Day to Day and Inspiration

It's May already?!

This year is really moving quickly and it being May, that means Nazareth has been home for 10 months! Also, this month and next month there are 2 special groups coming who are very close to my heart.
NC State YL College where I volunteered as a leader for a year post graduation has a small group of 10 people coming this month. Then in June, 35 James Madison University YL leaders are visiting the Holy Land. This is my alma mater (Go Dukes) and 2 years ago it was this very trip that put me where I am today.
In the fall last year I began looking forward to hosting these 2 groups and I'm stoked the waiting is almost over (:

Since my sister visited, I traveled to Cypress for a week of rest and vacation (went with The Lambeth family and it was awesome), there have been some long and hard work days at the Nazareth Village (such as serving 250+ lunch on multiple accounts), I've had some tougher down days, and then some amazing days I never wanted to end. As it goes according to the law of undulation = the natural ebb and flow/up and down movement of life.

(Paphos, Cypress - the water was super duper blue....and cold)

 

Now, to delve deeper and share a little more personally about my day to day, I've been doing something the last 2 weeks that has really helped me remain aware of the holy spirit always being around. We all have idle time during the day (watching tv, on fb, on our phone). During this time I've chosen to watch online sermons of messages from pastors I really connect with...like the way they bring Jesus out of scripture and how they deliver their message resonates with me.
Steven Furtick and Judah Smith are my top 2 guys right now (from Charlotte, NC and Seattle, WA). Just 30-45mintues out of my day to hear a message from the Bible helps me so much. And with technology today there is so much available to me...honestly it's pretty sweet.
Doing this regularly is also a reminder that Jesus and Church isn't just a Sunday thing. Jesus is an everyday thing because He's not a thing He's a person, and we don't just hang out 1 day a week at a place called church, it's a daily, personal relationship I have with Him.

These two pastors, Steven and Judah inspire me with how they preach. And I'll admit sometimes when I'm watching them I get all jacked up and think "yeahh buddyyyy! that's what I wanna do!" haha.

links for talks if you wanna check them out
Pastor Judah Smith talk
Pastor Steven Furtick talk

I'll tell you over and over, ministry is not something I predicted or wanted to do with my life. There were moments even when I felt kinda like my parents were pushing me into it...(not that they were, it was all encouragement and parents usually know you pretty well and what is good for you #lifetipsfromzack). But here I am living it out with YL in Nazareth and I'm loving it.
Also today, and this has happened a couple times now, I gave a tour at the Nazareth Village. Afterwards two different people came up and said "Zack you have something in you that comes alive when you share about Jesus." I say thank you, you're very kind. And usually tell them I have no idea what is ahead in my future they reply "think about continuing with ministry because you have a gift."

- Surrender -
I've had these conversations a couple times and try to be humble and thankful during them. However, later in the day as I sit alone and think about life, the future and try to figure out what it is that God's got for me...maybe it does make sense.
Either way, I'm going to continue to give my all to God (in the good and the bad days) because I've found it's a fuller life than whatever I tried before.

I hope the May flowers are coming after the April showers wherever you are.
Cheers from Nazareth, it's starting to get hot here...Bring on the Summer!

(my worship jam recently, not new but so good)

Love Zack