good times

hey everyone! i have been kinda slacking on writing my blog so i will give a quick update. i spent a week in Texas from the 13th to the 21st. it was really awesome being able to take a one week break and see old friends. isnt it awesome how God has a purpose for everything? when i went down to Texas, i got to surprise a group of people from my home church in Alaska. it was great to see old friends, but God had a deeper purpose. i have a really good friend from my church whose name is Maria and she is 16 years old. we have been talking for a long time now and i had always thought she was baptized because of how spiritual she has always been and so i never second guessed that she wasnt yet baptized. well when i found out that she in fact wasnt, i studied with her for 3 or 4 days and she got baptized that week! so i knew that God had a purpose for me being there that week. now i am back in Leon, spiritually re-energized and ready to work more. last nite, Megan, Raphael, Jazmin and I went to Starbucks to have coffee but it was to cold outside so we went to Raphaels house to watch a movie. Raphael is an interesting guy. he knows English already so its easy to talk with him. he used to go to a Baptist church but one Sunday he decided to visit out church, and ever since then he has been coming back. he is really good about bringing his family to. sometimes people just come to church because of the love they feel when they are there, so that just tells me something good about the work going on here in Leon. Praise God for his faithfulness!

something

I have so many thoughts floating around in my head lately. The problem is, half the time im a hypocrite for being or acting as the same things I am criticizing. Why cant we seem to understand that Jesus is the point of everything? There are "Christians" who only think that the Old Testament was inspired by God, and not the New Testament. Why do people dislike singing old hymns from "Songs of Praise" songbooks? Its because they are "boring" but it makes me wonder, if they really knew Jesus would they still think that way? The fact is, those songs were written by real people who poured their heart and soul into their songs because they truly knew Christ. I understand that doctrine shouldnt change but cultural standards and beliefs will. Open fist closed fist, good. But sometimes it seems like we overthink and miss the whole point. Jesus. And why do I have such a hard time motivating myself to have a relationship with Him? I am critical of the church, I am critical of everything and the change must start with ME. Thank God that Jesus is the only one who can change me.