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Archive for June, 2010

Kid’s Heart Day 2

Posted in Missions on June 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Day two has been incredible.  We began the day at 5:30 am and left for Fort Hancock at 6:00.  We hit the site running – or climbing rather.  By church time we had almost finished one side of the roof.  We stopped to attend the service and had a very meaningful time with the church family – even though the entire service was in Spanish, there was a distinct bond with the people.  Afterwards, the church fed us a wonderful meal and then it was back to work.

This evening, we attended a worship service with the other churches that are represented here this week for the Kid’s Heart effort.  Kid’s Heart is a joint effort between Buckner International and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas.  We were blessed tonight to be given a challenge by the President of Buckner International, Albert Reyes.  I really appreciated that he took the time to come to El Paso and be here to meet with our groups.  I also appreciated what he had to say.

I am so excited to see what God will do this week.  Continue to pray for us as we wrap up our work in Fort Hancock tomorrow and move on to the next project.  It is amazing to be around when people’s availability intersect with God’s desire.   Lives are forever changed!  More on that subject next time.  For now, check out some pics from today.

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Kid’s Heart Day One

Posted in Missions on June 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Day one of the Kid’s Heart mission trip was spent driving from Levelland to Fort Hancock and then working for six hours on the project in the heat.  As you can see from the pictures, we started with walls in place and then moved through near completion of the roof structure.  We have twelve guys on the trip and each worked hard through the heat to do an awesome job.

The pastor of the church, Israel, along with two of the youth of the church were there all afternoon working right along with us.  It was great to work with them knowing that God is using them on a daily basis to make a difference in this community.

Day two will be spent working to complete the roof as well as stopping to worship with the church during the regular worship service.  I am excited to see familiar faces along with all the new ones God has brought into this church since we were last here with them.  Pray that God will continue to grow relationships between our group and the people of the church and community.

It is humbling and exciting to be a part of this group and in a small way being part of what God is doing here.

More to come!

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The Weapons Crew Is Mobilized

Posted in Missions on June 11, 2010| 1 Comment »

The Weapons Specialists will be rolling out of our church parking lot tomorrow morning at 6:00 am.  We will roll up on the project site in Fort Hancock around noon Mountain Time and go to work.  For the next week, our crew will be building, roofing, laying carpet and doing some plumbing.  Please pray for us.  You can pray for our safety and for the successful completion of the projects but most of all, pray that God will use us to make a difference in the lives of the people of the area.

Check back here all next week for pictures and updates as to what God is doing.  If you would like more up to the minute information, you can follow me on Twitter @jbrianhill.  I will be tweeting regularly throughout the day with updates from the projects.

As always, thank you for reading my ramblings and thanks for your prayers.

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Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? . . .

Posted in Formation, Hope on June 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Why did the chicken cross the road?  In this case, to get to my wife’s office.  I suppose it had heard the rumors around the barnyard that my wife takes in stray animals who have lost their way.

Yesterday, my wife was sitting at her desk and looked out the window facing one of the busier streets in town to see a chicken walking down the road.  For those of you who are not familiar with our fair city, that is an unusual sight even for our community.

What made the picture more interesting is that 3 feet behind the chicken was a cat, ready to pounce.  Kristi jumped up and called for backups from some of her co-workers.  As she got to the door, the chicken had already crossed the road and was standing just outside the building.  One of the co-workers picked up the chicken and brought it into the building.

Then started the process of finding the owner.  After a couple of hours of checking around and running a free public service announcement on the local radio station “Trade-E-O,” she was able to find a new home for the fowl with a family who raises chickens.

As I thought about this comical drama, I was reminded that most of us are pursued by undesirable things – habitual sin, past experiences we would like to forget, etc.  Just like that chicken walking down the road and the cat ready to pounce, we are often in the same situation – at any moment we could be pounced upon.

But praise God, we have someone we can run to for safety and rescue.  No matter what road you are on today, and no matter what is about to pounce on you, God is watching and waiting for you to reach out for help.

Don’t be discouraged – take heart – God is always right there!

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Does Serving Jesus Bring You Fulfillment

Posted in Formation on June 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I have been wrestling since yesterday morning. Wrestling with who I am in Christ.  Wrestling with fulfillment.  Do you ever struggle with being fulfilled – with being happy?

Reading Thomas Merton is what started the wrestling yesterday.  Here is what I read:

We are what we love.  If we love God, in whose image we were created, we discover ourselves in him and we cannot help being happy: we have already achieved something of the fullness of being for which we were destined in our creation.  If we love everything else but God, we contradict the image born in our very essence, and we cannot help being unhappy, because we are living a caricature of what we are meant to be.

I have been wrestling with fulfillment and how that is directly related to what or who I love and it excites me to think that by loving God, I am achieving a little of what God intended for me.

Fulfillment comes when we function as God intended – and a part of that is found in loving God.  Sounds simple enough but it takes not loving other things on a daily basis – some of them may be good things but if they dilute your love for God then they are pulling you away from what you were created to be and do.  Jesus said we can’t serve two masters – it’s true!

Love God today and live a fulfilled and happy life!

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Don’t Ruin Your Kids

Posted in Parenting on June 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I don’t make a habit of sending you to another site very often, but I read this post yesterday from my friend Trey Morgan – and you need to read it.  Please take the time to link to it here and read through it today.

Having had my eldest graduate high school recently, I have been analyzing my deficiencies as a dad – and they are many.

Parenting is hard work – it is so easy to slack off and let the raising happen rather than doing the raising.

Don’t let that happen – be an active part of the lives of your kids, and don’t be afraid to be a parent!

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Who’s the Church

Posted in Church, Community on June 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I once heard a gentleman leaving an uplifting worship service say, “We had church today!”  I knew what he meant but it made me wonder, “Does that mean we haven’t been having church all the other days?”

What is church to you?  Is it the hour on Sunday morning that we gather together to sing and hear a message from God’s word?

Or is it the steeple topped building on the corner?  Or maybe it’s the people inside that steeple topped building?

In a general sense, all these answers are correct.  But in reality, the church is the people who gather together.

Sometimes we gather to sing and listen, sometimes we gather to study and pray, sometimes we gather to serve others and sometimes we just gather to party.

The point is that the church is the people doing life together – sharing life together.

So the next time you say, “I’m going to church,” think about what that means and let it shape what you do there.

Be a blessing today!

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10 Guys, a Trailer and a Load of Power Tools

Posted in Missions on June 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

“Weapons of Mass Construction.”  That was the slogan we put on the back of a T-Shirt in 2007 to commemorate our construction crew that goes each year to build a home for a family in need along the border of Texas and Mexico.  The slogan stuck. It is a crazy and Godly group of men and I am privileged that they let me tag along.

It has been a struggle this year to pull the trip together, but after my trip to El Paso this week, we are ready!  The crew met last night and we are stoked!  It is so amazing to work with these guys and watch how God uses them to make a huge difference in the lives of others.  It has also been really cool to see how God works in each of our lives along the way too.

We will load up and head to El Paso on June 12 and work on two different projects over the course of 6 days.  Please pray for us.  Pray that God will keep us safe as we travel and work.  Pray that God will use us to minister to others, not only in the actual building of a structure but more so in the building of relationships.

You can watch the posts here that week to keep up with what is going on and know how to pray for us.  If you want an even closer connection with the action and progress you can follow my Twitter feeds – @jbrianhill.  I did this last year and plan on doing it again – several times per day I will take a picture and tweet out a progress report allowing those following to be connected to the action in real time.

Thanks for your prayer!

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Watch That Camera Bag!

Posted in Formation, Humor on June 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday I had to make a flying trip (literally) to El Paso to finalize the details for our upcoming mission trip to the area.  As I was boarding the plane to head home, I was behind a gentleman who was having a little difficulty managing his carry-on bags.  He had a roll-on bag and then a camera bag.  He was holding the camera bag by the strap as he attempted numerous times to place his larger bag in the overhead compartment.  I was 3 people behind him in line and couldn’t help, and unbeknownst to him, each time he attempted to wedge the bag into it’s unwilling home for the ride, his camera bag swung around and hit an elderly lady in the head who was already seated in the row in front of him.

The patient woman did nothing except smile at me as if to say, “Somebody please do something.”  From where I was standing, I could do nothing but smile back.  Inside I wanted to burst out laughing.  I mean the bag wasn’t really smacking her around – otherwise, doing nothing would have been insensitive and just wrong.  The bag was barely brushing her hair as she dodged it each time it swung around her head but it was still hilarious to watch.

As I sat through the flight, the picture of the bag swinging around and the helpless look of the elderly lady kept coming to mind.  Once I got over my immature side and began to think about the scene, I wondered how many times I have been unaware of imposing on others.

How often has my insensitivity toward those around me caused problems for someone else?  We are called to love God with all our hearts, minds and strength and to love others as ourselves.  This means we must be concerned about how our actions impact those around us.

Moral of the story: be careful when putting your luggage into the overhead compartment – or – pay attention to your actions and how they impact others, you may be the only Jesus that person sees today.

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All You Can Eat Is Not Always The Best Choice

Posted in Formation on June 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday, Kristi, Bryson and I made a quick trip to Lubbock to pick up a few things.  Before heading home, we stopped by one of our favorite eating establishments which specializes in smoked meats – OK, we went for barbeque.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that we arrived on an evening offering all-you-can eat ribs.  It has been a while since we indulged in ribs and so we decided to splurge.

You may be thinking, “A perfect end to a holiday.”  I would normally agree with you but here is the catch.  I cannot eat at this particular place without paying the price with indigestion and nausea several hours later.  I am not sure if it is the barbeque or the fact that I eat until I can hardly walk.  So sitting down to order, I knew the price that indulging would force me to pay.  But I chose to pay the price for the enjoyment of the moment.

This reminded me of the struggle we all have with sin.  Paul dealt with this struggle just as we do today.  You can read about it here.   The problem is that we are basically selfish and self-centered.  We want our own way and we want it now – regardless of the price we may pay later.

Jesus never told his disciples that following him would be easy.  Following him means putting our desires aside in order to give ourselves completely to living as Jesus lived – for others.  I challenge you today to strive to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus.

Just as the barbeque was not worth the momentary pleasure – so sin is not worth the alienation from God that it causes.  Stay strong today.

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