God is AMAZING and answers prayer!

Alright, so the coolest thing happened yesterday. My mom was working at the bank, and overheard one of her co-workers talking to a customer. The customer, an elderly lady, said that she bought a new car and had to get rid of her old one. My mom heard her say a few things about the car and that she wouldn't expect to get more than 1000 dollars for it. So, my mom decides to ask about it and go see it briefly. She said it looked good at first glance and asked the lady for her number.

Now my car is essentially falling apart. It still runs, but there are so many problems with it that it probably will not last much longer. So my mom was looking for me to potentially buy this car. Well, she called me and I was interested in checking it out. We didn't know how much she was going to say it was. So, my mom called my dad and me and we got a time together with the lady selling the car to take it for a test drive.

When we arrived at her house, she let us take it for a spin by ourselves so we could talk about it and comment on it on our own. It's a 1994 ford taurus, so it's pretty old, and it has 128,000 miles on it, which isn't too bad. There's very little rust and has power windows, power locks, air conditioning and cruise control, which makes it better than my current 1995 rust-bucket neon. We went inside to talk to her and she said someone had looked up the Kelly Blue Book price for it and it was valued at 1300 dollars. (I checked and found it to be lower than that, but it was 1055 bucks, so it's somewhat close). Anyways, she said she'd be fine selling it for $950. She invited us in to look at some paperwork on the car and to just talk to her for a while. She ended up saying she would just make it 900 dollars even because it needs an oil change and we'd need to get it licensed, etc.

Well after thinking about it, I don't actually have that much money and I'm trying to avoid taking out any loans while in college, so although it seemed like a good deal I was reluctant. My parents thought I should get it because my car is getting really bad. So, I said I'd like to think about it for a bit and we told her we would get back to her by this afternoon today. She said that would be fine. So, we went home and I came down to houghton. I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place on whether to buy it or not. My car does still run, so I didn't want to pay that much even though it was a good deal. So, I decided to pray about it and pray hard. I asked God to show me that if I should get this, He would have to give me a strong sign... I was hoping it wasn't that my car broke down so I would have to get it out of need.

Well, when I was down hanging out with friends at Cyberia Cafe, my mom called me. When I picked up, she sounded excited and said, "Well Nathan, I think God is working in this situation" so I got excited and said, "why, what's goin on?" Then my mom told me something that God and God alone could explain and cause to happen. She said the lady had called her back and said that on the new car she had bought, she really needed the money to pay the taxes on it quickly and that it would cost her a little over $500 and that we could have the car she was selling for $575! My mom couldn't believe her ears when she was hearing this. This car is worth $1055 and she was offering it to us for $575!

Now I don't know what you think, but things like that don't just happen! We had just called her and told her that we wanted to think about it. We never said no, and she simply called and greatly reduced the price of the car.

Simply put, God answered my prayer and told me to buy this car. To not buy this car would be foolish. Plus, I can actually afford that much without taking out a loan, and I'll have a little bit of money left which should last me until I get a job that I'll need to start looking for. Isn't God simply unbelievable. God truly watches over His children and hears their prayers and takes care of their needs!

Now whenever I drive friends around, the suspension will be better in the back seat and they won't have to ride in pain, so it makes it much better for carting people around too! God is amazing!

I've been thinking...

First of all, God is so good! Lately I've been doing a lot of pondering. God is in control of everything, so why do we worry about anything. If we are truly focused on God and doing everything to His glory, then what could actually be bad? Sure there may be difficulties and trials, but God has not promised us freedom from those here on earth.

I guess lately I've just been feeling like I have this rich inner world that's waiting to explode. I want to show people what's going on in my mind, but it takes some time to explain it. I'm introverted and recharge on my own or one on one in conversations. I love deep conversations with people, but I want them to have a positive focus. Sure, if someone is going through a rough time, I want to hear them out and try to help them. For those following God, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

There are many times when people are talking in large groups and I want to speak up, but something holds me back. Maybe I feel like what I have to say, not everyone is going to enjoy, so I feel like I'm wasting people's time? I don't know, but I think I need to step out of my box a bit and try some public speaking at Campus Crusade sometime, or at least speak up in my rather large cell group (Bible Study + tons more stuff). Maybe the Holy Spirit is leading me to speak and I'm ignoring it.

Please pray that I'll be able to manage my time well. I really want to build relationships with new freshmen this year. I want to encourage people. A little bit of genuine encouragement someone gives to me usually carries me through a lot, so little things that I can say to others or show them that I care, which I do... those things are what really make a difference. It's about being personable, a good listener, but also a good friend who tries to be there for people, whether it's offering them help with something, or praying for them. That's the kind of person I want to be. What's great is that being this kind of person is impossible on my own. I know I can't do it by myself, but God is Great, and He works all things together for good for those that love Him. Putting God first in your life solves a lot of problems. I have a long way to go, but having such great friends who are there for me to hear me out and encourage me, helps me out a lot.

Thanks for reading. There's a little peak at my thoughts for ya.

Campus Crusade for Christ!

I am consumed with the joy of the Lord now that Cru is starting back up again! I've gotten to meet quite a few new freshmen and I get to see almost all of my old friends except those that graduated which I really miss. It's so encouraging to see so many attend our weekly meeting. I know that God is going to do great things on our campus this year as he did last year.

The cell group (Bible study plus fellowship, evangelism and good fun) I am in got a good turnup of 11 people with hopefully more joining next week! We already had a cell group social out to an old abandoned cheese factory for some adventure. The freshmen seem to really like it a lot too.

I was also able to finally contact Alex Helmboldt finally. For anyone reading who doesn't know, he was a former Campus Crusader at tech who I met in Florida on Big Break. Now he is going to be staff at another university. We talked about every week during the summer. For a long time... almost a month I think, I couldn't get a hold of him and I finally could and we had a really good conversation. It's sort of like discipleship over the phone really. We talk about important Godly things and it's a huge encouragement.

So anyways, Cru is back and running full steam ahead. Everyone seems so passionate this year! I guess that's all I have to say for now without boring you. This post is really short compared to most!

South Dakota Trip/Brothers wedding

So...It's been a long time since I've posted. I have been pretty busy. Not so busy that I couldn't have posted, but I prioritized other things over this. Well since my last post, my brother is now married and I went on a trip to South Dakota.

We went down there for my brothers wedding with a bunch of old friends of mine. There were 5 different cars and ideally we'd all stay together on the freeways and everything... well, it wasn't meant to be. Some of my friends like to drive really fast and my parents go the speed limit, so the ones that did drive fast just went wherever they wanted and decided to catch up with us whenever. It was ok, it just frustrated my mom a bit that they couldn't just go the speed limit and stay together as a group. Well, on our way there, my friends tire I guess almost fell off on the freeway, so he pulled over to the side and then right before that happened we had planned on meeting at a cracker barrel. Well my family ended up going to the cracker barrel (which was 7 miles out of the way, but it's where people wanted to go, so I guess it's ok). In the meantime, they got their tire fixed and we all made it down ok.

While down in South Dakota, we went to see Mount Rushmore and the badlands and some other cool sites here and there, so that was pretty cool. I was the best man at my brothers wedding, so I was sort of stressed out because of the speech I had to make. (I'm not much of a public speaker.) Well, the wedding was interesting I guess you could say. On the way down, the flower girl threw some roses at the very last second at the end of the isle. Then the matron of honor who I was escorting down the isle tripped a bit on the stairs... it wasn't too bad though. Kelsey, the bride, when she was coming down the isle was crying, and then my brother started crying when he was reading his vows to her and he had to pause for like 30 seconds to be able to speak. Then when I gave the preacher the rings, he dropped one of them and it rolled along the floor like 10 feet away. When they had to light the unity candle, they couldn't get the thing lit for like 2 minutes... then the matron of honor told them to tip the candle back and let the extra wax flow out and then it finally lit. From that point on out, things went pretty normally. It was a good wedding though. They got married and that's what really matters. The other things become fun memories. I also got to wear a tux for the first time in my life (I hadn't even worn a suit before believe it or not.)

At the reception, the people were already halfway through eating when the wedding party arrived which was sort of odd and they ran out of plates for the wedding party, but found some paper plates in the back for us to use. I was going to give a toast at the end of my speech but by the time we finally made speeches, everyone was already done drinking so there was nothing to raise really plus they were plastic cups. I ended up just saying congratulations at the end and another friend gave somewhat of an awkward toast.

Well, to make a long story that could have many more details short, I am really glad to finally be back home and hanging out with friends in Houghton. I love my family, but traveling with them for a week and a half is a lot of time with 'em.

So now I'm back in Houghton, sort of exciting to be starting the school year just to get back into things with Campus Crusade and to see everybody come back up! The classes I'm not looking forward to so much but it all comes with the territory.

One last thing to note which was awesome is that because I had so much time in the van, I decided one day to finish reading a book I'm supposed to read for Cru called the master plan of evangelism, so I decided to finish that while in the van. I also read the book of revelation for the first time which was awesome to see the power of God and encouraging from the Christian perspective knowing that the terrors in that book, I am saved from. I also ended up reading first Peter through Jude, so essentially First Peter through to the end of the Bible is what I read cuz I had so much time. It definitely helped my relationship with God and understanding who he is. I really like the practicality of Peter in those two small books.

Before reading that, my relationship with God was struggling a bit, but now I'm back on track a bit and it'll be much easier with Cru stuff starting up so I'm excited to get back into things.

I believe I've said enough for now. If you want any more details about anything, just let me know in person and we can talk. Have a great and Godly day!

Hezekiah

This week I was putting together a message for a Campus Crusade TNT meeting in case I'm ever asked to give a talk. I figured even if I never speak it, when you are going to teach something to someone, you end up learning a lot about it yourself, so I knew it would help me whatever it was. I decided I wanted to trust God a lot more with everyday things, so I decided to work on a message about trusting God. It certainly was really worth it! I wrote down Bible verses that sort of related to what I was talking about according to the little notes my concordance had. I looked them up and crossed out the unrelated ones and circled the ones that apply. However, the one longer section I wanted to use as my base wasn't quite what I was looking for.

So, later on, I looked on Bible Gateway.com and searched for Trust and it brought up a passage in II Kings chapters 18-20... actually only one verse but I read around that verse for context because the verse really struck me. It was all about Hezekiah. Now I've heard the name Hezekiah and am sure I've been told about him, but I wasn't really paying attention apparently because I didn't know anything about him. He was a King of Judah that walked with the Lord. He trusted God in everything and followed God closely. When the Assyrians were going around conquering areas surrounding them, it looked bleak. Hezekiah told everyone to Trust the Lord to deliver them from the hands of the Assyrians who had a much greater army than his.

However, a commander in the Assyrian army I think told everyone not to listen to Hezekiah when he told them to trust the Lord. He said the Lord could not be trusted to do something so big. Essentially, he mocked both God and Hezekiah. It reminds me of Galations 6:7 - "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." So the angel of the Lord came out and destroyed 185,000 men of the Assyrian camp. One Hundred and eighty five THOUSAND. Hezekiah didn't have to do ANYTHING but Trust God. He trusted God completely and God delivered.

I beg you, whether you've read it or not to read II Kings chapters 18-20. It's so much better when you read about the whole story. God is great and does great things. We just need to trust him and walk with him!

Edited Post

Well... by the title of this thing I have a lot on my mind and I don't know how much of it that I can type out. I guess we'll see how long this goes. Lucky you reading this. You can scroll through and see the length. Well me, as I write it, it just gets longer and I don't get the big picture until I'm done.
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THIS PORTION HAS BEEN EDITED OUT BY REQUEST
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I prayed that God would help me to see that I am working for the Lord and doing my best for Him and not for the bosses who don't keep very good track of us. I have been praying and will continue to pray that God would help me to work hard in adversity whether others will or not. I want to get my paycheck and know that I really worked for all that. I need to learn to be grateful for every bit of cash I get. It is truly a gift from God. A missionary speaker spoke at my church last week and talked about how we need to give our rights away to God and fully rely on Him. If it wasn't for the grace of God, I could have no job and no money coming it at all. I'm just getting minimum wage, but I truly am thankful for that. Sometimes I feel like complaining and sometimes I do, but please pray for me that I'll see things through God's eyes. He is showing me how to be a hard worker anyways. So that's the work situation in a nutshell.

During this summer, us Campus Crusaders haven't been doing very many "Godly" activities. Not that what we have done is ungodly or anything, but we haven't been doing Bible studies and prayer and praise parties or anything like that and I really desire to do those things and to have small groups to discuss what God has been doing in our lives and any struggles we're going through. I chat with people about serious things now and then but praising God in a big group is so encouraging and exciting to see and I miss it. So I am going to try to encourage everyone to do it next week. It may even require being planned in advance rather than mentioning it on the spot to people. I guess time'll tell what will happen.

This next weekend, I get a 4 day weekend! It's the fourth of July on Saturday, and Friday I get a day off. Monday is optional, so I decided to take it off because I could really use a break from work as you can see.

So I made some phone calls today to some people who are away for the summer either just living at their homes or on CCC summer project. It's really exciting to see what God is doing in their lives and it makes me want to go next year on a summer project, so I'll be praying about that seeing if it's God's will that I do that or continue to work at the Heights. I talked to Robbie Beehler and he's doing some fun things like running some white water rafting and giving segway tours. How awesome is that for a summer job? Pretty Awesome. Alex Helmboldt talked to me for a couple of minutes but had to go so He's gonna update me later tonight or tomorrow. Last time I talked to him he was doing really well training to be Campus Crusade Staff. Titus Brown seems to be doing pretty good. He's been fishing a bit and workin' and stuff. Mike Baumgartner is not only doing excellent, but he's doing very excellent in his words. He is a man living for God and studying the word and growing more and more everyday and it's such an encouraging thing for me to see someone my age so passionate about God which we should all be! Man I gotta be reading my Bible some more!

So this summer I've gotten to meet some new people and have gotten to know them a lot better. These people would include especially Todd Krone and Brian Thompson but also Ian, Jamie, and Troy. We play volleyball a lot which I learned I really love although I'm not all that great and I think I frustrate them a bit when I'm not quite up to par with their standard. They're really nice about it though and encourage me rather than put me down. They give me helpful advice and I wish I could tell them how much I really appreciate them.

I am so thankful for all the amazing friends God has put in my life. I would love to name them all but I am sure that I would forget about someone, but if you are reading this and care about what I'm saying than you are definitely on the list!

Pray for me that I will be able to read my Bible much more than I do and that I would continue to work hard and trust God in everything I do. Pray that when some problem comes up that I'll pray first about it rather than trying to work it out on my own and praying as a last resort. It works so much better when I leave God in control! I've noticed that time and again! Thanks so much for reading. I guess there's a lot more I can say, but that's about all I've got for now. Catcha later.

Cool Stuff

Well, I haven't posted in like... forever. I have a friend who made a new blog and it's really exciting to read. It's a blog where this friend chooses to be completely transparent and shows what God is doing in this friends life.

It's really exciting and gets me pumped up for God. I haven't been following him as close this summer as I was during the school year but I'm inspired to start something... or encourage others to have a prayer and praise party.

Oh man!!!! I totally just got a package in the mail and it was my orange iguanas T-shirt I ordered! I just put it on and it fits. I'm really excited about it.

Man I have so much more to say right now but I gotta go. My cousins are begging me to go do something. Later