How's the King today?

Coca cola. It means delicious happiness in mandarin (at least so says the internet! :p). Current mood? Indeed, it is happiness, of the delicious variety of course. This last week has been A-MAZING! Some highlights...

We had the lovely Jamie and Kim down from Australia to bless us with their passionate, engaging teaching on backpacker ministry. This included an overnite trip to a hostel to give the students a taste of what backpacker ministry is like. My team didn't meet alot of people, but it was still a nice time off base, bonding over food and crazy adventures. One adventure involved us seeing penguins, including one close up sitting on eggs! Our other adventure involved finding an abundance of sheep roaming about, some beautiful horses, and of course a  magnificent view of the ocean. Nothing like getting lost in a good book in that setting, and enjoying lunch amongst sheep manure!

Friday the students got the opportunity to walk and have some processing/debriefing time with God as they walked to the top of a look out, and as they walked up staff had the opportunity to pray over them and give them a backpacker Bible to bless someone with. I loved our students from the moment I met them, but never had I been so proud as I was in that moment. I can learn so much from them and I know they are going to accomplish great things in their lives. (all these thoughts after only 2 weeks with them!!)

In the evening we split up to do ministry in the city. I was on the square ministry. At the beginning of the day, though quite unsure of what the "official ministry time" was to look like, I was excited, this continued through my walk to the square. Once we hit the square however, a bit of nervousness hit. Well, with prayers lifted up to God we were off. I tell you, God was really moving and it was amazing!!! A brief glimpse...

My friend pointed out this street preacher that is often in the square and I knew I wanted to talk to him-I was already curious about him when I heard of him last year. However, not quite feeling bold enough to walk up and talk to him, I was kinda relieved when I glanced over and noticed him packing up for the day. So, I played it safe and started writing in chalk.
   Before I could finish the first letter, this guy wanders up to me (out of everyone in the square he chose to strike up a conversation with me. Coincidence? I think not!) and stops, and asks, "Hows the King today?"
   I heard, "How's it going?" So smiled and answered a soft, friendly, "Good."
   He leaned in closer. "Who's the King?"
   I was a bit taken aback. I mean, that's quite the ice breaker. "Sorry, what?"
   "Whose the King?"
   "Well, that's God."
 I then asked him what he had been up to in the square and asked him what he was carrying when he told me he was preaching. He set it up to show me and I ended up talking to this guy for at least an hour, until it started drizzling and his friend came. The contents of our conversation could probably make up a short book, and he was really hard to follow. Anyway, I hope to see him again and talk to him more-there is alot to discuss, and I will definitely be doing some research and prayer to figure out where this guy is coming from. I've definitely already found evidence against some of what he told me.

Another highlight was that the German girl on my team got to talk to a German girl for a while (which was cool, because that day I had prayed that God would send German people across her path...can you say ANSWER TO PRAYER?!!!!)

Today involved climbing, sunshine, and ice cream. A solid end to a solid week.

Gerber Daisies

Stepping into the checkout line, my roomie Katie and I leisurely waited, in no rush. A lovely woman stepped ahead of us, failing to see us in her rush. Of course, when she realized what she had done she was a bit flustered and profusely apologized. Typical kiwi-they're so friendly down here! Katie reassured her it was fine. The great thing is Katie's got an American accent-a dead giveaway we weren't from around here. So this began a real short conversation about how long we were here for and what we were doing here. Turns out this woman was on her way to a Christian camp and that's why she was in such a rush. Thus, with a "Bless you guys!" she hurried of to camp without further delay...or so we thought. Later Katie went to pick up the pictures she had ordered, and the woman behind the counter passed her 2 individually, beautifully wrapped gerber daisies. Turned out in between the time we left and Katie came back, this stranger we had briefly talked to had still felt kind of bad and henceforth purchased the flower and left them for us. And that is the icing on the cake of yesterday.

Jesus-friend of sinners

"If Jesus came to Amsterdam, He would go to the discos. He would know the names of all the bartenders and He would be friends with all the prostitutes. The Bible tells us that Jesus was a friend of sinners; but we may say, What about my reputation, my witness?


I told the story of how my wife had struck up a friendship with a particular girl with whom she talked about Jesus. “The only way she could see her was to go behind the window and talk with her, while I waited on the street. Men would walk by and think that Jodi was also a prostitute. This made me very angry. But if my wife was going to show God’s love to that girl, she had to be willing to be mistaken for a prostitute. If you are going to reach lost sheep, you are going to have to be willing to be mistaken for one yourself. Just like Jesus was. He was called a glutton, a drunkard, and a sinner. Why? Because he loved them so much he was willing to be mistaken for one himself." -Rock Priest

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?" On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." -Matthew 9:10-13

I've just really thinking about how cool it is that Christ was a friend of sinners. He'd hang out with prostitutes, criminals, drug addicts, and everything in between. How many of us would be willing to do that without fear of being scorned?