Cleaning Day at the Skatepark

Today was a long day but we got a lot done! We had loads of volunteers from the church and kids from the skatepark come and help us clean and do some much needed repairs. We had a great time together and now the skatepark looks better than ever, here are some pics of the things we did.

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Rhine photo

Köln

“Follow Me” Message

A couple weeks ago I was given the opportunity to teach the Youth group again at Calvary Chapel Siegen. I taught on what it really looks like to follow Jesus in this generation. You can click the audio icon for the link to the mp3.

Thoughts on David Brainerd

“My heaven is to please God and glorify Him, and to give all to Him, and to be wholly devoted to His glory; that is the heaven I long for; that is my religion, and that is my happiness, and always was ever since I had true religion; and all those that are of that religion shall meet me in heaven. I do not go to heaven to be advanced, but to give honor to God. It is not matter where I shall be stationed in heaven, whether I have a high or low seat there; but to love, and please, and glorify God is all. Had i a thousand souls, if they were worth anything, I would give them all to God; but i had nothing to give when all is done. It is impossible for any rational creature to be happy without acting all for God; God Himself could not make him happy any other way. I long to be in heaven, praising and glorifying God with the holy angels: all my desire is to glorify God. My heart goes out to the burying place; it seems to me a desirable place: but O to glorify God! that is it; that is above all. It is a great comfort to me to think that I have done a little for God in the world, O it is but a very small matter; yet i have done little; and I lament that I have not done more for Him. There is nothing in the world worth living for but doing good and finishing God’s work, doing the work that Christ did. I see nothing else in the world that can yield any satisfaction besides living to God, pleasing Him, and His whole will. My greatest joy and comfort has been, to do something for promoting the interest of religion and the souls of particular persons; and now, in my illness, while I am full of pain and distress, from day to day, all the comfort I have is in being able to do some small piece of work for God, either by something I say, or by writing, or some other way.” – David Brainerd

Not many people nowadays know who David Brainerd was, in fact I admit that if it was not for a friend giving me a book on him I never would have known who he was either. Brainerd lived in the early 1700′s and was a missionary to the Native Americans along the Delaware River and surrounding areas. When reading the quote above one might have the impression that Brainerd died at an elderly age with many years on the mission field under his belt, however, it was actually not the case. David Brainerd died at the age of 29 after only being on the mission field for 4 years! Not only that but during those years he struggled with depression, extreme illness and on top of that for most of his ministry he had no one to help him. Yet, after 4 long years of literally working himself to death he was able to look back on it and count it all as being worthwhile, because the name of Christ was lifted up and the Gospel was advanced. Brainerd was truly a man who could look past his present circumstances to see God’s plan for greater good in the distance and keep going. This, we all know is not the easiest of things to do, especially when things get rough, it’s in times like these that I am thankful for the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. As Hebrews 12:1 says, there are people like David Brainerd who are living testimonies to the fact that the Christian life may not always be easy but regardless of how tough a situation may be, Christ is always with us and that gives us the hope we need to persevere.

February Newsletter

You can click on this link to view my Newsletter Feb 2012

If you are interested in getting my Newletters by email you can contact me and I will add you to the list

Also, I added photos from our wedding!

Salt & Light Message

This past Wednesday I was given the opportunity to teach at the youth group in Siegen. I taught on Matthew 5:13-16 on being Salt and Light in this world and having an influence on those around us. You can click on the audio icon for a link to the teaching