If I had to choose a title..

it would be... ME. Oh, wait.. I mean God in me. It is funny how easy it is to forget that God is the reason "we live and move and have our being" -Acts 17:28
This last week I was preparing to teach the DTS how to share the gospel and I found my self praying hard into what the gospel message is. Now the gospel message is very simple Jesus saves us from our own sin and sets us free to live with Him eternally if we confess and believe in Him. -Rom 10:9 The problem is we (myself included) forget that there is a new way to stand, to live in Him. He is the center of our lives from then on and to Jesus goes all the glory. It is like we are the moon simply trying to be a magnificent reflection of the sun's (Son's) light.
-But we are still missing one thing... one important ingredient that if we don't have it, we fall into a life of boredom and meaningless intent.
To illustrate this I will finish my story: I prayed and prepared a few days before my teaching, seeking the Lord on  what He wanted me to focus on in the sharing of His gospel. As I was teaching, the students were very quiet and attentive. The whole time I was praying that the truth of the gospel and Gods heart for people would sink deep into them. That God would give them a new revelation of His love. -Eph 3:17-20
After I finished the teaching we sent them out in small groups around the property to meet with staff members (who were representing different worldviews) to practice sharing the gospel. When answering a particularly difficult staff members question, one of the students hit the hammer right on the nail. Staff (representing Islam): "what do I have to do to please God?" The student: "Jesus said in the Bible "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment." -Matt 22:37-38 So, this is what it all boils down to: God wants relationship, He came to restore that relationship by sending His son to die on a cross."
In my own words: "The moon and the sun are to dance. The sun loves nothing more than an eternal dance and the moon can't stop praising the sun for His light. When the moon surrenders his night the sun makes it into the joy of a new day. They both light the world for all to see. Glory to God."
To Love God and Be Loved by Him. To walk with Him and to Know Him. This is my pursuit of God. Do I succeed every day?, most certainly not. But, I know He loves me; so, I can walk on without condemnation, fear, or guilt. Ephesians 5 To walk in Love...

Praise to God for His message of Grace and thank you all for your many prayers and support in love,
Ben

The Day of my Birth - 23 years later -

Now I know it has been a long time since I have updated you all on the goings on of my life. Please forgive me for that. These last two seasons have been really busy for me. I pray that this next one will be more restful while just as productive. I don't have time to catch up on all that went on in my life these last few month, but I will tell you about a day. This is very significant to me, for it is the day of my birth, 23 years later. Perhaps it will give you a picture of what a typical day at YWAM Maui includes.
BEEp, BEEp, BEEp! My roommates alarm goes off at 7:00 in the morning. I guess he forgot not to set it on a day when we get to sleep in a little. "Thank you God for Tuesday; one of the few days I can sleep in past 7:00 if I really want to..."  However the sun is shining through the window and now my eyes are open. Suddenly I remember a conversation I had with my mother the day before...  It's my birthday@! Praise the Lord!
I get up, take a shower, have a short quiet time and go scour the kitchen for some breakfast. At 8:00 I call my mom because I know I will not have enough time later in the day and I can not call her in the evening, because of the time difference and all that goes with that. After a wonderful chat about life and how God is working I enter the kitchen to begin my shift. Unfortunately there are only 2 of us in the kitchen this morning due to a mess up of schedules. Praise the Lord...., B.L.A.T.'s and quinoa it is (Yes, I did not know such a crazy word for food existed until I came to Maui). Turns out we did not have enough avocado (the 'A' in BLAT) quinoa or fruit, so we winged the meal as usual. We can always just pick some fruit off the trees on the property if we need to. "Praise the Lord I love fresh fruit!" People said it was good and most came back for seconds, so I would call that a success
Anyway, so after lunch I found out I did not have to drive the students to community outreach in the nearby town of Paia. Instead I could stay home and relax a little bit for my birthday, Praise the Lord! Soon I found myself fixing a computer that had decided it did not want to boot into windows anymore. During one of the times I was waiting for it to finish scanning I went into the office to check if I got any mail. Man was I blessed. Two packages and a myriad of cards on my birthday! You guessed it, Praise the Lord!
People sang to me at dinner and there was cake. That evening I spent hanging out with new friends and doing some research in my new study Bible.
Thank you all so much for cards and gift, it truly was a 'merry' birthday. I am very blessed to have people who support me with prayers and gifts.

Hope you all have a wonderful day, full of the Glory of God,
Ben

P.S. While I was about half way done writing this I heard a noise like thunder or a dam breaking outside. I go to the window to look and a tree falls over in our yard. A 60 foot eucalyptus tree just decides to fall over during the middle of the day in a lite rain. Not your everyday occurrence for sure. Kinda ironic, because Caleb the Maintenance head was just talking about not having enough for the students work duties today. Our God is a God who provides ;)

I new way to walk

Wow, after just finishing 3 months of working in the kitchen I feel like no time has passed and yet so much has happened. It was difficult at times but, very good (For God IS Good). For this next quarter (a spring quarter actually) I am going to be a DTS intern. I am quite excited. The school leaders are Larry and Loretta Hues. They are an elderly couple from Canada that have been coming to the base for awhile to help with the craziness of new young people taking over the kitchen and maintenance departments every 3 months. It will be a great adventure working under them and being a part of the DTS team for the next quarter. Although I am called an intern I will be more like support staff with the amount of responsibilities I am working into. I am going to be working with Rebecca Krause (my co leader). We will have lots of responsibilities like: intercession, community outreach, outreach preparation, apologetics, and current events. Pray for me as I step into this new position and for the students as the arrive this week. The Lord is my strength and my great intimate lover. He will be with me during this time as I step into a position of leadership. All to Him be the glory.

Blessing to you all

Current endings with new beginnings

Well, the students have left. The 2 teams of the winter quarter have now left. One is going to the island of Borneo to the villages of Indonesia. The other is going to the large Asian country with over a billion people in it (I won't say the name for security reasons). Please pray for their safe travels and a blessed outreach. The purpose of this school is to train up and then send out. Now that they are gone it seems kinda empty but, our heart goes with them and we will continue to pray and intercede for them. I love them all and I know God has wonderful plans for each one of them and that He will do great things through their seeking after His heart. The 2 main things to pray for are team unity and that the Lord would give them His heart for the people they will be ministering to.
The next school will be starting up in about 2 weeks. Things are starting to get busy around here as we prepare for the new arrivals. My job is in the process of changing, so, I will keep up on that when I know more. However for now I am helping move, clean, pack storage, set up new computers, and cook up a storm. So glad am I that the Lord is with me and able to be my steady hand through all the crazy times.

It has been a busy quarter and I have grown in many areas. I thank you all very much for your prayers. May the Lord bless you with the riches of His house and draw you to a closer intimacy with the Father.

Walking with His heart

The Lord has given me a heart for His people here and He is continuing to increase my zeal for the plans of His kingdom. Although I spend most of my time at the base, I am continuing to plug into the local church whenever I can. Every Sunday I set up and tear down the entire sound system for New Hope church with the help of a few other volunteers. Fortunately I have some experience in this by the grace of God or it would be quite difficult to manage.

Personally, I am just continually amazed by the beauty of God (as I sit here watching the clouds go by). Seeing His love and truth transform the students is just a marvel. It is great just to hang out with them and speak into their lives some of the places me God have walked together. Most of the stuff I have been sharing recently comes from the Bible reading I do with my friend Jason every morning.

We have been going through the book of Leviticus and I was just struck by Lev chapter 9 where they spend all this time making sure that the plans of the Lord are carried out (and this IS very important), but not until Moses and Aaron enter the the presence of the Lord does He accept the sacrifice and the people are blessed.

I pray that the usage of the prayer room as a place to meet with God will continue to grow. Yes, you can meet with the Lord anywhere, but there is something about dedicating a time and place to dwell with Him and seek after His will. The Lords heart is to be in a relationship with us. From this place is where we will continue to grow and produce fruit.

With the light of the dawn on my face,

I arise: “Good morning Lord, I love you.” My day starts with a daily reading of the scriptures with my close friend Jason. After finishing, I hang out with some guests from Canada, telling them of stories of my old adventures from my earlier days with YWAM. Later, I sit in on a lecture and sigh, “Oh what a wonderful day it is Lord.” This is my first free time in a week or so and I can think of no better way to spend it then to talk with God and spill the beans about my time in the kitchen at YWAM Maui.

Worship of the Most Holy God is amazing and working in the kitchen would not be the same without it. My kitchen duties always involve God in some way, whether we are worshiping Him or praying for the food before our patients consume it. It goes relatively smooth considering that 2-3 people cook a meal for 50+ everyday and the majority of us have not cooked much more then mac n cheese and popcorn back home.
Most of my spare time has been taken up doing extra curricular activities like showing guests around the island, fixing random computer problems, and taking students on exploring adventures. I have also been spending a lot of time setting up the wireless network for the base. Although most of my time is going by so very fast here my focus on God will not relent. I have a heart for seeing the base delve into an attitude of prayer in these difficult times. Others feel this as well, so we are trying to set up continual prayer for 6 or so hours a day. Pray that everything falls into place and we get the Lord’s heart for what the focus should be.
My favorite place on base is in worship. Worship leaders come and go, but the passion of seeking His face and praising His name remains the same. My prayer is that the students coming from all over the world will break forth in freedom and purity before the throne of the One who was and is and is to come.
Overall the things on the base are going well. The students seam to be engaging and soaking up lots of content. Please pray for the future that the Lord would provide many students for next quarter. However all is in His hands.