Colossians 3:1-2 Time (February 18-April 4)

OLSO Readers,
      First off, thanks for your prayers for One Love Skate Outreach. God is incredible. Loving Him more and lovingly introducing others to Him is of the utmost importance (Matt 22:36-39).

OneLoveSkateOutreach.com, and all of OLSO's ministry seeks to point people to the fact that the One Love is Jesus Christ. Please keep praying that God will shift everyone's focus to realize that the one true love is knowing and being known by God. Keep praying for revival on Maui!


     Lately, I've had too much noise in my life. Too much worldly media-tv, music, and movies, and even too many people's input to the point that I'm frustrated and confused and struggling to hear God's guidance.  


     - Last night I had an interesting dream that I was leading a Bible study on Judges... (Which we're starting up this Saturday with the Young Adults): 
     
     As I started reading the Bible and speaking to the group, for some random reason a radio was playing in the corner of the room, and it was distracting. 
          - Someone shut the radio off, but when I started speaking God's Word again the cd player kicked on, and again we were all distracted. Finally, we unplugged it. But everyone was less focused. 
          - Then, as I started to get back into God's Word again with the group, in the front of the room another radio came on and started playing. Again, it was very distracting. Then I woke up.

My first thought when I woke up was: 

How can I hear God's voice with all of this extra noise in my life?

Jesus said that in order to follow Him, we need to deny ourselves (Luke 9:23). Especially after being in the PI, I realize that lately, I've been a little too comfortable.  I want to follow Jesus, so He's revealed to me that for a season, I need to deny myself of media for a while.

Lately, especially with the stress of grad school and Nicole teaching school, I've really enjoyed watching movies and even tv with my wife. It's not that we've been watching or listening to things that are "notoriously dirty," but the world's influence is so heavy and the mindsets are unavoidable as we unwind with this media. 1 John 2:15-17 is a strong reminder not to love the things of this world, and I've been seeing some red flags in my life that I don't want to let influence my family!

Furthermore, even though it's an important part of my ministry at Pukalani Baptist and with OLSO, I've been spending a little too much time on facebook. I want to hear God, but lately I've been putting too many earthly voices into my mind, and it's confusing!


So, for the next 40+ days, I 'm going to fast from media and feast on God's Word. 
- I'll be "pulling the plug" on all music, tv, movies, youtube videos, and social networking sites.
- I'll still use my cell phone and still use e-mail, but I'll be off of Facebook and Twitter until April 4.

I'll be meditating on Colossians 3:1-2 as these other influences are unplugged from my life:

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."

- Colossians 3:1-2

From February 18-April 4 I'll be taking a break from music, tv, youtube videos, and social networking sites in an effort to set my heart and mind on God and His Word.

Please keep praying for One Love Skate Outreach. I believe God's got incredible plans for this ministry here on Maui. Even though it seems like not that much is going on with the skate ministry, I'm stoked about this summer, and today I even had the opportunity to go down to Keopuolani Park and help put new skatelite on the vert ramp. Plus, the tracts are still floating around, and people are still watching the videos on the website. So as you guys pray, please pray for God to work through all those mediums.

Thanks for your prayers, and may God give all of us the strength to disconnect from the world and "tap into Jesus." =)

May God teach all of us more about Him as we disconnect from the world and plug into Him, the True Vine (John 15:5-6).

Grace and Peace,

Josh

Naomi PI Missionary - Guest Blog

     Hello, my name is Naomi, and I'm serving as a Journeyman in the Philippines for two years.  Josh asked me to do a guest blog for OneLoveSkateOutreach.Com and to share a little bit about what God's been teaching me since I first came to the field in October 2009.  I'm going to share with you a bit of my story, so please be open to hearing from my heart what God's been doing.

     I came here to the field bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, willing to do anything, go anywhere, and stay for however long God wanted.  And it was a good place to be.

     Growing up, I've always strived for independence, thinking that adventure and transient living was the life for me: just the open road, God, and me.  I thought it was "cool," and I lived a good part of my college life following that dream.  And at the time, it was a good place to be.

     But shortly after coming to the field, I was sent to a sort of spiritual wilderness.  I spent three months alone in a foreign city, learning language and culture.  It tore me down emotionally and left me starving for fellowship.  Then, after three months, I was sent even further into the literal wilderness to live in a small town four hours away from any outside connection.  In this small town I was the only foreigner, and I lived there for one year.  If being on my own for language study had broken me down, moving to such an isolated area in a foreign land with foreign dangers and foreign gods demolished any hint of self-sufficiency left in my heart.

     I had asked and sought and chased independence, and God gave me exactly what I wanted without saying a word.  I struggled deeply with loneliness and isolation, but at the same time, I was able to "wrestle with God" and grapple with doubts about His message and His plan both for the world and in my life.  I ended many nights on my knees beside my bed, sobbing and asking my loving Father difficult questions.  Then I would wake up the next morning with the same weight on my chest and travel to a remote area to tell people that Christ offers hope.

     It was a dark time in my life, and although the silence of God burned deeply, the Word of God stood more firmly and more closely than I had ever experienced before.  Simple biblical concepts like faithfulness, grace, and rescue brought me to tears.  I was finally beginning to comprehend the character of God.  Ministry and spiritual growth went hand in hand while God began to change my goals in life.  It was no longer independence that I loved; I no longer chased adventure and the open road.  Instead, I have learned to allow God to chase after me.  And this will forever be a good place to be.

     There is so much more to this story, but given this opportunity to share, I wanted to say this… people have asked me how my Journeyman experience has been so far, and my response is this: It's been so much harder than I thought it would be, but God is so much better than I ever could've ever dreamed.

To read more of Naomi's journeys in the Philippine's, check out her blog: http://naomikk.wordpress.com/

Video of Surf Trip to Eastern Samar

One Love Skate Outreach presents the video from our trip last Wednesday and Thursday (12/22-12/23) to Eastern Samar while we were in the Philippine's. Video includes some surfing, "big jumps," gainers, a cave, and chillage in Eastern Samar. Enjoy.

Words from Josh, Nic, and Ross

Here are updates from Josh, Nic, and Ross:

From Josh 

      Being here in the Philippine’s has been mind-blowing to me. I realize more and more that I have been very sheltered growing up in America. I have never been in need for food, and I have never lacked a roof over my head. Here in the PI, nobody takes daily provisions for granted. Yet, worshiping yesterday at a church in the barangay where we are staying, I got to know people who understand 2 Corinthians 8:2 much better than I ever have—because they live it.

2 Corinthians 8:2 - Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

     I've never seen poverty like this before... The worship leader/youth minister has a degenerative eye condition that runs in his family and is causing him to go blind. My eyes welled up with tears as the church sang in Tagalog with great joy, and I almost lost it when they sang a final verse in English so we could all understand: “Now let the blind say I can see, and let the poor say I am rich because of what the LORD has done for us.”

WOW!

So challenged to find joy in Jesus alone as I've seen the believers here do. 

From Nic    

 It’s the day after Christmas here in the PI, and the group just got back from Church in the barangay.  

     I’m thankful to be here in the Philippines, many miles removed from the so-called “rat race” of my American life.  In preparing to come here, I had been looking forward to a perspective change, but in actuality, my worldview has experienced some major jarring.  On the heart-warming side, I’ve been able to spend many hours in sweet fellowship with like-minded friends, old and new.  On the heart breaking side, I’ve seen extreme poverty and bondage.  The physical poverty and bondage I see around me reminds me of the spiritual poverty and bondage that is so present in this world.  God has been teaching me to have childlike faith and to avoid leaning on my own understanding.  He has also been exposing the sin of my judgmental spirit that is closely connected to my bent toward efficiency.  As an American perfectionist in a third world country, my perspective on what is truly important is drastically shifting.  I’m extremely thankful to God for this shift.  My prayer is to know and to be known by God.  He alone saves.  He is, always has been, and ever will be in total control.  He is the Ancient of Days.  He remembers and knows all.  His will will be done.  Praise Him. 

    

From Ross

     It’s been a little over a week here in the Philippines. I’ve been marinating my soul with the TRUTH, and I’ve been around people who display the TRUTH. So far the most memorable moment for me was during street ministry to the homeless up in Manila. I really got to see the Holy Spirit speak through me and share that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father (John 4:16) and that he is the bread of Life (John 6:35).  It’s a good feeling knowing that the TRUE Gospel is getting shared here in the Philippines.

Grace and Peace to the 1-1 Six from Josh, Nic, and Ross. 

p.s. I've tried to upload a video that I edited from a surf trip Ross and me took with some guys from here, but after 12+ tries and failures on Youtube and Vimeo with the internet here, I'm done trying to upload it. It is uploaded to facebook if you guys want to check it out, but it probably won't be up on the OLSO blog until we get back to the states.