The Grand Adventure

So the reason most of you are going to be reading this is because Andrea and I are no longer in a relationship. This post is going to be very difficult for a lot of people to understand and I don’t expect it to answer all questions but I hope it helps. I want to make a key note that God is GREAT and that he receives all glory for what has happened and is to come.

I will begin by saying I was praying yesterday that God would do something exciting with Andrea and I’s relationship.

We had a talk this morning in our intern group about relationships and what a true God honoring relationship looks like. Without going into incredible detail I became incredibly convicted; I had to leave and go pray for awhile because I realized what a truly God honoring relationship looks like, and that I was failing at it. I thought about it and wrestled with and decided we shouldn’t separate. So obviously after we have a relationship talk you should probably go and talk with your special someone about what you discussed and evaluate yourselves. I started by saying “I have no intention of breaking up with you” God’s will is unstoppable… We talked through everything and realized that our relationship was unhealthy for a God honoring marriage. Speaking of marriage (which is the end goal of dating) we realized that “Oh crap, there is no way we are even close to ready to be married!” and staying within a holding pattern till you get married isn’t healthy and hinders spiritual growth so much. After talking for awhile we began to realize that we weren’t even sad, to a point we were joyful. We realized how much of an opportunity this is to grow! And maybe 4 or 5 years if we come back and God decides we’re mature enough and that we should be together, then awesome! But at the same time if He decides that we should be with someone else, then awesome! You have to realize that this is totally a God thing and anything I could have done would have ended in heartbreak and pain. Is it sad? Yes, but I don’t feel like this last year was a waste and I don’t regret it. I just wish I had known how a Godly relationship needs to look like 5 years ago. The main thing is we are trusting God in his will and that this can only benefit both of us.

I am sorry if this didn’t answer everything or if you just don’t understand. I don’t expect everyone to, because this is complete trust in God that many people just can’t comprehend. If you’re mad at me or her you’re wasting your time, we are excited to what opportunities this will bring forward. As always if you’d like to chat more sometime I’d be glad! 

Ironically this is what I’ve been working on for memorization…

(love) Does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the Truth

1 Corinthians 13:6

We are rejoicing in the Truth of the word that is the Bible, the only way this worked out the way it did is because we obeyed the Truth. I cannot say it any other way

Drew 

I am tired. Children wear me out.

I got back from Arlington Texas with the junior high kids on Saturday night and then Monday morning started OBC’s Kid’s Camps, I am leading a group of very “special” second graders in soccer. Needless to say these small children are wearing me down more than I could have imagined. It’s not so much the physical wear but more so the psychological warfare they so brutally unleash upon me. But God is still at work and in control even after a brief slump with a week in Texas, being a leader takes a lot of work and my studies drifted aside. Anyways here’s what’s been going on…

Arlington, Texas

Junior high is interesting and at first I was pretty pessimistic about the whole Mission Arlington. But in order for me not to slander anyone’s name or come off as a total pessimist and live as I believe Christ would I will not go into details of MY minor issues.

The first day I didn’t really know what my role was so I just hung out and observed our site’s kids to see where I would fit. I identified two older boys that seemed right up my alley named Dustin and Jimmy. So the next day during our Bible study instead of letting them just sit around and talk to each other I pulled them aside and talked to them. I started doing the prescribed lesson but then they started asking tons of questions and we ended up deviating from the main topic altogether. They were asking me tons of questions that we had been addressing within the internship which was really cool because I felt like God was testing me on what I had learned. I then asked them if they had ever accepted Christ into their lives and I got a very interesting response, they had both “accepted” him. I dug a little further and found out that they had done it at a revival. After asking how it happened Dustin said “Well, a man started to yell at me and ask if I had accepted Jesus and people just started touchin’ me” and I asked if had legitimately accepted Christ or if he had just done it to get the people off him. He didn’t answer and I said that I’d honestly just do it to get people off of me. Revivals tend to hit me in a certain area that sets me off because of the sociological tactics they use to get people to “accept” Christ. Apparently Dustin took what I said to heart and that night he was at a revival with his mom and he just walked out because he thought it was stupid. Do I feel bad? Nope just surprised he actually listened to me even though he kinda got in trouble… awkward…. Anyways to get on with it, Dustin couldn’t come to Rainbow Express the next two days but honestly I see it as a blessing from God because of the connection I made with Jimmy. Jimmy’s dad is Buddhist and is mom is some form of Christianity and he’s really been struggling with what to believe. After tons of questions it basically boiled down to the point that he was going to have to make a decision at some point in his life between the two, if it’s not apparent I was pushing him towards the Truth. I ended up giving him my Bible I had marked up and he came back the next day and said he would try and memorize the verses I had in the front of the Bible. Seed planted? Yes! I give God all of the glory because I would never I have done that by myself. I count it as more of a victory than getting him just to pray a prayer. 

As for kids camps… please pray for patience and guidance… it’s tough…

I got a new Bible for my birthday! After giving away one and misplacing another… I really hope it’s with someone who needs it. I think this was God’s way of breaking my reliance on study Bibles.

Well thanks for reading, here’s some prayer request I have…

• My sister leaves for Europe on Thursday and my brother left for Wisconsin this morning, please pray for safety of travel
• That God would reveal himself in a totally new way to me through this kids camp

Toodles!

Drew 

In my quiet time yesterday I had been praying that God would teach me patience with others and that he would reveal himself in a totally new way…

The Lord has heard my supplication, the Lord receives my prayer.

Psalms 6:9   

So I took Andrea out last night on a date, I picked up a pizza from Spin and got some bottled root beer and took her to Heritage Park where we ate on a bench by the lake and then watched the sun set (I hope you’re all just tearing up at how precious this is lol). I was dropping her off at the church so she could drive home and she could not find her keys. Now I get pretty annoyed when people can’t find things and I decided it was her problem so she can look for them (now ya’ll think I’m a jerk lol). Well after about 10 minutes I decided to get out and look under my hood (we couldn’t find them anywhere and we were getting desperate) so I got out of the car and just as I was about to open the hood I saw the keys in my hand. I got out of the car with nothing in my hands as far as I know. At first I was really freaked out and Andrea thought I just played a really mean joke on her but then she realized I had no idea how they got in hand. 

I don’t know whether or not I had them the whole time or if God performed some kind of miracle right then and there  but whatever the methods he used I learned a very valuable lesson. I learned that you need to help people always because you might have the key to fix their problem, it’s a fairly good pun but in all seriousness you just might. Also you need to be patient with people because you might be the one causing the issue. Again I have no idea about the methods that God provided this by but then end result is that I had the keys. Also this was one of the most tangible lessons I’ve been taught, God revealed himself in a whole new way to me.

Also when I opened My Utmost for His Highest today’s lesson title was Keep Recognizing Jesus… There is no way I can write this off as some sort of freak accident. Yesterday when I read it after I was struggling with being patient with another person the title was Beware of Criticizing Others… God works in so many ways…  

If this doesn’t show the power of prayer and how God works then I don’t know what will. 

I leave for Arlington Texas with the Switch group tomorrow please be praying for us for

• Travel safety
• Changed hearts 
• Togetherness as a team

Much Love amigos!

Drew

Well if you’re reading this you’ll obviously know I came home alive from Panama. Words can not describe the awesomeness of the trip and I honestly don’t feel as if I’d be doing it justice trying to write about all of my experiences. The theme I think I can pull from this trip is that no matter how much you plan God is in control and even your best laid plans won’t go as you want. Honestly email me at dstaudy@hotmail.com and we’ll set up a time to sit down and talk about the trip, I would love to talk to you!

My personal study today was from Hebrews 5:13-14 which is down below

This for me is a great encouragement to continue studying and learning more and more because if I want to be an “Adult” Christian I need to continue to “Digest” more real food.

Much Love Amigos!

Drew

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

 ¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

I am excited to no end to see what God is going to be doing with the internship this summer. I feel this group is going to to do things beyond anyone’s imagination and I am very hopeful that we are all going to grow stronger and closer as the summer goes on. I’m more than satisfied with our living arrangements and  can’t wait to get to know Colton’s grandparents as the summer goes on. I am also doing another big exercise in trust by allowing Alyssa to chop up my hair… prayer? haha Everything so far is turning out better than I expected and I’m excruciatingly optimistic right now!

Now time for some personal introspection…

My biggest fear with this internship is going to be sharing my faith, admittedly it’s probably one of my biggest fears. I just don’t feel like I know enough to help guide someone through the process. BUT! I am very hopeful that this will all change this summer seeing as how this is going to be a very big part of what we’re going to be doing. I’m also being very encouraged by a book called The One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven by Mark Cahill, if you haven’t read it you really should. In it he talks about how we don’t need to have all of the answers at that point in time when the questions are asked. Is it good to have the answers? YES but we can’t be expected to answer every question correctly on the spot. This was really encouraging to me because I tend to like to know the answers to things and be “smart”. This summer is going to produce very big changes in my life and I can’t wait to see what God does with them!

Much Love!

Drew

I decided to take a break from packing everything to sit down and write a little bit. I won’t be living at home for 2 months and on Friday I leave for Panama. My feelings? I’m ecstatic, straight up pumped out of mind. How am I feeling? Right at this moment not the greatest, I’ve been trying to get over a fairly nasty cold (my sinuses were so clogged I had a hard time hearing) and it would be really nice to get over this before Friday… Hard work and a stuffy nose typically don’t work well together. I could definitely use some prayer for this…

As for being packed I’m pretty much good to go and I feel pretty prepared I just need to physically put the items into bags. Packing is making me realize what I’m actually doing and it just makes it that much more exciting! I’m really worried at all about whether or not I packed this or that, in fact I’m really not worried about this trip. I’ve come to trust that God will provide for me enough to the point where worrying isn’t a factor. I’m not worried about what we’re going to eat, what we’ll be doing, where we’re staying, or all of the “what if?” questions.  I trust that God will provide everything we need and that his Will will be done. Worry and anxiety are some Satan’s greatest traps to help us fall and not focus on what’s at hand. Something most of you probably don’t know is that I’ve struggled with anxiety for part of my life. Anxiety attacks suck hardcore you stop thinking straight and you do some very irrational things, it almost ended a relationship for me. Trusting God for everything is difficult but once you can let go it’s so much easier for joy to flow in. That’s why I’m not worried about this trip at all partly because I really don’t have a clue what we’re doing and mainly I’m trusting God and seeing what he does with this trip. With all of the worry out of the way I can focus on what I’m doing and be more effective. 

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain

Phillipians 1:21

Prayer requests for this week… Move-in goes smoothly, my cold would pass, and for safe travel down to Panama, and that I will be bolder with my faith daily

Much Love!

Drew

So I’ve decided to start pulling away from the good ‘ol FB and start using this to document my life. 

I will mainly use this to share with you my meditations and learnings in my walk with God and just what’s going on in my life. I will try and be as stereotypical of a blogger as I can be; I will sit in trendy cafes and coffee shops and type, I will try and convince you that my blog is unique and that I have a very interesting life style, I will also act like I have a huge audience to talk to, and finally I will give my biased political opinions on everything and hope that kids will one day cite me in a research paper… If you can’t tell I’m a very sarcastic person but in all seriousness I think this will be best used for others to glimpse in to what’s going on in my spiritual life and hopefully to encourage them. My goal in this ephemeral (btw I love me some vocab) life is to praise honor God in everything I do, I do not have everything figured out yet and I am always continuing to learn.

Toodles!

Drew