Update from Seattle

So a quick update on Seattle. (I have been typing all of these blogs from my phone so that is why they are short). Day two was amazing!! It was a beautiful sunny day and the team had an amazing meeting with a man named Gary from the SBC up here. It was so encouraging to hear what this man had to say about Seattle. It was also great just to ask him questions about church planting and to hopefully gain some of his wisdom. I will admit I fell in love with this city and the people after this meeting. The rest of the day we hung out in downtown and Pike’s market (where the first Starbucks is!) We also rode the ferry to Bainbridge island and started our westcoast advance out there.

Day three was an even more beautiful summer day with zero clouds to be seen. We hung out on campus that day and even took an official campus tour. They have some really sweet dorms here… Perfect for a Bible study! We got to see some great views of Mt Ranier on campus as well. God made a really gorgeous city up here and absolutely no pictures will do it justice. At the end of this day something really cool happened: me and Emily were practicing worship outside when three guys approached us. We told them we were practicing worship music and one of them immediately started telling us: “that’s some crazy [blank] you believe in! How do you know it is real?” It all happened so fast but after stating a few more things and cussing us out some more the guys left. All I can say is that I’m glad that happened and that I got a real taste of Seattle in that moment.

Readers, continue to pray for this city and the people and students who live here and live without God. Gary told us that 96% of the people do not believe in Jesus… that statistic makes this area unreached. Also pray for the members of the team so that we find God’s will for us and if he wants us in this city. Thanks for your prayers!

Officially in Seattle!

So I survived the plane flight and the team has landed in Seattle. This place is pretty cool and, more specifically, the people are cool. In general all of the people are nicer than I would have expected. They really put the Midwest to shame.

The coolest part of the first day was the church we visited. It was a little church called Generations and it was located in a neighborhood where kids aren’t always cared for by their parents… and that’s in addition to the fact that it’s in Seattle, the most unchurched city in America (and they call it that too). These people were just stinkin loving and the preached truth like crazy. They were very supportive on our idea to plant a church here and believed it is needed. They prayed for us many times before the night was over.

Things have been good so far and God is showing Himself so please keep praying for the team and that God gives us wisdom and discernment throughout this week here. Pray for this dark city as well and that the church can be a shining light here.

Why I Am Going

If you didn’t know I am headed to Seattle this next 5 days. The purpose of this trip is to seek God and his will for a possible church plant. I am headed out there with 4 other really cool people, all of us quite unique from each other.

So what is a church plant? Simply it is a church created by another church. It is a long term and sometimes permanent mission trip. In Seattle we are specifically focussing on the university of Washington. This campus of 40,000 students could be the site of a future movement of God… We shall just have to wait and see. I will try to keep you posted on what I learn and experience as well as prayer updates. But now I must prepare to be at the airport in 4 hours. God is good!

The End of A School Year and The Hopes of The Next One

As I sit at my desk at the end of another academic year I kind of wonder where the school year went. It feels like yesterday I just moved into my apartment in the fall. Now campus has emptied and gotten quieter and the seniors graduate while the hopes of a new beginning await many incoming freshmen. These freshmen have no idea what’s going to happen to them when they go to college. People change when they set foot into a dorm, they change when they try to fit into a new crowd, and they change when they aren’t being closely watched by their parents. At the same time life changes. You become more responsible for your own life as you now have to make big decisions. When I entered college I remember going through all of that. It wasn’t easy and sometimes you wish you could go back to the old times but there’s one thing I would never want to go back to: my old life. What do I mean by that? My life before Christ and who I was.

See, I went under a huge change but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I made it through my first three years at college by the grace of God alone. I have met extraordinary and interesting people. I have done things (good things) so far out of my comfort zone. This was all possible because Jesus set up His church here on earth to show who He is to the world. I became who I am because people took me under their wings and cared about me. Those new freshmen coming in… they need the same chance. They deserve the same chance. I know there was so much more I could have done this past year… I’m inherently lazy when it comes to certain things and I don’t like that at all. There was a huge opportunity to spread God’s fame in my dorm this year. Things never lined up and I never got enough support from any peers to motivate me to act. But that cannot happen next year… my last year as an actual college student. I am going to be honest: I have big dreams about what God is going to do next year and I think that is fair considering God is unimaginably huge.

So why do I share this with all of you? I feel like I’m not the only one who felt this way during this school year. You wanted to achieve more and you wanted to spread the Gospel. You know its really stinking hard to bring up a conversation on it and you know that the root of that is your pride. If you felt like that this past year and you want to make an impact on this campus next year for God’s glory then I dare you to pray this with me: “God, thank you for this school year and all the hearts you brought to you. As Psalm 3 says: ‘I wake again because the Lord sustains me’ I realize that you did sustain me through this tough but character-building school year. You still used this year for your glory. God I pray that you use me to spread your Name throughout this campus next year. I surrender to you and I want to be an instrument for your Kingdom. May you be on the minds of the students here and not alcohol, careers, fame, or whatever separates us from you. God, I don’t care where you take me and how far you stretch me but please help me not waste another moment on this campus.”

This post comes from an external blog run by Nick Geisen at: changeourhearts.wordpress.com