I’m loving being on campus at my alma mater. I have so many fond memories at ASU. Today was special because I had lunch with a friend of mine who is a full-time student. I first got to know Alina at Forest Home camp back in 2006. She needed help getting around in her wheelchair and many of us guys stepped up to make sure she had a good experience that weekend. We have been great friends since. She really has humbled my heart and showed me a lot about myself and my attitude toward those with special needs. I love cooking breakfast, having coffee and playing dice games with her. She is amazing woman of God and I love seeing her door greet at PhoenixONE. Below is a video of her testimony.
Posts Tagged ‘Camber Young Adults’
Alina
Posted in Relationships, Students, tagged Alina, ASU, Camber Young Adults, Forest Home, Friends, PhoenixONE, Proverbs 31, special needs, Sun Devils on September 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Giving Back
Posted in Camber Young Adults, Spiritual Growth, tagged Camber Young Adults, growth, Healing, Restoration on July 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »
With summer winding down, I have been praying for direction. School starts up for the boys and I again soon here, but also Fall is bringing some exciting new changes in our lives. I love what God is doing right now in my life and the opportunities ahead. Today I had coffee with one of the leaders from Camber (young adult program) and he approached me about sharing my testimony to the guys one night. After spending a year in counseling learning about myself and all my experiences, I’m ready to start giving back and helping younger guys not make mistakes. It’s been awhile since I have played a mentorship role (other than my kids), but I am thankful to be given the opportunity. God has done some pretty amazing stuff in my life and I want it to be an open book for others to learn from.
Amazing Friends
Posted in Camber Young Adults, Relationships, tagged Amazing Friends, Camber Young Adults, College Briefing, Passion, Ron Merrell, unified body on July 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »
ONE Retreat
Posted in Camber Young Adults, tagged Camber Young Adults, Freedom, ONE, One Faith Gathering, ONE network on May 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Central to the mission and vision of the “ONE” Network is the prayer that Jesus prayed for the church in John 17:23 when He prayed, “May they become perfectly ONE, so that the world will know that you sent me and love them even as much as you love me.”
The “ONE” Network is a unified movement of currently 4 local churches who sole mission is to reach young adults in Phoenix for Christ and connect them to a local faith community. Their mission is to be a unified movement of local churches coming together as “ONE” in order to reach young adults for Christ and connect them to a local faith community.
The ONE retreat took place in Williams, AZ at a place called Lost Canyon. The weather was beautiful The weekend consisted of different session of worship and a message. We also had time to connect with our home churches. The worship was incredible. Ryan, Jason, Casey, Jarod & Sean are all friends of mine and they did an amazing job of leading us in songs of worship. Kent DelHousaye was the guest speaker and he spoke on us having freedom in Christ. That means that we have the freedom to grow in our walk in the Lord without having to be judged by others. His sermon was very impactful for me as is tied in a lot of what God has been saying to me lately.
I enjoyed having fellowship with friends from Camber, but I also made many new friends. There were many churches represented and I was able to make friends from many of them. I’m looking forward to being a bigger part of Phoenix One and I just love having the opportunities to network and get to know more people. I met a lot of people already on the Phoenix One volunteer staff over the weekend and I look forward to serving alongside them. I’m just excited have some friends to move forward in life with to continue on with my journey to grow with and fellowship with. God has blessed me so much over the years with amazing people.
In addition to many awesome conversations with people, I had some intimate time with God. He has revealed so much me to me these past few weeks and I have grown and learned so much. We had this evening of confession in which Kent invited us to find freedom of our past burdens that have been weighing us down. God has literally been stripping me of so many old habits that I have been able to find peace and calmness in myself that I haven’t had in so long. This weekend was another one of those moments that I just sat in silence and let the Holy Spirit work in me. I can’t believe how free I felt after that and found myself singing my heart out to the Lord and praising him for all he has done in me during an extended worship session. I love Jesus with all my heart and I am so thankful for who I am in Christ and my heart that just seeks him when I am down.
They had us break in groups later that night and I found myself in a group with a lot of young college guys. I have always felt God has allowed me to go through so much so I can relate and give back to young guys like this. I was actually impressed with these guys and their faith. It’s awesome to see young men following the Lord. I was able to come in humility and admit my struggles to them and allow them to see a real guy who make mistakes and let them know that it’s ok to not be perfect. But at the same time we are to turn to our Messiah to be free from those sins and find the courage and strength to grow and learn from them. I know my honesty to these guys about my real guy issues that I struggle like lust and anger was huge to them. It’s big because most guys struggle admitting their stuff because of the fear of being judged or condemned by others.
God is good and this was just another opportunity he has provided for me to get away from the trials of the world and draw closer to him. God always has something big in store for me when life doesn’t make sense and gets rough. This weekend was a reminder from him that he is with me and that he is providing what I need on my journey to grow more like Christ. I love you Jesus.. thank you for being there and for always providing.
The Siren and The Saint CD Release
Posted in Camber Young Adults, Worship, tagged Camber Young Adults, Christin Joy, Mat Weddle, Obadiah Parker, The Siren and the Saint, Travis Timmons, Worship on April 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »
When I was thinking of writing this blog about Obadiah Parker’s show, it was just going to be a short blog about my friend Mat Weddle and his new CD that just came out. Mat had given me the CD not too long ago and I really enjoy it (Mat is an extremely talented musician and I love seeing him play). Tonight was his CD release concert at Winfield’s cafe at First Baptist of Scottsdale and I was totally in for another great show by him. But what I wasn’t ready for was to be really moved by lyrics and the stories that Mat shared about each song. You see, Mat and I share a lot of the same struggles as men in this world and over the years we have become accountability partners for each other. So hearing the stories behind these songs all of a sudden made this album very special to me. I now truly view it as a gift from a friend that God provided to go on this crazy battle against our addiction with. The Siren and the Saint is our story.
I met Mat at Camber (a young adult group at our church) in 2006. Of course what drew me to him was the big red beard, but he quickly became a good friend. One of my earliest memories is a night after Camber where we and Ryan Axtell sucked down about 7 or 8 strawberry lemonades each. Our waitress was not happy with having to blend those up for us. I got to know both him and his wife Lisa pretty well at Passion ’07 in Atlanta (which is where they met). I would then spend the months following that attending his band Obadiah Parker’s shows at various venues here in the valley. Later that summer, Mat shared his testimony about his sex and porn addiction at Camber during their “We will not Talk” series. I was absolutely blown away that someone would get on stage and admit this in front of a large crowd – especially someone as well-known here in the valley as Mat.
That following winter, God brought me face to face with my own lust and sex addiction issues. I was so embarrassed and ashamed that I went into hiding. I avoided my friends and church for a whole month. Then in January of 2008, I returned to Camber and they had a guest speaker by the name of Keith Page speaking. Keith was a Pastor of a large church in California called Rock Harbor church. After planting that church and serving as head Pastor, he was asked to step down after his own struggles with lust came to the surface. It was a situation which almost cost him his marriage. But in the mist of hitting ‘rock bottom’, Keith discovered God was redefining him and using this issue for something more that would eventually humble him and free him from this deadly sin. And now Keith travels the country sharing his story of strength and hope to others. He talked of our need for brothers and sisters in Christ that will refrain from judgment to do this journey with together to find freedom and wholeness together in confidence. The hope is to share experiences of success in the Lord and learn from each other’s failures.
God brought some amazing men into my life following that night and through their trust, honesty and accountabilty, I have been able to find much success with my own struggles with lust that I have dealt with for so many years. I am so blessed and thankful to have real guys like Mat to do this journey with so that we may become not only be better men in our relationships, but be better men of God. I want to encourage you to check out The Siren and the Saint and be prepared to be inspired by our story of healing and restoration over this addiction that almost every man in this world battles with on a daily basis.
During his CD release week, Mat gave out this knitted red beard to a lucky twitter follower – so awesome!
‘ONE’ Night of Worship
Posted in Camber Young Adults, tagged Camber Young Adults, Christin Joy, church, One Faith Gathering, Soma, Travis Timmons on January 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »
The band from the One Faith Gathering retreat got together for one night of worship at Somanorth. For me, it was the perfect time for me as I’m leaving for India in a few days. The “One” network is a gathering of young adults from several churches coming together for Christ. Their mission statement is birth from John 17:23 in which Jesus prayed for the church.
“May they become perfectly ONE, so that the world will know that you sent me and love them even as much as you love me.”
Camber memories
Posted in Camber Young Adults, Rhythm, tagged Acts, Art/photography, Camber Young Adults, College Briefing, Forest Home, James Patterson, Myspace blog entries, Passion, Rhythm, Ron Merrell on August 29, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Getting older… feeling younger
Posted in Camber Young Adults, Rhythm, Students, tagged 5th/6th grade, birthday, Calibrate, Camber Young Adults, Clone Wars, Cornerstone, Cornish Pasty, jazz, Mine, Momentum 5th/6th Grade, Myspace blog entries, Praxis, Rhythm, Students on August 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Conversation
Posted in Camber Young Adults, tagged Camber Young Adults, Cornerstone, Myspace blog entries, Old Testament, Southwestern college, Worldview on August 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The more and more I engage in conversation with people, the more and more I try and be conscientious of what and where the person is coming from. I work very hard at not being judgemental. We all have a story. We all have a past. I try to put myself in other people’s shoes. I want to know why they believe the things they believe. I want to know where they are coming from.
It’s really how I witness. I used to be a terrible listener. Probably because I never cared much for what other people had to say. But now I do. The more I care and want to help, the better I have become at listening. But I want to do away with asking myself ‘how can they be that way?’ or ‘why would they ever believe that?’. We all come from different backgrounds. We have been exposed to different things. We all worship different things. I just know that the more I understand who I am talking to, the more I will know how to direct my conversation.
It’s funny that this had become a big deal to me. Camber is doing a series on Worldview. Because I am generally busy running cameras or something, I haven’t paid much attention to it. Then I happened to catch a podcast of one of the sermons. I couldn’t believe they were speaking on the very topic I have been working on personally. So now I’m playing catch up…
Today at work, I had a lady ask me about the missions trips I go on. She is single, never married, in her 50’s and doesn’t believe in God. I have never spokem about Christ to her. Yet I show my excitement of living a life for Christ to her. She told me today that I look very happy. I told her that I feel for once in my life I feel my potential is being used… that my life is very rewarding. She mentioned how different I have been since my divorce. She then asked me if I would ever become a minister someday. My answer was that only if I’m called to do so. I left the conversation at that. But I enjoyed having that talk with her because she generally is very private and doesn’t open up to anyone. I went home and prayed for her.
God is good.
Today, I signed up for a Bible class through Southwestern college. Old Testament (Genesis through Song of Solomon). I’m excited to study the Old Testament. There are some amazing stories of faith in the OT. I have also decided to start memorizing scripture. I have too many favorite passages that I can never remember where they are located. Think I’m going to start carrying flashcards…
I’m meeting and sharing my heart to a bunch of guys that have been through divorce tonight. I pray that they will take it upon themselves to better themselves as men and take what they have been through and use it for HIS glory.
Awesome week for missions as we are giving a presentation this week to 200+ people who signed up to know more about what Cornerstone has store for missions in 2009 this Wednesday. Not sure of my role, but I can’t to share my passion to these people. May they see how God has transformed my life and given me this heart to share the gospel to the nations.
San Diego
Posted in Camber Young Adults, tagged Balboa Park, Camber Young Adults, Comic-con, Coronado Island, David Crowder Band, Mercy Me, Mission Beach, Myspace blog entries, San Diego on July 27, 2008| Leave a Comment »
San Diego has become my home away from home. I know the city very well. We did frequent trips there growing up. It’s only a quick 5 hrs away to the beach. This was my last full week with the boys before they go back to school. So we decided to stay there for the week and beat the heat. There was a lot going on in San Diego this week that kept us busy.
We pulled in on Tuesday and checked into our hotel. We immediately hit the beach. Coronado island is always one of our favorite spots. So we spent some time in front of the Del relaxing from our drive. Then a stop at one of our favorite pizza places, Pizza Nova. Of course we got looks because of our beach attire. But the pizza was worth it. That night we saw a late showing of the “Dark Knight”. Batman was my favorite comic book hero growing up and I really enjoyed this lastest installment. Heath Ledger was amazing as the joker.
Wednesday was a day at the Zoo. We had been there many times before. But I love the walk around the park. Its definetly one of the best zoos in the country. Ty is a huge animal lover and really enjoyed his time there. Jake is kinda outgrowing it and let that be known to me. Best part is the polar bear plunge. We stood there for some time. I ended getting sick that day and spent the evening in bed.
We hung at Balboa park the next day. A visit to the Air and Space museum was on the agenda. Checking out the old World War I & II aircrafts was fun. They had a traveling Star Trek exhibit that brought back some memories of my trekkie days. We then headed downtown to Petco park. There wasn’t a game, so we toured the ballpark. They took us in the locker room and into the dugout. My baseball fanatic days are behind me as well, but I really enjoyed being a kid again.
David Crowder and Mercy Me played a show at San Diego state university that night. My friend Kris joined us that night. It was a good show. I believe it was my kid’s first concert. It was good to get a little worship into the middle of the week.
Our fourth day ended up being a crazy day at the largest gathering of comic book fans.. ComicCon. We’re talking 100,000+ fans. It was nuts! There were so many people dressed up in outfits. The day we went on was Star Wars day. Lots of Stormtroopers walking around. I couldn’t resist taking pictures. We also obtained lots of free stuff. ComicCon is one of San Diego’s biggest events of the year. We had fun, but the crowds got to us and we left.
Camber, our young adult group came up late that night. We hooked up with them and stayed at a local church that night. We spent the evening at Pacific beach and then Mission beach the next day. I spent a lot of time doing nothing. It was nice. We then had a bonfire and a BBQ the last night before wrapping up the week. This was a fun last week of the summer for the boys and I before school starts.