Last Blog Post

Well, this is the last blog post of the year! This has been a struggle writing this blog this year, but I am sure it will be a good memory to look back on! First off, I would like to thank everyone that has been praying for me this year. I am sure that has contributed to this year in a huge way. 

This year has been a real year of growth. I feel like I have grown in so many different ways: I feel like I am stronger in resisting temptation; I have become more comfortable with being close to people, and have built many good friendships; I have been sober the whole year (longest time for me in years); and I have developed more of a servant heart, in my opinion.

This was a really interesting group of guys in Kaleo this year, each with their own unique personality. We have helped each other so much, and I have learnt so much from the guys, and gals. I pray that I did make an eternal difference in the lives of the kids I was teaching in Sunday school this year. All I can do for them now is pray. But overall, I feel that it was what God wanted me doing this year, and I learned so much from the experience on how to interact and love kids.

So I imagine I may be looking back on this blog in 10 years from now (HOPEFULLY MARRIED TO A HOT... I MEAN, BEAUTIFUL WOMAN) :X But hey for now the single life is GOOD! WOO HOO God bless everybody! Im Out~~~

LOVE B

Healing and moving on..

I think it is interesting that no matter what type of struggles that I go through that God always brings his hand into the situation and teaches me, and gives me peace. Whether he teaches me through other people giving me messages, or by his Word, or by his Spirit I find that God is always so faithful in helping me overcome my trials.

For example, I began talking with my ex-girlfriend again, who I have missed terribly ever since I last saw her. We were dating two summers ago, and at the end of the summer she left for a semester of school in London.  Well long story short we broke up during that time, over the phone of course. Although I had a girlfriend before her, I feel that she was my first love. I felt like I had this emptiness inside of me for a long time. God's love has been filling me up since then, but as far as the thought of ever being with another women went, I couldn't really imagine myself ever being with anyone besides her.

So once we started talking again, after a long break of not talking, over the phone I started to miss her again even more. The main reason I wanted to talk with her again was because I wanted to be able to get over some of the pain I had in me over my feelings for her, and because I felt that God wanted to restore our relationship to something that is godly. 

Well after a while talking to her started to get me into a bit of a funk again, and I got a little worried because I could not understand what was going on. I was wondering if the reason I want to be with her was either because we are meant to be together, or if I just needed to move on from this and I needed to heal. Well to be honest I still don't know which of those options is correct, or the best thing for me. But what I can say is that God has been putting people in my life that have been giving me the message of moving on from the past. My Dad, my Grandma, and my pastor have all spoken on that message. Along with scriptures speaking on how we should not dwell on the past. 

Pastor Shane said today, that no matter how good something was in the past, there are always things better to look forward to in the future. Now I have to say, heres looking forward to those things!

AMEN

Fight the good fight of the faith..

Plain and simply, sometimes the Christian life is just way too hard. Sometimes I feel completely unequipped or qualified to be doing any of this. I don't know who I can trust, which Christians are in the right and which are in the wrong? These questions are only coming up because the Christians that I am around are often judging other Christians. Often I feel like telling everyone to stop judging others, but inevitably I end in a place where I start judging the very people that are judging others.

And then there is this business about being attacked by the Devil. A lot of the time I feel embarrassed even talking about the Devil. It just seems like such a cop-out a lot of the time, like why should I blame my problems on the Devil? I don't feel like even acknowledging him much of the time. Then it got to the point recently in my Ministry where the Devil was invoking such negativity into my life that I realized that I had to fight him head on. It was either that or I had to do something, he was about to either drive me to drink or make me drive him out of my life. So after realizing that I was being attacked very strongly I asked a friend to pray with me. There was nothing more strong that I have ever experienced to cause negative time to go away than to pray with a Christian friend.

I think it really can come down to this fact.. The beginning part of the Gospel was Jesus fighting off Satan. If even Jesus dealed with this, surely I will also need to deal with it.

Fight the good fight of the faith..

Missed a week

YEA ONE WEEK AWAY

So I was just studying on being all thing to all people so that you can win them over. It comes from Paul's teaching in 1 cor.9. The thing that is preached is that when you are among non believers you do not need to be afraid to go into their life (parties, dances, bars, or cars). The thing is that you cant say "OK my life is so godly so just do what I do and you will be OK." What we should be doing in ministry is be apart of the non belivers life, it is not them that should be put out of their comfort zone it is us. The things that we can not be accommodating in are morals and doctrine. Those things are set by God and they are absolute, (SUCH AS SEX AND DRINKING)...

This week I went in my Church for GOD WALK. It was cool fellowship time as we learned about Darwinism, and discussed those issues and Christianity. I also had a really nice lunch with a lady who loves being around younger people. It was cool, and she really gave me some good insight. 

This week was so amazing and 100% blessed! So instead of doing my regular Church Ministry this week, ( I did not do that because I was out of town) I did some ministry with people I met around Victoria.  So my week started off with me going to Victoria with the India team. They all went back up to camp but I stayed in town. That night I met up with a guy in my church to go to the gym and the pool. So a friend of the friend I was working out with just so happened to be a young guy that I went to High School with, we had never talked before though. It turns out he did not have much going on that night in Victoria so I told him he should come to my youth group in Victoria. He came by my house to hang out and then we went. After that we went out till the late hours of the night and talked with friends. He and some other people ended coming back to my place and we talked till about 2:30. 

The next night I ended up hanging out with him again! We went to a hockey game that I got tickets for.. Ended up going to play pool and foosball at my old work. Then the really cool thing was that we got to talk to eachother for a long time that night one on one. He really opened up to me about some things going on in his life right now. I really felt that God brought him into my life for that reason, to tell him how good God really is throughout these troubling times. Anyways, it was a great time of building a relationship and getting to talk to people about Jesus! 

We are all God's creation!

After reading the Old Testament all week I am immensely encouraged and inspired! It is so good to realize that we have a creator who loves us. Just going for a walk the other night.. I really began to realize my purpose in life, that God put me on this earth to live in it and walk with him. It is funny that I was living as a believer in Christ for a long time but never got that sense of belief in where I came from. I knew about Adam and Eve, the first people in the history of creation, but I never felt much of a connection with them. They always felt like a completely unrelated people to me, but now I feel totally related to them and I know that I came from them.. It is so cool! 

I took a break from my ministry this week, but I will be going into youth group now for this month. I did go to the Wood families house this weekend after church. They invite us over (all the New Life Kaleo people) one week every month now. Anyway, my time with other Christians has been great lately, I am really enjoying being with them. All in all I am looking forward to getting more involved in the youth.

Another Good Week!

So, I did not actually get to teach my class this week for two reasons. One was that I was not feeling good, and the second was that we actually had too many teachers for our class! It was good tho, as I had some time to just rest this Sunday, after church I had a great day with some friends watching the superbowl. And I met some cool new people too! I have been thinking a lot lately about how we Christians are all family. And what that looks like. I have been thinking that I need to devote my life to my family much more than I am. 

Earlier in the week we went to Missions Fest and I had a great time there. I spent time with my family that I have not seen in years in Vancouver. There was a little bit of judgement there on me being a Christian, some rude remarks. All in all I was grateful to have the chance to see them. I was really affected by Tony Canpolo.. He spoke on how seduced we have been by materialism, made me realize how much I have been. I feel ready to devote my life to sacrifice and missionary work..

Good Week

This week was cool. I had a lot of good time to reflect on life and everything that is coming up in my life. My time in my ministry was really good. I have had a blessed time being with a girl named Lourdess who has recently just finished chemotherapy for Leukemia. She is such a little sweetheart, and she is still very fragile and sick sometimes from her long battle with Leukemia. It is pretty cool, because my Grandma is actually her regular school teacher, so we get to talk about her sometimes and how sweet of a girl she is.. 

We missed out on our lunch with a church family this week because of some schedule issues. But IJM spoke at our church this week and I missed it. It was apparently a very good message, and I am going to get it on DVD. If I could just ask for some prayer support for everything.. Life can be difficult, and I am getting through a lot of stuff right now.. Also pray for my kids in my class!

Great Week

This week my Sunday morning ministry went really cool. I am just amazed sometimes how much of a relationship I have built with the kids. Some of the guys that I never thought I would be able to connect with are literally clinging to me. It’s exciting because I can see how engaged the kids are in this new program, much more than they were in the previous one; which was probably more suitable for grade 2/3’s. We were questioning them with things like who was the richest and poorest people in the Bible? And “ If you had many things and you know someone who had very little would you give to that person?” And using the good example of 2 Samuel where Samuel calls David out on his greedy behavior by using the example of the poor and rich man, the rich man then steals the poor mans only lamb.

Then after Church this Sunday all the available Kaleo’s went to Pastor Greg’s and his wives’ house. It was so enjoyable fellowshipping with them. I am just so encouraged at how genuinely nice they are. To the unsuspecting person they may almost seem fake. But after getting to know them for a while I have just gotten to know that they are truly genuine and good people. I am also on a nutritional cleansing month with Isagenix. It is making me feel so good and healthy. My mind is able to focus much more and it feels so good! Ta Ta for now..

 Brandon.

1st week back

Well my first week back at Kaleo has been a great one. I took my theology of mission course, and found the teaching by Tim Stabell very solid and challenging. It really got me back to the basic foundation of deeds. All mission is God's mission. Meaning it is his work that he actually does, and he does through us people. I believe the problems start to come in when people think that they are going to help God out on their own with their own plan. Hoping to impress God with your wisdom, I think that is where the faith and deeds comes in. We shouldn't be lazy but we should also let God work through us and not force the issue so much.

This week was my first week back at my ministry as well. I am very excited because we are starting a new curriculum for the grade 4/5's. The previous lesson plans were obviously just boring for the kids, so we brought in a new plan called "Grapple" it is literally supposed to get the kids grappling with the Bible and with the concept of salvation (the New Testament). I think it is good for them, they had heard the stories countless times again, so they are ready for this.