Hello all
So the last couple of weeks have been a great and interesting experience. I have gotten to see a bunch of great things and have been through some trials. Ultimately, my partner, Todd, has had to go home. Its just me now here at Pali View and God has some really great things in store for the youth group here! Im going to move on past all the drama and junk of the last week and weekend and not its time to get down to business! we got some fun events and great opportunities to witness inthe upcomming weeks and God has it ALL under control!
I taught the Youth sunday school this morning from James 5 and in the preperation and teaching today I was reminded of how importnat prayer is. Pray in the good, pray in the bad, and when you can't pray, get people to pray for you! This is one of those times when I need people praying for me. I ask that you pray for growth in the youth group, saved lives, patience, knowledge, wisdom, endurance, excitement, safety, energy, opportunity, and cohesiveness. In particularly invoke the Holy Spirit in these prayers too.
Otherwise, I am doing great and am thankful for my situation. I love you all my friends and family and love to hear from ya!
-Dan
Hello all!
I promise im still alive! This is the first time ive been able to get on in about a week so now that I have internet again, ill be posting a good amount on my blog about the last 2 weeks! Then ill be on track and I will have everything up to date! Check back here soon in the next few days and there should be something!
~Dan
I promise im still alive! This is the first time ive been able to get on in about a week so now that I have internet again, ill be posting a good amount on my blog about the last 2 weeks! Then ill be on track and I will have everything up to date! Check back here soon in the next few days and there should be something!
~Dan
Hellooooooooo!
Every once in a while im sure you, just like I, have a "A Ha!" moment when you read one of those kinds of verses that seems so common. Well I just had one recently. In all this excitement and preparation like reading and researching. At Echo on Thursday Proverbs 3: 5-6.
All in all, God is good, and God is good all the time! Exault the Lord, Exault the Lors, there is no shame, Exault the Lord!
~Dan
Every once in a while im sure you, just like I, have a "A Ha!" moment when you read one of those kinds of verses that seems so common. Well I just had one recently. In all this excitement and preparation like reading and researching. At Echo on Thursday Proverbs 3: 5-6.
So I had my "A Ha" moment, to say the least. Tonight I God enlightened me as to why He made it impact my spirit. When it impacted me, I knew that I was to back off on the intensive learning of Hawai'i . As of tonight, I see what He ment. I got to watch some cool stuff about Hawai'i and or related to it. I learned more and enjoyed it more.5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
6 in all your ways acknowledge him,
and lean not on your own understanding;
and he will make your paths straight.
All in all, God is good, and God is good all the time! Exault the Lord, Exault the Lors, there is no shame, Exault the Lord!
~Dan
Greetings to all my fellow missionaries from Send Me Now, Family, Friends, and random readers!
So today is the first official day of summer (mainly because this would normally be a school day and I would be half asleep in science :) ) Speaking of school, I am proud to be able to say God has blessed me with 3 A's and 2 B's! I can officially apply to the Cole's College of Business at KSU! Woot! What a blessing indeed! In retrospect, I am now more than halfway through college and boy has it flown by! God has definitely been good in soooo many ways! Hes blessed me with great and supportive family and friends, really good opportunities to study the Word and develop understanding, and really good examples of how He is faithful.
May is upon us and this is my month of super preparation. I have a couple of goals: learn how to skateboard (for easy transition into surfing), get to know Hawai'i better, and return blessings to those how have blessed me this year. So far, I had my first lesson on skating and got some wounds, but atleast im riding it now... in a straight line...
Currently, I have been able to take all this free time provided by summer to do a lot of reading and studying. I have been working on learning a lot about Hawai'i too! I started reading this book called "Culture Shock!: Hawai'i". I have als been studying the Hawai'ian slang language known as "Pidgn". In my search for a good list of Pidgn vocab, I came across a good website for a underwater recreational company in Hawai'i called "Shaka Divers". Do you know what the Humu Humu Nuku Nuku Apua'a is?
Many of you have asked about what I am going to do on the trip. My Answer for you is thus far, I still know very little. The stuff I do know is that I will be helping with the music portion of VBS at Pali View. Otherwise I believe I should be investing a lot of time in the youth there, spending time with them and doing the whole "Iron sharpening Iron" dealeo.
To all of you on your summer mission trips currently, I am praying for you and that God protects and dumbfounds you with His glory and faithfulness!
~D-Rice
So today is the first official day of summer (mainly because this would normally be a school day and I would be half asleep in science :) ) Speaking of school, I am proud to be able to say God has blessed me with 3 A's and 2 B's! I can officially apply to the Cole's College of Business at KSU! Woot! What a blessing indeed! In retrospect, I am now more than halfway through college and boy has it flown by! God has definitely been good in soooo many ways! Hes blessed me with great and supportive family and friends, really good opportunities to study the Word and develop understanding, and really good examples of how He is faithful.
May is upon us and this is my month of super preparation. I have a couple of goals: learn how to skateboard (for easy transition into surfing), get to know Hawai'i better, and return blessings to those how have blessed me this year. So far, I had my first lesson on skating and got some wounds, but atleast im riding it now... in a straight line...
Currently, I have been able to take all this free time provided by summer to do a lot of reading and studying. I have been working on learning a lot about Hawai'i too! I started reading this book called "Culture Shock!: Hawai'i". I have als been studying the Hawai'ian slang language known as "Pidgn". In my search for a good list of Pidgn vocab, I came across a good website for a underwater recreational company in Hawai'i called "Shaka Divers". Do you know what the Humu Humu Nuku Nuku Apua'a is?
Many of you have asked about what I am going to do on the trip. My Answer for you is thus far, I still know very little. The stuff I do know is that I will be helping with the music portion of VBS at Pali View. Otherwise I believe I should be investing a lot of time in the youth there, spending time with them and doing the whole "Iron sharpening Iron" dealeo.
To all of you on your summer mission trips currently, I am praying for you and that God protects and dumbfounds you with His glory and faithfulness!
~D-Rice
Hey everyone!
I will be leaving in less than a month now! yay!
I keep being reminded of Gods faithfulness in all of this. How He convicted me last summer, got me through the application process and trials, and how He has prepared my heart and my summer!
Sola Deo Gloria!
~Dan
I will be leaving in less than a month now! yay!
I keep being reminded of Gods faithfulness in all of this. How He convicted me last summer, got me through the application process and trials, and how He has prepared my heart and my summer!
Sola Deo Gloria!
~Dan
I read this verse this morning:
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." - Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NIV)
This is one of those those types of creeds that I strive for. Not because I am trying to be the best for my own sake, but because it brings glory to the name of God. Its a form of worship, showing God that He is so worth the effort to do the best possible job in order to give credit to the One whom we owe all aspects of life to. I really hope to apply this on my trip to Hawaii. The weekend is finally here where I get to get the low-down on whats I will be doing on the trip! I will update again sometime next week and let everyone know whats up!
Sola Deo Gloria!
~D-Rice
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might." - Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NIV)
This is one of those those types of creeds that I strive for. Not because I am trying to be the best for my own sake, but because it brings glory to the name of God. Its a form of worship, showing God that He is so worth the effort to do the best possible job in order to give credit to the One whom we owe all aspects of life to. I really hope to apply this on my trip to Hawaii. The weekend is finally here where I get to get the low-down on whats I will be doing on the trip! I will update again sometime next week and let everyone know whats up!
Sola Deo Gloria!
~D-Rice
Allllllrighty, its time for an update!
As far as summer missions related stuff goes, I have gotten my plane ticket info and finally some information about orientation! So I officially leave on June 02 at 10:15 AM Atlanta time and arrive after a non-stop flight to Honolulu at 1:30 PM Hawaii time. Do not be deceived, the trip is longer than 3 hours. Its actually 9 hours! Woot! We are scheduled to com back on July 28 leaving Honolulu at 3:15 PM Hawaii time and arrive in Atlanta at 5:35 AM. Please ask for blessing on who ever has to pick me up at that ridiculous hour :-P
Orientation weekend looks like it is going to be pretty cool. The Good news is that the commissioning service on Saturday starts at 2:30, which means I will be able to get out of there in time to make it to my initiation into Delta Sigma Pi at 6PM! God is sooooo good! That weekend is going to be good no doubt! I will get to have some uality time with my missions partner as well as our other brothers and sisters going out on the field this summer.
In other news, there have been a lot of realy cool things that keep reaffirming that I am supposed to go on this trip. I really think one of the coolest things God does is that he sets up little reminders and check points right under your nose and you don't know their significance until later. Let me start from one of the cooler instances. One of the first "check point" that God presented me has to do with a shower curtain. Back in the 6th gradeish time period of my life, we spruced up my bathroom. My mom made me a shower curtain and said it could be any design I chose. I had chosen a beach island pattern with a special resort and palms and kyak like boats in the water. Just recently my mom told me that when she was making the curtain with a friend that her friend pointed out tht it was actually supposed to be Daimond head beach, at the bottom of Oahu!
How cool is that???
Another has been developing for a couple of years. In preparation for this trip, my mom has gotten some really good reading material on Hawaii and its culture. She has been reading through them and told me the ther night that if I recive a red envelope sometime near my birthday, that I should accept it. Apparently red is the lucky color in Hawaii, which makes sense given that Hawaii is heavlily influanced by asain cultures and red is a luck color there too. This struck me as quite interesting because I grew up really liking the color blue, but since about my sienor year of high school, my taste has changed to red. Its funny because after that point I became particularly fond of red. When I got a new car, it had red interior lighting.
When I got my phone for this round of contract, I decided to go with the red color, where as I would have normally gone with generic black or metal.
Another cool, and probly the more ironic was the color of "send me now" cause braclet I chose at Confluence... you guessed it, its red.
So those are a few of the things that are just getting me soooo pumped about this trip and How God is in every thread of it!
In closing, I like to leave you with a provocitive thought. Last Sunday I heard some really encouraging words. During our college bible study, the college minister talked about this guy named C. T. Studd. This guy was an excellent Cricket player in his prime, but he is better known for the mission work he did setting up opium recovery clinics in asia and ending his missionary carrer in a culture of cannabalism where he was able to share God with these natives and evetually God turned the culture around to using Studd and his family. In this study the minister brought up one of C.T. Studd's quotes-
"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell."
This has really been on my mind all week and speaks to me so greatly. Although I may not be going to Hawaii to meet a physical need like poverty, I am going to a spiritual battle field. Please pray for me and my partner Todd as we prepare our hearts, as we get our information at orientation weekend, and for the hearts that the Holy Spirit is plowing as we speak in Hawaii and all that Todd and I encounter.
~D-Rice
As far as summer missions related stuff goes, I have gotten my plane ticket info and finally some information about orientation! So I officially leave on June 02 at 10:15 AM Atlanta time and arrive after a non-stop flight to Honolulu at 1:30 PM Hawaii time. Do not be deceived, the trip is longer than 3 hours. Its actually 9 hours! Woot! We are scheduled to com back on July 28 leaving Honolulu at 3:15 PM Hawaii time and arrive in Atlanta at 5:35 AM. Please ask for blessing on who ever has to pick me up at that ridiculous hour :-P
Orientation weekend looks like it is going to be pretty cool. The Good news is that the commissioning service on Saturday starts at 2:30, which means I will be able to get out of there in time to make it to my initiation into Delta Sigma Pi at 6PM! God is sooooo good! That weekend is going to be good no doubt! I will get to have some uality time with my missions partner as well as our other brothers and sisters going out on the field this summer.
In other news, there have been a lot of realy cool things that keep reaffirming that I am supposed to go on this trip. I really think one of the coolest things God does is that he sets up little reminders and check points right under your nose and you don't know their significance until later. Let me start from one of the cooler instances. One of the first "check point" that God presented me has to do with a shower curtain. Back in the 6th gradeish time period of my life, we spruced up my bathroom. My mom made me a shower curtain and said it could be any design I chose. I had chosen a beach island pattern with a special resort and palms and kyak like boats in the water. Just recently my mom told me that when she was making the curtain with a friend that her friend pointed out tht it was actually supposed to be Daimond head beach, at the bottom of Oahu!
How cool is that???Another has been developing for a couple of years. In preparation for this trip, my mom has gotten some really good reading material on Hawaii and its culture. She has been reading through them and told me the ther night that if I recive a red envelope sometime near my birthday, that I should accept it. Apparently red is the lucky color in Hawaii, which makes sense given that Hawaii is heavlily influanced by asain cultures and red is a luck color there too. This struck me as quite interesting because I grew up really liking the color blue, but since about my sienor year of high school, my taste has changed to red. Its funny because after that point I became particularly fond of red. When I got a new car, it had red interior lighting.
When I got my phone for this round of contract, I decided to go with the red color, where as I would have normally gone with generic black or metal.
Another cool, and probly the more ironic was the color of "send me now" cause braclet I chose at Confluence... you guessed it, its red.
So those are a few of the things that are just getting me soooo pumped about this trip and How God is in every thread of it!In closing, I like to leave you with a provocitive thought. Last Sunday I heard some really encouraging words. During our college bible study, the college minister talked about this guy named C. T. Studd. This guy was an excellent Cricket player in his prime, but he is better known for the mission work he did setting up opium recovery clinics in asia and ending his missionary carrer in a culture of cannabalism where he was able to share God with these natives and evetually God turned the culture around to using Studd and his family. In this study the minister brought up one of C.T. Studd's quotes-
"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell."
This has really been on my mind all week and speaks to me so greatly. Although I may not be going to Hawaii to meet a physical need like poverty, I am going to a spiritual battle field. Please pray for me and my partner Todd as we prepare our hearts, as we get our information at orientation weekend, and for the hearts that the Holy Spirit is plowing as we speak in Hawaii and all that Todd and I encounter.
~D-Rice
Okay, so here goes part 2.
So Paul goes on to talk further about the relationship between a child, their Paidigogos, and what happens after. Continuing on Paul is talking in Galatians 4:1-2-
"Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all. But is under his tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father."
The first aspect that needs to be understood that carries over from the last post is that the Paidigogos is the primary care taker of a child, therefore, the child is under the authority of the servant, cared for by the servant, and lives among the servant's own children. That's what the first verse is talking about is that, although the child is of the rich family, it still is under the constraints and authority of the Paidagogos, just like the Paidagogos' own family.
The second part to this is based on Greek traditions. In the Greek society, it is the childs father who decideds when he is a man and bestows apon him the position of full-grown son. (Im about to tie in the prodigal son here in just a second, its gunna be pretty cool.) At this point of recognition, the father throws an awesome party for the young man called "toga virilis". This party is basically to celebrate that the sone has reached the age of maturity and authority in the family. The father gives the son a toga and a ring with his special insignia. This ring means the son now has equitable power and authority over his fathers possesions. This is where the prodigal son comes in. You know that party the father of the prodigal son threw? Well it was a "toga virilis". Upon the prodigal son's return, he had shown his father that he has experienced the things his father tried to teach him and now is worthy to have the mark of his father, where as before when he ran away from home he was stubborn and cocky.
Now weve gotten to the good part! To explain the significance of this metaphore should be easy now. Now knowing that as an official son of the father, and that you gain his power, I hope you have made the connection. The child has now become higher than the Paidagogos' auhority, and is now the servants' authority. This is the significance of why we call our selves sons and daughters of Christ! We have been given the power that is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Those of the Faith are now above any condemnation the Law could throw at us.
This is some good heavy stuff eh?
~D-Rice
So Paul goes on to talk further about the relationship between a child, their Paidigogos, and what happens after. Continuing on Paul is talking in Galatians 4:1-2-
"Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all. But is under his tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father."
The first aspect that needs to be understood that carries over from the last post is that the Paidigogos is the primary care taker of a child, therefore, the child is under the authority of the servant, cared for by the servant, and lives among the servant's own children. That's what the first verse is talking about is that, although the child is of the rich family, it still is under the constraints and authority of the Paidagogos, just like the Paidagogos' own family.
The second part to this is based on Greek traditions. In the Greek society, it is the childs father who decideds when he is a man and bestows apon him the position of full-grown son. (Im about to tie in the prodigal son here in just a second, its gunna be pretty cool.) At this point of recognition, the father throws an awesome party for the young man called "toga virilis". This party is basically to celebrate that the sone has reached the age of maturity and authority in the family. The father gives the son a toga and a ring with his special insignia. This ring means the son now has equitable power and authority over his fathers possesions. This is where the prodigal son comes in. You know that party the father of the prodigal son threw? Well it was a "toga virilis". Upon the prodigal son's return, he had shown his father that he has experienced the things his father tried to teach him and now is worthy to have the mark of his father, where as before when he ran away from home he was stubborn and cocky.
Now weve gotten to the good part! To explain the significance of this metaphore should be easy now. Now knowing that as an official son of the father, and that you gain his power, I hope you have made the connection. The child has now become higher than the Paidagogos' auhority, and is now the servants' authority. This is the significance of why we call our selves sons and daughters of Christ! We have been given the power that is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Those of the Faith are now above any condemnation the Law could throw at us.
This is some good heavy stuff eh?
~D-Rice
As I promised, I am going talk about the Paidagogos and why it is significant. To start off, ill share with you why this has caught my attention. Earlier this semester in my communications class, we talked about a Paidagogos as we began the semester about the roots of the study of communication. It just so happened that same day as I was doing my study on comentary about Galatians that I came across the verse that also is specifically talking about the term Paidagogos. Obviously it seems like that a concept I had never heard before in my life being brought up in to different areas of my life on the same day... well it would foolish of me not to pay attention to it.
So what is a Paidagogos you ask? Well lets first take a look at where it comes in from Galatians 3:25-
"But after faith has come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster"
A quick definition of a Paidigogos is related to the term "schoolmaster". In class it was defined as the person your parents hired to make sure you went to school and didn't cut class. Its soooooo much deeper than that, and Paul uses it as such a relevent metaphore to the Galatians. A closer look at what a Paidagogos is was that they were actually slaves under hire of the rich in ancient Rome. Understand that just because they have the title of slave does not mean they were "property", but most slaves were actually bond servants and or kinda subsistance workers. Anyhoo, so this servant is the paidagogos. He or she is given custody of a child from birth and they become the primary care taker. They do everything from feeding, clothing, bathing, disciplining, to basic teachings. At some point in the early development, the child would exceed what the Paidagogos could teach he or she, so at that point the Paidagogos just had to wake them and prepare them for school, then escort them to and from school.
So with all that in mind, to understand this metaphore, you must understand that Paul is talking about the difference between the Law and Faith. The Paidagogos is the symbol for the Law. The law is ment to guide us, make sure we don't touch the stove, and lead us to a greater understanding of God, but it cant save us. Ultimately, the Law is constructed to point out that we are sinners and that we aren't self-sufficient or faultless. It points us to Faith. When we reach the point of Faith, then we are no longer under the authority of of the schoolmaster.
Here comes part 2...
~D-Rice
So what is a Paidagogos you ask? Well lets first take a look at where it comes in from Galatians 3:25-
"But after faith has come, we are no longer under the schoolmaster"
A quick definition of a Paidigogos is related to the term "schoolmaster". In class it was defined as the person your parents hired to make sure you went to school and didn't cut class. Its soooooo much deeper than that, and Paul uses it as such a relevent metaphore to the Galatians. A closer look at what a Paidagogos is was that they were actually slaves under hire of the rich in ancient Rome. Understand that just because they have the title of slave does not mean they were "property", but most slaves were actually bond servants and or kinda subsistance workers. Anyhoo, so this servant is the paidagogos. He or she is given custody of a child from birth and they become the primary care taker. They do everything from feeding, clothing, bathing, disciplining, to basic teachings. At some point in the early development, the child would exceed what the Paidagogos could teach he or she, so at that point the Paidagogos just had to wake them and prepare them for school, then escort them to and from school.
So with all that in mind, to understand this metaphore, you must understand that Paul is talking about the difference between the Law and Faith. The Paidagogos is the symbol for the Law. The law is ment to guide us, make sure we don't touch the stove, and lead us to a greater understanding of God, but it cant save us. Ultimately, the Law is constructed to point out that we are sinners and that we aren't self-sufficient or faultless. It points us to Faith. When we reach the point of Faith, then we are no longer under the authority of of the schoolmaster.
Here comes part 2...
~D-Rice
Hello Everyone!
As some of you may have notice, I changed my layout. My last one, as cool as it was, was having issues, so I needed to change it. Now comments are working and I even added some cool tools to the right --------> I put some picture widgets of Hawaii up, a comparison clock of GA time to HI time that way if you need to contact me, you can see what time it is where I am with out trouble. Also, my archive links are working now too. All is good on my blog now! All of you RSS people should check it out!
~Dan
As some of you may have notice, I changed my layout. My last one, as cool as it was, was having issues, so I needed to change it. Now comments are working and I even added some cool tools to the right --------> I put some picture widgets of Hawaii up, a comparison clock of GA time to HI time that way if you need to contact me, you can see what time it is where I am with out trouble. Also, my archive links are working now too. All is good on my blog now! All of you RSS people should check it out!
~Dan
At the beginning when this all started, I determined to be strong and resilient knowing what I would be against. Let me ask you, what would be your first response when I told you that I am going to Hawaii for summer missions? I am willing to bet that its something along the lines of "Oh cool, sounds like its going to be a good vacation!" or "Awesome! Take me with you! I want to go to the beach too!" Interesting eh? Well I knew immediately understood that that was going to be a common response. I pledged to myself that I wouldn't let remarks like that get to me. After a while, my spirit really did begin to feel browbeaten.
Just as I was beginning to become discouraged and disheartened, God provided me with inspiration, truth, and ammunition. At Confluence (BCM's yearly gathering of all the BCMs in the area), God placed the first spark. The Sunday of that weekend's gathering allowed us to join the host church's morning service and in his message he brought up the verse Galatians 1:10. I know that I was supposed to hear this verse cus I had been drowsy alllllll during the service, but around the time that verse popped up, I had finnaly gained full consciousness. :)
Galatians has been my jam ever since then, in particularly 1:10 has been my theme. 1:10 says, "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." This kinda put things in perspective for me. It boosted my spiritual moral because it solidified my confidence in my conviction. This has the same application as the Armor of God. Equipping my self whith this verse has allowed me the ability to rebuke the doubt that comes along with a heavy heart.
Since then, God has had me just soaking up every little bit of information in Galations I can get. I got a comentary from Vernon McGee focused on Galatians that walks through verse by verse. As sad as it sounds, I still haven't finnished the comentary, but I also dont take it lightly. I will sometimes read the sections over and over untill I sopp up every little theological nugget.
Recently I was feeling as though I was in a little bit of a spiritual drought. The key indicator was that I felt my spiritual gifts sort ot dry up and they didn't seem to flow out of me as they usually did. This last weekend the sermon at JFBC had the verses 2 Timothy 4: 1-9.
It says...
~Dan
Just as I was beginning to become discouraged and disheartened, God provided me with inspiration, truth, and ammunition. At Confluence (BCM's yearly gathering of all the BCMs in the area), God placed the first spark. The Sunday of that weekend's gathering allowed us to join the host church's morning service and in his message he brought up the verse Galatians 1:10. I know that I was supposed to hear this verse cus I had been drowsy alllllll during the service, but around the time that verse popped up, I had finnaly gained full consciousness. :)
Galatians has been my jam ever since then, in particularly 1:10 has been my theme. 1:10 says, "Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." This kinda put things in perspective for me. It boosted my spiritual moral because it solidified my confidence in my conviction. This has the same application as the Armor of God. Equipping my self whith this verse has allowed me the ability to rebuke the doubt that comes along with a heavy heart.
Since then, God has had me just soaking up every little bit of information in Galations I can get. I got a comentary from Vernon McGee focused on Galatians that walks through verse by verse. As sad as it sounds, I still haven't finnished the comentary, but I also dont take it lightly. I will sometimes read the sections over and over untill I sopp up every little theological nugget.
Recently I was feeling as though I was in a little bit of a spiritual drought. The key indicator was that I felt my spiritual gifts sort ot dry up and they didn't seem to flow out of me as they usually did. This last weekend the sermon at JFBC had the verses 2 Timothy 4: 1-9.
It says...
1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
6For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
These verse have provided me with a spiritual revitalization and I feel back on track. Thats all I have for now. Next time I think I am going to write about the term "Paidigogos". Its really quite an intriguing verse that WILL help you understand your faith.~Dan
I found out last night who my partner will be in Hawaii! His name is Todd Lee and he is a student at UGA. He seems to be a really cool guy and I look forward to meeting him again in person. Please pray for our relationship as we begin to get to know each other. Also pray that God prepares our hearts to lift each other up on a daily basis in Hawaii and that we are effective tools for the Lord!
~D-Rice
~D-Rice
So it all began back in mid summer 2008. I was sitting at my job as a student assistant in the School of Accountancy at KSU, just chilling at my desk with some down time. So I decided to take a gander at the 2008 BCM summer missions list because I could and needed something to daydream about. As I scroll down the list (and even past the Hawaii trip for that year), I felt a twinge in my spirit. So, I start to scroll back up and when I get to the Hawaii trip listing, the feeling became stronger. Of course I immediately had 50 billion things running through my mind and heart all the sudden. My initial reaction was “common’ God, don’t be playin’ with me, that could be too good to be true.”
After that event I began to truly seek what God had in mind about this. As I focused on this more and more in my prayers, my feelings about became firmer about what God wanted for me to do this up coming summer. Soon after I presented this opportunity to my dad and he suggested that I get a mentor to help reassure my decisions and guide me in listening to God correctly. The requirements were a guy who has missions experience, knows how to hear God and be obedient, and he had to be nonbiased towards whether I went somewhere or not. So I decided to choose Billy Payne, an adult comparatively to me, whom I have seen hear, follow, and be faithful to the commands of God.
Billy and I began to meet on a regular basis to talk about missions and other stuff going on in our lives. He too felt, through the vibe he was getting from God in his own prayer, that what I was experiencing about summer missions was how i=I was interpreting. After being finally convinced and encouraged by Billy, I started doing the application and all and turned that in. About half way through fall semester one day, I was presented with the opportunity to be a Residential Assistant at the KSU dorms. I felt the same twinge of the spirit again, and so I brought it up in my meetings with Billy. Once again he agreed with me in this conviction of the spirit.
Once it started getting closer to the winter break I started to feel bogged down with a lot stress and stuff, taking care of Summer Missions and RA stuff. That’s when God put the phrase “full faith and confidence” in my heart. This phrase just rang throughout my soul and mind and was constantly being repeated in my head. Basically I interpret it as God meaning “just follow through with full faith and confidence that all will turn out okay. All you need to do is continue on with filling out the paper work and being a good student. I will take care of the rest, so don’t worry!” So I did as I felt what this phrase meant to me, and let me tell you, God has done irrefutable things! You can’t make this stuff up!
So far, I have seen 2 key products of this journey thus far. The obvious one is that by following through with full faith and confidence as God has asked, I am now on the road to Hawaii for Summer Missions. The second is how this past weekend panned out. This last weekend had become a big problem originally because both the Summer Missions retreat weekend and RA interview weekend ended up on the same weekend! This had been abrupt issue that arose late in the processes. Fortunately this was the only time that these two things would clash schedule wise all year. Unfortunately, both weekend deals were crucial to each process.
This next part has God written all over it. God was faithful in His words to me about being confident with what I was doing and He took care of the situation. God orchestrated it out to where I was able to attend the key parts of both interview weekend events. The way it worked was that I had to go to a mandatory social Friday night from 6:30pm to 7:30pm and then had to jet to Summer Missions retreat in Temple, Ga, getting there in time for the beginning of the important stuff for BCM. Then I stayed for the weekend in Temple and was able to make it back to KSU Sunday to have my individual interview at 12am for RA weekend. I honestly believe that this couldn’t have worked out any other way than with the plans of God.
God has been very good to me and He is worthy of praise for all he does for us! As our theme for this year proclaims, greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done here. In summary, I have felt God calling me to be a summer missionary in Hawaii through BCM since last summer, and by answering the call, God has shown that He will work stuff out in order to fulfill his plans. I can’t wait to see how God shapes the time between now and the trip, on the trip, and the results of the trip. I hope you are intrigued by my missions story thus far!
~D-Rice
After that event I began to truly seek what God had in mind about this. As I focused on this more and more in my prayers, my feelings about became firmer about what God wanted for me to do this up coming summer. Soon after I presented this opportunity to my dad and he suggested that I get a mentor to help reassure my decisions and guide me in listening to God correctly. The requirements were a guy who has missions experience, knows how to hear God and be obedient, and he had to be nonbiased towards whether I went somewhere or not. So I decided to choose Billy Payne, an adult comparatively to me, whom I have seen hear, follow, and be faithful to the commands of God.
Billy and I began to meet on a regular basis to talk about missions and other stuff going on in our lives. He too felt, through the vibe he was getting from God in his own prayer, that what I was experiencing about summer missions was how i=I was interpreting. After being finally convinced and encouraged by Billy, I started doing the application and all and turned that in. About half way through fall semester one day, I was presented with the opportunity to be a Residential Assistant at the KSU dorms. I felt the same twinge of the spirit again, and so I brought it up in my meetings with Billy. Once again he agreed with me in this conviction of the spirit.
Once it started getting closer to the winter break I started to feel bogged down with a lot stress and stuff, taking care of Summer Missions and RA stuff. That’s when God put the phrase “full faith and confidence” in my heart. This phrase just rang throughout my soul and mind and was constantly being repeated in my head. Basically I interpret it as God meaning “just follow through with full faith and confidence that all will turn out okay. All you need to do is continue on with filling out the paper work and being a good student. I will take care of the rest, so don’t worry!” So I did as I felt what this phrase meant to me, and let me tell you, God has done irrefutable things! You can’t make this stuff up!
So far, I have seen 2 key products of this journey thus far. The obvious one is that by following through with full faith and confidence as God has asked, I am now on the road to Hawaii for Summer Missions. The second is how this past weekend panned out. This last weekend had become a big problem originally because both the Summer Missions retreat weekend and RA interview weekend ended up on the same weekend! This had been abrupt issue that arose late in the processes. Fortunately this was the only time that these two things would clash schedule wise all year. Unfortunately, both weekend deals were crucial to each process.
This next part has God written all over it. God was faithful in His words to me about being confident with what I was doing and He took care of the situation. God orchestrated it out to where I was able to attend the key parts of both interview weekend events. The way it worked was that I had to go to a mandatory social Friday night from 6:30pm to 7:30pm and then had to jet to Summer Missions retreat in Temple, Ga, getting there in time for the beginning of the important stuff for BCM. Then I stayed for the weekend in Temple and was able to make it back to KSU Sunday to have my individual interview at 12am for RA weekend. I honestly believe that this couldn’t have worked out any other way than with the plans of God.
God has been very good to me and He is worthy of praise for all he does for us! As our theme for this year proclaims, greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done here. In summary, I have felt God calling me to be a summer missionary in Hawaii through BCM since last summer, and by answering the call, God has shown that He will work stuff out in order to fulfill his plans. I can’t wait to see how God shapes the time between now and the trip, on the trip, and the results of the trip. I hope you are intrigued by my missions story thus far!
~D-Rice
Hello everyone!
This is the first post of many that I will be making on my journey to Hawaii. Here you will be able to see updates, pictures, and videos that I will be posting between now and the end of my trip!
Soon I will be getting all the information you need to contact me and what not. Also, when I get some down time, I will post my story thus far so you can see just how good and faithful God has been with His promises and plans!
~D-Rice
This is the first post of many that I will be making on my journey to Hawaii. Here you will be able to see updates, pictures, and videos that I will be posting between now and the end of my trip!
Soon I will be getting all the information you need to contact me and what not. Also, when I get some down time, I will post my story thus far so you can see just how good and faithful God has been with His promises and plans!
~D-Rice