Checking the ABCs for CPR

As I was taking my CPR review class for summer camp and we were reviewing the ABCs – Airway, Breathing and Circulation, my mind began to connect on how this relates to the Gospel and our lives with some challenge questions for each.

Airway – What do we surround ourselves with? Friends that encourage and challenge us in faith or friends that tear us down? How does the music we listen to affect us? How about the TV shows we are watching?
“But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
-Hebrews 3:13
“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
-1 Corinthians 10:31

Breathing – What are we taking in? Are we spending time with God? In His word? In Prayer?
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
-Psalm 119:105
“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”
-Colossians 4:2-4

Circulation – Are we circulating the message of the Gospel and telling the world? Not just in telling but are we worshiping God in every aspect of our life?
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
-Matthew 28:19-20
“He [Jesus] said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.’”
-Acts 1:7-8

Summer 2009 Goals

I am taking summer school before I head off to work at Crossroads Summer camp and I have a lot of free time on my hands so I came up with a list of goals/challenges for myself this summer BEFORE I go to Crossroads June 24 and I will keep everyone posted on how I am doing with each. All of it is for the practice of discipline and to not be a “sloth” this summer before camp.

-Run 3 miles – I am currently up to 1.5 miles without stopping, but this is out of learning discipline and I am a pretty fast runner when it comes to short distances, but i would like to build my cardio-endurance

-Memorize Romans 6 – A great passage on salvation, and I believe you can use just this passage to lead someone to Christ

-Memorize Campus Crusade for Christ’s “Knowing God Personally” pamphlet/track – 1) Part of going to East Asia on Summer Project in general is to memorize this 2) As a bible study leader for Crusade in the Fall I am required to be familiar with the 4 spiritual laws found in the KGP. 3) It is a very effective evangelism tool.

-Finish ‘Wide Awake‘ – Honestly I’ve been reading this since October. McManus has a lot of really great points and ideas in this book, but it just never really ‘hooked’ me and I’ve been slow in reading it. Personally I have a thing for finishing things I have started.

-Start reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ‘Cost of Discipleship‘ – I read a chapter of this in high school for Summer Forum at Gardner-Webb University, and it was a really challenging book and went over my head, I would love to tackle it again now that I am in college and have matured more spiritually.

-To be a DIFFERENCE this summer at UNCW – God has been challenging me the past couple days to impact UNCW this summer for Christ. Walking around on campus this past week, it seems we have taken a break from reaching out to the students. There are a lot of students still here, and as believers we have seen and heard, so we are responsible for letting others know about the love of Christ. Are we as believers reaching the ones who don’t know Christ this summer? If you are reading this and here in Wilmington for the summer or would like to help in general, I would love to serve with you, please contact me (kdb6310@uncw.edu). I am thinking of starting with something very fundamental first, a weekly prayer group. How can we have a movement of God, without first going to God in prayer? Prayer must be our foundation.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”
-Colossians 4:2-4

dream BIG, pray BIG

This past year I was Co-Vice President of Invisible Children United at UNCW and what a year it was. I became in charge of communications (email and facebook), helping run meetings and plan events. 2 major events that we put on was the annual ‘DISPLACE ME’ walk from our campus to downtown Wilmington and spend the night in front of the courthouse. The 2nd event was an Invisible Children Benefit Concert that I took charge of with the help of a magnificent Co-Vice President and friend Kristen VanDeusen. Both of these event could not have come together except by the grace of God and His might power through us.

The Benefit Concert in particular is something that I began to dream back in October and pray, pray BIG. Boy did God provide!

In the midst of this past year, I’ve been reading ”Wide Awake” by Erwin McManus (still am cause I am slow and could never find the balance of ‘fun’ reading and school). I’ve seen the principles that he proposes about living Wide Awake come to life and God has just blown me away and I am not afraid to dream BIG now. And this is my testimony to some of McManus’ Wide Awake principles through the Invisible Children Benefit Concert:

DREAM: I was given the dream of this benefit concert in October and thats just where it began. I dreamed of packing out the local concert venue, the Soapbox for Invisible Children, free of charge to us as a club and to simply raise money with the door entry fee.

DISCOVE: Since the dream was in place, it was time to DISCOVER and EXPLORE how it was going to be put together. God helped out by 1st by providing a partner! Kristen! We began searching and asking bands if they would play for free, brainstorming and planning fundraisers in general, think about advertising the concert, date/time, etc. and yes we believed we were in over our heads at some points.

ADAPT: Adapting was HUGE for us…we got the Soapbox for our venue, but dates didn’t work out, calling/emailing/facebooking/myspacing/whatever form of communication you can think of was EXTREMELY hard with the Soapbox as they never responded it seemed like, Patience was so key. The Soapbox asked for $300 for the rent of the space/lighting/sound which is really good! We turned to the Residence Hall Association on our campus for some money at first they were going to provide, but then withdrew their offer later. We adapted, we would just use some of how much we made from the concert to pay the Soapbox and trust that God would provide and overwhelming amount to us.

EXPECT: As everything started to fall into place, it was time to expect great things to happen at the concert, but little did we know, God’s plans were bigger and He provided.

FOCUS: Along this process, both Kristen and myself did lose FOCUS. We were trying to put the concert together on our own will. We hit rock bottom and the process slid backwards. At the peak of realizing we were not going to get any funds from any organization on campus, not able to get some fundraisers in place, the Soapbox not responding to our messages, and bands asking for money, we finally realized “We got to pray before our little concert committee meetings, and leave it up to God.” That 1st day we did so, there was relief and comfort that God was in control. Later that week, a band came to US and asked to play at our concert for free, same with another from Michigan, but at that point we only accepted the local one, who would eventually headline, Crimson Refuge.

CREATE: The week came for the concert, we had 400 flyers and several posters printed and began tabling on our campus to advertise, and interest/awareness was raised. Concert day: we got there early to set the area and make sure everything ran smoothly. Some of the bands arrived, set up the sound for the first performance, Jason Andre, and we asked the band members that were there to pray with us. We laid the concert at God’s feet, and it was time to ENJOY…

ENJOY: There’s no easy way to explain the satisfaction of just sitting back and watching God do His work. After months of planning, trials, valleys and mountains….the concert was actually happening. I had dreamed something so huge to myself, but I was really throwing pebbles at God, He threw boulders back. We raised a $240-$260 for Invisible Children. For the year $1030…I really have no clue where all that money came from, but God DID WORK!

There are a lot more little things that could be explained and happened but I really cannot put it all into a blog post, you’ll have to ask me. Our God is a powerful God! If we dream BIG, and pray BIG, and BELIEVE He can make it happen, then if its by HIS will, He will use us and our pebble dreams, to turn into AVALANCHE GOD-sized dreams and it will go down.