Roofin

Hey everybody!

So I've been in Kansas City, Kansas for the last week for those that don't know. My friends are roofing their house and they needed help to get everything sealed up before it rained this week. So I came up to help them and have been showin my mad carpentry skills with table saws and stuff. So far only 2 people have fallen through the roof this week =P and thankfully I wasn't one of them! We built an extension onto the front of their house and have everything sealed up with tar paper, but it still needs a lot of work! But I've been having fun in the meantime hangin out at MidAmerica Nazarene College where I have some friends, and I had a kung fu lesson where I found out that my style is "Siberian Tiger" so...that's pretty cool. Anyways, I will also get a chance to go back to my old church on Sunday too, so I'm really glad God opened this opportunity for me to come up here! God has also been providing for me in amazing ways, and He has also helped me make a few contacts that have been helping disciple me in how to raise support and that kind of thing. Anyways, I just wanted to give you guys an update as to what I'm doin!

God Bless!!!

Home again, home again...

Well guys, I am now living here in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the next few months.

I got here Monday morning and met the the optometrist and the optician(retired) that I will be working with and then took a tour of the lab. Bright and early Tuesday morning I went in and did my first day of training. There is all of this great digital equipment that I will learn to use, but the problem is that all of the equipment being donated to Roca is waaay old gen. Most of it is still manual and takes 3 times as long to do. It isn't too hard, but it takes a while to learn all of the calibrations and stuff. I look forward to seeing what all God does with this in my life and in the lives of others!

The other thing I did recently was attended 3D for the first time. 3D is a young adults (18-28) group that is part of Victory Bible Church. It was a really amazing experience and I got to meet some new people from around here. It's amazing people's reactions when after being asked where you are from, you reply "Southern Mexico" =P

La Base Inundada

Soooo the other day, the river which runs right next to the base waaay overflowed it's banks and we had up to 7 feet of running water in some places! David and Lauras new car doesn't work anymore cuz it filled with water up to the steering wheel. There was a pretty strong current going through the main road, and the pressure was strong enough that it broke down the retaining wall in 5 places! But guess what? We have our own waterfall now! lol well, it will actually go away as soon as the water dries off, but for now we have a waterfall. The office building, guest house, and main house weren't affected, but the gate house (where I live) got 6 inches of water as well as the clinic. The next night the clinic got flooded a little again, but it was only 2 inches. Most of the grounds are still pretty wet and muddy, but we are working on restoring the base to it's former beauty.

Next thing on the agenda is my trip to the states. I was supposed to leave today. But now I'm not. I was supposed to have somebody go up with me, who would then drive a truck back down for the base. This truck, we find, costs 1700 dollars to nationalize, plus the diesel fuel money that it will take to get it down here, and my gas to get up there. So all in all we need about 3000 dollars to get this venture going! As soon as that money comes in, I will be able to leave for the states and start my internship with Dr. Cook. 

Please pray that that money will come in and subsequently for my trip!

Thanks guys! God bless!

Eyeglasses in Tulsa

Hey Everybody!  So I know I haven't written on here in a billion years, but I'm gonna start writing more. As some of you may know, I am at the moment in Mexico. However, as some of you may also know, I am coming back to the states for a couple months.

The Corban Clinic here on the base is working on expanding. Part of this expansion is an optometry unit. However, we don't have the equipment for diagnosing patients, or for grinding the lenses for prescription glasses. Thankfully, an optometrist named Dr. Cook from Tulsa, Oklahoma has decided to donate all the equipment we need. The only thing we would be lacking is a technician that is able to grind lenses. That's where I come in! Dr. Cook offered to train someone to be able to run the equipment, the only requirement being a willingness to learn and an aptitude for math. So Duane and Sue want me to go and become a lense-grinding technician! yippee =P anyways I will be returning to the States next week, and will start training as soon as possible. I will be in the states till December, when I will come back for Festival and resume my internship here at Roca. In the meantime I get to kick it in Tulsa and experience cold! lol there isn't much of that down here so...it will be fun. I'm staying with the ex-state senator and his wife from Tulsa, so that will also be fun and exciting!

Anyways, I'm hoping to be able to come back to Wichita on weekends, so hit me up if you want to do something!

My Spiritual Awakening

I live here in Roca Blanca Missions Base in Oaxaca, Mexico studying in the Bible School and going on outreaches to nearby villages.

How did I get here you ask? Well God has done some spectacularly amazing things in my life that has all worked together to bring me to this point and to glorify Him. I grew up in a Christian home, and we went to church every Sunday. But as a child I had FAITH in God. I had such faith in Him, that he used me to miraculously heal a man from my church as a 4 year old.

However, el diablo did not like this and so he concocted a scheme for what he thought would destroy my family and our faith...which it very nearly did.  I am the oldest of 5 children. There is me, my younger brother Caleb, then Corban, and lastly Chad and Katy. When Corban Jonathon was born, God told my parents to name him so for a reason. Corban (found in Mark 7:11) means "a gift to God" and Jonathon means "a gift from God". He and I got along great, even better than Caleb and I did. This was why it hurt so much when he died of SIDS (crib death) 4 1/2 months later. But as God had named him "a gift to God", my parents knew from the beginning that God would take him for His glory. They just didn't expect it to happen so soon. This event really tore my family up. My dad buried himself in his work and had fits of severe anger, my mother went into a period of depression, I lost my faith in God to do anything because he had taken away my innocent little brother, and my other brother Caleb (who was just 2 at the time and has ADHD) started going berzerk. My family had been bike riding a few days before, and my mom had accidentally crashed with Corban strapped to her back, so Caleb thought in his young mind that it was my mom's fault that Corban had died. (We actually had Corban autopsied and it was proven that it wasn't her fault because she was worried about that too.) But Caleb didn't tell anybody about that till much later. Anyways, so my parents started spending a large amount of their time just trying to keep Caleb under control, and they still had no idea why he was so rebellious against my mom. They took him to counselors and a regular basis and were spending an enormous amount of time with him. But here I was, mister calm cool and collected but being in utter turmoil inside. My parents only saw the facade I put up so they thought I was alright and focused on Caleb. Needless to say, I was sorely neglected. I don't blame my parents, but that is just what happened. So I started acting out in school and things trying to get my parents, especially my dad, to notice me. With my dad's anger issues that didn't help at all. This continued as the years went by, but eventually God got ahold of my parents hearts and got their lives turned around. I was still horribly rebellious and I didn't even try in school. I had been told that I was stupid by my teachers and everyone else because I was trying so hard to get people to notice me. So I didn't even think that I was smart at all because that was all I had ever been told. In 8th grade my teacher Mrs. Regier really helped to open me up to the world of learning. I started pulling straight A's in math and English and it was easy for me! I was so surprised I didn't know what to do with myself. But I still had this rebellion against my parents eating away my heart. This culminated in me going to jail twice and being on probation for a while.

So that is all of the bad that came out of Corban's death, but his name was not only "a gift TO God" but also "a gift FROM God". My family used the money from the life insurance policy we had on Corban to build a medical clinic at the Roca Blanca Missions Base where I now live as a Bible school student and ultimately as a missionary. The Corban Clinic has served over 80,000 people over the 14 or so years it has been here. Many of those people have accepted Jesus into their hearts because of the ministry that goes on there.

One year at my churches winter camp, God told me clearly that I was to go into missions, specifically I was to go to Roca Blanca in Mexico. So I started taking Spanish classes and found that God had really blessed me with a gift for languages. I started Spanish 1 in the middle of the year and was completely caught up and ahead of the class in 2 weeks. God has absolutely prepared me with the tools I need to live on the missions field. During this time however, my heart was still not right with God.

In 2007, one of the best influences on my life at my old school, Bradford, was killed in a car crash. He was just a few weeks away from graduating his senior year, and he was one of the most respected spiritual leaders that I have ever met. He truly had a servants heart.

In June, my friend Kelsey was kidnapped, raped, and murdered. She and I had been best friends when we were little at the Vineyard in Overland Park. She also was one of the most kindhearted people I knew.

The thing that impacted me the most was that I had very little emotional reaction to either of these deaths. So I turned to God, I asked Him 1. why had He allowed these 2 wonderful people to die, and 2. why couldn't I feel anything anymore. I had made myself so distant, and so detached from my emotions to "protect" myself from all the hurt I had experienced in my life. God showed me that, and I realized I had to do something drastic to fix that. So God reminded me of the call to missions He had put in me, and also how spiritually influential the people are at Roca Blanca. He told me to go to the Spanish Academy here for a month so that I could further my Spanish, but also find some answers about myself and God.

My Savior really got ahold of me in that month, and He healed me from a lot of that past hurt. The last day I was at the Base, God told me that I was supposed to attend the Bible School this year. It started in 3 weeks. So I became the 4th American in 17 years to ever attend the Bible school at Roca Blanca Missions Base. God has impacted me so greatly through this year, I have gotten into a relationship with the Holy Spirit, and I have been completely changed by the goodness of God!

Thank you Jesus for bringing me out of the pit I had dug for myself, and bringing me to the sweetness of life you intended for me!

Now you know my story, I pray that you would learn from it, and let God guide you into a similar experience if you are hurt and suffering.

God bless you!!!