Paul, a true bro.

Here’s something that I found not only encouraging but also super sweet amidst my season of support raising.

You know, don’t you, that it’s always been taken for granted that those who work in the Temple live off the proceeds of the Temple, and that those who offer sacrifices at the altar eat their meals from what has been sacrificed? Along the same lines, the Master directed that those who spread the Message be supported by those who believe the Message. Still, I want it to be clear that I’ve never gotten anything out of this for myself, and that I’m not writing now to get something. I’d rather die than give anyone ammunition to discredit me or impugn my motives. If I proclaim the Message it’s not to get something out of it for myself. I’m compelled to do it, and doomed if I don’t! If this was my own idea of just another way to make a living, I’d expect some pay. But since it’s not my idea but something solemnly entrusted to me, why would I expect to get paid? So am I getting anything out of it? Yes, as a matter of fact: the pleasure of proclaiming the Message at no cost to you. You don’t even have to pay my expenses!

Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized- whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ- but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in any attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I want to be in on it!

1 Corinthians 9: 13-23 (The Message)

I’ve been reading out of the NIV for quite awhile and I must say it’s always nice to switch up the translation. I love how this passage is translated here in the Message. I’ve had quite an experience since my homecoming to Parkersburg trying to raise money to share the Gospel in Washington. A lot of people don’t feel like it’s Biblical, so there’s my proof. I wish I had a little bit more background at what Paul was going through during this time when he wrote this because when I read it I get the feeling he’s a bit frustrated with his finances as well. (more feedback and comments here please)

I also love the second part of the text where Paul says he’s entered into the worlds of others trying to see things through their point of view. I mean, to me, that seems to be pretty crucial, and sometimes we miss doing that entirely. Sometimes we just jump right in and say “believe is Jesus, trust Jesus, love Jesus!” instead of meeting people where they’re at, we get so hyped up on them making this huge decision that we’ve completely forgotten how important it is to meet people where they are, and enter their world instead of dragging them into ours.

I don’t know, I’m just rambling here. Regardless, this passage is pretty stellar. So to those out there who are raising support and going into the mission field, be encouraged! You’re probably feeling just like Paul did and he was the greatest missionary ever, so you must be doing something right.

uhh.. Christianese?

So it’s been a while since my last post. Home is good, the big support show turned out really well. I’m at about 16% right now, but regardless I’m going to Washington with or without support, even if it means that I’m destined for homelessness.

This afternoon I went back to read through some of my posts and I’ve come to realize that I do sound quite “churched” which is super unfortunate. Isn’t it all this “Christianese” language what drives people away? What have I been thinking? This is obviously something I need to do some serious work on, especially if I meet some “Greeners” that I invite to follow this journey that I’m about to embark on.

Did you know that the first thing that drove me to want to move to the Northwest wasn’t that it was a highly “un-churched” area, but that we just share a lot of common ground. From what I understand the past five to ten years the music scene has blown up. More recently bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate, Modest Mouse, The Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie, Band of Horse and Fleet Foxes have emerged from Seattle and various Northwest cities.

I think several of you would agree, the Northwest has a pretty good feel to it. It’s a fairly mellow place to be, but it doesn’t have to be. I’m sure there are tons of extreme sportests getting there fare share of the more intense side of the Northwest, but walking around downtown Olympia makes me feel calm, maybe it’s because of the amazing view, or maybe just because the people some ultra laid back, I’m not sure.

These reasons are only part of the big scheme of things. Sure it’s a pretty “un-churched” area and yeah, I want to tell people about my experiences with God and dive into intellectual conversations with them, but more than anything I want to love people. I just want to be an awesome friend and serve in the community wherever I can. I want people to see that they’re not being judged, just because they practice other beliefs or don’t practice any belief at all. Try to make up for all those times so many Christians have bashed people or judged others who believed differently.

The suicide rate in Washington is one of the highest in the country. I think some people there have fallen onto hard times, and I just want hang with them, hike with them and get a beer with them and talk about life.

I think we can all agree that according to the Bible Jesus loved and he loved to love. All I want to do is befriend people, help people and love people. The complete opposite of all that I’ve aimed to do in Washington would be for people to feel as if I think they suck because they aren’t Christians. If people felt this way I know I would have completely missed the mark.

So if any of you aren’t into the idea of Christianity (or Jesus, rather) and you get the feeling that I’m speaking in this “Christianese” language than hook me up with your feedback, it is beyond welcomed.

Fifteen things I want to accomplish my first year in Olympia

1). Make at least five solid friends who are nonbelievers (perhaps some “Greeners”) that I can chill with downtown, hopefully hit up shows with and also hang with at Brotherhood Lounge

2). Get a job downtown and learn more about preparing the perfect Americano

3). Find a roommate and an apartment downtown

4). Play some open mics and find some band mates

5). Go backpacking

6). Take a trip to Portland

7). Meet Mark Driscoll and/or Donald Miller (two bros God has definitely used to change my life)

8). Get plugged in at Reality Church, downtown Olympia, so I can learn more about the scene in Olympia and how I can serve the community.

9). Catch some sweet shows in Seattle

10). Be a regular shopper at the farmers market and whole foods store

11). Drive some awesome scenic routes such as the Lewis and Clark Trail and the Cascade Loop

12). Definitely visit some state parks and enjoy the outdoors

13). Whale Watching!

14). Begin to travel mostly by bike. If I can save enough money I'd like to buy a Velorbis Scrap Deluxe, modified a bit, but similar to this one here.

15). Work on my skiing skills so I might keep up with Kyle Lewallen and Russ Knight next time we hit the slopes

Romans 15:20

It’s been ten days since I’ve moved home to Parkersburg and four of those days I was in North Carolina celebrating a friends’ birthday. Parkersburg has been pretty mediocre outside of landing one of the greatest jobs ever, babysitting my 3-month-old niece, Lyla. She’s precious and watching over her has been such a great experience. It’s been nice being able to grow/practice in the area of motherhood (though I don’t plan on being a mother for quite some time). My time with Lyla is more important to me than I had imagined it would be. I work 8AM to 5PM and around 7PM every night I start missing her, it’s insane. It’s going to be hard for me to leave her come August, but I just know there are people who are deeply hurting and in desperate need of love in Washington as well, and I plan on going so God can provide that through me.

It’s been hard to adopt to a schedule so far this summer. Lyla isn’t quite on a schedule yet, because she’s so little, so it’s been hard for me to have one too. I’ve been working on my support letter (currently on the third revision) and I’ve addressed a few envelopes. Over the weekend I was inspired and really plan on getting a lot of support letters sent out by the end of the week.

There are been three recent, and awesome, developments since I last posted.

1). I found my sending church, Lubeck Community Baptist Church. Being my sending church basically means that they are taking on the responsibility to send me my paycheck each month. I’ll be raising the support this summer and before I leave I’ll give LCBC the money and they’ll write me the checks at the beginning of every month. It works well for potential supports because they can write the money off their taxes and it helps me because then I won’t have all the money in my account (I would for sure feel overwhelmed if I did).

2). The pastor at LCBC, Mark Houser, has planned a support concert for me. He’s giving me a Sunday night (June 13^th , 6pm) to talk about Washington as much as I want and to play some music. I’m pretty excited and I invite you to pray with me as the day approaches. Pray that I can speak with clarity about what next year will look like for me and for the hearts of the listeners. That they will clearly see the picture I’ve painted for Olympia and decide to support me monthly of $50 - $100.

3). One of my best friends from school got a job in Kennewick, Washington! It’s about 4 hours away from Olympia, but it sure beats the heck out of being 33 hours away. This is a huge blessing to me because now I know that when I get homesick (or he gets homesick) we can meet each other half way to chat and to feel like we’re back home again. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am for him and for his job working with senior citizens. He has such a great heart and I know he’s going to do awesome things there.

My four days in North Carolina this past weekend were unbelievably refreshing. Even though I had only been home for a week it was already beginning to wear me down. It’s tough to leave a tight knit community of believers that spur you on in your faith and return to a somewhat spiritually dead climate. It was good to kick back with fellow believers my age and have a drink and talk about how great God is and all the great things He is doing in our lives.

I’m currently reading a book about church planting called, “Church in the Making” by Ben Arment. This bro is awesome and pretty smart when it comes to starting a church. The second or third chapter is all about cultivation and he makes a point saying cultivation is biblical and from there goes on to site Romans 15:20

“My aim is to evangelize where Christ has not been named, in order that I will not be building on someone else’s foundation.”

-Apostle Paul

I leave you with this because it has been resonating in my heart all weekend long and it just helped remind me that I am so thankful for the calling God has placed on my life. I’m so thankful for Jesus and that He has given me a purpose: to love. I love to love and I hate that people don’t feel loved. I hate that there is such darkness within the Northwest. Maybe there are several North-westerners who believe such darkness doesn’t even exist, but then again, if you’ve been sitting the dark all of your life you don’t really know what light looks like.

I urge you to evangelize where no one is evangelizing. Seriously, just think what it would be like if we all really loved our neighbors more than we loved ourselves, the Northwest, the East Coast, the U.S. and the world, for that matter, would look so different. It would be awesome.

About The Blogger

Yesterday I gave a some-what brief description on what this blog is all about, and today I thought it as wise to introduce you to it’s author. If you’re reading this you probably already know me, but just in case someday I get some sweet Olympia natives following (which would be awesome) I’ll give you a little background. If you get bored just stop reading, seriously, other posts will provide better material, I promise.

So, I grew up in Parkersburg, WV. It’s one of the larger cities in the state consisting of about 60,000 people. Parkersburg is a great place to raise a family but in my opinion isn’t too economically healthy. I get the feeling that Parkersburgians (we’ll call them) just get by with what they need and nothing more; they work their tales off for the things they do have.

I was born into a typical American family: father, mother, sister, brother and cute little puppy. We attended Bethel Baptist Church most of my life. We’d go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. If there was an opportunity to be in church the Burdette family was taking it. So I guess you could say it really blew my mind when my parents split when I was 15. I guess all those times that we were attending church it had become more about a routine instead of the content and the growth. (Caution: this is easy to fall in to)

My freshman year of high school was a dark time for me. My sister was attending West Virginia Wesleyan College and my brother was a senior in high school, always with his friends. Dad had a new girlfriend and worked a lot so I didn’t see him much and Mom cried, a lot. I spent several nights staying up till the early hours of the morning talking with Mom about the divorce. I woke up a lot in the middle of the night hearing her cry from her bedroom. It was at this point I quit following the Lord.

Mom and I had switched churches after the divorce and started attending Lubeck Community Baptist. I was going for no other reason other than to make her happy and so she wouldn’t have to go alone. Not long after we started attending this new church did I start doing drugs and drinking alcohol. These substances became a coping mechanism for me and in the mean time I found new friends to hang out with, one girl in particular, who was going through the same thing I was.

Each day after school we’d hang out and talk smack about our parents and smoke weed and be angry. We couldn’t help but feel that we were being cheated out of what we felt we really deserved, a normal family. Every day it seemed like we had new stories about a blow-up between our parents and who we thought was at fault.

Senior year approached and plans for college began to be confirmed. Columbia College Chicago was my destination with plans on studying Music Business. I visited the school, found a place to live, got some scholarships and I was set. Not longer after my visit to Columbia did my Grandpa, who had formerly been diagnosed with lung cancer, pass away and my sister got engaged. I slowly saw my college fund and my dreams of a life in Chicago dwindle away to nothing.

In August 2006 I decided I needed to get out of Parkersburg somehow, so I applied for West Virginia University. I got accepted and moved not long after. I had never been to Morgantown, but I heard the party scene was wild so I was into it. When my mom had finally dropped me off and headed back home it finally hit me I was on my own, and it felt weird. I didn’t have any friends around, I didn’t know the town or the campus and I had no car! Lame!

There was one night in particular, the second week of school that had brought me to my lowest of lows. A car full of guys had previously tried to pull me into their car, and it had scared me pretty bad. I pulled away from them and ran home. Upon arriving back in my dorm I got sick. It was an awful night and I remember right then crying out to the Lord and just being shocked that I had let my life get so messed up. I asked God to fix it and give me direction, that from there on out my life was in His hands and I was done fighting Him over the way I thought things should’ve worked out for me.

Later the next week I got plugged into a Bible study with Campus Crusade for Christ. It was then that the Gospel of Jesus really started to make since and I saw how applicable it was to my everyday life. After attending Bible study I started to make a lot of friends and things started looking up. Second semester I went on a trip to Maracaibo Venezuela where I got to share my story, and how I came to know the Gospel, for the first time. I would later make three trips total to Maracaibo throughout my college career and each time God would show me more of who He really was.

People are always asking me “How do you know God exists?” and let’s face it, a simple “faith” answer is never going to suffice for these folks.

All I know is, is that you will never know if it works until you try. It’s like looking at a dating relationship. You see someone and you begin learning about their great attributes and begin thinking I bet we would make a great couple. Well, you aren’t going to know for sure if it'll work until you date them, right?

I think for me it was all about surrender. I never fully surrendered my life to Christ until college and I always viewed Him as being so distant and judgmental, but it’s just not the case. I believe that God is like the chillest of chill. He is never looking down on any of us saying, “Well you could’ve done better,” or “I wish you would’ve done it this way,” or “Why didn’t you do this?” I believe He is just happy that we decided to follow Him and that we’re trying to love Him the way He deserves.

I’m following Christ because all the things that I had previously been looking for, He is. American culture tends to look down on Christians, and I don’t blame them at all. I believe Christianity is the number one cause of atheism in American, and for that I apologize, but lets face it, no one is perfect. All we can do as Christians is seek God and try to do what we think is right.

I would never say to anyone, “Hey, you need to be a Christian!” or try to convert someone. All I can say is that this is what I’ve been through and this is how I’ve decided to handle it. We’re all going to come in contact with some sort of struggle throughout our lives, but it’s how we react that shapes us into the people we’re meant to be.

So there’s a little bit about me.

Stay tuned folks!

About This Blog

A while back one of my best friends, Sara Matheny, had the brilliant idea to start blogging. She was reading several blogs about cooking, decorating and being a mom so she decided to start her own, and in the process encouraged me to do so also..

Therefore begins my blogging career.

First off, you should know what you're getting into I suppose, that is, if you so decide to follow or check in on my posts. The title of the blog might have already given away what the content will consist of, but I guess that's what titles are supposed to do and I guess that means my title is good, so I'll go ahead and give the credit to it's creator Aaron Dawson, thanks.

So now, if you're still reading, you're probably wanting a more in-depth description, and as I continue to post you'll see I'm all about in-depth descriptions, therefore, I'm starting from the beginning.

My junior year of college (nearly two years ago, pretty in depth am I right?) I started listening to a lot of Mark Driscoll sermons. Mark is a pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. Prior to my time spent listening to Driscoll (and all his great insight on Christian faith and some hilarious jokes) my heart was set on moving to Maracaibo, Venezuela the summer after I graduated. Yet, the more I listened to Mark and heard him talk about the spiritual darkness that existed in Washington, my heart began to break for the Northwest. Something you should know about me is I long to be an advent of change. I think Gaundi put it best when he said,

"Be the change that you want to see in the world."

I feel as if American culture has taken a turn for the worst. The hedonistic lifestyles that we lead, meaning do whatever feels good, is so bizarre to me, so I decided that, as Christians, we need to stick around and help others, add to society and hopefully in the process build believers so we can send them out to foreign countries like Venezuela.

Well anyways, about a year ago I was talking with God and told Him,

"Hey, if you want me to go to the Northwest You know I'll go, but I know You won't send me there because it's pretty far away and I don't know anyone who lives there, but if You think it's a wise decision I'll go."

I kept feeling the need to tell God I'd go and as I did my desire to move grew stronger and doors began to open for me. About three months after I had told God I'd move my pastor at my local church in Morgantown, WV said he was moving to Olympia, Washington to plant a church and that he wanted me to be on his team!

A few other things happened after this, but I'll just go ahead and tell you, I'm going this August.

My plan, as a new blogger, is to keep readers informed about my day to day at work and in ministry in Olympia. I want to try and keep my posts as short as possible, but also have some sort of documentation to look back on overtime to see what God has done through me, in the church plant and in Olympia. Hopefully you’ll keep up and be able to watch God move as well because tomorrow starts day one.