Women, stop murdering your husbands

I know you read the title like what is he talking about! I’m not murdering my husband.

Women, I know you have a hard day and I know you are very busy. Your husband probably left home this morning before you were even up and he’ll probably be home late tonight but don’t murder him when he comes through the door. Two questions out of his mouth to you are probably going to be “How was your day?” and “What did you do today?” Don’t assassinate him by saying “I’m fine” and “Nothing” just because you are tired and over worked. You both probably are. What you’ve done by answering these two questions this way has destroyed any hopes of your husband finding a single piece of information to connect with his wife and murdered any if not all open communication for the rest of the night.

Do you know what FINE really means? Feelings Inside Not Expressed. I know you have feelings to tell your husband how your day was because you have feelings when you are mad at him. You may not feel like it but this is the one, if not the only person, you should be able to trust with anything you say so if you can’t take the time to tell him how you feel then what your husband is hearing is “I must not be worth her time”. Especially if you reach to pick up your cell phone 2 seconds later. Woman tell your husband’s how you are feeling and how your day was. Even if it was horrible. He may not act like he’s interested but he wants to know. He needs and should know. Men, be quiet and listen! Your wife is opening her heart to you so this isn’t a time for a quick jab or joke. Be attentive to the conversation and take some mental notes.

Now to that second question. I know you got out of bed today and you probably took a shower so don’t tell your husband you did nothing all day. Tell him everything you did with all the details just like you tell your other friends. Even if it takes 15 or 20 minutes. Men, LISTEN! Ask her for more details. If your wife read a book today, ask her to give you some details on what she read. If she did a Bible devotion, ask her how it made her feel. Women, this is your time to tell your husband how good your day was or how horrible you day was so don’t murder him by saying you did nothing and then complain because he never talks to you. You haven’t giving him anything to talk about.

Now when you are done talking, ask him how his day was even if you have no clue what he is talking about. I’m sure there is something in there that you can connect with or just laugh about. Communication is the key to your marriage so stop killing it with short answers. In the book “Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires, The Respect He Desperately Needs”, Dr. Emerson Eggerichs talks about having quiet time together with your spouse every day even if you have to go in the bedroom and lock the door to keep the kids out for 15 minutes. Give your husband your time because if you don’t he’s going to find someone or something else to occupy it.

Session 3 : Your Heart Matters (Video Notes)

• The heart is three things.
1. It’s the command center of your life.
2. It’s deceitful and corrupt.
3. It’s made new in Christ.
• We associate Love with a 3 pound muscle in our chest that pumps blood through our body.
• We connect with other people emotionally and physically with our hearts.
• The heart is more than the center of our human affections but actually represents the center of an entire person.
• Luke 10:27 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
• Mark 7:20 - 22 Then He said, “What comes out of a person—that defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, promiscuity, stinginess, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.
• Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.
• Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
• There wouldn’t even be such thing as country music if it wasn’t for broken promises and broken hearts.
• When it comes to the heart, you don’t have a lust problem, or a sex problem, or a pornography problem, or a behavior problem, what you have and I have is a heart problem.
• The heart simply wants to be satisfied with it’s own desires at the expense of others.
• 1 John 3:20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
• The good news is the power of the gospel can change our sick deceitful hearts and make them brand new.
• Matthew 5:27 - 28 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
• Sin happens in the heart first. Each of us is a sinner. Your heart can be made new in Christ.
• Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
• Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Romans 6:17 - 18 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
• You can never really gain any benefit from living according to your own selfish desires.
• Jesus is the cure for your heart problem and your lust problem and your shame problem and your guilt problem and your porn problem and your sex problem and your insecurity problem.
• Jesus is the cure of your sin problem.

Session 6 : Our Final Destination (Video Notes)

Below are some of the notes I took while watching the Session 6 video called ‘Our Final Destination’ of the True Love Project with Clayton King.

• Sexual desire is a sign of something greater than sex. It’s a reflection of the need for lasting love.
• Psalm 119:105 - 106 Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. I have solemnly sworn to keep Your righteous judgments.
• Psalm 119:109 - 112 My life is constantly in danger, yet I do not forget Your instruction. The wicked have set a trap for me, but I have not wandered from Your precepts. I have Your decrees as a heritage forever; indeed, they are the joy of my heart. I am resolved to obey Your statutes to the very end.
• What is your final destination in Life? Wedding day, the wedding dress, honeymoon…
• You’ll never have a perfect marriage and there is no such thing as perfect sex and there are no perfect spouses. The truth is the person you are going to marry is so sinful that Jesus himself had to die on a cross to save them.
• You could have the picture perfect marriage. You could be a virgin as you walk down the aisle but if you don’t have Jesus then none of those will satisfy you. And none of those will save you.
• Jesus is the destination. He’s the big win. He’s the goal. He’s the finish line. He is the treasure at the end of your life.
• If you get all the other things you ever wanted but you don’t get Jesus then in the end you gain nothing.
• Mark 8:35 - 38 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life? What can a man give in exchange for his life? For whoever is ashamed of Me and my words in the adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.
• Philippians 3:12 - 14 Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
• Submission –> Direction –> Instruction –> Action –> Destination
• Psalm 119:9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping Your word.
• Psalm 119:11 I have treasured Your word in my heart so that I may not sin against You.
• Psalm 119:35 - 37 Help me stay on the path of Your commands, for I take pleasure in it. Turn my heart to Your decrees and not to material gain. Turn my eyes from looking at what is worthless; give me life in Your ways.
• If you get Jesus, you get everything!

Habakkuk 3:2 What?

Today I saw a song title that said Habakkuk 3:2. In my curiosity I decided to look it up. I type it into Google and I get a few links. The first link that pops up is in NIV and I read it.

And then I read it again. I think for a minute “What the heck does that mean?” I felt like Ralphie in The Christmas Story as he hurries to decode the secret message from Orphan Annie. Let me find another version. I read over the ESV text.

Still lost! What has me so confused is the last line of the text because it sounds so dark. So then I think maybe seeing the whole chapter will help.

A-ha, it’s a prayer. Ok, now we are getting somewhere. Let’s go back to Google and find out who Habakkuk really is. I look over all the Wikipedia information on Habakkuk and that’s some good information but then I find a link to a blog post from a Bible study. This is where it finally makes sense. The link to the blog is below.

https://viministry.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/trusting-god-habakkuk-3/

Then I think, “This is the same thing we are doing today that he did hundreds of years ago”. So after reading the blog I found, about three times it finally made sense. The reason I share this is because the story of Habakkuk’s heart being changed from a person who knows of God to a person who has experienced God’s great works. It’s a great story that many people deal with in their own lives. It was if this was Habakkuk’s testimony to the rest of the world.

At the bottom of the blog there was quote that made perfect sense. I have re-pasted it below.

“There is a difference between believing that God is holy and gracious, and having a new sense on the heart of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. The difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious is as different as having a rational belief that honey is sweet and having the actual sense of its sweetness” (A Divine and Supernatural Light, Jonathan Edwards).

Of course now excited about the story of Habakkuk, I had to read all 3 chapters.

Update: I added a link to the video on YouTube of the song mentioned above.

Open Office Culture Doesn’t Work

Yesterday I realized this open culture of cube farms doesn’t work. Facebook and Google may have created the push for this open culture but they are counterproductive. Don’t get me wrong here. At one time I thought they were productive. I thought they were the way to go but then I realized something. People aren’t collaborating and the people who are collaborating are disturbing the rest of the people in the area. If you walk around you will see almost everyone with a headset on or ear phones in. They aren’t in online meetings. They are trying to drown out the noise of all the conversations in the area so they can be somewhat productive which means they aren’t collaborating. They are slowly becoming less and less productive.

Over the years I’ve been in numerous office situations. I’ve found that individual offices don’t work either. They create silos of people who hardly ever collaborate causing lots of rework. I think they work great for managers and executives who need their private times but not for individuals or team leaders.

So what is the solution? The solution is a mix of both. This mix is team rooms. Rooms that seat anywhere from 5 to 10 people in a room where the area in that room is open just like the low wall cube farms. This allows for teams to become closer than just colleagues and that is what builds a team. That is what fosters collaboration, open communication, and ownership. The people in the room work on the same or similar projects that require open atmosphere communication. This is the day-to-day communication that doesn’t directly affect a project but is important. The team members shouldn’t need to wear head phones every day to get work done. The team leaders should also sit with their team members to keep track of their team’s problems and activities.

Just some thoughts from a rambling office worker.

Easter realization

Today I realized something…
So what stemmed this thought? Today at church a new friend came over and gave me a hug after the service. It was a glorious service today. Anyway, it wasn't just a hug. It felt different. It sparked something inside of me that made me realize something. I finally realized that something I've been looking for my whole life, something I've been praying for, I will never have on this earth. What I mean is I’ll never know what it feels like to have an earthly father’s love for his son. This may seem bad to you but it’s a great breakthrough for me. It means I’m letting go of things that are holding me back. I’ve struggled my whole life of 35 years with wondering what it felt like to have a father’s love for his son. Even as being a father now, I’ve made my mistakes. From the outside looking in, most people would probably say I haven’t been a good father. Especially to my son. What I’ve learned over the past few months is I’m not a bad father. I’m a father who didn’t have a father to model that example so I’m having to figure things out the hard way. By making mistakes and failing a lot.
I’m sure you are thinking, where is the breakthrough right! The breakthrough is that by letting go of the thought and trying to find the feeling of what a father’s love should feel like, I can focus my time and energy on accepting the love of God as my father filling the hole in my heart and let that joy and love overflow from my heart into my own family. I can let the Godly men I have become friends with be the example of being a loving father.
This thought then got me thinking what is going to happen with my kids and their kids. The absence of a father at one generation before the developing of the foundation can take place will ripple across multiple generations before the males in the family genealogy becomes aligned with children who've had a stable father the whole time. Sometimes a grandparent or someone else can step in and take on the role shortening the generations ripple affect but it all takes time. Something we all have a limited amount of.

Are you really living life to the fullest?

If tomorrow you were given 30 days to live, what would you stop doing and what would you start doing?

What would you give up or stop doing?

Maybe you would give up going to work or maybe say goodbye to that Netflix marathon you've been watching for 2 weeks, or maybe exercising, or healthy eating. Who needs to exercise and eat healthy when you are dying, right!

What would you start doing?

Maybe you would start going to church, maybe read the bible (You know you want to start studying for the big test coming up in heaven), maybe call a few friends just to hear their voice again, or maybe do a little traveling. Have one last family reunion? Maybe start a journal for your kids to read later or write a book to your kids for when you are gone.

So I ask you these 2 questions for a reason. What’s the difference in giving these things up when you know you are going to die but yet you’ll do them today without any regard for your life. You spend today thinking there will be a tomorrow, or there will be a next month or a next year. What you aren’t doing is living life to the fullest. If you had 30 days to live would you sit down and watch the whole Grey’s Anatomy series? I already calculated it. The whole series comes out to 18 continuous days of watching TV. I highly doubt you would sit down and watch a whole Netflix series knowing you were going to die soon. So why would you do that when you think you are going to live many more years? Is your life some how less valuable when you think you are going to die in the far out future versus the near future? Now obviously you can’t just quit work without a good reason because you still have bills and people to support but maybe you will think of work as just a resource to do life.

Now let’s talk about those things you would start doing. What’s stopping you today from doing those things now? Probably money. Maybe vacation time or other commitments. What is your plan to start doing those things? If those things are so precious that you would spend the last days of your life doing them, why aren't you doing them now? I suggest you make a plan every year to do one or two of those things you would do in your last days that you aren't doing and then plan the rest of your year around them. If those things are that precious then everything should come after them. Including work! Your job should supplement your life and not consume your life.

These aren't lessons I just one day realized. These are lessons that have taken many years to learn and refine. Something that has also taken me a long time to learn is that time is truly your most precious asset in life. Ask yourself, what would you give up today if you were going to die in 30 days?

Happiness in yourself

Here's a little knowledge tip in life. You are responsible for your own happiness in life. It's nobody else's job on this planet to make you happy in life. Not your friend's, not your family's, not your spouse or significant other, or your kids job. Only you can define if you are happy in life and only you can control if you are happy. If you are blaming someone else or some event or something for making you unhappy, it's your fault that you let them or it steal your happiness. Happiness comes from inside.

This is a message I originally posted on my Facebook timeline September 9, 2014.

The first time God spoke to me

It was a Sunday morning before church and my wife and I had just had a little argument about having money for this weeks tithes. My wife either doesn't understand how much this means to me or I haven't communicated it well enough but this week she told me she had spent the money on something else. As we are walking to the church we have some words back and forth and then I ask her if she locked the truck. She said "No".  We said a couple words about who was going to go back and I proceeded back to lock the truck. I bit my tongue and held my words in that I wanted to say since I'm trying to be a better husband. Low and behold, did I know that walk back to the truck would be life changing. As I'm walking and grumbling unloving words in my head about my wife, I hear the words "unconditional". It wasn't like someone whispered the word unconditional. It was if everything around me was gone and it was just God and I. I knew right away what he meant. I wanted to drop to my knees and start crying. What the lord meant was "Love your wife unconditionally". She is a good hearted woman and for that you need to love her even if you are mad about why or how she did something. He was right. I wasn't loving my wife unconditionally.

Keep in mind that I've never had this open line of communication with God like this. It was almost scary at first but he knew what to say that would put me back on track. You never know how or when God will speak to you.

Originally written in February 2014.

Church today is just a trailer

Do you ever feel like the church sermon on Sunday is just a trailer or a 15 minute advertisement for Sunday school? I remember back when I was a kid growing up I usually went to two different churches. One was Calvary Advent Christian Church pastored by Jim Lee and the other was a small church in Hudson, North Carolina that I don’t remember the name of.

I remember going to this smaller church with Donna and her son Bryson who was my best friend. I remember there were times when this preacher would get into the Holy Spirit and the words would start flowing. He’d make an announcement that it’s about 12 PM that if you had somewhere to be that you could leave but he was going to keep on preaching. And he would. Sometimes we wouldn’t get out of church till 1 o’clock. I hated it as a kid but these were some of the best memories I had of church. You truly got the meaning because you could see their sermons were from the heart and off the cuff. They may have started from a script of notes but they didn’t end that way. These are the sermons I like.

Another time when I was at Calvary Advent Christian Church I remember Jim Lee voicing his aggravation about all the announcements and other stuff that was taking away from his preaching time. I remember Jim didn’t always stop at 12 PM like most churches. Sometimes he stopped at 12:15 or 12:30 if the message really needed it and you could always hear a few people grumble. I commend him for this because these were the messages I got the most out of. Sermons shouldn’t have a time limit.

Why don’t preachers today run over time? I feel like churches today have to be done by a specific time or else. I’ve heard preachers say before “I know I have 20 minutes but I shoot for 15 minutes so I don’t make anyone mad if I run over”. I feel like when preachers are just preaching to meet a specific time slot they aren’t actually preaching and just reciting an essay. It feels like I’m listening to the trailer of a sermon and if you want the full message you must go to Bible study class. Preachers should preach about a message from the heart and not just some Bible notes they threw down. I can usually tell when a preacher is preaching from the heart and the message has less value when they aren’t. I hate it when a preacher gets into a message, looks up and they have 5 minutes left and give you the short version of the rest of the sermon so they make their time slot. I’m pretty sure God didn’t say church had to start and stop at a specific time. So why don’t preachers of today’s time preach like preachers of the 80’s and 90’s? I’m a long version kind of guy when it comes to sermons. I love to sit back and hear a good 1 hour sermon. I beam from ear to ear because I know this is the good stuff. I’m about to get a life changing message hear. Call me old fashioned but this is me.

Revolution Recap

WOW! Where do we go from here? If you didn’t go then I can’t explain the feeling you have. It’s just indescribable. The Bethany Youth always amaze me in the love they have for Christ. This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Revolution 2015 in Columbia, South Carolina. What did I take away from this trip?

The week leading up to Revolution was complete chaos for me. This week was grocery week and we are preparing for a big software release at work. Along with all my other commitments, there never seemed to be enough time in the day for sleep. I knew going into Friday was going to be rough and I prayed I could just stay awake for these youth on Friday. The drive up to Columbia was short and I think the anticipation kept me awake the whole time. We arrived at the Township Auditorium about 7 PM on Friday night. I was in complete “WOW” of everything. The music, the venue, the staff. Everything was awesome and far exceed any expectations I previously had about the event. As the music played and the kids danced I realized at one point that I no longer need alcohol to have fun in a setting like this. I’m a shy person in public but I’m slowly working on fixing that. This has never been something I liked about myself. I also realized that as adults, if we just have fun and embrace the moment we are all teenagers on the inside, just with more responsibilities. We capped the night off by taking everyone to Krispy Kreme donuts at 10:30 at night.

Saturday was another fun filled day. I remember one of the best parts of my morning was waking up and scanning through Twitter and Instagram for the hash tag #RevSC. It was a heart warming moment to see the comments the kids at the event were posting. We started the morning off by volunteering at a Agape Senior center for a couple hours. The kids worked hard and got to hang out with the Seniors at the center. It was a heart warming moment. I was also appreciative that I was given the opportunity to take 13 youth to the center with another adult. We met for lunch at a local church for pizza. Here I got to sit down and just get to talk with a few youth. I always value the time I have just to sit down and connect with what it going on in their lives. After lunch we headed off to the Township Auditorium for a few more sessions of the day. The last session of the day was the session I remembered the most. I got to see over 20 youth kids from Bethany go down front and be moved by the Holy Spirit. The best part of the trip was after the last session Will had the 20 or so kids meet in his room to talk to these kids and I was invited. I really got to know how they felt and to share some information of my journey with Christ with them. About 2 AM all the youth left to go back to their rooms and I got to do some brainstorming with Will for about an hour. It’s always good when you get some one-on-one time with someone you look up to. We both have very busy lives and never really get time to sit down and just talk very often.

Sunday we packed up from the hotel and drove to the Township Auditorium for the last session of the event. Royal Tailor, DJ Frank Clark, and Big Redd blew the roof off the place again for a third day. We had another great session by Jonathon McKee and then it was over. We stopped somewhere on the edge of Columbia to get lunch before we headed home. I had talked to Will prior to leaving the auditorium that I wanted to talk to the youth one last time before we got back to Summerville since Will wasn’t coming back with us. This was my first opportunity I’ve had to really speak to the kids as a whole. This is something Will usually does so I was a bit nervous and tried to stay to my notes I had taken earlier during the day. I talked to them about keeping Christ in the Center of everything they do and to not let their flame be dimmed by the rest of the world as they go back to their normal lives.

The drive home was rather fun. We jammed out to Royal Tailor music all the way back to Summerville. I got to think about some thoughts as I always do when I’m driving. That’s my thinking time. Here’s something I thought of. A life as a Christian is like the core values of the US Air Force.

• Integrity first
• Service before self
• Excellence in all you do

I could probably preach a 15 minute session on these alone since that are something I’ve pretty much lived my whole life by. I had some other personal thoughts about myself I need to work on changing and I’m slowly making a plan to do those.

I’m surprised how much I was able to stay awake through out the whole weekend. I went 4 days straight of being awake 20 hours a day going wide open and never really got tired. Maybe it was adrenaline. Maybe it was the Holy Spirit. What ever it was, I was surprised that I was able to still do that. One of the best parts was waking up ever morning and scrolling through Twitter and Instagram looking at the posts. I have to say I love being around  and connecting with everyone of these kids. This trip was definitely a confirmation of what God has called me to do and I hope the love and drive I have for youth ministry never dies out.

Matthew 28:19

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” ~ Jesus

Define: Prayer Programming

The act of writing some code and then publishing or distributing the application without any testing or verification.

Define: Knowledge Transfer

The act of a person with a significant amount of knowledge dropping a whole lot of information on a new person who has no idea what the information is used for or how it's used so the knowledgeable person can tell their manager that they had a knowledge transfer session with the new person.

TVR Recap

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the TVR Christian Camp in Plumtree, NC with 19 Bethany United Methodist Church high school youth. Although we left on Friday night, my adventure to TVR began on Monday night earlier during the week while laying in bed with a fever. There I was laying in bed miserable from the fever and I had a vision. It was a short vision that lasted about 3 seconds. During this vision I saw a man standing on what looked to be a stage with a green plaid shirt and blue jeans on. The man’s face was blurred out but I could see the chin and kind of make out the hair style. The man I saw was holding something. At first I thought the man I saw was holding a rope but then I heard him talking about eternity. About going to heaven or hell for eternity. Later on I will give more about the importance of this vision.

I had the privilege of driving one of the vans from Summerville to TVR Friday night. We arrived at TVR around 11 PM and the drive brought back many memories of growing up in North Carolina. It definitely felt like home. After getting a short briefing from the TVR staff and then unpacking the vans we were able to get to our rooms where we finally fell a sleep around 2 AM.

On Saturday morning something happened that truly scared me and filled me with happiness. After breakfast we had morning worship session led by Jonathan and this is when my vision came to life. As Jonathon was talking he started talking about going to heaven or hell for eternity. The exact same words I heard during my vision and then I start looking at Jonathan and the picture matches the vision exactly. The black lines I saw in my vision were the microphone stands. Jonathan was wearing a green plaid shirt with blue jeans while holding a coffee mug. The shape of his chin and hair style matched exactly. I didn’t know if I was to be scared or to be happy because this was the first time something like this has happened to me before. This moment truly reassured to me that I was meant to be here at TVR with these kids and there was a reason God wanted me here. The rest of Saturday was filled with activities, a hike to plow point with a majestic view, fun games, great food, a camp fire, and some awesome fellowship.

Sunday I felt kind of bad for missing my normal church service. Something about it just felt wrong but being at TVR with these kids I felt closer to God than I had ever been. Again Sunday was another day I was taught how it felt to have your heart filled with joy. As we left TVR to get our skiing equipment from the rental place I heard the kids feeling unsure about their choice of skiing and snowboarding. Many of them were trying it for the first time. Quite a few people really went out of their way  that day  to help others but 2 people really stuck out to me. One was a girl named Madison and the other was a girl named Claire. Although Madison couldn’t ski because of a prior injury she was still healing from, she was out there taking pictures and cheering people on as they came down the mountain. The other girl Claire truly was a heartwarming experience to see. This little girl was in tears about skiing at the rental shop. A few people gave her words of encouragement and love at the rental place reassuring her that everything would be OK. At the slopes Will spent some time teaching Claire how to ski one-on-one after his mini session with the others who wanted a quick lesson. Every time I came down the mountain I saw Claire there on the bunny slope trying her hardest each time getting better and better. Claire never gave up. I found it more fun watching this little quite girl conquer her fears and build her self confidence. This is what I loved so much about CrossFit and now I’m witnessing similar accomplishments with this little girl. I must have stood there for 20 or 30 minutes watching Claire at the end with a huge smile on her face each time she went down the slope. You couldn’t have asked for a better day on the slopes. The temperature was nice, the snow was nice, and the smiles of the kids made it just a magnificent day.

The highlight for Monday was the debrief session with the youth before we left. We all sat in a circle before we piled in the vans to head back to Summerville. What I heard in this debrief session honestly reassured why we went to TVR. Almost every kid had some life altering experience with their faith and to hear that first hand after getting to know each one of these kids really meant a lot to the adults. I myself was almost in tears just listening to each kid speak over and over about how something they heard during one of the sessions really touched their heart.

What did I take away from this weekend?

One of the best parts of the trip was getting to know the kids and adults while building a relationship with each one of them. I laughed, worshipped, hiked, and played some of the weirdest games with these kids while getting to know each one of their personalities. These kids taught me what it felt like to truly have a heart filled with joy. Along with being with these kids I got to see from the TVR staff what it means to live and work together for Christ. Going to TVR affected how I am going to do some things in my own life in the future. One thing is I want to start blogging more about my feelings and my faith. I have something to say to world and I just haven’t figured out which way I want to get it out there.

“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”  ~ C.S. Lewis