Ministry; God's Way

Hey guys,, I know it's been a long time since I have ckecked in with you all about how things was going with my personal ministry stuff, but I am back.

 So this month on two seperate friday mornings, I went to Feed My Sheep. This is a place where different groups of church people take turns fixing a hot lunch for some elderly people in the local community who can't make ends meet for the month. So Feed My Sheep is there for those peopl eto at least get a hot meal a few times out of the month. So a couple of students from my school and I went to feed my sheep to lend a hand in making lunch for the elderly people. The first friday we went it was just for 2-1/2 hours  with Mrs. Betty being in charge that week. Then the next friday we wen tfor the full time which was four hours with Mrs. Pippa. Now the lives that were affected was the lives of the elderly men and woman at the lunch. This happens because we take time to go out there and fellowship with the people to get to know them and learn about them so that they will know who we are and know that we don't come our just because, but to invest in their lives and be the example of chirst to them as well. I personally think at the local church we need more of this. All we need is some few people to want to step out and get involved with the people outside of the church because that is where the true ministry is.

Well that's all for this month, see you next month for more exciting personal ministry updates.

Be Blessed!!

Want to be a leader, Ask me how ?

So last week I mentioned four of the 21 laws of leadership. This week I am going to share with you four more of these laws that I have learned.

 

Law of E.F Hutton- When the real leader speaks, people listen.

Looking at this law I’m sure you are thinking that the person this law is talking about is the speaker, but it isn’t. Sometimes this person can be the one with the most influence in the room.

Law of Solid Ground- Trust is the foundation of leadership.

This law is one of the key laws to all the laws of leadership. Without trust nothing that you’re leading will stay together. This is the glue that holds everything together.

Law of Respect- People naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves.

 As leaders it’s important to be able to follow leaders stronger than yourself. This is how you grow to become a stronger leader yourself. John Maxwell has the top six ways that a leader can gain respect and they are: 1. Leadership ability, 2. Respect for others, 3. Courage, 4.Success, 5. Loyalty, and 6. Value Added to others.

Law of Intuition- Leaders evaluate everything with leadership bias.

This law is all about the leader not who finish, but is about the leader who starts the quickest. Also leaders are readers of the following: 1. Leaders are readers of their situation, 2. Leaders are readers of trends, 3. Leaders are readers of their resources, 4. Leaders are readers of people, and 5. Leaders are readers of themselves. Also here are the three levels of leadership intuition: 1.Those who naturally understand leadership, 2.Those who can be nurtured to understand leadership, and 3. Those who will never understand leadership.

Well that’s all for this week, so I’ll leave you with this: “You can’t make changes in your setting of leading unless you have change in your pocket.” John Maxwell  

The Mind of a Leader

The life of a leader isn't for everybody. It has been almost a month since I have been a leadership student in ministry school and I am enjoying this journey of learning to become a great leader. So far we are learning the 21 Laws of Leadership by: John Maxwell. Let me take you into some of what we have learned so far.

1. The Law of The Lid- Leadership determines the level of effectiveness.
                 - This means no matter how high your effectiveness is, if your leadership doesn't match then what you are doing is pointless. " Remember their are 2 kind of leaders; Good ones and Bad ones" ( Which one will you be?)
2. The Law of Influence- Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.
                  - In the study it says " I rely on influence rather than on my position or title to get others to follow me or do what I want. You know if you have to get people to follow you just because of your title or position then you are a leader for the wrong reason, because at the end of the day it's not about your title, it's about the influence that you show through your life
3. The Law of Process- Leadership devlops daily, NOT in a day
                  - Now a days we think things are just to suppose to happen quick. I got news for you, they don't. Everything you do that is going to benefit your life in a postive way will take time. So if you want to become something great or become bettere at something, just know it will take time.
4. The Law of Navigation- Anyone can steer the ship, It takes a Leader to chart the course.
                  - Not everybody can steer you into the direction that you are suppose to go in, reasone being because they themselves don't have direction in their own life. With these laws you will not be a expert at all of them, thats why it's important to develop a team because there just might be someone else who is a better navigator than you are.

Every Hand Counts!

So this year I was able to do many different types of ministry opportunities, including my favorite one, Feed My Sheep. Now to finish it off I decided to do some local helping hand ministry stuff. So last month Stacey was talking to me about her mom needing some help painting and doing some things around their house that they are fixing up so that they can live in it and call it their home. I took the opportunity and told her that I would take some time from my Sabbaths on Fridays to go and help her. So Staci, Josh, and I went to help her mom on a Friday and due to our schedule end up going on that Saturday as well. That Friday for 5 hours, the three of us went there and first we did some yard work raking up leaves; about 4 to 6 pick- up loads, then we started painting Stacey’s room. We did the first coat of paint that Friday night. Now on that Saturday evening for 3 hours, Stacey didn't go, but Josh and I did. We went over there and put on the second coat and did the ceiling in Stacey's room. Also we started the bathroom. To some people this is might have seem like much, but it’s those random acts of kindness that allows people to see the kind person you are, and it show God that no matter what it is you are, can and will serve. This kind of serving can definitely be used in the local church. Now days everybody want to do the big stuff, but it’s the little things that make the difference. The bible says: If you can be faith in the little things, I will make you ruler over many." Just think about the number of people in your local church that you know needed or needs some help. As a child of God and a servant we should be the first to jump when something needs to get done, not because if we do it we will receive something in return, but because it is what God commands us to do, “Be Servants to His People."

-Your act of servant hood could well right lead you to witnessing to someone so that they may come to know and accept Christ in their lives.

“Be a servant out of love, and not one to do just to receive.”

Body Shop

This week we went to piney run and did a trail run and had about 2 to 3 intense basketball games. Its inportant work out on a daily basis because when you skip some time you will feel it the next time you decide to excerise. Then today we did a 20% growth physical fitness test and boy it was tough. we had to grow 20%  from what we did at the beginning of the year. We did push ups, wall sits, chrunches, sit ups, jump ups,  and the mile run. For the most part I can say I did pretty good. Even though this is the last school body shop taking this away from school will allow you to maintain you being healthy through the summer into next year. Go hard and be more intense.

Cleansing Stream

So on Friday I was headed to Pittsburgh to a retreat that express cleansing from God. They had a topic about Trauma which means the result of hurtful and wounding tragic events that we experience. I may or may not involve physical injury; but almost always has an impact or effect mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. These events can cause profound fellings of fear, confusion, loss, hopelessness, despair and anger. This really spoke to me because when I lost my dad at 48 years old of MS, I just felt blank; just me and my mother, but God allowed me to find comfort in some leaders that he placed in my life; my youth pastor and his wife. With that I began to understand that the Lord was there the whole time and reminded me that he will never leave me or forsake me. Trauma can be something that can mess up your life or put a hold on it if you don'tallow God to feel that void in your life. Now this does not only acure from death in the family, but many other things and situations that people go through in life. The thing is that we hold on to these things for a long time and just forget aabout them and then we wonder why we aren't growing in Christ, because we haven'
t dealt with the past things in our life that we have decided to let sit and place a hold on our livs.

REMEMBER: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10

Your story do make a DIFFERENCE

It was my first time out of the country. I went to Abaco, Bahamas for a mission’s trip with my school and I was awesome. Now as you are reading this your thinking the Bahamas, He had a blast. I did have a great time, but a time of Impacting lives of young boys and girls whose lives are not so good. I grew up in a single parent home and sometimes we didn't always have, but we made it through. So ministering in Abaco allowed me to learn how to use my story to understand the level of hurt and pain that the children were going through over there. Sometimes we treat our story like as if it is some think that we just lived through and one day forgot about it, but as followers of Christ he give us opportunities to use what we went through to change someone else’s life.

In Matthew it talks about going out into the world and making disciples and sharing the gospel, I can truly say that this past week we have done just that. It was a long, busy, tough, dirty, and crazy week, but we didn't do it to glorify ourselves but the Lord God himself. Just because you don't have the same story as someone doesn't mean that you can't be used by God to work in one's life. We went out and did the work of God and so can you. Just have God be first in your life and when he tells you to go be obedient and GO.