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In 4 days I will be leaving for St. Louis, MI. I'm heading there with a team of 7 other people to work in the inner city to bring restoration. I participated in this event last year and as its here already I have been thinking about my previous experience. If I trace my faith back it was this event that truly helped me to make the decisions to follow Jesus. While I was saved when I participated in this experience it wasn't until I was in that place that I made a commitment to become a follower.

The experience was overall amazing. I formed strong and lasting relationships with my team. I developed a heart for a overlooked population that dwells among us. I encountered God in a way that was tangible. I brought restoration to place that's facing destruction. But there was something that happened there which to me surpassed all things I brought away from my trip.

I can remember vividly the details, and believe me when I say that the situation sounds so odd. But one day while I was at St. Louis we were having some free time. I can't remember why, but I was upset. I had been having a great trip but something had me really down. I decided to go on a walk and just spend some time alone. I walked out to this little playground that was on the site. I crawled into this tiny little pipe crawl space and chilled there for a while. It was in this tiny, uncomfortable space that I had one of the best conversations I have ever had with God.

God met me in this tiny little crawl space. The first thing he did was tell me that he was proud of me for doing something that was terrifying. It was just uncomfortable, I was absolutely fearful of the trip. He then told me why I was there. I was there because God wanted to teach me about myself. A concept that seemed so strange at the time. He told me that he wanted to teach me why I was the way that I was. I was having a conversation with the author of my life. He was telling me his ideas and I was just watching the story fall into place. I thought I knew everything about myself. What I liked and didn't like. How wrong I was. I never would have said I had a heart for St. Louis or the people I would meet there, and I was 100% wrong. God revealed to me why I cared, and how he had designed me to love justice. It was a total shock of humility. Getting to have the creator explain his reasons for why he did something was nothing short of mind blowing.

Now one year later, my life is completely changed from that experience. I am once again acting in obedience to God and going back. I am eagerly awaiting to see how different and yet still life changing this time around will be.

This event was absolutely critical to my faith and my life, more stories to come at some point. Please consider supporting myself as well as my team with prayer and financially. Two of my teammates created a blog to help there raise the financial support to get them on this trip. Please check it out here and consider supporting them. Also if you would like to receive a prayer card and support us with prayer please email me at Chris@nau.edu and I would love to get you those materials.