Pray.

Anyone who reads this, please pray.

My friend who was shot had his leg amputated this morning. His family thought he was going to recover. He thought he was going to recover.

All he does in his free time is play sports.

pray.
pray.
pray.

Asking the tough questions.

Today I've been asking God some tough questions. I read a story today about a woman who struggled for four years and was eventually killed by cancer. She and her husband were youth workers, him a minister, and her a teacher and mother.

She battled cancer on and off for 4 years until it eventually became untreatable. This has brought me to ask questions like "why?"

I haven't had anyone close to me die of cancer, in fact I've only known a handful of people personally who have had cancer. But I can't help but wonder why things like this occur. It makes me mad at God that there are people who are in so much pain with so little hope. It upsets me that He would allow cancer (insert your own illness, disease, etc...) to claim the lives of tens of thousands of people per year. Why God? Why?

A need for a Savior.

The startling reality that death occurs reminds of me my NEED for Jesus. To think that He offers us life after death helps some. It helps to know even though there is pain and suffering in the world Jesus still has his hand in it all, somehow, some way.

But nonetheless, bad things happen all the time. And for some people it makes no sense at all. I understand that EVERYONE is sinful and that WE ALL deserve death, but why do some semingly wonderful people have to get cancer, and some seemingly awful people live a fruitful life and die in their sleep at the ripe age of 93?

These are the questions that I can't wait to ask God someday. Actually, I'll more so be looking for an answer. I just don't get it...

Hardest phone calls I've ever made

Today I finalized my plans for my post-college graduation life. As of December 11th, 2006, I have accepted a position with Northwoods Community Church to work with college students, jr high students, and some with high school students. I know that sounds like a lot, but we have a plan in place to make sure that it does not become 70-80 hours a week.

I am incredibly excited about the opportunity to serve at Northwoods full-time and am really thankful that thins have worked out the way they have!

That being said, today I had to make the most difficult phone calls of my life.

I received an offer from Youth For Christ to be the Pekin Campus Director. After much prayer and a lot of question asking, I turned down this offer to be at Northwoods.

But part of the process of saying ''no'' to YFC was telling two people that admire and respect a LOT!

Over the past month I have been blessed incredibly by YFC as I have pursued God's will in my life. Because they are such an amazing organization it was incredibly difficult to tell them of my plans. The world needs to know that Jeff Ringenberg is a man after God's own heart. He is a man of great integrity and heart whom I respect a great deal. And Jake Bland is a close friend of mine who I respect and love like a brother. I had to tell these two guys thanks, but no thanks. That was really hard for me to do.

So I tell you all of this to celebrate what God has been up to me in me, and to plead for you to pray for YFC as they continue to journey to tell students about Jesus. Pray specifically for Pekin and for Jake. Jake is being stretched because there is not a campus director at Pekin. He is doing two jobs.

I want to thank all of those who have been praying for me through this process and to tell you that I appreciate you.

And now that college is done (at least undergrad) I vow to be more active on here than I have in the past two months.