You have to do something about it"

"Wake the dead,

serial sleepers slay with words unsaid . . .
Rise up oh sons of God,
and sing the song that hides behind your teeth
These ears have longed to hear . . ."

House of Heroes - Serial Sleepers

Today as I was walking to the Oval I was wondering
what in the world would happen next.

Do you ever just lose the ability to even
guess what the next situation will be
in your life?

Maybe I'm not alone on this one but with a little bit
of time before work I went out
and had a couple of rejections
when I saw this person sitting at a
picnic table and maaan . . . it was like a light was shining on them ya know.

I told myself I would check and see if anyone was sitting in front of
Hayes Hall because I felt like maybe there was someone there waiting but
there wasn't.

Afterwards I wondered about the other person I had seen.
Maybe they had left ya know?

They hadn't.

I asked this girl who ended up being from China if she wanted to do
a survey and she was all about it!

What looked like studying from afar ended up being her listening to her jams
on her good ol' ipod :-)

She put the ear pods away and we got down to it.

She believed Jesus was her Savior which was cool but she felt only 90% sure
she was going to Heaven.

After some solid talking and Word we got all that clear which is sweetness
and we started to talk about other things.

She mentioned that the Bible in China is really hard to read and told me that
I had to do something about it.

I was taken aback a little.

Ok. Sure.  Where do you go from there?

I told her that I had just talked to a friend about Chinese Bibles the day before
and let her know that there is a good translation in Chinese already.

OH!  She also didn't know that there was a Chinese Church in Columbus so that
was cool.

We got to talk about Jesus quite a bit and before I left she told
me again even after all the talking that I had to do something
about the people in China.  There are too many other people influencing
the Chinese she said and I had to do something about it.

Talk about pressure eh?

As I was walking away I remember a thing that happened at SICM a year ago.
I was praying and China flashed in my head.  It was spelled out in white letters
against a black back drop.  I was freaked out at the time and have since
figured that maybe God was just seeing if I would be willing to
go since I wasn't really about the whole idea of going to a foreign land
at that time.

The only other moment I can remember seeing a message in the same way was
when I got completely redirected to go to some other place and a series
of crazy cool things happened that made me know for sure that I was
supposed to be where I ended up.  Namely, the Short North at a Diner
where I was supposed to talk to someone.  That's a WHOLE other story though.

Shessh.

Do you ever feel like your plate is full?
I know others have done plenty more but still . . .

. . . is it possible to get signs to go to a couple of different countries
years before without knowing exactly how it's supposed to work out?

How about teaching at Central Catholic High School somewhere
before or after all of that?

Nomad is all I can think about.  I know it.
I'm gonna be some sort of crazy Nomad.

With that I'm off!

Fare thee well my dear friends and God bless you all :-)

Day 16: Panera at last

"It was meant to be,
this tale of You and me
I was made for You,
so you came for me"

One Life Lost - You and me

Today was a fun and most interesting day of outreach.

Basically Jeff asked if I wanted to do a smallgroup lesson on evangelism for our ragtag summer mens smallgroup and I was all about it. There is hardly anything more fun than going out and sharing Jesus with a bunch of your friends.

HINT HINT :-)

We met up at my place @ 7 and started nearly half an hour late because . . . you would just have to know us I guess. The lesson went fine and there was even a Blue Letter Bible discovery that was pretty cool. Yes, we are all geeks :-)

Finally WE WENT OUT!!!

PRAISE JESUS!!!

After we had broken up into teams of two we headed out to the places assigned beforehand.

From here on it was a most crazy experience. We ran into about a million Christians!
Some we knew and others we didn't but it was just really encouraging. In between there we had some really cool run-ins. One was this guy who is going to work for a company that my friend Adam did some work with and they traded phone numbers. He was a really cool guy who had been a believer in his youth but it seems that during or after college he just sort of fell away.

The next guy we got a chance to share with was Adams Geology prof. back in 2001. He was just about the most charming man who talked with us both like we were old friends. He didn't believe in God but made it clear that the case wasn't closed. When the conversation was near it's end he told Adam his email and mentioned that he should email him back to see if anythings changed.

Just WONDERFUL.

With a couple of minutes to spare we headed back to the meeting spot we had decided on outside of the library and shared our stories. Prayer followed and that my friends was that.

Lesson Learned

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming."

I can't promise you every day of your life is going to be a blast or that other things won't try to get in the way of what God has for you to do. No, I can't tell you that.

What I can say is this:
God loves us so very much and more than we can ever know. When you have gotten that fact stuck in your head and heart it won't matter just how many times you are reminded of your failures in life. Someone loves you no matter what . . . and that's just the Truth.

Day 15: The Cable Guy

It's 3:16 in the morning and I've decided that I really do enjoy these posts :-)


Ignore the timestamp at the bottom. BELIEVE me it's 3 something now and yes I'm nuts.

I've already given away a bit of todays story with the picture above but don't worry, there's a bit left to be said.

The short of it. I called to get cable tv cut off and when they came the cable people cut off the internet too.

On the kitchen table there was this note from Ed with his number on it.

I have gone to great lengths to conceal his number so don't try to find it out!

P.S. Tape does nothing to hide numbers. Go with the sharpie right off the bat :-)

Ed gets a ringle and I find out that he had nothing to do with the disconnection but that he was in the hood to inform people of on campus cable deals. I say come right over and he happens to be a few feet outside of my door.

FANTASTIC!

We start to talking and he's selling me on a DVR . Even though I don't even watch much tv I'm strangely interested in the idea.

That's when it happens. I get this tug that this is the MOST AWESOME op to share the Gospel. What an example of GOING wouldn't you say?

To share the Gospel with the cable guy would be like opening up the field for who knows how many people.

Is this prideful I ask myself? Why would I be doing this?

Ed continues to talk.

I share the Gospel because this is life or death serious stuff.

This isn't some fun with a frisbee.
This isn't I dare you to jump in the pool.

This is everything.

I decided I'm gonna do it.

I listen more to Ed and figure I should be more interested in his talk so maybe he will feel like he should listen to what I have to say in a little bit :-)

When he's done he gets up and I asked the questions.

Me:

"Would you mind if I asked you a question?"

Ed was cool with it.

Me:

"What do you think of when you hear the name Jesus?"

He told me he thinks that Jesus is the son of God but that he also believes he is a great prophet like . . . .

By the end of the talk I find out that Ed was a believer until college but than he took some philosophy classes and hasn't been so sure ever since.

I talk to him and give him some Word to think over. After I ask if he would like prayer over anything he leaves and yells "God bless you" as he walks down towards the street.

A few seconds later I'm dry heaving and shaking a little bit but I figure the nerves had been put on hold while I was talking to Ed and now that he's gone my body thought it was cool to not be so bold for the moment :-)

I talked to him a little later because he left something and I wrote John 14:6 on this paper so he could maybe ponder some more later on.

He called me to help me out with another cable issue and I was encouraged that he didn't just treat me like a freak and decide that he wanted nothing else to do with me anymore.

Lessons Learned

1) Don't be afraid to take the leap because this IS what life is all about.
Like H.L. says in his book:

". . . the greatest act of worship , the gift we can give God that means the most to Him, is a gift of our lives in service to His Kingdom."

That's the greatest gift we have to give the One who gave us everything.

2) I felt terrible that I didn't go out later. I realized that as scary as it was reaching out to the cable guy it wasn't enough. I was born to go out!!!
I believe all of us are.

It's taken me two weeks and a cable guy to come to this conclusion.
How long will it take you?

God bless kids.

You are loved . . . SO LOVE OTHERS :-)

Day 14: God is soooo GREAT!

"You're my refuge, You're my reason
My strength in this beautiful place
That's where I find God"

The Afters - You

Today I went out and got turned down by everyone I talked to on the Oval. Next I got turned down by a guy on the South Oval. After that I got turned by another guy sitting at the top of Mirror Lake.

At this point I'm thinking that I will have to go out after the Sunday night church service I was visiting which could make for a loooong night. I'm around the spot of where I took the picture above when I see Ethan heading up to church and I crossed the street to meet up with him. We talked for like two seconds when I see a guy walking on the other side of the street and I jet off for one last chance before church!

We get to talking and he's down with the survey so we go at it. He's got different answers than I usually get and he's really sort of cheerful about all of them so I'm having one of those headscratcher moments because it doesn't seem like he fits into any personality type that I have already met.

I find out he loves Jesus but thinks that all roads lead to God. The conversation went on for a little while longer and we're at the edge of campus when I ask him if he wants to meet up some place later and talk because there were just too many things he had going on to cover right then and there.

He tells me that he's moving back to Portland in 4 days but would love to meet up.
I pray that we can get down to something solid and that this conversation-to-be would do some eternal good.

Lesson learned

Don't ever doubt that God will provide you with a most awesome divine appointment and don't be too scared to interrupt a phone call or a chat with a person to follow the Holy Spirits guiding.

Thanks for the eyes and ears kids.

God bless :-)

Day 13: Let's push things forward -> -> -> -> ->

Looking back on today I wonder what really happened.

I woke up late because of last night and read random Israeli history for hours because I'm a geek. Afterwards I got all of my gear together inhaled a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and went off to work.

At work I pondered about how to share Jesus but failed to just do it. I got caught up and really just wasn't able to get myself focused and pray for a real solution.

Once I left I headed for my bike and glided across the street to the Oval where I ran into 3 people and shared Jesus with them.

The first man had all of these right answers but as we parted ways I just didn't have a peace about it. The second person I talked to was a lady who was Muslim. She wasn't a practicing one and wasn't willing to believe that God could have a son. The last person was this guy who was just sitting out there on a bench reading the Fountainhead. He admitted that he thought about Jesus but after some talking he just waved me off and told me he wanted to read his book.

A second later I ran into my roommate heading across the Oval. I biked along side him for a little bit and cut back across the Oval passing the last guy I talked to. A few minutes have passed and he's got the book sort of closed. He's hunching over and his hands look like a guy who is praying. I pray he meets God.

Lesson Learned

In the last two days it has become clearer to me that there is more to outreach than a new method. I'm talking about a more personal experience I guess. Forgive me for stating the obvious but our lives should be a constant outreach to this world we are in. Until our lives reflect the life that Jesus lived I don't believe we will really experience the full joy that God tells us is availble to us.

A friend once posed a question that I ran into today.

How much will it hurt Jesus to live eternity without the lost?

Praise Jesus.

Day 12: THE BEST OUTREACH SINCE THE START!!!

This walk almost never happened.

I have to say that I'm more JOYFUL than I have EVER been since the start of this outreach deal.

Tonight Adam, CJ, and me went out with the intention of going to share with people out on High Street on the stretch in front of Ohio State. We had no clue about the things that were about to take place.

There are so many little things that lead up to this night that it freaks me out in the best way but I figure I can simply say that we prayed and went out.

Just minutes after this picture was taken on Lane heading towards High Street we had one of the best talks of our lives!!!

I can't see them in this shot but these two guys come out of nowhere as we're chatting it up and as they get closer this overpowering feeling hits me and I know we have to talk to them.

With one question it all began. "Do you guys mind if we ask you a question?"
"What do you think of when you hear the name Jesus?"

The talk I was so scared of a second ago takes off!!!
At first I felt as if they were just going to answer and go but they didn't.

One of the guys believed in Jesus and the other had been HUGE into youth group in junior high but afterwards just stopped.

The talk went on and every time we went out into other issues we kept bringing it back to Jesus because once you have Jesus lifetimes worth of issues can get solved ya know :-)

The talk builds, builds, and BUILDS when all of a sudden I'm thinking "This is it!" The one guy who didn't believe said that if Jesus appeared before him he would serve him for his whole life and right as I was about to come out with the prayer challenge/offer someone bumps into us!!!

Aaron is his name and he asks what we're talking about so we tell him were talking about Jesus. He gives his side of things for Jesus and than tells us that God told him that he was supposed to come over and talk to TWO guys. Remember it's five of us out there. Aaron tells us he was walking outside and saw us as he was trying to get better cell phone reception to talk to his brother when he felt God tell him to talk to the two other guys. He didn't know what was up with the rest of us and it was from a distance so all he knew was that he had to talk to those two guys. I'm soooooooo STUNNED by now and I cannot help but just bust out in this crazy SMILE!!!

We keep talking and the guy who doesn't believe in Jesus keeps asking questions which was really sweetness!!!

We ended up talking for over an hour just a few lightposts up from were we were in that picture up there. This guy said he wants to believe and would love to be a Christian but he just can't believe right now. Aaron and the rest of us told him that we would seriously be praying for him and he was really sincerely thankful.

Aaron had to go home and somewhere during the talk I remembered where I had seen him. The guy who didn't believe asked Aaron before he left if it was a setup that he showed up like he did and Aaron told him that it wasn't. Shoot, "Look at my face" is what I'm thinking!

I was SHOCKED!!!

The rest of us parted ways soon after and walked away praising God and thanking Him for the best life EVER!!!

Lessons learned

GO OUT!!! It's the best time you will ever have!!! Wether you're going alone or with friends don't let ANYTHING get in the way of going out.

Listen to the Holy Spirit because God is working all the time and wants to work through YOU TOO!!!

Beware of sins you don't think are such a big deal and handle them because even a tiny little sin in your own mind is still a sin and it will hinder your walk in ways you can't imagine. That one I got from an episode I had tonight with a TINY little bit of metal smaller and thinner than a hair which I had stuck in one of my toes. It didn't look bad at all but it started to really hurt and I HAD to get it out. Than it hit me. SIN. It's a big deal and we cannot allow it in our lives.

PRAISE JESUS!!!

Remember to please pray for all of these people we have talked to like the two guys tonight and everyone else. It matters.

Once again I have to say GO!
It will be the most important thing you ever do with your life.

God bless kids and you are loved :-)

Day 11: No pic but mad sweetness :-)

CJ and I went out to share Jesus today and found ourselves in a race against time before Chi Alpha started.

I didn't even think about the pic which really is more for the readers benefit than my own because even though it doesn't take too long to put it up it's still sort of a hassle.

FORGIVE ME!!!

:-)

We headed out with a little under two hours before XA and got turned down by a bunch of people in a hurry. Sometimes I get this crazy fear that I won't get to talk to anyone on a certain day. It hasn't happened yet and I'm starting to believe that there is really no reason a day like that should ever happen as tough as it seems sometimes.

The Oval is the final spot where we find our new friend. She was sitting on a bench at a picnic table and I usually don't mess with people if I think there studying hard but today it was like we just couldn't pass it up. It ended up being one of the best conversations since this whole thing started up. The survey went GREAT and it was like all of these great topics of conversation kept popping into my head PRAISE JESUS!!!

Once it was finished CJ and I had talked to her for like 30ish minutes and we got to give her the Gospel along with all of this crazy cool Da Vinci Code info that she was really into.

She ended up giving us her contact info and said that she may want to check out Chi Alpha.

Aaa booya!!!

Before we jetted I totally felt like I should repeat one last bit of Word and told her a verse.

Jesus said:

John 14:6
". . . I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Me:

"It's a thinker when trying to tackle that whole hot or cold verse."

Fin.

Lesson learned

Listen to the Holy Spirit because by obeying the super obvious and the not so obvious stuff you are letting God work through you. In the end, He's the only one that's going get people to see the Truth anyways.

Day 10: I hope I didn't smell. Ha :-)

WE'RE IN DOUBLE-DIGITS KIDS!!!All I can do is wonder what was going on today. I asked person after person and oh wait . . . yup, even one more person if they wanted to take a quick survey and NOTHING! It seemed like no one was into doing one on double digit-day.

After a little while I ran out of people who were walking around and started asking the kids who were laying out on the oval to see if they were interested. After a few more times of being turned down I ran into a most pleasent student who just transferred to Ohio State this summer.

She was 99% sure she was going to Heaven and so we had a talk similar to the ones that I had yesterday except for one difference . . . SHE WANTS TO CHECK OUT CHI ALPHA!!!

Booya and a bag of chips is all I can say :-)

My hope is that she gets plugged in and makes some cool new friends who she can chill, hang, and grow with for the remainder of her college life at Ohio State. Who knows, maybe she'll make a friend for life-life.

Call me crazy but I'm geeked and I hope you guys are too.

Feel free to pray for any and all of these people while you're reading.

It's bonus!!!

Jesus bless and goodnight kids :-)

Lessons learned

There are still ALOT of people who don't know Jesus.

You can still get nervous and sometimes really nervous before going out to share Jesus even if you have gone out non-stop into double-digit days :-)

GET EXCITED AND GO ANYWAYS :-)

Outreach Update

One of the internationals who I got to talk with last week emailed me today and let me know that he was going to attend a Chinese Church every weekend instead of checking out Chi Alpha.

I'm cool with that!

PRAISE JESUS!!!

Day 9: What a difference a day makes

Today turned out to be a day of encouragement it seems.

The first person I ran into was from South Korea and though he had always believed in Jesus he wasn't sure if he was going to Heaven. We had a short talk, I left, and feel glad that someone could tell him more about the most awesome promise we have in Christ :-)

Next up was this guy who works for OSU and was standing just feet away from the sign above that is outside of the McPherson Chemical Laboratory. He loved Jesus and was sure that he was going to heaven. When I asked him what made him so sure he sort of had to think a little and started down that you have to be a good person route. After a small chat and putting the right emphasis on Jesus we parted ways.

By now I'm sort of scratching my head and going, "what's up?"

Did I wait too long to go out and try to talk to people?

Where are all the people who don't believe in Jesus?

I'm still sort of doing the head scratching thing not sure about what's going on when (while walking home to meet up with the guys) I had one last conversation. My new friend this time turned out to be from Poland and he also believed in Jesus and that He is our Savior! I wasn't sure at first because he was just plain shocked and wondered why I would bring up Jesus out of the blue. When I asked him if he knew wether or not he was going to Heaven he was unsure.
We walked to his dorm and stood outside for a little bit until things were more clear to him :-)

Lessons of the day

There are still plenty of people who are not saved so keep going out and find some.

You don't have to get nervous when someone looks at you crazy after bringing up Jesus.

It's important to encourage each other in this most cool body of Christ.

Read your Bible and know how and why you are saved.

Remember God has a purpose for you so be sure you know what it is.

God bless kids and goodnight :-)

Day Eight: Looking through the grey

Today after work I went through campus . . .
. . . and it was tough.

Short and sweet was my original goal so I will try to keep these post just that, short and sweet.

I talked to two internationals right after work. Both of them were from Korea and one of them had parents that were saved.

I chatted with the first guy for about 30 minutes and I think the chat with the next guy went a little longer.

The first guy kept trying to tell me that Jesus was a myth and found it hard to get away from that. I told him I was interested in reading his sources but he didn't have the time. Finally I told Him that Jesus is real and can prove Himself. It ended with a friendly goodbye. He wanted no prayer.

The second guy was the one with the Christian parents and a Christian friend who is a Physics major like himself. His chum talks to him about Jesus is what I was told and has also made it clear that prayer would be coming his way. My new pal was cool with me praying for him but not while he was around.

Lastly, I spoke with a gentleman who after one question was done and wanted no more talking between myself and him. I prayed

Lesson learned

Some days don't feel as positive as others but God is working ALL THE TIME and we know this.

PRAISE JESUS!!!

God bless kids :-)

Day 7: No Pictures Can Explain . . .

Today was a full day to say the least.

The sermon at church was about as impacting as one can get and the prayer we had was seriously something else. Afterwards the day was pretty much spent celebrating a friends birthday with the majority of Chi Alpha present.

We had lunch, saw a movie, and later went to dinner when for the first time during the whole day there was a break. I had been looking our for chance to share the Gospel but had come up short up until this moment. At around six o'clock we all went to do our own thing until prayer at nine so I came back home and tryed to get some things done before I headed out.

I prayed that God would give me a divine appointment and let me tell you, He delivered!

I started walking across campus heading towards Robs where we go to pray when all of a sudden I see this guy while crossing the street and know I have to catch up to him.

It turns out that my new friend is a krishna monk.

We start going through the survey and strike up a conversation along the way. A fourth of the way through campus I asked him how he became a monk and of course Jesus came up afterwards.

The talk went on for quite a while and we touched on many many things when we finally decided that it was time for us to stop. He told me that he never talks to missionaries because it's useless. This time it was different.

PRAISE JESUS!!!

Up until the very end he told me that the chances were slim that he would believe that Jesus was the only way because of all of the spiritual experiences he has had. I challenged him to give Jesus a chance. I told him that Jesus want's to give him a relationship with Himself and with God.

He told me that I could pray for him and I did praying that the Holy Spirit would show up in his life and that Jesus would make Himself known. Afterwards he wiped his eyes. I don't know all and everything that was going on in my new friends head but I know that Jesus is real.
Jesus will make Himself known because He loves this guy. In just a short time I noticed how much I cared for him. How much more does God love him?

Lesson of the day

Give God all the glory always and take advantage of all of the things that He gives you to accomplish a task. There are people out there with problems that no one but God can solve.

Jesus bless kids and goodnight :-)

Day Six: A Day Off??? I don't think so!!!

Today some friends and I went to Kings Island for a day of fun in the sun!!!




I realize that what I just said sounds about as lame as a statement can get but oh well and pasha to all that. It just plain felt right :-)

I knew it was going to be interesting doing this outreach thang while chilling at a theme park but I don't think I quite expected things to work out the way they did . . . again.

The day started out sort of slow and I was looking for a good time to bust out with some Jesus talk when I got a call from my favorite frenchman from Murr-State. Mister Josh talked to me about . . . alot of things really, lol! Plenty of us know and love Josh so I think what I just wrote makes a lot of sense :-)

Either way, I can't pinpoint one thing he told me all I can say is that he got me all pumped up!!!

The next thing you know I was standing at the end of the line on "The Beast" and I started talking to these two High School kids. They had heard about Jesus and one of them had visited a youth group once but they hadn't exactly embraced the life ya know?

We got to talking some more and I shared some about my life before and after Jesus. Soon thereafter they had to jump in the train and fly away but I felt like something great had just happened! I don't know if they thought I was crazy, nuts, or all of the above but what I do know is that there is a strong possibility that one of those kids is going to be thinking about Jesus later on and maybe step into a life they never knew existed.

After that Jesus came up plenty more and it seemed that everyone was on board which was great! I talked with a Grandma, a counter girl , and a kid who was riding with my friend Laura all of whom knew Jesus. It was a nice feeling still, it's clear there were others who could have been chatted up. That sort of just leaves me all mixed up.


Do I care what people think about me?

Sure.

In the end though, what I care more about is one of those High School kids waking up one day and thanking JESUS for being alive and giving them what they had always wanted but never could find anywhere else.

I hope you enjoyed the trip guys and with that I will leave you with a God bless and fare thee well :-)


Lesson of the day

There are no days off.
You don't want one.