Walk Like an Egyptian

I am currently six weeks away from going on my first trip out of the country and my first short term mission trip. Myself along with Scott Lilly, Tom Morris, Graham Pifer will be goingt to Cairo, Egypt for 12 days to help run a Christian sports camp called "Camp Wadi". I can not tell you how excited I am to be able to take what I do for a living and be able to go and "give it away" on the other side of the world!! We will be going over to coach kids in specific sports and to show the love of Christ to them. The camp will be comprised of 100% muslim kids the week we go. It was hard for me to believe that a Christian camp would draw interest from the muslim community, but that is exactly what they have done. What an opportunity it will be to work with these kids!

I will be continuing to post updates using my blog. Any prayers for the camp, the kids, or the team would be much appreciated. We also have to raise $2,500 a piece to go, so if you want to give financially let me know. To God be the Glory!

What was I thinking???

I have officially completed a marathon and I must admit it was one of the hardest thing I have done in my life!!! The day started with a marta ride down to five points where I got off and walked to Centenial Olympic Park where the start line was. There were 15,000 runners total so it was a packed house, I had to jump three fences to get into the starting corral. The race started at 7:04am and the weather was perfect for running, 45 degrees and overcast. I had a goal of under 4 hours so I started on a pace that would get me there about an 8:30-8:45 minute mile. I felt great for the first 15 miles of the race, probably the best I have ever felt running. At about mile 18 my legs started to cramp and by mile 19 both my quad's and hamstrings were locking up with every stride. I can't tell you how awful it felt to have no control over my body, my cardio was in good shape and my mind was prepared but my legs wouldn't let me run. I finished the last 7 miles walking/running and with each mile the pain got worse. I had to pull to side for a minute or two to stretch on mile 25 because I couldn't even walk without cramping. I finished with a time of 4 hours and 31 minutes and it was an amazing feeling to be done!! Even with the pain it was a blast, one of the best things I have ever experienced! I swore I would never do one again right after the race but I alread think I would like to do another one to hit my time goal.

More importantly than the experience I had running it was great to get involved in "the cause". I ran to raise awarness and money to fight sex trafficking in Atlanta and th world. We raised a good amount of money (not sure final total yet) to help the girls at Wellspring Living. These girls are coming out of the industry or abusive homes and are being given an opportunity to start their lives over. The gospel of Jesus Christ is being shared with them and great things are happening. Thanks to everyone who has prayed for Justice or give financially, you truly have been a blessing to me. For me it's just the start of being involved in this cause as it is something you can't walk away from once you have heard what goes on. Continue to pray that God would do immeasurably more in Atlanta than we could ever ask or imagine!!

Immeasurably More...

I am writing from my living room and I will be starting my marathon in 11 hours. I'm excited about it and at the same time its hard to believe I am going to run 26.2 miles.......should be interesting. I have had my eyes open to human trafficking the past 6 months and have gone from being very depressed about how bad it is to joyful about what God is doing in Atlanta and the world. The one thing I have been clinging to is Ephesians 3:20.........it might possibly be my favorite verse in the whole bible. I love to think about how my prayers and imagination is nothing compared to God's infinite wisdom! I could spend days dreaming about what I want in this life and what I think would bring fame to the name of Jesus. I could have my perfect plan and yet God is a God of immeasurably more than that. Looking at my life in the rearview mirror I can see how soverign God is over everthing and how His plan and His timing in perfect. I rarely trust with that excitement looking forward in my life. I have made a habbit now to end my prayers with asking God to do "immeasurably more than I can ask or imagine". It reminds me I serve a very large God that has a perfect plan to bring fame to the name of Jesus. So my encouragement to you is to dream big and then know that God can blow your expectations away!!

Opportunities

Ever since I have started getting involved in the human trafficking cause, I have been suprised by all that is going on to end it. I truly think that God is getting ready to do some big things here in Atlanta and all over this world in the next year. I wanted to make mention of two things that I know about that might be something you are interested in.

The first involves a concert at Eddies Attic called "rock for Justice" put on by some folks that are extremley passioniate about ending human trafficking in Atlanta. The proceeds from ticket purchases will go to women at wellspring living, a great ministry!! Should be a lot of fun, I'm hoping to go myself. Check it out below:

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=52826139444&h=buI-r&u=8Yef2

The other event is being put on by a new church in the area called "Passion City Church"-it is Loui Gigglio's new church in Atlanta. They are having a Sunday evening service centered around raising money for the trafficking industry specifically here in Atlanta and in India. They are calling it "love atlanta/love the world" and it will be held at Greater Atlanta Christian School Sunday night March 22nd. Check out the website below:

http://www.passioncitychurch.com/

The marathon is now only 11 days away and I am really looking forward to running. If you want to give financially or pray for the cause check out some of my earlier blogs-no pressure. Holla!!

Laced up, trained up, and prayed up

So the big race is only 16 days away for me and I'm ready to run 26.2 miles.........I think?!? I just had my last big run last weekend which was 2o miles, the farthest I have run in my life. I'm looking forward to getting out there an pushing the limits to see what my legs can handle. I want to thank everyone for the support in my quest to run this marathon and bring some awareness to the sex trafficking problem in Atlanta. A lot of you donated money that will go directly to women coming out of the industry and that is much appreciated and will be used well.

The last thing I am asking people to consider is probably the first place I should have started with. There is a website where you can sign up to pray specifically for the trafficking problem. If you follow the link below it will take you to a website where people are signing up to pray for one hour blocks at a time. The idea is to get people from all around the world to pray for the problem continuously. No pressure to do it but I think it's a pretty cool idea to think about people from all over asking God to bring justice to this industry.

https://www.clickbook.net/dev/bc.nsf/sub/slavelaborproject

Don't Waste Your Life....

John Piper is one of my favorite people to read or listen to becuase of the passion he has for Jesus Christ. I heard him at a conference back in college preach from Hebrews 11, the chapter that is commonly known as the "hall of faith". He said some things that rocked my world and really changed the way I viewed my christian faith. I used to think that Christianity was a safe religion and the Christ wanted to make my life better and give me things I desired....I know, pretty shallow. After hearing him speak I began to realize that Christ was everything but safe, yet he was infinitely worthy of being followed.

One of Piper's big sayings, and the title of one of his books, is "Don't Waste Your Life". Below are two video clips of Piper quotes that I have heard several times in my life and every time I hear them they sadden and motivate me simultaneously. They sadden me because I see how often I look to things in this life to give me purpose and satisfaction when only Christ can fullfill that desire. I so often settle for the simple when God has infinite satisfaction waiting for me. It motivates me because I serve a gracious God that has a good and perfect plan for my life.....and that excites me at my core. Who knows what he has in store for me or where I will be or what I will be doing........I can only dream and be willing to answer the call!!

I hope this sparks a desire in your heart to get busy living and to not waste your life.....it does in me!

http://www.dontwasteyourlife.com/

"Christ is most glorified in me, when I am most satisfied in Him."

Movie Recommendation

So if you don't know...I am dedicating this blog for the next month to bring some awareness to the human trafficking issue in Atlanta.....now you know. A couple of weekends ago I had a friend came in town who wanted to see the movie "Taken". Having no idea what it was about I went and to my surprise it was about human trafficking....crazy how God works!

The movie is about a girl who visits Paris and is taken to be sold in the sex trafficking industry and her fathers quest to get her back. It's action packed and pretty violent in parts but I think it paints a somewhat accurate portrayal of the trafficking industry....I can't say for absolute sure but of what I have read it is reasonable. The movie has some pretty heavy scenes in it so if that bothers you, you've been warned! It has heavy scenes but the whole industry is a heavy subject and ignoring it is not an option. So with that said go check it out sometime....it's entertaining.....it's a guy movie.....and it shed's some light on a trafficking.

Check out the trailer below:

The Cause

Lately, I have been getting into the whole running thing-I'm pretty much addicted to it right now! I started running because I wanted to get back in shape and feel a little better but somehow I ended up getting involved in what I am calling "the cause". I wanted to get involved with something where I could help people out that were less fortunate or were going through a rough time in life. What I ended up finding was something that I just couldn't walk away from and has changed me for the better.

I am running the Atlanta ING Marathon on March 29th with some people from my church, Perimeter. The whole reason we are running is to raise awareness and money for families effected by the sex trafficking industry. What I orginally thought was a small, isolated probelm I found to be a huge multi-billion dollar a year industry that effects thousands of women. Not only that but Atlanta ranks as one of the top cities in the world where young girls are caught up in trafficking. If you follow the link below you can watch a 1 minute video and look at some facts about the problem:

http://www.perimeterchurch.org/index.php?module=ministry&submodule=cms&artid=529&mid=40908

So, I am running to bring some attention the problem and hopefully raise some money to help families out. I want people to be aware of what is going on in the city of Atlanta so something can be done to end the problem. If you feel compelled to give financially to the "Justice Run" you can go the link below.

https://public.serviceu.com/payment/default.asp?OrgID=10507&PaymentID=5531

100% of the proceeds go to help families coming out of the trafficking industry. No pressure to give but I hope that you take the time to research some of the facts on trafficking so you can be aware.

I'll be using my blog to keep people up to date on what is going on with the run so check back in every so often if you interested.

“Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, ‘He won’t call me to account?’ But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you, you are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and evil man; call him to account for his wickedness that would not be found out.” Psalm 10:12-15