But then Jesus.

Sorry for the delay. This week has been crazy and it's only gonna get worse (or better, however you look at it.)

I've tried to comprise some of my favorite memories from the ten days I spent in Poland with the Roma people group and I'll be posting them here in the days to come.

While in Poland we spent every night in worship with one another, both the Roma and the Americans. One of my favorite things about those times were listening to the testimonies of the Roma people. They are a broken people who have a tattered past.

Most of the men's testimonies included stories of drunkenness and beating their wives. They spent there days searching for work and falling into a hurtful reality. But then Jesus.

Most of the women's testimonies included loneliness. Stories of searching for peace and significance in other religions and philosophies. Pain and hurt from lives lived in desperation. But then Jesus.

The Roma's stories are more than sad stories and more than hopelessness, because Jesus showed up and turned their world upside down. Now men are leaders, women are caretakers. Men support their families both financially and more importantly spirtually. Women smile and laugh and build families based on kinship and love.

The Roma people have a long ways to go. Jerry Goss (the missionary to the Roma people) spent every morning of the camp in Bible study with them. They are learning what it means to live as a Christian and what they can do to reach others for Christ.

That is simply an introduction into their lives. I'll be sharing more specific stories and the days to come. I ask that you continue to pray for the Roma and pray the revival amongst them continue.

I also ask that you pray for me. It is still unclear where and what I am going to be doing after the summer.

Thanks.

A.T.

I'm back, but up front...

HELLO AMERICA!

Sorry I haven't blogged yet about Poland. I've been back in the states since Sunday night, and I haven't stopped. I had some test and a paper due yesterday and I have been trying unpack and get things back in gear. I promise I will write when I have time. I have some great stories to share.

But for now I want to leave you with this thought:

If we know the Christ died for the sins of the world and rose again on the third day, and that unless people know that and know Him they will go to Hell; then why do we neglect to say anything to our unbelieving friends, or even the person in the coffee shop, or the person on the other side of the world. Why are we sitting on our hands Church?

Adam T.

TODAY IS THE DAY!

Today I'm leaving for Poland and I just wanted to thank everyone and ask for continued prayer while I'm gone. It can go a whole lot further than any money you could give.

I look forward to sharing all my experiences when I get back.

May God keep you until I see you again!

Adam

Below is a blog for our team, so you can keep up to date on what we are doing:

http://fugepolandmissionteam.blogspot.com/

TOMORROW IS A BIG DAY!

Hey friends,

I know I haven't posted since the beginning of the month and tomorrow is the first day of March. February has flown by and I have been so busy, I haven't really had time to write. Which is sad because I love it so much.

Over this month I have been working on a couple of things. First I have decided to go to Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, NC! Which means I'll be staying close to home and won't have to leave any of my friends here. I have decided to get my masters in Church Planting and God has called me to eventually start a church, where I don't know and how is up to Him as well.

With that said, I am writing to ask for your prayers. Tomorrow I'll be preaching at my home church Day 3, to start the new series, Myspace/Yourspace. It's aimed at making every avenue of our lives God's. I am uber excited to get to share God's words with the people I share life with, even though I have to do it twice, both at 8:30 and 10:30!!! So, please pray for me tomorrow, that God's words will flow from my lips and I won't fall off the stage!

And lastly, I leave for Poland next Friday for ten days with Fuge. Pray for that, as I prepare and get all the warm clothes I can find.

I promise I'll be posting again soon!

Adam T.

Singing in the REIGN!

Howdy friends!

So, leading worship this semester for Baptist Campus Ministry has been really fun and I feel like the group is really starting to mesh and find our niche with one another as we lead others in worship. This week we are going old school and singing hymns from the good ol days, i.e. I saw the light, Joyful joyful, Solid Rock, It is well, and Come Thou Fount. We wanted to do Have a Little Talk with Jesus, but the girls couldn't carry the bass line. Last night as we were wrapping our minds around these songs and putting them together, there were a couple lines from Joyful Joyful that jumped off the page and punched me in the Adam's apple. You know how there are those central Biblical truths you know, but sometimes you need to be reminded and God does an awesome job at doing that! Well this is one of those times. The lines are:

Father love is reigning o’er us,
Brother love binds man to man.

Henry J. van Dyke smacked the ball out of the park in my opinion. (The guy who wrote the song) It was first published in 1911 and still to this day is relevant and true. But out of any lines in the song, those two rang the truest in my head and heart. Our Father God is reigning/raining his love down on us, and he does not give us love to squander, but instead to bind us together as brothers and sisters, every human being. We are called to embrace one another in love. To learn from each other. Sometimes we just want to fix all the problems and we get so focused on repairing that we forget the person involved. But instead I think God calls us not to solve all the probelms, but to sit with one another in those probelms and to experience it with one another, so we may know we are not alone in this. SO let us embrace the truth of these words.

Put down your busy-umbrella and feel God's love raining down on us and then go splash in some puddles with your brothers and sisters!

A.T.

YOU are potentially a BIG DEAL!

Hello gents and misses!

I have only about 15 minutes before my final class for the day starts and I wanted to spend this little bit of time to post something that I have been chewing for a few days - potential.

As I am preparing to leave for Poland, work camp again, and go to seminary in the fall I have start to ask God for guidance, I mean true guidance, not hindered by my own likes and dislikes. I feel so often that I never truly know God's plan for me. I know it is wrong to question the authority of God and his will, but I have come to understand that it is not wrong to ask God how things are going to happen and ask Him for a glimpse of why.

As some of you know, I will be preaching at my home church, Day 3, on March 1. I'll post more on that later, but as I am preparing for that I am praying, 'God how do I say your words, and give me a glimpse of why.' God answers the how often times but he sometimes doesn't answer the why. But for me in this situation and in situations to come he has given me a glimpse of why, more specifically why does he want me to stand up in front of people and open my mouth.

I am the guy who often talks to much, about nothing of any importance, and often sticks my foot in my mouth, so I ask, why me?

And in not specifically God has responded, 'adam, you have no idea of your potential in me and all I have in store for you.' See I am always looking at MY potential, not my potential IN GOD.

So this week I pray that you and I will find our potential in God and all that he has for us, because His plans far outreach our own.

Adam

Beef-a-roni and Barack Obama

Hello all.

So sorry that I haven't posted in so long. I was gone after Christmas and then had my wisdom teeth removed and have been busy ever since. I no, excuses do not get me far, so hopefully this post will make up for it!

I got lucky with the snow today and got out of class to watch the inauguration of President Obama.

As some of you know, and I'm not ashamed to say, I did not vote. Now, many have told me that was wrong and that it was an abuse of a privilege I was given. Realizing this, I simply tell them I have a thankful heart for that privilege but I simply chose to bypass it for a bigger reason.

That reason is because I do not want to have a heart and mindset that depends on the government to fulfill the purposes given to the Church and for Christians to accomplish.

With all that said, the reason I write this blog is to give props to the new president and a hopeful suggestion to my fellow believers.

First, props to President Obama for having big ambitions for our country and for embarking on a peaceful mission. I love that he talked about feeding others in other countries as well as ending poverty here in America. I also look forward to seeing him push the ploticians in DC to do the same. I know that he has big hopes, but if we take on this mindset, then change will take place.

That brings me to the suggestion, rather a proposition. May we as Christians be on the forefront of the peaceful efforts. May we as Christian step up and shine light, shine hope, and shine a bright future for others who sit in hopelessness. I believe that we as Christians should be the ones whom the government simply follows, as we all follow Christ. Hopefully we can be that change in America that Barack keeps talking about.

May Barack Obama lead our country well, but may Jesus Christ lead our lives and let us abandon all else.

Adam

Did somebody say 'ALCOHOL'?

I just got through watching this amazing sermon on alcohol from Perry Noble. He's the pastor of a fantastic community in Anderson, SC called NewSpring Church. I encourage you to visit their site and check them out. Below I have placed the link to the sermon on alcohol. I encourage you all to take and hour and a half out of your day and watch it. Perry does a fantastic job ironing out some wrinkles and questions I think a lot of young adults struggle with when it comes to the bottle.

http://www.newspring.cc/series/you-asked-for-it-week-4

Let me close with this. Christ has created us to proclaim Him in all we do, so in whatever you do, whether it be big or small, DO IT FOR CHRIST and ask yourself this, are my actions and the picture I am showing bringing others to Christ? And for those of you who are not Christians, just know that Christians don't always do what is right, but by trusting in Christ for salvation we are made righteous. It is Him alone who makes us beautiful.

Adam

Feelin' Fine In 2009!

Here we are, another year older, kids!

How exciting it is when a new year begins and there is the sense of a fresh beginning and a chance to start anew.

But for any of us that feeling is just that, a feeling. It is brief and passes like a summer wind in the tree tops. Then we are reminded of the treachery of our past and the failure of previous endeavors.


Yesterday I was with an old friend and we were talking about past times and all the fun we used to have. As we reminisced I mentioned how much I missed hanging out with him. Then last night I was thinking about our time together and it brought to mind a song we sang this summer at Fuge and the idea of fleeting hope in the new year.

The song was called Hosanna by Paul Baloche and the lyric that kept coming to mind is,
"Hear the sound of hearts returning to You, we turn to You"

The word that jumps out there is "return". To return to something you have to already been there. Just like returning to hang out with my friend, people have the choice to return to God. All this because God knows us and has known us, He knew our hearts and our souls even before we were born, and He is waiting for our return to Him so He can dwell in our lives.

So, if you are like me, and often lose sight of the new year and new chances only to spend most of your time screwing up and recalling your tainted past, then I pray this week that you dwell on this-

God, our Abba Father, knows you, has known you, and knows what this year holds, and He is like the old friend who knows you full well and enjoys spending time with you, no matter how much you have screwed up. He forgives and reaches across that sin and pulls us into His arms, if we simply look to Him for our future.

Take hope in this year, for, no matter what, it is there

"O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!"

-Psalm 139

Adam T.