Proverbs 19:21

I was reading my previous post in which I gave you a top 10 list of updates going on in my life. It's funny because one point read, "I am ready for this summer." When I wrote that, I had no idea what I would be doing this summer, I just knew I was excited for what the Lord had in store. Well, now I know what I will be doing this summer, and I simply want to take the time to share this story with you. I want to share with you how powerful scripture is in our every day lives is and how awesome of a plan God has for my life.

As most of you probably know, I have spent the past three summers working for CentriKid camps. Again, as most of you know, I love camp with all of my heart and it will forever be something I love. When I finished my summer this past year, I automatically I would return for my fourth summer. But I began to realize that it was all about me and what I wanted to do. I went through this period of my life where I just began to refocus on Christ and relearned that it's all about Him and what He wants. I began to pray each day that He would reveal his plan in what I was supposed to do concerning my summer ministry. I will be real honest...throughout this time, I became really confused and struggled with what God had planned for my journey ahead.

I remember one specific day I had where I got so upset about everything. I was not only stressing about my summer, but also dealing with the conflict of having to make future school decisions as well. During this time, the student ministry I work had all been reading through the book of Proverbs. I had not read my Proverb for the day, and so I decided what better place to go. I specifically began reading the Proverb in search for even the smallest of encouraging words. I remember reading it online and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling...and then I found it. I read:

"We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God's purpose prevails."
Proverbs 19:21

I found my answer and my solution to my problem. It was then in that very moment that I reliquinished all control of any plan or purpose I have tried to make. I completley surrendered my future to the Lord and had become happy of whatever He would send my way.

Little did I know, the very next day, He would send something. I got an email from a camp friend, asking for suggestions for people that we may know to work camp. She specifically needed a male director. I was simply curious about the position, so I remember thinking, "This may be something I'm interested in." Long story short, I spoke with my friend, sent in my resume, and was later offered a phone interview.

One week later...I was offered the position as a director Kids Kamps at Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. And yes, I accepeted!

I know that this is what the Lord has had planned for me all along. I am so excited about this new door he has opened and can't wait to watch Him work in big ways this summer. In the end, His plan prevailed! And that's all that matters.


Holding Open His Door,
JB

Updates

The craziness of life has overtaken me and I have been slack about blogging. I am going to get better, I promise! Since the last time, I blogged a lot has taken place. It's cool to look at my life and to see how I am constantly changing and growing...all for the Lord. Lots of opportunities have come my way and a lot has taken place, so I just figured it would be good to catch you up with some cool things God is doing in my life. (These are in no particular order, as my brain is very random!)
1) I was recently elected President of BCM at my school. Exciting, huh?
2) I am applying to go to Haiti again in January. Yes, I know, scary for me and the foot, but I am excited, as I have watched God perfectly time this opportunity and open this door, once again.
3) I have gotten VERY involved with the youth group at my church. Needless to say, I love ministry and I love every single student and leader I get to work with!
4) I have been getting a lot of requests for photo shoots. Again, a very exciting thing.
5) Along the lines of going to Haiti again, I have recently had the opportunity to spread the work and share of my experiences from my first trip. Macon State added photos from our trip to their web page and I just completed an interview for an article that will come out in the Macon Statement, our school newspaper! I also got to make a video for my science class and the topic was earthquakes, and I got to share with my class what Haiti is going through.
6) God has really taught me a lot about friendships lately. I'm seriously learning who the real ones are and the ones God wants for me in my journey and walk. I've met a lot of new and cool people and I am excited to see new friendships come to play. It is also very cool to see old friendships rekindling!
7) I have been looking around at seminary schools. I feel like this is where God is leading me for the next step in my journey. I am not sure where yet, but I want to receive a degree in either Education and Christian Counseling or some sort of missions degree.
8) I am ready for the summer.
9) Missions is truly becoming a lifestyle for me, and I love everything about it!
10) I honestly have nothing to complain about in my life. Do I have hard times? Absolutley. Do I have struggles? Of course. Do I have things I could complain about? Duh. But, at the end of the day, that stuff doesn't matter. I have everything in my life that I could possibly ever need. I have incredible family, awesome mentors, amazing friends, a stinkin' great church family, and Jesus Christ who loves me and is ALWAYS here for me. I think I am pretty good to go!

Hope you enjoyed the top 10 happenings in my current life. Now that you're updated, I can begin to blog again! Thanks for listening.

Holding Open His Door,

James

You have pretty bones.

I’m taking a break from writing about Haiti. I will continue to tell my Haiti journey, but God taught me something recently and I just wanted to share it with you. It’s cool how He uses the smallest things in my life to teach me something incredible about who He is to me.
A story that you will hear on a later post is about what I brought back from Haiti. Yes, I brought back a lot of cool souvenirs, but along with that I carried home an infection in my foot. I know, a crazy thing like that would happen to me—it’s a really interesting story that I will for sure tell later.
Because I had the infection in my foot, the doctor wanted me to get x-rays just to make sure the infection had not got into my bones. This thought made me nervous and I prayed hard every day that it had not. As I was driving to get my x-rays done, I looked and my foot and begin to think. My foot has been really swollen and honestly gross. I wondered how a machine could look past so much swollenness to see my bones. The thought seemed unreal to me and I just didn’t think it could be done. After completing the x-rays, we went to the screen and a perfect picture of my foot bones appeared. I was amazed, because technology had actually made this happen. I looked at my bones, and nothing was wrong with them. There was no infection there and I could see each one in a very clear state. The x-ray tech actually told me I had very “pretty bones”. I enjoyed receiving a nice compliment.
As I left the x-ray office, I began to think long and hard about what had just taken place. Yeah, it was just a simple procedure that I had done, but I realized real quick that God was teaching me something about Him. My life is just like my foot has been—nasty, gross, disgusting—my sin makes me that way. The cool thing is though that God can look beyond that stuff and see me just for who I am. He can see me perfectly clear and see the person he has shaped me to become. That’s how great my God is. He’s just like an x-ray.
This is something I think about all the time now. It just amazes me that God is so big and so great that He chooses to do that for me. Think about that today and know that, just like my foot, our lives are full of sin that make us gross. But God looks beyond that and sees us in a different way. He has forgiven us of our sin, so He doesn’t see that. He sees us in a way that we can’t see ourselves. So, to God, we are His pretty bones.
Holding Open His Door,
JB

Big Dreams. BIGGER GOD.

Before telling my adventures this took place in Haiti, it is only fair that I give praise to my Father for what He did so that I could go. While God did a lot in my life while I was there, He had also done big things to allow it all to happen. For quite a while, my dream has been to be able to go on a foreign mission trip. I just never had the opportunity or felt the Lord leading me in that direction. This past year, God really taught me a lot about dreams. And what I remember, specifically from a message by Louie Giglio, is that it’s a great thing to dream in God, BUT, you have to let Him decide when and how He wants to make those come true. It was really hard for me to take that in, and it took a lot of faith for me to say, God, here’s my dream, its now fully Yours.
Ever since the earthquake took place in Haiti, the country has been a huge passion of mine. Its been my burden and my heart has broken for what they have had to go through. God had really given me a love for the people, and I wasn’t sure how He would use that love he developed in me. My immediate thoughts were of things that I could do here at home to help the people of Haiti. Little did I know, God had other plans.
This summer, I worked CentriKid for my third summer and we do eight weeks of camp. Our last week was really small and we did not need a staff of 24. Our coordinator called some of us and asked if we could go home a week early, and my first response was…yes. I thought I could use an extra week of vacation and just some extra time to get ready for school. I had no set plans of leaving a week early from camp.
Two weeks later, I got a Facebook message. The subject line read…Free Trip to Haiti. My jaw dropped open and I was confused for a few minutes. Most of you probably know that when you go on a mission trip, it’s not usually free, so this was a big shock for me. As I read on, I learned that they wanted eight people from our local colleges to venture to Haiti to do VBS and camps for kids. Anyone that knows me knows that this was right up my alley. I instantly replied to the email and said yes, I would love to go. I didn’t know at that time if I would be selected or not and just gave it over to God.
I don’t have to tell the end of the story, because everyone knows what happened! I was one of the eight selected and went to Haiti last week. As childish as it seems, dreams do come true. I gave my dream over to God and He took care of everything. I could have never planned it out the way He did, but He took care of that. I am so thankful to Christ for having blessed me with this opportunity that I will never forget. This was just the beginning of an incredible journey, and I cant wait to tell you guys all about it!

Holding Open His Door,
JB

Never Have I Ever...

I used to be the pro at this game. Because to be honest, there's a lot of things that I just haven't done. My first one I would always say was "Never have I ever...been to another country." It would immediatley knock out the majority of the people that were playing. I realized today that I can not say that anymore. I have taken a trip outside of the United States, to what felt like a completely different world.

As most of you know, the country of Haiti went through an earthquake about seven months ago. Ever since that day, my heart has broken for the country and the people have become my passion. I had thought of things I could do to help them from here, and that seemed to be going well. Little did I know, that I would get to help them in a bigger way.

This past week I spent the week in the country of Haiti, ministering to the children and working on other various projects. As my first foreign mission trip, I knew it would mean a lot, but I don't think I realized just how much it would change my life. Check back later through the week as I tell you about my experience and how the Lord worked in BIG ways in and through me.

Holding Open His Door,
JB

Answered Prayer: Matt

I don't think I have ever believed in answered prayer more than I have after I met Matt Weaver. It's cool that God has used him to make a huge impact on my life. It's crazy to think back to when the week in Tifton started because in the beginning, me and Matt honestly just didn't connect. But by the end of the week, that definitley changed and I am so grateful that God allowed that to happen.

The week in Tifton began and me and my teammates all got along great. I felt like we really worked well together and together we were a good group. While I loved everyone, I just felt like some people I just didn't click with. Matt just happened to be one of those people. We didn't fight or not like each other, we just didn't click immediatley. As the week went on, that never really changed and I began to think a lot about that. Near the end, I thought more and more about it and I got myself upset. My thought was here's this great godly guy who I could learn so much from, but yet I'm not allowing myself to build that friendship with him. This was the turning point. From then on, I figured out what I could do to ensure that I could build a relationship with him. I began to put myself in positions that would allow for good conversations between the two of us. More and more, that connection was made and we began to become good friends.

I really feel like the true connection was made on Saturday night. The girls had a girls day event at a local church all day and the guys spent the evening hanging out at our leader's house. Matt loves to fish and he really wanted to do that, as our leader has four ponds in her front yard. So, Matt goes to fish. So God opens up this great door for me to really have some bonding time with Matt. Did I want to go outside and sit in the grass with bugs? Not really. But I knew that God had opened this door and blessed me with this opportunity and that I had to take it. A lof of my past with guy friendships has left me with rejection, and this was my fear once again. I didn't think Matt would reject me, but it was all I had ever know. I forgot about my past, stepped out of my comfort zone, and headed for the pond. I will say that I feel like I had one of the best conversations that I have ever had in my whole life. We both got to share our stories, talk about things were dealing with, encourage each other, and just get to know one another. We had finally made that connection and built a friendship.

It was truly an honor to serve alongside Matt all week. It didn't matter where we were or what we were doing, Matt was giving 100% and doing so with a positive attitude. I feel like I've never saw Matt stop or give up and I that is something that I admire about him. It was also very evident to me how big his heart for the Lord is. We labeled him the "people person" and Matt will rock out in whatever ministry he does in life. I also learned a lot about relationships from Matt. It is very clear that he knows what a godly relationship is supposed to look like and he is not going to settle for anything less. I look up to Matt is so many ways and he is someone I strive to be like.

For those of you who don't know my story: growing up I dealt with a lot of rejection, especially from guy friends. I have never really had good guy friends and its been something that I have prayed for every day of my life. If you don't think God answers prayer, here's your proof. He has answered that prayer in my life. God has blessed me with some amazing guy friendships and I could not pick more godly, down to earth guys. So like Jonathan, Matt was a huge answer to prayer in my life.

To Matt-I simply would like to say thank you. Thank you for the lasting impact that you have and will make on my life. You will never know how big that impact is, but I am so thankful that God has placed you in my life. Know that the Lord has gifted you in some incredible ways and you are going to go so far and do so many great things for His kingdom. Thank you for simply being an answer to prayer in my life and I look forward to growing our friendship even more. I love you man!

Epically Legit: Beth

"So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective." --Colossians 3:1-2 (The Message)

I chose to start this blog post off with those verses, because they are some of Beth's favorite in all of the Bible. It was when she was helping me plan my closer for our youth service that she introduced me to this scripture. And I have to say that it has become some of my favorite as well. It was very clear to me how grounded in her faith Beth really is. She has a love for scripture and a passion to reach the lost that you just dont find in most people. Beth struck me as such a real person and she wasn't afraid to be who God has made her to be. I love that about her.

It's funny to think about our friendship because it didn't really seem to happen until midweek. I remember working with Beth at Ruth's Cottage. We packed boxes together and I will never forget making fun of the outfits we packed and labeling the boxes. I will especially never forget packing one box labeled as: The Cosby's Wardrobe. Great times. It was after that day that we really got to know each other and really developed a true friendship.

Like Kelli, something I will never forget about Beth was our "heart to heart" conversation. We were supposed to simply split into pairs and pray for one another, but me and Beth started talking and we just couldn't stop. It was for sure a conversation that I will never forget. We just talked about life, what we had been through, and where we currently were. It was crazy that we had been through some of the same exact things in our lives and that we were able to relate to each other about that. We're also both kind of at the same point in life so it was great to be able to encourage each other about those things. We could not stop talking and everyone wasn't happy with us because we took so long to come back to the group. We got to pray for each other and promised each other that if we ever needed to come to each other school's with a 2X4, then we would.

Getting to know and learn about Beth was a priviledge to me. I believe that there are some people in life that you are just supposed to meet, and for me, Beth is one of those people. She taught me things I needed to learn and told me things that I needed to hear. I really believe that I am a different person after meeting Beth and I look forward to the places that our friendship will take us. It's crazy to think that I really didn't have any huge expectations for making friends on the trip, but I walked away with a best friend after encountering Beth. It was all in God's plan and I thank Him for placing Beth in my life.

Thank you Beth for coming into my life. You have been such a huge encouragement to me and I thank you so much for that. It was such an honor to serve with you and to see your heart for Jesus spill out in everything that you did during the week! You are going to do great things for the Lord in such big ways and I look forward to being able to say...I am her best friend. Thanks for what you mean to me in my life. I can't wait to see you again soon! Love you best friend.

PS: You are so epically legit.