From humble beginnings...

Since this is my first post it will probably be a little longer than average. You have a lot to catch up on.

If you're reading this you probably already know what's up, but if not then keep reading . It'll be an adventure. There is a lot of lingo, words like STINT and such, and backstory that I may or may not explain. it will also be riddled with grammer and spelling errors. im not very good at this writting thing so just bear with me.

Here we go-

Some time ago during my junior year at Ohio State, Go Bucks, a friend of mine(we'll call him Jon because that's his name) started talking to me about going on STINT( a short term international missions trip with Campus Crusade for Christ...we'll get detailed later on about what exactly will be going down) to Valencia, Venezuela. Long story short, at first i was not too thrilled with this idea, I had plans. I'm not quite sure what those plans were, but I had them. But, and this is a big but, God apparently had something different in mind for me, we'll talk about how and why He made this clear soon enough, hang in there. It's been about a year and a hald now(it is currently September 9, 2009) since Jon and God started plugging STINT in my life and Lord willing that is where i will be in a week.

Why go? What a fantastic question, im so glad you asked!
There are several reasons.
-We are called to take the Gospel to the nations(Matt 28:19)
-There is a need(luke 10:2)...especialy for men. think about it guys.
- I have a year between now and going to grad school(maybe), so why not?
- Venezuela is a unique country with many opportunities to send their own to places we can not go.
-It's gunna be real sweet.


With that said here's what's goin on:

It all started back in the spring. The Great Lakes Region schools (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and some other state) went to a kickoff weekend in Indianapolis. There were 6 of us from OSU(4 STINT, 2 intern). To save you all the gory details, the weekend was all about paper work, forms, and developing a team of ministry partners to help get us to our assignments(some of you may even be part of my or others teams! whoo hoo!). I don't remember a whole lot to be honest...just that they made a big deal about a black and white picture in a book they gave us....just kidding. People made it alot of fun. We had good times together.
Anyway, aside from that we also received our official assignment. did i mention that we really didnt know if there would be a team going to Valencia or not?yeah, we could have ended up anywhere in the world, seriously. just a bit unnerving. but there were our names on the board under Valencia VZ.
i was stoked.
For two of my OSU friends, their plans changed quite a bit . but thats another story for another day. Getting my assignment also meant that I got to find out who i would be spending the next year of my life with, kind of a big deal. They are sweet, you might even knwo some of them.

Lisa-The Ohio State University
Allison-The Ohio State University(2nd year)
Sarah-Ball State University(2nd year)
David- Duke University
Matt(me)-The Ohio State University

David, Allison and Sarah were not there that weekend, but we would all be together at STINT briefing.
with that i was headed back to columbus to blaze the support raising trail and to graduate in june. both of those things happened(i am a proud graduate of The Ohio Sate University, class of 2009)
that was long so ill shorten the rest of the summer...

shortly after kickoff weekend i was given a call and i was given the opportunity to lead the team this year. i really didnt know what that meant, but after being given a whole 24 hours to think and pray about it i agreed. conseqentaly, afew months, a diploma, and a number of great weddings later i arrived in Ft.Collins, CO for team leader training with about 45 or so other really awesome men and women that would be leading thier teams around the world, including my co-leader allison. they would be going all over the world.from east asia to africa, germany to south america and everywhere in between. Good times were had by all and i saw God do alot of work in my life and in my heart in a very short time, much of which revolved around the 4 L's that they talk about for all STINTers. Love the Lord, Love your team, Launch a movement, Learn a new culture.
this, in essence, is what this coming year will be all about.

about a month later i was again in colorado for STINT briefing. my team as well as about 200 other young people who were going all over the world. this was the first time that our entire team had been together. we speant the week in the beautiful rocky mountains, revisiting the four L's, spending time with God and the team. each day we visited an aspect of STINT life, heard from past stinters and staff about what some of of our years would hold.....i also got to spend some time with my sister, her husband, and my 1 year old niece for afew days after this. it was great!

i still dont feel adequatley prepared to go to VZ, let alone do ministry or lead a team (i think ive said afew times that ive never felt less prepared for anything in my life). this is a scary, but good thing. hopefully i will get out of my own way this year and be in a place where i have no other choice but to follow and lean on the Lord.

this summer, specifically the week of leader training, breifing, and the few weeks after breifing until now(i think stint breifing was Aug 12-19) have been some of the most challenging in recent memory. in my entire memory for that matter.

we should be leaving around the 17th hopefully. about 8 days from now.
it'll be good. im sure a lot of it will be fun. some of it will be hard. and it should be an adventure.


matt
Romans 1:16