I have returned

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Parakletos

New Member
Well guys, it seems like a million years but I am now back and not planning to go anywhere for awhile (except for CPL,but they have internet acess
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We just flew in from our missions trip last night from San Diego. Man, I have some awesome stories from this experience that I will post later.

The reason why I was gone so long basically is like this: In onder to go on this trip, there were a ton of requirements (testimony, memory verses, etc.) and I quickly realized that I was not doing well getting these things done because I was too distracted by so many things. So I prayed...and God basically indicated to me that I needed to put some things aside in order to do this.

Im really sorry I was not very clear on these things before. Ill start a post sometime about the awesome things God has taught me on this trip.

See you guys online
 
Alright, now that ive had a 1.5 L of water, I can actually remember things!  
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Well, just to give everyone a little background about the trip. The trip was called OGN (Operation Good News). It was held at Point Loma university in San Diego, CA. Basically what happened is that 7 high school church groups meet for this huge conference . Mornings were spent in classes (Apologetics, and evangelism), then in the afternoons we had an opportunity to "apply" what he had learned by going on beaches and streets and sharing the Gospel.... with complete strangers!
Our approach was really cool. You would go with one other person, and we had these yellow cards that had 6 these questions on them:
1) Do you think in todays busy world people are not, somewhat, or very interested in knowing about God?
2) Do you think its possible to know God in a personal way?
3) If someone asked you "how can I know God personally", what would you tell them?
4) If you were to die tonight, are you 100% sure that you would go to Heaven?
5) If God asked you "Why should I let you into Heaven", what would you say?
6) Can I share how I know God personally?

So basically you can tell that it starts out kinda as a survey, but then digs deeper. Usually once you ask people the first 2, usually they are pretty open enough to answer the rest.

So on the first day of witnessing, everyone was brought to this big room to select partners. I should note something here, everyone had a "level" they were on. So for example, if this was your first time there you would be level 1, and so on.
They read a few verses to us about the importance of witnessing, then it was time to select partners.
The guidelines for partners were 1) You cant take anyone from your church group (darn!) 2) It was strongly recommended that you take someone of the opposite gender. (some of the guys made jokes about it and called it the OGN dating service
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So then they said "ok, all level 1 students (me) stand up" then they had the older students pair up with the 1st year's. then we loaded vans and went to different beaches and parks.

Ok, so this part of it may be boring, the rest of the days were anything but.  
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[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Hey I just got back from a missions trip and I am gonna give up cs forever and just live for God. Thats not the only thing I'm giving up either. I think i will give up all computer games and maybe just be a ToJ forum monkey That way i can still pwn everyone. I think its fime for me to get real serious about God. Some of the other things I'm going to give up are:
Food-Like in the sense that I like it and it sometimes can get in the way of God. I can give a really good example of this but i am really too tired to type it right now.
X-C- I think God's telling me that it will waste alot of my time and if I want to run I should run on my own
Band-Hrm actually I don't think its time for me to give this up right now. I want to learn how music works because worship is one of the best things about God. But just remember him at all times and do his work
TV-Yup TV too I dont think its doing much good except wasting my time... wait a minute that isnt good.

because I was away for a week its cool because all the stuff (except food) can really be distracting from God. A sad part about this is that I dont have a job and might be really bored because thats all I really used to do. But thats alright because God> All these things
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That was the missions trip i went on with Parakletos ( we go to the same church) I thought I might elaborate on part of this post.(It was on a different thread 0_o) Anyway how God taught me about food not being so important was this: Me and a partener were on a bus going to a beach (mission beach if you r wonderin) and there is this really good pizza place tehre called Fat Boyz Pizza and inside me there was like a debate going on whether or not I should go there (Part of me that represents myself) was like "It took a long time to eat lunch there last time. But I don't care at all. This is probably the only chance I will get to go there for a year so even if the line is long and it takes away from time to witness to people." And then the part of me that represents God was like "Hey no maybe you could go to subway if the line is long thats a good place and its fast. You probably could go to Fat Boyz if the line is short, but no, just dont if the line is long." Then the part that represents me was like "No I don't care I'm going there no matter what I hate you."

And that made realize that (as I had read some verses that said this a while back) that love with the world is war with God. It just really hit me hard. But what was really cool about it is I wrote down those verses and one of the things para failed to mention is that we also had to do a devotional, where we just share with the group a cool passage about God and we learn from each other. I dont feel like it quite yet but later (like tomorow) I will include the rest of the devotional. Anyway I prepared this devo on a passage 2 Timothy 4 something that says "Preach the word be prepared in season and out of season..." its a really cool passage but it didn't truely hit home I think. And thats why God called me to tell people that as my devotional. And by God's grace I think they got alot out of it.
 
Day 1

After we picked our partners (I was paired up with a level 3, or a 3rd year), we were given $5 for lunch, and then we loaded up the vans. First we stoped at some dumb fast food restraunt ($6 for a stupid hamburger! I think the cheeseburgers were like $7). Then we were dropped off at the beach (There were about 4-5 teams per van). The first few people we talked to believed that you can come to God in any way, and there was no one specific way to do it. Even after we pulled a few verses like John 14:6 (Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.") they still went with their theory.

We talked to one young man named Justin. After we talked for about 10 minutes, we asked him if he would like to accept Christ. He seemed to really struggle inside about it, then he told us that he would prefer to do it on his own. We handed him a booklet which told him a salvation prayer. After we said good-bye, we walked about 30 feet, droped to our knees and prayed for him. To this day I still don't know where he is with that decision, but I know whatever it is, its all in God's hands.

If you guys ahave a few moments today, please pray for Justin.
 
Day 1 I went to the same beach in the same van it was pretty cool! Para had shotgun I think. The girl I was with was a lvl 1 and her parents were missionaries to Nigeria for 13 years of her life. Her sister was going to college at Point Loma and they were there helping her get acclimated to life. We didn't talk to anyone that wasnt a christian and wanted to talk. However we did talk to a pastor of a church of about 2500 ( i think) and he prayed for us and after that it was easier to talk to people.

Concerning what I shared with the group I quoted some verses : James 4:4-5 "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?"
1 John 2:15
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Luke 14:26
26"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

It was really interesting. I was standing Way over there and heard a cracking noise and I ran over to investigate, then I heard another noise like the first and saw this huge tree branch falling down. For no apparent reason. There was no wind or anything and nobody i know could climb THAT high. This thing was huge and there was another under it it was like as wide as my head and weighed about 300 pounds. It got me to thinking. We should be like this tree. No not in the sense that we should go and cut off our arms but in the sense that people would look at us and say. "What happened to them?" "I don't know... It must of been an act of God."
 
Wow guys, that sounds so awesome. God really did work with you guys in a great way. As my youth pastor says "God uses ordinary people in extrordinary ways." I really hope I get to do somthing like that with my life, serve God like that. Cuz that really is why were down here. I pray that God continues to work with, and in you guys. And I also pray for the people who you talked to. You guys must'v really stepped out of your comfort zones. Good job.

God bless ya guys, and I know he will.
~Eryn
 
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