Let's catch up

Thursday –

Devotion. Planning for Nehemiah’s workshop. Lunch. Some more planning. Prep for yard sale on Saturday. Bible study at a home in the West End for Third Presbyterian Church (a partner with CHAT and East End Fellowship).  

I drove the CHAT bus with all, but a few interns in the bus, about 30 minutes away from Church Hill. We arrived at a beautiful home and neighborhood that is the exact opposite of Church Hill, in terms of socioeconomic standards. Our hosts made us dinner and we sat down to listen to a pretty wise man. Nehemiah! Percy led this bible study and spoke on a book in the bible that I have rarely read. Percy’s goal was to break down Chapter 1 in Nehemiah and then challenge the group to explore the rest of the book alone within the context he laid before us.

I took a few quick, bullet point notes:

·      Nehemiah is FOCUSED! (He hears the Rocky theme song)

·      He was willing to say that I am broken and turn that into a focus on the Lord, the only One to truly heal

·      His goal was not to influence millions, but one man, “the king of Susa”

o   My goal should be to influence anyone God places before me and not have these lofty dreams of saving the world (that is His job!)

Incredible story! Nehemiah chose to rebuild a city because it was the Lord’s calling in his life. FOCUS and DETERMINATION are the main ingredients in Nehemiah’s life.

As we drove back into Church Hill, we soon noticed that there was a large power outage throughout all of Church Hill. Crazy seen. Most people hung outside of the lighthouse and wait for it to turn back on. A couple of the interns and I went to Wal-Mart and grabbed a few items for the next few days and as we got back, we noticed the power was back on. Watched the end to the NBA Final’s Game 5. Bed.

Friday –

Field day with the kids at Chimborazo Elementary school. Shower. Lunch at the house. Prep for the yard sale. Shower. Buffalo Wild Wings with the interns. Camp out in Church Hill.

Ok… so… Friday was pretty busy. It included several showers. Started the day off with the kids at Chimbo. A lot of the CHAT students go to this elementary school and some interns wanted to get connected with the school. Because it was one of the last days of classes, students were able to play games outside (baseball, kickball, etc.) I was the pitcher for the baseball game and who knew inner-city kids were that good at baseball??? They took me yard a couple times!!! One picture I will remember is when the DJ put on “Teach me how to Dougie” or “You’re a jerk” and watching all 500 kids do the same dance moves. HILARIOUS!

Prep for the yard sale was difficult to say the least. Tons of furniture and driving to pick up donations. We held it in an empty lot in the middle of Church Hill. Pulled a tarp over all the items and took another shower. BWW! Great time with the interns, just laughing and getting to know each other on a different kind of level. Did I say laughing??? I mean there was a lot of this!!! All the interns are extremely close and I am shocked to see how many people can get along and challenge each other at the same time.

The last part of the night, concluded, with a massive tent with 5 guys sleeping in the middle of Church Hill. Took us an hour to put this tent together, while listening to country music from my iPhone. Again, 5 guys that had no clue how to put this tent together, finally did, after a lot of laughing. Laughing to jokes like, “did you hear about the fire at the circus? It was intense.” Get it (In – tent’s) Not so funny I guess, unless you are beat tired, slightly delirious and its 1 o’clock in the morning. Finally fell asleep around 2.

Saturday –

Woke up with an incredible headache at 6:30am. Ate some breakfast and got right to work. Luckily, the Lord took that headache away with some magic from a little guy named “ibuprofen.” Wow! What a day… using my Thrift Store knowledge to price different items. Also using the sales knowledge I got from Johnny, my Dad and my Grandfather. Driving all over town to deliver items. I cannot remember I a time in my life when I worked harder. What is strange is that is not bragging, but actually being proud of myself for once pushing myself and working unto to the Lord. The CHAT yard sale was a success. Met lots of new faces around town and sold over a couple thousand dollars worth of stuff. One lesson that I learned during this yard sale is that “when everyone works (hard) for the glory of the Lord, then it becomes a fun and exciting task and people feed off of that energy.” I truly believe that this is the way God intended.

I finally had an hour to take a shower (which was much needed), call Mom and Dad and rest for 5 minutes. Was back at the lighthouse in no time and was off on the CHAT bus, with the interns, for a cookout. Even though it rained, we had some delicious BBQ from Buzz and Ned’s at the Cox’s house. Time to fellowship and relax after a hard days work. It’s great to sit back and know you have put all your effort out there and at the end of the day, you can share it with some amazing people.

Went to Sweet Frog’s (an ice cream place in the trendy part of town) and the bill was on CHAT, which everyone always loves. Love the bus time with the Chatterboxes (aka the interns).

Got home and straight to bed.

Sunday –

REST. REST. REST!!!! I am sitting here now, eating lunch reflecting on the past couple of days and it’s a beautiful picture to see. Great people, serving the Lord and reaching out to people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities and races. Maybe it’s a picture of Heaven??? Lol.

Later today is my time with my discipler and then church. Very excited about both. Done talking!

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

      Philippians 3:7-11

Peace and Love

PS. Got my first check. Thanks for all the people who donated!