One guy i work with said while he was breathing heavy. "You probably saved me from passing out." The next day another guy from my work belt returned the favor because I nearly passed out in the 1st hour of the day.

The series Paying it Forward has been such an amaizing series. I have been attending th college Bible study off and on since the church was meeting at the movie theater. I came back a week before this series started. When you said in worship that you were starting a series called Pay it Forward i immediatly thought of the movie. When i thought more about it i knew i had to be there every week for this series. i missed the first week of it because of a family get together. I enjoyed every single week of this series and cant wait for the next sermon series. The more i come there the more i am wanting to get involved in the church. I have recently signed up for a college small group. I have also signed up to go on the college fall retreat.  

Like i said in my email earlier. I have been coming to the church since it was at the theater. I am a close friend of a family in your church. When I was asked if i wanted to crash at their house on a saturday night and go to church with them i said ok. When they told me the church met in the theater, honestly my first thought was wow. I thought, why in a theater. When i got there everyone was so excited to be there. I had never so many people excited to worshiping God.

This morning (Friday), it hit me. I was the servant with 1 talent. I was afraid. Who am I to decide how the dollar would affect someone. I suddenly realized that I didn’t have faith that God would use the dollar in many ways that were beyond my understanding. Who was I to judge who needed the dollar? I did not see myself as the servant with 1 talent during the service last Sunday. However, through this challenge, I realized that I can be afraid. More importantly, I realized I don't want to be afraid.

Last Sunday’s message was clear to me on a whole new level. It is my job to plant as many seeds as I can and leave it to the Lord to decide how the seeds would grow. See, we don’t have control of the elements that affect the seeds or the how the seeds will grow, but we do have control over how many seeds we plant. We can provide an environment that helps seeds to grow. We can water the seed, we can fertilize the seed, we can provide love, care, and support to those around us. How the Lord uses what you do for Him is HIS glory.

My new thought is to make a difference in every moment that crosses, not just certain moments that I think are worth it. I choose to make a difference everyday by a gentle smile, an open door, a lended ear, a simple thank you. For you never know how God will use these moments to bless others. How many days have you secretly thought “I wish someone would notice me; I wish someone would smile at me, or hold the door open for me?” It is often the little things that can make a difference. I now know to stop waiting for the big moments, because it is the millions of small ones that can do wonders! The Lord can turn the small moments into a huge opportunity and you may never know.

Keep it simple.

Thank you for the message and the opportunity to be challenged, as this is how we grow.

My wife commented to me, "Its a long time since I have been challenged like that" and I know she means it as a complement.

We have been visiting many churches in the area this past year-and have not found one that is close to the church we attended in Calif. It just so happened that we moved at the same time as 2 other families from the same church we attended in CA.-- and we all moved to this same area. The church we attended in Calif was committed to giving away 50% of all its givings from the attenders there-- to the needs of God's people in the U.S and around the world--it was amazing to see how God has worked in the lives of the people and the church there.

I took your message yesterday and decided to give the money to Children's Hunger Fund -in honor of Rolling Hills Community Church. It is where the money will multiply, to feed children around the world--a great organization headquartered in Southern Calif.--- but branching out across the country. They use God's wisdom and His resources to set up Mercy Networks to feed the world with His Word while also feeding the world with nourishment.  The money was spent on helping a child somewhere receive a meal.

I am looking forward to visiting again with the rest of my family and our friends that also moved here.  Thanks for a great message   God Bless  

RHCC is a blessing!

It also blew me away later that day to hang out with a middle schooler and hear her passionately brainstorm different ways she could pay it forward with her two dollars. I love that students are becoming less consumed with their own lives and are becoming more sensitive to the needs around them.  It makes me SO excited that together as a church we're pushing each other toward having a mindset that's more like Christ! I can't wait to learn more about proclaiming Christ through meeting needs around us.

It's clear that our church is being prayed for and God's faithfulness is so evident!

Friday afternoon I received some troubling news from home about a man that my widowed mother had been dating. We, the children, had our doubts about him when we met him, but we gave him the benefit of the doubt.  Our suspicions were confirmed, though, and we learned that this man was having an affair with a married woman behind my mother's back.  My brothers and sisters spoke to me about this, and also broke the news to her about what he had been doing. 

Oh, I forgot to mention that they had promised mom to not tell ME, and yes, they broke that promise.  Needless to say, that put all of us in an awkward position.  But that's the family dynamic - we keep secrets, only certain family members know the whole truth, and we can't talk openly about our problems.  We all know they exist, but we don't talk about them.

I decided that this was not something I could participate in any longer, that trying to keep the lie of my knowledge secret was going to eat me up inside, and I wrote my family (minus mom) an email saying essentially that we need to change the way we handle things as a family.  Imagine, a single, 28 year old guy telling his older, married with children siblings that we need to change the way we operate as a family, a manner I'm sure has been around since before I was born. 

I didn't how how it would be received, but I knew that this was what was right.  Would you believe they concurred.  In two weeks, when I go home, we are having a quote-unquote summit to talk about how to promote disclosure and openness about the good and the bad that comes upon us as a family.  This past weekend exposed serious problems in our family that we are addressing.  Praise God!

But, specifically, about paying it forward.  My mom broke up with the man, and I called her Monday morning, and she was hurting, I could tell, but her pride was overrunning her hurt.  I decided to write her a letter.  (If you could only see my tears as I'm writing this email to you).  In that letter I praised her for weathering the storms of the past two years - my accident and admission of a drinking problem, dad's cancer treatment and eventual passing, and now my oldest brother undergoing chemotherapy for bladder and colon cancer, and so much more that I can't enumerate here, as it would be too overwhelming.  I thanked her for confiding in me, and for treating me like an adult.  I told her about recovery, what it means to let a community of safe people into your mess and struggles.  I told her that she was worth working on, that I cared more about her healthiness than I did about her happiness, and that her healthiness can lead to happiness, joy, and peace.  I told her about a book I'm going to bring her, Life's Healing Choices, and how I want her to read it and for us to discuss it. 

I don't know how she will respond to the letter, but I pray it opens up a conversation between us.  All I can do is trust God in this time, and that's it.  I love her with all my heart, and I want her to be well. 

That envelope from Sunday paid for my 44 cent stamp for that letter.  I'm working on what to do with the other 56 cents.

1. Using my $1 to Pay It Forward this week was really easy. My pregnant daughter called me while I was still in bed and said she was wiped out on the sofa and craving Burger King bacon, egg and cheese croissants. So I got up, got dressed and went through the drive-thru (since I hadn't had my shower yet and didn't have makeup on) and made her dream come true!

2. But I really want to tell you about something that happened to me last week.

I had gone to the post office and when I drove up I heard a gentleman in the parking lot on a rather loud and stressed phone call. He was pacing all over with a very distressed and hurting look on his face. There was a very small trailer attached to his car.  I went on in, not wanting to make him uncomfortable. While I was inside, he came in and began almost crying to the clerk that he had no place to live, no where to go, etc. (He came to the p.o. b/c he was concerned about where his mail would go.) But he kept saying he was in so much trouble and didn't have any idea what he was going to do. My heart broke for him but I had no idea how or if I should/could help him.

When I went back to my car I thought about putting a note and the $20 bill I had in my wallet on his window. Well, I drove off instead and made it about 1/2 block down the road when God clearly told me that the idea was indeed HIS and not mine. So I immediately turned around and went back to the post office and wrote a note of encouragement which I left with the $20 on his window.  I quickly drove away so as not to be detected and went through the drive-thru at McDonald's to get a $1 large soda. When I went to pay, the lady informed me that the gentleman in the truck in front of me had paid for mine. What a cool way for God to show me that He takes care of me even with covering $1 (which I would have had to scrape the change together to pay) for a soda. It also made me feel more loved by the guy that paid for my soda than proud of myself for what I had done. And way more in love with my Jesus! For a person that struggles a lot with feeling loved and accepted, I have to say that that stranger's simple act of paying $1 for me made me feel so loved. I smiled the rest of the day because of it. We never know who is behind us and what they are struggling with and how our simple little acts of love and kindness might possibly change/save their life.