Day 3+4

Hello again,

I'm quite tired, so God willing, I will type a sufficient amount of text to satifsy your reading needs.

The last couple days have included planning some events to try and engage the community. So far this has been a success, and as Josh D. put it (the youth pastor here), a breakthrough. No offense to the people of Gonzales (since I am only stating what I've been told by your own residents), but there isn't much to do here, especially when everyone is out of town for the break. To remedy this boredom, we made a movie night.

Getting the site, the equipment, the manpower, and the exposure we had was nothing short of a blessing, and something of a miracle. In only about 6ish hours, we managed to get an AMAZING place to play the movie, advertise the movie to all the hot spots in town, set up a reputable sound system, and manage about 50+ people during the event--popcorn and drinks included :)

As you can tell, I was pretty pumped after that, as everyone else was. We all set our minds on the here and now that God placed before us, and now we helped out in a way that people seem appreciative of. I don't want to make this about our team getting any sort of glory in this, but dude, this is freakin' sweet. I haven't felt a joy like this in a while.

Also got to connect with people at the event. Since we're some of the few 18-25 year old people who come into town, some of us have been overwhelmed with people who really just want to talk to someone who is older-- and who is not Mom or Dad. I managed to grow up with some pretty good mentors, but for some of these youngin's Josh has been their first mentor. And what they say can break a man's heart--my heart is no exception. I'm not sure what I can do aside from listen, pray and encourage... but after years of worrying and trying to fix other people's problems, I'm learning how to believe that these three things are good enough, with all other actions coming secondarily. I'm not God, so why do I try to solve problems like Him? That's a lovely pride-pill to swallow.

If I don't get to type anything tomorrow, here is the game plan:

dance, dance, DANCE!

Yes, a dance party we will throw is true, yes. Trying to pick out the music that is
1)appropriate,
2)fun to dance to,
3)dominantly country.


I don't know a lick about country music aside from what a few close friends tell me, and I'm not sure if they're the most wholesome songs in the world... then again, I'm not sure if there are too many that abide within the dance genre of music.

Anyways, we have about 1 hr worth of music. 4 more and it will be ready to go. Pray the weather does well (as this event is outside), and pray that we get more opportunities to connect with some of these kids. We want to get to know them. We really do. Not so we can mark them off our "karma list," but because Christ has found it necessary to give us a spirit of love for this town. This was the original capital of Texas. The heart of the Texas Revolution. As corny as this may sound, but another revolution is on the edge of becoming a pandemic. Not of war or violence or independence or whatever ideas the word "revolution" cultivates in your mind. This is a revolution of unity, of growth, of peace and of love. Cuz as Heather says (not sure where she got this quote)--

"If we ever leave a legacy, its that we love eachother well..."

And a chapter in the bible

Hebrews 11

Talks about faith. It hit me real hard this morning. Go ahead. Read it. Read how the author summarizes in succesesion people of faith throughout history. How, because of this faith, they received blessings running over the edges of their lifetime. How, through affliction, God always has greater prosperity to follow. How, in the face of absolute hopelessness and aggrevation, God turned their weeping into praise, rewarding them for standing for a cause they themselves could not defend by bodily means.

I don't think its THAT extreme here in Gonzales, but in a small town where things that pretty much always been like this (ALWAYS), people working for change can be seen as people with faith.

In closing, I leave you with Proverbs 3:5-6. Its nothing new, but its the little things :)


5Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding,
6in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your ways straight.




Bedtime,
Dani


P.S. I've become the ninja master.

Day 2

Here I is again.

Continuing what I was saying, these people are very willing and able.

We ate dinner the Meridith's house, and before ate the addictive foods they cook, we prayed. There is nothing more beautiful than people together, joined in hands for a cause. Nothing. And I feel very priveledged to be with these people, both local and from Austin.


We changed our plans a bit to better fit with what God wanted, which we are still trying to listen for. Previously we wanted to create something of a church camp, but since we are only here a week, we took out the "c" in camp--Amp. But since a lot of the youth group is either gone or just not coming, this plan to go with the youth group and reach out while having a fun mini-camp would just be us having a camp on our own. Not exactly "making disciples unto all the nations." So now we are going to try our hand at creating events for those who are outside the church. We're in the dark at the moment, but everything has been going well thus far.

We have therefore created and delegated several groups to make this happen:
Location Group
Advertisement Group
Game/event Group
Tech Team

Trevor S., Thomas C. and I are part of the tech team. Everything is good on our side. Location team found some good venue spots. Event team is coming up with some good ideas. Advertisement is... well, didn't ask anyone yet, but I'm sure God is blessing that action.

We have a lot to do tomorrow, the primary event being the movie night. Since we were unable to be in the Hill area, we decided to try and reach out to the teens in the area. I haven't seen many teens yet. Pray that we get the opportunity to bring some people into these events.

In everything, we will give God the glory.

Day 2--over

Day 1+2

Hello hello,
My name is Dani. I am a male who happens to have a girl name.

I apologize to those of you wondering what the heck is goin' on ova here, but I haven't been able to get on the internet too long.

That said, I will sum up what has been done over the last few days, omitting our drive here, and starting on our first day.


Sunday was Spring Forward, if you haven't already felt the effects of one less hour of sleep. We began with attending a service at the 2 Rivers Bible Church, the place where we are partnering with to get into the community.

This church is remarkably similar to the church I attend in San Antonio, TX; a small/big church with that same style of music with that same feel of a youth room. Not too many kids attended the 9:00 AM morning devo--like I stated before, it was Spring Forward.

After a bit sermon listening and donut eating, we prayer-walked through the town. This is what I learned:

There are a lot of haunted buildings.
People believe the devil has just as much power as God.
Witch craft is heavily practiced.
This is one of the oldest surviving colonies (originally owned by Spain).
There are still old remnants of segregation still around.
FYI I'm part African American. Pray for patience on my part.
The part of town in need is dominantly African American called The Hill.
If it is still standing and if it has a roof, people probably live in it... even if its about to fall.
There are about 25 churches in the entire town.
Not many of these churches seem to do something about the poverty (probably because there is not means at the moment).
There are a LOT of horses. I don't think you understand how many there are.
And chickens...
Lots of chickens.


This is very unique commutity, as you can see. It is extremely small (about twice the size of my old high school population of 3,600), so everyone knows everyone. Because of these circumstances, it is not every realistic for a whole bunch of Austinites to come in and change the place for the better.

MAYBE you will see a change in a month... if you REALLY work hard, 2 weeks. We have one. We aren't able to stay. You know how much that sucks? You want to do something for people all over the place, but you are stuck with the realization that we are not Jesus, and we can't change an entire community in just a week.

But there is light. Because this is just the beginning of many trip. And there are good people here. A lot of them. They want change.

Todaay talking to Andrew R. (one of my leaders) and I know he was just as discourage as I was yesterday. But beyond that. Beyond our broken plans and our swallowing of our problems and these peoples' problems, we are not done.

We are in devos now. finish later