Minnesota and Iowa Trip (August 6th – 13th)
Well for a guy that lives in the middle of the city, my week long trip to Iowa was quite an experience! During my stay, I had the opportunity to do some amazing things like: visiting Pipers church, going to the Iowa State Fair, attending an amazing Switchfoot concert (one of my favorite bands), riding the exhilarating roller coasters at Adventureland, and gazing my eyes upon fields and fields of corn and beans . . . Yeah! Though these activities were super awesome, I had the most amount of fun just spending time with my EVBC family the Paaschs. Since we are such great friends, we like Piper, Switchfoot, and roller coasters, and since Mike and Lynne have family in Polk City, I was blessed to be invited to go and enjoy some vacation with them before my leave of absence expired at the good ol’ BofA. Though some might have thought that I would have been tired of these guys, after having spent a whole week with these guys, I got home and about an hour later, I started to miss them. Wow, how blessed I am to have not only the greatest Christian family of my own, but to also have another family that spurs me on toward love and good deeds as well. I can not even express how grateful I am for the body of Christ. For me, one of the coolest things in the world is seeing the connection that believers instantly have when they are in love with Jesus Christ.
The trip started out with Lynne sharing the gospel to someone that she was sitting next to on the plane. Then when we landed, we said that we wanted to make this a week of encouraging and loving of other people.
Though we had some awesome days, one of the coolest moments we had was when Mike, Lynne, Hannah, Amy, and I all went out one late evening to the lake and we just sat with our feet in the water singing songs of worship to our King. As a result, we ended up attracting a few Polk City fishermen that asked us to sing for them. We chose a few gospel centered songs and then we had a chance to talk with them about a church in their area.
Another awesome moment was when Hannah and I had a chance to share the gospel before the Switchfoot concert. God had ordained that a certain senior in highschool named Marcus would be sitting right next to us. The ticket that he owned had previously been our ticket that we ended up scalping for $5.00. This guy Marcus was all alone and ended up buying the ticket that we had scalped from a guy that we had sold it to. He sat down and very soon after talking with him, we discovered that he was definitely not a follower of Christ. What a cool opportunity! This guy was at this concert because he had heard Switchfoot on a non-Christian radio station and wanted to check out the concert. He was definitely lost, but by God’s providence he allowed us to be tools for His glory to share the gospel. I was so excited about the chance to share the gospel to a guy that so desperately needs salvation! I gave him my email and have been praying that he will contact me.
Anyhow, with keeping with my title, “The Sanctifying Pursuit of God,” I feel like I need to also tell how this trip really showed me some of my own frailties and weaknesses and how God has been sanctifying me. There was one moment when I lost in a certain board game, and in order to redeem myself I ended up playing a game of fooseball with the Hannah and Amy. Before that game, I never had thought that a guy could win a game and actually lose the game! I ended up winning at the expense of just making the girls feel terrible. This experience was so awesome as it gave Mike and Lynne and opportunity to confront me in love on how I had been too competitive in my effort to help my own pride! How cool is it to have believing friends that love you enough to call you to the carpet when you have sinned. For me, my pride and selfishness caused me to play a game for the glory of myself and not for the glory of God. I am so thankful for forgiveness, restoration, and friends that love enough to confront. Thank the Lord, because of forgiveness, the girls even played fooseball again with me since that dreadful game.
This week was such an awesome time in my life and I am so thankful for my 2nd family and for our God who unites our hearts with Christ.
The trip started out with Lynne sharing the gospel to someone that she was sitting next to on the plane. Then when we landed, we said that we wanted to make this a week of encouraging and loving of other people.
Though we had some awesome days, one of the coolest moments we had was when Mike, Lynne, Hannah, Amy, and I all went out one late evening to the lake and we just sat with our feet in the water singing songs of worship to our King. As a result, we ended up attracting a few Polk City fishermen that asked us to sing for them. We chose a few gospel centered songs and then we had a chance to talk with them about a church in their area.
Another awesome moment was when Hannah and I had a chance to share the gospel before the Switchfoot concert. God had ordained that a certain senior in highschool named Marcus would be sitting right next to us. The ticket that he owned had previously been our ticket that we ended up scalping for $5.00. This guy Marcus was all alone and ended up buying the ticket that we had scalped from a guy that we had sold it to. He sat down and very soon after talking with him, we discovered that he was definitely not a follower of Christ. What a cool opportunity! This guy was at this concert because he had heard Switchfoot on a non-Christian radio station and wanted to check out the concert. He was definitely lost, but by God’s providence he allowed us to be tools for His glory to share the gospel. I was so excited about the chance to share the gospel to a guy that so desperately needs salvation! I gave him my email and have been praying that he will contact me.
Anyhow, with keeping with my title, “The Sanctifying Pursuit of God,” I feel like I need to also tell how this trip really showed me some of my own frailties and weaknesses and how God has been sanctifying me. There was one moment when I lost in a certain board game, and in order to redeem myself I ended up playing a game of fooseball with the Hannah and Amy. Before that game, I never had thought that a guy could win a game and actually lose the game! I ended up winning at the expense of just making the girls feel terrible. This experience was so awesome as it gave Mike and Lynne and opportunity to confront me in love on how I had been too competitive in my effort to help my own pride! How cool is it to have believing friends that love you enough to call you to the carpet when you have sinned. For me, my pride and selfishness caused me to play a game for the glory of myself and not for the glory of God. I am so thankful for forgiveness, restoration, and friends that love enough to confront. Thank the Lord, because of forgiveness, the girls even played fooseball again with me since that dreadful game.
This week was such an awesome time in my life and I am so thankful for my 2nd family and for our God who unites our hearts with Christ.
Brent out!
P.S. Iowa Corn is delicious!!!
P.S. Iowa Corn is delicious!!!
posted by Brent Klontz at 10:19 PM
1 Comments:
more witnessing opportunities - I love it =). Praise God!
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