Spreading Hope

Day 4

2009-11-18T07:04:00.001-08:00

Day 3

2009-11-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

Day 2

2009-11-16T15:44:00.000-08:00

Pics for now, and a real blog post will be tonight after I preach. Thanks for the patience.
One thing before I go, God is good, no matter what we are facing, or what we are trapped in. He is bigger and his Love covers all things.

Day 1

2009-11-16T05:15:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 14th.
It was early, and cold. I could see my breath. We had to move our car from the Day's Inn to the parking lot 2 to the south to catch our shuttle. We made it through check in and security fairly quickly and soon we were in route to Houston.

We had about an hour and a half layover in Houston which meant some Panda Express and recharging our electronics. The flight to Trinidad from Houston was long, but fairly easy. I sat next to a gentleman named Roger. Roger was on his way to the Island from work, but a good ole' boy from Texas. We had great conversation for a while, and I found out Roger was a Christ follower. It was awesome, and he said he would be praying for Scott and I on our Mission, as I told him I would be praying for him.

We arrived at about 9:25pm Trini time. It was hot, and humid. The lady at Customs was less than pleasant, and asked us a ton of questions, but fortunatley Steph sent me an email with the answers to the questions and we made it through without a prison sentance hehe.

Stephie and Richie met us at the exit. We loaded our stuff and asked for something real Trini to eat. Traffic is crazy here! First they drive on the left side of the road (Trinidad was under British rule until the mid 60's and they were liberated to there own Republic in the 80's), there are way to many cars here, the roads are not very wide and they use there horns all the time. The horn thing was different to me, depending on how they honk the horn or how many times, it is telling the other drivers differnt things

Steph and Richie are both super awesome. I think Richie is my black twin. He has to be the happiest person I have met. He digs the Colts, Dave Matthews and Video games, needless to say we had alot in common. It is so awesome to see Richie and Stephie together, there love for Christ is awesome and there desire to give of themselves for the benefit of others is encouraging and infectious.

So for our first stop to get something "real Trini" we made it to a town called Maloney. From what Steph and Richie said, this place is a pretty rough part of Trinidad. We stopped for Doubles at a large apartment looking building. Let me explain doubles, they are 2 Trini type of tortillas (smaller and thicker) thrown on a piece of wax paper and they load it with a Chick Peas sauce, Tamarind, pepers, and a bunch of other stuff. It is soo good, and very messy - which I do well :o). Two old people served us them along with an apple soda called AppleJ through a large locked metal gate. I counted I think 8 huge cockroaches while we ordered, but friends and all, this was deffinitley worth it. Amazing meal.

After the meal we drove around as they showed us different parts of these towns (towns change rapidly down here. After only 5 to 10 blocks, you could be in a different town.) Everything is really close together here. We arrived at our guest house and it is pretty cool. It is a very large living area below Pastor KK's house, with a nice pool out front. There are people all over outside, and when we shut the doors at night, we lock 2 deadbolts, lock 2 latches and pull a large gate over the door, I guess cause it is a little rougher. It was late and church was at 7:30 Trini time (6:30 Indiana time) so I took a quick swim and crawled into bed.

**side note**

So there are a ton of stray dogs here. They run in packs and you see em no matter what part of the Island you are on. They just eat garbage. It is kind of sad. Apparently 3 or 4 of em hang out close to the guest house, because we heard them having a heated discussion all night via them barking. Praise God for Ipods!! haha

Amazing Love

2009-11-01T06:59:00.000-08:00

Wow, it is Sunday morning, beautiful brisk fall day and I am just so amazed how Awesome our God is!! I have to say, I really thought I would be better about blogging more frequent, but I am finding out that I don't log in as much as I should. I apologize for that.

This week God really showed up in so many ways, from work, to family to youth group. He is a Mighty and Loving God that is not bound by time. When I think of how big our God is, I think of stories like Isaiah's commission, that when he was in the throne room of God, even the angels couldn't look at God. All they could do was cover their face and feet, and fly around singing

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

(For reference to this scripture, for those who want to know, read Isaiah 6:1-9)

I think of how mighty he is that Heavenly beings cant even look at him, but that very same God knows me. And not just knows me, but knows who I am, who I was and who I am going to be. I love the story of Jeremiah when God reveals himself to Jeremiah. It says this in Jeremiah 1:5

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

before you were born I set you apart;

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

So a God who is all powerful, that can toss mountains into the sea and spoke our very world into existence can and does know each and every one of us. He knows our faults, our weakness, our desires, our talents. He knows where we fail daily or where we have failed in the past. It is crazy to me, because we can quickly lie to ourselves and say that maybe we failed to much for God to love us, or that we are not worthy of His love so why bother.. But the second you open your heart, He is quick to remove the stain from our lives. To forgive us and out of all that to Love us with an unconditional love.

The more that I learn about a life with Jesus, the more I see how this Love has the ability to change the world. You see this love is different than anything this world knows. It is a completely selfless love.. It is humble and meek and it doesn't have an agenda. It is a love without conditions. It is a love that breaks long built up walls, that restores broken hearts, that repairs the damage that sin has in our lives.. That frees from Pornography or Drug and Alcohol addiction. This Love that they Bible and its many writers talk about covers ALL.. I will say it again. God's Love covers ALL!!! It makes me cry when I think of that.

Well I need to get to church.. I am so stoked to worship with mi familia today. Because knowing all of this, what else is there to do? Colt's football doesn't hold a candle to Jesus, and I have been given the right to praise him. Not only do I get to sing and worship our sovereign creator.. but he is in me and with me.

So Lord, today for whoever is reading this, remind them that you Love them. Father I pray that we would give up of ourselves, that we would commit our lives to your will, and as we find this Love that we would give this love to others lord. Thank you for Hope!!

**SURRENDER = DELIVERANCE**

Nik

Ohhh Snap... God never ceases to amaze me!!!

2009-10-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

I want to start this post off by saying Thank you to all the family and friends that have contributed to the mission in Trinidad, both financially and spiritually. I will be leaving for Trinidad on November 14th. I am so excited I can hardly contain it!!

In preparation for the trip I have been praying regularly and for the next month I will be doing a Daniels fast on Tuesdays and Thursdays and keeping these days solely dedicated to prayer. Please keep Scott and I in prayer that God would be able to break us to the core and humble us to be used only for his kingdoms cause. Its so funny because I keep wanting to go and just be a servant to bless the people in Trinidad, but I have been feeling as of late (after watching videos from Faith Assembly in Auroca which is the church we will be at) that we will be the ones to be blessed. I totally look forward to meeting new people on the island and praising God with them as we make new friends.

Being in prayer for justice and mercy around the world has really opened my eyes to alot going on in the world, as well as right in my city. I truly believe God is raising up a generation of youth that are going to stand in the gap and be the body of Christ even more than the generations before. I get very excited when I work with kids in Fort Wayne that have had a very rough and unfair life, to watch as God breathes into there soul and reminds them that they are loved, and that they still have a purpose. To change broken youth into people that love Jesus, there is nothing greater.

A couple things I wanted to bring to your attention are several websites that I would ask you to visit sometime.

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org - Not For Sale is an organization that is changing the world by liberating slaves, abolishing slavery and fighting the sex trade industry. I have been blessed by there actions and this website has alot of information that will be very useful. They have alot of merchandise that is hand made by liberated slaves and women freed from the sex trade, along with there stories. I bought my wife a pair of earrings that were hand made from a woman in Indonesia that was freed from the sex trade in Bombay India, and the profits go to her and her family. Jesus died for our freedom, and gave us the the command to Go. This is a small step we can take to have an effect across the world.

http://www.six11.wordpress.com - Six Eleven ministries is a ministry started by my friend Shawn, that reaches out to the Gay and Lesbian community. They are a revolutionary bunch that is out to spread the love of Christ, and bring truth in a real and relevant way without condemnation. I would encourage you to check em out, and prepare to be blessed.

http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/ - These are local stores that are part of the Fair Trade movement, to make trade fair. Really cool stuff and awesome stories of people who crafted the items.

http://www.tomsshoes.com/ - Really cool store, that when you buy a pair of shoes, another pair is donated to a person in a third world country.

http://www.neighborlinkfortwayne.org/ - Getting closer to home, neighbor link is an amazing organization that connects people wanting to serve there neighbors to people that can not meet there needs to bring volunteer assistance. This is an awesome way to get plugged in and give of yourself without expecting something in return, and show justice and mercy as Micah 6:8 asks us to do.

These are just several of the websites I have become a fan of. I would encourage anyone who is reading this to be excited about giving!! to be excited about serving and to be excited about showing justice somehow every day. It may be helping someone in another country, it may be helping the homeless guy you pass on the street. Maybe it is your neighbor you have never met, or better yet one you cant stand. Maybe it is the person you work with, or even are married to. It isn't just mission trips and charity organizations that show justice, it is our every day life that we have compassion and mercy, just as Christ has shown us.

Thank you for your continued prayer, and there will be more to come.....

God Bless

Nik

An opening statement

2009-08-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

So my purpose for this blog was originally to chronicle what God is doing in my life in preparation for Trinidad trip in November. But I believe he has greater plans, and I hope this turns into a blog of Praise, a blog of joy and love that will stir others to be that embodied Christ. To live lives that is dedicated to holiness and that as we pray, fast and meditate on His word that we can rejoice together as the hopeless receive hope in Christ.

Micah 6:8 says this,

⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

It has been so funny seeing God speak to many people and confirm his words through revelation in others. What I mean by this is my pastor has been heavy laden with this verse, and we have decided to take this on as our Church backbone if you will. At the same time God continues to break me down in this one scripture. I have heard numerous people quote this scripture just in the last week. I really believe that this is the action that will change our neighborhoods, our cities, our country and the very ends of the earth.

So God, stretch us Oh Lord, continue to break our heart for what breaks yours. Let us be humble and obedient and let this blog be a blog of your mercy. Let it show what people who love you can do by surrendering to you, and sacrificing of our natural, worldly desires. Remind us that we are your children and that our purpose on this earth is bigger than us.

I love you

**Surrender = Deliverance**