A Year Later.

It has now been a year since I left YWAM Tyler. When I left I went to Delaware to stay with my parents until School started. I spent that time Working at GameStop. I left Delaware and started College Jan. 2nd 08. So I am now Living in Lima for 4 years until I graduate. It has been hard for me until lately. Since I didn't know anyone, didn't like the locals and couldn't find a good local church It has been a hard 9 months.

God is good, I have lately been hanging out with a few people at the Coffee shop I am now working at and have developed some good friendships with a few local people.

I am working towards a bachelors degree in automotive high performance and alternative fuels in business.

My hope is to get my loans paid off ASAP so that I would be able to go back into ministry full time. This has been a good time for me to really study more and dive deeper into God's word.

I would like to thank all of you that have supported me through the years. God could not have done so much through me without your help.

Next summer a few friends and I will be living in Chicago for a bit.....HOMELESS. We want to experience life through their eyes and walk a mile in their shoes. I would like to take an undercover video camera and make a documentary out of it.

Thank you

-Ben

Bride, Son and Servant?

We were having a prayer time and started praying about being servants of Christ. In the bible we are called to be servants of Christ, and yet we are called Sons and the Bride of Christ? Would seem to me that these are 3 different elements.

Servant: Serves the masters will, does the work that is asked of him by the master. A servant in biblical times was usually someone who was debted to the master. He had a debt that he owed and sold himself into servanthood in order to pay it off. It was a choice they made to work for the master instead of going to jail for what they owed. In the same way we are to do the work of the master, we are not only ment to serve but that servanthood was bought at a price and is nearly a work owed to the master for what he has done.

Son: So often it seems that people think the way a child acts is a reflection of the parents. In the same way we should be a reflection of God whom has redeemed us. When people look at us do they see just another person or a person who has been saved by grace and reflects their father in heaven?

The Bride: The bride is the most intimate person in your life, they know everything about you and you know everything about them. God calls us his bride and this is no small task. We are to know Christ deeper than anyone else, and not in any small detail. We are called to be in a deeply intimate relationship in which we know God just as deeply as he knows us.

Made me really think last night.
Just a thought.
-B3n

My apologies.

It has been a while since I last posted. I hope this week to give more info on what happened and what is going on now.

-Ben

Germany's Rainy City (Ludensheid)

Friday
Our first full day at this location and they gave us the morning off, they thought that we had just arrived from the states and needed to get over jet lag. In the afternoon we worked outside on the mountain. I went around and picked up wood from up on the mountain and brought it down to stack it outside in the storage area.
Saturday
That night we went to the church which was part of the FCJG ministry. We did the worship and the message. Most of the people there were from a part of the ministry and some were locals and people from the rehab.
Me on the bass for worship
Me praying for Alex
Alex gave his life to the lord that night.The rest of the week was spent doing a lot of different things. We spent some time helping with their newsletters, organizing and putting them in the envelopes. We went out to the mall and stores and just walked around talking to people. We had a few long times of prayer for the city, people and ministrys working there. On our last day we spent the whole day working on the base and cleaning it. I did the hedge trimming......all day. That evening we had a Germany BBQ with tons of meat and bread. That night we all went out for ice cream, and it was the best ice cream I have ever had. It was a ice spaghetti, it looked like a plate of spaghetti with bananas and chocolate syrup.
Me and my ice cream

Germany and the Freaks (Berlin)

Monday
We spent some more time touring the city and learning more about the history and major parts.
We went to a remaining part of the wall still standing in the city and we went to checkpoint Charlie.
Germany Team Guys
Trying to escapeChris and I along the riverFrench Dome

After dinner we went back to the church and did a small service for the kids service.
Tuesday
In the Morning we went to the Garden of Desire and did worship and prayer there.
The Garden of desire in front of the Berliner Dome
A few of the guys went and prayed over the cathedral. We saw people coming and going in and out and taking pictures but they only saw so much, they seemed to miss the messages put in plain view about Christ. in the picture you can see in the center there is a statue with gold writing next to it, there is written two scriptures......but I'm not sure what they are.
That night we hung out with the youth that were at the church. The church that we were staying at has a ministry that was a hang out room for local youth and they did a BBQ for them o that night. So we hung out with them and talked, most of them were drinking and smoking and us not doing it and not taking any when they offered allowed us to show them something different. Us not doing the same thing as them allowed for more conversation and more to talk about.
Wednesday
In the morning we prayed over the YWAM team there. We went to the apartment where they had set up a main base and guys living area and prayed over it and the people who lived there. We went to the girls apartment which was in an old soviet apartment building. We prayed over them and the house, that it would be a place of peace where it feels like home.
That afternoon we went to Kreuzberg and did worship in the park. The park that we went to was mostly known for drugs, alcohol and problems. We went there and did worship and prayer in the area as a spiritual battle for the area. The whole time we were there it was raining.
That night we had pizza at the church with the leadership of the church. We had dinner with them and a time of fellowship then went into a time of worship and prayer for each other. That church was doing a thing called summer to go where they hosted outreach teams and worked with them.
Thursday
we spent the day traveling to FCJG, a ministry in Ludensheid.
That night we had a short introduction time.

I'm in Germany! (Berlin)

Wednesday to Thursday:
We left the base at 11 in the morning and flew out at 4 in the afternoon. Our first flight was from Dallas to Frankfort then we caught our connecting flight to Berlin. We didn't do much that day, but from 5 to 6 we had a welcome party with the YWAM Berlin team. The Church that we are staying at was originally used by the secret police back when East Berlin was the Democratic Republic of Germany.
Friday:
In the morning we left for a tour of the city. We took a train to downtown and walked around checking out the main sites and historic places.
St. Mary's Church
Neptune fountain
Altes Museum

Berliner Dom
TV Tower
I thought it was really cool how this was made my the Democratic Republic of Germany(Communist rule) and when the sun shone on it it formed a cross in the air. Christians used to laugh at it cause the Government was so against religion but one of the things they erected shone the glory of God.

Brandenburg Gate
Capital Building

That afternoon we went to one of the parks and met up with a local group to do some street ministry and invite people back to the park for a service.
Saturday:
We got up and met with the leaders of a kids club to plan out what we were doing. We played Games with the kids for an hour or so. I was in charge of helping out with soccer, which was strange because I haven't played since I was young. Then we brought them all in for a bible story and one of our dramas.
Sunday:
Today we went to the service at the church we were staying with. We started out the service with our Clincher drama, which I will load up a video of as soon as possible. Then three of the team members shared a testimony and I was one of them. I shared about my coming into ministry, taking a leap of faith into what God has called me to do even though i am unsure and not capable of doing it by myself depending on God. I talked about not fearing what you have to do because greater is in you than that which is in the world.

We had the afternoon off, so I decided to walk around the area and check out stuff but everything was closed. So I went back to the church and went to sleep.

At 4 we met as a team and we were supposed to go to one of the parks and do street evangelism, but it was raining out and nobody would be there. We prayed as a team and decided to go to the park with the TV tower and have some worship and prayer over the area. When we were worshiping we had a guy come up and listen, so we talked with him. His name was Frank and he had skin cancer for which his doctor gave him 6 months to live. We prayed for him believing....NO.....knowing! that God would heal him (so please pray for him). He is going to see the doctor tomorrow, so we know that God is going to heal him and use him. Then we had a couple stop and watch, one of our girls went over and talked to them. They felt like there was something drawing them into us, but they claimed it was the music.
Our intercessory prayer team felt like we were to pray into the ground and dance for the lord, in the middle of the park full of people. It was amazing.
TV Tower Park

Chicago or Bust!!!

Chicago!!!
Our time in Chicago was nothing less than amazing. Most of the ministry that we did was just building relationships, praying over the city and for people. The first day we were there we walked around and took surveys and talked to people There, Then to get home we had to ask for $.50 for the bus ride home. The bus fare was to show us what the city was like and how on a daily basis people have problems and need help but don't want to ask for it. On the second night we went to one of the parks and handed out food to the homeless and talked with them. The last night we were there we walked around "boys town" and prayed over the area and talked to people (boys town is the gay section of town).

Art outside in daily plaza downtown

we had been in the plaza all afternoon talking to people passing by and praying for anyone who wanted it. We had cards that said we were praying for people so we handed them out and asked if anyone wanted prayer for anything as they went by. I believe we as a group prayed for over 150 people that afternoon.

Me on the 99th floor of the Sears Tower
we were given the day of on Saturday, so I hung out with John and Jackie Gardner. We went to the sears tower and walked around the city and the park. I tried my first Chicago style hot dog (hot dog, bun, pickle, onions, peppers, tomatoes, relish......and so on)

We left Chicago on sunday morning. We had planned to do a service at one of the churches, but we got canceled. We traveled all sunday and spent Monday and Tuesday getting ready and having meetings to prepare.

Us crammed in a 15 passenger van