Prayer Ministry

Luke 18 Fight Conference

So I thought I would update you all with what I have been up to for the last while. I just got back from a trip to Los Angeles where I attended the Fight Conference put on by the Luke 18 Project, YWAM, IHOP (International House of Prayer), and Every Home for Christ. This was a 3 day conference in LA dedicated to the commissioning of young people to go out into the world and finish the task of sharing the gospel. I have mixed feelings on the conference, but as a whole, it was indeed worth going to as God used it to confirm some things I had been praying about.




Firstly one of the best parts of the conference was easily getting to listen to Jackie Pullinger. Some of you may know this name, others may not. But she wrote a book called Chasing the Dragon about her work in prayer ministry towards opium and heroin addicts. She was without a doubt one of the best speakers at the entire event. She backed everything she had to say with the scriptures, had an absolute passion and love for the calling God placed in her life, was strong and inspiring. She shared many stories about people who had been prayed out of their addictions and found release from that slavery in Christ. She spoke of the importance of relational ministry, loving people on a one to one level and praying with them to show the love of Christ and how we can model that for people. She was a very direct and straight to business woman who knew her conviction and didn't put things into shades of grey. Jackie understood the sensationalism that can often come from these kinds of conferences and urged a crowd of young people to not get swept up in movements and take cheaply the calling of God in their lives; but instead to take very seriously that call, because God does, and so should we. If I am being honest with you, I could probably post her entire talks on here and be happy with that, but I won't. Instead, I will let you ask me about them! I can type them up and send them to you if you so wish.

Another great part of this conference was receiving incredible amounts of affirmation in my own desire to start a prayer ministry on campus. Most of it stemming from Elijah on Mt. Carmel, which was the initial inspiration that started my investigation into prayer ministry. The word Shekinah Glory is a phrase that seems to get misused sometimes, and had no doubt come up a lot with talk of "prayer furnaces" and Elijah on Mt. Carmel and the fire from heaven. What I have come to understand of that phrase is this: The Shekinah Glory seems to be when God shows His people who He is, who their protector is, who their God is. In Exodus it is a pillar of fire protecting Israel from the Egyptians, and in Daniel, it is a pillar of fire used to turn the heart of an entire nation back to God. If you have your thoughts on the matter, e-mail me and we can talk about it, but this is what I have come to understand of it. Now, the Luke 18 Project is something that was started by a man named Brian Kim to get 24/7 houses of prayer into campuses all over the US. Which to me is a great idea, and is something I have been looking at through the 24/7 prayer movement started by UK Evangelist (and formerly a co-laborer with Jackie Pullinger, I just discovered) Peter Greig. Brian seeks to create a marriage between ministry and prayer, a marriage that should have always been the case. And I must say, I agree with him. In my own goal for a prayer ministry I want to show that we can pray the Kingdom of God onto our campuses. And as a part of my prayer ministry goal for the Elijah Project; I now also want to create a space on campus for continual prayer, 24/7, non stop. I would love to see so many students get involved in prayer on campus that they can take an hour every two weeks in their schedules to dedicate entirely to this house of prayer.




The Elijah Project



The Elijah Project is finding life and being formed! The above image isn't a logo or anything like that. It was something I used for a newsletter to kinda try and explain some of the images running through my head. The Elijah Project is prayer ministry, prayer and ministry married together, not separated; a weird sounding statement I am sure. But let me explain. I want this to be more than a prayer time, I want this to be pro-active, I want this to have elements of "Go". The idea behind this project is that students will go out onto the campus and map it out in prayer. I want them to be praying for different sections of campus, different faculties, students, the whole deal. As a part of this, I want them to also keep a prayer journal, so they can see where God is moving on the campus as a result of faithful praying. I am proposing to them that God answers all prayers in the name of Jesus. That is not to say there is a magic word involved in prayer; it is to say that when we pray in Jesus, in the fullness of His character, God hears us. One of the many things I pulled from the conference is that we worship and serve the God who hears and who answers! And since this weekend, my desire for this ministry has grown. I would love to see a room, a permanent residence on campus dedicated to this prayer ministry. With maps of the campus, prayer needs and praise reports, maps of the world and etc. splayed all over the walls so that we are never without something to pray for; and so we can pray beyond our own needs. I want to see this room become a 24/7 house of prayer, where at every hour, of every day, there is prayer taking place. In fact, I will pray for this. In this I am hoping that when students engage other students to discover prayer needs, they will also find opportunity to minister into the lives of the students on campus.

Anyway, that is about all I want to say without rambling. I hope that you are all doing well, God bless you and keep you all! And as always, click on the images for larger versions of them!

The Elijah Project

Well, I've figured out what the Elijah Project is going to be about. It is going to be a prayer ministry on campus. I ran a dry run of it last Friday night and was pretty happy with what God did with our students. This is all I am going to say for now though. I will post more about this later when I hash out the finer points behind this project.

The Term, She Starts!

To radically pursue being a disciple of Jesus and making disciples for Christ's Kingdom!

Our vision for the year.

I helped to put this together with the staff and our new intern on campus. I think the word radical is probably my biggest contribution to this vision. I had been listening to a poem called "The Vision" by Peter Greig and going over the core values of the Navigators, and needless to say, I got a little inspired.



The start of term has come and gone here at the University of Calgary, and it has been a very busy, and blessed three weeks for us. This is the start of a new era. Maybe that is a bit much, but it certainly feels that way. A lot of our students from last year have graduated and have moved on, and as a result, we are in need of filling in those missing places. And so a giant push to get some new first year students began, and a three week campaign has left us being blessed with another full contact list as well as several students who have the desire to go deeper with God and to learn to engage Him in His word.

On Friday the 17th we had our opening BBQ, a chance to share our new vision for the year with the students on the campus, as well as the direction we are taking the ministry in. We had well over 40 students show up, people inviting their friends, all eager to hear what we had to offer. I can honestly tell you, I was shocked! It was an excellent evening and we drew a lot of interest to our new small group bible studies!

Daniel



Daniel is our newest addition to the ministry team here on campus. He is a really good friend of mine as well as one of my roommates. He had decided last year that LeaderQuest was something that he wanted to do, and I could not be happier. Daniel is an excellent addition to our ministry team on campus and his unique vision and heart have been wonderful! Daniel has a real heart for prayer and for people and is currently working at trying to set up a resident bible study on the university campus. He is brand new to the team and has probably undertaken one of the hardest tasks in the ministry! So please keep him in your prayers and ask that God would send him the students to get that resident bible study on its way!

Transform



Transform is one of our newest campus ministries. It is run by Simon Mairs and Dustin Pearson, with assistance from Darren Malin and myself. The design of Transform is meant to foster a community around service. On the one end of Transform the hope is to create a community of people who may come together and serve; this is open to people of all faith backgrounds and is meant to be a place where anybody can come, serve, feel welcome, and belong. On the other end of Transform, we hope to create a nucleus of people passionate for following Christ. This will be accomplished through the pursuit of Jesus Christ through the scriptures and living them out. It is meant to be a place of discipleship, accountability and for people to grow in their faith and passion for Christ. What we aim and pray for is that the students involved in the discipleship community will live out their passions within the service community, bringing a sense of worth, value and purpose to it.

In order to bridge the gap between these two extremes of the club, there will be a discussion group with topics ranging from truth, what is good, what is evil, to what is God in a very non preachy environment. There will also be a first time bible readers group for those interested in exploring the faith. The idea of this club came from a lack of community within the campus; a social justice oriented student body; and most importantly, the involvement layers of the disciples of Christ (the twelve, the seventy, the crowds). There is no obligation for students to be involved in all of the aspects of the club, each aspect is open to the students interested; allowing them the ability to choose their level of involvement.




Small Groups



This year on campus we have decided to place the majority of our focus on our small group bible studies allowing for a chance to build strong relational communities that can then feed into our much larger Navigators community on campus. We have four bible studies that will be taking place this year, two of which take place at the university, and two that will be taking place at the East Side Guys House, a Navigators home just off the campus.

Who is Jesus?- A look into the Gospel of Mark

In the gospel of Matthew chapter 11 verse 11, Jesus makes this claim, "I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." What an amazingly claim! Jesus was of course, contrasting the old system of 'following the law' to the new Kingdom that God would reign over. John had lived a near perfect life under the law but even the most insignificant in Jesus' Kingdom would be greater than John. Jesus made many more amazing claims that are worth or attention and focus.

For this year, we will looking at the life and teachings of Jesus by studying the gospel of Mark.

Leader: Darren Malin

Top Ten Chapters of the Bible

This exciting study will focus on the top 10 chapters of the Bible as chosen by past Nav students. Personal prep is required and makes this study choice one that will both challenge and encourage you in your faith.

Leader: Rick McCallum

Topix Bible Study
Faith, money, marriage, the fear of God, drinking, music, sacrifice, sex,the Holy Spirit, Solomon, miracles, meaning of life... these are just some of the topics that could be studied. We will be deciding as a group 10 topics to study using the Bible. Start brainstorming and come ready with those topics that you are questioning in your life or desiring to know more about.

Leader: Daniel Faszer

Living Intentionally: A study on serving others

In John 15 we learn about how one can identify the evidence of Christ in the life of a person. That as Christians, we are an extension of Christ, who is our center. Much like the branches stemming from a vine; that we can bear fruit and that fruit is what will point to Jesus. A part of that is loving other people and being willing to give up our lives for them. What does it mean to give over our lives for the sake of others? Does this mean that we need to take a step back from ourselves and let those people know how much we love them and be willing to serve them? Just as Jesus loved us, and served us and went to the cross for us, so to must we be able to love others, serve others; to give over our lives to others.

This study will be a chance to see just what kind of service Jesus called us to when He said for us to be willing to give over our lives for the sake of others. We will be looking at different scriptures over the course of the semester and discussing with one another just what it really means to serve other people. There will also be a practical application part of this study in which we will have a chance to take what we are learning and apply that to our campus community!

Leader: Josh Albers




That is about all there is left to say for now! I will be sure to keep you all updated further as things move along this year on campus. In the mean time, thanks so much for reading and for your prayers. I ask that you continue to keep me in your prayers, pray that God will keep me humble and available to serve Him and others. Also if you know of anyone who would be interested in hearing more about the work on campus and would like to help support it, please send them my way! Thanks so much and may God bless and keep you!

One Ends, Another Begins

I leave for home tomorrow.

Or I'll already be there. It really depends on when you are reading this.

It's been an awesome journey, there is no doubt about it. And I am really going to miss the UK. I have come to really love this place and all of the people that I have met here. God has taught me so much and has indeed put many things on my heart in regards for my next year of ministry. So I thought I might share some of those things with you all, and share some stories from my time over here in the United Kingdom. Also, I thought I would sprinkle in some pictures from the trip that I have yet to post.

Serving Others


This is nothing new really. It is something that I have been mulling over now for the past few months in my own quiet times with God. John chapter 15 was sort of the starting point for it all, and as I continue through 1 Peter, these thoughts continue to develop and to grow. God confirmed all of what I had been looking at, predominantly on how selfish thoughts and behavior have no room in our lives, when instead we are called to diminish and lift up the lives of others and glorify God and His kingdom.
¹²"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

¹³Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

John 15:12,13

This is sort of the pair of verses that started it all, the ones that sent me on my journey in selflessly serving others. Acts of which I saw initially in Glasgow, and then later had my thought process confirmed at the Scottish Summer Conference in Arbroath by Hans Bayer, our guest speaker. Hans had been using the Gospel of Mark to illustrate the power of Christ in changing the hearts of men. As I have stated before, I have the notes from that conference on my computer and if you would like them, simply ask me and I can send them to you. But what I got from it was the Christ was working in our hearts to plant within it a seed that can bare fruit, to remove all to the wickedness that can come from the heart and get us to a place where we can forgive and love one another fully(Mark 8:34-37, Mark 11:22-24, Mark 11:22-24, Mark 11:25, Matthew 18:21-35).
It all worked into what I had been reading in 1 Peter so perfectly!

²²Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart,

²³for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.

1 Peter 1:22,23

The idea that if we can surrender everything to God and be left with fervent love for our brethren is what I got from those verses in Peter. That if we can allow God to change our hearts, He would leave us with the ability to love people in the same fashion that Christ loved them, to give up ourselves for them.

This is just a little bit of what I have been investigating so far, I have, since starting, found more verses to create a bible study that revolves around serving others, as well as coupled with a practical application.

Tea and Biscuits


Tea and biscuits, perhaps one of the most interesting displays of serving others and evangelism I had seen in some time. In Glasgow, it is called Stall, or a Cheesey. The Navigators students in partnership with students from the Christian Union, set up a stall outside of campus night clubs and serve free tea, coffee, cookies, cakes, and biscuits to any student who walks by them. Of course in this day and age, nothing is without a catch, or at least that seems to be the thoughts of the students being offered free food. But there is no catch. They simply get free drinks and cookies. They of course ask why the students are doing this, and the students then in turn get a chance to tell them. I found it to be an awesome way of getting students involved in serving their campus community as well as learning to share their testimony and faith. This is what I want to bring back to campus in the new school year. This is the practical application to a bible study on serving others that I want to utilize! It isn't about making sure that we fulfill our Christian Check List, it's about genuinely serving others, letting them know we love them, and that Jesus loves them to. That, to me, is very exciting! So if you pray for anything, pray that God sends myself and the person I am working with to get this set up the provisions we need, the food etc. as well as students who are ready and willing!

Story Time!


Of course what blog would be complete without some fun little stories to share.

I suppose this will be just a bunch of small snippets of fun times I had while I was in the UK, not so much stories, my apologies for the false advertising.

I got to swim in the North Sea. This was at the Scottish Summer Conference just after a game of footy on the beach. The North Sea retains its temperature for three months, and even still, its the NORTH sea. Needless to say, it had been raining a little, and a bunch of us figured if we were gonna be wet, we might as well go for it. So we did. Several of us ran and dove into those frigid waters. When it has been in the high 20's and low 30's the majority of ones trip, that sudden blast of cold can come as quite a shock. What I will never forget though is the look on Mark Stirling's face when I walked into the Conference Center soaking wet and covered in sand.



While I was in St. Andrews, I got to fulfill a boyhood dream and roam about the ruins of an old castle. This was made all the more awesome by the fact that this particular castle had a mineshaft underneath of it! I was six years old again on that day, playing underground and letting my imagination get ahead of me!


While in Glasgow, walking back to the flat I was staying at after church, my friend Roger and I ran into a woman from the east side of Glasgow (generally a poor area). She had been tossed into a rather filthy river and wasn't all that sure as to where she was. She had been looking for money, to make a phone call. I watched as Roger walked with her and talked with her, sincerity in his actions. He gave her the money for the phone call and went and got her a sandwich from Subway.


I got to go to the Old Trafford in Manchester, home to Manchester United. Not exactly the team I follow, but it has a player that I really like. Wayne Rooney, and despite a poor showing on the England team this year, he remains one of my footballers of choice. Guy has nowhere to go but up in his ever growing arsenal of skill and talent. During the tour we went into the locker room and I got a picture with his jersey. Some of you no doubt don't care, but football is one of the few sports I really enjoy.


At the English Summer Conference, there was a lot of football related stories. Most of it was just the guys watching the world cup matches on the smallest television in the world. Others were football mishaps in small pick up games. I was told by Bernard Dishman, heads up the Leicester Navigators, that I could get to the UK on my foot handling alone. Of course this is a stretch, but I was told that I was indeed a solid player! Again, most of you may not care, but I was nervous about heading to Football Nation and getting torn apart there, haha.

Well, that is about all I can say for now. Keep checking in as I will be posting more about the progress of the new year on campus! Thanks again for all of your prayers and support! Looking forward to seeing you all again when I get home! I want to send a huge thank you to everyone who looked after me while I was in the UK. I love you all so much, and I will miss you all dearly!

God Bless,

Josh

Tigers and Bulls

It's been a while since I last posted anything. I've been on a couple trips since the last entry, one was to Leicester, home of the Tigers, and the other was to Birmingham, home to the world.



Leicester
I went to Leicester right after the English Summer conference, and my time there was meant to be relaxing and rejuvenating. And rest assured, it was indeed both of those things. I stayed with some students in their house and was introduced to a wide variety of comedy, most prominently was The IT Crow, not Monty Python. I really enjoyed my stay in their home and they went above and beyond to make me feel welcome! I went and enjoyed a few nights out with the students, getting to learn more about them and their lives! One of the more notable things is that it seems almost all of them are getting married! My first day in Leicester was spent at a place called Alton Towers, a theme park about an hour or more outside of Leicester. One of the guys is getting married shortly, in August, and they decided to take him there as a party of his stag party. We rode roller coasters and all sorts of other rides. This would make it the third marriage celebration I have been a part of since I have been in the UK. I also toured around the city a little bit with a couple of students, Matt and Andy. We went to a small museum/ art gallery and to a small shop for some coffee. In all, my time there was very relaxing!



Birmingham



Birmingham was perhaps one of the more busy places in my trip, mostly because of what all was involved. A Navigator couple, Tom and Judi, took myself, and two Connect workers (Navigator Interns) from Leicester on a Cross Cultural Tour through Birmingham! What an incredible experience that was! We visited Mosques, Hindu Temples, and Sikh Gurudwara's.

Birmingham has one of the largest South Asian populations in the whole of the UK, and as such, has an incredibly diverse community. Tom and Judi brought us into their home and introduced us to their friends and took us on tours of the different places of worship. This experience was invaluable as I was able to learn a lot more about religions I knew very little about, and was able to remove a lot of my ignorance towards them. Tom might tell you that my favorite part would have appeared to be all the good food we got to eat...and he wouldn't be far from the truth, but I still stand that it wasn't the highlight, just a really great bonus. Sparkhill, the area we stayed in, is nicknamed the Baltis Triangle, known for it's Baltis restaurants and South Asian cuisine. All of the people we met during our time showed us great amounts of kindness and hospitality. Hospitality is something that is very important to the South Asian community, and if I am being honest, something that the Western community could pick up. The Sikh's believe in a form of selfless service called Sewa that puts the needs of others and their community at the forefront of their thoughts. Visiting their Gurudwara, as long as you come with your head covered and in respect, gets you unrivaled hospitality.



Sanctuary

Sanctuary is a church service put on by Tom, Judi, and a friend of theirs. It is a church where members of the South Asian community may go to learn about Jesus in a place that doesn't remove them from their culture. The service is focused around South Asian culture, in a way that helps them to better understand Christ in their cultural context. As such, the services are different than most, but I really enjoyed my time there. They offer up prayer to anyone who asks for it. The service is held in the cafe of a much larger church, though once set up is complete, you were never know the place was a cafe. The service I went to spoke on Psalm 23 and how Jesus is our shepherd, again helping people to understand Jesus as the Son of God and helping people to see God as our Heavenly Father. After the services are complete, there is a meal. This again flows through the South Asian love for hospitality and community, and is an important part of the Sanctuary church service.

Your Prayers

I just wanted to thank all of you who have been reading this and who have been praying for me. The last few weeks have been filled with God's glory and revelations for me, which in turn has involved some movement by the enemy. Your prayers have been greatly appreciated and have helped to keep my journey in the UK a safe and exciting one! I am currently in Edinburgh again, visiting with friends I made in Scotland, as well as a friend from back home (pictured bellow) while I ride out the rest of my trip here. I look forward to seeing all of you in just over a weeks time! Stay tuned though, this blog will not end with my trip! I hope to fill you all in with details on bible studies and student stories as well! Take care everyone and God bless you and keep you all!



Pictures of England

Pictures of Scotland

Manchester Alive, Cefn Lea Wales

Manchester

So this is going to be another one of those blog posts that has a little bit of information on a place, and then a rather lengthy section on a conference. I have three conferences this month, and I've just finished my second.

Manchester is a really cool city. Mike Spencer is the guy who runs the ministry there with his wife Becky. They are a really great family and I can't thank them enough for letting me stay with them, and for Mike taking me to see the Old Trafford. Mike has set up a ten year plan for the Navigators ministry in Manchester and would love to see it become a discipleship capital in the UK. He shared that plan with me during my time at his house, I won't be posting it out of fairness to him, and mostly because I haven't asked if I can. But it is really exciting to see what he has set out for himself and what he hopes to achieve through God with the ministry in Manchester. I got to meet a few students and learn about the kinds of things the Navigators do in the city, and from what I have learned, they do a lot of work with non-Christians. The Alpha course is huge over here, and Mike leads a study called "Glad You Asked" with students and their non-Christian friends. It is really exciting to see these students get stoked about inviting all of their friends to these meetings so they can learn more about who Jesus was, what is Christianity, and just get a lot of their questions answered. It is a fantastic ministry!

I am not a huge Manchester United supporter. I think a lot of people I know back home tend to support them, mostly because the team has some rather large names in football. But when one thinks of Manchester, they think football. And Manchester is indeed a football nation(yes I realize it is a city, but you get what I mean). So as is such, I went and saw the Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United. It was just really cool to get to see and learn about some of the history behind it, and how Man United became a football club.



English Summer Conference



The English Summer Conference provided something different from the Scottish one, but both seemed to be working along the same themes of transformation. It was a really great experience getting to go to both of them and getting to learn what God has to say on how we can be used for His Kingdom. The conference took place in the Cefn Lea Center in Wales, which, aside from the roads, is a really beautiful country. We were smack dab in the middle of a valley with some really large hills, and surrounded by sheep farms! But it was a great chance to meet different people from the England ministries. Mike Spencer asked me if I could help him with the seminar he was supposed to give on our cultures view of the modern family, which I agreed to do. Let me say this, this was my first seminar and it was a lot like jumping into the deep end of a swimming pool for a first time swimmer. I hadn't counted on how personal a subject this was for so many people. My own family life has been filled with issues, but God saw to them all and brought about healing, allowing me to talk to others who might be going through similar situations. The talk was the last one of the week and emotions were running high, but we got through it, and we learned that even in a background that is considered broken, God can bring about healing and transformation and still use it to His purposes. The verses we used for that talk were 2nd Corinthians 1:3-7.

The other thing that was really great about that week was what God told me! God used a few people to really speak into my life on things that I had been thinking about and wrestling with, and it was really incredible! I won't go into to much of the details, if you are interested in knowing about it, please just ask, and I will send you an e-mail! But one thing that God told me was through a couple people, and that was in regards to some frustration I was having in my role to serve God. I was wondering if I was in the right place, if I was doing the right things, if I was good enough, had even asked why God would call me into ministry because I found myself lacking. But through a couple people during a prayer time God told me that I was right where I needed to be, and that He was proud of me and that He was going to continue to use me in a leadership capacity. That was just one thing that was shared with me, and like I said, if you want to know more, ask, and I will send you an e-mail. I had a really great time at this conference, and I learned so much during it! I am currently in Leicester taking it easy before the Cross Cultural Week in Birmingham. Thanks everyone for you thoughts and prayers! Take care and God bless!



As per usual, click on the images to enlarge.

The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Seaguls!

As I am currently writing this, I am on a train making my way into Preston Lancaster Station before switching to another train into Manchester. Wifi on a train...very spiffy.

You will have to forgive me, my comments on Edinburgh will be quite short as I spent the majority of my time there just sort of relaxing and took in a museum as well. I will, however, be posting up some of my thoughts and what I learned during my time at the Scottish Leadership and Discipleship Training Program in the wee town of Arbroath. But firstly, Edinburgh.

Edinburgh


Edinburgh was formerly run by Mark and Jenny Stirling and is now in the more than capable hands of Collin Gillies and I do believe he is getting help from an American by the name of Mark Backlock. Both of these men are great to be around and have a real heart for discipleship and meeting with students one on one. Collin meets with a guy not much older than myself named Dave, while Mark is meeting with a couple guys I met at the conference, Luke and Ben (a funny story about them a bit later). Collin has been spending a lot of his time investigating how he can be effective for God in this ministry, which includes the things he puts his focus on, things that could easily become idols. He was open enough to share that, not just with me, but with other students at the conference. He is a really down to earth guy and I connected with him right away. He took me to a museum in Edinburgh and I got to see all kinds of artifacts from the Roman occupation of the isles as well as the Lewis Chessman, a really awesome exhibit!


Arbroath and the Conference



This conference was absolutely amazing. God really used this time to confirm a lot of things I had been investigating as well as help me to correct some rather blatant scriptural misunderstandings. I will be looking at the scriptures much more carefully now I can tell you. I will get into that a bit down this post though.

The conference was hosted by Mark Stirling and the guest speaker was a former instructor of Mark's named Hans Bayer, who is from Germany and just a really awesome, engaging speaker, and really kind man. He had been addressing issues of the heart of man for the week using the gospel of Mark, with a focus on Mark 11:22-25, which I can assure you, we have grossly been mistranslating. He also used the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Ungrateful Servant. I won't go into all of the details, if you are interested, I have recorded all of my notes, I am willing to talk with you, simply send me an e-mail; I will however share with you what I got out of it. I had been investigating the idea of our selfish nature vs. what God calls us to for a while now, and Hans really confirmed a lot of my investigation. I will summarize it by saying that we need to identify autonomous behavior in our lives and hearts and allow God to correct that, to move towards a more selfless approach. Not selfless in the sense that we diminish into nothing, but selfless in the same example set for us by Christ in His complete and total dependency on the Father. Selfish behavior, I have been finding, is at the root of so many transgressions, our autonomous behavior is at the root, born out of greed and fear. Jesus moves us towards true worship, removes the mountain of idolatry, and allows us to move towards true worship of the father. You'll need to forgive me if this explanation is rushed or un-thorough. I just finished the conference today and have not yet had a chance to piece it all together into something more polished along with the findings in my own time in the scripture. What I will close with though, is that the Gospel of Mark is quickly becoming one of the most interesting Gospels I have read.



Funny Story...

I thought I would share a funny story from the conference. I love all of the people I've met in Scotland thus far. I have made many great friends and I have felt very relaxed and welcomed during my trip so far. The evidence of the Kingdom and our spiritual family is evident over here just as much as it is back home. You might remember that I mentioned an American working out of Edinburgh named Mark Backlock, who is discipling two fellas by the names of Luke and Ben. Well one evening, as everyone was sitting down to supper, Luke doused Mark with a pitcher of water and the two began to wrestle in the dining room. Mark, a former American Football is his own force of nature, not to be reckoned with. He gained a very quick advantage over Luke, when Ben decided he would come in to help and began to give Mark a wedgie. Again, Mark being a force of nature, managed to not only fend Ben off while keeping Luke at bay, he gave Ben a wedgie, one that ripped the elastic completely off Ben's shorts. Luke moved in for the kill, managed to get a hold and tried to finish the work Ben started, Mark countered and ripped the undershorts right off Luke as well. Ben moved in for further assistance and teaming with Luke, the both of them no longer having anything to lose, managed to finally get Mark back. Everyone was laughing and the discipler and his disciples were all grins and smiles as they allowed their photos to be taken and gave each other a pat on the back!

Once again, please click on the images to enlarge them, and feel free to visit the gallery from previous articles to see more images!