We in the United States thing we have it all figured out.  We think we are the innovaters when it comes to all things freedom.  Our country is based on freedom; freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, etc.  As much as we like to believe we're got the ball rolling on this one, nothing could be further from the truth.  When Jesus died for us on the cross, that was the time the world came to know the only true freedom, freedom through salvation.  Over time we have lost sight of what that freedom truly is and what it means.  We have forgotten that our God has given us freedom each and every day to realize how special we are as creations made in his image.  The implications of that are mindboggling.  The implication is that a finite being is made to reflect the very image of an infinite omnipotent being.  The sky is the limit folks and there should be no turning back at this point.  Now as we know with that freedom there is a great deal of responsibility that our Maker has bestowed upon us.  We a have very clearly written outline in the Word that has been given to us and we are expected to live out that Word through our daily lives.  We have the Law and are expected to honor the Law, Christ outlined this clearly for each and every one of us in Matthew 5:17-20.

                So where have we gone wrong?  Where did freedom and the law become such as hodge podge of dissent and confusion among the church?  As far as I'm concerned the devil has no greater weapon against us then constantly creating division among the church.  The devil lives by motto of divide and conquer and we often just allow ourselves to fall into his trap day in and day out.  We have to find the balance of being guided by the Law as the Lord laid out for us and the grace and forgiveness that Christ has given us because we all stumble we all sin and we are all worthy of the forgiveness that God has freely given us.

                If I'm not careful this blog will be too long and I'll lose most of you reading it here in a second, so let me try to wrap it up for ya J

                Many of us have forgotten what freedom through salvation really is and what it means.  Often are churches talk about freedom, but that's often all it is, talk.  Freedom through salvation is being given the opportunity to fall down, to stumble.  It's being given the opportunity to make mistakes, but then it is also the freedom that comes from forgiveness.  The freedom to know that when we make mistakes we are still accountable for those mistakes, but knowing that we will still be loved and cherished by not just our God, but also by our brothers and sisters in Christ.  The freedom of salvation is the ability to be led by the Spirit each and every day.  That is not always easy, it rarely goes according to our plans and it quite often shatters our plans and destroys our expectations.  But my oh my does God show up when you just give Him the chance.  Now I know God is present regardless of whether or not he's invited, but He loves it when we open the door for Him and welcome Him in. 

                So my challenge for you is to let the Spirit lead you each and every day.  Take time to quiet yourself and truly seek out His voice because He wants to talk you.  He wants to know how you're doing and He wants to guide you through every part of your day.

                This is one of those days I feel like I could write an entire novel and I know some of my thoughts are bouncing around, so I apologize for that.  It's just that I've had such a privilege to see God do some extraordinary things over these past few weeks here in Appalachia.  The types of things that only happen when we let go of the control we think we have and let Him take the reins.

Casey and I are about to end our third week of ministry coordinating in the Appalachian region of Tennessee.  We were able to shadow our first and second weeks with previous leaders and the Appalachian area coordinator.  Our second week had us working for a team of adults and families from all over the US in around the town of Rogersville, TN.  I know my lack of writing skills never do the experience justice, but I have to say last week rivaled any week that Casey and I had on the World Race.  We had the opportunity to work with an amazing body of people from so many different walks of life and to see them come together as one community and truly seek out the Lord's calling.  We saw the Lord do so many amazing things and I am so blessed to have been able to be a part of it. 

Our team participated in construction projects such as replacing shingles on a roof and fixing hail damage on an aluminum roof.  Through those experiences the Lord provided a window into the lives of a couple families, allowing us to build relationships and be a part of the families who needed love more than they needed a fixed roof.

 We were given the opportunity to partner with a local church and help with a weekly dinner that they run.  We had the opportunity through that dinner to meet a couple who are currently living in a home that has fallen into disarray.   The husband has never been a believer and his wife grew up knowing about the church, but not really knowing about the Love and grace that Christ sacrificed himself for.  Our team was touched by their story so much that we are trying to find ways to clean up their home which has pets that the two of them can no longer take care of and has fallen into disrepair.  We are trying to find good homes for all the pets and see what we can do to clean up and repair their house.  The wife has such a heart for her “babies” who are all strays that she has come across, she said of them “I know what it's like to not be wanted,”  so she has opened her home to all these lost animals so that she can show them love.  We are hoping that we will be able to show her that she has always been wanted and that she matters and is loved unconditionally.

We also had the chance to meet a couple at the dinner who are both vision impaired.  I have to tell you Mark and Debbie are two of the sweetest people I have ever met in my entire life.  You can't not be touched by their graciousness and outward pouring of love for everyone they meet.  They have a love and faith in Christ that is immeasurable and truly have been a blessing on our team's lives to meet and spend time with.  They both live in a small apartment and can always use help with odd jobs around their place and with running errands.  Our teams have been blessed with the chance of being a part of their daily lives.  We thought we would be an encouragement to them, but it has been quite the opposite, without a doubt they have encouraged each and every one of us who have come in contact with them.  We have been able to continue bringing teams to them into our third week and will keep bringing them as long as they'll have us!

So much has happened that again, even if I were skilled literary master I couldn't put it all down.  Our main goal is to help our teams get to a place where they are intentionally listening for the Lord each and every day.  We know the Holy Spirit is actively moving and working through our lives and we hope to help people realize that it's as easy as just slowing down long enough to hear what He has for you.  We also hope that we can help our teams realize the importance of just being with the Lord.  A missions trip is not a doing, it never has been.  If a team goes home and all they can talk about is what they did on their trip and know nothing of what it is just to be in the Lord's presence that they will have missed one of the most important factors of what it is to know Christ and serve Him.  I know for me, this has been a journey that I am still very much on and I know Christ will continue to walk me through it.  I like being busy, I like to do stuff.  I don't like sitting still and just listening to the Lord, at least that' s how I used to be.  I'm starting to see how amazing it is when you just let the Lord take control and go along for the ride.  It's such a beautiful and powerful thing to know that you don't have control but He does.  It's the most freeing experience anyone will ever have.

Well That's it for now, I'll try and get at least one blog up per week, though I know I'm behind J  If my lovely wife would put some up that would be helpful, so feel free to poke and prod her about blogging if you have her email or phone number.  She's so much better with expressing what God has put on her heart than I am. 

                Week 1 in Appalachia has come to a close.  It's been an amazing week where Casey and I saw God show up truly start working in peoples, young and old alike.  This week was our first week working in this region of eastern Tennessee.  Neither Casey nor I had ever visited Morristown until we arrived Saturday.  We met with Mike Cory, who was the Project Leader/Ministry Coordinator for this week's ministry, and who would be coaching us and guiding us as we learned the ropes so that would be able to take on our own teams in a couple weeks.  Casey and I are going to be in this region through the first week of August as Project Leaders/Ministry Coordinators working for AIM and with the local ministries and churches to help incoming, out-of-state churches reach out to the community in Morristown and the surrounding areas.  We have been in Morristown for the past week working with a local church called Gateway and helping set things up with Mike for a church from Columbia City, Indiana and a church from the Cleveland area of Ohio.  Needless to say it's been a whirlwind of a week, but one in which God never failed to show up and guide us on our journey to honor him.

                While we were here we had the opportunity to work with a ministry called One Body Ministry, led by Josh and Tim.  After serving with a short term team prior, these two men moved to Rogersville, TN about 9 months ago with nothing but the desire and love God put on their heart to serve and help the community.  They currently are working with local ministries and churches to find those in need of home repairs that have come on difficult times and have no way of affording  the necessary repairs to include running water for toilets and showers, leaking roves, collapsing decks and steps, missing window….you get the idea. 

                So this week we were able to partner with Josh and get out to some homes in the area between Morristown and Rogersville.  Initially we had two homes we were going to start working on, with two separate teams.  One team was able to get started on their project of building a walkway that was more handicap accessible, while the other team was supposed to start on replacing some stairs that were falling apart.  Initially the day did not go as planned.  While the team working on the walkway wrote up an amazing idea for a ramp to make everything wheelchair accessible, the other team was unable to start on the stairs, because our resident, Wanda and her husband Waylon, were not home and we were unable to reach her to verify that we had permission to start our project.   So Josh was able to find a brand new applicant, Ms. Carolyn, who had a deck on the verge of collapse and broken windows that needed replacing.  After we arrived at Ms. Carolyn's place and took stock of the situation a handful of us headed to Home Depot and Lowes to start getting all the needed materials.  We got an estimate on the deck that the first team was hoping to make and unfortunately it was way over our budget for the entire week, let alone for the first day.  We were able to compromise on a more modest setup though and were able to get all the needed materials to accomplish the task of making the walkway accessible for the couple that lived there.  Fortunately because of this change we were able to finish this project in a couple days and start on another women's home, Ms. Polly, whose toilet was not working and who had been unable to take a shower in quite some time due to the water not working.

                Back at Carolyn's we were able to build her a completely new deck in the back and put railings on the front deck.  Once again we were starting to run into budget restrictions, but Mike was able to make some adjustments and get us some extra finances to finish the deck as well as cover all the materials we needed to put in new stairs at Wanda and Waylon's place.  It looked like we would have to wait and do the windows another week, again money was running short, but the Lord blessed with some donations from friends of our youth teams.  Because of these extra donations we were able to purchase and install a new set of windows.  One of the youth team  leaders, Troy, was able to get a local cement factory to donate some gravel to even out Carolyn's driveway and make it safer as it's up in the hills and because an unsafe place when it becomes rainy and snowy.

                So what we had planned did not work out as we had initially hoped.  What God had planned worked out so much better.  We initially didn't have any intention of going to Carolyn's home and doing any work on her place, we thought we'd be busy all week doing ramps, decks and stairs.  We thought our plans were falling apart when Wanda and Waylon weren't home.  We thought we were in a financial pickle when we couldn't do the deck we initially wanted to do for the other residents.  I guess the Lord just decided we needed a little help in figuring out what we were going to do for a construction week.  I guess He decided to mix things up a little bit so that we could serve people that weren't even on our radar at the beginning of the week.  All I know is that this week's construction projects were only possible because to Lord trashed our plans and made His own that he expected us to follow.  Fortunately we had a team of amazing leaders and wonderful youth that were willing to listen to the changes the Lord was asking us to make and they gave everything they could to serving these people they had never met and helping improve their lives.

Oh and here is Josh and Tim's website, check em out, we will be working with them a ton over the next month or so!

http://onebodyministry.missionsplace.com/

"Miss" Gracie - what can I say? She's a blessing to me. While on a missions trip you always ask, what is my purpose here?  I was thinking my usual "middle of the road" way of thinking. It didn't matter to me where I served for the day . . . just wherever a gap needed to be filled, no passion one way or the other . . . just filling gaps.  I was, however, trying to keep an open mind to go wherever God would lead and was still clueless as to where that would be. I heard Josh mentioning yard work - okay, I like doing that, but, when I heard it was for a woman with Alzheimer's, I knew that was my place . . . God's place for me that day.

Hey there everyone,

We are all so excited to be serving in the mountains of Tennessee with Adventures in Missions (AIM).

Our youth and family groups are greatly serving the Lord in Rogersville on their short-term mission trips. We have seen many people here touched by the love of Jesus through the sharing of time, gifts, and service.

One lady in particular comes to my mind. On Monday, a part of the youth group went to her house to help her remove a tree from her yard that had fallen in a recent storm. They worked in 100 degree heat for about four and a half hours, taking turns in the shade to protect them from the sweltering temperatures and direct sunlight. Our group did everything from cutting the tree up to stacking fire wood to removing brush from her yard and mowing. The lady was so very appreciative of just our presence there and the willingness of every member of our team to serve and help in whatever way they could. She was beside herself and overwhelmed in a good way that there are still youth who believe in helping people. Several of the kids told her we were there to show her God's love and thanked her for letting us come and minister to her. When we were getting ready to head home after the project was over, they prayed with her. In those moments of prayer, it really hit home for the kids how much prayer can really mean. We spent those four hours meeting her physical needs and it opened the door for them to minister to her spiritual and emotional needs as well. Even though these kids are on a short-term mission trip, the lady they helped will never forget the day that they stepped up to help when no one else would. 

All of our groups are excited to be reaching out to people in new ways, whether it be in door to door ministry, serving those in this community who serve year round, or taking time with the kids at the local Boy's and Girl's Club. God is truly moving, not only in the hearts of the people we meet, but also on the hearts of those serving. It is good to remember that we are all in need of God's love and his healing touch.