Flying High

I walked out of the house to go to work this morning and it looked horrible. Dark clouds, monsoon type rain, and plus its only Wednesday. This is just adding up to be a great day <----(sarcasm). And just to make matters worse....I have a MILLION things to do....new responsibilities at work, ministry projects coming up, and a little thing called life.

But then I got an email that just changed my day completely around. A few months ago, our ministry held an event called Jesusade, a fund raising basketball tournament that helped build a well in Africa through The Water Project. We had a lot of fun organizing and planning the event and donated almost $2,000. After the event, we all felt really great, but life just moved on.

To be honest, since that tournament, life has been super-overwhelming for me and there have been plenty of times that I wanted to take a break from ministry and just focus on life. But this email changed all that. The President of the Water Project sent me an update on how our donations from last year are being used. With the help of the Chicago community, we were able to build a well for the Butere Girls High School in Kenya to serve over 1,200 students and 120 staff!!! (see pic above)

Talk about encouragement! Just the little work that we did as a community helped out young kids who needed fresh drinking water halfway across the globe. Not to boast in ourselves at all, but this is all by God's grace. We have so much and when you give back and literally see the impact, it is amazing.

I read a verse on this cool website called verseoftheday.com and today's verse was awesome and relates to this soo much:

"Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and will not be faint.

— Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)"

Who cares if its Wednesday, muggy, cloudy, and raining. I'm soaring.

Check out more details on our project at: http://thewaterproject.org/community/projects/kenya/new-well-in-kenya-418

God bless,

Jobbin

Hey guys,

I came across an interesting passage this morning, which ties into the two things I wanted to talk about in my blog this week :) haha - lucky me, the Bible has everything!! LOL

Before I tell you the passage though, I'll tell you what lead me up to it... for the past couple weeks I've been planning and praying about the mission trip that I'm going on to Mumbai, India this August... and through the time spent in prayer, and even in the planning itself - I have felt more convicted of things that i felt was "okay" and "just jokes" than I EVER have felt convicted of in the past... I heard a testimony of a woman who, as a child, was sold into slavery - and no, not the "forced-labor" slavery; rather, she was forced into sex-slavery. She was held down, and raped when she refused to be a part of such an industry... she was entrapped for 3 years, used and only spoken to for illicit sexual pleasures of immoral men and women... she slowly became one of them, and became an owner of a brothel herself - even after having the horrid memories lurking in her mind, yet SIN held onto her - it grasped her in every aspect of her life, and she couldn't let go... until she met Christ. That was when she put aside her past, opened up a Jubilee home for women undergoing such issues & slavery and persistently serves her Maker now in all aspects of her life... how or why the sudden change? Because, she met Christ.

So I began to pray, and the Spirit pressed harder on me than ever before - He questioned, why is it that we can know Christ all of our lives and become so complacent with things? Our words, our actions, our thoughts, our jokes. I really want you to take a look at your life (this goes for me as well) and question yourself... when you met Christ - did it change your life? You may say yes, of course it did! Okay - that's all good and all, but now ask this... Now that you've already met Christ, does your life still reflect that change?? Or does it find a balance with this world? Do you not smoke, drink, and go to a strip club, so... at least it's some justification to talk, act, and joke around impurely?

Now for the second part of thsi story... so the other night I was going to Subway after the gym and this homeless guy was outside and he asked me for bus fair... I had very little change on me, so I gave him what was in my pocket... I wanted to spend more time there... but for some reason, I didn't. So, I'm standing in line at Subway, and the homeless guy walks in... I thought, maybe I should buy him food? But he was just asking for bus fair... maybe I could've asked him if he was hungry... but I didn't. The guy sits down in the Subway, and honestly, his smell stenched up the place... like it was BAD!!! But no one in line said a word... a moment later, one of the ladies behind the glass pipes up and says "get up on outta here"... "yeah, I'm talking to you! you can't be in here like that... get up... get UP, and get OUT." I dunno guys... I felt SO horrible for him... all of these thoughts raced through my head... and before I knew it... he was gone. I WISH I would've said he's with me. Or I WISH I would've initially offered him food, so he didn't have to be humiliated like that... I WISH I could've offered him shelter, a shower, or even a decent meal.. I drove away that night wondering... WHY THE HECK AM I SO BLESSED?? Like, what makes me so important that I get to have a clean shower and a meal that night, but yet, he's still out there somewhere... and EVEN if he WAS lying, and he wasn't really homeless... he doesn't have to be there! He does not have to be stuck in that situation to feel that he has to lie to people for money... I dunno guys, that really hit me hard.

So this morning I read this:

James 1:26-27 - If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (NIV)

I dunno guys, it's time to step our game up... this life isn't about attaining jobs, or pursuing our studies, it's about what GOD wants to do with us - in our every word, action, thought, & even joke :)

(hopefully, this all made some sense! haha)

God bless!