How He Loves

“He is jealous for me/ Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree/ Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy/ When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory/ And I realize just how beautiful You are An how great Your affections are for me.”

                                                                -Jesus Culture “How He Loves”

           

The day before we left for our first visit to Limon, a school located in the ghetto of Guatemala (known as La Limonada), I woke up early to do a devotional. In the devotional I found Jesus telling those gathered around Him that anyone who does work in His Father’s name would be in His family. It hit me that the people I was on this mission trip with would become part of my family from here on out; but what really struck me that morning were the lyrics from Jesus Culture’s version of “How He Loves.” That morning I felt the impact of the love that our God gives us even when we don’t feel like we deserve it. All I had heard prior to the trip were the horror stories of the children who lived in the ghetto that lived unimaginable live to us here in America. So I prayed that morning that God would allow us 12 gringos to go into this school and just show the kids the love that He gives us, since they don’t always get to experience that love.

La Limonada aka the ghetto

            Arriving at Limon was a culture shock. You drive down a hill into the ghetto, where houses are built so close together that they typically share two of their walls with neighbors and where the roofs are, in some cases, sheets of tin that look like they were just thrown on top of the concrete structures. Inside the school everything was hard, the only carpets were in the 3-5 year old classroom and Sofi, the psychologists, room upstairs; the children shared tables whereas here in America, we usually have desk all to ourselves.

     But the kids know no difference; they like what they have at the school and were enthusiastic to share their tables with the 12 of us. They were eager for us to share their space and wanted us to see everything they were doing. After hearing stories of fathers abandoning the family, mothers being gone at work all day, and brothers & sisters who are abusive to their younger siblings, I thought that the children wouldn’t want strangers to be getting so close to them due to the fact that they'd be unsure of how we’d treat them. I couldn’t have been more wrong, these children were starving for the attention that they received from us. They hugged us, clung to us, and even arm wrestled with us because they yearned for the personal touch that wasn’t harmful. The kids of Limon had a hunger to experience the love that God shows us.

My question is how could we deny them the love that the Father shows us daily? Often times it doesn’t take much to make someone’s day. It could be a smile, a nice comment, or even just a hello. For these kids down in La Limonada, they just wanted us to show them attention that they don’t receive at home usually.

Jacquelin with Travis

“There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning/ An when the oceans rage, I don’t have to be afraid, because I know that You love me/ Your love never fails.”                                        -Jesus Culture 

“Your Love Never Fails”

I heard the story of one of the kids at Limon recently and it completely broke my heart. Her name is Jacquelin she recently turned 10 years old on June 28^th.  Jacquelin hangs around Limon a lot because she doesn’t want to go home. Her mother is gone for 12 hours a day and if she is at home, her brothers and sisters abuse her. They hit her simply for the sport of it. She has nowhere else to go, except one of the few safe places that she knows: school.

While I was in Guatemala I remember seeing her each day we were there. She was hanging on a different person every day and looking for affection from anyone in our group. I recall selfishly thinking that it was annoying the way she clung to me and how she wanted more attention then the little kids. There is nothing I regret more right now than that train of thought! I told God that I wanted to show these kids love and the one that was seeking it the most received little from me. When we went to el campo, a gray rocky playground, I spun a lot of the kids around and they had the time of their lives. I remember Jacquelin being to big for me to spin her around by her arms, like the younger children, so she hopped onto my hip and I spun her for a minute or so. Dizzy is an understatement for what my head felt like, but each kid loved it.

How often do we neglect to show the love of God to those around us? I know that one thing I learned down in Guatemala is that I need to be friendlier with those in my life. I need to show His love through my actions and my words. There are people around us that need to receive the compassion that God shows us, and some of those people have no idea who God even is. But it is our job to show the world the love that our Lord shows us.

You can check out Lemonade International here or check out their blog!

Blast from the Past

Guessssss whooo'ssss bacckkkk??? Yeah I've finally returned, hopefully for good. I have a lot on my mind recently, mostly just trying to get all my work done for RC3 Student Ministries. Here is my lastest project, most of you have probably already seen it, but I feel like I need to put it anywhere & everywhere I can.



I'll explain more in the next post when I have more time.... Sorry for the absence.

Rivers Crossing Photo Story (2.22.2009)

This is a slide show that was made for my photojournalism final. I tested a few different styles and decided upon this one. They pictures were taken during the first week of the Reset journey on Feb. 22. I tried to capture all of the aspects of what we go through each Sunday morning when it comes to setting things up and getting ready for the actual service. The song during the slide show is by our worship leader, Brandon Gilliam. He has been a big help with all of this, and I'd like to give him a "Thank You," for all of that.

Let me know what you think! Since no one ever leaves comments!

PS: On a side note, I've been fighting with the video ALL night long. I've tried 3 or 4 different internet video sites to try and get this to work. So if i can find another one besides Facebook I will change it right away, but for now you'll have to bare with the awful "FACEBOOK" up in the top left corner, sorry! Oh and just click on the video an it should start right up.

PSS: Gilliam, here are a few of the photo shoot pictures I took the week I did the photo story.

America, the Land of the Free...

Raja Warren is a native of India, but just this past year, in 2008, she got her U.S. citizenship after being here for six years. Here are some pictures I've taken of her for a class, later on, I'm going to do an actual story on her, because I think her story is just amazing.

Oh Flash

Oh the difference in what flash on a camera can do. The one on top was taken with flash, while the photo on the bottom was taken from the natural lighting in the room. You be the judge on which one turned out better. But my vote is going with the right. I've started to notice that flash just drowns the background out and you never get the details you are really wanting in the picture. And I feel like without the flash you get a much more real shot.

RC3

So for the past year and a half I've been at River's Crossing Community Church, which is located in Mason, Ohio. These are a couple of the people that I now consider to be pretty close to family. Some of the guys i can basically tell anything, while others I can simply hang out with and just have a good time. Now this isn't everyone and that's for sure, there are still a bunch of other people that I really enjoy talking to, I just don't have a picture of them! But I'm going to discuss RC3 more in depth within the next few weeks because I feel like God is really wanting me to tell people about my experience there and how much it has impacted my life over the past year or so.

(Top row: Will Basil, Ginger Hall, Jos Hall, Narnia Soles, Megan Gilliam, Brandon Gilliam, myself.
Bottom row: Tyler Trampler, Travis Soles)

Nothing But Worship

Matt McCoy, 23, is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati. Over the past four years McCoy has been the lead worship pastor at the Tri-County Vineyard Community Church in Springdale.

A San Diego, California native, he moved here right after high school because of the job opening at the Vineyard. “When I first came to Vineyard I was 18,” he said. “I graduated [from high school] on June 1st, I had no idea where I was going. I moved to Cincinnati within 15 days of graduating because I had a full time job at the Vineyard.”

McCoy says he has grown by leaps and bounds while working at Vineyard.

“Looking back… they’ve taught me how to work as a team,” he said. “Work with an organization, manage a team, and my song writing craft has grown, its been stretched a lot.”

With the growth of his song writing skills has came the opportunity to have his music out to the entire world. Vineyard’s record label, Vineyard Music, included a few songs of his on numerous releases.

“In one situation, a song I wrote was recorded by someone,” he said. “They had a girl sing my part, [which] I thought was really cool. Having someone else do my stuff and seeing how other people interpret my music.”

“For my music it’s been awesome having it crafted and recorded. I’ll be tweaking music up to the last minute while recording. I just want my music to come off polished and the way I wanted.”

McCoy’s song, “It’s Your Kindness,” was released on Vineyard Music’s compilation CD, Fascinated. But this isn’t the latest release from Matt because in March he released, Raise the Flag Again, with his band, currently going by his name. This is the first studio-recorded release for the band as it was recorded in Nashville, TN in 2007. He is proud of the CD because it is all his original music and it’s also outside of the box. “There are a few songs that aren’t what’s really in the trend right now,” he said.

Currently McCoy and his band are still unsigned. The release of Raise the Flag Again was done independently.

“No record deals, we’re still independent. I’m open to whatever God has for me and the band,” he said. “Whatever happens I want it to be a God inspired thing. I don’t want to force any doors open or anything. If God told me to quit music next week and do something else I would totally do it. I just want to be able to do whatever God wants me to.

“What’s cool is we can do it without a record deal. It would be nice but we don’t need it. [It] would help us get our music out to more people. Because that’s more and more lives that can be touched through my music.”

Yet even with the release of the CD, McCoy knows it’s not for him but for others, and most of all, God.

“The thing is with the nature of the music [we’re] playing, it’s not really about people knowing our music or becoming famous,” he said. “I feel like God has given me these songs that he wants us to use. We’re going out there to praise God and glorify Him.”

With his recent graduation from UC, McCoy hopes that he can now finally start to travel like he has always dreamed of.

“I’m hoping to travel a lot more and lead worship with people all over the world. My dream is to be able to lead worship with all kinds of people… All different church backgrounds, religions, and languages and just sing these songs for God.”

He hopes he won’t be classified with the rest of the Christian music out there right now.

“I don’t want to be another Chris Tomlin or David Crowder,” he proclaimed. “I’m at that stage in my life where I just want to be my own person.

For more information on Matt McCoy and where you can see him next, check out www.mattmccoymusic.com.

(Photo Courtesy of Matt McCoy)