All the way from

NEW YORK to OREGON Read about an impacting time that Bethany had from national outreach

Our school went to Portland, Oregon a couple weeks ago for National Outreach.  We worked with an organization called Bridgetown Ministries.  

Among many things I learned, one of the biggest is this…

I am realizing that I lived life so consumed by my schedule; and I have missed a lot of opportunities to share the love of Jesus with people who are screaming out for someone to confirm that there is hope in Him.

Bridgetown’s vision for their ministries is simply “to love people, because people matter.” I heard this many times while working with them and it grew on me more and more. This doesn’t always take the face of a homeless man or woman, though they do need a lot of love poured into them! This takes the face of tons of different kinds of people. There’s no specific age, race, gender, or type of people who need me to show them love every day. People are everywhere, just start doing it!

It probably won’t happen by me preaching to them all the time. Conversations can lead there, which is great and can result in powerful things. BUT there needs to be conversation before that can even come up.

What bad can come from showing someone God’s love by simple things?

Am I scared because I might get a bad reaction or make a fool of myself? So what? My reaching out to someone, introducing myself, and just showing that I want to listen… it might make someone’s day, or even change their entire outlook for that week… or it might have even bigger impact than that. I’ll never know until I talk to them.  So among lots of things, this has had the biggest impact on me recently :)  Even in the midst of a busy schedule, I am taking the time to be purposeful with starting these conversations.

Haley brings the California Sun through a big SMILE

Here how God has been transforming her from the inside-out

           

Blog Entry for 3/ 6/11

My name is Haley and I’m from Lancaster, CA.  I am very glad to be here!  It has been a challenge being here, but it's a good challenge.  As challenging as it is, it's been a very wonderful time.  Being here has brought me so much closer to God; and I have been learning something new about myself every day.  It is amazing to have the opportunity to get into the New Testament, to actually soak in it and to see how the original church lived.  At times it’s like I am here. 

Since I have been here, the book that has impacted me the most was James.  It really showed me not to take things for granted and to trust the Lord, because he will always be there.  I’ve also learned that sometimes I have to take time for myself, to drop everything and breathe, and to learn to take the baggage I carry and let Jesus take it. 

While reading Mark’s Gospel, he has made me very fond of John the Baptist, because he is awesome.  It would be so great to be so zealous for the Lord, oh how I wish I could be like him.  One of the best things that has happened since I have been here is developing friendships.  Everyone is like one big family; it’s so nice and loving.  They make it feel just like home. 

MOSCOW native, Zach Hacker, shares from his SOBA story

Photo from Outreach to Portland, Oregon

BLOG entry from 2/20/11

It is now the beginning of our ninth week and school has gotten into a bit of a rhythm, if such a thing can be here at SOBA.  We just finished the gospel of Luke, being the eighth book we’ve covered.  There are many things that I’ve learned in this time; and one that sticks out to me is just how engaging the bible can be to read that the word truly is alive.  I knew this before, but it was to a smaller extent, nothing like now. 

 I’ve also learned how far knowing a little background can help with understanding a book.  Knowing the historical background has helped me get a better understanding of just how culturally Jesus was out of place.  For him to say in Luke 18:16 “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them” was a big deal because that wasn’t something that was culturally proper in first century.  As well as how Jesus interacted with the women of the time, because women and children were considered second class citizens.

 Jesus was counter to the culture, he viewed everyone as equal.  Jesus taught his followers to view everyone else as equal, too. 

For me this relates to a little experience that we had a few weeks ago.  It was about 1:00p.m. on a Tuesday when we (the students) were all informed that from 3:30 p.m. that day until 12pm on Thursday of that same week we were going to homeless.  This was a bit of a surprise to say the least.  I know for me my initial reaction when I saw a homeless person was to judge them as somehow less than the rest of society.  But after two nights and a few days of being homeless myself, I saw firsthand that most of the people that were there had just been knocked down by life and trying to get back on their feet.  My stereotypical judgments didn’t apply to most of the people at the homeless shelter. 

That’s my SOBA story so far, and though it’s a lot of work, SOBA’s probably the most rewarding thing that I’ve ever done. 

CHECK OUT NEW SOBA GROUP Photos under the Photos TAB!!!

Get it LOCAL: Read about HANNAH FREEMON!!

Read about what's been going

on inHannah's LIFE!!!

There are multiple examples of what I have learned in the last 2 months. Most of those things I’ve been learning about myself. The first week of school I learned there was a thing or two that I thought I dealt with but figured out I didn’t.

I learned mainly about what God thinks about people and how everything they think they know doesn’t matter, which has made my life a lot easier. I have learned a lot about how much God values what I think, and that truth has made my self-confidence a lot higher than it was.

I have always known about all the parables in the bible and I figured I knew all there is to know about them.  Yet we’ve only gone through 2 Gospels (Mark and Luke) and by looking more into the historical background, the original reader, and the authors concern I have learned so much more.   I have learned about what the books were saying and how much of a sense of humor that Jesus had/has.

I’ve learned that people really are super ignorant. Like, the people Jesus talked to totally didn’t get what he was saying after he told the over and over again. I’m happy that God is God and not me because I would not have the patience for all the people that he has dealt with.

I’m excited to see what else God teaches me through this school!