Holy Apostles Trip Blog

What an amazing gift of a day. Although we spent our afternoon picking up trash under the hot sun, joy and songs filled our hearts. We continued to pray and ask God those hard questions about the neighborhood. "Do you have compassion on this city? When and how will you intervene? How does it make you feel to have your children turn their backs on you?" Then, we realized that as we stared at the community, we stared in the mirror. This community is a reflection of our own hearts. How often do we turn our backs on God? How often do we litter our sin? How many times do we treasure our own sin and through away the grace of God? It's amazing how picking up garbage can lead us to take a deep look into our relationship with our Savior.
This evening was quite special. Tyler, a follower of Jesus who struggles with homosexuality, came to share his story with us. He shared how his struggle began, where his sin took Him, and how God remained during the hopeful but also the very dark times in his life. He was able to show us just how committed and true our God is in the midst of the sin. He taught us that homosexuals aren't going to hell because they are gay but because they are sinners...We are to go to hell because we are sinners too. All of our sin is like filthy rags to God, whether it is pride as we look at our report card, the buzz after a drink of alcohol, or homosexuality. Tyler challened us to struggle well, deal with our sin, and not deal with our sin by ourselves. We thank God for his visit and are greatly encouraged by the work that God is doing in his life.

Please pray for us:
*Protect from sickness
*Good solid rest
*Our hearts will open to God's work in our lives
*Our hearts would change to love people involved in sin