Silly Pharaoh...

This "morning" I stayed in bed after I woke up and read Exodus. Not the whole thing, just the part about the plagues and stuff. What I thought was most interesting about this passage was the part where "God hardened Pharaoh's heart." (Ex 7:3) I actually thought of this more disturbing than anything else. Disturbing in the fact that God would "harden someone's heart." So, I looked more into what this meant.

God didn't do this outside of Pharaoh's will. That is, God didn't change anything about Pharaoh. He would've made the same decision regardless of whether God did this or not. What I got out of digging deeper into this passage is that God was looking at this situation and thinking to Himself, "How can I make the best out of this situation?" The best thing that He could think of is that He had to empower Pharaoh to make these decisions to, in time, build him up. Or in other words, there would be a  better chance that Pharaoh would come to know the power and who God really is through all of this crap that was about to happen to his nation. Of course, Pharaoh knew that all of these plagues would happen and eventually wipe out his nation, but he still didn't let Israel go.

Another thing that interested me is the progress that was made throughout the this whole plague process. Pharaoh at the beginning was so unbelievably skeptic of the whole situation. The first time that Moses and Aaron go to the Pharaoh, I picture him laughing at the two young Godly men. He says "Show me a miracle." (Ex 7:9) They do. Then Pharaoh summons his little magicians. They do the same thing. Pharaoh's reaction to this is that Moses and Aaron's message wasn't from God because it was duplicated by human hands. Eventually, once you get further into the plagues, Pharaoh starts to admit that he's sinning against God. Still, he's stubborn and doesn't allow Israel to leave. Then, he FINALLY allows them to leave and Moses is all like, dude, we want all of our people to leave, not just the men. And Pharaoh's all like, no man. That's not happening! Still stubborn. Man, what's it going to take to break this homie down!? Finally, after ten plagues, Pharaoh gives up. He admits defeat and realizes that God is bigger and He always will be.

That made me think about how stubborn I can be sometimes. It forced me to take a step back from my life and look at what I'm holding onto saying "No God, I'm bigger than you and there's no way you're getting what you want in this area of my life." Man, that's challenging. Challenging to just admit that I'm not big enough to fight Him. Why even try?! There's no use. I might as well just wave the white flag now. Why should I go through ten plagues with a hardened heart when I could go through none and do God's work to its fullest.

My extended family

This past Saturday I went to the Milwaukee Brewers game. Miller Park, the Brewers stadium, is just an architectural and structural phenomenon. The retracting roof is unlike any other retracting roof as it rotates open, not slides. I usually enjoy going to professional sports. Even when I don't like either team playing, similar to Saturday. The main thing that I like about professional sports is seeing everyone so unified on one goal. When a player does anything close to something a physically average body wouldn't be able to handle, everyone cheers. Even I cheered. As a Cubs fan, a team that the Brewers have beat up on all year, I should despise Brewers. But I cheered. I didn't care. The good feeling in the stadium is contagious.

When I saw everyone so happy and cheering for anything and everything that was going on on the field, I thought of the family that is promised to us as Christians. This family of brothers and sisters that traces back to the very beginning with Adam and Eve. I think that the relationship that we should have between our brothers and sisters in Christ is very similar to the relationship that we have with people at professional sports games. We should be doing all of the following:

1) Watching for successes and failures.  In a professional sports game, the players are under a microscope. Everything that they do in those times are ridiculed and criticized to no end. Given, all of this stuff is on a very surface level, but can still be applied to our relationships with each other as a Body of Christ. We should be watching each other's lives very carefully. As Christians, we know that it's hard. We're put under the microscope of everyone else in the world. They expect us to be perfect a lot of the time. We know we can't do that though. It's up to us, as brothers and sisters, to call out each other when we make a big mistake like fans do for professional sports players mess up in a game. (Maybe booing someone off the field is a little harsh and not loving...) Because we know how hard it is to live in this world and not of it, it's up to us to call each other out on it.

The other big thing that we need to remember is to CELEBRATE with each other! So often Christianity is boiled down to "What am I doing wrong?! How can I make this better?!" I'm not saying that that's the wrong mentality to have, because it's good. We all have to be striving for a solid walk with the Lord. However, we need to celebrate with each other and lift each other up when good things happen! It's in those times that can really fuel them to continue whatever it is that they're doing. This is  something that I've encountered this year at school so far. I'm tired. I haven't gotten much sleep. I've been pouring into a lot of people and whenever I see some sort of result, ANY result, it causes for celebration. Celebrate with that random 300 pound guy next to you in the stands if it comes to that.

2) Be undignified! At these professional sporting events, it's kind of funny if you ever just watch people. I'm not sure if it's because they've had a little too much to drink or because of the atmosphere, but their actions at these events just scream "I'm going to do _____ and I don't care what you think!" Why can't Christians have this mentality? (Once again, maybe a little more loving and less "drunk guy in the stands"...) We all know that we love the same God. We all know that we follow the same Jesus. We all know that we have the same Holy Spirit dwelling in us. So why can't we just worship however we want? pray how we want? talk freely about what's on our minds? 

At professional sporting events, with most people in the stands, you have one thing in common: the game. You're completely sold out for everything Brewers or Cubs or Packers etc. Often times when we go to one of these events we end up at least sparking a conversation with the person/ people next to us. Why can't this be with our brothers and sisters in Christ? With most of the Christians in this world, we have one thing in common: Jesus. So what's stopping you from sparking a conversation with the person you're sitting next to at church that you've seen for a month in a row? Why can't you talk to the person that openly confesses they're a Christian in front of the entire class or work place?

A lot of times Christians don't see every other Christian as a brother or sister (I'm guilty of this too). We just see them as another person that believes the same thing we do. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. God loves us enough to call us His children... yet we still ignore each other or ignore the actions that we are making and shrug it off as no big deal. When Paul concludes his second letter to the Corinthians, he states how important this concept is of embracing the relationship with each other. As you go through the day, my challenge to you is to treat everywhere you are like Miller Park. Every one throughout your day treat like an all star. 

What now?

I want to use this post to thank everyone that supported me this summer. Your prayers were present over the whole summer. The reason that I know is because God answered those prayers and gave me the energy, words, and actions needed to make the biggest God footprint in Chicago and the students' lives as possible. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been able to experience what I did, and I wouldn't have gotten to experience God in the ways that I was able to. So I want to thank you for all of the prayers that you offered over the summer and all of the financial support that you were so generous in giving for me to get the opportunity to even go to Chicago this summer.

"So Donnie, how are you different from this experience?"

Well, it's funny you ask. This summer was life changing. No two ways around it. This summer itself was somewhat of a leap of faith. I didn't know what God was going to do with it or what He was going to teach me in the process. He didn't disappoint. I witnessed God working in the lives of so many students this summer. All of the teams that came in, over and over again were answering prayers of churches to further their ministries. We were able to see kids get saved in the Vacation Bible Schools that the teams ran. 

The thing that God was beating into my head and heart all summer was the fact that I'm not here for myself. I'm not in Chicago sleeping on couch cushions, getting 6-7 hours of sleep every night while working intensely long days, and doing all of these work projects for myself. I'm not doing it for the people of Chicago. I'm doing it for God. I tried doing all of the things this summer on my own strength for many days and even weeks. I couldn't do it. I needed to rely on God to do what I was meant to do there. The only reason in my mind that I would need God's power and presence in my life is if I'm doing His work. If I can't do something on my own, that's a good sign, a sign saying I'm doing something right. I'm doing stuff that is above me. Something Godsized. 

Metaphor time! Consider everything that we do, every action that we make, is candy. Everyone loves candy. What's better than candy? More candy! More candy = more impactful actions. We all want to leave an impact. The more candy that we get the more candy we want. Our end goal is to get as much candy as we can. Godsized candy! Godsized candy = Godsized impact! Why can't we focus on this in our everyday lives? Focus on God's purpose and why He's placed us in every situation He has in that given day? That's one of the biggest things I've taken away from this summer. Living life intentionally. I want to have a purpose for everyday that I'm living. At night, before I go to bed, I want to have my Godsized 100 Grand candy bar for dessert.

That's what I need to do this year in order to make a Godsized impact on MSOE's campus and Milwaukee in general. God's ready to move in Milwaukee. He's ready to use this campus to change the world. The only problem that we might encounter is whether or not we're ready for the change and how willing we are to actually act on what we believe God is trying to do through us as His children here at MSOE. I'm pumped to say the least. I'm ready to feast in Godsized candy. 

How do you define your faith?

Is it by what you say? Is it by what you think? Is it by what you don't think? Is it by what you do? Is it by what you don't do? 

It's really an interesting question. One that I never asked myself really before this last week. I was given the opportunity to teach a bible study on the passage James 2. James 2 has a relatively famous passage in it that says rather bluntly "faith without deeds is dead" (2:17, 20). In the process of teaching this passage, I asked the question "What do you do to make people know that you're a Christian?" This question seemed relatively straightforward and somewhat easy to answer. The answers I got were rather interesting. I got such answers as "I don't curse", "I don't have sex", "I don't drink or do drugs", or " I don't gossip with my friends". Don't get me wrong, all of these things are good and are very important while being a Christian. However, that's not what this passage was getting at.

If you think of pretty much any character in the Bible and why they were known in their time, about 99% of the time it's because of what they did. Not because of what they didn't do. This is what James was talking about when he wrote this Chapter of his letter to the new church. He knew that they would stand out already because of what they didn't do. He knew that there would be temptation to be complacent at where they are by just not doing stuff. 

In high school, this is what I let define me and who I was as a person. I was the one "that didn't drink" or that "didn't cuss". This has been something that I've been living by until this last year. I've realized that reading the Bible and learning about God is a huge part in your relationship with Christ. However, if you don't take everything that you're learning in your life and apply it to your life somehow then what's the point? James went as far as to say that you're wasting your time if you're doing that. Hmm... convicting, isn't it? 

So what does this have to do with my summer? For one, I'm learning a TON about God and about the plans that He has for my future. This next year, God's entrusting me with a much larger flock than he has in previous years. This means that a lot more people are going to be looking to me to model what a relationship with Christ looks like. James 2:17 is one of the main things that I'm going to have to keep in mind while doing this so that everyone I'm being a witness to doesn't just think that being a Christian is a list of things that you shouldn't do but it's something that you need to be active in and something to strive after. 

When Jesus was on this earth, he didn't just not do things. He acted upon every opportunity that he had in his years on this broken planet. He cared for the tax collectors, he loved the prostitutes, he fed the hungry, he humbled the proud, and he healed the sick. The name Christian literally means "to be like Christ." The people in Jesus' time knew him by what he did, not by what he didn't do. So let's be like him. Let us act on the faith that we have in God in every situation possible. Whether that be talking to the person next to you in line while waiting for lunch about their day or being able to pack up and move if that's what you believe His will is. In Paul's letter to the Hebrews he defines faith as "being sure of what we hope and being certain of what we do not see." We need to take actions out of faith whether or not we know what is going to happen. If we don't, it shows our uncertainty in God. If we're uncertain about God, then we have no faith.

God in a box

Lord, 

You are the God of this city. You have shown me that many times in this last month. You are moving through so many people in this community to make this place more like how You intended. You have a plan for everyone and everything. You've proven that many times. God, I haven't trusted you the way that I should. I haven't been as faithful following you through those hard times and praising you in those tough times. God, I need to be able to listen to your voice and act upon what I've hear. The level of urgency that you call for your people to have isn't there in me. I've been very relaxed in these last couple weeks. I know that I don't have much time with these students to speak truth into their lives. But I've just been sitting back watching you work. I ask, Heavenly Father, that you use me for the reason that I'm here, and that reason is to speak truth into these students' lives. God, You are in control here. Not me. Please help me realize that and help me do your work humbly as this summer progresses. Please give me the energy that I need to finish what you sent me here to do. Please instill in me a level of urgency that I need to have to get Your will done. You are in charge. You are the reason I'm here.  

Amen.

The trip this last week was a team from Memphis. This team isn't your "normal mission trip team"... Let's just put it this way; they got kicked out of the church we're staying in temporarily because a guy that works here thought they were random kids from the neighborhood. They were 6 African American students from the not so nice parts of Memphis. What I learned from this trip was that God can connect with anyone. He can do something for anyone in this world to help them see him. So often we put God in a box. We say "This is the way that I see God and this is the only way that He is." That couldn't be farther from the truth. 

God is big. People say that all the time. We sing worship songs about the power that He has and how big He is. But do we really see how big He is? Do we see the power that He is? Do we even look? I know I don't very often. I'm guilty of it. I leave God in my little box. I've started seeing God work in ways that I never thought possible. God turning people to Him through community, miracles, relationships, conversations, family troubles, and through praise. The most thought provoking way that God works through is community. 

God created us to be with each other. He didn't create us to be isolated. Not just through our church, not just in our circle of nice little Christian friends, but getting people that don't believe Jesus is Savior. That's the crucial part that most people don't realize. They just look at their church and are comfortable with their relationships that they have there. That's the way that I used to see things. I'm guilty. Comfort is so overrated though. Do you think that Moses was comfortable leading Israel out of Egypt into the Promise Land? No. Do you think that Peter was comfortable being the rock of the Christian church? No. Do you think that Paul was comfortable being called to be one of the most persecuted against Christians of all time? No. All of these people from the Bible took off their skirts and did what they knew God was calling them to do. I'm pretty sure that anyone would agree that any of the above tasks are more difficult than building a community involving everyone. 

When we, as a Christian church, start to love people as who they are and not who the world sees them as, that's when we start to see God in different ways. That's when God reveals Himself to us. How have you seen God today? 

Habakkuk 1:5

Wow. It's only been three weeks in Chicago and so much has happened. To everyone out there, I'm sorry I won't be able to fill you in on everything that has happened. However, I will fill you in on the most important events in the last two trips and what God is doing in my life as an individual.

Trip 1
Church: Faithbridge Methodist from Houston, TX
Location: La Villita Community Church, Little Village, Chicago, IL

This being the first trip of the summer, I thought that I was going to get eased into the summer and into what God is doing in Chicago. Key word there is thought. Our work project for these two weeks was to put up dry wall in a church across the street from La Villita. Dry wall sounds like such an easy project in theory, but when you're working on a building that was built in 1891, and has been remodeled and had amateur hands working on it all throughout the years of the building, it's far from easy. There were a lot of obstacles that had to be overcome in the process of taking down old drywall, cutting the new pieces, and putting those up. The kicker is that the students had to navigate all of those obstacles pretty much by themselves with the supervision of all of the adults on the trip and myself. The students found ways to get through all of the problems that they encountered throughout the whole two weeks and made those two rooms very pretty.

The work project isn't what made this trip so special. On this trip, the students genuinely cared about each other. They wanted to know each other's stories, their struggles, and celebrate with each other! It was fun for me to be a part of such a tight knit community and seeing such a cool environment for Christ to flourish. Being able to step back from the group and look at how people were being transformed was one of my favorite parts of the trip for me. There were a number of people of the team that were rather quiet at the beginning of the trip. I heard stories over and over of these students "not talking at Bible study" or comments something along the lines of "I've never heard you talk before..." So often we get caught up in what's going on and we're so into the moment here and now. We spend so much time looking and gawking at what's going on that we forget about God. We look at the situation that we're going through and we just see it as something that's happening, not "This is God." That's what I had the opportunity to see this trip. I saw the Holy Spirit just doing work in these students. Some people say that it's so hard to see the Holy Spirit working. After this week, I think that it's the most noticeable of the Holy Trinity. He can convict people on what they're doing or how their acting, they can open them up to possibilities in their lives, or even give them strength to do what they never saw possible. All of these things I saw or even experienced myself during this trip. God is moving.

Coming into this summer, I had a few things in mind that God was going to show me: how I can better serve the poverty in Milwaukee this coming year, what I should do with school and how I can use that to better the Kingdom, how more effectively share the Gospel and how it has effected my life, and how to handle a large amount of responsibility. During this trip I had the opportunity to get to know our missionary partners at La Villita: Victor, Greater Zion Missionary Baptist Church (the church we did work in): "the Charles-es", and Young Men Educational Network (YMEN): Marcus. I was informed of the neighborhood and how God is moving within Little Village. I was privileged enough to hear a few testimonies from the people that I was so blessed to meet during these two weeks. What was really cool about all of these stories is that most of them had something in common: trusting God. So far in my walk with Christ, I have struggled quite a bit with that. I'm just starting to learn that God is bigger than me. There's no possible way that I'm going to overcome God's plan for me with my puny self. I'm starting to understand that God wants me with Him and on His side and the only way that I will get away from that plan is... well... I can't get away from His plan. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, God is going to pull me in. So why is it so hard for me to trust Him and go with Him willingly?

I would say that I can relate to Saul right now. After he's blinded on the road to Damascus, he spends 3 days in Damascus praying. Just saying to God, "Dude, what're you doing with me?! I've persecuted you so much and turned against you every chance I had! Why me?" This is the mentality that I'm having right now. I don't know what God is doing in my life right now. I don't know what He's preparing me for. I don't know why I'm going through all of this challenge and struggle this summer. But all I need to do is stay faithful through it all, and God will provide and everything will turn out. I mean, just look at Saul. After his conversion, he ended up writing most of the new testament. God will have His way with me. I will be a weapon on the side of God. I just pray that I will take the easy route. Not the route to Damascus.

Quick Recap of Trip 2:

Church: Emmanuel Lutheran, Dayton, OH

Location: Brickyard Bible Church, Chicago, IL

Sadly, I don't have time to go into as much detail as I did on the last trip but I'll try to give you a quick rundown:

This small church on the Northwest side of Chicago has a member that came to the church a couple years ago. The reason that she came to the church was to die. She was pregnant with her 5th kid and she had a fatal case of cancer. She came to the church to get her relationship with God right. The members of the congregation then prayed over her for pretty much a day straight. Then, she went home after that for a couple days. She went into the doctor then to get a check up on the progress of the cancer and a miracle had occurred. The cancer was gone. SAY WHAT??!?! Yeah. God did that. He just said "No, I'm not done with you yet," and snatched that cancer out of her body. She then proceeded to have her 5th child with a husband addicted to drugs. Soon after the baby was born, the father decided to go to rehab and give his life to Christ as well. Insane in the membrane. 

Even though the family is now apart of the church, they still don't have the funds to fix the house that they have had pretty much their entire lives. Words seriously can't describe the massive amounts of work in this house. Literally, everywhere you look there is something that needs to be worked on. They have been praying for the energy, manpower, and resources to make this work happen around their house for years. A couple days before this team from Dayton comes in, Ryan, the trip leader, called the church we were staying at and asked the pastor if they had any families in the congregation that needed any work done around the house. Obviously, he thought of this family first. Prayers were answered. God is awesome. Energy, manpower, and resources were brought to the house on Monday, June 27th, 2011. 

Oh, I forgot to tell you that they were about to go into foreclosure. If they didn't have four main things done in that house, then they wouldn't be able to live there anymore. Those four things included fixing concrete stairs in for the front porch and putting in new wooden ones, tearing out flooring in the bathroom and putting brand new flooring in, putting water seal on the back porch steps, and putting a new ceiling up in the basement of the house. Wow. That's a lot of work to have to have done in any house and for this house, it was just the beginning. The hardworking team from Dayton did work on this house during the 5 days that they worked there. They either finished or nearly finished all of the four projects that they had to to bring them out of foreclosure. Talk about God providing. 

Another thing that was cool about this trip was that this church helped plant a LeaderTreks site in Dayton. This summer LeaderTreks had 3 weeks in the Dayton area. Emmanuel Lutheran saw the need that was in Dayton at the time and they acted on it. The only thing that I've heard about the Dayton site thus far is that it's awesome. God is moving in Dayton so much from what I heard from the team that was here and what I've heard from the group that was in Dayton. The Dayton site has been SO successful that they want to expand the trip next year from 3 weeks to 10 weeks. God is moving. 

Prayers

The first third of trips, I've learned so much about God and who He is. He's been teaching me so much through the students, the community I'm submerged in, and the stories that I've heard. He's been making me think through why I'm here also. I had a conversation about community and what it is with a person recently. That one conversation flipped my perception of serving upside down. We were talking about the concept of intentional community. The idea of living submerged in the areas that need serving. He said that the people in those areas don't want to feel like a charity case (who does?). While trying to piece what I'm going to be doing in Milwaukee this next year together and hearing this life changing stuff, I realized that that's what I'm supposed to do in Milwaukee. Live life with the poverty. Make the homeless feel like they're needed. Help the broken hearted gain hope again. But this isn't just by going to a soup kitchen once a week or once a month, but it's by living with them. What does that look like though? That's the question that I need to look to God for now. 

As the summer goes on, and the trips begin to mesh together a little bit, my energy will begin to diminish. I'm starting to get worn out. Physically and spiritually. I can't do this alone. If I want to make the biggest impact here in Chicago then I'm going to have to be ready to fight in battle. I need help. As this summer goes on, please continue to pray for me that I can have as much energy needed to fulfill God's plan for me this summer. Also, please pray for patience for me this summer. We have four weeks where we are moving around Chicago from church to church. This is extremely tiring. I have less free time than I thought that I would and expending more energy during the weekends than I would like. During these next 3 weeks please be praying for patience because I'm already annoyed with all of this moving around. Doing it 3 more times is going to be even more frustrating. 

Also, if you want to be apart of God moving in Chicago this week, and want to partner with me financially still, there's still time! Up to the end of July you can help support me by sending a check made out to LeaderTreks to:

LeaderTreks

Attn:Donnie Bogle

25W560 Geneva Rd. Suite 30

Carol Stream, IL 60188

Or if you have a PayPal account then you can help that way by clicking the following link:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=WC5DYEAEHS87Y&lc=US&item_name=LeaderTreks&currency_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donateCC_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted

It's Time.

I apologize for the long wait for the next post. These last few weeks have been CRAZY!

Right now is probably the most excited that I've been about one singular event in all of time. I just got done with intern training for this summer. We learned what various things about LeaderTreks and how LeaderTreks Staff functions. Let me tell you, it is truly a unique and amazing organization. I am beyond blessed to have the opportunity to work with them in the pursuit of creating leaders to fulfill the Great Commission this summer.

This training that I went through was five days long. There were 16 interns that came together from all around the country, from every walk of life for the one sole reason that we love God. It was so evident the first day even. We did team building initiatives that LeaderTreks staff made up. These initiatives are just absolutely ridiculous. They have your team do something that will never ever be applicable to anything in real life such as passing our entire team through a web of strings and making sure that none of them were ever touched by anyone. Ridiculous, right? Wrong. What these initiatives did was teach us.

They taught us various leadership skills like stepping up and speaking our ideas, being compassionate with each other, being patient, trying new things, and even stepping back to let others lead. Honestly, it was mostly the last one. 16 leaders in one team does not go very well. One of our team members even stated "When doing these initiatives with 16 leaders it's like throwing a steak in the middle of 16 pitbulls and watching them fight for the steak." It's so true. It was so frustrating sitting back and watching plans that weren't mine while I had other plans in mind. I eventually learned that my pride in wanting everyone to use my plan right now wasn't necessarily best for the team. That's going to be something that's huge this summer. Students on LeaderTreks trips don't get spoon fed answers. They need to work to get stuff done and they need to make things happen for themselves. That being said, if I see a student doing something differently than how I would normally do it, I need to step back and just watch it happen. If it works, yay! They did it all on their own! However, if they don't succeed, then that gives me a teachable moment to walk this student succeed in whatever they are doing.

Today was something that was set aside as a day to reflect and pray about what God has done/ will be doing in your life. I reflected on this last year and how God has worked in/through it. I saw that God never let go. He stayed with me the whole time, even when I was rejecting Him. He was living out His promises all along in the following steps:

1. I applied for the LeaderTreks internship even though I had no idea why I wanted to do it or if it was the right move. I just knew that people thought that I'd be good at it.
2. God pushed me to get involved in InterVarsity at school and blessed me with an opportunity to start the Social Justice League. 
3. God allowed me to get the internship with LeaderTreks and get placed in Chicago. 

These steps show that God isn't just faithful to the people that aren't following him in the best way at the time, but He has a plan. He knew that my heart would break for the people in Milwaukee, and He wanted me to be working in Chicago this summer to develop more of a heart for America's poverty population. He wants me to further grow a heart for these people and to love them. I just realized this last week that this summer is going to be an unbelievable time for learning. Learning how to step back and watch/ serve, learning how to serve the poverty more effectively, learning how to ask intentional questions, and most importantly, learning how to further my knowledge of God. 

I really don't know how well I've shown how excited I am about this summer. The reason for that is that I can't describe it in words. These last few days, I've tried to contain the excitement that I have for this summer, the students that are going to be in Chicago, and God! Literally, I can't explain how I'm feeling right now into words, so I'll let my actions speak for the rest of the summer and you'll see what's going on soon enough.

Now is that time, you Prayer Warriors, to saddle up and help me fight for the Kingdom! I realize that this is going to be a long summer of being tired, a lot of ups and downs, and students wanting to be challenged. I will need you to constantly pray for me to have the energy that I need to get through this summer, the wisdom for what to say to the students, the discernment for when to speak up, and for God's will to be done this summer. 

Note: Keep checking this, it'll be updated roughly every/ every other Saturday. If you still want to help support my summer, donations are still welcome. You can either mail in a check that's made out to LeaderTreks to: 

ATTN: Donnie Bogle

25W560 Geneva Rd. STE 30

Carol Stream, IL 30188

Or if you have a PayPal account, you can use that by clicking the following link and following the directions on the page.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=WC5DYEAEHS87Y&lc=US&item_name=Donnie%27s+LeaderTreks+Internship&currency_code=USD&bn=PP-DonationsBF%3Abtn_donateCC_LG.gif%3ANonHosted

Thank you and God Bless.

Playing in MUD

Good morning/ afternoon/ evening all you cool cats,

This last weekend I participated in the Milwaukee Urban Dip or MUD for short. This dip got the students of MSOE InterVarsity involved in and grow a passion for the city of Milwaukee and the poverty in it. We did service projects by ourselves and with other organizations in the area. MUD was from Thursday afternoon of last week till this previous Sunday. There were 12 students that decided to give up the second half of their spring break to come to this event which is pretty miraculous because bigger schools such as Marquette and UW-Milwaukee have about 15 students come to this sort of thing for their respective schools. This great showing allowed us to do miraculous things in the City of Milwaukee this last weekend.

Thursday

People started showing up from their spring break around 2:30 and hung out. This day was more to get our mindset into what God wanted us to do for the weekend and to get more focused. First off was team building activities. The favorite one that we did was the classic human knot. The catch was that all of us had to keep our eyes closed except one person directing everyone on what to do. This showed the team that communication isn't easy when everyone's panicking or if everyone is sharing their input all at one time. It also taught the people that had their eyes open to take control of situations in order to get the objective done on time. 

After the team building activities we set out to our first service project: picking up trash. This was a very eye opening experience for me. I didn't think that 2 hours of picking up garbage off the streets of Milwaukee would produce so much trash! In those little two hours I by myself picked up a full trash bag worth of garbage. This was the first step into my noticing the trouble that Milwaukee was in and how much work needs to be done in the city. 

Friday

Friday was by far the most productive day that we had on this retreat in our backyard. We went to an organization in Milwaukee called Mother Scott Christian Youth Center. Mother Scott is considered the "Mother Theresa of Milwaukee". She founded this place and made it grow into what it is today. She is still alive and kicking and serving Milwaukee in her mid 70's! What a beast. The first few seconds of walking into this place, I noticed that it was a completely different world. There were homeless people eating and a woman preaching to them. She wasn't just preaching though. She was preaching from her heart. I could hear how much faith she had and the love that she had for these people. These differences didn't stop coming there...

They had a lot for us to do at Mother Scott's. The biggest thing that we helped with included our engineering skills, designing a computer lab. This helped me realize that not everyone can do the things that I can do with respects to engineering and helped me see how valuable God's gifts are. The computers that they had at Mother Scott's were old. I'm not talking about Windows Vista old, I'm talking Windows 2000 old. They all worked well but nowhere near what most people consider up to par today. Another project that they had people working on was folding an bagging clothes for another organization in the area called Repairers of the Breach. They're also sending clothes down to Alabama to help support the people that were effected by the tornadoes. They are also doing a good amount of remodeling there so they had us doing some odd jobs moving some stuff around, throwing some stuff out, etc. 

Mother Scott's was a lot of work but our day was far from over. Next we had a community dinner at a place called St. Ben's. For the most part, people that are homeless or in poverty go to these meals. We wanted to see what it was like and experience what they experience daily while eating this meal. It worked. I had a conversation with a man named Mississippi. He was a tremendous guy and he had gone through so much. He came from Mississippi to Milwaukee in 1979 and wasn't used to the life style that it brought. He told us that the first day that he came up here he saw a black guy walking with a white girl and didn't know what was happening, he'd been used to racism his whole life and still is today. When I started talking to him he didn't understand why people like us would come and eat and hang out with "people like him". I explained to him that we're all brothers and sisters in God's eyes and that we need to take care of each other. He eventually understood it but was obviously taken aback by the situation. He went on to talk about his struggles that he's had as a homeless man and his frustrations about what he faces and the cycle he goes through.

Saturday

Saturday was a reality check for the leaders that helped organize MUD such as myself. We had set up three different organizations to send kids over for the day to play with us in our recreation center. In the end we had an organization say that they would get some kids here and everything would be fine. No kids showed up. This was God making sure that our priorities were in check. We wanted kids to come because we wanted to help them and have our event go smoothly. This isn't the thought process that God wants. He wants us to want to serve Him and let Him take over everything. We were relying on ourselves way too much.

Eventually some teenagers from an organization called Kidz in the Hood came by and we played some basketball and volleyball with them. This was loads of fun for me because it was just like being home and hanging out with people that I'm not used to all the time. These kids aren't any different than me; they love sports, they dream, and they want to be wanted. 

How does this relate to LeaderTreks?

For the most part, this doesn't relate to LeaderTreks. It does however, secure the fact that I'm going to the right place this summer. The reason for that is because as this weekend went along, my heart kept on breaking more and more for the people of Milwaukee. I couldn't stand just sitting aside and doing nothing about this problem in the city that I live in. I need to do something about it. Chicago is very similar to Milwaukee but on a larger scale, much larger scale. Living in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago for the summer will help me better understand what people in poverty endure. Up till this last weekend, poverty in Milwaukee, scratch that, the city was very abstract to me. I didn't know what it was truly like to live in poverty or be homeless and my idea of it is starting to take shape and my burden for these people is growing tremendously. 

Update on Raising Support

I still have not been able to see how much or who has helped support me for my summer. But the minimum number that I was given that has been received thus far is $1250. I thank all of you for all of the prayers and support that you have given me. Another thing that I learned from MUD was that serving people can be tiring. I was beat after one weekend of service let alone a whole summer of service. I ask that all you out there keep on praying for energy for me as I get everything finalized for this summer and as the internship begins. 

April... snowstorms bring May flowers?

A lot has happened so far in the month of April.  School is starting to wind down to  the summer.  The leadership opportunity that I have gotten within the InterVarsity chapter here at MSOE has been loads of fun and has required a big time commitment.  One exciting thing that is happening with InterVarsity is coming up this next week. The Social Justice Committee that I'm apart of is organizing a "retreat" of sorts during our rather late Spring Break.  We will be coming back early from our spring break to serve through various churches and organizations in the area to help the burdened and battered in Milwaukee.  We are also going to be doing some team building initiatives and grow in fellowship on this retreat in our backyard.  This is by far the most exciting event that I've been apart of thus far in InterVarsity.

As for this Summer and my internship with LeaderTreks, I am totally excited! A few things about what I'm going to be doing this summer, in case you forgot:

• I'm working with LeaderTreks, a nonprofit missionary organization that focuses on building student's leadership skills to fulfill the Great Commission.
• LeaderTreks has placed me in a neighborhood in the West side of Chicago, Lawndale.
• I will be helping lead these mission trips that high school and junior high students will be going on and helping the students grow in their leadership skills by asking tough questions and being a source of knowledge for them to ask questions.
• Chicago is the perfect site for me to be at because of the Social Justice events I'm helping with here in Milwaukee.
• I will be learning a lot about urban ministries and how to go about that kind of stuff.

This internship will help me tremendously in so many areas of my life.  You wouldn't be able to tell that it's changing me as much as it actually is unless you get some background knowledge on me and my past...

Looking back at my life, I've been afraid.  I've been afraid to take action on so many things that I've seen and gone through.  I've been afraid to stop holding onto my life so tightly and let God take over.  I've been afraid to live.  These last 6 months or so I've been able to grow so much in my understanding of God and my trust in Him.  There are two major examples of this in the near past:

1. This internship. The first time that I heard about this internship I thought that it sounded awesome and a lot of fun.  However, I was used to being at home and I was homesick as it was.  I wanted to be home for the summer.  God had different plans for me.  He started pulling and tugging at the strings He knew would finally get me to apply and eventually accept this internship.
2. "Social Justice League". This is the social justice committee that I'm helping lead this year.  At the beginning of the year I went to a few InterVarsity events and initially I didn't feel welcome there so I stopped going.  I wanted a warm and welcoming place to be my family in Christ.  The problem with that mentality was that I wasn't being very warm and welcoming either.  God was trying to teach me that I can't just sit in the corner all stubborn and wait for things to happen to me, I have to go out and make it happen!  Ironically, I was being too stubborn to see that's what God was trying to show me.  Eventually, I got the message to just jump right into InterVarsity and do whatever I felt God pushing me to do.

Even before this summer starts I can feel growth from it. One thing that God's allowed me to see learn about Him is that He is one persistent guy.  He's been trying to tell me to just let go and trust Him all school year, and I've been trying.  But preparing for this internship has brought a good amount of extra stress in my life that I've been trying to deal with myself.  This is the hard way of dealing with life. I've learned that trusting God and putting all my problems in Him is so much easier than it is to deal with things myself.  

I can also foresee some of the possible growth that will happen on these trips.  One of the main things that I'm looking forward to is getting a better understanding on what God has in store for me later on in life.  I've been wanting to find some possible way to use my Architectural Engineering degree to help people somehow.  I've also had the thought that maybe Architectural Engineering isn't the place for me to be.  I'm sure that being in God's Word and serving people for God all summer will open my eyes to the bigger picture that my future has in store for me.

Update on the support raising

I have been informed that LeaderTreks is getting some of the money that some of you have been sending in and I would like to thank you for that.  Those of you that are supporting in prayer, that's just as appreciated.  I'm going through a lot right now, from school to InterVarsity to preparing for this summer.  I ask that you keep on praying for me, my summer, and my ability to trust God more and more everyday.  There are a few events that are going on that you can do to help with my raising support:

1. Dessert Party. I'm going to be hosting a dessert party at my house in Bloomington.  This is scheduled for the night of Saturday May 5th.  If you're interested shoot me an email or send me a message me on Facebook. 
2. "Garage Sale". If you don't have a lot of money but still want to help support financially this is for you!  If you have anything that you don't use regularly or at all, I'm accepting donations of virtually anything a person would potentially pay for. This ranges from any sort of technology to clothes to food.  I would be honored to take you junk. :) 
3. Rent a Donnie. This is the closest one to now time wise. Since I'm going to be home for spring break this next week I'm going to help out anyone around the house, yard, anything. Any odd job that you have that you don't want to do, no matter how dirty, I'll do it.  The dates this will be happening is this coming Saturday and next Monday and Tuesday.  Times are flexible as of right now but they could fill up fast! so hurry!

Testimony

The other night I went to a bible study that is held weekly by the college ministry here at MSOE.  The topic of the night was testimonies.  This got me thinking about my story and how God has used me in so far in life.  It also got me thinking that all you out there interested in my internship this summer may be interested in my past as well.  So, I'm going to share with you my testimony and how God has used me and is using me currently.  So here it goes:

I grew up in a Christian home.  Very stereotypical to my generation.  I went to church but I never really knew what it meant to be a Christian or the depths of what they were talking about.  I went along this path all through junior high school and my freshman year in high school.  I wasn't in a good place the summer after my freshman year.  I was living according to what I wanted and not what God wanted.

There were two things that happened within 6 months of each other that helped change my viewpoint on God and life:

1. A LeaderTreks wilderness trip.  This trip consisted of 15 ish high school guys out in the wilderness and just having fun really.  On this trip is where I started to see the vastness, creativity and uniqueness of God.  After this trip I wanted to go change my life and start living more Godly, but that didn't happen.  My life went right back to the way it was.  I went back to my own ways and how I wanted to live life.

2. My grandpa's death.  This event at this time in my life was devastating.  I didn't know how to handle it or what to do.  This is the point where I realized that the only person that's always going to be there for me and able to comfort me is God.  He's the friend that will never leave me.

After this revelation that God is the one I should be living for, my life changed drastically.  I started living more intentionally and having a purpose to my everyday life.  I felt full for the first time.  I also started to see the potential that God has given me to be a leader and to influence people in general (I still don't fully this).

When I got to college this past fall I struggled.  I had never gone through this much change before and I've never had to deal with making new friends like this.  God taught me that I need people there to get closer to Him and without them, there's no us.

Currently, God is doing some awesome things.  He's been teaching me to trust Him more.  And from that trust that I've been giving Him, He's been able to show that it pays off.  This internship is one of the products of me practically taking a leap of faith and also the leadership position that I have obtained with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

He is still revealing the incredible leadership skills that he has planted in me and some of the plans that he has in store for me in the future.  I can't wait to be able to add another chapter to this story.

As an update on the support raising for this internship, I am trying to get as much stuff (any kind of stuff at all) and sell it here on campus.  So if any of you out there are willing to help out with this and have stuff that you don't need I would appreciate it greatly if you decided to donate that stuff to this cause.  If you're here at MSOE, just contact me and we'll work something out.  If you're from Bloomington, I'll be in town Easter weekend and I'll pick it up then. If you're from none of the above and would like to help out, contact me and we'll work something out.

I ask that you still be praying for my raising support and as the summer gets closer and closer, praying for the steps that this trip will take prior to the actual trip.  You guys are awesome.

God bless,
Donnie Bogle

Chicago, IL

After I got the internship with LeaderTreks, one of the main thoughts in my head was "Where is God going to place me this summer?"  I thought he was going to put me in a place that's far away and foreign.  I thought he was going to ship me off into the wilderness and serve him there.  I was wrong.  He put me virtually in my backyard, Chicago, IL.  There is no doubt in my mind that this is the right place for me to be this summer.  The reason for my certainty is that this is what I'm dealing with here in Milwaukee.  I'm starting to see all of the poverty right here in front of my face and how much I haven't done to battle it.

Many times I've gone to Chicago and seen many homeless people begging for money.  The impression that I have of the neighborhood that I'll be staying in this summer, Lawndale, is that I'll be seeing people similar to the homeless of Chicago all around.  They won't be sitting in the streets with a cup of change begging but they will be in a similar situation as these people.  Here are some quick facts about Lawndale:

North Lawndale

• 45.2% of population lived under the poverty level in 2000
• Median household income = $18,342 
• 93.8% African American and 4.54% Hispanic
• 20-24 year old jobless rate = 59.4%

South Lawndale (Little Village)

• 40% population under age of 20
• 83% Hispanic, 12.9% African American, 3.52% White
• Median household income = $32,320
• 17.8% of population attended college

As you can see, both of these neighborhoods need help.  Whether it be with education problems or with joblessness.  We do not know as of right now what our project will be in the area.  Whatever it is, I'm sure that God will be with us.  

I ask that you keep on praying for this trip that I will be going on this summer both logistically and financially as I continue raising money to go on this trip.  Please keep in your prayers my schooling and time management as well as I am getting to be very busy this time of the year.  

God Bless, 

Donnie Bogle