Road Trip: Take 2

we are in Saint Louis... the last three days have been pretty sweet. We got to colorado and spent a day in Denver with my friend Justin, He showed us pretty much everything... we were in the mountains on ATV's then we were in Golden (small town) then we went to downtown denver, then we went to Red Rocks. it was just simply amazing. i dont know how else to explain it. Just in says it was the best day! were all pretty stoked on the way it went. so now we left and took a 13 hour drive to saint louis where we are about to leave and go up to chicago. but before we do, were gonna go see the arch, cause after all, it would be a bad idea not to!

ROAD TRIP: Take 1

OK, so this trip has been awesome so far! we have been in Reno and now SLC. there has been a great deal of driving. which hasn't really been so bad, it was hard for like the first half a day, and now its just how it is. We have become accustomed to driving. the thing we still need to get a handle on is sleeping in uncomfortable places or unfamiliar living rooms! and by the way... California, has perfect weather if you haven't realized it yet. We were up laughing last night in our tent cause we couldn't find a way to make ourselves cooler. it was soooo hot! but oh well, we will be ok, its all be fun so far. i slept well enough last night once it cooled down. (which cooled down means that it got to be like 70 degrees out. So its like swimming in my pool all night long, haha. anyways, we will try to keep people updated.

heres some pics so far. check the facebook for pics, check www.mattandrobbie.blogspot.com if you want to see some of that stuff too!


laters friends, till next time.

Panera Madness!

This place is awesome, i love how peaceful it is to sit and study in, i especially love the way that they do interviews, one on one is important... maybe... or not!




There are 24 people in this group interview, its like a small youth ministry meeting where you get to say hi to a person and then they leave! ha

DO JUSTICE

We are about to go into a justice series with the church right after easter sunday. Im excited to see how people respond, cause i have been getting wrecked as we begin to dive into prep work for this series.


I have noticed in myself that i have been more emotionally sensitive to violence, sexual abuse in the news, and just the over all depravity of mankind. there is a girl missing in my town who has been gone for about two months now, and my mind wonders where she is, what has happened. Our series is going to touch on modern day slavery and i feel like the majority of modern day slavery is linked directly to sexual sin. I have a hard time dealing with this. I watched a msnbc clip about sex slavery in our own county. There was a girl who went missing, had been rapped and the cops finally found her because they found her for sale on the internet...


then we are going to be talking about world vision and the number of people who need assistance around the world. we have tickets for the world vision tent which is a prayer-walk like event where a person goes through this tent for 30 minutes and is given different perspectives, and asked to pray, and shown things that will hopefully open their eyes to the world around them, apart from them, and how they can influence it.


Then we are also talking about adoption. the church today multiplies by growing families, but does it think there is a responsibility to provide familes for those who will otherwise not have one. there are many situations where children are either aborted or abandoned because they are not wanted, but what if there were organizations who took these kids and put them into familes... well there are and we are gonna be talking about that.


but overall, i really think that this series will be one of the more meaningful things i will have had to prepare for in a long time. i know i have already been impacted and i look forward, kinda a little scared, to see what God will do in me and in our congregation here.

This last weekend I went up to Hume with a few friends of mine and my brother and we had the privilege of leading worship for their college winter camp. I can say with complete confidence that none of us expected God work like He did through us. We just started to practice for it like three weeks ago and maybe got 7 hours of practice time before we made it up the mountain. Then before we knew it God was working and people were thanking us and telling us how we as a band have helped them to grow closer to God this last weekend!

I am not a person worth much, honestly, i am the biggest loser i know! but God through me, suddenly i am a spiritual leader, and person who allowed another person to see God more clearly! God is amazing, again i say that we never expected response like we saw, but that's the problem with those things we expect i guess, God is always free to change the outcome.

My throughts on Ministry

so... i have been thinking a lot lately about the way Jesus did ministry. He spoke in parables, he was a teacher, some thought only a prophet because of how he spoke and the insight he had to the father. He healed, and was known to have the power of God. People were drawn to him for multiple reasons, but I am having a hard time seeing times where Jesus put on any sort of production other than the feeding of the 5,000 (although it was due to necessity). One could say though that if there are any type of production of any sort, it was only so that the people would believe. The healings, they were to bring about belief. The problem I am having is that, especially with the parables, that Jesus spoke in such a way that he challenged those people who were following Him but were not committed to Him. John 6 for a quick example.

The way i see it little has changed. a problem i see with ministry in many places is that we focus so much on production to drive a message home and make it impacting. The way I see it, the great commission even never was meant to mean go and make disciples, in the sense where we would have to twist someones arm behind their back, so to speak, mentally so that that they would believe the message of Christ. Why do we try so hard to keep people in church? Gods plan is GENIUS! the world is designed in such a way that it will bring back those people who would understand and believe and will filter out those people who don't want to truly understand. or who don't desire to really sacrifice to be with God.

I know this can sound insensitive, and that is not my intention. but i want us to really look at what Christ did on this earth, while the church must change to be relevant to culture, Gods message never should. Let God work more than you as preachers. Let God work more than you as friends. I am weak, and I am glad for it, because i get to see Him be strong.

that's what is on my mind today.

Bathroom remake

Cause victor didn't believe me i feel that i needed to defend myself.

this is what it looked like after... although i was talking, but my families camera... doesn't do sound. i had before pics but i gotta run and the image host is being a dumb head and not loading them.