Distractions and Spiritual Gifts

It is amazing how God shows you really clarifies the distractions in your life by removing them. That is exactly what God has done. God has really been convicting me in this area, particularly with video games. I have a strong conviction on my heart to get rid of all my video games. This doesn't mean that I have to completely stop playing video games but I think it means that I shouldn't own or play video games by myself. It is far too easy for me to say I'm only going to play 30 minutes and end up playing for several hours. By coming to Colorado, I have really noticed how much time I have for God and His Word, especially in the morning, without video games. I feel like I've been wasting time with video games. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows either, my flesh cries out against this decision and I am really struggling as well. But I am continually praying for God's strength in this decision.

So I just finished a spiritual gifts test and surprise, surprise my top gift is SERVING. That really wasn't a surprise at all. I've known for a long time that it is one of my gifts. My second highest was pastoring/sheparding. This one surprised me a little, but it didn't score nearly as high as serving and fell in the middle with a huge range of other gifts. My lowest scoring gifts were teaching and prophecy which usually go hand in hand with pastoring/sheparding. I might take a few other tests and see what I come up with. Of course I will also pray about it as well. Anyway it is starting to get late out here in beautiful Colorado so I will say good night.

Amazing

I had my first Project Day last Tuesday. It was pretty amazing. We participated in evangelical training called SonLife which is pretty amazing and opened my eyes to somethings about the nature of humanity and our needs. It was a great experience. Later the guys and girls split off into life groups and shared their stories. I was a little scared at first but once I started sharing it was a relief. I am pleased with how loving and open the group is. I look forward to the next project day this Tuesday.

Another part of LT is reading a book called Chazown (www.chazown.com) which means "vision" in Hebrew. So far the book is pretty good and I'm excited to read more and more of it. I look forward to telling you more about it.

Another challenge is to memorize 99 verses. I have about 12. My favorite so far is Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Anyway I'm going to go as it his late.

God Bless

Arrival/First Week

So I arrived in Estes Park on Monday, but have had internet access until today, which I imagine is a good thing. However it is quite a change from having constant access to the internet. So after leaving on Sunday Alan (an LT intern from the UofI) and I slept under the stars in a state park outside of Lincoln, Nebraska. It was really windy. We arrived in Estes Park through this beautiful canyon that followed a river. Waiting for me at the Y was one of the most beautiful sights have ever seen. Even now I can look out the windows of the Library and see Eagle Cliff and some other beautiful mountains. The next day I went straight to work in Housekeeping. It was busy but it can be a lot of fun. Like today we had a fight with the plastic used to shrink wrap the clean linens. Also I know every secret of hotels and cleaning I also have a new respect for housekeeping as well. So try not to make a big mess the next time you stay the night in a hotel.

Last night we had our first LT meeting and I met my project group. We are awesome. We are also called "The Salt" and our cheer is "Seasoning!!!" It's just about awesome...just had to reiterate that. We talked about things that inhibit our faith (ignorance, pride, fear, and distractions). We also talked about the main goals of LT for lack of a better word and then gave marriage vows of a sort to God about what we wanted to accomplish here. It was amazing. I am looking forward to what God is going to do in my life. Like this morning I submitted to waking up at 5:30 AM to go and find a quiet in the mountains. It was so wonderful and amazing. It is hard to describe, but it put me in a wonderful mood today. I barely had a negative thought all day.

I've met a lot of new people here and find myself straying away from my fellow U of I LTers and even away from the other LTers to hang out with people who are at the Y for other reasons. I also work with these funny and interesting and cool Thai people who are so much fun. It's too bad they are leaving next week. Well I will update again as soon as I can. I look forward to sharing God's amazing work with everyone who reads this.