Connections Through My Experiences and Thoughts

I have had some down time today so I thought I would blog alittle. I am not one who expresses my thoughts, but here are a few of my thoughts that I have had the opportunity to think about while spending the day with Avery.

There is a part of our reading curriculum at school where the students have to make connections to aid in their comprehension while reading books. The connections they should be making are text to text, text to world, and text to self. With this down time today I thought I would make some connections to "self" and to the "world" through some experiences that I have had over the past few weeks and even days.



Connection to "Self"": A few weeks ago I was able to head over to my brother's new church plant in Camden. I headed over there to support my brother and also see how the Lord is working with these people and the people around them. It was such a great experience worshipping with total strangers. I was very welcomed and felt the love from this body of believers as well as the love of the Lord. It is so encouraging to read, hear, and see that the individuals at this public meeting want to reach out to those who are lost. Leaving the building I was so encouraged to how the Lord is working at this church plant so far. I was encouraged for myself to love people more so that they can see the Love I have for Jesus. Loving the Lord more is something that I need to work on and if I am stronger in my walk I can love people more. This was my connection to "self" and how I was impacted and now a connection to the "world".

Connection to the "World": The other day I went to a wedding in Maryland with Ange. I was able to sit at a table and met a guy from England. Since he was from England of course I struck up a conversation about futbol (soccer). I don't really connect with people in such a short time, but I really connected with this individual. We talked soccer here and there (Ange said something along the lines "oh great") and he was able to share his testimony with me. Currently he is a missionary in England where he has been a pastor of a church for 19 years. He shared with me about his dark times in his life and how the Lord brought him out of the tough years. This guy has been through it all; marriage with affairs, alcohol, and bringing his life back to the Lord through a drug rehab since he was a coke addict. After rehab he was called to be a missionary and a few months out of rehab an individual over in England asked him to start a church. He started a church with only a few people attending and 19 years later has about 130 committed people. He shared with me the ups and downs in his lifes (more downs) and how the Lord is working over in England. He was saying that less than 1% of people attend a church over there compared to the 50% over in the States who attend. He shared with me a story of a guy who came into their Church one day who had a messed up life and was currently struggling with things. This individual continued coming to services and eventually told his parents that he was attending a futbol practice or league. This guy eventually found the Lord through the Love that was shown by people of this church and the acceptance. There were other stories that this guy shared with me of people coming into the church with addictions, etc. and through the love of people and the grace of God coming to know the Lord. So here is that connection to the world...The congregation in Camden is reaching out to those who are stuck in sin and the congregation in England is doing the same thing. The Lord has been working for so many years over in England where people are coming to know him with this church's philosophy and outreach. It is exciting that the Lord can and will do the same thing with this church plant in Camden.

I hope I can be an outreach to people of the world where they are able to see my love for them and where they will be able to see the love of a graceful God.