July 26, 2009 the Journey – Nicaragua Panel Discussion
Featuring Matt Johnson, Loren Wilson, Alisha Temple, Kevin Swartz, Lisa and Elizabeth Whitt
In November when you first heard about LUO, what made you decide to choose get involved?
• Give kids food, shelter and education. As well as a Christ-based education.
• Put faith in Matt, knew the project was legitimate.
• The realization that only $200 could support a child for a whole year.
• Helps instill solid principles in our children over here.
What appealed to you about going down to Nicaragua? Did you have any concerns?
• Seeing the child that you sponsored. Getting people to sponsor you to raise the money to go.
• A little concern about safety and health.
• Having a 9 year old see how other 9 year olds around the world have to live. An experience that can never be taken away.
In general, what did you do while you were there, and how was it different than what you expected?
• Playing with kids in the dump. Visiting safe homes to play with kids.
• Go to know people, and meet their needs.
• Painted at homes and dumps; fixed things up.
• Took kids on little trips and hung out with the kids.
• Played in the pool with kids.
• Developed relationships with the kids.
• Played soccer with the kids.
• The school is the center of hope among despair.
• Moved things from old home to new home.
• Not a lot of expectations going into Nicaragua
First impressions?
• Animals are among the people digging through the dump.
• Overwhelming.
• You don’t know what to do.
• Surprised that the kids are happy at school, considering the horrific environments they live in.
• Hard to fathom until you see it.
Experience with the kids?
• Fun.
• Language barrier, but universal languages are play and music.
• Girls home created a bond and sense of community.
• The bus was kind of a party bus. Singing, playing, having fun.
• Developing one-on-one relationships with the kids. Found ways to communicate despite the language barrier. The kids loved us being there with them.
• The smiles continue to be on the kids’ faces because of what is being done to help them.
• It is amazing what a little attention and a little love can do.
• In 2 months time love, attention, and care can really make a huge difference in the lives of these kids.
Best experience:
• Kids falling asleep in your arms.
• Playing soccer in the dump.
• Watching Alex Kursave interact with the kids.
• Watching interaction with the kids with 9 year old Elizabeth Whitt.
• Bus rides! Music, running, no rules.
Experience with fellow Journeyers
• Everyone warmed up to each other and became so close.
• Everyone was willing to work together.
• Wonderful sense of community.
• Relationships that created a bond.
What did God teach you?
• Showed that we are really helping people.
• God’s love is universal.
• You can show love no matter what language you speak.
• Patience, slowing down.
• Learning to listen to God.
• Peace overcomes the clutter in our lives.
• We need to be more thankful for what we have.
• We need to be less selfish.
• Importance of relationships.
• Live is meant to be shared.
• God is working!
What would you say to people who haven’t gone?
• Drink water.
• Set aside your reservations, and trust God.
• Some people don’t want to go, but will be glad to give you money for you to go.
• It is safe, don’t worry.
• This is an opportunity to experience what God is doing in another country.
http://theepicjourney.com
http://twitter.com/theepicjourney
Listen to the panel: http://tiny.cc/vBXJz
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
practical purposes of poo
Got this info from a video a friend of mine posted on Twitter. It is classic! And at the same time a pretty cool idea.
Watch the video: http://bit.ly/4GgEtP
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nrcave
A toilet made out of poop
• It has a pleasant softness to it
• It is really quite nice actually
Virginia Gardiner – Industrial Designer/Writer in London
She is developing a new waterless toilet system
In America we have a flush and forget mentality
• We love to flush the toilet
• We love to eliminate the contents of the toilet from our memory and experience as quickly as possible.
• Each flush uses one to three gallons of water.
• There are 2.6 billion people globally (40% of total population) who do not have a toilet.
She is trying to create a waterless toilet of the city that uses no energy and turns human waste into a commodity.
Compact Composting Toilet:
• She uses composting worms (worms compost things most quickly)
• Set up a wormory where she put feces on a regular basis to see how the worms would do turning it to soil.
• Poop transformed in just a few days and became invisible.
LooWatt System:
• Empty toilet with a cartridge
• Wheel the cartridge to a biodigester which produces gas
• Take the gas, and cook dinner with it
• Eat dinner, and you get really happy and you poo!
• Start process over
Our daily contribution to this planet which comes from our bodies is 2 pounds of excrement (combo of pee and poo)
Shouldn’t that excrement be put into a system where we can use it again in the most beneficial possible way?
Watch this video: http://bit.ly/4GgEtP
Watch the video: http://bit.ly/4GgEtP
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nrcave
A toilet made out of poop
• It has a pleasant softness to it
• It is really quite nice actually
Virginia Gardiner – Industrial Designer/Writer in London
She is developing a new waterless toilet system
In America we have a flush and forget mentality
• We love to flush the toilet
• We love to eliminate the contents of the toilet from our memory and experience as quickly as possible.
• Each flush uses one to three gallons of water.
• There are 2.6 billion people globally (40% of total population) who do not have a toilet.
She is trying to create a waterless toilet of the city that uses no energy and turns human waste into a commodity.
Compact Composting Toilet:
• She uses composting worms (worms compost things most quickly)
• Set up a wormory where she put feces on a regular basis to see how the worms would do turning it to soil.
• Poop transformed in just a few days and became invisible.
LooWatt System:
• Empty toilet with a cartridge
• Wheel the cartridge to a biodigester which produces gas
• Take the gas, and cook dinner with it
• Eat dinner, and you get really happy and you poo!
• Start process over
Our daily contribution to this planet which comes from our bodies is 2 pounds of excrement (combo of pee and poo)
Shouldn’t that excrement be put into a system where we can use it again in the most beneficial possible way?
Watch this video: http://bit.ly/4GgEtP
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
GO FISH PT. 3: GOD LOVED GOD GAVE WE BELIEVE WE RECEIVE
GO FISH pt. 3 “Muddy Water” – Matt Johnson http://theepicjourney.com *Follow Matt and the Journey on Twitter:
(http://twitter.com/MattJohnson21) (http://twitter.com/TheEpicJourney)
2 Questions:
1. What do you need to know to become a follower of Jesus?
2. What do you need to do to become a follower of Jesus?
John 3:16 ‘For God so LOVED the world that He GAVE His one and only son that whoever BELIEVES in Him will not perish (will not be separated from God for eternity) but have (RECEIVE) eternal life (a new life, a better life with God; Christ alive in you, the hope of glory)’
2 Answers:
1. God loved, God gave
2. We believe (trust) in, We receive
“God could have tweeted that”
God did not come to chastise you, He came to rescue you.
The Bible is the story of God loving and giving and people believing and receiving.
The message of salvation is that simple.
John 3:17 ‘For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.’
None of us are separated from God because of sin. There is a solution to your sin. It has already been taken care of on the cross.
Am I gonna respond and accept it? am I gonna trust in Him?
We need to live it out and lay it out.
We need to live our lives in such a way that people see the message of the gospel in us. In how we treat each other, how we relate to one another, and how we extend grace and truth all around us. They better not see a distortion of Christianity; they better see the message of Jesus loud and clear.
We have a responsibility to share that with them and explain that to them when opportunities arise. We don’t have to have all the answers. Just tell your story, and what you have experienced.
God loved. God gave. We believe. We receive.
As a church family here is the mission: let’s make sure that if people choose to reject Christianity that they are rejecting Jesus, not some distorted message of what He is all about. God loved God gave and they can believe and receive.
Listen to this wonderfully simplistic message right here: http://tr.im/t5e4
(http://twitter.com/MattJohnson21) (http://twitter.com/TheEpicJourney)
2 Questions:
1. What do you need to know to become a follower of Jesus?
2. What do you need to do to become a follower of Jesus?
John 3:16 ‘For God so LOVED the world that He GAVE His one and only son that whoever BELIEVES in Him will not perish (will not be separated from God for eternity) but have (RECEIVE) eternal life (a new life, a better life with God; Christ alive in you, the hope of glory)’
2 Answers:
1. God loved, God gave
2. We believe (trust) in, We receive
“God could have tweeted that”
God did not come to chastise you, He came to rescue you.
The Bible is the story of God loving and giving and people believing and receiving.
The message of salvation is that simple.
John 3:17 ‘For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.’
None of us are separated from God because of sin. There is a solution to your sin. It has already been taken care of on the cross.
Am I gonna respond and accept it? am I gonna trust in Him?
We need to live it out and lay it out.
We need to live our lives in such a way that people see the message of the gospel in us. In how we treat each other, how we relate to one another, and how we extend grace and truth all around us. They better not see a distortion of Christianity; they better see the message of Jesus loud and clear.
We have a responsibility to share that with them and explain that to them when opportunities arise. We don’t have to have all the answers. Just tell your story, and what you have experienced.
God loved. God gave. We believe. We receive.
As a church family here is the mission: let’s make sure that if people choose to reject Christianity that they are rejecting Jesus, not some distorted message of what He is all about. God loved God gave and they can believe and receive.
Listen to this wonderfully simplistic message right here: http://tr.im/t5e4
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Go Fish Pt. 2 “Sovereign God, enable me to speak your word with boldness”
Go Fish Pt. 2 “Sovereign God, enable me to speak your word with boldness”
-Matt Johnson (7.12.09) http://theepicjourney.com
*Matt began with a review from Jarrod’s message last week: Check out previous blog.
Good people don’t go to heaven, forgiven people do.
Somebody has to tell you/me/us the story of Jesus; we don’t just figure it out.
Christianity is different from every other religion in that it is founded upon an event that happened in history.
Every other religion is a belief system/theology.
The event has to be explained to us in order for it to be significant to us.
Christianity is not about a teaching, it is about something that we have seen and heard and experienced for ourselves.
The disciples were eager to share their faith despite the fact that it could cost them their lives. They could not deny what they had seen and experienced. (Acts)
Why aren’t we (Christians) more eager to share the story? FEAR!
We don’t want to come across as pushy. At the end of the day, we are afraid we are going to come across the wrong way.
The disciples used to be just as scared as we were. They went from cowardly to courageous.
Acts 4:23-31
The Believers' Prayer
23On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
" 'Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
31After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Boldness is not being loud, obnoxious and pushy. Boldness is a son who walks in a hospital room and talks to his dad about his relationship with Jesus even though his dad has never wanted to hear it before…..
Boldness is speaking up when the opportunity presents itself.
CHALLENGE: For the next 7 days when you pray your prayers, add this at the end: God enable me to speak your word with boldness.
Deal with your fear, or you will regret it!
Listen to the story Matt told about his neighbor.
Be bold, and take your shot when you get it.
Be bold because God has placed us strategically where we are for a purpose.
We might be the only ones who will ever present the Gospel of Christ to a certain someone.
We have to fish because everybody lives forever somewhere.
Unless somebody explains to us that good people don’t go to heaven, forgiven people do and Jesus died and rose again to offer that forgiveness as a free gift, people won’t get it.
God, no matter what, enable me to have enough courage to speak your word with boldness!
LISTEN TO THE MESSAGE: http://bit.ly/7obLq
-Matt Johnson (7.12.09) http://theepicjourney.com
*Matt began with a review from Jarrod’s message last week: Check out previous blog.
Good people don’t go to heaven, forgiven people do.
Somebody has to tell you/me/us the story of Jesus; we don’t just figure it out.
Christianity is different from every other religion in that it is founded upon an event that happened in history.
Every other religion is a belief system/theology.
The event has to be explained to us in order for it to be significant to us.
Christianity is not about a teaching, it is about something that we have seen and heard and experienced for ourselves.
The disciples were eager to share their faith despite the fact that it could cost them their lives. They could not deny what they had seen and experienced. (Acts)
Why aren’t we (Christians) more eager to share the story? FEAR!
We don’t want to come across as pushy. At the end of the day, we are afraid we are going to come across the wrong way.
The disciples used to be just as scared as we were. They went from cowardly to courageous.
Acts 4:23-31
The Believers' Prayer
23On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
" 'Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together
against the Lord
and against his Anointed One.27Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
31After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Boldness is not being loud, obnoxious and pushy. Boldness is a son who walks in a hospital room and talks to his dad about his relationship with Jesus even though his dad has never wanted to hear it before…..
Boldness is speaking up when the opportunity presents itself.
CHALLENGE: For the next 7 days when you pray your prayers, add this at the end: God enable me to speak your word with boldness.
Deal with your fear, or you will regret it!
Listen to the story Matt told about his neighbor.
Be bold, and take your shot when you get it.
Be bold because God has placed us strategically where we are for a purpose.
We might be the only ones who will ever present the Gospel of Christ to a certain someone.
We have to fish because everybody lives forever somewhere.
Unless somebody explains to us that good people don’t go to heaven, forgiven people do and Jesus died and rose again to offer that forgiveness as a free gift, people won’t get it.
God, no matter what, enable me to have enough courage to speak your word with boldness!
LISTEN TO THE MESSAGE: http://bit.ly/7obLq
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Go Fish Pt. 1: To Follow Means To Fish – Jarrod Martin
Go Fish Pt. 1: To Follow Means To Fish – Jarrod Martin
Mark 1:16-17 - 16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."
Part of being a follower of Christ is being a fisher of men. We often take this for granted. We come to Christ usually for selfish reasons. A test to see if we are growing in faith is to see if we are becoming fishers of men. Are we telling others about our faith?
As believers we cannot have the attitude that faith is a private thing. We can’t have the thought process that it is too much work to tell people about our faith because we think they really don’t want to hear about it.
It’s not about converting people. We are not about convincing people to believe something.
Acts 4:18-20 -18Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. 20For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
Peter and John did not have to have all the answers, but they had a story they could tell.
Acts 4: 5-10 5The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. 7They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this(heal)?" 8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
JESUS rose from the dead! It’s not about theology and doctrine; it’s about the story of Jesus!
If you can find a way to tell your faith story just like a good fish story you’ve got it made. All we want to do is show people what we have seen and heard Jesus do in our lives and the lives of others.
Listen to this message by clicking this link: http://tr.im/rsG6
http://theepicjourney.com
Mark 1:16-17 - 16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."
Part of being a follower of Christ is being a fisher of men. We often take this for granted. We come to Christ usually for selfish reasons. A test to see if we are growing in faith is to see if we are becoming fishers of men. Are we telling others about our faith?
As believers we cannot have the attitude that faith is a private thing. We can’t have the thought process that it is too much work to tell people about our faith because we think they really don’t want to hear about it.
It’s not about converting people. We are not about convincing people to believe something.
Acts 4:18-20 -18Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. 20For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
Peter and John did not have to have all the answers, but they had a story they could tell.
Acts 4: 5-10 5The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest's family. 7They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this(heal)?" 8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
JESUS rose from the dead! It’s not about theology and doctrine; it’s about the story of Jesus!
If you can find a way to tell your faith story just like a good fish story you’ve got it made. All we want to do is show people what we have seen and heard Jesus do in our lives and the lives of others.
Listen to this message by clicking this link: http://tr.im/rsG6
http://theepicjourney.com
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