Let's get together and push.

I'm sorry (again) I haven't updated in almost 2 weeks I think... The last 2 weeks in Jackson were much busier than anticipated and I didn't get to writing an update... I apologize.

Here's an update for you though: I'm in Grand Rapids! I left yesterday morning about 9:45 a.m. (central time) and got home about 12:15 a.m. (eastern time), so I made incredible time. I believe I'll try to post some sort of "concluding thoughts" from my summer, but for now I felt the need to let everyone know that I have made it safely back to Grand Rapids. I appreciate you thoughts, support, prayers, etc. throughout this journey and would appreciate if you continued to do these things as I begin to unpack (metaphorically) my summer experiences and how best to continue the work/calling to which I've committed my life.

You are appreciated, and I will give a more "conclusive" finale to this guy so that it doesn't feel awkward and people aren't left out of the loop. That might be a bigger promise than I can keep, but I'll give it a go.

Grace and peace.

-tw

Mmmm! Back in Jackson after an incredible few days.

An incredible few days.

I stayed in Pittsburgh with some Calvin grads who I hadn't met before. Jordan Weaver (who lives there but was on vacation) connected me with them. They were so hospitable and welcoming. Unfortunately I only spent about 45 minutes total with them (Alison Winters and Joey Breems) because it was a busy few days, but it was wonderful to be with them.

The conference was great. It was focused on how to use various "artifacts" to expand the Gospel's influence on culture. As an example, one small "artifact" talked about was Switchfoot's song, "The Sound," and how that has spread the message of Dr. Perkins' legacy. There were many incredible people there who were great to connect with and hear from concerning their work for the Church. Two fairly notable people that were cool to connect with were Mike Tate from DC Talk and now Newsboys as well as Gene Thornton, Jr. (PKA Malice from the rap duo Clipse). It was very cool to talk with them and all the other people about tackling some serious problems within pop culture that are affecting Christians.

Part of the experience was also attending the U2 concert Tuesday night, which was a nice addition to the conference "curriculum" :)

Today is the last day of our summer camp for the kids, so next week the other interns are leaving. It'll be very different without these friends around, but I'm sure the following two weeks before I head home will fly by. They're all wonderful people, and I've enjoyed spending time with them this summer.

I'm on the homestretch of my summer here in Jackson. I'm doing my best to embrace every opportunity I can in these last weeks, but I'm also looking forward to seeing people in G-Rap (such as my two roommates AND THEIR FIANCES!!!!! Congrats Jake & Taylor//Bern & Alyssa).

Grace and peace.

-tw

(download)

Click here to download:

rubbin-elbows-in-the-burgh-EyinhjyiDmJvDcissJFz.zip (30.3 MB)

Alright y'all. This is what I thought my updates would be like most of time... short and sweet :)

This past week was sort of uneventful. I helped with the kids program more than usual because we were short on male teachers, and we went to the children's museum on Friday, which was pretty much beautiful chaos.

I'm currently in the Jackson-Evers International Airport waiting to fly to Pittsburgh by way of Atlanta! I'm meeting Big John and Dr. Perkins up there for an event that we'll be attending Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm super excited. I'll leave more info about that once I get there and whatnot, but I'd appreciate prayers for safety and God's blessing on those involved with the event. Please also pray for our kids--this is the last week of the summer camp, so time is winding down quickly! We have a closing "program" on Thursday night that I'm pretty excited for; hopefully I'll get some videos to share up here.

That's about it for now--thank you all for love and support.

Grace and peace.

-tw

God is good.

Big John and I had a wonderful trip to Dallas this past week. My understanding of God's power and His presence increased through the conference and especially from the people I had conversations with over the few days we were there. It's called NetDMC, which stands for Network of Disciple-makers, Mentors, and Coaches. I have so much to say about the event, but basically it stems from an idea that I've heard Dr. Perkins' say time and time again:

We turn people into Christians before we turn them into disciples!

It's a really funny thing to actually think about, but I think it's true. Jesus never asked anyone to be a Christian. He asks us to pick up our cross and follow him; to go out to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth and make disciples of all nations. Powerful stuff to think about.

In other news I gave a message in a church this morning. Wild, I know. I somewhat spontaneously went to a house church with three of the girl interns last week because the aunt of a girl in our summer camp invited them. I thought it'd be cool to worship with a house church so I tagged along. It was wonderful, there were maybe fifteen of us total, but the service was very worshipful and real. Afterwards, the pastor came up to me and almost immediately asked me to come back the following week (AKA today) and speak. I was taken back, but agreed. Thinking about it later, I got really confused about why he asked me to talk--the man didn't even know for sure that I was a Christian!

I felt sort of like a legit pastor today because the other interns all had various other plans, so I returned to the church by myself. I love the laid back, Southern-style that made it completely allowable for me to roll in ten minutes late without any problems, haha (as a side note, for those of you who know me well, I've actually become very punctual down here, but I purposely was late this morning because I knew I'd be too nervous to make small talk at the beginning of the service). There were 9 other people there, and it was a blessing to be welcomed back with them. They were pumped that I was there. As it usually goes, my message went way faster than I thought it would (I'm not huge on actually practicing my speeches), but I was relaxed and felt that I communicated what God had put on my heart. I shared some meditations on Romans 7:15-8:4. Sacrificing any sort of credibility I may have gained from acting like I had been in that situation before... I put my camera in my pocket to record the audio of the message for nostalgic purposes down the road :)

After the service I stayed for lunch, which was delectable and possibly the most food I've eaten since being down here! I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak in that setting, and I'm sensing God's hand arranging the things I'm doing right now. It's a cool feeling.

I'd appreciate prayers for the kids in our summer program as we begin our second to last week tomorrow. Pray that they'll be receptive to the seeds we're trying to plant in them with hopes that in God's timing they'll begin to grow. Please also pray for my continued discernment of God's specific purpose for me.

Y'all rock my world and I love that you're reading this right now. Thank you.

Grace and peace.

-tw

If you've never had someone drive all the way across the country to see you, I'd highly recommend looking into it sometime. I mean, I felt the love when my mom drove about half way across to hand off my passport to me the night before I left for Jamaica, but the full distance made it all the greater. She got into Jackson Thursday night and left Saturday night. We had a great couple of days and it was nice to finally show someone the people and places I'm living among. Probably the best parts were the quality conversations we shared over meals. It was good to reflect on things I've been thinking about and hear my mom's perspective. We really do share a lot of the same views. She's driving home now and I'm so thankful she was able to make the trip down here.

In other news, Big John and I are driving to Dallas tomorrow for a NetDMC conference. NetDMC stands for Network of Disciplemakers, Mentors, and Coaches. Big John was asked to prepare a short paper on "Economics and the Development of Young African American men," which will be read (by someone else) at the conference. I ended up doing a lot of the work on this with frequent conversations about it with Big John, so I'm pretty excited about it. He was really happy with how it came together, so it felt good to have some concrete fruit from my labor! I'll attach it at the end of this if you're interested in looking over it.

I need to give a major shout out to my main man and economic consultant, Tony Ditta. When starting the research for this paper, I sent Tony an email
as a bit of a shot in the dark thinking maybe he could direct me in a particular direction to start with my research.... Tony responded with a 3-page email specifically identifying the main economic problems facing African American males as well as the causes behind them. My paper has a couple phrases that I literally just copied word for word from his email, so I'm extremely thankful for his brain and helpfulness.

Lastly, I somewhat spontaneously went to a house church with some others this morning. There were about ten people (including us) as a part of the worship, but it was a power atmosphere. It was a church that was started just a year ago and is (obviously) still growing, but it was wonderful to participate in worship in such an intimate setting. Very surprisingly, after the service the pastor wanted to talk to me and he ended up asking if I would come back next week and speak to the youth! I was honored. Absolutely honored. So that was a really cool and unexpected opportunity that I'm thrilled to have accepted. I'm becoming more and more aware of a need to make the unfailing love of Christ visible to people. Growing up in an information age, my personal experiences led me to know almost every aspect of Jesus' love, but until I saw what it looked like and felt its effects on my own life, I didn't fully grasp it. So I'm going to meditate on this for a few days and we'll see what I come up with for my message next Sunday.

I'd appreciate prayers for God's guidance over my meditations and my receptivity to His guidance. Also, I'd appreciate prayers for our West Jackson community as we continue striving to reveal the power of Christ's love to many broken families and individuals. Lastly, please pray for those in Grand Rapids who were affected by the tragic shooting a couple days ago. May those in the Church step up to the challenge of comforting the discouraged, empowering the downtrodden, and loving the enemies.

Grace and peace,

-tw

Click here to download:

NetDMC_Paper.pdf (97 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

NetDMC_Paper.pdf (97 KB)