Update from the Mountains

Today marks the last day of my first week here in Fort Collins, Colorado, and I have to say that while it has flown by, I feel like we have had a month of activity going on! From the time that I got off the plane at 7 am last Sunday morning, I have been in numerous orientation meetings, two host homes, met a couple dozen people, spent more and more time in the Word, gotten to know my incredible teammates, and learned from two passionate church planters. But the adjustment to the busy schedule seemed somewhat trivial when you consider our time getting acclimated to the altitude up here! We are talking headaches, exhaustion, trouble breathing, dry skin and hair, and nausea. Blame it on dehydration but as our trusty team of four likes to say for every situation, “Just blame it on the altitude!” Excuse? Possibly. Funny? We like to think so. Miniscule discomfort when considering the magnitude what God has called me here for? Definitely.
“What really did God call a college student up to the rocky mountains of Colorado for a summer away from friends and family,” you may ask. When I originally answered that question for myself, I thought to build churches, help out some ministers, grow my leadership skills, maybe write a little bit, and spend some time in an environment that would be more challenging than back home. These are good answers on the surface, however, the more I learned, I found that I had put God’s desire for how He wants to use me this summer in a box. This realization came when fostered by the much needed time of evaluation and study during our orientation with the director of Longs Peak Baptist Association of Churches, John Howeth, who serves as our supervisor or as what he likes to refer to himself as a “coach,” through our time as summer missionaries. What he reminded us of was as simple of a concept as any but extremely vital for every aspect of life! In all things we should strive to just be at Jesus’ feet. While leading worship, making fliers, interviewing locals, coming up with creative outreach, serving the communities and being in God’s awesome creation are all good tasks to be completed, they are completed in vain if each individual on the team has not taken time to be with Jesus. How can we expect to be effective in this ministry if we are not taking time to humble ourselves before the One who’s ministry was and is, perfect? The various ways of being as Jesus’ feet vary- some are more contemplative, intellectual or enjoy being in nature to most effectively connect with God while others get to that place of closeness with Him through their senses, enthusiasm, or serving others. Putting my “being Jesus’ feet style” into practice makes all the difference. If I am taking time out everyday to get to a place where I have been at Jesus’ feet to best learn from Him than I am at the “right place” and the evidence of Christ in my life will overflow into everything else that I do.
All that being said, God called me to commune with Him humbly at his feet so that each person I come in contact with will see the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and essentially will want to experience it for themselves. The ultimate goal is eternity. We hope to be vessels of Living water to the spiritually dry region that is the Longs Peak region of the Rocky Mountains.