Open your eyes

God really blessed me on my missions trip and he used it to show me how blessed we are to have what we have. You know how I told you about the Homeless outreach? Well God used that to show me how blessed I am. But recently, (actually today) I learned to play 'Give Me Your Eyes.' It is a really great song and he talks about God giving him his eyes to see the people as God see's them. He says in the chorus

"I've been here a million times,

a couple of million eyes,

just move and pass me by.

I swear I never thought that I was wrong,

I need a second glance,

so give me a second chance,

to see the people the way you've seen the people all along."

Some great lyrics and he does the song well, Lordwilling I will be able to get the song for this on the musicplayer and you will be blessed.

God bless; Ky

God's Secret Soveriegn Will, and Commanded Revealed Will

Today Mr. James and I woke up at 4:50 a.m. to go to a meeting with two young gentlemen. Jordan and Johnny, the Mullens call him Johnny (Appleseed) Nelson. They are two brilliant young men that are zealous for the truth. Jordan worked two jobs, one at the barber shop (the one who cut Mr. James' hair that first day I was here. And he worked at Wallgreens, and he was planning on going to Masters this year. Johnny didn't work but he does have a mission job. We had a great time together talking about God's Secret Sovereign Will and his Commanded Revealed Will, (It was deep, and when I say deep, I mean deep.)

But anyways we had a great time and afterwards we were driving through the city. "Kyler over there is a Strip club called Sinners," Mr. James told me, "Guess who does a bible study there?" I thought about Johnny but I didn't think that he was the kind of guy. "Mr. Ben?" I answered with a question. "No," Mr. James told me. "Mr. J.R.?" I asked again. "Nope," he answered, "It's Johnny." I really couldn't believe it. "Really?!" I asked astonished. "Yep," Mr. James told me, "It takes a lot of courage to do it but he does it."

Then we did another Jail Ministry. Mr. James taught on James 4 to about ten people, while I waited in the lobby reading 'do hard things' and playing pool. Then we ran some errands and went to lunch. We had a great lunch at a restaurant called The Lotus, (a Vietnamese restaurant.) It was amazing. Then we did another Jail Ministry at the older jail. He looked at Genesis 3 and taught about five people. These men were much harder than the first so it was harder.

After that was over we went around the neighborhood in the van and handed out tracts. This time it was much harder. My mind wasn't working and I accidentally called a group of ladies, guys. And I called one lady a man. Thankfully there was no pimp around that would have shot me for the insult but it was pretty embarrassing. I really wanted to go back home but we carried on.

The Lord blessed me and made me able to take a nap (because I was pooped) when we got home, for about twenty minutes or so. Then later we got to go with another man, Mr. David Mowen, the Muslim missionary, to another Somali Mall. We had some great food there for dinner. We had some things called Samosa. It was like a pocket filled with tuna and vegetables, or beef and vegetables. They were amazing. Another thing we had was (I forget what it was called, it is a really long name) but they were a hard-boiled egg that was kind of battered in potato and covered in something red. They were semi-heavenly. Then we walked around some more and looked at all the different ways of their culture then we left back home.

Overall it was a great day.

Kyler
God bless, and hope you enjoy.

God's Grace

"Kyler, I think you should hear the whole story," Mr. James said, "Stand up and walk over to the door." Since I arrived here I noticed a spot on the door that had been plastered over, and I was guessing that it was a bullet hole. "That spot right besides the curtains," Mr. James said indicating the spot, "Was made by a bullet before we moved here, by a Driveby*." I ran my hand over the spot on the door and whistled.


"And over there," said Mr. James pointing to the window, "Move the curtains aside and look for it." It didn't take me long to see it. It was cracked glass that was being held together by some duct tape. The Driveby had popped of a shot about six months earlier and it had crashed through the window and lodged itself into the arm of the sofa. If the bullet had been an inch higher it would have passed through the opposite wall and into Mr. and Mrs. Mullen's bedroom and may have injured or killed one of them. But by God's wonderful mercy he allowed it to hit the couch.


Mr. Mullen waited on the porch while Mrs. Mullen unloaded the groceries from the car. Just then a car drove by and 'Pow!' a shot went off.


Today we drove by a sort of memorial for a gangster that had been killed in a gang fight. He was sixteen. It was marked by a light pole with a piece of paper attached to it. And a stuffed animal of Winnie the Pooh was taped to the pole. It almost made me cry. One the paper were a lot of stuff written on it, I only caught two words, "Senseless Death."


**A Driveby is usually a gang that drives by and just pops off a shot for no reason, these are very common out here but through God's wonderful mercy I haven't witnessed any Drivebys yet.


Kyler

Another blessed day

Well today was a calm day... for the most part. Also I forgot to tell you, yesterday we got to go to Bethlehem Baptist Church (John Piper's Church). And later that night we had a bible study. We got a chance to sleep in this morning, (to about eight) and I played with Titus and Phoebe. Mrs. Anne had to go out to a small women's bible study at seven so we waited for her until she came back to have brunch. Then we went out and saw the Mississippi river and saw Minnehaha falls. It was frozen and very, very, very, beautiful. It was really cool because the ice was all blue and white. Some people were even walking on the frozen river besides it. Then we came home because we had to drop off the kids so we could get a vacuum clean for the van. We were going to meet some people later for dinner then go to the homeless outreach. The people who came over were Mr. J.R., Mr. Dan Bradley, and Mrs. Dianna. We had a great dinner then we sat around and read verses from Proverbs about the poor to get ourselves ready for the mission tonight. Then at about six we left to the homeless shelter. The homeless shelter was mainly a large room with lots of mats that would be sleeping places for people. It was not at all the nicest place I have been but it gave to a good glimpse into all the blessing that I have that I take for granted. We handed out bags called Care Packages with things like socks, hat, gloves, scarf, blanket, the Gospel of John, water, some toiletries, fruit bars, and some other things. I didn't do much, but I was impressed at how eager the people were to receive things that I take for granted everyday. I am very blessed to have been along, it was like nothing I have every seen before.
Count your blessings, name them one by one.
Kyler

Living in the Minnie Sota

Well yesterday Dad drove me to Branson, Missouri, and dropped me off at the airport. I stayed at the airport for about an hour the boarded my plane. I landed in Atlanta, GA an hour later. I had to stay in the terminal for five hours. I walked around, got lunch, called, and texted my dad, drank coke, read 'do hard things', wrote in my journal, and played pool on my phone. I don't know about you but I was pretty bored. I finally boarded my plane at 8:55, and landed in Minneapolis. Mr. James picked me up at at the baggage claim and we went home. We had a little devotional, then we all went to bed. This morning Mr. James and I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and went to a small men's group. It was very encouraging, the speaker talked about being anxious. Then we went to Starbucks and had some nice coffee. Mr. James and I talked about the subject of that nights bible study. Then we went over to the barber shop to have Mr. James hair cut. The guys there were really cool, and they called everyone brother, (most of them there were African -Americans.) Then we drove by Mr. James church's Muslim outreach house led by the missionaries David and Susan Mowen, called the Oasis Center. Then we went and looked around the Somali (Muslim) mall. It was practically a large building with small shops up and down aisles. Then we went to a restaurant and had some wonderful food, and when I saw wonderful I mean vonderful! Next Mr. James went to the Hennepin County Jail, where he ministered to 15 prisoners. He said it was very powerful and great. Then we drove around the neighborhoods handing out tracts to the people passing by. I don't know if you realize, but Minnesota is not the nicest place (by far). We handed out tracts to drug dealers, prostitutes, pimps, and many other messed up people. After each person we handed out tracts to we prayed for them. Then we stopped by some urban missionaries Ed and, Dorothy Woods. Mr. Ed was feeling discouraged because he recently got news that he has some medical issues. They lead the E.S.L. (English as a Second Language) team at Mr. James' church. Then we continued on to street evangelizing. At first I was scared to death about it, but I pushed myself and I ended up actually enjoying it. Man! I did a whole lot today, I could fill another five lines or so but I have to go with Mr. James to pick up some ingredients to make a strawberry pie for Mr. Ed, (that is his favorite food.) I hope you are blessed and I look forward to posting again.

Kyler

In the Name of Love

This is a whole album of songs instead of just a song but it's still really cool. It is a cover of a whole bunch of songs by U2 including bands like Sanctus Real, Chris Tomlin, Jars of clay and Pillar.

Mission Trip in the Artic

Hey just wanted to let all my 'faithful' blogger friends, that on this Thursday I'm going to get to go to Minnesota with some friends to do an inter-city ministry outreach. It is going to be very cold up there and I'm going to be there for five days. It is going to be awesome!! I hope you guys aren't too jealous. Because Seth is. (You don't know him.) Anyways I would appreciate it if you guys would pray for me. Thanks,
Ky

Sometimes it's better to listen to good advice

You know, I was thinkin' today about good advice. Me and my brother Kole were in the car today talking about advice. He pulled up this cool quote (by who knows who.) It went like this "One ounce of experience is worth one pound of advice". Now this reminded me of another quote I head read the previous day it went like this "If I had a little bit of humility. . . I would be perfect." (No I'm just kidding! I did mention that, but that was later!:)

But anywho, why got onto talking about advice was because recently I had been working studying for a College Clep test. And Kole and Kade had been pushing me and telling me I had to study more if I really wanted to pass it. I usually got angry at them and told them to mind their own business, or just because they had taken the test before didn't mean that they knew everything.

But anyway I just took the the test today and the passing was 50 and I got a 52. . . out of 120 questions. (Most of the questions didn't even know, I was praying that I would just make it by. I probably prayed ten times during the test. But it helped.) When we got home (after our talk in the car) Kade came up to me. "So what did you get?" he asked me, "Like a 52?!" "Yeah I know I should have studied more" I replied, knowing what would come next I said, "Yeah I know your motto 'always listen to Kade."

And I realized today that we are like that to God. God gives us correction and advice through his word and through people and we say "yeah sure, just because you know how this works doesn't mean that you know how it works," (yeah it's that dumb). Or "mind your own business. . . leave me alone. . . I can do this by my self." It's about time we started listening to good advice. or as the title says 'Sometimes it's better to listen to good advice.'

Kyler

btw do you like the quote i put up?