World Changing in Salt Lake City......Utah!

So I'm really tired but I am so excited to share about World Changers in Salt Lake!

The back story -

I was returning home from a World Changers project in Clovis California. It was one of those rare moments in youth ministry, where everyone in the van was asleep. I was excited for the silence and for the opportunity to thank God for the week. I ended up asking God where we needed to head next and I felt God tell me that Salt Lake City would be a great location for World Changers. After some delayed obedience I made a phone call to NAMB and left a message on the world changers general mail box. To my surprise I received a return phone call from the director of World Changers 30 minutes later. He told me that he was going to fly out and we would pitch the project. To make a long story short we pitched the project to two cities and both loved the idea. NAMB approved the project dates for July 14-21, 2007. It was here that the work began. I was appointed by the Salt Lake Baptist Association to serve as the Associational Coordinator and began all the prep work to make a World Changers project happen.

The Week -

307 volunteers from Illinois, Utah, Oklahoma, Idaho, Iowa, Washington, California, Texas, New Mexico, and Wyoming showed up ready to work. They came prepared to roof, side, paint, replace windows, perform yard clean outs, and anything else we needed them to do. These volunteers came with a purpose: To tell Salt Lake City that God had given them a gift and because of that gift they wanted to serve God by serving others. These volunteers slept on cots or air matresses in classrooms. They were constantly hot, sweaty, and tired, but despite all of this you never heard them complain. They were overjoyed to participate in this project.

Their efforts helped lead 13 people to Jesus during the week. Several others wanted to know about how and where to attend a church that was supporting World Changers. The media was all over the project. KUTV, Fox13, KSL, Univision, Telemundo, The Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News and several others all came out trying to understand what these people were doing.

I was amazed at their constant positive attitude. They all desired to know and understand the culture they were surrounded by better. I'm not sure if I could put into words just how I feel about the project. Good just doesn't seem to cut it. God blessed this project and the efforts of the 400+ volunteers that helped make this project a reality.

Here are some pictures of one worksite. This house started off with wood siding and wood shaker shingles. This crew was tasked with replacing the roof, including new decking and siding the house. They also re-insulated the attic. This was truly an extreme make over. I talked with the homeowner and he told me that he would need to make his address marker bigger because he didn't recognize his own home. This house tranformation easily echoes the change that came about in Salt Lake City last week. It was great to see Christians in the news for something positive.

Great job World Changers! Thank you for your efforts and love of our community. I hope you all come back next year!

Ugh...gross.

As an avid sports fan I spend most of my mornings watching sportscenter on ESPN. I am usually holding out for any NFL news relating to the Denver Broncos but usually during this time of year the only thing that is happening is baseball. Reluctantly I ended up watching a spoof about a japanese professional eater named Takeru Kobayashi. This guy has won the 4th of July Nathan's hot dog eating contest for 6 years straight. Kobayashi had just had his wisdom teeth removed and, as many who have gone through that precedure can attest, couldn't open his mouth very well. All the commentators were giving him a hard time saying that he was a coward and was afraid of the competition.

The 4th of July came and, as is the custom, the competitors filed out one by one at Coney Island to gorge themselves on hot dogs. I stumbled upon a re-run of the contest and was absolutely sickened by the contest but also the commentary. The outcome came down to a guy named Joey Chestnut and Kobayashi. Chestnut had to eat 66 hotdogs and buns in 12 minutes in order to beat Koabayshi. While this is going on the in-contest commentary is saying things like this is the greatest moment in American sports and that courage and valor were the things that were helping these great "athletes" accomplish this spectacle of gluttony. I ended up turning off the television very disappointed.

Every day, millions of children go to bed without having even a scrap of food. This isn't just in third world, poverty stricken countries overseas. This happens in our backyard. People go hungry and are dying because of it. I don't have any statistics but I know enough to know that it is a very big problem.

I don't think these pictures look very heroic...do you?