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
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