Learning this week

This week, I learned that know matter what sleep is esstiental to keep going on your everyday life.  This week was loaded from day and night.  We stayed busy throughout the whole day and by the end of the week we were all exhausted, having the Exposure students down definitely didn’t help the situation at all.  But I’m not complain, but I just found it harder to completely engage with them throughout the whole weekend.  IT was three boys that came, and I found I pretty cool because they were in the same situation I was in a year ago.  I understood what they were saying and the point of views they had when we went down to the inner-harbor.  They also shared testimonies throughout the week and talked about how they wanted to become a part of something big and be bold for Christ.  But at the same time we let them know, that mission isn’t for  everyone.  Not shying them away just letting them know and they seemed comfortable with it.  It was good to see younger people ready to do things big for God and have a true heart for God.

Reunite Body Shop

Hey guys here I am back again. Wednesday I decided to take a walk and have a conversation with God as I walked throughout the neighborhood. That was the first time I have ever honestly done that, also this week for work-out, we decided to do a little Mission-alumni basketball game.  Me, Clarence, and Ben decided to play with two former Mission students (Sam Bradshaw and Katy Sweep).  Around eight o’clock we were picked up and went to Piney Run Basketball Courts.  Playing full court basketball with just five people was pretty intense.  We worked on our endurance and our cardio.  Then during Exposure we all played a very large game of basketball in the rain.  It was a pretty awesome experience to engage in a sports game with them.  Worked a lot of our muscles in our lower body. 

Mission Boys

Hey guys it’s me again here talking about my body shop for this week.  This week was more of a guy type of week for body shop.  We had a lot of free time this week so we decided to take advantage and redeem the time, not mess around and use it to our advantage.  Tuesday we had a block of time that was free and we used it to have male bonding, and played basketball, 3 on3 and it was a pretty intense game.  It actually had blood sweat, and tears involved for the first time.  It really worked our legs, and it worked our cardio, because playing 3-on-3 full court can get you really tired really quick.  But at the same time on Friday when we played again on our sabatth we figured out were our strengths and weaknesses are as a team and it made us work harder to achive the seventeen laws of teamwork. So we decided to act professional and wear jersey’s as we worked out and learned the laws of teamwork. 

Lessons for Life

Hey guys once again I am back, this week I would have to say was pretty instering.  This week I learned that we can not depend on the internet and modern technology for everything.  This semester I had a psychology class and I had to due my final exam. So I was in the middle of taking my New Testament Exam and my computer just erases everything and completely shuts down and whips out everything.  Of course if you know me, you know that I have some of the worst luck ever.  The week before my finals are due, my computer crashes with a numerous amounts of virus.  I was terrible and miserable, then the day it was due my laptop got fixed.  I finally was able to submit one of the exams for my New Testament class.  But for my Psychology class I had an eight page paper to write and a 10 page power point, I finally go to submit my PowerPoint and it just disappears and it was heartbreaking.  Then I had to start it over 2 hours before it was due.  Then I to type my paper, I tried to submit it and it wouldn’t allow me to.. I emailed my teacher and of course no response.  I week later my final grade comes out a 58.. I miss being in class hands on, instead of online class.

This has also been another busy week here at Mission.  This week we had the gathering and we had Knoxville’s Smokey Mountain Winterfest.  With both of the things that we had throughout the week it was kind of difficult to come up with 3 hours of body shop.  Luckily we had kind of a free day Friday at the hotel, after I knocked out an hour Thursday afternoon swimming in the hotel with a couple of the other mission students.  So Friday I decided to exercise in the gym with Josh (current student) and we ran the treadmills and the alternated between that and the bike, stair steps for an hour.  That exercise worked out our lower body and our legs.  While working out we have to balance the work between our upper body and our lower body.  So Saturday between our outreach project and our Night service we decided to do just that and work our upper bodies.  Alternating between pushups, curls, sit up, and dippers; then after the normal version we did this work-out weighted. 

Knoxville learning and gathering

Hey guys this is me again, this week I learned that beginning in Mission Baltimore is more than just a program.  It’s not just about yourself but it’s about representing God and the people around you.  This week we had the opportunity to meet with the rest of the Mission’s around America (Mission Florida, Texas, and Georgia. Seeing different programs based on the same system it gives you a view that others see you daily.  It gives you a chance to see how the programs in different locations help develop young followers of Christ just like us.  But the thing that I would have to say that I learned about this week is eagerness.  Being able and being willing to set your pride and your ego for YOUR personal mission to work together is simply amazing.  At first they had all the missions working at one both, and honestly I thought that that was crazy and that there was no way that it could work.  But we remembered what “THE GOAL” was not “OUR GOAL” which was to recruit and spread “THE MISSION”.  It relevant that we knew each other’s true hearts and how genuine we are, you really see these guys’ true hearts.  The gatherings was a time where we got to relax from everything and just really get to know each other for who we really are.  Shared life stories, experiences and testimonies was amazing, you never really think about it but there are so many people out there who truly have a heart and desire to follow after Christ. 

Serve to others.

So for this month I did a lot of helping out for this month.  My adopted parents were the first set of people I decided to help this week.  He asked could I help him take a car to the junk yard.  I am so skeptic about driving other people’s cars.  SO when he asked I was very hesitate.  But then I thought to myself he does so much for me, well him and his wife do, so the least I could do was help.  God blesses those who bless others.  I went with him and little did I know that just take a car to the junkyard would end up with a good time with my dad and he ended up taking me out for breakfast.  After breakfast we had a great time together and it led to me telling my testimony and it blessed him.  He said it’s good to see young people out serving and being in the Lord.  So after breakfast he told me that they had a plan to move and they were packing and cleaning to get ready to move in into there new house.  So I volunteered, I helped and it seemed like the day went by faster, helping people is easy and it brings joy to my heart.  I love helping others.  Later that week I also went to Feed My Sheep.  I love helping the homeless and serving them brings joy to my heart and I notice it brings joy to others as well.  God Created us to serve and make despoils of others.  So that what I am here for and that is what I will do. 

Work with What you Got

Body shop, Body shop, got love it man.  It’s just discipline for the body and it pays off in the long run.  This week I had the chance to play basketball with a guy named Josh who was part of the Mission Swap.  With new competition here I had to be on my A game.  Haha I couldn’t let him show me up and we played that Thursday for about an hour.  Playing Basketball works your leg muscles and your endurance.  So Friday, on our Sabbath I had the opportunity to have a body shop with the other person we received in the Mission Swap, me 3 others from our mission and Melanie also played basketball for about an hour.  Once again it works our endurance and our leg muscles.  Monday morning I had to find a way to accomplish another hour of Body Shop to complete our time for the week.  SO I had to wake up earlier, and went in the weight room.  TO my surprise there was nothing there, all things were gone, so  I had to work on push-ups sit-ups, and curls for an hour.  It was painful but had to get it done.  SO I worked for an hour and had to do each workout in sets of 15.  Sometimes we have to work with what we have and make the best of it.

Impacting without Knowing

Ok so this week was a very interesting and quite busy for me.  For the earlier part of the week I went with my mentor and we went to a minister’s conference in Cambridge.  Honestly my first thought was that I wasn’t ready to do anything of that sort and that I was way to afraid to be in that position.  It was pretty cool though, after I got past the first set of butterflies and I did away with the negativity the week went a lot smoother.  I tend to get ruffled and torn out of shape when I have a lot of things on my plate, but in the back of my mind I know I can overcome things, I just have to keep that mind state at all times.  Then later on this week, we went on an outreach in the underprivileged neighborhoods.  They really look up to people who are genuine and they can really see the hearts in people.  I met this little three year old boy and he called himself “Fatman”, I was helping him go up and down the hills on his little tricycle and he asked could I be his big brother and that when I smile he likes it.  Deep down I wanted to just pick him up and keep him forever, but in reality all I could do was jus love on him.  He asked could I come back tomorrow because he wanted to see me again, he said he liked my necklace, so I gave it to him and he smiled and said thank you “Big Brother”.  Who would have known just being real and showing someone a smile would have made there day and encouraged them to smile