Worldview

G'morning!

This week has been a bit challenging for me spiritually. Emotionally I've been all over the map, so I haven't been as engaged as I'd like. Through it all though God is faithful. The students here have had close to $10,000 come in this week! The school is almost completely paid off. A DTS here costs about $8000, and a lot of students can't afford that, but they come on faith, and God is faithful.

This weeks teaching was about worldview. We discussed many different kinds of worldviews, and spent some time on the prevalent worldviews here in America, Naturalism and Post-Modernism. Basically, there is no God, and everything got here by chance, and there is no absolute truth, all ideas of truth are equal and we have to be tolerant of everyone's view of truth. I don't think a lot of people realize how culture effects their view of God. There are more than a few church denominations that no longer teach the whole Bible, or won't evangelize to certain religions, or have just become passive because they're insecure in their faith, and this idea of "we have to be tolerant of other belief systems" has caused them to stop sharing the word.
John 14:6 -- "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Seems pretty clear and straight forward to me. Take some time to analyze how our culture has effected your faith. What do you believe? What do you value? Do you believe and value what culture teaches, or what the Bible teaches?

Just some food for thought.
As I told an agnostic I met downtown earlier this week: Keep seeking truth, it's out there, and the truth will set you free.

Christopher.

The Importance of Prayer and Intercession

I have a testimony to share, because God works in mysterious ways, and He's pretty awesome.

So, this past week, there has been a person that's really been laid upon my heart, so much so that I've started getting up at 4:30am to pray for them, then at six I'll read my Bible for an hour, and then start my day. As the week continued I keep getting this feeling that I wasn't able to shake. God kept saying to me "disobedience will lead to failure", and I knew it somehow had to do with them. I knew that if nothing was done, they may lose everything they had gained. I knew there was something holding them back. So Friday night, I decided to stay up and pray because the unsettled feeling I was having had gotten to the point where I wouldn't have been able to sleep. The word intercession was on my heart, but more than just prayer. The idea was in my head of physically standing between the attacker and the victim. I told God I wanted to intercede on their behalf. God told me that if I did so, it would go beyond prayer, that I may very well take an attack meant for them. Me, being me, said sure without any understanding of what that was going to mean. I received a message from them while I was praying, where they were honest about what was going on with them. It took me twenty minutes to reply, and afterwards I had a lot of peace. I thought perhaps the confession was enough to change the circumstances. I ended up falling asleep on the floor at three in the morning knowing that the attack against them was over. So Saturday I woke up feeling confident. Come three in the afternoon, I was really starting to feel alone, and insecure, and vulnerable. It got to the point where I fled to the man house because I just felt so oppressed. It felt like my faith was a house of cards, and it was crumbling down. I had a lot of thoughts going through my mind, and it was if there was a fog. I couldn't tell what was a true thought, and what wasn't. I felt that I had sinned and that sin was keeping me from seeing God. I went to bed around six, and woke up at a few hours later, and I felt so much better The difference was night and day. I prayed about what had happened and God brought to mind what he had said about intercession, specifically about standing between an attacker and victim, and taking a hit directed at someone else. I later received a message from that person saying the oppression they had been feeling for over a week had mysteriously evaporated, and they hadn't felt it all day. Now this freaked me out at first. Our speaker had mentioned that we aren't the Saviour. We can't, and shouldn't be the ones trying to save people, but we should lead people to the Saviour. If I was the one to take the spiritual blow, wouldn't that make me the saviour? And God said yes, it does, but, He allowed it because He wanted me to learn something. So this is what I learned: Now, I have issues believing anything I can't see or feel, as such the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is a bit of an issue for me. I know in my head that Jesus stood in the gap for us, and took our punishment upon himself, but it's never gone beyond head knowledge. Now a little over a month ago it was prophesied to me that I would get a 'personal revelation' about Jesus' death on the cross. I had no clue how God was going to do that, but that's exactly what happened. Jesus let me take a burden from someone else for a short time, to show me exactly what He did for all of us. Mind. Blown. God is amazing, and I love Him.

Spiritual Warfare

The long weekend is past, the students are back, and we're back to work here at the base. This week's topic is spiritual warfare. Now that we've dealt with the base concepts of being a disciple and relationship with our heavenly father, we can get to the meat of what it is we're sent to do.
Ephesians 6:12  -- "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
It's one thing to read a verse like this, it's something else to experience it. When 24/7 Church first started, we occupied one of the most popular nightclubs in southern Ontario. A year almost to the day later, attendance had dropped significantly (for no apparent reason) and they went bankrupt leaving 24/7 with a fully functioning facility to call our own. That's the point in my life where I learned that the spirituality of a place is a real thing. If you don't think what we do as people really makes a difference, think again. There is a war going on, it is everywhere, and it is important!
2 Corinthians 4:4 -- "In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" 
Watch what you let into your home. What are you watching on TV? Things to build you up? Or things to just distract you? Are you reading and listening to the words of the Lord on a regular basis? Or are you distracted by the shiny things of our culture?
Take a moment today to ponder about this. Are you more focused on what is temporary, or what is eternal? This is especially important in America where Black Friday (the day where materialism is truly scary) just happened.

The enemy doesn't take a day off. Keep that in mind, and that's what we're focusing on this week here.

Keep the faith,
Christopher

Gobble Gobble Gobble

'Ello all!

It has been a crazy busy week this past week. I've spent the bulk of this week inside a semi trailer of one sort or another. Last Saturday we had our Thanksgiving food drive, so the first half of the week was spent counting, then bagging all the food we got. We ended up with close to 400 bags of food (which include corn, green beans, stuffing, mashed potato mix, gravy, some sort off desert and a stick of butter). Saturday was our big delivery day. We were able to purchase over 450 turkeys. I spent close to over 10 hours running around town giving out meals in housing projects here, as well as at homes the schools have identified as needing aid. Then in the evening we had some extras so we did some spirit-led handing out which was quite rewarding. We walked up to one house Tna picked out and we give a lady the meal and her daughter who is about six or seven ran up yelling "is that food, they're bringing us food!" All our hearts broke. Also our big van broke down (again) so we got to have an adventure trying to get the thing out of the busy intersection. It started after it sat for 20 minutes, but we don't trust it so it needs some prayer. We still have a few meals to hand out for people t hat weren't home on the weekend, but it's winding down nicely. I also spent a bit of time over at a Baptist Church here which is the local drop off for Operation Christmas Child loading all the shoeboxes on their trucks. So a lot of heavy lifting was done this week, and I'll be going back this afternoon. Mondays are their busiest days.

Thursday is Thanksgiving here, so we have a half-week this week. Cam Speer, who just came to staff here after finishing a School of Biblical Studies (a 9-month intense Bible course) in Montana, is doing a Biblical overview the next two days. So he'll go over what the Bible is, why it's considered reliable and authentic, and how to get a lot out of it. Wednesday we have a half-day and then... I have four days of nothing to do because I already had Thanksgiving. I'll see what work I can get done while it's quiet around here.

The church I sort-of attend and plan on actually attending called Forest Hill is going through a series on Justice. This week was about sex-trafficking which is the big issue on my heart. Sex-trafficking is said to be one of the world's largest industries, similar in scope to drug-trafficking. The average age of targeted girls is 12 years old. Twelve. Let that sink in a moment. This isn't an issue that only exists in poorer countries. Charlotte is a major North American hub. One of the members at the church became entwined in it at the University of North Carolina - Charlotte Campus. She was raped repeatedly and blackmailed to continue. She thinks she would still be involved if the FBI hadn't picked up her blackmailer for something else. She goes to my church. Don't turn a blind eye to justice. People are being abused on our very doorsteps. As the Church, it's our job to bring hope to the hopeless, and these girls don't have a lot of hope.
It's my goal here to get involved with the University. Not just to start another university group, but to utilise what is already there and expand it to not only evangelise, but to stop stuff like this from happening. That's my call, and that's my purpose. /endrant

So yeah, that was this week.
God Bless everyone,
Christopher

Shake and Bake!

Back home from the YWAM South East Conference in Talladega (which spell check tells me should be spelled 'Gallbladder'). It was nice having a week with little responsibility. I could go where I wanted, when I wanted. It was a nice break from the craziness of day to day life here in Charlotte. I got to sit in on all the sessions spoken by Paul Hawkins. The week was about the Nature and Character of God. It's kind of the backbone of the idea of Youth With A Mission, "Know God, and Make Him Known". YWAM's schools aren't theology schools. The main school isn't about a download of knowledge, it's about getting to know our creator more intimately. One's theology should come from the knowledge of our Creator, not our knowledge of our Creator coming from our theology.
So Paul Hawkins has been in YWAM for years. He's pioneered a few things in his time. He spends all his time now going about and speaking about God's character. He calls himself a loose cannon inside YWAM, and he really is. I have mountains of notes to go through. Most people don't really trust God's character, so Paul exists to fix that.
The election was a thing. There was some cheering, there was some jeering. Most people I've talked to aren't big fans of either. The important thing is to pray for the leader, no matter your opinion of him or them (like the Fiberals in Ontario). So someone woke me up at 9am last Saturday asking me to vote for Obama. Waking someone up on their day to sleep in is counter-productive to securing a vote, just if you find yourself in that position ever.
One thing that stuck with me last week is that our God is the only god of any religion who is both infinite and personal! Hindu God's aren't infinite. Allah isn't personal. Just an interesting thought.
On Thursday I went for a walk in the woods. It's beautiful there at the conference centre, and the first thing I learned on my walk is that I'm out of shape. The second thing I learned is that if I go a half-mile in any direction I get cell service, but at the conference centre itself I have no service. So I had no phone last week. Kara and Aaron were gracious enough to text-bomb me with over 100 text messages that I received as we were leaving Friday morning. I think my phone used most of it's battery power vibrating. So the walk was beautiful. I got a little confused at one point because the trails weren't well marked. I prayed for help and God told me quite clearly that I had a map, a GPS and the sun to show me direction. I was just like "oh, yeah. I actually know how to do this". So I noticed an hour and a half into my walk that the sun was rather low. I check the weather. Sunset was at 4:45. I looked at the time, 4:45. Oops. So heading back it was a little dark. I made it to a road at 5:15, and got back at 5:30 and it was pitch black, but I had a fun adventure. The alone time was nice when I'm usually constantly surrounded by people.
This past Saturday we had our food drive for Lord of the Harvest. Our outreach to give the less fortunate families in the county here a Thanksgiving meal. The idea behind it is that every family should have one day where they have no shame for not being able to put food on the table. So over the day we made $1500 and got 72 turkeys (they were on sale. A normal year we only get about 20). We figure we need $4000 to get all the turkeys we need, and we're pretty much there. I spent the morning counting cans of food we have in the back of a semi trailer sitting in our parking lot. There is nearly a 1000 cans of corn. We'll rent a truck on the weekend, a forklift at Walmart will put pallets of frozen Turkeys in the truck. It was a blast last year, especially to see the gratefulness of most of the families.
This week we're also loading shoe boxes onto trucks for Operation Christmas Child.
'Tis going to be a crazy week, but I'm excited.

God Bless,
Christopher

It's Friday!

It's Friday!

It's been a busy week here at YWAM Charlotte. Last Friday Christopher Vengala and I engaged the class in a little practice evangelism. I played an Atheist, and he played a Muslim/Hindu. I think it really showed how important it is to not only be able to say "I believe in God because of this event, or this feeling" but be able to logically back up your beliefs. I did pretty well as an Atheist until Christopher became a traitor to the cause and switched sides. He then tried to box me into agreeing that morals have to come from a higher being and that was an adventure to try and squirm around that. We then later prayed the filling of the Holy Spirit and there was some first time tongues going on. Good day.

Last weekend was a free weekend, and it was nice to be able to sit and relax in a quiet house. It's normally so busy, so having most of the students gone for the weekend was a welcome change of pace. Sunday I had an amazing time at Forest Hill Church but all too soon it was back to the grindstone.

So this week the students are learning about Original Design. So they're going over things like pride and passivity and other detrimental attitudes that aren't part of our original design. Vicky Hedgepeth who is one of the base leaders is teaching this week. I haven't been able to go to any of the lectures but I hear good things. A lot of the staff are in class this week taking part so I've taken a few extra shifts in the kitchen.

Wednesday night we had our first annual Fall Festival which is a Halloween alternative dealy for the local children in the neighbourhood. We had snacks and some games set up as well as a prayer booth. All evening we also had live music preformed by the staff and students (also, if anyone wants to donate a sound system it would be appreciated). Overall we had 17 children come. It takes a while for this area to get involved in anything, but every year we do it we'll get more and more people. Seventeen is a very good start.

On Sunday we leave for Talladega, Alabama for the YWAM South-East U.S. Conference. Last year's conference was incredible, so we're all very excited. It should be a spectacular week.When you stick 500+ YWAMers in a room, big things happen.

God Bless everyone,
Christopher

The Budget of a YWAMer

So it's strongly encouraged here to have a budget for my supporters so people can see what I spend money on as to be open and honest and such. So every month I'll post my budget for the upcoming month, so here it is for the month of November:

     Staff Fee/Insurance/Phone/SE Conference/Bank Fees/Tithe/Food/Other/Rollover/Total
Cost/     $185/      N/A/  $60/         $310/      $10/  $40/ $20/ $169/--------/ $605
Paid/     $140/     Paid/  $68/         $260/       $0/  $20/    /     /     $10/ $490                                                                 Outstanding= $115

What I'm looking for is just a few people who, with God's leading, can donate $10 - $50 a month so that I can keep doing God's work here in Monroe, N.C. You can donate money to my paypal account which is kiffer82 -at- rocketmail.com or you can send it via snail mail to 418 E. Franklin St, Monroe, N.C, USA 28112

God Bless,
Christopher

Compassion/Justice

Last September I took my Discipleship Training School, which was focused on Compassion and Justice. Now that I'm staffing here at YWAM Charlotte, I'm encouraged to find a home away from home church. The DTS students travel to a different church that supports us every week, but as staff we need to find a church home. I remember last year we went to this church in Ballantyne (which is south of Charlotte). It was having a grand opening as they had just moved from a movie theater to a facility they had built attached to the YMCA. It's one of three campuses (meaning that there is one speaker at one of the campuses and the other two campuses see him on a large screen -- this is becoming commonplace but it's taken me a while to get used too. Each campus though does have it's own pastor, he's just not the speaker). Anywho, because it was the grand opening the speaker was at this campus we went too. He was in a series on Malachi, and that Sunday he was speaking on Malachi 2:13-16 - a section on divorce. He said something right off that has stuck with me. "I like to go through an entire book when I preach a series because it means I can't pick and choose what to speak on. I have to go through all that is written, even the hard stuff". I knew that I was supposed to come back to Charlotte after my school as staff, so finding a home church was in the back of my mind. Skip forward a year and Forest Hill still tugs at me. I've been a few times since, and the thing I love about it is that the Word isn't watered down the same as at 24/7. It will definitely become my home away from home church.
Next week they'll begin a series on justice. Injustice is something that plagues are world, and I think our culture has become kind of numb to it but the statistics none the less are staggering. Today I came to a realization. I'm probably not ever going to return to Canada on a permanent basis. Not that there isn't injustice in Canada as children are killed before they even get a chance at they're first breath, but that isn't the fight I'm called to. Others are called to that war, good people such as Eric Johnston. And there is a war. A war between good and evil, life and death, Creator and destroyer. A war over every single human being on this planet. So I can't just go home and live my life while young girls are sold off for sex in return for some cattle, or entire villages are wiped off the planet simply because the people there were born of a certain tribe. While thousands die every day simply because their village doesn't have a well. I can't stand by while most of the world live in worse conditions then the homeless in North America. No, I'm called to the battlefield. Right now I'm part of training 14 young people who'll take the gospel to Cambodia and Thailand. They aren't going on vacation. They're going to war. They'll see things that they'll never forget, meet people who'll they can't forget, and in the darkness they'll spread light. This is who I am, and this is what I'm called to do.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -- Edmund Burke

Evangelism

Bloggity, bloggity, blog blog blog.

So there are quite a few staff members at this base, and yet there is always something that seems to need doing. It's been a busy week, but we all have the weekend off so in theory I'll have a break.
This week has been 'evangelism' week. We've had the honour (yes, it is spelled with a u) to have Christopher Vengala speak. He's an amazing speaker with such passion for spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Monday and Tuesday were about culture. Ultimately we exist in a certain culture, and those around us view the world in that culture. There's a passage I came across yesterday that I think illustrates this well.

"For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings" -- I Corinthians 9:19-23
Taking this further, and looking at Acts 17 where Paul talks about "The Unknown God"."For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, "To the unknown god." What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you." -- Acts 17:23

(I spilled Cheerwine on the desk, and now the desk is sticky and it's causing great annoyance.) Finding "The Unknown God", what the person sees that they don't understand but they know it comes from God.
Today we looked at why you want to spread the Gospel. What has God done that makes someone want to follow Him. Testimonies are a great tool for evangelism because it is so personal. But testimonies won't effect everyone, so tomorrow (which I'm greatly looking forward too) we're going to look at "Why John 3:16?" "Why Jesus?" Not only through the eyes of testimony, but through the eyes truth and knowledge, so I'm going to play a bit of devil's advocate and throw out some tough questions that we encounter talking about the gospel. What about evolution? Doesn't science disprove the existence of God? What makes Christianity any different from all the other religions out there? and such. I love this kind of stuff. I love having my faith challenged. It helps me to learn what is true, what is false and what I've just assumed.
Which brings me to something I've been doing all week. I made a few statements on Facebook which were challenged by a Catholic friend of mine. There are few people I respect more than him. He honestly seeks truth, and that says a lot about someone. I don't agree with everything he says, but it helps me learn. And his poking and prodding have certainly helped me learn even if I'm occasionally exhausted after responding.
So what else happened this week? Lord of the Harvest is just getting started. Every year we raise money to donate a Thanksgiving dinner to needy families in the area (which happens in November, because American's missed the memo that Thanksgiving is in October). Last year we donated over 400 meals. On Saturday we did some door to door fundraising. I made... *insert drum roll here* $8 over six hours. But as a base we made $750 or something like that. So it was a good day. Over the next month we'll start a food drive at various grocery stores in the area and people can donate food as well as money.
Today was my first day heading up the weekly evangelism we have. We took the students downtown Charlotte to spread the good news. I had a student with me who just has so much fire and passion. It's inspiring watching him speak to people. This was probably my favorite afternoon yet here.
One of the core beliefs of YWAM is the reliance on people to send us into the field. We are not payed by them, and in fact it costs $185 US a month for me to be here which covers the cost of room and board (not including the phone I need, and any other expenses I have). If anyone feels led to help me cover these costs, it'd be most appreciated. There are also students here needing to finish paying for their schooling. (The six-month DTS costs about $8000). They'll be splitting between Cambodia and Thailand. I'm excited to see all they accomplish. Anyone willing to sow prayerfully, financially or in any other way, it'd be most appreciated.

God Bless,
Christopher Andersen

New Beginnings

I decided to take the train to Charlotte as I enjoy train travel in general. I don't mind spending 36 hours in travel. It gives me lots of time to think, and I like to think. It started bright and early Thursday, October 11th. My dad took the GO train with me from Guelph and saw me off at Union Station in Toronto. The border crossing was the easiest time I've ever had. The officer asked a few questions, read my letter from YWAM, and the approved me, smiling and joking the whole time. The Niagra river was gorgeous.
I spent the night in Pennsylvania station in New York. Now, I wasn't overly comfortable sleeping there, so I pulled an all nighter. Met some interesting people. Got asked for directions more than once. Before long it was 7 am and southbound was I. I slept like a rock until Washington. Woke up and someone had sat beside me. His name was Skip. Interesting fellow. He'd grown up in North Carolina so he gave me some history. The state fair was on in Raleigh and we made a special stop to take on 90 high school students. Skip got off in Greensboro, and a young lady replaced him.
I'd prayed for a divine appointment, but since Skip was beside me (and was Christian) most of the way south, I didn't expect to get one. I was wrong.
So, the woman who sat beside me was 21, and I found out her name was Morgan. She was on the phone with her boyfriend and they were fighting. She seemed to be having a really rough time. We eventually got to talking and I mentioned that I was Canadian and I was coming down to work as a missionary. You can tell when someone has had a bad experience with Christians. You mention Christianity and a wall immediately comes up. I don't remember exactly what I said, but it got through to her somewhat. She told me she had grown up in a Church of God (Pentacostal) and found them incredibly judgmental. She went on to say how she much she disliked Pentacostals and Southern Baptists but I stopped her there. I have had more than a few bad experiences with different churches. I lost a good friend when I helped start 24/7 Church. So I mentioned that just like everyone else, Christians are human. There are a bad apples among us, but don't discount everyone just from one church.
At the end of the trip she told me she'd think about Christianity and that she was glad she had met me. Called me 'unique', one of the more meaningful compliments I've ever received.
So on to life at YWAM Charlotte. We have a school running with 14 students who are amazing. They have so much passion and love. They're an amazing group, and when one is falling behind they all help that person. One of the boys here is dyslexic and so a few of the girls helps him read and helps his spelling. It's amazing to watch. I was privileged yesterday to be involved in some spontaneous worship that a few students had. They'd just had a lecture about pride and betrayal and it hit a few of them hard. Some sent messages to friends, family and exes asking for forgiveness. And after all that soul searching and struggle, all they wanted to do was worship God. Absolutely incredible.
Being here is a little strange, as I feel as if I was never not here, and it's not just me who feels this way. I fit, like a puzzle piece. I also hadn't realized how much I'd changed until I got here. Then I noticed the difference in how I was last year, and how I am now. Discipleship Training School is the most amazing thing I've ever done. I still think every Christian should do it.
So I came here to forerun a university ministry, and I'm not at this point sure when that will start or how that will look. Christopher Vengala wants me to attend a school in Kona, Hawaii called Apologetics and Worldview. I'm good at that kind of philosophical critical thinking that is much to rare in Christianity, and he wants to build up that part of me. Do one thing, and do it very well.
So this is me,
missionary to America.

God Bless,
Christopher