Today was the last half of our return trip. At about 8:30 there was loud, rough banging on our front door. Mike jumped up and in a half sleep stupor said "What was that?" I said it came from the front door, but he thought it came from the next room, where the girls were. He had told them the previous night that if they were in any trouble, to bang on the wall. So he ran out our room to go see if they were alright. Then our phone staring ringing over and over. I was like, what is going on?
Wonderful Ben. Ben, how I love thee, let me count the ways. Ben, who knocks loud and calls much....Ben brought me a cup of coffee as a peace offering I guess. I just laughed and smiled.
We loaded up all the gear and went to go get gas and breakfast. 16 number 11's at jack in the box was a little much for the work crew, but they pulled it off superbly.
And the rest isn’t really that exciting. We got home at 5, cleaned out the RV, assessed the damage that had been done (sorry Johnsons!!) and waited for all the kids to get picked up. Mike dropped me off at home at 7, and here I am finished up this blog.
I sincerely hope you all have been blessed by the recounting of our trip. I hope you remember to pray for the people in Utah that we had the chance to minister to. Please remember to pray for Boyd and the LDS girl that accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior on our trip. They will need your prayers as they continue to grow in Christ in a very, very dark place.
We thank you for all your prayers. God surely listened and answered in ways you cannot imagine. We learned so much about God, ministry, his timing, and faith. He showed us his power, his might, his enduring love, and protection for his children. I am changed forever. I cannot see my life in California the same. And most importantly...my relationship with God and everyone on the trip has grown in ways I never expected. I love this team with all my heart. And we all love you, the readers, for you support in prayer while we were out, taking the gospel to those who so desperately need it. Thank you.
- nathan
Friday, August 15, 2008
Day 15
Ah...the trip home. I was awoken by the lights in our room all coming on at the same time. It was time to get up, it was 4:30, and it was horrible. But, the guys roused with more speed than I expected.
Oh! I have to tell you what happened the night before. The blinkers and brake lights stopped working in the RV and we didn’t know why. Ben, our resident mechanic, was outside working on the problem for about an hour the night before. He went through all the wiring, fuses, and everything he could think of but nothing was working. He then raised his hands and prayed to God. As he did so, he remembered a word that the Lord has given him right before the trip. The word was "depend on me." So Ben prayed, "ok God, I'm depending on you, I can’t do anything right now, it’s all yours" Just as he finished the prayer, the "click, click" of the blinkers started. He looked at the dash and the blinkers were working. A quick check to the back of the RV and trailer confirmed that they were all working. God is so cool I almost can’t stand it.
So, we picked up the girls and headed out. Our first stop was to the church we had visited the first week of our trip. You see, got answered another prayer the night before as well. Ben's toolbox had gone missing our first week of the trip. Nobody could seem to find it. We called Bethany the night before and asked her to look around the church one more time. And guess what...yup, she found it. Ben was so relieved cuz that toolbox contained years worth of tools and memories. So we got to pick up the toolbox at the church. Yeah, God is REALLY cool.
And that started our trek home. I slept the first 3 hours and my body has no idea what to do at 4:45 in the morning. Most of the group slept as well. We had planned two days to get back because Mike wanted to stop at Zion National Park on the way. The place was purportedly the most beautiful place on the planet.
When we got there, it was a million degrees outside. Ok, maybe not a million, but it was close. The plan was to hike up to this place called "Weeping Rock" We were told it was very pretty and a great place to have lunch. The problem was that the RV was too big to be allowed onto the park roads so we had to park outside, and take the tram up to the trail that leads to weeping rock.
It was funny listening to the voice recorded trail guide tell us how this place was created 700 bazillion years ago. We joked about all the rock formations just happened to evolved into what they were. About 20 minutes later we arrived at the trail head for Weeping Rock.
Weeping Rock is the perfect name for this place. Water that has seeped out the rock cascades down over the top of you. At the top of the trail there is an overhang that lets the water drop down in front of you while you are recessed back into long cave like area. Water drops down in there too, and because of that, above are some hanging gardens of moss and other plant life.
We busted out the guitar and hand drum and started to worship. The acoustics of the place enhanced the music. After our first song, the group that had come up after us clapped. It’s kind of embarrassing being applauded for worship. So, instead of make a big deal out of it, we just kept singing and playing. Another guy set up his camcorder and recorded us for about ten minutes. Maybe we’ll see the video up on YouTube someday. We spent about 30 minutes there and then headed back down.
We got to our RV and started off to our stop for the night in North Las Vegas. By the time we got there about 3 hours later, Mike was very, very tired. That, combined with the completely reckless and offensive driving of the Las Vegans, made for a couple close calls. I took over the driving and we found a buffet for dinner.
After dinner, we got to our motel and crashed. I was so tired, that I couldn’t blog because my eyes kept falling closed. Anyway, we had a good first day coming.
- nathan
Oh! I have to tell you what happened the night before. The blinkers and brake lights stopped working in the RV and we didn’t know why. Ben, our resident mechanic, was outside working on the problem for about an hour the night before. He went through all the wiring, fuses, and everything he could think of but nothing was working. He then raised his hands and prayed to God. As he did so, he remembered a word that the Lord has given him right before the trip. The word was "depend on me." So Ben prayed, "ok God, I'm depending on you, I can’t do anything right now, it’s all yours" Just as he finished the prayer, the "click, click" of the blinkers started. He looked at the dash and the blinkers were working. A quick check to the back of the RV and trailer confirmed that they were all working. God is so cool I almost can’t stand it.
So, we picked up the girls and headed out. Our first stop was to the church we had visited the first week of our trip. You see, got answered another prayer the night before as well. Ben's toolbox had gone missing our first week of the trip. Nobody could seem to find it. We called Bethany the night before and asked her to look around the church one more time. And guess what...yup, she found it. Ben was so relieved cuz that toolbox contained years worth of tools and memories. So we got to pick up the toolbox at the church. Yeah, God is REALLY cool.
And that started our trek home. I slept the first 3 hours and my body has no idea what to do at 4:45 in the morning. Most of the group slept as well. We had planned two days to get back because Mike wanted to stop at Zion National Park on the way. The place was purportedly the most beautiful place on the planet.
When we got there, it was a million degrees outside. Ok, maybe not a million, but it was close. The plan was to hike up to this place called "Weeping Rock" We were told it was very pretty and a great place to have lunch. The problem was that the RV was too big to be allowed onto the park roads so we had to park outside, and take the tram up to the trail that leads to weeping rock.
It was funny listening to the voice recorded trail guide tell us how this place was created 700 bazillion years ago. We joked about all the rock formations just happened to evolved into what they were. About 20 minutes later we arrived at the trail head for Weeping Rock.
Weeping Rock is the perfect name for this place. Water that has seeped out the rock cascades down over the top of you. At the top of the trail there is an overhang that lets the water drop down in front of you while you are recessed back into long cave like area. Water drops down in there too, and because of that, above are some hanging gardens of moss and other plant life.
We busted out the guitar and hand drum and started to worship. The acoustics of the place enhanced the music. After our first song, the group that had come up after us clapped. It’s kind of embarrassing being applauded for worship. So, instead of make a big deal out of it, we just kept singing and playing. Another guy set up his camcorder and recorded us for about ten minutes. Maybe we’ll see the video up on YouTube someday. We spent about 30 minutes there and then headed back down.
We got to our RV and started off to our stop for the night in North Las Vegas. By the time we got there about 3 hours later, Mike was very, very tired. That, combined with the completely reckless and offensive driving of the Las Vegans, made for a couple close calls. I took over the driving and we found a buffet for dinner.
After dinner, we got to our motel and crashed. I was so tired, that I couldn’t blog because my eyes kept falling closed. Anyway, we had a good first day coming.
- nathan
Day 14
We ended our missions trip to Utah with a work day aimed at helping the only Christian Camp in Utah to lay sod. Now, to be quite frank, I wasn’t really sure what that meant, but I was down to do it anyway.
We started to morning early as there had been some disquieting things happening almost conversations in the team. Mike, Ben and I got up at 6:30 to pray. My voice sounded froggy, but it was a great time for us to lift the group up in the Lord.
8:30 we headed over to the girls house to start out trek to the camp which was 30 minutes past Park City, Utah. We had prayed that my cough and such would go away and it did. The Lord is good!
Now, after I learned what laying sod was, I expected that area we were to be working in to be like a playground, park or small rest area. When we pulled up to the camp, there was this huge dirt area that was the size of a football field. I looked at Mike and said "We're going to sod all that?” For those of you who aren’t familiar with what "laying sod" is..It’s this: Small square pieces of grass that you lay in an interconnecting grid over a large area to create a beautiful lawn.
When we got there they had about 5 rows done. Each row was about 100 yards. That covered about 1% of the entire area that was to be sodded. Being a technical support/sales guy, the thought of all that manual physical labor made me rethink the idea of a work day. But nonetheless, we got the troops rallied, and headed out to get to work.
I think only one or two of our whole group even knew what sod was, let alone how to lay it. Ben, being the "multipurpose can do almost everything kind of guy" got right to work. He's from Wisconsin, and they do that kind of thing out there apparently. The rest of the team fell into line real quick.
We were working with another missions team from California which had about 10 people. They had been there already for about 1.5 hours and seemed burned out already. Mike wanted to make sure that our team presented a good witness in our work, so we made sure the team knew that we had 4 hours to work hard and bless the camp.
About an hour into the work, the main water main broke. Again, if you know anything about sod, you know that the ground you lay the sod on has to be damp. Without water, we couldn’t lay the sod. The guys that worked at the camp quickly fixed the problem and work continued.
Shortly thereafter, it was lunch time. I was happy. The camp had provided lunch for us which contained sandwiches, chips and punch. As I was talking with Russ East, the coordinator of the work day, I found out that there was a guy named Nicolas with him that needed a one page website put up. Nicolas is a native from Gana who has been traveling the world as a missionary. I was blessed at the opportunity to help him and agreed to do so. Wow, twice in one trip my computer talents have been able to come into play in blessing others.
At lunch, Russ and I were discussing some tactical options on getting the work moving faster. The Lord brought a plan to my mind and I shared it with him. He thought it was great, and after lunch I was asked to implement it. So I got to organize the work crew into teams that would carry sod, roll sod out, tuck the sod and so forth. As the plan fell into place the work speeded up tremendously. The whole time though I felt bad cuz I was up on a hill directing 26 people on where to go at what time and what to do. The Lord spoke to my heart that it was ok, to direct, as direction is what the whole team needed to get the job done.
I need to let you know about Nathan Hendrick. Throughout the day, he carried and carried sod up and down the rows and never complained once. Not only that, but he didn’t slow down either. He has a gift of putting on a good attitude that positively affects the whole team. I was blessed watching him work.
At 3, we wrapped up our team, said our goodbyes to the other team still there and headed home. Understandably, we were all dirty and muddy, so we rinsed off as best we could before getting into the RV. When we got home, everybody showered and we met at the girl’s house for dinner and debrief.
I got the read the whole blog to the team so that we could all refresh our minds on what had taken place over the last two weeks. We laughed, and shared memories of the things that the Lord had done. Ben was especially blessed as Billy, one of the high schoolers, shared at how Ben had become like a big brother to him. You see, Ben has the gift of encouragement. Almost every time you see him, he tells you he loves you and smiles. What a great dude!
Anyway, we got to bed early because we were getting up at 4:45 to head back home in the morning. This trip has been wonderful and I'm so glad I came. God has done things beyond imagining and has spoken in ways that simply bolster my love for Him.
More tomorrow....
- nathan
We started to morning early as there had been some disquieting things happening almost conversations in the team. Mike, Ben and I got up at 6:30 to pray. My voice sounded froggy, but it was a great time for us to lift the group up in the Lord.
8:30 we headed over to the girls house to start out trek to the camp which was 30 minutes past Park City, Utah. We had prayed that my cough and such would go away and it did. The Lord is good!
Now, after I learned what laying sod was, I expected that area we were to be working in to be like a playground, park or small rest area. When we pulled up to the camp, there was this huge dirt area that was the size of a football field. I looked at Mike and said "We're going to sod all that?” For those of you who aren’t familiar with what "laying sod" is..It’s this: Small square pieces of grass that you lay in an interconnecting grid over a large area to create a beautiful lawn.
When we got there they had about 5 rows done. Each row was about 100 yards. That covered about 1% of the entire area that was to be sodded. Being a technical support/sales guy, the thought of all that manual physical labor made me rethink the idea of a work day. But nonetheless, we got the troops rallied, and headed out to get to work.
I think only one or two of our whole group even knew what sod was, let alone how to lay it. Ben, being the "multipurpose can do almost everything kind of guy" got right to work. He's from Wisconsin, and they do that kind of thing out there apparently. The rest of the team fell into line real quick.
We were working with another missions team from California which had about 10 people. They had been there already for about 1.5 hours and seemed burned out already. Mike wanted to make sure that our team presented a good witness in our work, so we made sure the team knew that we had 4 hours to work hard and bless the camp.
About an hour into the work, the main water main broke. Again, if you know anything about sod, you know that the ground you lay the sod on has to be damp. Without water, we couldn’t lay the sod. The guys that worked at the camp quickly fixed the problem and work continued.
Shortly thereafter, it was lunch time. I was happy. The camp had provided lunch for us which contained sandwiches, chips and punch. As I was talking with Russ East, the coordinator of the work day, I found out that there was a guy named Nicolas with him that needed a one page website put up. Nicolas is a native from Gana who has been traveling the world as a missionary. I was blessed at the opportunity to help him and agreed to do so. Wow, twice in one trip my computer talents have been able to come into play in blessing others.
At lunch, Russ and I were discussing some tactical options on getting the work moving faster. The Lord brought a plan to my mind and I shared it with him. He thought it was great, and after lunch I was asked to implement it. So I got to organize the work crew into teams that would carry sod, roll sod out, tuck the sod and so forth. As the plan fell into place the work speeded up tremendously. The whole time though I felt bad cuz I was up on a hill directing 26 people on where to go at what time and what to do. The Lord spoke to my heart that it was ok, to direct, as direction is what the whole team needed to get the job done.
I need to let you know about Nathan Hendrick. Throughout the day, he carried and carried sod up and down the rows and never complained once. Not only that, but he didn’t slow down either. He has a gift of putting on a good attitude that positively affects the whole team. I was blessed watching him work.
At 3, we wrapped up our team, said our goodbyes to the other team still there and headed home. Understandably, we were all dirty and muddy, so we rinsed off as best we could before getting into the RV. When we got home, everybody showered and we met at the girl’s house for dinner and debrief.
I got the read the whole blog to the team so that we could all refresh our minds on what had taken place over the last two weeks. We laughed, and shared memories of the things that the Lord had done. Ben was especially blessed as Billy, one of the high schoolers, shared at how Ben had become like a big brother to him. You see, Ben has the gift of encouragement. Almost every time you see him, he tells you he loves you and smiles. What a great dude!
Anyway, we got to bed early because we were getting up at 4:45 to head back home in the morning. This trip has been wonderful and I'm so glad I came. God has done things beyond imagining and has spoken in ways that simply bolster my love for Him.
More tomorrow....
- nathan
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Day 13
Last day of public outreach of Utah 2008. When Mike and I were sharing with the boys this morning during devotions, the Lord put a message on my heart to share with them. Mike had just told them that this was our last day of public ministry. But I added to that that today was the last day of public ministry IN UTAH. This mission’s trip has been like a mission training program to prepare all of us for the mission field of home. I was excited by the word that the LORD had for us.
The girls made breakfast for all of us. We had pancakes, eggs, sausage, OJ, another kind of J, and coffee. They are such a blessing.
I was feeling sick though. For the whole trip there has been this lingering cold/flu in my chest. I think yesterday gave it a boost because this morning, my whole body was achy, my throat was sore, and I had a little cough. As the morning progressed everything got worse. And of course this is happening the day that I'm sharing a short devotion with the studio audience of the Heart of the Matter TV show.
Anyway, after breakfast we loaded up and heading to our ministry spot, which was the Temple Square. When people say this is the Mecca of Mormonism, they aren't kidding. Every building is huge and grandiose. And it wasn't just the temple square. Next to the square were huge buildings. One was the LDS Office building. Another the LDS conference center. Another the LDS family history library..It seemed that every building was an LDS one.
At temple square my cough had gotten really bad. I felt like I was trying to cough up a bag of bricks. Since I was feeling bad, I was selected to stay behind and lead the prayer group. Gracie and Cord stayed with me while the rest of the team went out. So we made up a list of all the team members, each pair going out together and other miscellaneous issues to pray for. We prayed for an hour and God did some amazing things.
While we were in prayer I got three visions. One was of a man in a blue shirt walking away holding a tract. So we prayed for that guy. The other was a bird’s eye view of the whole temple square area. As soon as I got that vision the Lord laid on my heart that someone in the group was feeling oppressed by the bigness of the LDS faith and the intimidation that came with it. So we prayed against that. More specifically, I prayed that whoever was feeling that would sense the bigness of God against vs. the bigness of the LDS faith. The last vision I got was of Mike talking to a man who was surrounded by dark spirits. In the vision I prayed that the spirit would be peeled back so that the seed of truth would be planted in his heart. Gracie was prompted to pray that the authorities would give grace to the team out there.
So, this is what we heard from the team when they got back. Mind you that we had told none of them about our specific prayers.
Allison told me of a conversation her and Ashley had with a man that took up most of their time. I ask if they had given him a tract. She said yes. Then I asked if he was wearing a blue shirt and she said yes.
Ben told me that while he was out there that he started looking around at how big all the buildings were. As he did so, he said that an intimidation crept over him and that he felt so small against the LDS. Right after that he said that he was immediately reminded of how much bigger our Lord is vs. the LDS faith.
Mike told me of a conversation he had with a man in a suit. In that conversation the man, an LDS member, was confronted by the reality of his sin. Mike had asked him about the 3 covenants ever LDS makes in church every Sunday. One of them is that they will keep the commandments which Jesus had given. Mike asked him if he made the covenant last Sunday, and if he had broken it already this week. The man agreed but held fast to his righteous repentance. As the guy was walking away, Mike told him to think about the covenant he will be making this Sunday and whether he is lying to himself or to God. The man stopped in midstride, turned around, looked at Mike with a super serious look, and said "You've got a point; I’ll have to think about that."
Mike also told us how he and Garrison were approached by two really big security guys. Instead of kicking them out, they simply told them that they couldn't hand out material where they were and showed them the proper boundary for doing so.
God listens.
After we were done there, we picked up dinner from a local Mexican food place and took it to the TV station where Heart of the Matter airs. Up to this point, the Lord hadn't shown me what he wanted me to share with the audience yet. I was obviously nervous. No preacher is comfortable not knowing what he is going to preach on right before he is supposed to preach. As I was stressing over that, Shawn (the host of the show) walks in and tells me that he would have my questions ready in a couple of minutes. I was like "what?" Turns out that he forgot to tell Mike that I was to be interviewed on the show as well as preach to the audience before the show. So now I'm a tad more nervous. This show is watched in 75 to 100 TH0USANDS households.
Oh my gosh! Am I going to say something stupid? Am I going to misrepresent Christianity...ahhhhhhh. So I went over the questions he was going to ask me and prepared my answers. The Lord also gave me the message to share with the audience. All this 1 hour before I was supposed to be on. Sheesh, stressing me out Lord.
But as usual when God does what he does, the message was exactly what the audience needed. There was a lady in the audience that had been invited her LDS friend to the show for months. Well, he finally came tonight. And my message was on how our father fears us, and how is not our righteousness that allows us access, but a broken heart and a contrite spirit. What an appropriate message to an LDS.
Then I went on the show and got interviewed. Everybody said I did well and my answers were right on the money. Shawn even complimented me and said that if he ever needed a sit in, he would call me. lol...I’m not sure if he was serious or not, but I'm down!!
God was good today. The team over all was a little on the slow side. At one point, we arrived at a destination to hand out some tracts, but when Mike and I got out of the RV, nobody else did. It was like they were going to get out until they were told to. I don't know if its "were almost done" lethargy, or general fear, but Mike and I prayed for the team right before bed. Tomorrow is work day, and we wanted everybody to wake with energy and enthusiasm.
Overall, this trip so far has felt less like canned mission trip and more like a reality show trip. If you had condensed two years of a full time missionaries experience in the field to two weeks, you would get what our trip has been so far. High high's, low low's, excitement, discouragement, energy, tiredness. We've had great times of what one would consider 'missionary work', but we've also had many times of the mundane 'gotta exist' stuff that one has to do to live out in the mission field. All of it has been a great education experience.
I’m off to bed. Thanks again for all your prayers. I hope this blog has encouraged and inspired you. Keep praying for us. We still have 3 days left before we are home.
- nathan
The girls made breakfast for all of us. We had pancakes, eggs, sausage, OJ, another kind of J, and coffee. They are such a blessing.
I was feeling sick though. For the whole trip there has been this lingering cold/flu in my chest. I think yesterday gave it a boost because this morning, my whole body was achy, my throat was sore, and I had a little cough. As the morning progressed everything got worse. And of course this is happening the day that I'm sharing a short devotion with the studio audience of the Heart of the Matter TV show.
Anyway, after breakfast we loaded up and heading to our ministry spot, which was the Temple Square. When people say this is the Mecca of Mormonism, they aren't kidding. Every building is huge and grandiose. And it wasn't just the temple square. Next to the square were huge buildings. One was the LDS Office building. Another the LDS conference center. Another the LDS family history library..It seemed that every building was an LDS one.
At temple square my cough had gotten really bad. I felt like I was trying to cough up a bag of bricks. Since I was feeling bad, I was selected to stay behind and lead the prayer group. Gracie and Cord stayed with me while the rest of the team went out. So we made up a list of all the team members, each pair going out together and other miscellaneous issues to pray for. We prayed for an hour and God did some amazing things.
While we were in prayer I got three visions. One was of a man in a blue shirt walking away holding a tract. So we prayed for that guy. The other was a bird’s eye view of the whole temple square area. As soon as I got that vision the Lord laid on my heart that someone in the group was feeling oppressed by the bigness of the LDS faith and the intimidation that came with it. So we prayed against that. More specifically, I prayed that whoever was feeling that would sense the bigness of God against vs. the bigness of the LDS faith. The last vision I got was of Mike talking to a man who was surrounded by dark spirits. In the vision I prayed that the spirit would be peeled back so that the seed of truth would be planted in his heart. Gracie was prompted to pray that the authorities would give grace to the team out there.
So, this is what we heard from the team when they got back. Mind you that we had told none of them about our specific prayers.
Allison told me of a conversation her and Ashley had with a man that took up most of their time. I ask if they had given him a tract. She said yes. Then I asked if he was wearing a blue shirt and she said yes.
Ben told me that while he was out there that he started looking around at how big all the buildings were. As he did so, he said that an intimidation crept over him and that he felt so small against the LDS. Right after that he said that he was immediately reminded of how much bigger our Lord is vs. the LDS faith.
Mike told me of a conversation he had with a man in a suit. In that conversation the man, an LDS member, was confronted by the reality of his sin. Mike had asked him about the 3 covenants ever LDS makes in church every Sunday. One of them is that they will keep the commandments which Jesus had given. Mike asked him if he made the covenant last Sunday, and if he had broken it already this week. The man agreed but held fast to his righteous repentance. As the guy was walking away, Mike told him to think about the covenant he will be making this Sunday and whether he is lying to himself or to God. The man stopped in midstride, turned around, looked at Mike with a super serious look, and said "You've got a point; I’ll have to think about that."
Mike also told us how he and Garrison were approached by two really big security guys. Instead of kicking them out, they simply told them that they couldn't hand out material where they were and showed them the proper boundary for doing so.
God listens.
After we were done there, we picked up dinner from a local Mexican food place and took it to the TV station where Heart of the Matter airs. Up to this point, the Lord hadn't shown me what he wanted me to share with the audience yet. I was obviously nervous. No preacher is comfortable not knowing what he is going to preach on right before he is supposed to preach. As I was stressing over that, Shawn (the host of the show) walks in and tells me that he would have my questions ready in a couple of minutes. I was like "what?" Turns out that he forgot to tell Mike that I was to be interviewed on the show as well as preach to the audience before the show. So now I'm a tad more nervous. This show is watched in 75 to 100 TH0USANDS households.
Oh my gosh! Am I going to say something stupid? Am I going to misrepresent Christianity...ahhhhhhh. So I went over the questions he was going to ask me and prepared my answers. The Lord also gave me the message to share with the audience. All this 1 hour before I was supposed to be on. Sheesh, stressing me out Lord.
But as usual when God does what he does, the message was exactly what the audience needed. There was a lady in the audience that had been invited her LDS friend to the show for months. Well, he finally came tonight. And my message was on how our father fears us, and how is not our righteousness that allows us access, but a broken heart and a contrite spirit. What an appropriate message to an LDS.
Then I went on the show and got interviewed. Everybody said I did well and my answers were right on the money. Shawn even complimented me and said that if he ever needed a sit in, he would call me. lol...I’m not sure if he was serious or not, but I'm down!!
God was good today. The team over all was a little on the slow side. At one point, we arrived at a destination to hand out some tracts, but when Mike and I got out of the RV, nobody else did. It was like they were going to get out until they were told to. I don't know if its "were almost done" lethargy, or general fear, but Mike and I prayed for the team right before bed. Tomorrow is work day, and we wanted everybody to wake with energy and enthusiasm.
Overall, this trip so far has felt less like canned mission trip and more like a reality show trip. If you had condensed two years of a full time missionaries experience in the field to two weeks, you would get what our trip has been so far. High high's, low low's, excitement, discouragement, energy, tiredness. We've had great times of what one would consider 'missionary work', but we've also had many times of the mundane 'gotta exist' stuff that one has to do to live out in the mission field. All of it has been a great education experience.
I’m off to bed. Thanks again for all your prayers. I hope this blog has encouraged and inspired you. Keep praying for us. We still have 3 days left before we are home.
- nathan
Monday, August 11, 2008
Day 12
I've gone back and added pictures to some of the earlier days. Go check em out!
Today was our second free day. We rented two seadoos and headed out to the Jordanelle Reservoir. The reservoir is a man made lake created back in the early 90's. The hard part of the day was getting up at 6. This was so that we could get to the rental place by 7 am. To maximize our day, I put us on a early schedule so that we could get to the lake early. We picked up the girls, who were all tired. Mallisa had bumped her leg on some furniture and was a little mad. In my infinite guy wisdom I said "Coach used to say walk it off, walk it off." She didn't like that. So, combine tired, wounded and cranky and you get what I got. A very short and spirited answer. :)
We had also invited Bethany (the daughter of the family we stayed with our first week) to come with us. She met us there, we hitched up the seadoos and headed out. Google maps told us that the trip would take about an hour.
About half way into the trip, our Tom Tom decided to go psycho on us. According to the GPS we were actually 100 yards east of the highway, which would put us in the river running alongside the highway. It took 3 u-turns to find out that Tom Tom must have been really tired too.
We got to the lake by 9:30. After traversing the labyrinth of winding roads we finally found the seadoo launching slip and got both of them in the way. Me, Ben, Haley, and Billy were on the boats and got to ride first as the RV headed around to the beach camp site.
The first hitch in the day hit. One of the seadoos wasn't running properly. We called the rental shop and they told us that we had probably got a rock of something in the intake shaft. When we picked up the seadoos earlier in the morning, they gave us a long speech about how not to break the seadoos. One of the topics was avoiding getting stuff into the intake. Apparently, when rocks get in there they can damage the propeller.
So, we had to get the RV back to the slip and pull the one seadoo out of the water to check. What we found was not a rock or debris, but a broken seal. I dint know what all that means, but Ben assured me that if that was broke, the seadoo was out of commission. My next fear was the rental shop thinking we did it and trying to keep the 2000 dollar security deposit. But, there want much I could do about it at that point, so i drove back to our picnic area.
The group didn't seem to mind that we had only one seadoo. It was a three seater so that made trips more efficient. I learned about the, how do I say, adventurous side of Allison on one of the first trips. She took Cord, Ben's brother, and Billy out. No more than 30 seconds outside of the no wake area, she dumped Cord off the back of the seadoo. We were watching this from the shore and proceeded to watch her drive off without him. She didn't notice that she had dropped him!! And then twice on her run, she flipped the seadoo. This is not the Allison I know from the office! But she and her passengers had fun. Ben and I took other groups out; some were beginners having never been on a seadoo, others but veterans. Haley in particular loved the full speed of the seadoos.
But then the enemy struck again. Ben was towing Billy on one of those floaty inner tube thingies. He also had two passengers with him. While on their trip, a boat crossed in front of them causing some significant wake. Billy's tube hit the wake the wrong way and threw him. He had had a dislocated shoulder a few months back and he re injured it flying off the tube. By the time we got him back to shore his shoulder had popped back into socket. We called mom, and put him in a shoulder wrap and sling. I got hand it to that kid. He didn't show any pain or discomfort the whole time. He is a trooper and didn't let it ruin his day.
As the last trip came in, which was me, kirk and garrison, we heard a girl about 50 yards to our right cry out to the shore. She was calling out to her mom who didn't seem to notice. When I say calling, I mean crying in panic that she was drowning. She had swim out too far trying to recover a raft, and started to panic because of the depth.
Mike quickly swam out to her and helped her swim back to shore. Her mom was grateful and Mike was winded. Praise the Lord that we were there to help that girl.
At 3:30 we loaded up the seadoos, and headed back to the rental place to drop them off. We were a little nervous that they might try to say we damaged the seadoo. So we prayed for favor and justice. Sure enough, they said it wasn't our fault, refunded the money for the one seadoo that didn't work, and refunded the cost of life jacket rental as a "were sorry for the inconvenience" gesture. Obviously we were grateful. Mike then go to share with them the gospel and leave some tracks.
Kevin Kennington, Assistant Pastor of Lord's Word Church had invited us to come over Monday night for a barbecue. We obliged and got there about 6. The food and fellowship was awesome. They had these two little puppies there that all the girls melted over. As you'll see in a picture below, I did a little as well.
Now I'm back at our sleeping quarters, lights are out, everybody is asleep and I type today's blog to update all of you, especially the Spicer family. Gracie told me earlier that her parents said "tell Nathan to update the blog. We are waiting with baited breath to read about what has happened." So, Spicer family and all our family at Hosanna, this blog is for you.
- nathan
Today was our second free day. We rented two seadoos and headed out to the Jordanelle Reservoir. The reservoir is a man made lake created back in the early 90's. The hard part of the day was getting up at 6. This was so that we could get to the rental place by 7 am. To maximize our day, I put us on a early schedule so that we could get to the lake early. We picked up the girls, who were all tired. Mallisa had bumped her leg on some furniture and was a little mad. In my infinite guy wisdom I said "Coach used to say walk it off, walk it off." She didn't like that. So, combine tired, wounded and cranky and you get what I got. A very short and spirited answer. :)
We had also invited Bethany (the daughter of the family we stayed with our first week) to come with us. She met us there, we hitched up the seadoos and headed out. Google maps told us that the trip would take about an hour.
About half way into the trip, our Tom Tom decided to go psycho on us. According to the GPS we were actually 100 yards east of the highway, which would put us in the river running alongside the highway. It took 3 u-turns to find out that Tom Tom must have been really tired too.
We got to the lake by 9:30. After traversing the labyrinth of winding roads we finally found the seadoo launching slip and got both of them in the way. Me, Ben, Haley, and Billy were on the boats and got to ride first as the RV headed around to the beach camp site.
The first hitch in the day hit. One of the seadoos wasn't running properly. We called the rental shop and they told us that we had probably got a rock of something in the intake shaft. When we picked up the seadoos earlier in the morning, they gave us a long speech about how not to break the seadoos. One of the topics was avoiding getting stuff into the intake. Apparently, when rocks get in there they can damage the propeller.
So, we had to get the RV back to the slip and pull the one seadoo out of the water to check. What we found was not a rock or debris, but a broken seal. I dint know what all that means, but Ben assured me that if that was broke, the seadoo was out of commission. My next fear was the rental shop thinking we did it and trying to keep the 2000 dollar security deposit. But, there want much I could do about it at that point, so i drove back to our picnic area.
The group didn't seem to mind that we had only one seadoo. It was a three seater so that made trips more efficient. I learned about the, how do I say, adventurous side of Allison on one of the first trips. She took Cord, Ben's brother, and Billy out. No more than 30 seconds outside of the no wake area, she dumped Cord off the back of the seadoo. We were watching this from the shore and proceeded to watch her drive off without him. She didn't notice that she had dropped him!! And then twice on her run, she flipped the seadoo. This is not the Allison I know from the office! But she and her passengers had fun. Ben and I took other groups out; some were beginners having never been on a seadoo, others but veterans. Haley in particular loved the full speed of the seadoos.
But then the enemy struck again. Ben was towing Billy on one of those floaty inner tube thingies. He also had two passengers with him. While on their trip, a boat crossed in front of them causing some significant wake. Billy's tube hit the wake the wrong way and threw him. He had had a dislocated shoulder a few months back and he re injured it flying off the tube. By the time we got him back to shore his shoulder had popped back into socket. We called mom, and put him in a shoulder wrap and sling. I got hand it to that kid. He didn't show any pain or discomfort the whole time. He is a trooper and didn't let it ruin his day.
As the last trip came in, which was me, kirk and garrison, we heard a girl about 50 yards to our right cry out to the shore. She was calling out to her mom who didn't seem to notice. When I say calling, I mean crying in panic that she was drowning. She had swim out too far trying to recover a raft, and started to panic because of the depth.
Mike quickly swam out to her and helped her swim back to shore. Her mom was grateful and Mike was winded. Praise the Lord that we were there to help that girl.
At 3:30 we loaded up the seadoos, and headed back to the rental place to drop them off. We were a little nervous that they might try to say we damaged the seadoo. So we prayed for favor and justice. Sure enough, they said it wasn't our fault, refunded the money for the one seadoo that didn't work, and refunded the cost of life jacket rental as a "were sorry for the inconvenience" gesture. Obviously we were grateful. Mike then go to share with them the gospel and leave some tracks.
Kevin Kennington, Assistant Pastor of Lord's Word Church had invited us to come over Monday night for a barbecue. We obliged and got there about 6. The food and fellowship was awesome. They had these two little puppies there that all the girls melted over. As you'll see in a picture below, I did a little as well.
Now I'm back at our sleeping quarters, lights are out, everybody is asleep and I type today's blog to update all of you, especially the Spicer family. Gracie told me earlier that her parents said "tell Nathan to update the blog. We are waiting with baited breath to read about what has happened." So, Spicer family and all our family at Hosanna, this blog is for you.
- nathan
Day 11
Today was another day of ministry to the Christians here in Salt Lake City. We all had to get up early to make the trip into Salt Lake to lead worship at Lord's Word church. So we headed out about 7:30 am.
When we got there we unloaded all the gear (drums included) and setup. Their church is actually in a movie theater. Its kinda weird and fun at the same time to play in a place like that. Half-way into the study "somehow" the theater music came on in the room we were in. Surprise, surprise. Pastor Shawn was doing a study on Matt 23 and focusing on priorities. When the music came on, Shawn ask us to just pray until the music came off. Someone ran out to tell the theater people what was going on. Well during the music, it was asking trivia questions. After the music ceased, Pastor Shawn told us that during the music while he was praying, he was distracted trying to figure out the answer to the trivia questions. He laughed and said "how easily our priorities get sidetracked".
After service we had planned on doing much needed laundry. But the entire team was exhausted from the last few days schedule and Mike decided a mandatory nap time was in order. I volunteered to take care of every bodies laundry and run to the store to pick up things people needed. We also had to pick up some dinner supplies as the girls were going to make dinner for all of us. Me, Ashley, and Mallisa headed out to find a store and an laundry mat. Everybody else went back home and went to sleep.
Finding the laundry mat was a chore as nobody seemed to know where it was. By nobody I mean the residents of Lehi, Utah. After driving up and down the same street 4 times, we finally found it. Then I realized that we only had three dollars to get quarters from. So I drove back to the local Albertsons to get change and some detergent. Upon my return, I was reminded by Ashely that the ice cream we bought was melting in the back of the car, and that we should have gone grocery shopping after laundry. So, I ran back to the store, got ice, and the ice cream in a cooler.
By this time, it was time to run Mallisa back to the girls house so that dinner could be prepared in time for the team to eat, and head out to the evening service at Lord's Word church. Well, not wanting to leave Ashley there by herself, we loaded up to head back, leaving the laundry to wash by itself in the laundry mat. I prayed got would spare of dirty laundry from theft.
When Ashely got back it was now almost 4, dinner had to be done by 430, and we still had to put all the clothes in the dryer. Fortunately, all the washing was done when we got back. Then we had to fight with dryers taking our money and not working. GGrrrrr.
4:45 rolls around and I get a call from Mike telling me that the weather man just forecasted a severe storm warning with "nickel sized hail" and "potentially lethal lighting ground strikes." He wanted us to come right back home. We were waiting on the last load to dry. I didn't the boys to have damp clothes so I asked Mike if it would be ok for us to head back as soon as the last load was done. He asked me to watch the dark and ominous clouds heading our way. Get this, I went outside and prayed for God to blow the clouds the other way. And guess what? The storm went the other way.
We get done, head back to the girls house and eat in a flash. I'm super tired now as I didn't get the chance to sleep at all. But, what had to get done had to get done.
That night we led worship for the evening service at Lord's Word church. It was great. We and the people there were blessed. After service we packed up and headed home to go to bed because we had to be up way early the next day for our free day.
We got home by 10, but I didn't actually get to go to bed until after midnight. Finally tho, I fell asleep ready for our free day the next morning.
-nathan
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Day 10
Today was our last day in Logan, Utah. Just as we did yesterday, we got up and met at the Oasis Christian bookstore for breakfast and prayer. Michelle (one of the people here in Logan) brought Hot Pockets Breakfast Bars along with the other danishes and stuff. God bless her!
The fair started off with the usual vigor. Billy, one of the high schoolers with us, had a frustrating day previous and was anticipating much victory today. The day before he said that nobody would take a tract from him no matter what he did. About 2o minutes after we starting handing out tracts, he came up to me and said "The first two tracts I handed out, they took!" We rejoiced and then we paired up. He had one of the "crumpled up 100 dollar bill" tracts that you drop on the group for someone to pick up. We did a covert op and planted the tract in a well traveled area. The problem was that no LDS wanted to pick it up! So we decided to head to the sidewalk that circled the perimeter of the fair area and hand out tracts to the people coming into the fair. Billy did awesome..he handed at least another 15 tracts. While we were walking we role-played what to say after you give someone the "are you a good person" test. He was a little unsure in that area. After our role-play, we were ready.
When we got back to the booth, we grabbed a clip board with the test and started looking for someone to approach. About that same time, a couple of Fair personnel pulled up in their big 4x4 cart and stopped. It was the same lady that had given us grief the previous day. She told me "I thought I told you guys that you couldn't come out from your booth and talk to people. This is the 3rd time I've talked to you. If you keep this up, Ill have to ask you to leave the fair." We had spoken to the police the day before and they had told us that it was fine to stand out in front of the booth as long as we didn't block the road. I told her this and she responded "The police aren't the authority here, I am."
So, Brad came over and spoke with her some and that is when it got real ridiculous. Each booth has a 10x10 area to setup up a tent and tables to do what ever they do. The area is marked by orange spray paint. Well, she proceeded to tell us that we couldn't step out beyond the orange paint and that if we wanted to stand in front of the tent, we should have moved the tent back. Brad decided that we would move the tent back and abide by her wishes. So we picked up the whole thing, moved it back into the grass about 10 feet, and proceeded with our business within our designed area. The cool thing was the people started walking up to us and we got into more conversations then than we did before. Unbeknownst to her, one of his guys had already spoken the to country attorney about it and the attorney was astonished that they were trying to limit us in that way. Next year will be different as Brad will have government backing on their rights to do what they are doing.
About 2:3o we ate lunch and loaded up to leave Logan and head to our next stop, Ogden Utah. On the way we realized a minor miscalculation. We thought Ogden was just outside of Salt Lake City. In reality, its about an hour outside of Salt Lake. This presented some major problems with our schedule. First off, it made issue with our free day coming up on Monday. You see, Monday we have plans to rent a couple of jet skis, and head out to the Jordanville Lake. Well, in order for us to have a full day, we have to pick up the jet skis at 7 am in Linden, Utah. If we were just outside of Salt Lake, we would have no problem as Salt Lake is about 45 minutes from Linden. But Ogden adds another hour to that time table and would create a total travel time of 3 hours and 15 minutes to get the jet skis and get to the lake. Not good for our free day. Mike and I prayed that God would work it out. This how he did it.
On the way to Ogden, our housing location told us that plans had slightly changed. We had arranged to be at a place where our whole team would be in bunk beds, with adequate showers to allow us to get ready and to our destinations in the morning. The new plan was that another team had just pulled in and they were given the bunks and we would have the floors. No problem initially, but when we got to the location, it was quickly apparent that between the 2 showers, 26 people staying there, and the travel time to our upcoming destinations, this was not going to work. There was no way we would be able to get the team ready in the morning to get to our ministry appointments. So, the leadership team got together to pray. Mike decided to call our contacts back in Salt Lake and see if our previous housing could house us for the rest of the trip. What we got was two new locations real close to each other that were willing to house us for the next 4 days with no notice. In addition, the new housing was just outside of Salt Lake City solving our travel time problem for Monday.
Isn't God awesome? Not only did he answer the prayer about Monday, but he took care of our housing and scheduling issues all in one shot.
The team is in good spirits overall. The enemy is still attacking, but as we build the wall of the gospel here, each one of us does so with a trowl in one hand and the sword of the spirit in the other. Well, its midnight, everybody is asleep and I'm tired. Thanks you again for all your prayers and support. God is listening.
- nathan
The fair started off with the usual vigor. Billy, one of the high schoolers with us, had a frustrating day previous and was anticipating much victory today. The day before he said that nobody would take a tract from him no matter what he did. About 2o minutes after we starting handing out tracts, he came up to me and said "The first two tracts I handed out, they took!" We rejoiced and then we paired up. He had one of the "crumpled up 100 dollar bill" tracts that you drop on the group for someone to pick up. We did a covert op and planted the tract in a well traveled area. The problem was that no LDS wanted to pick it up! So we decided to head to the sidewalk that circled the perimeter of the fair area and hand out tracts to the people coming into the fair. Billy did awesome..he handed at least another 15 tracts. While we were walking we role-played what to say after you give someone the "are you a good person" test. He was a little unsure in that area. After our role-play, we were ready.
When we got back to the booth, we grabbed a clip board with the test and started looking for someone to approach. About that same time, a couple of Fair personnel pulled up in their big 4x4 cart and stopped. It was the same lady that had given us grief the previous day. She told me "I thought I told you guys that you couldn't come out from your booth and talk to people. This is the 3rd time I've talked to you. If you keep this up, Ill have to ask you to leave the fair." We had spoken to the police the day before and they had told us that it was fine to stand out in front of the booth as long as we didn't block the road. I told her this and she responded "The police aren't the authority here, I am."
So, Brad came over and spoke with her some and that is when it got real ridiculous. Each booth has a 10x10 area to setup up a tent and tables to do what ever they do. The area is marked by orange spray paint. Well, she proceeded to tell us that we couldn't step out beyond the orange paint and that if we wanted to stand in front of the tent, we should have moved the tent back. Brad decided that we would move the tent back and abide by her wishes. So we picked up the whole thing, moved it back into the grass about 10 feet, and proceeded with our business within our designed area. The cool thing was the people started walking up to us and we got into more conversations then than we did before. Unbeknownst to her, one of his guys had already spoken the to country attorney about it and the attorney was astonished that they were trying to limit us in that way. Next year will be different as Brad will have government backing on their rights to do what they are doing.
About 2:3o we ate lunch and loaded up to leave Logan and head to our next stop, Ogden Utah. On the way we realized a minor miscalculation. We thought Ogden was just outside of Salt Lake City. In reality, its about an hour outside of Salt Lake. This presented some major problems with our schedule. First off, it made issue with our free day coming up on Monday. You see, Monday we have plans to rent a couple of jet skis, and head out to the Jordanville Lake. Well, in order for us to have a full day, we have to pick up the jet skis at 7 am in Linden, Utah. If we were just outside of Salt Lake, we would have no problem as Salt Lake is about 45 minutes from Linden. But Ogden adds another hour to that time table and would create a total travel time of 3 hours and 15 minutes to get the jet skis and get to the lake. Not good for our free day. Mike and I prayed that God would work it out. This how he did it.
On the way to Ogden, our housing location told us that plans had slightly changed. We had arranged to be at a place where our whole team would be in bunk beds, with adequate showers to allow us to get ready and to our destinations in the morning. The new plan was that another team had just pulled in and they were given the bunks and we would have the floors. No problem initially, but when we got to the location, it was quickly apparent that between the 2 showers, 26 people staying there, and the travel time to our upcoming destinations, this was not going to work. There was no way we would be able to get the team ready in the morning to get to our ministry appointments. So, the leadership team got together to pray. Mike decided to call our contacts back in Salt Lake and see if our previous housing could house us for the rest of the trip. What we got was two new locations real close to each other that were willing to house us for the next 4 days with no notice. In addition, the new housing was just outside of Salt Lake City solving our travel time problem for Monday.
Isn't God awesome? Not only did he answer the prayer about Monday, but he took care of our housing and scheduling issues all in one shot.
The team is in good spirits overall. The enemy is still attacking, but as we build the wall of the gospel here, each one of us does so with a trowl in one hand and the sword of the spirit in the other. Well, its midnight, everybody is asleep and I'm tired. Thanks you again for all your prayers and support. God is listening.
- nathan
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