Experience everything God has in His heart for you!

Came across this in one of my books tonight, thought I should share it.

When you trust that God always gives His best, you will devote your heart to whatever assignment God gives because you know in that role you can experience everything God has in His heart for you.  Those who are perennially unhappy and dissatisfied with God's assignments exhibit their lack of belief that God loves them and that He is expressing His love in His guidance for their lives.

                                                                                                          -Henry Blackaby, Experiencing God

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New Sevenly T-shirt!!!

Sevenly.org has released a new t-shirt design to help support Mercy Ships.
$7.oo of each t-shirt will go directly to Mercy Ships to keep the surgeries going in Togo, West Africa

Sevenly Website

I have one of the t-shirts from the last design and will probably be getting one of the new designs as well.

I also have my web donor site set up for me to be going back to the ship long-term. My monthly goal is $900 dollars. You can donate to me directly, but if you want a tax deductible contribution you can give through my church First Baptist Church att: Joshua Young or the Mercy Ships Website. Here is a link to the website.

Crewmates Donor Page

Thanks for helping Mercyships and myself with any way that you choose.

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Busy busy

I've been pretty busy lately. Since getting back from vacation there has been several things that have happened. Here is a small list:

• After paperwork was finished, fully accepted to long-term cre member
• position of Galley Team Leader
• Started cleaning everything in my room
• removed 5+ boxes of stuff to get rid of at a yard sale this spring
• Talked at my grandma's church First Baptist Lemay on Sunday night February 5
• Cooked lunch for Senior Adults at my church
• chicken and dumplings for 75 people
• Helped run a cooking & baking competition for 18 students at Jefferson College
• Gave presentation at First Baptist Hillsboro on Feb 16th
• 10AM to a women's group & 7Pm to the youth group
• Cooked for the Sweetheart Banquet at church
• Asian salad, bacon wrapped pork loin, rice pilaf & glazed carrots for 100 people 
• Went and visited my old co-workers at the Saint Louis Club
• Getting ready for Open House at my church this Sunday evening 4-6 PM

There is still lots of things still going on. 

• I'm in the process of reading 4, yes 4, different books
• Always looking for ways to grow
• This week marks the half way point of my teaching at Jefferson College
• It has been amazing to see God place this opportunity in my life, but the more I work, the more I realize that I was made for working on the Africa Mercy. 
• I'm in the process of getting some things for when I return to the ship. It's great that I've been on the ship, gives me a different perspective for when I pack this time.
• Looking into getting a new camera so that I can record videos to show you guys things in Africa that pictures can't even begin to describe
• There's always the fundraising. I have to have $1,300 by May for my training in Texas and my flight to  Africa in July.

As far as things in Togo, things are going pretty smooth. The have started surgeries and I know of a few patients with large tumors that have already returned post surgery. One of my closest friends on the ship is having to go on a medical leave, please keep her in your prayers. The air conditioners on the ship are acting up a lot, they are being replaced during dry-dock this summer. It can get very hot on a floating metal box in West-Africa.

I still have moments of "culture shock", what you might call culture shock, to describe it better might be just moments of realizing how bad America has gotten in terms of people's gluttony of THINGS and how Capitalism is working against the common people. Well, I don't want to get on my soap box, just pray that Christians would seek God for what He wants, and pray that Christians would go out and reach the lost people of their community.

There have been several times that I wanted to post something on the blog, but it didn't ever stack up to be big enough for a nice size post, so I've decided that over the next few months the blog will probably be smaller paragraph size post. Just enough to keep you up to date on what's going on, but nothing to lengthily. 

Oh, yeah, by the way! I know several of you have said that you couldn't comment on my blog post. If you click on the links that I post on Facebook, just leave a comment on the Facebook link. If you don't have Facebook feel free to drop me an e-mail anytime. jky2003@hotmail.com.

Until next time

-Josh

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Christmas Trip II & Togo Update

To hear the beginning of this story read my last blog by clicking HERE.

Tuesday night we made it back in town to Vegas in time for dinner and went to visit downtown, the older part of the city. In one casino you could see a million dollars in one pile, and get your picture taken with it. In  the same area you can see the drive-through wedding chapels.

   Wednesday I got up early and went on a hike with my sister-n-law, Cassie. My dad had arranged a guided hike in the area near Hoover Dam. The guide kept talking about 600 million years ago, and 5 billion years ago. I know he doesn't have his numbers right, but I do know God knew what He was doing when he created some of the amazing things I saw on that hike.

There were come great views of the Colorado river south of the dam and a great view of the new bypass bridge. Hiking in the Rockies isn't like anything else that I've experienced. The mountains are so huge. Much different that the Smokies I hiked in North Carolina and a lot different than the hike up Sugar Loaf in Freetown. I guess I shouldn't imagine hiking in the dessert would be the same as hiking in shaded under dense tree cover.

Thursday we went to visit Hoover Dam. The bypass bridge was finished a few years ago and offers a great view of the lake and dam, so we stopped there first. Then we went around and went across the dam it self witch of course has great views of the bridge. The thought and amount of planning that went into putting the dam where it is, over 80 years ago, is so much that I can't even think of where the began the massive project.

Thursday afternoon we went out to Red Rock Canyon just before sunset. With only being about an hour from where out hike and Hoover Dam is, it was amazing to see how drastically different the scenery was. The rock formations were like nothing I've ever seen before and proved to be a great place to burn off some extra energy. If you look at the third picture down you can see a small red person, that's dad on the top of a look out. On the fourth picture you can see Ben & Cassie after the hiked up to a nice overlook. 

After rushing through the park we managed to get done before the actual sunset and missed some great skyscapes with the sunset reflecting on the clouds. On the way back to the room we stopped at the Las Vegas sign to get the traditional Vegas picture. If you ever get a chance to make it to Vegas remember..... the best things are off of the strip!!!

As far as everything on the ship, they had their first major screening in Togo last week where there were over 3,500 people that showed up. The main goal was to find people with cleft lip/cleft palate, facial tumors, and burn contraction and they managed to schedule over 1,600 were scheduled for further screenings. The first patients made it to the ship yesterday, Sunday the 5th, just in time for the first surgeries today. I can't wait to hear how things begin to progress over the next month.

As far as things at home, things are going good in class. Still getting to know my students and filling the four hours of class up every night. At the end of the month we'll be having a dinner for the families of the students.   Yesterday the 5th, our new pastor started at church. It's going to be exciting to see how God moves through Dr. McClain and to see First Baptist grow in the coming months and years.

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