Decorating

So I finally hung pictures on my walls today. HUGE difference. I mean not as much as if my walls had been white (they are wood paneled). But definitely a nicer 'lived in' effect.

[I have to assume that this is where having a significant female in my life would have prevented me from going 6 weeks with no decorations. Amongst other things.]

Very productive day already and I leave shortly for "work" a.k.a. going to hang out with some student leaders. Love it. Then the rest of my week I'll be attending a staff conference. God's been pointing out today that for as much as I can grip about things He's given me a pretty stinking wonderful life.

Cooked up a storm!

Yesterday I got a hankering to do some cooking. So I went nuts. First I made chili. Jon's-it-would-be-famous-if-he-ever-shared-chili-con-carne. The stuff is amazing. Who can go wrong with 3+ pounds of shredded beef chili?? Its awesome. So for several hours yesterday the house had wonderful smells of chili wafting in the air.

Then I decided to live on the edge and try something new. Apple Butter. Who knew you could make it yourself and that it only takes 3 or 4 ingredients??? Of course peeling and chopping apples took me an hour and I have some sore muscles in odd places from it but it was worth it. Because this morning I went out to check on the crock pot and after stirring it for a few minutes it actually looks just like apple butter you get in the store. Then I tasted it. Sublime.

Seriously I disappoint myself that I cook so rarely. Or rather that I'm lazy and just cook simple things. When I get ambitious with my cooking is when things get tasty! Now I just need someone who likes to buy me ingredients and clean the kitchen when I'm done. hehe.

I think I want to grill a turkey for Thanksgiving again. As I recall last time I did that it was one of the better turkeys I've had - which is saying something because my mom can cook a mean turkey!

Any suggestions of what I should direct my budding culinary prowess at next?

Watch

Can I get a show of hands how many of you are 'watching' as Jesus directed?

I'm not being alarmist here at all just sharing something that actually gets me super excited.

The bible tells us to 'keep watch'.

(sorry for the KJV of these quotes but I just grabbed them from another page)
Mt 24:42-WATCH THEREFORE.
Mt 25:13-WATCH THEREFORE.
Mt 26:41-WATCH AND PRAY, THAT YE ENTER NOT INTO TEMPTATION.
Mk 13:33-WATCH AND PRAY.
Mk 13:34-A MAN...COMMANDED THE PORTER TO WATCH.
Mk 13:35-WATCH YE THEREFORE.
Mk 13:37-AND WHAT I SAY UNTO YOU I SAY UNTO ALL, WATCH.
Mk 14:38-WATCH YE AND PRAY, LEST YE ENTER INTO TEMPTATION.
Lk 21:36-WATCH YE THEREFORE, AND PRAY ALWAYS, THAT YE MAY BE ACCOUNTED WORTHY TO ESCAPE ALL THESE THINGS.
1 Thes 5:6-LET US NOT SLEEP, AS DO OTHERS; BUT LET US WATCH.
Rev 3:3-IF...THOU SHALT NOT WATCH, I WILL COME ON THEE AS A THIEF, AND THOU SHALT NOT KNOW WHAT HOUR I WILL COME UPON THEE.
Mt 24:43-IF THE GOODMAN...HAD KNOWN...HE WOULD HAVE WATCHED.
Lk 12:39-IF THE GOODMAN...HAD KNOWN...HE WOULD HAVE WATCHED.
Lk 12:37-BLESSED ARE THOSE SERVANTS, WHOM THE LORD WHEN HE COMETH SHALL FIND WATCHING.
Lk 12:40-BE YE THEREFORE READY.
Heb 9:28-SO CHRIST WAS ONCE OFFERED TO BEAR THE SINS OF MANY; AND UNTO THEM THAT LOOK FOR HIM SHALL HE APPEAR THE SECOND TIME.

What are we watching for? Why the 'blessed hope' of course (Titus 2:13). Jesus to return.

So some of you are probably rolling your eyes or saying "Bro you can't know when he's coming back so just be a good Christian and dont worry about it".

Why then are we commanded to keep watch? I agree that the scripture does say 'no one knows the day or the hour' (Matthew 24:36) but right before that in Matthew 24:32 we are told that there are lots of signs given and when we see them we know he's about to show up.

What I like to describe it as 'We can know the season but maybe not the particular day or hour'. I think this means WATCH carefully for the season to arrive. As you see it coming prepare yourself and dont just keep it to yourself but tell others.

Thats what I'm doing now. Telling you I think the leaves on the trees are just beginning to turn bright colors warning us that the 'season' of the end is arriving.

This morning I was reading Matthew 25:1-13. Its about 10 people waiting for Jesus. In the end he arrives and 5 of them really aren't ready (if you notice Jesus response he says he never knew them) which I take to mean that they think they know him but have not actually made him Lord of their life. What struck me most as I read that passage was this: if only one of the five 'wise' ones had woken up just a little early and urged the 'foolish ones' to truely be prepared maybe they would have had time to make it. Because clearly in the story once Jesus arrived it was to late.

To summarize my thoughts - watching without telling anyone is useless because you will be held accountable for them. Ezekiel 33:7-9. But for the believer watching is also joyous thing because we see our salvation at hand.(Luke 21:28)

Ok so in a practical sense what does watching involve? Well I think the bible offers quite a few examples of what our world will look like at the 'season' of the end. So to me watching means reading the bible with a newspaper open next to me. (or vice versa watching the evening news with Scripture in mind).

For example. The bible seems to indicate a global financial system around the time of the end. Headlines this week talk about Sarkozy and Brown (France and England) trying to get the US (and whichever president is elected) to join them in solving the financial melt down by instituting a global financial solution. (If I hear Sarkozy right he is suggesting we get rid of most of the currencies of the world and just have a small handful of currencies). So does that mean Jesus comes back tomorrow?? No but it might just be a few yellow leaves on an otherwise green tree indicating "fall" is approaching.

Taken with dozens of other stories like this for the past few years I'd offer this analogy - pretty much all the trees around have some leaves colored but few have completely changed color. Meaning nearly all the prophecies and word pictures given of the end times have seen something happen in the past 5-60 years to set the stage as it were but few have been outright fulfilled. the outright fulfilling of things though could happen in a matter of days or weeks when the time is just right so dont take to much hope from the fact that things haven't all been setup. itll happen fast.

if you ask me i could probably put together a list (or find one online) of all the word pictures describing the 'stage' at the time of the end.

for now I'd suggest checking out two other blogs: http://prophecynews.blogspot.com/ which mostly just posts headlines that in some way relate to prophecy. Occasionally there will be commentary offered as well. The other one is http://joelrosenberg.blogspot.com/ though it looks like he hasn't posted recently. He can get a bit political so if you are sensitive to that wait til after the election to read him :-) His stuff on the middle east and russia is what I pay attention to.

Ok I'll end my rant here. But I welcome your comments.

Update and room picts!

On a much more upbeat note than the last post...

Last Wednesday I moved to Colorado Springs. In case you missed my last newsletter (read it here http://www.ministryupdates.org/layton ) I returned from Serbia this summer sensing a new or redirected call on my life. Moving away from serving Christ through technology and towards direct ministry with college students.

When I told my leaders in Crusade what it seemed God was doing in my life they were excited and quickly reassigned me to the Southern Colorado team (pending completion of the new phone system). [Hence some of the angst I describe in the previous post].

Well with the phone system up to speed I was able to report to my new assignment which is based out of Colorado Springs but covers all of the campus's in Southern Colorado. The main school I will be focused on is UCCS but I'll be spending time on a number of other campus's which you will probably hear about in coming months.

Ok now onto the fun stuff - my new room. Oddly enough I started praying for my fall living situation last January when my life just started to hint at being crazy. Up until about 2 weeks before I moved I had no idea where I would live. Then God provided this neat place.

Its a room in a basement of a Christian couples house. At first that doesn't seem neat at all BUT its got big sliding glass doors so it isn't dark at all. The walls are all wood paneling. The room itself is stinking huge (I measured it to around 16X20). I fit all my furniture plus a couch and there's still a ton of room! But it gets better - it has a fireplace and built in bookshelves. I even setup a little tea nook which if you know how much I love tea you'll know I'm in heaven right now.

Ok so now for what you've been waiting for - pictures!


Fireplace!!!
Tea Nook. I tried for a closer shot of this but they all turned out blurry. But you can see I can make tea and sit on the couch and read without leaving my room. And I do every morning!

I cant wait for winter and having a fire while it snows out. Perfection!

Love YOUR enemies.

Alright so its been awhile. I'm back from Serbia/Montenegro. But I'll update you all on that in my next post (hopefully just a few minute after this one).

First I want to share quick little life lesson I learned this month. It goes something like this...

Over the summer while I was gone the phone system at the Great Plains regional office died a horrible death. At the same time we got a new Telco/ISP (phone service and Internet service provider). Since I wasn't in the U.S. when that happened the setup was all wrong to work with our network. I've probably already lost some of you so I'll avoid the technical mumbo jumbo. Summed up Jon had a minor headache on his hands when he returned to the office in August.

Not to worry just have the Telco provider make a few minor settings changes on their end and we'd be up and running in no time. And this was also a prime opportunity to setup a sweet new phone system based off of an Asterisk style pbx (more tech mumbo jumbo - just believe me when I say its sweet). Starting off in August I was actually pumped about the chaos because it meant I could finally put in place some technology that would give the office some solid footing for the future.

Then came the seeming un-ending weeks of struggling to get the Telco to make the simple requests for our network. And some difficulties in purchasing the pbx (tried several vendors before finding the right one). After calling and emailing people at the Telco everyday for 3 or more weeks I finally talked to the right person and the changes were made in around 20 minutes. It was insane. By that time my stress level had gotten through the roof and as my coworkers can attest I had started to develop a bit of an anger problem.

Then a few days after everything came together I was driving in my car still praying for God to reduce my stress level (it took awhile for me to calm back down). That was when I heard the Lord's rebuke. He brought to mind the passage about loving your enemies. And showed me how it doesn't mean what I'd thought it meant.

It doesn't just mean to love people who hate you. It means that too but it also means to love those who I chose as My enemies. It can be easy to 'love' someone who hates you - that kind of loving your enemy can come from a sense of being morally superior. But when the person you despise has no idea how much you have made them your enemy and THEY become who you 'love and pray for' that's another thing altogether.

Needless to say my stress and anger finally started to dissipate when I began to pray for everyone I had interacted with at the Telco.

Who else do I pick as my enemy that I need to begin praying for???

Montenegro

Well what should I say about Montenegro? It is awesome doesn't quite do it justice. Its about as close to heaven as a third world country can get. Where we are is this small town nestled in between mountains an ocean. To be more accurate its on a giant bay so we dont get waves like the real ocean would have. But its just perfect for swimming.

I think I would like to come back here on personal vacation some day.

The only real down side to the place is that the country has been through a really chaotic last 50 years - esp. the last 20 and only got its independance 5 years ago. So most of the infrastructure is at least 50 years old. Today the water is out in the hotel so we cant shower or use the toilets. The power has gone out several times. But really no one has seemed to mind much. I just feel blessed to be here.

Tomorrow the Serbian students arrive for English camps. The camps are called 'Speak Up!' and the idea/theme is that everyone has a story and we are inviting the Serbian students to come share their stories as we share ours with them. I am really looking forward to the camps. (there are 2 camps each a week long).

Please pray for all of us as we will be very busy during this time and if the last few years of camps is any indication we are in for a rough ride. The stories we've heard are that God uses these camps in mighty ways to advance his kingdom amongst the Serbians. We've also heard that in the past many of the America students become overwhelmed and start to break down during this time. My role for the next two weeks is to support and just be available to help any of the American students that are struggling or being attacked by the evil one.

I definitely desire your prayers for Christ to fill me with his wisdom and love so that I am able to refresh and encourage the American students as they are pouring their lives into their Serbian counterparts.

***Note: i just reread all that and I realize that what I wrote may convey an image to you back home that we are really roughing it here what with water outages and nervous breakdowns. That couldnt be further from the truth. I feel God's presence so intimately in the midst of all this. I was not kidding when I wrote earlier that I feel blessed to be here. God is active in our midst.

Next up...

Since I doubt that I will get a chance to blog again before we leave for Montenegro I thought I would post briefly about what is happening next.

This weekend it is my turn to lead the church service. I still have yet to write my 'sermon' but hopefully Jesus will inspire something worthwhile for me to talk about.

Then after that on Sunday night we get on a bus for a 15 hour ride down to Montenegro. There we will have a few days of training on how to run the English camps and then the english camps start and we pretty much have no more free time until we fly back to America at the end of July.

Hopefully I will be able to write to you about Montenegro sometime next week. If you are lucky i'll even post some pictures for you all.

Novi Sad

We've been in Novi Sad for almost a week now but I havent gotten to blog at all. I have to walk over to a park that has free internet inorder to get online. This is only the second time I've made the trek since getting here.

Since being here we have spent a lot of time on the University campus talking to students about God. It is pretty fun actually. I have to confess I am usually terrified about going up to random strangers and starting conversations about God (one of the reasons I havent ever wanted to work directly on campus back in the US). But that fear is definately fading away! Keep praying that it is removed completely.

We also did a service project picking up trash around some of the dorms. One of our Serbian friends brought us a news paper the next day and showed us the story that ran about us. We couldnt read the story but there was a picture of the dumpsters piled high with all the bags of trash we had collected.

Hmmm what else... oh yesterday we did an outreach in the park and played ultimate frisbee with a bunch of Serbians. That was a lot of fun. We also got to meet a few of the Serbians that had signed up for the english camps. Im really looking forward to getting to hang out more with them down in Montenegro.

Story of the soul

Well since my newsletter talks about this outreach im not going to say much about it. Just thought i should say something since i see my last blog was about it.

It went really well. Lots of Serbians showed up and there seemed to be some really great discussions about the different media presented in light of the spiritual questions asked.

Overview: basically we had a song by john mayer and then discussion about the lyrics. Then showed a surrealist painting by Dali and discussed what people thought it meant. and finally a short video clip.

At the end one of the guys on our team gave his testimony.

Prayer Request

Tomorrow night the project is doing a large outreach in Belgrade. The name of the event is 'Story of the Soul'.

Please be praying that many Serbs would come to this event and that their hearts would be open to the gospel.

Thursday we move from Belgrade up to Novi Sad which is in northern Serbia. We would also appreciate your prayers for that transition.

They made it!

Ok so late that night the students finally made it here. I just forgot to update the blog with the happy news until now. thanks for praying!

Now the project is in full swing and life has gotten very hectic.

Two quick highlights from today before i go to bed...

First we sent out the students in groups of two to talk with random college students on the street. I tagged along with one pair and we had a really neat conversation with some people in a park. We talked with them for close to two hours! The Serbian culture is very relational so it is easy to become good friends with people after just meeting them.

The other highlight (if i can call it that) was eating pizza. Not just any pizza but one that had the toppings of green olives (un pitted), salami, red bell peppers, ANNNDD a fried egg. yep one fried egg on each slice. it looked disgusting but was actually really really tasty. So far I have LOVED all the food i have tried here.

thats all for tonight.

Where are the students?

So the students on our project where an hour into their flight to Europe when they had to turn around because of a crack in the windshield.

Now they are 5 hours late and we have no idea where they are or what flight they got put on.

In other news Belgrade gets carried away by a swarm of mosquitoes.

The Night Train to Belgrade

15 hours on the night train to Belgrade sounded like hell when I first figured out that was my best option to reach the project from Italy. Thankfully God intervened and it was actually quite pleasant.

there were only two other guys in my cabin so we could spread out a bit (it was a six bed cabin). One of them was a guy from Santa Cruz California so it was fun to talk with him. The other guy was Alex from Macedonia, he acted as our translator to the train guy who's english was probably worse than the japanese tourists.

The trip was mostly uneventful. I even slept pretty well except for the 'passport control' at 3:30am. They came and knocked on every door demanding passports. That was when i learned how good it can be to have an American passport. They didnt even open mine just saw that it was from USA. Alex's however they looked at for a good 5 minutes. That all happend right before reaching Zahgrab.

Then in the morning we enjoyed watching the Croatian and Serbian countryside roll past. It looks alot like the central vally of California. Flat but hills in the distance. All farm land. Bright red poppies lined about 2 feet on either side of the tracks most of the way.

The best part of sitting for 15 hours is that my blisters are MUCH better. Praise God!

Now I am in Belgrade with the rest of the summer project staff getting acclimated. The students get here in two days!

Venice for a day

So I'm sad to say you wont be getting any photos of my trip to Venice on the blog right now. I checked my bags into storage at the train station and left. Once I was crossing a bridge and ready to take a picture i realized the camera was in my bag. I *did* buy a disposable camera and took a lot of pictures - just not digital ones.

The rest of the day I wandered Venice and felt my blisters at every step. Definately my favorite part of the day was when i took the water bus out to the island of Murano. (Thanks Karin for that tip). Murano is famous for their glass making. Its also MUCH less packed with tourists than Venice proper. it was wonderful to just stand and watch the men blowing glass and making various objects.

For dinner i decided to try something new so i ordered gnocci with 4 cheese sauce. I couldnt even finish it it was so bad. The only disappointing meal i had the whole time in Italy.

I think the day would have been MUCH better if my feet had not hurt so bad. All in all though I think I wish I had just stayed in Florence another half day and only spent 2 hours in Venice instead of 9 hours. Definately convinced me how much better it is when you know someone living in the town your visiting. (thanks again Kelly!!!)

Train to Venice

Monday morning I caught the train from Florence to Venice.

My seat was surrounded by a Japanese tour group. For the first half of the 2 hour trip I just watched the beautiful Tuscan country side roll by listening to everyone around me speak a forign language.

Then came the ice breaking event... one of the girls spilled her package of m&m's and all the Japanese and I started laughing. Esp. when the mom crawled under all the tables on the train picking up stray m&m's.

Shortly after that the same girl offered me a piece of gum. I'm not sure if it was the brand or the flavor the the name on the gum was "Kissing Mint". I politely took a piece and tried not to die of laughter again.

After that the girl and her mother began trying to communicate with me. Their english was extremely limited and my japanese is non-existant. But it was a fun way to pass the time.

Florence Pictures

Here are a few pictures of what i like to refer to as the 'dry bones of dead religion'. Enormous churches in which life can no longer be found. sad.

I took a bunch of other photos too but i'll wait to post them.

Tomorrow: Venice and then on to Serbia.

Travel day 1

Well I made it safely to Europe. I'm in Florence now. Its a really cool city but I am so exhausted i cant enjoy it nearly as much as I want to.

Right now im just trying to stay awake until after 9pm so that when i go to bed i sleep the whole night - jet lag cure. 2 more hours to go.

I plan to take pictures tomorrow. i'll post some here when i get the chance.

Reviving the Blog

Hey Everyone (well anyone who still checks this),

In case you were unaware of my summer plans I am going to Serbia this summer on a Summer Project. I am reviving the blog as a way to keep people updated on what's going on over in Eastern Europe.

Pretty excited about the trip. My flight leaves this Thursday. I will be spending the weekend in Florence, Italy before taking a train to Belgrade.

Hopefully I will remember to blog here a lot this summer. So stay tuned...

Ever have one of those days...

where you dont really want to do anything - at all? Im having one of those months.

at least i just blogged for the first time in 6 or 7 months. thats gotta be worth something. right?