pray big, pray specifically, pray persistenly
and ask others to join.
i'm asking you to join me in prayer for a ministry, and to help me get the word out.
by now most of you know that i am the ESL coordinator at a charter school here in Austin. it has been a wonderful opportunity to do exactly what i've always wanted to do. the struggle, however, has been that the world of adult education doesn't have much money. and so i have been left with a lack of teachers to teach all of the classes i need to provide.
many of you also know that i have long wanted to start an ESL ministry through a church. yet the churches i have been a part of since coming back to Texas do not have the building space for such a ministry.
so here i am, coordinating an ESL program at a charter school and lacking teachers. then it came to me. why does a church need space if i've already got it? and why not partner with those in a community who are already provide ESL classes to supplement what they've already got going.
so this is what i'm thinking. we need to build partnerships. partnerships between schools, churches, and communities. we need to get volunteers. volunteers who are skilled and committed. and we need to pray. using ESL as a covert mission to convert people to Christianity is not the goal. our goal is to provide for a need and to serve people. and for those of us who are Christians - we do that with the love and power of Christ.
we need to pray big, pray specifically and pray persistently. and we need to get the word out. so if you or anyone you know can meet any of the following needs, please let me know.
- partnerships between schools, churches, and communities
- skilled, committed volunteer teachers
- teaching resources
i'm going back
Dear friends and family,
As many of you know, I have been attending the Austin Stone Community Church off and on since returning to Austin from the Dominican Republic in August. Within the past few months I have decided to make ASCC my home church. The Stone is very involved in the work of MAKARiOS in the Dominican Republic, and I had the opportunity to meet many "Stoners" who came on trips during my year there. Even before returning to Austin I felt a pull to become a part of the Stone and I am excited about what God has in store for this transition in my life.
Part of this change is due to the opportunity to be more involved in ministry at the Stone. Since the Stone is so involved with MAKARiOS, and because of my perspective of having lived in the DR and worked with MAKARiOS as a teacher for a year, the Lord has opened up doors for me to help out with future groups who take trips to the DR.
I will be working with Ryan King, Missions Associate at ASCC, and others, to see what all is involved in preparing and leading a team to the Dominican Republic. As we go through this process we will determine where I best fit in helping out with these trips. The first trip I plan to go on is this summer, June 6-14.
As I go into this new place of ministry I would like to ask you for two things. First, your prayers are vital to the success of the ministry and my involvement in it. Although I lived in the DR for a year, I will be taking these trips from a very different perspective and need the Lords wisdom to know exactly how He would have me serve. Second, for those who are able, I would like for you to consider partnering with me financially. The approximate cost for a 9 day trip to the Dominican Republic with MAKARiOS is $1400. This includes plane ticket, international health insurance, food, lodging and transportation while in the country. All "extra" money that is not used for these things will go back into the MAKARiOS general fund to help out with their expenses. All other personal expenses I will cover myself. Anything over this amount that is given to me will either be distributed to others who are lacking in financial support, or it will go toward future trips that I will be helping out with.
I thank you all again for your prayers and financial support during my year in the DR and since returning to Austin. You have been a blessing in my life. Please update me on yours!
microsoft word is possessed by satan himself
or at least i thought so for about 3 hours tonight.
i finally got to the point of wanting to print out my thesis in order to have a hard copy for marking up before sending in the first full draft to my adviser. yet when the pages started coming out of the printer, i quickly noticed that the font was
way too small and left about 4 inches of blank space at the bottom of each page.
hmm...this is NOT right.
as i began to mess around with the margins it appeared that in order to have the text take up the full piece of paper, my thesis would in fact be MUCH shorter than i had anticipated. not good for someone who's already pretty to the point and therefore barely passed the minimum page length. yet no matter what i did, other than opening a new document and retyping the WHOLE thing, the pages would not print correctly.
but because i did not want to retype the whole thing, i kept messing around with the settings. i soon realized that my problem lay in the fact that the page went beyond the margins. yet i still could not change it. and then i saw it. bright and red and big - and beyond the margins. oh yes, it was my dear advisers comments, inserted in the text, thanks to technology. a simple deletion of these comments and...wahlah...perfect printing.
all 81 pages of it.
Wholly Yours
WHOLLY YOURS
DAVID CROWDER BAND
I am full of earth
You are heaven’s worth
I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity
You are everything that is bright and clean
The antonym of me
You are divinity
But a certain sign of grace is this
From a broken earth flowers come up
Pushing through the dirt
You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries “Holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
I wanna be holy like You are
You are everything that is bright and clean
And You’re covering me with Your majesty
And the truest sign of grace was this
From wounded hands redemption fell down
Liberating man
You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries “Holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
I want to be holy like You are
But the harder I try the more clearly can I feel
The depth of our fall and the weight of it all
And so this might could be the most impossible thing
Your grandness in me making me clean
Glory, hallelujah
Glory, glory, hallelujah
You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries “Holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
I want to be holy, holy God
So here I am, all of me
Finally everything
Wholly, wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly, wholly Yours
I am wholly Yours
I am full of earth and dirt and You
a new commitment
as many of you know, i began visiting the Austin Stone Community Church after i returned from the DR back in August. melody had become a partner, and so marissa had also begun to attend. not only that, but i had met probably close to 100 people from this church during my time there. i have never been less than amazed by the people who are a part of this church.
saturday morning, marissa and i went to a connection class. last night we went to a connect group. two more connect groups and i become a partner. i'm not much of a church hopper. i don't see the point in it really. but the Lord has been pulling me to this church for longer than i even know. there are a lot of connections i have there that i don't need to go into here. i'll just leave it with saying that it's good to know the roots of a church, to know that the foundation is solid, and that the leadership wants nothing less and nothing more than to glorify God in its very being.
but the new commitment i have made isn't to the Austin Stone Community Church, for that one day will fade away like everything else in this world. but it is a commitment to daily live the life God made me live. now this isn't some new thing for me. but it is a
daily thing. i think we too often forget that daily part. as i've become a part of ASCC, it hasn't been as easy to forget. the passion that the Lord has put within the people of this church is contagious. it's a passion for Truth, a passion for the Word of God, a passion for worship, a passion for discipleship - a passion for the supremacy of the Name and purpose of Jesus Christ.
my hope and prayer is that this passion would continue to be contagious to all believers in the city of Austin and that we would be
united for His glory. for it is only the work of the Lord that can change a city, not individual believers working on their own.
reality check
i used to be really stressed out. all the time. or at least almost all the time. i still get stressed, but not as badly as i used to. but it's still a battle to surrender my controlling tendencies to the Lord and trust in his sovereignty - every day.
the past few days i've had more than usual interaction with a particular co-worker. she started working here just before Christmas, so she's still learning how to do her job. and she's super stressed. so much so i think she might give herself a heart attack - or at least high blood pressure. one little thing doesn't go the way she thinks it should and her face gets all contorted, her voice rises, she starts asking "what can i do?!"
and as i've interacted with her on these issues the past several days, i've come to realize several things.
1) the Lord has done a lot of work on me so that i'm not like that any more. for once, i was the one advising her to take a deep breath.
2) it's not worth it.
i do believe with all of my heart that, for those of us who trust in the Lord, He has given us a job in which He intends for us to glorify Him, and therefore we should strive to do the best we can in that place. but at the end of the day, it's just not worth it to worry about it. so something didn't get finished. a deadline was missed. phone calls weren't returned. documents are missing. is it the end of the world? no. did you do you best? yes (let's hope so). then give it up to the Lord and rest peacefully. the only thing
really worth fighting for is the glory of our Lord. everything else is just details.
love your neighbor
check out
this post from Barrett.
if i were allowed to rant in my thesis, i would add this.
