Semester Update!

Sorry i have not updated this in a while so for that I thought that I would do something a little different.  Im going to do a video blog for y'all to see and hear about what I'm learning, how this semester has been, and just hear about the Lord in general.  Also when i talk about my D-group i would like to say that the one that i called out that is not so smart is actually nobody in particular haha... here is the link and i am sorry for the lag on the video.    

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxWnxtYvYrA

Here is my poem's lyrics from the video too...

No Restraint:::

Tied down, hand cuffed, locked up

All forms of restraint

But none of these can keep me down.

No…Sin holds that crown.

For when it hits the ground…

Running

Not slowing

Controlling, unrolling, never seizing.

Like the energizer bunny

But Without the commercial ending. 

All the while sending… these feelings

Of contentment and approval.

Saying it’s ok everyone does it,

And you hide it, hoping for its eventual… removal.

But you’re writing with pen,

There’s No eraser.

Sure you can scratch it out but its…

Only just covered but not deleted.

But I know of someone who is Seated,

On a throne above all else, who knew no sin, he is the help that is needed.

While he knew no sin, for us he became sin,

Brothers and sisters this cannot be forgotten,

He is the white out needed or should I say Crimson….

So carry your cross,

No not the one around your neck,

But the one that He Died and bled….. from.

Not mistaking his death, for anything less, Than the breath…. Breathed into us

And remember that same breath breathed into us, was the same breathe given up for us.

Yes… That is our pens eraser. 

So theres no complaint, and no restraint

When matched up with the King of Saints.

So stop your self righteous acts for they save none,

Look to the holy one,

Who said it is done,

We have won!

Sin can have its crown, and you can tie me down, but your crown is only ground….

Beneath the feet… of Jesus..

I hope you guys enjoy it and please like i said. Keep me accountable on this thing.

Leadership Project 2011 update 2

I just want to praise God right off the bat.  He is so good, he is the Great I AM, He is Jehovah' Rophe, Jehovah' M' Kaddesh, Jehovah' Nissi, He is the beginning and the End, He is the everlasting Father, and He is the all consuming fire.  I just want to say first that God is pressing in harder and harder here in Myrtle beach.  I am feeling his overwhelming Grace day after day.  I have been learning so much about the character of God and how truly sovereign and Holy He is.  I will get back to this in a little bit but right now i want to hit on some cool things that im learning out of John and also Ephesians....
In John 7,8, and 9 i have been completely hit with a Grace bomb, as well as learning about God's sovereignty, and Jesus fulfillment.  Some cool things that have paralleled with the Taste and See i talked about last week is out of John 7:37-38 when Jesus says "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."  We are all thirsty and will continue to search for something to satisfy us until somehow we receive a water that leaves us fulfilled.  And again if you go back to last week I talked about John 4 and the Samaritan Woman at the well continuously going back to a well that is going to continue to make her thirsty again , but Jesus has this living water that wells up a spring inside of us that will never make us thirst again.  So instead of being thirsty and searching for more to drink, in John 7, those who have received this living water will now be having living water pouring out of us.  I hope yall are following me on this.  The cool thing about what Jesus said was that He said it on the Last day of the Feast of Tabernacles which is a Jewish holiday.  and if you can put yourself in that time period you can imagine some of the Jews reactions to this.  obviously they were upset because some guy came into this feast saying He is the one that is the Son of Man and has eternal living water to offer people.  Where you see God's grace and sovereignty in this is at the end of John 7, in verse 44... "Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him."  If God's hand wasn't orchestrating this event then they would have killed/ arrested Jesus.  God's will is always going to be done! He is so good and we all play a part in that will, its crazy!!!  If i can go back to 7:38 and bring in some cool cross references i want yall to check out Isaiah 12:3 it talks about a well of salvation and that we will, with JOY, draw water from it (Living Water!).  So some cool things I got out of this passage for interpretation and application is this, that you and me cant force a a spring of living water to flow it only comes through a submission to Jesus,  another thing is that in order to allow for a spring to flow inside of you through your submission you must create room for it (i.e. get rid of the idols that consume the space in your heart).  So for me to start making room i really need to start communing a lot more with Jesus (i.e. walking with him, being still and listening, staying in his word, and talking to him).

Okay next is John 8, mostly everyone should know the story of the woman caught in adultery and the Jews are saying that she needs to be stoned according to the Law and Jesus says "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her" and they all eventually leave because they all sin. and Jesus says to the woman "Woman where are they? has no one condemned you?" and she say "no one sir" and then the coolest is that Jesus says this "Then neither do I condemn you, go now and leave your life of sin."  So if you were to just study this surface level you would say "okay so Jesus says I dont condemn you and now you have eternal life so live for me", but if you look deeper what is Jesus really saying to her? he isnt saying "I dont condemn you go and live a life trying not to sin." No! Jesus is saying, "You didnt have the power to live righteously, but now i'm giving you my power."  So Jesus is empowering her to walk in His Spirit.  Its so powerful that God gives us the Holy Spirit to walk righteously in.  If you look at Ephesians 1:13-14 we know when we are a brother or sister to Christ and a son or daughter of God.  in 13 it says "In him (Jesus) you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, and believed in him, WERE SEALED WITH THE PROMISED HOLY SPIRIT"  It is almost as if it is a down payment to our inheritance.  God gives us the Holy Spirit as a seal on our entering into His family and it cant be taken away.  Its amazing and overwhelming.  If you look in Esther 8 you see an example of a seal.  The kings ring was used as a seal for any promise or command back in the Old testament and in esther 8:8 it says "for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's ring CANNOT BE REVOKED."  That is so cool if you look at the king as being God, and the ring that stamps the promise or command as the Holy Spirit.  We have been sealed by the King with the seal of the Holy Spirit.  It's so great to think about it.  We are apart of the family, we have already been won, we are victorious and we need not live in condemnation anylonger.  So like Jesus says "Go now and leave your life of sin"  Live a life of conviction and not condemnation.  Condemnation is what draws us away from God because that means there is a punishment waiting for us and now that we are sealed with the Spirit there is no Wrath to be poured out on us.  So live in conviction, becuase conviction is a Godly sorrow within us, and we understand that we have a greater truth, convinced that there is richer living, that we can come back in freedom and not come back from sin with duty.  This is what the Spirit does for us, it draws us closer.    And remember God's grace in all of this, Romans 5:20-21 says "Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  We now walk in the newness of life through the death and resurrection of Jesus because we were crucified with Christ, died with Christ, and are risen in Christ.  So like the woman who was caught in adultery we are to leave our lives of sin because we do walk in this newness with Christ. Paul in Galatians 2:19-21 is saying that he died to the law so he can live in God. "I have been crucified WITH Christ.  It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who LOVED me and GAVE himself for me.  I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."  Through the belief in Jesus we died to our sins and are now resurrected into his righteousness.

I hope all this made sense because I know that it is a lot.  I have so much I can still share but I will share that at a later date.  So continue to taste and see that God is good, see His sovereignty and grace, know He is made stronger in our weaknesses, and I will update soon.     Love Yall

Leadership Project 2011 update 1

Wow has it been a sick first week at LP.  God is present, His presence is thick, and there are no signs of Him slowing down.  Although it has only been a week I've been inspired, convicted, encouraged, in awe, wanting more, and the biggest thing... ive been tasting and seeing.  The theme of LP '11 is "Taste and See"  which branches from Psalm 34:8 "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."  The cool part about that is this... it doesn't say taste and see IF the LORD is good, or taste and see if it might taste good to you. It's saying, taste and see that the LORD IS good.  If we taste it we will see.  A cool analogy that ive heard is like this, If you have eatin only tootsie rolls your whole life and someone comes up with a snickers bar and says try this. you say no im good with what ive got then he says no just taste it, so you do and BAM you see what you have been missing out on your whole life... I know that is an extremely cheesy illustration but its so true.  We for so long, before knowing the goodness of God, think that we are okay with what we have (the world) and feel as though that may satisfy us, but if you taste something so infinitely greater you look back in disgust at your old possessions.  Its so neat.... Ive really learned a lot about delighting in God and continuing to taste Him and long for more.  He is so satisfying and fulfilling.  Its just like the Samaritan woman at the Well in John 4 filling up her bucket with water that is goin to end up running dry.  she has no idea that there is something far greater out there for her.  Until, Jesus comes and tells her, "everyone who drinks this water (water from the well)  will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  BOMB! its so true "why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare(Isaiah 55:2)."  So let me ask this of you... why are we wasting our time on stuff that ultimately does not satisfy us and are temporary things? when there is something far more infinite and worthy out there.  

Here at myrtle beach there has been so many opportunities to let ppl hear the Gospel. Im going to take a moment to really boast on the cross.  Saturday was our projects "evangelism day" which was where everyone got to go out and share for about 2 hours.  This is my favorite time because sharing my faith is 1) a commandment from God to go out and make disciples and 2) so enjoyable for me to share a life giving treasure with dead souls...  So there are about 140 people on project and everyone goes out and shares on the beach and on the boardwalk and so on.  After that everyone came back to share about there experiences (I missed this because i was sharing with 2 guys for a  lot longer than anticipated).  there were some cool stories of ppl building confidence and also 1 or 2 stories of ppl accepting Jesus and on the average each person shared with about 3 or 4 ppl.  So Cool!  and before i share this next part please see it as completely God, and not Joey Gilkey. This is not a boasting in my flesh because there is nothing there to boast about this is me boasting on the Cross that saves sinners like myself and this is also a learning experience for the prideful (myself)... okay here it goes,  in my 2 hours of sharing (well actually 3 cuz it went long) i was able to share the entire gospel with 7 guys who had not heard the gospel before.  The first guy i talked to was very scatter brained and he ended up having to go meet up with someone, then I got to talk to a group of 3 guys and they were very receptive to the gospel and the cool part was at the beginning when i began talking to them they identified themselves as "believers" and as i began walking them through the Gospel each one of them changed their mind, word for word statement by all three of them "I am not a true believer."  So that was cool the first step to believing is acknowledging that they arent a believer in the first place.  and 2 of them even said they want to accept Jesus but they want to seek that on their own so God was in the process of transforming their heart but had not reached that point of submission.  Praise God! although they didnt accept Christ there were still some very large seeds planted.  Okay and as I went on to the next guy he was also kind of scatter brained and wasnt as receptive as I wished but again praise God for even small seeds.  Then I met up with a highschooler going into the 11th grade sitting on the corner so i began talking to him and through conversation we began spiritual talk.  He again identified himself as a believer and as I walked him through the Gospel in its entirety he said "I am not a true believer". So once again acknowledgement is the first step, then as I kind of relate the Gospel to my life and what it has done he just broke down and was like "I want Jesus" and I said okay what will that look like in your life and  he said this, and praise God for this "It means I have to fully submit myself to His authority"... Im laughing right now at how Good God is at his next comment... "Dude come talk to my friend about Jesus"  and of course I said bring him on.  So I went through the whole thing with him, and again he identified himself as a believer and then saying "i am not a true believer".  Followed by "wow, I want to follow Jesus".  So,  at approximately 5 oclock on Saturday 2 people came to know and want Jesus, they tasted and saw that God is good... You may think the story is over... you are badly mistaken.  As i came back to the motel I was totally stoked about it but only for a little while until my pride got into the way.  I caught myself in the middle of my thoughts thinking that "wow Joey Gilkey has done something for the kingdom, Joey gilkey has brought someone to Christ..." lol so I really had to look in the mirror and ask myself what did i really do? and i came to the same realization that I come to often. I am truly nothing, all i am is the messenger, all i am as 2 cor. 5 says is a fragile jar of clay holding a magnificent treasure inside of it.  So, I brought it before the Lord really shouting out to him to kill my flesh and throw me to the side where i belong.  I got so caught up in glorifying myself that i lost sight of where all the glory is owed to, The One who gave me life and the One who allows me to be a fragile Jar of Clay containing a glorious treasure.  So after a lot of prayer and intimate time with the creator, my flesh was out of the way and I felt compelled to go back out to the boardwalks and continue to be a messenger.  I walked around for a while praying asking God to give me direction, people, faces, names, vibes, etc.  and after a while i got a crazy feeling about these 2 guys walking down the boardwalk so I approached them and started conversation and came to find out that I knew there cousin cuz he plays on my football team at PC (small world i know). any ways it came down to again them identifying themselves as believers once again and then as the Gospel was preached the Lord began doing a work on there hardened hearts and they then said that they arent followers of Jesus.  and they both looked at me with such a look of desperation and said "I want Him, I want to follow Jesus"......................Hmmm, its crazy how God uses a prideful, sinful person like myself to share the same saving Gospel that 2 years ago saved me from a life of destruction and death and see 4 people ccome to know and want Jesus Christ and not the world in the span of 12 hours....  We serve a powerful and merciful God.  His Grace is sufficient and unending.  His love is unbreakable and enduring.  His mercy is undeserving and unfathomable.  Like Isaiah 55: 8 says "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways"  we will never comprehend why God is who He is and Why God does what He Does and How God uses who He uses.  I know this was long, but I pray it is a blessing and pray we seek God humbly and truly see that we are nothing, so lets stop trying to glorify nothings and start Glorifying the powerful, loving, gracious, merciful God of the Universe who is worthy.  Taste and See   

The Heart of God

I realize it has been a while since i have written.  I was convicted by Breyer Calvert to write blogs for myself and through that let it be an encouragement to others. So here goes...

Recently i have really been hit hard with the conviction of going hard after the Father's heart.  I have felt this conviction through many things... Preparing messages for youth groups, meeting with Breyer's small group and  watching Tim Kellers "Prodigal God", and listening to some sermons that have just hit me upside the head....  So many times i find myself searching after the things OF God and not the creator Himself.  Isn't He enough for me? Absolutely He is, but i find my flesh telling me that He isn't.  Its all about Loving God and being near to His heart.  So often I feel as though I just want what God can give me (i.e. blessings, more notoriety for what "Joey Gilkey has done" for the kingdom, and yes even heaven). Yes, I am stoked about heaven, but am i stoked about it because I want to be saved from the flames and I want to Co-Reign with Christ or am i stoked for the sole reason that the Father is there and I get to wake up everyday in heaven and see His Glory in a new way.  So much in our modern day culture we are so passionate about church, worship, and even missions but that doesn't mean that we are passionate about God.  No, we can always DO the right thing but we can't justify ourselves or our Love through what we do. Sure, Loving God will make us have a heart for those things, do good deeds, constantly striving to not sin, but the conviction was this... Having a heart for things like worship, church, missions, etc., doing the right thing, and constantly striving to not sin will NOT make us Love God.  That only comes through a complete submission.  Having Love for God means that we have a Passion for God.  Paul Washer dropped a bomb on me when he said this in a message i heard recently (Not word for word)... "Love isn't the do's and donts, it isn't following commandments, and it isn't patience and kindness. No, that is what it looks like when it walks and when it talks, but actual Love is Passion..." So ask yourself this... do we have a Passion for God? or do we just want to justify ourselves with how much "good" we can do and call that Loving God?........It isn't as complicated as we make it, I believe that we, and that is myself included, should stop trying to be the next big Theologian, stop arguing doctrine, and just simply Love God.  Simple and Authentic Love that we tend to over-shadow with our beliefs and arguments about right and wrong.  I believe that if we just seek the Heart of the Father and we stop searching for blessings and things from God then we will see that HE IS WORTHY and HE IS ENOUGH.  Until next time!

....Also I will be on Leadership Project for the next 2 months and I will be hopefully blogging throughout those 2 months (keep me accountable breyer). and please anybody who reads this keep myself as well as the 100+ brothers and sisters that will be going after God this summer in myrtle beach in your Prayers.  Let satan know that he is not welcome in Myrtle Beach (and nowhere for that matter) and be a prayer laborer for us.  and thinking about it i could go on and on about prayer. but ill just leave you with a nugget... We, as the Body of Christ, need to be carrying other ppls burdens and bringing it before God, crying out to Him, we need to be true prayer Warriors that spend hours on our knees.  Let the scars on your knees speak of the Burdens we for others in our heart.
In Love,
Joey

This poem performed by the poet Ezekiel is straight truth.  I don't even have to commentate on it. Just listen for yourself. If we are not okay with people not knowing and repping the name of Christ then WHY DO WE STAY SILENT? Its spiritual homicide.

LOVE....

Lately It has really hit me that EVERYTHING is about Love.  Everything is rooted in Love because Jesus was Love.  I tend to find myself struggling with certain things like patience or pride to be exact, and i really have been shown that the only way to solve these things is with the Love of Jesus.  Like it says in probably the one of the most quoted verses in the entire bible, 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 " Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."  It tells us in the first 3 words.  That patience is rooted in Love, that boasting i do in my prideful ways is solved with Love.  I am not just going to be freed from these strongholds if I don't first just Love.  Jesus was all about Love and true Love, not this Love that we say to our boyfriend and girlfriend because you've been dating long enough.  No, the Love that comes only from the Father.  We always feel so entrapped by sin but if we just let go and start to just Love on God and Love like God then we can do anything and be held down by NOTHING.  So my prayers have been simple, let me Love Jesus. 

What I'm studying...

Lately in my quiet times i have been getting into a couple of different books.  I have been reading Philippians, Job, and Isaiah 53.  I just want to quickly go over a couple of things that God has been revealing to me lately in the Word.  Some things that I have really come to realization about myself lately is that sometimes I....

Don't always understand that God is in control of EVERYTHING.  Sometimes throughout the day I just go throughout the day without really understanding that God of the universe orchestrates everything that I go through and has me at certain places at certain times for certain reasons.  GOD IS SOVEREIGN.  I finally truly started to understand this when reading the book of Job.  At the beginning of the book the angels and even Satan present themselves before the Lord and God asks Satan where he has been.  Satan talks about how he has been going back and forth through the world.  And God asks Satan if he has seen his servant Job who is as blameless and upright as they come.  Satan then tries to deny this because he says that he is only a loyal servant because God has hand his hand in every aspect of his life constantly blessing everything in Job's life.  Satan says "if you take everything away from him he will curse your name." So God says ok then go and take everything from him but do not lay a hand on him and Satan does exactly that following God's orders.  This just showed me that even Satan is on a leash and cant do anything unless God says.  That is one of the greatest examples of how Sovereign our God is.  The rest of the story is amazing so i encourage you to read Job or at least the first couple chapters of Job.

Tend to put confidence in my own flesh and settle for mediocrity.  I will sometimes become content with where I am in my walk and the Bible always smacks me in the face to tell me that I can never stop growing and striving for more Jesus.  In Philippians 3 Paul talks about how, as the body of Christ we cannot put our confidence in the flesh.  He explains that not even he (and he is not boasting he is proving a point) can be content or put his confidence in the flesh.  It hit me hard because Paul was "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee,".  So basically he is saying that he, his whole life, has lived by the law, doing everything by the book. He has earned all these "titles" and he cant even put his confidence in what he does.  He says "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith".  The reason this hit me so hard was that I sometimes think that I have done all these things but honestly I've done nothing compared to Paul and even he can't put his confidence in that.  He says that he gives everything up in order to know the Lord.  He says that righteousness does not come from anything that WE can do it only comes from the faith that comes through Christ.
as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless

Don't truly understand what Christ has done for me on the cross because if i did I would not continue to struggle with certain sins or constantly fall to certain desires.  Not that i don't know what Christ did for me its that I dont always live as if I truly understand that what he did is the only way that i have new life now.  My life should always reflect that.  My favorite chapter out of the entire Bible is Isaiah 53, I canPierced for our transgressions.  So what Jesus did for us (and i constantly have to remind myself of this) is he was CRUSHED in order for us to be seen as blameless.

So I learn this... God is sovereign, I cannot put confidence in my doings only in Christ and count everything as lost for the sake of Christ, and that the magnitude of what Jesus did for us can't be dulled down.

Reason for this Blog and an overview of our Mission trip to San Diego

Wow, i've never done a blog and to be honest it's kind of overwhelming and i promise that my next blogs will not be nearly as long as this one is so bear with me.  The main reason for me creating this blog was to share a little bit of my life with you.  I also just went on a mission trip with Campus Outreach to San Diego and wanted to share with my supporters the overview of our trip and just testify to God's goodness.  In this blog i would like to share day-by-day what I go through with what Im studying in the bible and things that God is revealing to me every single day.  I would love to spread this to anybody that wants to hear about maybe what it is like to be a laborer and follower of Christ on a college campus or on an athletics team or just being a Christian in general.  I pray that this blog will impact the lives of many and pray that people could even possibly see a glimpse of Christ through his doings in me.   So without further adieu....

San Diego Trip

I first would love to thank my amazing parents, my Aunt Shirley and Uncle Lou, Uncle David and Aunt Pat, Aunt Audie, Grandma and Popie, the Padgett family, the Blackwell family and my beautiful girlfriend Jacqueline for helping reach my goal of $600 dollars so quickly.  Without their help I would have not been able to go over to San Diego and experience God in another culture.  I praise God for the amazing people that He surrounds me with in my life and I am so blessed.

So....the trip was absolutely amazing and life changing.  Jesus really did show up in so many ways over in California.  We had an outstanding team of strong believers and followers of Christ that made this trip such a great growing experience.
In the weeks leading up to the trip...
we were in constant prayer and fasting, asking God for a number of things: that we would grow closer to Him as a group and as individuals, that He would go before us and really orchestrate opportunities for us to come in and impact as many people as God set before us, that He would humble us before Him so that we could not take any credit for the work that was going on in San Diego, and to really just experience Him over there.  and WOW God is so great going above and beyond our pleads.  He is so powerful and sovereign it still amazes me.
Saturday, Day 1 (departure day)...
After all of our prayers, preparation for this trip, and 2 hours of driving to the airport the night before, the day finally came we were headin to San Diego, California.  We got up around 7 am and packed  up the GPOMM (great piece of modern machinery, which was a 1980's 15 passenger van that ended up gettin the job done)  and headed to Charlotte International Airport.  There we got our boarding passes and boarded the plane to Washington D.C. for our connector flight which only took about an hour.  Then from D.C. we headed out on our 5 hour 45 minute non-stop flight to San Diego.  Finally, we arrived in Cali. and it was like another world over there with so many diverse people.  When we landed it was 3 hours behind eastern time zone times so it was something we had to try and adjust to quickly.  The trip started off how we had expected... with many unexpecteds lol.  It was actually raining and a bit of hail the first night we were there, the car place that we were renting from added extra fees, and our leader got a $21 ticket because he accidentally ran through an entrance without grabbing a parking slip whoops. But, it soon got better, we ate authentic mexican food from a place called bravos taco's.

Then we headed  to a guy named Bryan's house.  He was a member of a local church that is called Harbor Church and was just an awesome man of God.  He has been to many places on mission trips all over Southeast Asia, Ukraine, Turkey, and so many more.  HE WAS AWESOME.  Then we headed to the house that we would be staying in which was provided to us through an organization called World Impact that was under the leadership of Harbor Church.  It was great, although a little tight squeeze.  The guys actually utilized an office and slept on the ground while the girls shared the beds in the other rooms.

(The Office)



Sunday, Day 2...

We wake up the next morning excited to get our first full day in San Diego.  We all have our quiet time getting in the Word and praying then head off to Harbor Church - midcity campus.  Which was amazing and like nothing that i have been to before.  The vision of Harbor Church is to bridge the gap between opposite social classes and different cultures which many people said could not be done.  The service that we went to was very diverse ranging from people that are hispanic to somalian to american.  The worship band was amazing they sang half of the songs in Spanish and the other half in English which was awesome.  I got to experience Christ in another language and it was just as impactful as when i hear the lyrics in English. 

Once the worship was over we split up into 2 groups for the message, the primary English speaking group and primary Spanish speaking group.  It was a great message that was about how we need Jesus in our helplessness, in our inability, and in our faithlessness.  It was great and we spoke to so many people.  After the church service we went out to the beach to check out what it was like on a California beach.  The sun was shining, skies were blue, and the ocean was clear (but freezing).  We decided as a team to start a beach volleyball game which turned out to be pretty competitive.

Once we got done with the volleyball and hanging out we rushed to the night service at Harbor Church - Uptown campus where we heard a great message about living out the gospel in our everyday lives.  Then we got to experience a great Chili cook off between the church members.  We instantly got networking with the people of the church and started hitting off some really awesome spiritual conversations.  Some interesting things that we learned about the city which we later understood was that it was a station that the UN has designated for refugees coming in from different countries that are driven out by war or they choose to leave because of war, to try and make something of themselves in the states, etc.  So within the city limits there are 80 different languages spoken.  Talk about diversity!

After we worshipped and ate we headed over to San Diego State University's campus to walk around and pray over the campus and for the students that we would encounter.  It was a great way to start the trip especially when we parked in a Church parking lot and the sign that leads to the road said this...

Pretty awesome description of our mission.

Monday, Day 3...
After a well needed night of sleep we all woke up ready to conquer the day and our first true task...Begin evangelizing on the Campus of SDSU.  So to prepare we had a campus outreach staff member come in to give us our morning training.  Giving us more tools on reaching the lost which was awesome for growth among the team. After our training we hit the campus.  It was our first chance to really see what all of our prayer, fasting, and preparation was doing over here in San Diego.  It was a good start to the day when we walked outside to blue skies, palm trees, and 75 degree weather.

As soon as we entered the campus it just seemed completely different: tank tops, flip flops, skateboards, etc.  It was just different from the south.  We then entered the food court looking for people to begin conversation with.  It was so incredible to see God working it was almost like we didnt have to say a thing people were coming up to us and asking to sit with them and when we sat down even more people came to the table next to us, praise God!  So once we struck up a few conversations getting to know people we were anxious to begin a spiritual conversation, but we had learned that morning that we had to practice patience with the people we encountered and couldn't just bomb them with the Gospel.  So we started with small steps just building the relationships with various people.  Our goal for the first day was not to share the gospel believe it or not.  We really wanted to practice patience and just let them see Christ through our actions and friendliness.  It was amazing to see how much easier people opened up to us.  After this we went to the ARC (Aztec Rec Center) which was state of the art.  People play pic up basketball games in there all day long so we really found our mission field when we saw all the people just hanging out.  Again we practiced patience and just hung out and got to know people praying for them along the way.  We stayed in there for the remainder of the day and set out to go back to the house.  It was a great day and it really boosted the confidence of the group.  And by the way the campus was absolutely gorgeous...

 

So that night we all gathered around in the living room and had "family time."  This is where we would share about what was cool about the day: what we learned, people we met, things we observed etc.  We would then pray for every individual that we met just asking God to open up opportunities to meet with them again.  Couldn't have asked for a better first day on the campus.

Tuesday, Day 4...
Same thing wake up dig into the bible for some daily reading, some training with staff members, and prayer for the day ahead of us.  We were to set out on the campus again with the same schedule: eat then go hoop it up on the courts with some guys.  The difference was today our goal was to engage in spiritual conversations with students.  That was again, so amazing, we really ran into so many different types of people throughout the day with atheists, Buddhists, some former Christians that had been turned off of their beliefs through the military, but there just didnt seem to be many soled out Christians on campus which was shocking compared to the Southern bible belt that i have been living in.  It actually made the day better because it gave the team a chance to really share their heart with people and surprisingly mostly everybody was very receptive to hearing what we believed and why.  We knew going into this trip that it was going to be very challenging.  At the end of the day a lot of people started to ask questions about our faith which was amazing.  So after this we left kind of early so that we could get to the other side of town and work with a group of refugees and tutor them.  They were some of the sweetest kids i have ever met.  Like i said earlier it was a hub for refugees so there was a wide variety of kids from so many different countries.  The tutoring program was ran under the guidance of the Church again so you can see how involved they are in the community.  I really love how willing they are to serve God. Then again we had another "family time" praying for the people we encountered and the campus. Awesome!!!

Wednesday, Day 5...
We woke up the next morning again studying and praying but this was our "rest day." This was our day for team bonding and just gathering our thoughts for the rest of the week.  So as a team we decided to go check out and go hiking at Torrey Pines State Park which was gorgeous.  It was a set of mountains along the ocean so we had the best of both worlds...

Beautiful... then after this we headed to la jolla beach where we played ultimate frisbee.  To show how awesome God is once again, even though we had a day off God gave us an amazing opportunity to share the Gospel with a guy by the name of John.  We really encouraged him to dig for a relationship with Christ because he has strayed off in the past.  So please pray for him to continue searching.  God put us in the right place at the right time.  A great day once again.

Thursday, Day 6...

By far, my favorite day on the trip was this day.  We did the usual morning routine and then headed to the pastor of Harbor Church's house.  Pastor Stephen Phelan was one of the most amazing men of God ive ever met.  He has been so faithful relying on the Lord that you can just tell that God is working in every aspect of his life.  He shared how he ended up in San Diego along and how the church came to be.  Amazing guy that i would love to work under, and if it all works out I will be interning for him the summer of 2012.  So another thing to be praying for!

After this we went to campus building relationships and sharing the gospel.  God really revealed himself to the team when we started to really give us the strength to be confident in our sharing. The day ended up with another great "family time" and some worship...

Friday, Day 7, final day...
Today we did the usual routine of studying and evangelizing on the campus.  It was a sad day knowing that we would be leaving the next day, but we were high in spirit knowing that we had made an impact on the campus and we learned a lot that we could take back to campus.  I really now have a heart for that city and cant wait to go back.
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So again to all of my supporters and followers thank you so much for the prayers and funds you are so amazing and I am blessed to have you in my life.