It's a control thing.

How many times do we wake up and pray, ”Your will be done,“ when our agenda is already set, every hour of our day already filled? As a believer, I find myself getting so caught up in what I am “doing for Christ,” who I’m meeting with and spending my time with, what ministry opportunity I can jump into next, that it becomes more about what I am doing than how I am living. Sometimes I think I am walking with the Spirit, when truly I am running so far ahead expecting Him to keep up with me. Aaron Stern once said, “Being a follower of Jesus is impossible - by yourself.” I can not follow Christ if I am not willing to give up control. Sure, it’s risky. It’s risky to put my “image” on the line, to potentially cause disappointment, but there is another side to it. Living by the Spirit, surrendering control, opens up the door to so much more that Christ has for us.

I think about Josh Osborne and the fruit he has seen and continues to see in his ministry. Fruit that some of the largest non-profits will never see; fruit that comes from giving up control.

I think about the group of guys, Sam, Zach, Josh, Won, Ashton, Jake, Brandon, James, and Meerkreebs, and I am amazed at what Christ is doing. I don’t see a fake, religious, self-gratifying group of guys who are out to please people; I see a solid bunch of men with an ocean of gifts who have been brought together by Christ to be unashamed examples of our Lord. 

I think about Matthias Barker, a 19 year old guy who has had the opportunity to influence millions with his music, and yet still plays for an Audience of One. Just “a kid” who is bringing churches together around the nation to serve as one body of Christ.

I think about how once broken people are on the path to healing through truth and encouragement.

Has any of this happened by us alone? Under our control? 

Just as we must die to live, we must surrender to win.

It’s exciting,

It’s scary,

It’s encouraging. 

you see Rebecca Black - internet superstar/mockery

I see a miracle.

more here

Australia!

I've had an awesome time so far here in Australia. I'm staying with Ev in Port Kembla at his YWAM base. They just recently bought a hotel that now serves as their base and It is about a 2 minute bike ride from the most beautiful beach I have ever been to. I just thought I'd put up a few pictures from my time here so far. It has been very interesting to see the differences between the base here and the one in Jamaica... they are very, very different. I really like it here, too. I can see why Ev has stayed so long. There is such a strong sense of community and I can tell that every single person loves what they are doing. I have been wanting for a long time to spend some quality time with Ev. I really look up to him and respect what he is doing here. You can tell that he has a place at this base and is really doing what God has called him to do. He just recently got back from China and we have been able to share stories about our travels. I will only be here a few more days... but I can definitely see myself coming back sometime. Anyway... here's some pics!

                                                                                                                                           

Amy (Evan's ladyfriend)

The classic

Went out to dinner with Ev's base leaders

Jammin with some Aboriginals in Sydney

The Opera House is warmer than I thought

Manly Beach

Hillsong Church. BOMBIN!

Remember Ben? Got to chill with him a bit :)

                                                                                                                                             

So... remember how I went to Africa? And I still haven't posted any pictures or video? Well... this is the reason why. Yeah... "SEAN IS RAD" is my external hardrive, you know, the thing that has my life on it. I have done everything in my power to try and recover all of my files, but nothing has worked. I have some of the tech guys here looking at it... but I might just have to bring it in and have some pros fix whatever is wrong. So it's not that I am just being lazy... I really do want to share these things with everyone... I just cannot at the time. So... Sorry. Soon come, soon come.

                                                                                                                                            

P.S.

I think I might be moving to tumblr.
I just like it better... it looks cooler. Maybe I will keep both? 

Anyway... here's another link to add to my array

seanjanas.tumblr.com

It's times in life like these

that I will never forget.

                                                                                                                                               
What saves a man is to take a step.
Then another step. 
 [C. S. Lewis]                                                                                                                             


Sitting in the dew damped grass, watching the sun rise over Montego Bay, Jamaica for the last time. I can't believe I am leaving today. I have grown more in the past five and a half months than any other time in my life. I'm thankful that it was difficult; thankful it wasn't comfortable. One of the biggest lessons I have learned while being here is if we want to grow and mature, we must be stretched. We must be taken out of the easy, out of the normal, out of the comfortable. We must be put in situations that require more of us than we have to offer. Honestly, we can handle a lot more than we think we can. God will never put us in a situation, put someone in our lives, or push us in a direction that we are not already equipped to handle. Why, then, do we hesitate leaving home? Why do we avoid confrontation - avoid being vulnerable? Why? Because it is hard. So we hide things from those we love, spend hours in isolation, waste hours a day on the internet, depict ourselves as someone we are not. We easily spend $8 on a movie, $5 on a coffee, $20 on alcohol, but walk straight past a starving man on the road and act like we didn't even see him. Is there reward in all of this? Not just instant gratification, but real reward?


I was hesitant to come here. Last year... I was struggling so much with the idea of taking a whole year off and not going straight into college. All I could think about was how much I would be missing out and how I would be getting such a late start to my life. But I took that first step, and then another, and then another. Looking back, I am so glad I did. Just a quick encouragement from my experience... there comes no great reward without first having to sacrifice.


 I have seen a shift in my life from:                                                                                            

            complacency   -->    contentment
        purposelessness  -->    acting, speaking, thinking with true purpose
     being comfortable   -->    ruined for the ordinary
 hesitation and doubt   -->    boldness and belief
   feeling unprepared   -->    eagerly anticipating every new step


 Q&A                                                                                                                                     
Am I a completely different person from when I left? 
Definitely not.

Have I grown in experiences, built a stronger foundation, changed the way I think and process, been stretched, tested, refined, and strengthened? 
Ahhhh yeah.

                                                                                                                                                                                          

So... I didn't really mean for this post to be what it turned out to be... I kinda just wanted to get on and say how I can't wait to have a hot and spicy McChicken and see ma momma... oh well.
On my way home in 3 hours!
LOVE:D

Sorry for the delay...

So remember how I said that I was going to be posting stories and stuff? Well that was my intention... but you know what they say about good intentions, right?
:)
This week has gone differently than I thought it would. I worked all day Thursday, all day and through the night Friday, and didn't stop until Saturday morning working on a video to show at graduation. About an hour before grad, the video was finished, but it wouldn't transfer from my computer to one that we could plug into the projector... so we didn't even get to show it. I got mad at technology for a couple of days... but we're ok now. Except, currently, my hardrive is crashed, so I can't access any of my pictures or videos... therefore I can't decorate any blog posts for a bit. But don't worry! I will get it all sorted out and give you some bombin stories soon.

Anyway, like I said, I graduated last Saturday. I was running off of about 36 hours without sleep... so I forgot my camera... but thankfully someone else had one.

Welp, I'm officially finished with my DTS. It was a crazy 5 months, but it wen't by pretty fast. I am so excited to get home. I will be leaving Jamaica this Saturday, but I won't be "home" for a couple more weeks. I fly out to Australia on Monday morning to visit Ev for a couple of weeks. I can't wait to finally go visit him. Ah God is so good. Ok. I have to go rest now... big day at the beach tomorrow. As soon as I fix my hardrive, that video will be up and pics will start rollin! 

LOVE

Africa was pretty cool and stuff.

  

It would be impossible for me to tell everything that happened in the last two months in only one post, so I thought that I would just briefly outline what we did in Africa and then post some more stories as I write them. Yeah? Sweet ;)

In some places, I will leave specific names out for discretion purposes. 

So... what did we do?                                                                            

Our time in The Gambia was split into two main parts. For the first three weeks our team of ten worked alongside a Nigerian missionary family who run a Christian primary school in the village of Mansajang. A few of us (me included) taught, others of us helped with maintenance, and the rest helped wherever else was needed. I was put in charge of the levels class, the highest class in the school. In my class were 11 students ranging from ages 11-15 who were in grades 1-5. Each student worked at his or her own pace in workbooks and would take a test whenever they finished a whole book. I definitely wasn't looking forward to teaching, but I really fell in love with these kids. Talk about stress, though. I would get out of school and be completely drained. It really takes everything out of you to sit with a 15 year old who can't read and try to teach them out of a 1980's curriculum that has been photocopied so many times that the words are barely visible. What I realized, though, is that it wasn't the teaching that the kids were in such desperate need for; attention is what they needed most. Sometimes the students would call me over saying that they need help, but really they just wanted me to sit with them and watch them work. Since 90% of the people are Muslim, having a lot of wives and kids is pretty highly valued. Because of this, the kids get little to no attention at home... so they treasure it is offered. Working in the school really made me appreciate how I was brought up and the education system that I had. If these kids leave the school and know how to read and write, they are so far ahead. These three weeks were stressful, but at the end I left wishing I had more time there.

The rest of our time in Africa was quite a bit different. We traveled up the river about 15 kilometers to a more remote village where the unreached tribe lives. We stayed on the YWAM base there and got a chance to help them make progress on some of the projects they needed help on. One of the bigger projects that the base is working on is planting trees. Deforestation is becoming a problem in the area because many people are cutting down the trees to use as firewood and to build fences. Since there are donkeys, cows, goats, and sheep running around all the time eating everything they see, and with the climate being so harsh, trees have a really had time starting out. We worked alongside the staff there to fill about 400 bags with soil and planted seeds in each one. Their vision is that they are going to give every compound in the village a tree to plant along with some education on how to help the tree grow. This YWAM base has such a bold and faith based approach to ministry which I will be doing a whole other post about, but they are bringing such physical and spiritual life to the area. The base is also the only place close by that people can come for emergency medical attention, which I also was able to take part in. One off the coolest parts of what the staff is doing is that they have started a model garden that other residents can walk by and get ideas on how to grow and maintain their own prosperous garden. Another project we helped start was the building of a brick house that will be used as a longterm home for one of the families living there. So, the work was way different, but we really got to see physical progress being made. I also really liked the schedule because we worked in the morning, had lunch and our group meeting, then had the rest of the day to go out into the village and mingle with people the rest of the night. I, again, had a really strong connection to the boys who would come over all day every day.

Where did we stay?                                                                            

Room #1

Room #2

Bathrooms?                                                                                  

Typical

Luxury

Washing machine, shower, dishwasher                                              

Food                                                                                                    

For our main meal every day, we had someone from the village cook us up something that the locals eat. We all sat on a mat around a communal bowl and ate with our hands. The food was actually realllly good most days. It was always rice or some other grain as a base, and then some kind of oily sauce with bitter tomato, casava, fish or beef, cabbage, and scotch bonnet peppers to pour over the top.  For every other meal we ate what they call tapalapa, which is the cheap locally made bread with various fillings.

I have some really cool stories and more detail that I will be writing about over the next few days. I'll just say that my time in Africa was nothing like I thought it was going to be, but God really used us to bless those we went to serve.

Some randoms for the road                                                                   

LOVE!