We'll Play for India

On May 7th, some of my friends and I hosted a concert to raise money for wells in India with the ultimate goal of getting the glorious Gospel to unreached people in India who do not have the most basic need: CLEAN WATER. By God's grace and provision alone we raised over $4,000 for wells to be built in India. That's 5 wells in 5 different villages which translates into approximately 2,500 people who will have clean water and get to hear the message of the Gospel.

How did this get started? Mandi Mapes and I are college small goup leaders at our church - Brook Hills. A few months ago, we were at a leadership training with our amazing college pastor, Britten Taylor. He wanted to challenge us to look at what ways we could give more to

our small groups in the 4 areas of discipleship. The four areas are: Share the Word, Show the Word, Teach the Word, and Serve the World. He asked what the weakest area was, and we quickly saw that college small groups are struggling to "Serve the world." College kids are sooo busy. It's hard to get kids from all different schedules together to even meet once a week...much less serve a ministry! Fast foward a few weeks....Mandi calls me and says, "Hey, let's do something to serve the world, and lets get our small groups together to do it!" I responded, "Sure!...What do you want to do?" We tossed around a couple ideas then I said, "Um...we could have a concert?!" And that's what we did. The next step was to find an organization to channel the funds through. That was EASY. Neverthirst (www.neverthirstwater.org) is an amazing organization in BIRMINGHAM that builds wells in India, Sudan, and Central Africa Republic. They do this through the local church to mobilize the church to bring the Gospel to remote areas. We both know Mark Whitehead and Spencer Sutton well because they are members at Brook Hills along with us. We've actually been hounding Spencer to take us to India for about a year now! So, the relationship was established and we were EXCITED. Mandi mentioned this idea to Callie Priest...BEST. MOVE.

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EVER. Callie mentioned it to Bubba Rosenow, and we all met at Starbucks to talk about this little concert we were going to have. One of the coolest things about this process was seeing the body of Christ at work for God's glory. Bubba, Callie, Sam Torres, Mandi, and I all have different gifts given by God that worked really well together...amazingly well - which gives God the glory.

So, we got a facebook page and the journey began! Mandi's small group made tons of jewelry to sell and my small group baked cookies and candies, ect. We had a lot of people help out! It was amazing to see how many people wanted to help! We had to turn some help away because we had so much!

We initially expected to have about 50 people there. We thought, "if we get 100 people, that

would be amazing." We had NO IDEA what God was going to do. We also thought, "if we raise enough money for ONE well, that would be incredible." Again we had NO IDEA what God was going to do through this simple small act of obedience.....

The night of the concert was incredible. People we've met and built relationships with over the years came and volunteered to sing and play. Adam Wright, Chris Adkins, and Mandi all played a set. The UCF house looked incredible...and people were EVERYWHERE. At one point, we had around 340 people there! I don't know how many actually came through. It was an amazing night of community, raising awareness, and worship through enjoying what God wanted to do....At the end, we had enough money for 5 wells. To God be the Glory!

First post: )

I'm not very creative, so coming up with a catchy title for my blog could be quite challenging:). "All things new" is a piece of Scripture that gives us a glipmse of what God is doing in the world, what He will accomplish, and what we get to anticipate and look forward to.
Revelation 21:5 says, "And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
That is something to look forward to....Christ will make all things new. In the meantime, we continue to follow the great commission (Mathew 28:18-20) making disciples of ALL nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that God commanded. We are promised that Christ will be with us when we do this. It is a sure promise from the Word of God.
Then one glorious Day, Christ WILL return and gather His people to see His glory where He is. (John 17:24).
So we look in hopeful, sure, anticipation to the Day we will see Christ face to face as we go into the world telling others of the hope we have through redemption purchased by Christ Jesus.....

We should do this wherever we are: home, work, school, road trips, starbucks, wal-mart, ect. But, in a few short days, I'll have an opportunity to do that in India. This opportunity doesn't happen every day: ). I'm going with a team from my church, and we are working with a local partner in India. We will be teaching the Gospel to about 800 slum children each morning during Vacation Bible School. Most, if not all, of these children have never heard of a God who loves them, sent His son to die for them, and wants a relationship with them. We'll get to tell them about this! We are going to teach creation of the world, creation of man, the fall, redemption, glorification...the whole deal!!! I can't wait to see their sweet faces as they hear of a redeeemer who loves them!
In the afternoons, our team will have the opportunity to teach the book of Ruth to women in a battered and abused shelter. These women are probably new believers....This is also very exciting! The book of Ruth is a beautiful love story that points to redemption purchased by the blood of Christ for His beloved bride. We'll get to share that with them....letting them know that this world is not our home, and one day Christ will wipe away every tear, and we will be with Him forever.(Revelation 21:4) He is our treasure, and in Him, all good things are found.

I hope to update this blog some from India. If not, I'll definitely post a report, pictures, ect when I get home.
Our team is leaving May 14th and will retunr May 23rd. Please pray for us!