"You talk to God like he's your friend."

News is starting to pile up and I have a few spare minutes which means it’s blogging time!

I had a wonderful time at home. I felt so loved and encouraged by my family, friends and church family. Long Beach Alliance Church is amazing. I got to share with Kairos (thank you, Kerry) about what God has been teaching me. I am realizing how much I have put knowledge ahead of unity. God never told us to know everything. He did tell us to love one another, put each other’s interests above ourselves, and be of one mind. Putting pride in knowledge above that is not love of God or others. That’s self-love. I was wrong and I apologize to all of you for that. If you don’t know me that well, I probably would have done the same to you. Please forgive me for caring more about myself than you.

So, since I have been back: There aren’t night classes for ADI starting up until maybe fall, so I’m not teaching. Instead God is giving me lots of other things to do.

My biggest project right now is starting a community garden. I am doing a lot of organizing and indoor gardening for now. It’s been really crazy busy, but I’m super excited. The goal is to feed people and bring the community together to work on a project. We have about 1500 square feet of land to till. Please be praying for things to come together with that and that it will be a blessing for Ogden. We’re planting May 21 and a lot of things have to come together before then.

I was able to meet with my LDS friend last week before she left to work on a Mercy Ship for the summer. It was really great and before we left, I asked to pray for her. She is very friendly and is definitely one of my favorite people I’ve met in this state. After I prayed she had tears in her eyes and was completely silent for a long while. Finally she laughed and said “you talk to God like he’s your friend.” She was mesmerized. It was so cool. I made her a care package that included a worship CD and a Promises of God book. I am so excited for what God has to offer her in the next couple months. Please be praying for her. I’ll never forget that moment.

I made cupcakes and took them to the apartment next to me last week. That was cool to meet a lot of the people that live there. Most of them are in my ward so it was cool to see them on Sunday. I’m going to try to start chaplaining there, so pray for opportunities there.

This Sunday I gave my testimony at my ward for Fast and Testimony Sunday. The information I shared was good but my own personal presentation of it was not. I got really nervous and felt bad about taking too much time, but I got to share with a hundred lost people that Christ died to set us free and how dare we submit to less when that freedom cost so much. I also talked a lot about loving and being loved by God when we have nothing to offer. Ironically, relief society was about “increasing my righteousness.” It was really ridiculous. I had nothing at all to add to that conversation.

Monday night I went to Family Home Evening. I accidentally sat down next to the bishop’s wife and then ended up being across from the other guy in the bishopric and his wife and the bishop sat on the other side of me. Long story short, it came out that I am not a member and that I am a non-denominational Christian who is interning for a church-planter. I had to explain what I actually do over and over again. It was awkward but I played dumb and kept the conversation light and they were nice about it. We’ll see how that goes.

Tuesday a few friends from Intervarsity and I went down to Temple Square. We made lunches for homeless people so we got to have a few good conversations with them. We talked to a Satanist, a believer and everything in between. We had a lot of conversations with sister missionaries and got to pray with them and share the gospel with them. It was a tiring but super cool day. That day I also spoke with the bakery manager of a grocery store and she’s going to be calling me a few times a week to pick up bread and bring it to lower income apartments in Ogden. I am really excited to start that ministry as well!

Tomorrow is a prayer event at the Blue House and I’m meeting with missionaries. Be praying for good opportunities with them. We’re working on making the Blue House nicer and making a game room for the basement. We have tons of teams coming this summer and will have six interns so it’ll be really busy. I am in charge of training the interns for the summer and of most of the teams that are coming. It will be cool to mix the ministries that I am doing and have the resources and man-power to get some cool things done. Pray for God to do awesome things. Joe, Jennifer and the kids are going back to New Jersey this weekend because Jennifer’s grandfather passed away tonight. Please pray for them.

That’s all I can think is going on for now. There has been an ton going on this week but that’s a little of it to share with you. This morning I shared this on the radio and I think I’ll close with it. During the relief society thing I was reading my Bible and landed in Isaiah 58. It was perfect for Fast and Testimony Sunday. They believe they are satisfying God with their humility and righteousness but they are not doing his will. This is what God’s will is and this is what I am excited to be doing!

True and False Fasting

58:1 “Cry aloud; do not hold back;
lift up your voice like a trumpet;
declare to my people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
3 ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
and oppress all your workers.
4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the Lord?

6 “Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
11 And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.

13 “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; 
14 then you shall take delight in the Lord,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”