The greatest gift God gave us is the power to make decisions. - Paulo Cuelo
Nobody takes my life, I lay it down. - Pastor Judah Smith
As long as their is light ahead for them, it is worth it to me. - MLK Jr. in the movie Selma
As each quote builds upon each other, I consider (and hope you will as well) how they relate to my own life. I've made decisions about what it is I am doing. And by "doing" I encompass every aspect where there is action in my life. Work, relationships, service, beliefs, love, family, alone time, physical activity, etc. Each includes choices/decisions moment by moment.
Now at the heart of my decisions is a belief, a motivator, or what I have come to see as the best way for me to live. I choose willfully to lay who I am down to serve others. This is the result of pursing Jesus. Because I have experienced my best life living in this way, I continue to make my decisions focused around Him and it leads to the last quote of what can be considered "dying to myself". Ministry is on my mind every day and it gives me this perspective of; if I can deny myself first and hope to serve others so they can see a light of hope or trust or love...then it's worth it.
Just a reminder, I am not perfect in following through every single moment of every day with these moral words. But, all of this is a goal I keep in front of me and I have witnessed fruit from it.
(YL Nazareth & Ibiliin Camp)
2 things I want to share from the last couple weeks...
First, an awesome thing happened - We had our Young Life Camp during the last week of August! It was sooo much fun and I can say honestly everyone enjoyed themselves. Some highlights included:
- 45 kids from Nazareth and 12 kids from Ibiliin (a village where we have started YL) attended.
- Program was done for the first time ever entirely by leaders from YL Palestine! (all in Arabic)
- I led cabin time of 8 guys and had some great conversation about what we all want from life, who Jesus is and what he did.
- A group of 7 Americans from Johnson Ferry Church in Atlanta came and helped serve as work crew.
- There was laughter, friendship, and new excitement about the coming year of YL in Naz.
("crab soccer" at camp)
Now unfortunately something else is happening in Israel that is not so great. There are 47 Christian schools that are currently on strike in Israel. Since Sept 1st, 33,000 kids are not at school. The strike is a response to the Ministry of Education in the Israeli Gov't cutting funding to these Private Christian schools (many which have been operating since before Israel was a country). I'm including a link for more information on this but basically, the schools do not have enough funds to operate. The funding from the gov't has dropped to 29% of what the budget calls for. And then there is a limit to how much schools can charge parents. So from both sides the schools are stuck and don't have enough funds to operate for more than a few months. On the other hand, Private Religious Jewish schools which are categorized the same way as these Private Christian Schools are given 100% of their funding. It is an obvious fact of unjust treatment.
I share this because the kids who come to Young Life in Nazareth are almost all from these schools. Yes, I have not been able to go hang out with my YL friends because the school is closed.
Peaceful protests and demonstrations have been happening for the last 2 weeks
FOR MORE INFO CLICK HERE
(around 10,000 gathered outside the Kenneset in
Jerusalem to demonstrate peacefully)
So there are praises and things to pray for...
Thanks for taking a few moments to keep up with my life here (: I hope you got to think about some of what I talked about. Have a great day!
Zack
(we also said Bon Voyage to 2 of the recent graduates who have been involved with
YL Naz since the beginning! Razi, top middle, and Nancy, to his right in red, are studying
abroad this school year. Razi in Germany and Nancy in Romania).
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