Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Questions?

I'm realizing that I've never answered questions here.

So, if you have any questions about Point Loma or anything having to do with campus life, things to do, etc., comment on this blog post and I'll do my best to answer your questions :)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Gospel Choir

So there's this club called VIP (Voices in Praise) Gospel Choir on campus. I'm a part of it. I encourage anyone to do it. It's amazing getting to come into the presence of God with a huge choir and invite others to join. We had our first event last night and it was SO great. I've got another one today in a couple hours. I'm really excited. I don't really have much of a voice left though.... I'll just pray that God gives me my voice back!

That is all.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Friday, Friday, Gotta Get Down On Friday

Yesterday, Friday, the 18th was a GREAT day for me. But, being honest, it had it's ups and downs. But the ups defintiely outweighed the downs this time around. I'll start from the beginning.

7AM woke up in the morning. Had a bowl of cereal.

Had Music Theory class but I had to leave halfway through because the Freshman band was playing in chapel this morning. So I left for the sound check.

Chapel was SO great overall. We played Blessed Be Your Name, Cannons, and then threw in the chorus of Majesty, and closed with the bridge of Jesus Paid It All. I found out afterwards that the sound guy and the head of the worship ministries at Point Loma both thought that this was our best set we've done thus far. And I had multiple people tell me they really enjoyed it. Knowing that God used us to bring people to His throne is such a great feeling.

After we played, we had the guest speaker, Pastor James White. He was a black preacher from North Carolina, my place of dwelling for 11 years. Knowing that and that he was black (like me ;), I knew this would be something special. And it was. He spoke on John 20:24-30 (great passage I recommend reading). The passage is about Thomas and the other disciples seeing Jesus after His resurrection. He spoke about our doubts and that we all have them. But he mentioned that there are good doubts, and this was the type of doubt that Thomas had. He didn't doubt Jesus in a negative way; he wanted to believe, but he just couldn't believe without seeing. And when he saw, he was able to believe again.

Two things that really stuck out to me from his sermon were these things he said:

"Even when you lock the doors of your life, Jesus still finds a way in." - this quote came based off of verse 26 where it says the doors were locked but Jesus appeared inside anyway.
"It's not over even when you think it's over." - Pastor White said this many many times and it was a very key part of his message. Thomas thought it was over. He thought Jesus was gone, but it was not so. Jesus rose from the dead and fulfilled what He said He would do.

After chapel, I had another class, and after that, I was blessed with the opportunity to have great conversations with great people and a really great lunch. Side note: If people ever tell you that the caf food at Point Loma is always bad, they don't know what they're talking about. They have GREAT food sometimes. End side note. After class I got to hang out with more awesome people and I had an awesome time doing it. I love being able to be done with school and then just lounge around and do nothing but fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

So then I went to a student ministry called Beacon of Light. Beacon of Light is a homeless outreach ministry that goes to downtown San Diego and ministers to people by giving them food, Bibles, and sometimes simply just someone they can talk to. This was my first time going to Beacon of Light and actually my first time going to any off campus student ministry. Me finally going may or may not have been because a cute girl asked me to go. Regardless, that wasn't the important factor in me going. I really felt God leading me to go last night.

On the car ride there, I was praying for God to speak through me and I believe that He answered that prayer in a powerful way that I didn't expect. God definitely did far more than I asked or imagined. (Ephesians 3:20). We started off in a parking lot and one homeless man walked up to us right away. I engaged him in conversation and he seemed to be rambling and I almost dismissed him as being cenile or crazy or something but as I listened, I found truth amidst the vague wording. His name was Teddy and he was talking about God's blessings and one thing he said actually stuck with me. He uttered multiple times, "Truth is your greatest ally." and then went on to talk about how truth covers you and God honors those who tell the truth. It was interesting to say the least.

Teddy left, and we prayed as a group and then we split into two groups. We ran into a bunch of different people and some of them were really characters. They were a lot of fun and it was actually really interesting to see how many of them talked about God. One man said, "Well, He's taken care of me this far. I know He will keep me safe until it's my time to go. I'm not done yet." He was I think in his 70s. Having a faith like that, knowing God was the only one sustaining him was inspiring.

One final story about this I want to share was my last experience of the night. I'll make a long story short. As I was talking to one group of people, I saw a younger looking guy sitting by himself and felt the Spirit leading me to talk to him. So I did just that. He was 21, named Alex. It was really crazy talking to him. He actually had weed on his lap when I sat next to him and as we were talking, he started to roll it. I honestly don't remember how the conversation started but I just know that God was speaking through me through the use of Scripture and just trying to tell him that there are better things in life than getting high, that it's only a temporary feeling but God can be a lifelong and permanent feeling. Another girl joined our conversation halfway through and I could tell God used her story to. She was able to relate with Alex and I could tell that he was really listening to the both of us. We didn't end up leading him to Christ or anything like that, he wouldn't even let us pray with him. But, I felt like we brought him close to something that would give his life meaning, something he did not feel. His heart was hard but I could tell that is softened a little bit that night. He has a lot of junk in his life from being homeless to not knowing his parents to things that I didn't even get to hear about, but I know that God loves him and wants to reach him too. I know He has plans for a future and a hope for this man (Jeremiah 29:11).

I definitely think I need to go back and serve in Beacon of Light again next week if I have the opportunity and try to talk to him again.

We drove back to home sweet loma and I played some ultimate frisbee with some of the RAs in Hendricks and other various people. Also my first time doing this, and I'll just say, ultimate frisbee late at night is intense! And a lot of fun.

After we played frisbee, most of us went on a burrito run and I got a CALI BU (if you don't get the reference read this blog). Great times with even more great people.

The Lord definitely blessed me all over the place on Friday.

I love my school.

That is all.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Baggage

Note: this blog is sorta lengthy. If you don't want to read much, I recommend you stop now.

If you didn't stop, congratulations, you're about to read my attempt at tackling a topic we're all familiar with in some way. Here we go.

First of all, how is this blog related to life at Point Loma? It's a loose connection really. It's Spring Break and this springs (pun intended) from my experience away from the school itself but with school friends. I got home from a road trip with some Loma friends a little while ago (blog about the whole trip to come soon) and when I got home, the word "baggage" kept running through my head.

Baggage (noun) - Past history, experiences, or opinions that may have be disadvantageous or have negative effect

We all have baggage. But it comes in many different shapes and forms. Baggage from a dating relationship that maybe didn't end so well, baggage from a tough family life and/or childhood, baggage from a traumatic event, baggage from a past mistake or many past mistakes, even baggage from something that you saw or read that effected you in a dramatic way. I have baggage. And if you're human, odds are - you've got some too. Probably not the same baggage that I have and probably not the baggage that your friends have but it's still baggage.

The beauty of baggage is that we don't always carry it on our own. Tere are moments we experience in which we step away from our bags, if even for a short time. Another beauty is that sometimes, whether we realize it or not, in community with friends, we stop carrying our baggage alone. That's one thing I'm learning about pepole college. I'm just getting back home after a 3 day road trip with some of my friends from Point Loma and I'm seeing how often we help each other carry each other's baggage. It's not always in huge ways but sometimes we'll help someone carry their luggage by walking alongside them. Other times we carry it for them and let them rest from carrying their heavy load. More often, I think, do we watch them carry their bags and their suitcases and feel the burden of their baggage as they carry it. Watching a friend suffer isn't wrong, as a Christian, we're called to suffer with those who suffer. Sometimes that means standing by and just being there, not getting involved. But we never leave them alone.

In 72 hours of being with people, a lot of hours were spent driving. In the car I was in on the way back home, we shared life stories. I can't exactly speak for the other people in the car, but I felt like we shared our baggage. Point Loma students, college students, and people in general come into a friendship already having experienced life apart from one another. If nothing else, we showed one another some of the baggage that we've accumulated over our last 18 or 19 years of life. There is something magical about getting to hear each other's story in an informal manner like a 6 hour car ride. It's not the same as you would share your story in a church small group, or in giving a testimony, it's just you. At least, to the extent that you want to show the real you in that time. As we shared our life stories, I observed of myself and of others that we brought up things from our pasts that hurt us and things that helped us grow. We laughed together at the stupid things in our lives and I could feel that if someone brought up something that hurt them, that we hurt with them. It wasn't necessary to try to fix their problems, because it was in the past for one, and secondly, it's just a part of life.

Life hurts people. Regardless of your background, crap happens. But this isn't surprising. When Jesus walked the earth, he confirmed this. He said, "In this world you will have trouble." (John 16:33) So it's not as if it surprised me about the things that some people have gone through but it sometimes is surprising the extent of which people suffer. That verse goes on to say, "But take heart! I have overcome the world." Good thing that Jesus provides hope despite our troubles. Otherwise we'd be screwed.

This may seem random, but bare with me. Do you know what a yoke is? There are actually a bunch of different definitions of the word, but in this context, let's go with what how the word was used back in the day of Jesus. In that day, when a rabbi, otherwise known as a teacher of the Jewish law, would take someone under his wing of knowledge, the rabbi would invite people to learn to keep the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy). This was called taking "the yoke of Torah" or "the yoke of the kingdom of heaven." Different rabbis would have different interpretations of the Torah, called a yoke. Often, a rabbi's yoke consisted of an extraneous amount of rules and guidlines on how to follow what the Torah said and it wasn't easy to keep all the rules. But take a look at what Jesus says. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Let's bring this full circle. If the yoke that Jesus offers to His followers is easy and His burden is light, then shouldn't the only thing that we, as His followers, carry be light and easy on us? The baggage that we carry doesn't have to weigh us down. If we instead take Jesus' yoke, His burden, and stop carrying ours around wherever we go on our own strength, we'll find that we're no longer weighed down by our baggage and we'll find God to be faithful when we do what the Word says in Psalm 55:22. "Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you."

We've all got baggage, but what we do with the baggage we accumulate is what makes us either grow or suffer as we carry it alone. The good news is that we don't have to carry it alone. We have Jesus and as I'm experiencing, we also have our friends.

Sorry if I seemed to be rambling a bit. God just laid the word "baggage" on my heart when I got home and this is what came of it.

That is all.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Oh Hey What's Up?

HI!


It's been a while since I've had the chance to update my blog. Sorry to those of you who have checked and found nothing.

This blog is really just a what's to come blog.

I'm currently in Castro Valley, CA on a trip with some friends from Point Loma and I'm having a blast.
It's currently Spring Break at my school so we all are visiting a couple of our friends at their houses up here. Tomorrow we're planning to go to San Francisco! I've never been there before so I'm excited. And I feel like God has something in store for me and the rest of the group I'm with when we get there. I don't know what exactly, but I just have that feeling. You know that feeling you get when you feel like God is going to move? Maybe you do, but maybe you don't.

Anyway, like I said, this is a set up blog for a couple more to come. I've been trying to think of some creative things to write about so there will hopefully be one of those. And then I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about our little road trip as well!

God bless you all :)

I love you!

That is all.