Houston: Another Week Down, Another Drop-Kick to Satan

Greetings once again from hot and humid Houston, Texas!

Sometimes I feel like the apostle Paul when I blog because I have a strong urge to come visit you and I want to encourage you as well! Haha if only. I guess I will do what I can to encourage and update you on what the Lord Jesus Christ is up to in my heart and here in the city.

So lets rewind to a week ago when my group arrived for the week. This past week my group was only here for a two day mission trip, giving me time to rest, relax and have some encounters with the Lord. I was really thankful for a two day group because If you haven't gathered from my subtle complaining tone in some of my posts, this job can be downright exhausting sometimes. But again I must insist that I still enjoy my role this summer with CSM even if I am home-sicky and tired....alot.

So back to my group last week. They were from a lutheran church, a small team of about 5 high schoolers and of course their leader. Usually group sizes are from 10 to 15ish. This group was very relaxed and had very low anxiety and tension contrary to a group of 12 7th graders that I hosted last week. I settled the group in for the partial week and we got to it. I had been praying that God would allow me to remain present with this group as I am anxious about the upcoming semester and all. It is important for me to focus on my duty here while I am still here.

My group and I had some good times at the ministry sites. We got to help teach English to ESL adult students at READ Commission, play with rowdy kids at REACH center, feed the homeless at Waystation, explore Canino's farmers market and of course the Harbor Light Salvation Army Choir concert. Good times!! Ask me for specific stories on some people I met!

It has been a particular focus for me to connect the works that we do with the work of Christ. It can be a temptation when doing service to others to focus on works and miss the whole point of being the hands and feet of Jesus. I was convicted by the Spirit of letting some of my groups get through the whole week without really deeply discussing the relationship between God, us, justice and our neighbors and so forth. At our last debrief on tuesday night I felt like God was telling me to share my testimony with my group. I haven't shared my testimony with a group thus far. I don't really know why. I guess its just long and I haven't felt the Spirit leading me to do it until that tuesday night. So I shared with my group of how I came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior and of how He released me from the bondage of drugs and alcohol among other things and how I now live in freedom for Christ, that Christ now lives in me. After I finished we had some more discussion and we left for the night. It was only after reading the groups evaluations that I realized that Jesus touched a few of them with His story of my redemption. I praised and thanked God and closed the envelope and waved goodbye to another successful week.

Now I'm sure you want to know whats going on behind the scenes, in the recesses of my mind, eh? Well I'll tell you first off that as much as Jesus Christ is real so is the enemy, Satan, real. I've had send Satan some dropkicks lately...

So, confession!...I'm not particularly gifted in the area of boldness/courage. By my flesh nature I am a coward, fearful of man and a people pleaser. This presents a problem in the area of sharing the gospel with people/evangelism. You see I really do desire that the lost people in the world find new life in Jesus Christ, I really do. I cry out day and night for them and for God to allow me to take part in Him winning souls to Himself. Well turns out, God answers prayer! I'll explain in a minute. Don't think that I am a constant people pleaser and always afraid. I have definitely experienced boldness given to me by the Holy Spirit to share my faith with others. Its just that in the in between times the enemy tries to lie to me. The enemy tries to tell me all sorts of stuff to make me shrink back. I tweeted the other day that one of the number one tricks of the devil is that he lures Christians into complacency.. well I felt that temptation this week. It would be so easy to just hide behind myself and to water down the gospel to make it easier to swallow. But then I would be cheating myself of the fullness that Christ wishes to impart to me. It was not long before I remembered this verse and later reminded of it by a dear friend:

"For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline." - 2 Timothy 1:7

It was at this point that I entered spiritual warfare with the enemy of my soul..and it lasted for about 4 days. Lets just say there was lots of praying, seeking, rebuking, worshipping, asking and pleading. I sought the Lord on this and He has given me a new peace and comfort and really is starting to give me excitement and even a little boldness for sharing the gospel with people. I wish I had enough room to tell you more details but just know that the Lord is up to something.. and I couldn't be more excited.

Anyway last night I couldn't sleep very well. I woke up at 2am wide awake so I naturally started thinking about God and His purpose for me and what He is doing in the world and contemplating things to come. So needless to say I'm quite tired and I need to get revved for my next group that arrives at 5pm.

So if you feel led, you can pray for my boldness and for the power of the Holy Spirit to manifest in me as I journey through this narrow path of following my dear Savior Jesus Christ, whom I live and have my being. I can't wait to see you my brothers and sisters in Christ. Only 2 more weeks!!

In Christ,

Tyler

Houston: Dirty South and Finding God in the Children.

It has been almost three weeks since my last blog. Seems so long ago yet this summer is flying by. Sorry I've been a slacker at blogging..life is pretty crazy here in Houston. So rewinding to two weeks ago we had our farewell dinner with the staff. Some of you know that I am the only city host staying the entire summer. Everyone else was hired only for June. It was so hard saying goodbye to my new friends. We had a great night full of amazing sushi and affirmations. The Lord gave me a scripture to encourage each one of them and it was a pretty powerful night. I am gonna miss those people so much. The next morning, Britani and I headed off for Alma, Georgia. We had a whole week with no groups so Britani said I could come chill with her and her crazy cousins since I would have to spend a week alone at the housing. So we embarked on a 16 hour car ride to the dirty south, haha. That week was really fun. Her cousins are really fun and kinda crazy. Some of the activities we did were: having a rave party without drugs and alcohol, spent a day at fernandina beach in Florida, spending the night at migrant housing at a blueberry farm, and of course AMAZING food every meal.

That week I was really desiring more of God. I began pursuing the Lord and pursuing the knowledge of God and grace of Jesus Christ. The Lord has been calling me to remain steadfast in the Word. I'm so thankful that God has been revealing Himself to me this summer through the Word and in prayer and the people I meet.

So that was Georgia. We drove home about a week ago and I settled back in for another week of hosting. They arrived last Sunday. They were a group of middle/high schoolers from an Episcopal church in Austin, TX. I was really thrown a curveball when I asked one 17 yr. old kid if this was his first mission trip and his response was "well, i'm somewhere between an atheist and a buddhist." Whoa. This week is gonna be interesting, I thought. That night I prayed for the Lord to reveal Himself to this kid and for His love to be known to him. Seeds were planted this week in this kid and I'm so glad he came on the mission trip because he got to hear about Jesus. Our anchor site for the week was at a Boys and Girls Club.

I like the boys and girls club alot. I really connected with these two hispanic boys about 7 yrs. old. These two boys were kinda different than the rest of the kids at the club. They weren't noisy, pushy, etc.. but they were kinda quiet and more reserved. They kind of attached to me immediately. One of the boys told me that his mommy was in jail. She is my age I found out. The kid lives with his dad who is also my age. This boy is 7 and he has an 8 yr old brother. It broke my heart but then my heart was encouraged when I asked this kid if he went to church and he replied. "Yes! I like church because we get to pray and it makes me happy and they give us bibles about God." If I was the crying type this would have done me in. I was so encouraged by this cute little kid's faith. The other boy I connected with was also really quiet. He walked around sucking his thumb alot. He was 7. He would sit by me and lay his head on my shoulder or my lap. I don't know if he had a loving father figure in his life or not. These two kids were amazing. On the last day which was yesterday. I wrote each of these kids a letter in which I encouraged them to stay positive and I also basically wrote the gospel in the letter to encourage them that they are greatly loved by God. Right before they got picked up I gave them the letters and told them to read the letters when they got home. I really hated saying goodbye to these kids with the very real possibility of not seeing them ever again...

So much happened this week that if I were to write all that God has been doing in my life it would take forever to read. When I get back to wichita I would love to sit down with anyone and talk about the summer in more detail. for now I will leave you with a couple of prayer requests.. Thank you each for praying for me and for reading about my adventure in Houston. I miss you all greatly...

1. Pray for me to continue to remain steadfast in the Word. Pray that I would hear from the Lord..

2. Pray for me to stay present with the last three groups that I will host this summer. Being homesick is making me feel less present here in Houston.

That is it for now. I love you all and blessings on each of you.

In Christ,

Tyler