Full Weekend!

- Hosted the King girls soccer pre-game dinner on Friday night

- HS baseball season started on Friday and Luke was one of a handful of Freshman who were asked to work out with the Varsity that first night . . . Really proud of him

- Burn was awesome on Saturday morning

- Matt Beveridge Field Dedication on Saturday was really cool - Great to see how God brought it all together to bring Him glory through Matt's life!

- San Antoino Saturday night for KHS girls game against Highlands - Won 3-1 - Great job girls!

- Thanks for leading awesome Prelude on Sun morning Rachel Miller!

- Celebration was really awesome this morning! Thanks Mike I. for filling in for Steveo.

'Jesus is Lord!' God, help us to keep Jesus, and Jesus alone, on the throne of our life!

Prelude

Steveo is on a well deserved break with his bride celebrating their 10-year anniversary.

So this week Mike Ilse will be leading our music during Celebration . . . and Rachel Miller from Burn will be leading Prelude . . . Don't miss it.

Come at 9:30 and soak deeper in worship . . .

Finished . . . But Just Beginning!

I just got these pics from Ban Ho of the finished paved area on the school playground!

As you can see there is still plenty of area for us to complete.

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin . . ." Zech 4:10

It's hard for me to describe to you how this represents so much more than pavement on a school yard for students to play on.

It represents a new beginning. It's represents a foundation of change that has the potetnial to rock the world of VN! It's no accident that God's first visible project for us in Vietnam was laying a foundation . . .

Matt Beveridge Field

On Saturday King High School will rename it's baseball field Matt Beveridge Field.

If you don't know Matt's story you can click here or here or search him on my blog.

I'm privileged to get to speak at the event and encourage people to live their life fully. It starts at 1pm Saturday on the KHS campus . . . If you knew Matt I encourage you to come and honor his life and bless his family.

The God of Corpus Christi

Unfortunately, I hear a lot of negative scuttle about our City.

Fortunately, I've lived in enough cities to know that every City - like every person and every church - has it's issues and it's and it's great qualities.

Our City is one in which God loves every person. Our City has incredible Kingdom potential. Our City needs us - as followers of Jesus - to be supporters and encouragers and intercessors.

There's enough naysayers wherever you go. Let's drown them out by praying for our City and encouraging our City Leaders!

I thought that the video below from the Mayor Adame's State of the City address was a great reminder of the Kingdom potential. Watch it. Pray. Ask God to come and release our City from it's curses and to redeem every person in Jesus. And join in every way possible the building up of Corpus Christi!

Haiti - Can We Ignore Them?

I didn't hear about what was going on in Haiti until we left Vietnam. Now I have heard much.

"What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, 'Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well'—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless." (James 2:15-17)

It seems that James (the brother of Jesus) is saying that real faith - real Kingdom living - isn't 'just fancy talk, but living in God's power' (to borrow a phrase from Paul) . . . It's actually living out the Kingdom that lives inside of us!
And Jesus said that the most important commands were to: 1) Love God 2) Love Our Neighbor (further defined as someone who crosses our path with a need).

So, how can we as followers of Jesus ignore the suffering that is going on in Haiti? We can't.

In a week from Sunday . . . on January 31st . . . we will take a special offering to give to Samaritan's Purse (one of the first ministries that was on the ground in Haiti . . . you can check out on their website how they are giving aid by clicking here)

I realize that some of you are helping in other ways . . . that's great! But if not, let's join together and help how we can. No amount is too small. And everyone can help!

I want to give us a little time so everyone has an opportunity. Sell something on ebay, hawk some jewelry, have a car wash or bake sale, ask for donations at school, sell your dog (anybody want to buy mine? ok, just kidding :)

The point is we can all help, and it's all of us together in small ways that has BIG Kingdom impact.

Pray . . . Gather . . . January 31st.

Awesome Team!

I know that I overuse the word 'Awesome!' But this is one place where it applies. We had an awesome team in Vietnam and here's what I mean.

Teachable - Everyone went in with an attitude to learn from our partners and friends in VN. I'm so thankful that no one had the 'arrogant American' attitude that gives us a bad name.

Humble - Again, everyone on our team was willing to put others before themselves. I saw our team serve the students & teachers of Ban Ho and people of Vietnam day after day. As well as serving me and one another.

Faithful & Flexible - Every day we experienced the unexpected. We had 30-min van rides that turned into 1-hour and 2-hour loooong van rides (one of which included wading through the muddy road to help push stranded vehicles out). 8-hour overnight train rides with no sleep. Rainy days where no equipment or people showed up to work. 11-hour layovers in airports. And yet, every single team member was faithful to our task and focused on the Kingdom!

I could go through a whole bunch of other adjectives but ya'll get the idea. Just had to brag on Kim Lindell, Carrie Ruiz, Toby Ketter, Greg & Erin Richmond. Way to go guys, way to set the pace for future VN teams from Oso Creek!

Thought ya'll might enjoy these pics of our team. From top . . . 1) Beginning of trip on top of hotel in Hanoi (w/Tan & Sherman from GVI). 2) Putting our handprints in the new pavement at the Ban Ho Secondary School (w/Mr. Dook - Superintendent of Sapa Schools) 3) On way home @ Narita Airport - Tokyo (you gotta find stuff to do to kill an 11-hour layover!)

Brief VN Summary & Video

It's hard to express what an incredible time that we had in Northern Vietnam both from a personal perspective and in relationships with the people there.

It was amazing all that was accomplished. We set out just wanting to be open to whatever God had for us in helping and loving the people of Ban Ho and we ended up with more connections than we could imagine. And not just at the school but with Commune (City) officials, health department leaders & people from every tribe in Ban Ho (being Tay, Black Hmong and Red Zao).

A verse that encouraged us all week was Zechariah 4:10: "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. . ."

Incredible beginnings we had! I encourage you to click here and go to our website and see the message from Sherman Chau. Sherman is the head of GVI in Hanoi and I asked him to summarize the impact of our trip. Check it out and you'll be encouraged too!

This first pic is a couple of the children in Ban Ho and the second is us with some of our teacher, school admin, student and community friends (the ladies with the red headresses are Red Zao ladies)

Headed Home

Great day in Hanoi today . . . debriefed with GVI staff this morning then to cultural museum (about the minority cultures which we were in the midst of in Ban Ho) . . . then off eating and shopping.

We're about to head out to the Hanoi airport for the next leg of our journey home to Tokyo. Then after a 10-hour layover in Tokyo we'll go across the ocean to Houston, and then home!!

Great trip with a great team!

No video today but more to come soon!

Ban Ho Day 3

Check out the latest Ban Ho videoblog here: www.osocreek.org

We've been learning a lot about how our expectations can interfere with God's incredible plans!

So many things have not gone how we planned . . . but . . .

Delays the first two days in getting workers for the paving project . . . has led to invaluable relationship building time with Ban Ho city leaders, health care leaders and school administrators

No cement truck this morning because of muddy roads . . . led to an awesome kick-ball game with the kids and more encouragement for the teachers.

No time to get back to Sapa for lunch each day . . . has led to incredible times at lunch with the teachers and administrators

And on and on . . . Our mantra continues with more conviction than ever: Your Kingdom come, Your will be done!

Ban Ho Day 2

Finally getting this blog out a little late (wireless here is sketchy, but I'm thankful that we have it!!)

The Day 2 Ban Ho video is up (click here) . . . I tried to give you a little overview of what the Ban Ho community is like.

Because of light rain all day we didn't get any paving project done, but some incredible relational things went on! Erin R. and I spent an hour and a half with their local rural medical clinic 'doctor' (probably more like an LVN in our context). The exchange he and Erin had were awesome and it built for further partnership in the future. (None of this on video as he was reluctant to be photoed 'at work')

We also did a project for them you will see on video of taking pics of all the kids at the middle school for the students 'profiles.' They have no digital camera so they would have to transport the kids an hour a couple at a time on motorbikes to do this.
And this brings up a need that one or a couple of you could care for here in Ban Ho! Buying the school a digital camera. Probably $100-150 and then we could send it to them. Would someone be willing to do that?
It would be great to let them know before we leave that one will be on the way!

About to head out for our third exciting Ban Ho (6:30am here) . . . . so look for another Ban Ho video tomorrow morning.

First Day in Ban Ho!

We had an incredible first day in Ban Ho, Vietnam! (Click here to see video)

The school, town, everyone were so open to us being there. We were even invited to eat with the teachers and administrators on the first day -- very unusual.

We toured the school and needs they have, saw their town health clinic, starting working on the paving project in front of the school . . .
AND I participated in my first international soccer competition! It was their (very young) teachers against our team. For the record I played an incredible game at goalie (had like 13 saves!), unfortunately the rest of our defense was very spotty and the West lost 3-2.

But an incredible day . . . no pics here (tech issues) but check out the 2 new videos on the Oso Creek website plenty of pics there! (Click here to get to website)

A Day In Sapa . . .

It's a surreal train ride from Hanoi to Lao Cai. We left last night at 8:30 pm and the train got into Lao Cai (far northern Vietnam on Chinese border) at 5am. (We've got some video of the train on the latest VN video . . . click here to check it out -- top right 'Creek Videos')

We then hopped directly in a van for about an hour and a half ride to Sapa. Checked into our hotel and then took off for some sightseeing. Went to a beautiful waterfall and then by Ta Phin, the village that I went to last May with Forefront Church. Was very cool to be back.

Been a day of adjusting to the alititude (5,250 ft) and the culture. Have hung around town the rest of the afternoon.

We've been talking as team a lot about mustard seeds. How the smallest amount of faith moves the largest objects (Mt 17:19-20). And how just a mustard seed of the Kingdom has expanding impact beyond what is reasonable or imaginable (Mt 13:31-32).

We can't wait to meet the people of Ban Ho tomorrow . . .

Your Kingdom come, Your will be done . . .

In Hanoi!

We had a loooong day and a half but a great time and God got us to Hanoi!

Today we do a little sightseeing here and then tonight get on the overnight train to Lao Cai and then off to Sapa . . .

Check out the video of our journey on the front page of the Oso Creek website: video. Also, keep with us here or follow me on twitter . . .

This is our team with two of our GVI friends - Tan and Sherman on Saturday morning

T-2

Only 2-days until our team lifts off to Vietnam!

Come and join us tonight at the building at 7pm to pray for God's Blessing.

Click here for the team and more info . . .

Why I'm Going - Kim Lindell

I've asked our VN team to share with you why they are going to VN and what they are asking God to do.

I'm hoping that this well help you to connect with our Team and what God is doing!

As a "stay at home mom" for the past 7 years, my main job has been to take care of my husband, our children, and our home. Because of that role, I have often found myself in this sort of bubble absorbed with my self and “my world”...those things that pertain to us...things we are involved in, our daily needs, etc.

I desire to step out of that bubble and see a “new land” and it’s “people”; God’s creation elsewhere…His provision and abundance elsewhere…His glory.

I desire to experience a new depth in my faith…to be taken out of my element that I might see Him more.

I am taking with me a willing heart…my teaching experience…my attention to detail…and whatever else God pulls out of me on this adventure and in Ban Ho.

Holiday Update

Praise God for a great holiday season at Oso Creek . . . Here are some highlights and I'm sure you have many more in your own life . . .

- You gave $5,500 to Advent Conspiracy! That's resources to help Mission 911 feed and care for the local homeless. Money to build water wells in 3rd world countries through Living Water International to give people clean drinking water. And the resources to partially pave in front of the school in Ban Ho, Vietnam - and watch God open doors!

- Our Christmas Eve Eve Celebration was our biggest and best ever! And praise God for all of you who brought your friends and neighbors - keep loving and inviting.

- On Christmas Night a group of Vietnamese in our community had a service at our building. I wasn't able to be there but heard it was awesome and 4 individuals gave their lives to Christ that night!

- Then on New Years Eve we had a great gathering of students at our building with lots of pizza, coke, dodgeball and we learned who all can karaokee!

Hit comment and share your holiday victories . . . .

Why I'm Going - Greg Richmond

I've asked our VN team to share with you why they are going to VN and what they are asking God to do.

I'm hoping that this well help you to connect with our Team and what God is doing!

Here's Greg Richmond . . .

I am going to VN because, quite frankly, God told me too. He put it on my heart to go.

I am going to VN because this little girl, Thi Tra My Troung, and her family, and most of her country have never heard of Jesus.

I am going because it is uncomfortable, it is abnormal, and so many people ask me, why are you going to Vietnam? And then I get to answer, I am going because I have been shown a great opportunity to be relational for Jesus in a global way! What an opportunity for a small community of Christians in Corpus Christi to impact the world for the Kingdom!

I am not going to save people, because we all know only Jesus does that, but I am going because I am saved. Praise God! Thank you for your prayer support! - Greg Richmond

Some verses that inspired me:

Proverbs 21:21 (New International Version)

²¹ He who pursues righteousness and love
finds life, prosperity ^[a] and honor.

Proverbs 21:13 (New International Version)

¹³ If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor,
he too will cry out and not be answered.

Proverbs 22:13 (New International Version)

¹³ The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside!"
or, "I will be murdered in the streets!"

1 John 3:17-18 (New International Version)

¹⁷If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? ¹⁸Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

2 Corinthians 9:8 (New International Version)

⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.