Media!

I want to give you guys a chance to see what this year has been about and know what you have been a part of over here. I can't think of any better way than "showing" you some specific moments!

From His Holy Hill



This first video is of a song I helped one of the guys in my Bible study and guitar group finish writing and add music to. He is the one sitting in the video next to me. He started his relationship with Jesus this summer at our church camp and it has been a joy to be involved in his fresh new life. His friend shot this video on a phone so that they could remember how the song goes and learn it with their new worship band.

First Sermon!

This year has been a year of many firsts for me. I had a chance to give preaching a try. There is lots of room for improvement but I felt that the most important thing was to let God speak through the message He gave me and leave the presentation--with its strengths and weaknesses--to Him!

The sermon is on Ehud as part of a series for our college and young adult ministry: Heroes, or "Герои" in Russian (watch the "trailer" for this series here). I felt very fortunate that the man I was assigned to preach about was one whose story defines the things God had been putting on my heart for the month previous--how it is important to truly be willing to be God's tools, to give Him every situation in our lives 100% rather that to count on our strengths. We often want God to fix just the part we can't seem to get right on our own and leave the rest in our control. But God's plans are unexpected and, if we follow them, much much better!

I wanted to communicate that the first thing we need saving from is ourselves. Once we give God ourselves, we can truly give Him our situations. Our goal must be to have God's goal in mind, to seek it and be ready to follow through on it no matter how different it turns out to be from our own goals. It was interesting how God has been showing me these things in my life and then provided an outlet to share them. I need to continue living by these words daily as I figure out what lies in store for me soon!



The lovely lady teaming up to translate for me is my talented girlfriend Lesya. She has done this translating thing many times before but she couldn't help but get a bit nervous for me. Oh and yes, I think I did make her job a little harder by mixing up my left and my right at some point in the sermon.