Maunday Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday

On Thursday John, Ryan, and I went with James to the Maunday Thursday service. There we listened to a sermon from Exodus 12. He spoke on how the sacrifices for passover were to be young male lambs and they were to be roasted whole, not broken, with bitter herbs and bread without yeast. All this was reference to Christ.
John 19:32-33, 36
 ³² So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.  ³⁶  For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 
He was not broken. He was sacrificed that we may have life.


Jonah 
v13-17
The ship Jonah is on is being tossed around by all the winds. He has already told them that he is a man of God and that they should throw him overboard. v13 "instead the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not..." Hearing what to do but still fearing God too much to throw Jonah over, they continued to follow their own way of doing things. Finally when they realize they can do nothing they agree to throw him overboard and ask God to forgive them for taking his life. So they throw Jonah over and low and behold the sea goes calm. v16 "at this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him." Then God came and took Jonah away in a fish. 
Sometimes we are like the sailors who were set in their ways, believing they could do everything on their own strength and making things worse. Instead we need to trust Him when he speaks to us. Instead of looking to fix everything ourselves we should seek him who guides our path and calms our raging seas.

He is risen. He's alive. Hell was silenced when He cried "it is finished" 
Today is Easter Sunday. Resurrection Sunday. He is risen. He is risen indeed.


Support update!!!

Thank you all who have supported me so far. Once 2-3 more checks come into the office, I will have about 45% of the $6000 I need to reach South Africa. Bill and Kristen have already purchased our plane tickets to leave May 16th to fly to Atlanta and then to Jo-burg. I am trying to call everyone I can think of in my spare time and would ask that, if you are still reading this, would you please consider helping support me as I go to South Africa this summer? We need to have all support completed before we go.

Also there is a missions night on April 29th at Hickory Grove United Methodist Church in Charlotte. Come out, enjoy a spagetti dinner, tallent show, silent auction, and support Alana Baucom, Ryn Crawford, and I as we raise support for this summer.

God and Go

Start this blog off in Jonah and traveling all the way through to South Africa.

As I head to South Africa this summer I am slowly going through Jonah with the guys in my discipleship group (d-group) lead by James Broadaway. As we look at the text in the first chapter this week we noticed a simple but powerful message hidden in the text. Jonah 1:1-2


¹ The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

"GO"
The word of God came to Jonah and said GO
Immediately and since that time we have thought of many times throughout the Bible where God comes to man and says GO

-Abram Genesis 12:1 "...GO to the land I will show you."
-Abraham Genesis 22:2 "...take your son...and GO...Sacrifice him there..."
-Moses Exodus 3:10 "So now, GO. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt"
-Isaiah Isaiah 6:8-9 "...here I am send me... GO and tell this people..."
-Jonah Jonah 1:2 "GO to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it"
-Matthew 28:19 "Therefore GO and make disciples of all nations"
-Mark 16:15 "GO into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."

We are ALL called to GO. We are ALL called to share what Christ has done in our lives. The underlined words are not just for emphasis but to show that when God says GO he has a purpose for why he wants us to GO. He has told our team GO to Johannesburg, South Africa. GO and share the gospel.

Support Update

I just want to thank all who have supported me so far. As of today I am at $1745 of my $6000 dollar goal. However I am behind the goal of currently having $4000. However we are raising this as a 20 person team and as a team we are also behind. Coming into this weekend we only had 30%-40% of our total goal. But our goal this weekend was to have 66% of our total. Today we are spending heavy amounts of time praying, writing letters, writing thank yous, and calling people to support us. We have raised just enough for our leaders to buy the plane tickets to get there and back but now we need the money to eat and house us while in South Africa.

Please Pray For Us:

-That God would faithfully provide financial support for us.
-That Gods will would be done
-That we would faithfully share the gospel while in Africa
-That we would be faithful in raising that support