Praying for strangers

    My new church decided to change up their normal "prayer meeting" routine by going out and praying for some strangers, or whoever God leads. Usually the prayer meetings consist of sitting in the church and praying, but this time the church decided to put it into action by going out and praying for others and businesses etc.
    My friend and I were sent out to the beach and a very tourist filled area. As we were asking people if they need prayer, many said no. But the reason for the average no was because they already go to church and/or don't need our prayer. Which got me thinking, on an average day would you say yes to somebody who asked if you need prayer? Especially in front of loads of people walking by?  It seemed like most of the time the people who said no were the people who "had it all together" even though they probably were going through something. The people who accepted the prayer were usually  people who had just lost their businesses or homeless or just had problems that they trusted with us to pray for.
    So the question lies,"Would you accept prayer or act like you had it all together?

Man on the Highway

 For spring break, I traveled to the southern coast of North Carolina. After staying a week or so, I traveled back through West Virginia to get back home. As we stopped for the occaisonal snack in a remote exit, I saw a man holding up a sign. He was standing on the corner between the main road and the exit. sThere was a light, very long light that he waited at. It was strategic. People would wait in an awkward silence as a needy man stood outside. I could not read exactly what was on the sign something like "will work for food" or "need work". His clothes showed wear and tear, obviously not very sanitary. So we traveled past him to the Chick-fil-a adjacent to the place where I once occupied by the exit. Now Chick-fil-a was pretty packed, usually attracting the Christian type folks and others. My food was not appetizing because my body was already eating me from the inside. I needed to give him something. So I asked if I could. The driver (not someone related to myself) said that he probably receives an adequate amount of food. Stupid me. Why was I convinced not to give? I paraphrase," When we serve the poor and needy its like helping God himself." Wow, I just refused to help God.

The Missing Link

  It's come to my attention that America is the most depressed nation in the world. According to pbs.org there are 15 million people (18 and older) living with major depression. Keep in mind that is major depression and 18 and older that means that there are even more.  But why? Where have we gone wrong? How could such a blessed country with almost everything have so many depressed and emotionally defeated? 1 Timothy answers a large part of this question,"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." Wow. That's an eye-opening smack to the face. (But don't you just love how the Bible has those answers?)
  Well this is actually not on why we a large population is depressed but rather how we can fix it. You see, joy is  alot of times concomitant with interdependence and human interaction because we were composed to do just that. I believe God didn't make us socially inclined just so we could sit at home and flip through channels. Or even become more stressed because we have no one to fully spill your thoughts to someone so they could sypathize, care, and try to cheer you up. A science dictionary puts it like this: A group of organisms or populations living and interacting with one another in a particular environment. The organisms in a community affect each other's abundance, distribution, and evolutionary adaptation. Honestly I don't see our "community" doing this. I don't see the loving and Matthew 22:39 because that's the missing link. Share love with one another. Get to know one another. Let the love infection take over.

Sidenote: I'm not saying that money is the only cause of depression. Bear with me here.

Dear Complacency,

    This little letter is projected to my friends and neighbors in good ole' Delaware who are trying to resist being complacent. "You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to a guy too... But I guess that's why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest." -Rich Mullins
     So that's pretty cruel. Considering that as Americans we are born into riches and know no differently then the materialism taught by mass advertisement. That is why I want to change the perspective here. For many years an event called 'Shack City' has been going on in November where normal people bring cardboard and sleep over night in their supplies. This has always been a great opportunity to look through the eyes of the homeless. But as I said this only happens in November. And other than that there is no other service opportunities (other than food drives or toy drives).
     This is where an idea hit me. I have a friend named Michael who is truly a visionary whose voice is not heard. Now Michael is having a shoe drive partnered with Shoes 4 Soles. Which is fantastic, but maybe we could take it one step further... What if we could keep our shoes off for a day and just take a walk through Delaware? And if people ask why we have our shoes off, we simply say that we are having a shoe drive then tell them where to drop them off. It's not fool proof but it's just in the making. Just a new way to infect people with love. God's love.

A Little Introduction.

        Well hi, first I would like to say that I'm just 14 years of age, so if you are looking for immaculate writing you should probably exit this blog. I'm a fool, hypocrite, and sometimes a hater. So with that out of the way, I would like to share some of my vision.
        I want to change the face of Christianity. Yes, crazy I know. But I want to change it not on a world scale (although that would be real nice) but rather on an individual scale. If as a group of believers and followers of Christ we could expose the love of God to the poor, homeless, sick, and defenseless then we can start an epidemic. Although it is always easier said then done.
       Having no video skill or media ability I can't make my dream as distinguished as Kony or RED. Rather I can do as St. Francis of Assissi stated,"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. And once again that is easier said then done.
        And God is giving me an opportunity to start. Last summer my parents visited Cape Town, South Africa and immediately fell in love. After much prayer (and questioning if we were mentally stable), My parents made the decision to move to Africa. This was not exactly popular with my stunned siblings (We have lived in safety in the suburbs of Columbus since we were born) and they had a rough time wrapping their heads around the hugeness of this decision. We pondered if we really should move. So we moved in with a family that (bless their little hearts) probably didn't know what they were getting into. After about 4 months, we moved into my grandparent's home which is where we are now. So thats pretty much it.
     With a little bit of financial support, we bought 7 way tickets to South Africa. We leave June 26th to begin our lives...


More coming. For more info go to thequists.com