Mission X

Well this is a bit late to be doing this post.....ok it's REALLY late, but you know that old saying "Better late then never"? Well, I am a firm believer in that statement, so here it goes. I was only able to take part in 2 days of Mission X Daytona, but from the 2 days that I was there helping out I could see the Holy Spirit at work. The first day I was a part of was day 3 of the missions trip, and for the first part of the day Jed Smith and myself were talking to the other people involved with the missions trip about our experiences in sharing the gospel. We were basically just recounting stories of people we had encountered and giving "advice" to everyone on how to communicate with people who they are sharing the gospel with. I felt so unqualified to be chosen to do that, because before last month I had never really done any extensive evangelizing and when Jonathan and I were doing that I felt like Jonathan was far bolder than I was in talking to people and just responding to what he felt the Holy Spirit was calling him to do. I was very pleased to be able to talk to all of them though, because it really wasn't about me or what I did it was about what the Holy Spirit had done in me. So that day was quite enjoyable for me, and after the talking time and after everyone had gotten lunch, we got to work mowing the church's lawn, pulling weeds, and digging a ditch to re-route the water drainage behind the church. The working part of the day was definitely the hard part, because it was getting into the hottest part of the day and the sun was completely unforgiving. Thankfully we had many hands pitching in wherever help was needed and we were able to get everything we needed to get done, done. Just the fact that we had 20 something TEENAGERS out in the heat of the day working to help maintain the landscape of the church is a testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit working in their lives. I mean how many teens do you know that would give up a week of their Summer Vacation to go and work out in the sun, and talk to complete strangers about the gospel?

The second day that I was able to take part in was the last day of the trip. This was the "big day" of the missions trip. We had a free concert happening at the Badnshell, with Acrobat, Generation Letter, and Curtis Allen all performing. All three performances were AMAZING! Both Acrobat and Generation Letter put on great performances and Curtis' rap performance was great. Curtis walked through his entire testimony from the time he was 10 to 2009 and he shared about how the gospel had trnasformed his life. He did that while rapping! It was unbelievable! People were hearing the gopel preached through Curtis' gift of Rap. And while he was sharing and while Acrobat and Generation Letter were putting on their performances we were able to engage people in conversation and talk to them about the gospel. It was an amazing time to just see how th eHoly Spirit was moving and working in each person there. Another thing we were doing as part of the outreach was giving out free watermelon to anyone who wanted some. So we handed out free watermelon, talked to people about the gospel, and listened to three great artists put on three great shows. It was an amazing week for me and I was only able to be there for a small part of the missions trip. You can read a more detailed account of what all happened on the Mission X Daytona blog. Thanks for reading.

An Uncle Again!

I am an uncle again! My sister Keri gave birth to Lilyanne Kathryn Sereika around 7:45 tonight! She weighs 8 pounds 15 ounces (quite the porker lol) and she is 21 inches long! She is totally gorgeous and has tons of dark hair on her little head. I will get a picture up as soon as possible. Till then I am just going to be SUPER EXCITED!

Dreams

I recently started reading a book by Bruce Wilkinson called The Dream Giver. The book is all about dreams, how everyone has a "Big Dream", and why we should pursue our dreams. I personally have found the first 3/4 of this book AMAZING. My mom told me to read it, knowing that I have been having some struggles with how to pursue my dream. Now, I personally think my mom knows everything, but I think it was also a little bit of a Godsend because the timing of it was just too perfect. Anyway for those of you who don't know my "Big Dream" is to be a professional baseball player. I am fully aware of the "chances of making it", the "percentages", and the amount of people who do not end up making it to a career in professional sports (baseball in particular). But even with all of that I want to pursue my dream as far as God will let me. If that means just playing through high school or college then so be it. If I end up making it pro HALLELUJAH! The thing is, I want to pursue my dream. Now in my pursuit of my dream I have come upon road block upon roadblock and slow down upon slow down. I won't go into the details, but lets just say I was having some serious doubts about what I was doing and I was becoming more and more unbelieving about what God wanted me to do with my life. I went through about 5 months of this craziness, of not knowing what I was doing. Then, through the encouragement of a few friends and reading this book, God started to open doors for me to get back on the road to my dream. I didn't really understand why He was doing it when I was going through it, but now that I am out of it and I'm pursuing my dream at full force again I am realizing that he used that time of unsureness and confusion as a way to strengthen my relationship with Him, particularly in the area of trusting Him. I'm still not certain about how far God will have me pursue my dream, but no matter how far I get with it doesn't really matter, because what he is teaching me through my pursuit of my dream is far more valuable than making it to the professional level of baseball. If you have a dream you are pursuing, or were pursuing, or haven't yet started pursuing I would encourage you to read The Dream Giver. It will dramatically change the outlook you have on your dream and the way pursuit your dream.