No one ever said life would be easy

I don't know about you, but no one ever told me that life would be easy. I learned that real quick when I was growing up. I learned that my family wasn't rich, we didn't have all the things that other families had. The funny thing is that I never cared. I knew that we had something that some of those families never had; we had dinner together.
My family ate dinner together at least 5 nights a week. My mom would say that we did this because she doesn't know how to cook and we never had the money for dinner. Every night we ate dinner at my grandma's house. It gave me a time that I could hang out with my family. My grandma would get us there and then shout: "Aubenbrout" which means "dinner" in German.
It was great
Then life went on and we all grew up. I miss eating dinner with my family. Even though life is not always easy, and no one ever said it would be, it is always worth it. I sit on my couch writing this and I am taking a break from doing homework. I think to myself; "Neal, you are 27 years old...you need to be done with homework!" I want to be done, but I know that God has called me to get my degree and I will get it. I will stay focused on the task. I tell myself; "No one ever said being a christian is easy." I think; "Why should it just be easy for me?"
I know that life will never be easy, but I know that it will always be worth it. The great times far out way the hard times and that is why I can take a break, write this and then go back to homework.
God has called me to something and I want to pursue that!

I'm Stoked

So today is July 6th 2007 and I am 27 years right now. In the last week I have gone wakeboarding two times. I was so excited the last time I went I was able to clear the wake almost every time and even landed it. I just wanted to write this not out of pride and a "look what I can do spirit" but out of a "Thank God that I am still alive."
I am so blessed to be alive today. I am so stoked that I get to spend time with High School students and go wakeboarding with them. I am honored that God has called me to serve Him full time in an environment that encourages me to spend time with students and hang out with them. We went out wakeboarding on Monday and it was so amazing. I am once again honored to do what I get to do, to see live change happen before my eyes every day and to know that I am loved by God.
What are you thankful for today?

WOW

The purpose of religion -- at any rate, the Christian religion-- is not to get you into heaven, but to get heaven into you.
-- Frederick Ward Kates

Quote

A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless.
-- Simone Weil

What is 100% certian for us all?

Remember how fleeting is my life.For what futility you have created all men! What man can live and not see death,or save himself from the power of the grave? Ps 89:47-48

I was reading my Bible this morning in Psalms and came across this verse and it just hit, every single one of us will die. Then it hit me: Where will I go? I thought about it and the joys of knowing Jesus and the blessing of serving Him and then it hit me even harder; what about those that do not know. I got scared for them, it made me sad. I started to ponder that. It made me think about my neighbors, all eight of them that live in our building and the other 400 that live in our complex; who will tell them about the hope that I have. Do they have that hope? Do they know where they will go when they die? What is their thoughts on it? Are they correct thoughts or lack of understanding?
From I see in the Bible it says that we all need to ask Jesus into our hearts to be our savior. We need to not only do that, but also to live for Him and His plans for our life. What I have learned is that the best choice you can make in your life is to live it for Jesus. None of us will ever be perfect, but I sure could use some guidance in this thing called life that I have trouble with all the time.

PODCAST

What is a podcast? That is a great question and my simple answer would be: a great way for you to hear what God is doing in Vegas and what students are learning about here.
How do you get our podcast? Another great question. Go to iTunes and on the left there is a section for podcasts. Click on that. Then in the bottom click on: "Podcast Directory". This will take you to all Podcasts. Go to the right side and click on: "Power Search". Then in the title line search: "Explode High School Ministry". That will bring up our podcast and from there you can listen to whatever you would like to.
Or all you have to do is have iTunes and click this link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=256652747

COULD YOU IMAGINE???

Burkina Faso’s human development index 2004
Life expectancy at birth (years)
1. Norway (0.965)
172. Central African Republic (0.353)
173. Guinea-Bissau (0.349)
174. Burkina Faso (0.342)
175. Mali (0.338)
176. Sierra Leone (0.335)
Adult literacy rate (% ages 15 and older)
1. Japan (82.2)
150. Uganda (48.4)
151. Mali (48.1)
152. Burkina Faso (47.9)
153. Ethiopia (47.8)
154. Kenya (47.5)
1. Georgia (100.0)
125. Niger (28.7)
126. Chad (25.7)
127. Burkina Faso (21.8)
128. Mali (19.0)
Think about this next time we (I enclude my self) complain about being American. Did you know that Burkina Faso is the third poorest country in the world? You could live in Burkina Faso West Africa and make a dollar a day if you are lucky to be one of the 14% of the population that has a job. Otherwise you may be sweeping up sand to buy a bowl of rice for about a quarter. Yep, how does living on 25 cents a day sound???
See what you can do at www. compassion.com by sponsoring a child in need. Imagine what $35 a month could do in a childs life...

So true

The world is a dangerous place,not because of those who do evil,but because of those who look on and do nothing.
- Albert Einstein

I love my wife

Marriage:
I think that marriage is probably one of the hardest relationships that we will ever have in life. Marriage is tough, there are times that it is so hard and you think: "can I keep doing this?"
The answer is: "YES". God loves marriage. God created marriage to be a wonderful thing, He created it to help us!!!
The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Gen 2:18
The sad thing is that we, sinful humans, are the ones that have messed up God's original design so badly. I imagine that it hurts God so bad.
Today I want to challenge you to seek God's plan for your marriage. Love your spouse like God loves you. Put them before yourself. Buy them a gift, show them that you love them. What if today was the last day you could show them your love, what would you do...
Do that!
I put a picture of Charity and I up here in Hawaii on the North Shore. My wife went surfing on the North Shore that day and I am so proud of her!

I miss Hawaii

About two weeks ago Charity and I had the blessing of going to Hawaii.

Today I am sitting in my living room, on memorial day, finishing an Ordination paper. I wish I was back in Hawaii. Charity and I were able to sit on the beach, swim with turtles and most importantly hang out with old friends. I will write more about this later, I just needed a 30 second vacation to look at my pics again.

School

School is almost over. In about one month there will be thousands of kids that are out of school. They will be moving into the job place, they will be getting out of there homes and starting a new point in life. I often wonder things like: where these kids fit in? and Who do they have to look up to when times get tough?

My heart contiuneally breaks because I will be graduating some of these kids. On May 30th we are having our senior grad banquet and sending these guys into the real world. Did we train them right? Did we teach them how to live a God honoring life? Did we show them we care? Were we there for them? Did we model what we say?

Just some food for thought on what goes through my mind.

This is Crazy

Dear GOD:
Why didn't you save the school children at....
Virginia Tech 04/16/07
Amish Country, PA
Wisconsin
Columbine High School
Moses Lake, Washington 2/2/96
Bethel, Alaska 2/19/97
Pearl, Mississippi 10/1/97
West Paducah, Kentucky 12/1/97
Stamp, Arkansas 12/15/97
Jonesboro, Arkansas 3/24/98
Edinboro, Pennsylvania 4/24/98
Fayetteville, Tennessee 5/19/98
Springfield, Oregon 5/21/98
Richmond, Virginia 6/15/98
Littleton, Colorado 4/20/99
Taber, Alberta , Canada 5/28/99
Conyers, Georgia 5/20/99
Deming, New Mexico 11/19/99
Fort Gibson, Oklahoma 12/6/99
Santee, California 3/ 5/01 and
El Cajon, California 3/22/01?
Sincerely, Concerned Student

Reply:
Dear Concerned Student:
I am not allowed in schools.
Sincerely, GOD

Who will you be like?

Yesterday I was reading in my Bible about the kings of Israel (actually the king of Judah). I came to one of the last kings and reading about his life. Usaully you read that the man continued in the sin of his father and lead Israel incoreectly, it makes me sad. Then I came to read about a man named Josiah.
Josiah changed that pattern. Josiah lead Judah in the correct way. He tore down all the shrines and prostitue places. He removed all the false Gods from the Temple of the Lord. This dude was gnarly. He killed all the spiritualists and the mediums. He did what God wanted. Now I am not sugesting that you go and kill people and tear down places, but where is your passion for the Lord?
Are you following the sin of you fathers or making a choice to follow the plan of the Lord?

2 Kings 23:24-25
24 Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the LORD. 25 Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did — with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses. NIV

Its been a while

Do you ever feel like its been a while... maybe it has been a while since you got a new pair of pants or a haircut or something like that. For me it has been a while since i have been here. The last what 8 months have been pretty packed. I have completed 4 more courses in my masters degree, gone on two winter camps and two mission trips. Oh ya i forgot to say that I also had a birthday.
For the last three mondays in a row I have been working on Ordination, something that not many people know about. I have been doing these papers and readin books that are required for Ordination. I am not the best paper writter (ask Alana Ledford) or the greatest reader (ask my wife) but it's something that I feel God calling me to finish. In about 5 weeks from now I will have an oral interview of about 300 questions that will decide my Ordination status.
With all that said to catch up with you all today has been a huge day for me. Today God has opened my eyes and heart once again to world missions. I dont know all the statistics or the percentages but I do know that people are dying because no one is sharing the gospel with the them.
Now a natural human response would be to ask; "Well what are you doing Neal?"
I understand that question and would love to tell you about the mission field that I work in, it's called Las Vegas. Half of the kids that I work with have never heard about Jesus Christ. Get this; 75% of their parents wont even come to church...yet.
See God has called Charity and I to work in a different mission field. We are working in a place that not many people think of when the think world missions. You probably think about Africa or Mexico, I think about them too, but I live here. I see the kids hurting. I see the ones that have given their life to Jesus only to have their parents ban them from coming back. It hurts my heart.
I dont know why this post or what it will spark, but if God is calling you to missions dont disobey Him. Check this quote out:

"Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is -- where life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge." -- Robert C. Shannon

Missions is where the real action is.

Students can do amazing things

So I am totally blessed that I get to work with students for a living and today and I am so proud of our students. Last night our Junior High Students raised 56 dollars to start supporting a little girl in Africa. Now she will be able to go to school and have real meals. She lives in an AIDS affected area so she will get medicine and things like that.
Bigger than that, we now have JH students that care about whats happening in the world. They can focus on something bigger then they are. Wow, I am stoked to see what God's doing!!!

Just got home

So I just walked in my house, sat on my couch, turned on the TV and loved on my puppy for a bit. The TV is on and I am just thinking about all that I learned this week. I was with like 40 other guys that have a heart to see students find and follow Jesus and it really pumped me up. We talked about, or maybe I just thought it, the decline of our soceity. It really hit me when a lady was talking about Africa and how crazy the world is and what we need to do to change things.

I feel like God had put me in a position to help students change their life, to become who God has called them to be. I am pretty tired, but just want to put out this last thought. I keep wondering what my life would look like if I put my selfishness and all my desires and what I think needs to happen down and let God had complete control of me?