Music.

Current Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Michaela and Paul's house (which is freakin' sweet)to be exact)

I'm a little bored right now, but I'll be heading to bed shortly. I have to get up for a little Mars Hill action in the morning and I could not be more thrilled. It is in fact much of the reason I am in GR this weekend.

Anyway, I promise to update tomorrow, but for now I've been enjoying all kinds of new music, and if you know me even a little bit you'll know I love music very, very much.

If you would like to listen to some excellent music that is phenomenal I would strongly suggest this...










enjoy God's gift to the earth: music.

love.

help.

26,000,000 in Africa live with AIDS.

Another 3,000,000 will be infected this year.

6500 Africans will die of AIDS today.

1 Billion very important people lack access to clean water.

25,000 people lose their lives to water-related illnesses every single day.

"The two things Africa needs most are clean blood and clean water."
-Dan Halsetine

Maybe it is because Africa has become a wide spread topic of discussion these days. Or, maybe it is because I am becoming more and more aware of the need. Maybe it is just that God has placed something on my heart that I was ignorant to for most of my life. In any respect, I have been continued to be blown away by the unsettling facts about a crisis in our world that can be solved, but we have been lacking in our commitment to help those who are in need.

And what exactly would I say to someone who explained to me that clean water was something absolutely foreign? (I just looked around me to see - no joke - 7 empty bottles of purified water.) The truth is I do not think any of us can begin to imagine what it would be like to live life without a basic human right and necessity like water. And if we're really honest with ourselves we do not spend much time to stop and think truly what a gift it is to be in the situation we are in, where water and health is taken for granted. Water is free. You can order it in a restaurant for no charge. You have access to cold, clean water in any public restroom or from any public drinking fountain all over the United States.

What exactly do I say to the millions of orphans who no nothing of life with parents to guide them, to protect them, to care for them, to love them? I would hope - and this is where I am beginning to find myself - that I would have nothing to say to them. Not because I do not care, but because I am not spending my energy to mere lip service. No, I want my efforts to be directed in tangible actions. Americans have a unique opportunity and vast resources to help the world live a life that is pleasing and rid of unneccessary illness and death. Sub-Saharan Africa has just over 10% of the world’s population, but is home to more than 60% of all people living with HIV. (I am sitting in my nice, cozy, and comfortable apartment and I feel horrible that even with facts I still can not imagine the great pain of loss that the people there are facing.)

I know it has been extremely cliche to jump on the African Aide bandwagon, but I am not sure that a lot of people are doing anything else besides talk about the problem at hand. Americans love to talk. They are talking about the atrocities in Africa, but most - even the ones talking - are not doing much to be a living example of the words that they speak. People living with HIV/AIDS are dependant on clean water to survive. Millions of them in African lack access to that life saving water. Did you know that it costs just one dollar to provide one year of clean water for an African? That's only the beginning. One dollar. That's all it takes. I can make a difference, you can make a difference, we can make a difference in the lives of so many people who are just as important as we are and just as deserving of a healthy life.

So I would be a hypocrite of everything I have just said to not do what I can to be a blessing. It costs as little as 10 dollars to provide one person with a lifetime supply of clean water. The 1000 Wells Project is building 1000 wells in 1000 African communities. Many people are already contributing the resources that God's given to them. And since I have been blessed, I certainly want to be a blessing.

I am going to completely just go on a limb, but I would seriously love to see at least one person be touched enough that they would take this challenge up with me. The challenge that 1000 wells is giving is to, for two weeks, make water the only beverage that you drink. With the money that would have been spent on other beverages their desire is that it would be donated to this project.

I just can not stand to continually hear of what has been happening to God's creation for years and continue to hide behind my comfortable American existance. And if I can not be there - yet! - to physically help, then I will give what I can at this moment, my resources.

"Our knowledge now demands our action."
- Matt Odemark

Should you care to dig deeper...

1000 wells project

blood:water mission

lifewater international

africare


Please partner with me and keep me in your prayers as I make a small sacrfice to greatly benefit one of God's lovely children.

love.

leaving a mark

Every Tuesday at 4 Troy, Mike, and I meet to recap last week's ignite (our student ministry) and begin to prepare for the next week. This week, as like most, we were all over the map in our discussion. I really do value the time I share with these two guys and it is an absolute joy to serve along side the two of them. We began to talk about the impact that Mike is starting to see us have in the lives of the students. This is always good for me to hear because I am a little too insecure when it comes to feeling like I am indeed doing what is right.

As I was sitting there trying to overcome my doubt that my life is an example of what I'm striving for, I just thought about the impact that has been placed on my life. I am immediately floored when I think that I can be that in a student's life now. There is one person that pops into my head when I think about influence, Bryan Dyer. I know I've beat this into the ground with my gratitude for the impact he's had on my life, but it all seemed different this time.

Oh, wow. So you have a man crush.

No, I.. ok yes, but it is different because when I think of the profound change that Bryan made in my life I do not think of it as something that was in my past. He lives in Colorado, half way across the nation and yet, his character is still shaping our youth. Not directly. They do not have Bryan as a physical presence, but they do have the Bryan that comes through me. When I saw the passion that Bryan had to be a man after God's own heart I wanted (and still want) to be just like that. His life is still making a difference even in his absence.

I don't get it? So you want to be a legend. Isn't that a little prideful?

You are missing the point. I don't care so much that my name is remembered, but I hold great significance to the weight that my words and actions can carry into the students at this very moment. Just as Bryan had no idea the lives that would be touched by his own, I have no idea the example that I could potentially be setting that could be carried over into the way others mentor. It all seems like a lot of pressure, but I am having so much fun right now loving students and learning to love God even more.

I am blessed to have had mentors like Bryan.
I have been blessed and now I want to be a blessing.

love.

fresh.

Greetings.

I've been blogging for about two years now. Mostly about nonsense.

I think I wanted to escape xanga and retreat to blogger for a number of reasons:



1. blogger = google = automatically phenomenal.
2. I want to write something meaningful. (not that what I say will
actually be meaningful, but that will be it's intent.)
3. My friends from Saginaw and Grand Rapids are writing here.
4. ... I got nothing else I guess.

I should be studying right now, but I want to express my sheer excitement in beginning this new site.

Please enjoy.

love.