Beginnings.

"Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will make your paths straight." - Proverbs 3:6
             Pretty cool huh? Well, here I am, another college student trying to survive another day and beginning a path that God is laying out for me step by step. Over the next 6 months it is my hope that people will get to read this blog and see the amazing things God is doing in my life. But I suppose that means you should understand how I got to this point! Storytime? Yes. Storytime.  As with most stories, this one has a beginning, but as with most audiences, we want to dive right in to where the action starts. So let's go that route and if you want to learn more about how I got to this point just ask me, I don't mind sharing.
            About 5 months ago I had enough of school. I had enough of not knowing what my future was. I had enough of Lubbock. We've all been there before right? So I decided I wanted something different. This isn't one of those stories where someone has a grand vision that radically changes their life, but one where God gave me the desire of my heart in amazing way through prayer and people. My college pastor Keith Garner, whom I shall mention often, would always say that there is absolutely no better time then when you are in college to take some time off and serve Jesus. Keith served as a summer missionary in Thailand when he was in college at Texas Tech University and it had a tremendous impact in the direction of his life. Every time that Keith would say this, my ears would perk up and I would think that sounded like an awesome idea! Yet time and time again I fell off that emotionally charged high of wanting to stop school right then and there and would resume my studies until the next time he would say it. This time was not the case.
            I decided that it was time for me to go serve Jesus in a place other than Lubbock, Texas. I would be lying to you if I told you that the idea of taking a couple of semesters off, working, and just having fun without the stress of school sounded awfully good to me. But here is the thing, as a Christian, I am called to glorify God in all that I do (and granted I fail at that more often than naught), and I knew inside that merely "taking it easy" in my case would be limiting what God would want me to do. So I decided that I would do missions! Oh the excitement was bubbling! I met with Keith the next morning for breakfast and told him my desire and we began looking for places to serve for a semester. We looked at China, Thailand, Central Asia, as well as a myriad of other places, and I was pumped! I had been to Thailand before with our college ministry and was excited at the chance of going back, but isn't it amazing that if you choose to follow God, He will direct you where He wants you to go? Let me explain.
               I went home to tell my parents all that had transpired and my plans for where I wanted to go. As
I told them my plan to go overseas and serve Jesus, I was not given the reaction that I expected. In my mind, I pictured happiness, pride, and total support from my parents as I told them my plans. What I received was quite the opposite. Being parents, they were worried about my journey into another country and neglecting my studies. To say the least, it was very difficult to deal with. I went home that night with all sorts of questions and worries on my mind about whether not I was doing the right thing. As I prayed, I decided to try something different. For the past few hours I had been asking for what I wanted, for where I wanted to go, ME ME ME. This time, I gave the control to God. My prayer was simple, which is usually the most powerful ones to pray. "God, send me wherever you want me to go and I will do it."
                 He answered.
                Quick tangent. Southcrest Baptist, the church I attend, funds missions all over the world, including the United States. One of our church's main focuses is on four small baptist churches in Boise, Idaho. One of the pastors, Gail Graves happens to originally be from Idalou, just outside of Lubbock. This pastor's mom had recently passed away back in Idalou and he was in town for the funeral and paid a visit to Southcrest while he was here. Gail had recently been put in charge of reestablishing a Baptist Collegiate Ministry on the Boise State campus. The funding had been cut and the ministry was basically non-existent when they handed it over to Gail.
                 Now Keith had been a BCM director in several places so Gail was brought to him to help discuss what needed to be done and gain some direction and wisdom in his path of reestablishing the BCM.  As they talked, they discussed how awesome it would be to get a consistent semester missionary in the college ministry to come up and help grow the new ministry. Both Keith and Gail thought that this would be years in the future and it wasn't until after the meeting that Keith realized that he had met with a student interested in doing semester mission work....me! I stopped by to say hi to Keith the next day after praying that simple prayer and his first words to me were, "Hey Phillip, how would you like to go to Boise, Idaho?" which I responded very promptly, "I don't want to go to Boise!". Isn't that usually the case? We pray for something and are sincere, but when the door is opened we fall quickly back into what WE want, not what God wants. Well luckily Keith explained to me all that happened the day before, and God reminded me of the prayer I had offered the night before and we decided to take some time to pray and see if it was God's will for me to go, and would know more details once I got back from Summit ministries in Manitou Springs, Colorado in a couple of weeks.
                 Another quick tangent ( I promise most of my tangents build back in to the story). Summit Ministries is a two week apologetic camp where more than 60 hours of class time are devoted to learning why we believe what we believe and how it stands up to skeptics. People from all across the nation, and even the world come to this camp. The camp has about 8 sessions during each summer with about 100-200 students per session, in my case there were about 200 students. I sat down in our assigned seating based on birth date, and begin having conversations with the two people seated next to me. The girl on my left was from Oregon and the girl on my right just so happened to be from Idaho. Boise, Idaho. And a student at Boise State University. I asked the person who sat in front of me where he was from later on that day. Boise, Idaho. And a student at Boise State University. He also happened to be in my small group, as well as someone else who was from north Idaho. I was playing ultimate frisbee with a new friend during one of sports days and found out that he was going to be on the track team....for Boise State University.  I found out that the girl whom I sat beside had a brother who lives in Boise who also came to Summit. You see, God had a plan. He began laying the path for me long before I knew any of these people.
                 God wants me to serve in Boise. My next blog will be devoted to some of the other cool things that God has done to help bring me to that realization. My hope in this blog is not to point to myself and anything that I have done, but all to God who is good beyond measure. I want you, yes you dear reader, to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ through reading what He is doing in my life. But I want to tell you, it is not always going to be good blog updates. There is going to be times I am certain where I am being stretched thin and am desperate for relief, but it is my prayer that even in the hard times I will follow Christ and pronounce His good name to the world. I am not perfect by any means, but God has cleansed me and made me righteous through the blood of His son Jesus Christ and he can use even the most broken of vessels to accomplish his purpose. My blogs will not always be this long, I know it can be hard to read somebody's ramblings for too long, but it is my prayer that they will always be meaningful.
                   One last thing, pray for me. Remember, behind every great work of God, there is often a kneeling figure. I am going into a world outside of my comfort zone, and I need prayer from you. Let me know if there is anything that I can pray for you about as well! This is a two way street my friends. The things that I would ask you to pray every day for is that people in the Boise, Idaho region and college campus would come to know Christ and have a strong relationship with Him, and that God will open doors that we will not walk past to lead them that way. Pray that God will move big in Idaho, He wants so badly for us to come to know Him and receive the free gift.
                    Well I hope you enjoyed the beginnings of the path God has laid before me and I look forward to seeing where it will go from here! Stay tuned for the next blog!