put the lights on the tree.

God is good.  The weekend that I mentioned in my last post was INSANE!! All of the events were amazing, and God was glorified.

Throughout the process of building a giant tree out of PVC pipe and a hodge podge of christmas lights, I was incredibly anxious, frustrated, and full of stress and despair.  The tree was suposed to be done by tuesday of that week;  I didn't put the final touches on the tree until 1pm on Friday and the party started at 5.  Things just continually went wrong,  wrong materials, missing tools/materials, not enough guys to help.  I went to at least 5 different hardware stores throughout the span of that week.  As the ridiculousness of this project was becoming more and more apparent (a 30' tree on a roof built by volunteers....)  the more bitter I became towards leadership.  I finally realized that the reason that I was having such a horrible week wasn't anyone's fault but my own.  I was the one who was doubting that God would get glory through this, I was the one who was frustrated with my own lack of construction knowledge, I was the one who once again waited to close to the last minute to get the right people to sign on to this project.  In the end God led me to repentance and I got to light the tree with Dana Jill and just rest in the fact that God works despite our lack of trust in him.  200+ people came out to the Belltown Christmas tree lighting ceremony, a friend of mine proposed to his girlfriend on stage, and hopefully some people got to feel Christ love for them.

Thanks for the prayers and please continue to pray and if you feel led to give, Please click on the donate button!

quick update

So lots is going on, Just thought i'd swing by and give everyone an update.

 1st off:  There are big things happenin at Mars Hill Church Downtown this weekend,
              Dec. 1- Pastor Mark is preaching at the last Rainier Valley core group gathering before they launch on January 15th.
              Dec. 2-  We are hosting the Christmas tree lighting ceremony for all of one of the downtown area of Seattle.  and I am the head of a few of the teams that are working on stuff for this event.  I'm in charge of the team of guys that are building a 30' tall tree built on the roof.  I get to help make a backdrop for the stage that the musicians are going to be playing from, and make backdrops for the santa pictures.  and apparently I'm dressing up like an elf, go figure....
               Dec 3.-  The 3rd Annual Christmas Coat Lunch is today.  We will be giving away free coats, and lunches to the homeless, marginalized and downtrodden in Seattle.

Please pray that all these events would go off smoothly and that people would meet Jesus and experience his glory for the first time.

and in other news.......

I have a girlfriend, her name is Dana Jill.  She's is pretty great.  Loves Jesus, serves the church humbly, is adorable and awesome.  It's been alot of fun getting to know her, and I am so thankful that God put her in my life.

You can pray that God be glorified through our relationship and that God enable and equip me to lead us well.  that's all for now.  hope all is well.  I am so thankful for everyone that reads this or prays for me and I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

DONATE!

Hey everyone! So if you are very observent then, you have noticed a "donate" button on the right, underneath my picture.  I set it up through Paypal.  I just thought that if the Holy Spirit is moving you to help me out financially then that would be an easy way to give.  This is pretty crucial for me right now because as I look forward (which I've been doing alot of today) there are some things on the horizon that I am definitely trusting God with because it's apparent that I can't figure them out on my own and financial stability is one of them.  So I humbly ask you to pray for me, and if you are curious about any of my financial needs right now I'd love to talk to you more about where God is leading me, and how you can share in that mission.  I would be incredibly thankful.  Even if you aren't able to give financial I would still ask you to continue to have Mars Hill Church Downtown, Artist Reformation, Jeff Bettger, and me in your prayers.

Here's an update on the artwall.  IT'S UP!! It's 52 feet long (25 cubits) and 13 feet high (7 cubits).  The lettering on the wall is 2 1/4 feet tall.  Kacie Grice (my roommate) Dana Jill (more on her later) and I spent all day saturday putting this up and finished about 20 minutes before the saturday service started.  It was incredible getting to showcase just a small part of what God is doing here in Downtown Seattle.  I will write a more detailed entry about this later, I've got to run to my new community group.  Thank you for praying.  Also, if you read this blog feel free to comment on any of these entries.  I have a sneaking suspicion that it's only my parents that actually read this.  Love you Mom and Dad!!!

When it rains it pours

 So Seattle is done teasing me with amazing weather.  In the past few days I've gotten to know 'real' Seattle weather.  I took these photos about 10 minutes ago, and now there's sunshine outside.  When I get ready to leave Wheelhouse Coffee in about an hour it will more than likely be raining again.  To make it even more appropriate, Jon is playing Portishead in here, and it matches the weather all to well.  It was raining pretty nasty earlier, and as soon as I got to church it started raining in a different way.

My last post was about current projects that are going on at Mars Hill Church: Downtown.  The Art Wall project has been pretty much stalled for a while, and I found out today that the leadership wants this to go up this week.  I initially freaked out, because I am helping plan a party our community group is throwing on Friday, and there is still ALOT of work that needs to be done for the Harvest Party. So I am fairly low on bandwidth for other things.

So my initial response was stress and pressure.  I thought there would be NO WAY to make this happen by Saturday.  Then in an instant God reminded me that it's not about me and my abilities to get things done.  He reminded me that I'm not the one being glorified by any of this, it's him.

So what did I do with this refocusing? He put me in a community of people who have a heart to serve him in various different ways.   So, I reached out to the people around me, still expecting to get push back against helping me out because everyone is crazy busy right now, and despite my doubts, I have 3-4 guys that are going to help me paint the wall tomorrow, the photographer that I needed to resize and crop the photos is willing to labor pretty intensely today and tonight in order to get the photos ready, and the company that is printing the pictures said they can get them to me by Friday.  Please continue to pray that I remember who I'm working for and the fact that because God acted first we get to respond, not the other way around.

I am so relieved and comforted that the King of kings cares enough about me to remind me of how prideful I am daily.  I freaked out about this project because I knew that in my own abilities, time, and strength I couldn't get it done.  I fail time after time after time, but it seems like I so often forget these failures and the fact that on my own I can't do anything good, and through Him all things are possible.  (Philippians 4:13).

current projects

So I am still working on developing my previous post to more of a teaching text, but in the mean time I thought I'd update ya'll on some projects that are going on that you can be in prayer about:

 GOD'S MISSION HAS A CHURCH: This is a collaboration project from designers and photographers at Mars Hill Church Downtown. We hosted a church-wide event in July, and had photobooths set up (with the beautiful weather and the Pugent Sound as the backdrop). We have a huge wall at the church that we use to showcase different art projects. We will be covering the wall with the pictures from that event and in big text it will say God's mission has a church. We believe that God's mission is bigger than any local church, and that ultimately it's God who has ownership of the mission to reach the nations and as a church we get to participate in it. We want to showcase who we are as Mars Hill Church Downtown in partnership in the mission of Jesus Christ. The wall will also feature a chalkboard with questions about Gospel Identity and Gospel Mission and chalk for our body to be able to respond.

 This project is actually a little behind (our) schedule, but we know that God's timing is perfect. I can't wait to see the response and fruit of this installation. I estimate that it will be up in the next couple of weeks. Please pray that budgets get approved, and installation goes smoothly.

 Gospel Coaching:
Gospel Coaching is a type of discipleship that focuses on a person's missional, spiritual, and personal life. It is all about pointing people to the Cross of Jesus Christ, and helping people live out the Gospel in all aspects of their lives to the glory of God. I have been (and still am being) gospel coached by my boss Jeff Bettger, and I get the honor of gospel coaching Jesse Jarren and Will Foster. I know Will pretty well, have an earnest brotherly love for this guy and I'm excited to see what God is doing and will do through Will's life. I just met Jesse and I'm excited to get to know him and walk with him for a season. When Jeff pushed me to get certified to coach, I initially thought..." I'm single, 24, broke, and have only been in Seattle for 4 months. What do I have to offer?" Well my initial answer was NOTHING! and that is still the answer, however the context has changed. Before I was nervous and felt completely ill-equipped to coach other dudes in walking with Christ, but then I realized that no matter how much studying I did, in my own strength and ability I still have nothing. I do have the Holy Spirit, and the truth of scripture. So now I am excited to be a vessel for which the Holy Spirit will speak to these men. You can be in prayer for these men to be open and honest with me about where they are in their walk with Christ, and that I would not get in the way of the Holy Spirit doing work on me and these 2 dudes.

 Dry Bones:
This is my boss's worship band that I am currently the manger of. It has been quite a rollercoaster with scheduling and practice for these guys. It is totally a group of random people that have come together to worship Jesus. We just got a new drummer, and things seem to be moving forward to where Dry Bones can lead worship more often at MHC: Downtown. I will be handling off my administrative duties of the band to their new guitarist Nick Greenwood in the next few weeks. You can be praying that God will enable Nick to manage them well, and that the worship experience on October 8th (the next time they will lead worship at church) will be genuine and people will see and meet Christ in response. 

Community Group replication:
 My Community group that meets in Pioneer Square will be breaking off to start a new group in Capitol Hill. This will be happening the second week of October. My roommates Oscar and Sheri Melendez will be leading it, and I will be apprenticing/co-leading under them. I will then replicate out of their group in January. We are looking for a space in Capitol Hill for us to meet. You can pray that God would provide a space for us to meet and that we would be focused on the Gospel and it going out into the community of Capitol Hill. I am really exciting to get a chance to be a part of the Gospel movement in Cap. Hill.

 That's all that comes to mind at the moment. Thank you for praying for me and for Seattle.

God & Language

So the Holy Spirit pressed upon me last night to write the idea for this post down before I forgot it. I seriously couldn't go to sleep until I jotted some general notes in my moleskine, and then I was out like a light. Also, this is only the first draft of this. There are so many areas in which I want to unpack within the relationship of God and Language. I am doing some research and prayer about this, so please give me some feedback if you have any suggestions or other sources I can go and read about the linguistic aspects of God our Father. Here Goes.....

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. -John 1:1-4

I can't count how many times that the Holy Spirit has spoken directly into my life, and my response is basically, "Oh, wow isn't that NEATO!" and leave it at that. I continually don't really recognize the reality that God the Creator and King of the universe just spoke to me. These things should be given much more attention that 'neato'.

God speaks! I LOVE this. God gave us the Bible which 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us is 'God-breathed'. His word is truth. In Genesis 1, God speaks THE ENTIRE WORLD into existence. God is alive and very active. In the next chapter of Genesis, we get a glimpse of a 'hands-on' God that forms everything. Our God is obnoxiously personal.

In the Old Testament, God the Father speaks to the prophet all the time. Then He sends God the Son (Jesus) down to earth , and Jesus spoke truth to a generation of people who eventually murder him. Following the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, He sends our church fathers God the Holy Spirit that also dwells in all of those who profess faith in Him today. The Holy Spirit continually speaks into our lives through convictions, consciouses, visions, and a myriad of other miraculous ways. Our incomprehensibly complex Triune God in every one of his natures and persons speaks to us and pursues us often.

I used to be really confused by the phrase, "freed us for joyful obedience" Obedience was opposite of joyfulness in my experience, being obedient at school or obedient to my parents, or boss or choir director. It ALWAYS sucked because it involved me doing things that I didn't want to do and not doing the things I wanted to do. However, recently this concept of 'joyful obedience' makes some much sense to me in light of meditating and praying about the sovereignty of God and his loving pursuit of me that culminated with the Cross of Jesus Christ. Romans 2:4 implies that God's kindness (which is best seen through the sacrifice of his Son) was meant to lead to repentance. I now find that the Holy Spirit has given me an earnest desire to obey and glorify God because he gave so much for me and to me. I am a blood-bought, adopted son of the Most High King.

My prayer is that you would not ignore the Holy Spirit when He moves or speaks into your life. Trust in Him.

-Amen-

a peace that passes all understanding

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
then when we've first begun.

So I've sung this verse of Amazing Grace countless numbers of times. It's one of the many songs that you've sung so much, that you mentally check out after the first few words and go into autopilot praise drone mode. We sang that tonight at church.

The past week here in Seattle there has been a ton of heavy things go down. A young woman who is a new believer had her child die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. A woman in my community group has been trying to conceive with her husband for 7 years now... she announced on tuesday at group that they were 12 weeks pregnant, and we found out yesterday that she miscarried. Another woman in my community group's brother ran away from the treatment program he was in and has been missing for more than 2 weeks now. I was driving through downtown Seattle tonight seeing people fighting in the middle of an intersection outside of a club. Back home in Memphis, there was a school administrator found murdered in a classroom this week. It seems like everywhere I turn there is darkness. Sin, tragedy, and pain are all very potent realities in this world.

Revelation 21:4 talks about the new creation that is to come. It says, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

Tonight at church I served on the production team. Cam (the worship director at Mars Hill Church Downtown) was not feeling well, his throat hurt and he seemed kind of physically drained during practice. Other than that, there seem to be a weird tension before the service started. Everyone was hurting or knew someone that is hurting in one way or another.

GOD showed up. Once the service started I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. Even standing in the back of the room, the congregation sounded amazing. Feeling everyone pouring their whole hearts into worshipping Jesus Christ is so immensely powerful that I couldn't help but smile and dance while running the powerpoint for the songs. One of the last songs we sang was Come thou fount of every blessing, and we ended it with the first and last verse of Amazing Grace. The last verse was acapella. The Holy Spirit breathed new life into those words for me.

In Heaven, we won't ever run out of days to worship God. We will be with him forever. We can't even imagine forever. Continual community in constant, fervent, genuine worship and praise of God the Almighty Creator King of the Universe. That is what is waiting for us who believe that Jesus Christ championed Satan, sin, and death on our behalf. What greater prize exists? What greater price has been paid? no. more. suffering. of any sort. There won't even be sunburns! (Rev. 21:23)

Only through the cross of Jesus Christ do we find access to, and delight in the peace that passes all understanding.

amen.

stay tuned.

there are a couple of posts still brewing in my brain and heart.

some highlights:
-goodbye wisdom teeth
-leading worship with Ghostship
-losing my bartending shifts (for a while)

excited to share what God is doing with me. thanks!

i am not God.

I guess anyone who sees the title of this post thinks.. "DUH!" I guess I am the one that needs reminding of that constantly.

I went through something called Redemption Group at Mars Hill. Normally it's once a week for 10 weeks, but this time was different because they did it in 4 days. It was for current or potential leaders that haven't gone through redemption group before. It was more than just a learning experience about how to give some biblical counseling... Pretty much every one of the 20ish men and women that went through this immersion felt the Holy Spirit move in their lives in an amazing way. Sin was revealed, Eyes were open to the depravity of our fallen state and mercy and grace poured over all of us. I went into the immersion thinking I was going to get my world rocked, and I had all these sins in my head that I expected to be dealt with and when it came time for me to share my story, NONE of that came out. The Holy Spirit had a different agenda for me. When I opened my mouth I spoke about being incredibly selfish my entire life, and just how I have been deceiving myself and others.

I wanted to hold onto that sin and deal with (redeem) it. However, that's not how it works. We don't have the ability to redeem. We are a fallen bunch of sinners. Us redeeming our own mess is like rubbing 2 turds together... in the end you just end up with a bigger pile of crap.

So this weekend we all took a big long look at the mountain of crap that we have made for ourselves and realized that we are in desperate NEED for a savior. and THAT is why the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not just "good news" it's the BEST news. God continually pursues us, and we can never out-sin his grace.

feeling the power of the Holy Spirit this weekend was really intense. It is unreal and unfathomably amazing that he dwells in us. He gives us the ability to repent and delight in God and trust in his plan for our lives.

I hope that all you who believe will see this, and trust in God with your life. Let God be God and you be his son or daughter. He has good for you and he will get his glory regardless... you can't mess that up, you aren't that big.

WHEW!!!!

So I thought I would share about what all I've been doing and how God's revealed himself to me and really spoken into my life:

There are about 4 big projects in my lap. One of them culminates this Saturday so please be in prayer about that. John Mark McMillan (a christian artist) has agreed to lead worship with us after the saturday service this week, and I'm one of the people that has pushed for and helped arrange everything that is needed for this to happen. On top of 4 big projects, God is refining my view of money and how to steward it well, and on top of that there is a girl that I am interested in and for those who know me well, know that seems to be a big distraction in my life. I have ALOT going on.

My parents came to visit a few weeks ago and it was such a blessing for them to see what I'm a part of here at Mars Hill Church Downtown. Along with that visit, they brought all of my student loan files with them to give to me to figure out. There is ALOT to figure out there. As soon as i sat down with all this paper work staring at me, my email inbox blowing up with people asking questions about events that Im helping with.... I was immediately overwhelmed, I can't do this! I CANNOT DO THIS! I was paralyzed in fear and anxiety and felt defeated. In my cry of I CAN'T DO THIS! God answered me like a lighting bolt to the face. He said, "No Sam, you absolutely can't do any of that.... but I can. I am good, I love you, and you need to live for me, pursue me, and trust in my faithfulness" I then instead of being overwhelmed by my shortcomings, I was overwhelmed by the greatness of God, the love of God, and his relentless pursuit of me. I was drowning in his grace in that moment. God might not drop a box of money out of the sky (although he might!) but is absolutely by the power of the holy spirit giving me the power to repent against worshipping money and not steward what I have been given. He is opening my eyes to where sin is in my life, festering and ugly. The reality and enormity of what happened on the cross is mind-blowing. It's comforting, loving, and exciting.

Yesterday I was about to step outside and walk around the parking lot while listening to music and answering emails because it was a beautiful day here in Seattle. As soon as I got to the reception desk, there was a guy who had walked in and needed counsel. There was only 3 guys (including me) in the building and the other 2 dudes were in a meeting. So I had the opportunity to do some biblical counseling that I am absolutely not equip for but because I was the only available person to talk to this guy, I sat down with him. The Holy Spirit absolutely spoke truth through me into this guy's life. I sat with him for an hour and listened to his struggles and got a chance to reveal some of the lies he was holding onto as LIES from the enemy. It was amazing to get a chance to do this, it was intense and I really didn't do much. I knew that I couldn't handle this guy's struggles but that Jesus did and does.

God is good. and that is all for now. You are all in my prayers. Thank you for your continual prayer support.

i'm so glad i get to be a part of this church....

and free donuts.

my name, his story.

So I've never had a problem with my name. Ok, actually I did once. It was third grade, and there was another Sam in my class. His last name started with a G so for a while he got to go by Sam and I had to go by Samuel. That really messes with a kid's sense of identity. I had been Sam my whole life and not all the sudden I was Samuel. That was a rough year, I began to get chunky, and my teacher was super mean to me. HOWEVER other than then, I've never had a problem with being named Samuel David Hatch. I used to tell people that all of my names are in very popular books (hatch being in the dictionary). I was named after my grandfathers, both pretty cool dudes. So i was proud of it. I knew they were both biblical names, but I have always focused on the grandfather side of things as far as where my name comes from. until now.

Samuel \s(a)-muel\ as a boy's name is pronounced SAM-yoo-el. It is of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of Samuel is "God heard". Also possibly as "requested of God", "God's heart" or "God's name". Biblical: the prophet and judge who anointed Saul and David as kings of Israel.
(http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Samuel)

David \d(a)-vid\ as a boy's name is pronounced DAY-vid. It is of Hebrew origin, and the meaning of David is "beloved of God". Biblical: one of the most remarkable personalities in the Scriptures. David was a shepherd, musician, poet, soldier, statesman, prophet, and king. He wrote about half of the Psalms and very likely composed music for them as well. He is the only David mentioned in the Bible; his name occurs there more than a thousand times. (http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/David)

How amazing is that?? "God's heart" and "beloved of God" no matter where I run or how hard I try to hide from God he lives in my very name. This all came to mind because I just happened to read the David and Goliath story on Sunday after work, which is in 1 Samuel. David was just a scrawny good looking shepherd kid. He bowed up to Goliath, this humongous philistine warrior that has killed tons of jews and laughed in God's face. He stood before Goliath knowing that he'd win because the God of the universe was going to get his glory one way or another. David didn't even use the weapons and protection that the world would have him wear because he KNEW God was going to protect and prevail over evil.

Samuel and David play pivotal roles in the line to Jesus. They point to him, and i think it's totally amazing that my name is Samuel David and that more than 3000 years later I get to point to him as well.

stay tuned

I am quite exhausted, but I have a post in the works, I will get it done within the next 2 days. too tired to write it out right now. but it will be worth the wait. It's on names. and identity.

get ready!

ch-ch-ch-changes

So I was stuck in downtown Seattle 5:00 traffic today, so I had ample time to think and reflect. here's some things that came to mind. I realized how drastically my situation has changed.



From living in an apartment with 1 dude to living in a house with 2 married couples, another lady, and 3 young girls
From having 3 jobs to having 0
From knowing someone no matter where I went to hardly knowing anyone.
Memphis metro area population ~ 1.3 mill.
Seattle metro area population ~3.4 mill.
From BBQ, Chic-fil-a, and Sweet Tea to Thai and Vietnamese food, Jack in the Box, and delicious Coffee
From BB King to Jimi Hendrix
From 95/70 highs and lows in July to 88/55 highs and lows in July
From FedEx, AutoZone, International Paper to Microsoft, Starbucks, and Amazon.
From 32% white and 63% black to 70% white, 8% black, and 14% Asian
From 21% poverty to 12% poverty
From one of the least literate city (7th out of the bottom 10) to one of the most literate cities (along with Minneapolis)
From one of the most stereotypically high murder rates to one of the most stereotypically high suicide rates.




I could write at length about the BIG philosophical differences in most of these things, and maybe i will in future blog posts, but the one that is constantly blowing me away, and messing with me the most is this one:

From ministry as a hobby to ministry soaking every aspect of what I do.

Ladies and Gentlemen, God gets his glory and we get to be a part of that. For me, it took moving across the country to realize how relentless God's pursuit of us really is. Pray for me, I'm praying for you.

leaning heavily on him

It has been alot harder to find a job than i thought, but then again I haven't looked as hard as i should have though... Tuesday is going to be "print off a billion copies of my resume and blanket Seattle with my information" so hopefully a job will come from that. That's all I have right now. I'm on the go. not feeling very creative at the moment. I'll write more tomorrow.

2 weeks down. alot to go. alot to do.

If you have never driven across the country then you are missing out. This is a beautiful country that we get to live in. The physical journey was a piece of cake in comparison to the spiritual journey that i'm on now. God is showing me things about myself that I didn't even know. When I trust in him, I can get alot of things accomplished, I'm at peace, and I have purpose and identity in Him.

One of the reasons I felt called to come here and work for Jeff is the calling on his heart that God put there. As artists, no matter the kind, writer, painter, musician, we tend to put our identity into what we create. Instead of using the gifts that God has given through creative venues to point to him, we point to ourselves. It reminds me of a sermon from Pastor Bryan Lorritts, He was talking about when you're on a road trip and you see the signs that tell you what fast food places are off the next exits, you don't stop to chew on the sign. That's all we as christians are called to do. Point to God, not to ourselves. He's the Author and Creator of the Universe and he loves us. We serve a good God and that is exciting.

Here in Seattle, sure I have some friends and a great church home, but God is working on me and letting me know that all i need is Him. So I am left to trust him with my life. I go through times of panic/nervousness/anxiety with that but on the flip side I get a taste of the peace that passes all understanding that comes from only Him. It's comforting knowing that He loves me and I get excited when I look at my life and the lives of everyone I know and see what all he's done for us. I feel genuine joy.

The Downtown Campus of Mars Hill is going on a churchwide retreat at Suncadia. I'm going. I have no idea what it's gonna be like, but everyone seems excited about it, so it should be fun!

I still don't have a job just yet, but to be honest I haven't looked that hard. I'm still wrapping my mind around what all I'll be doing with Jeff, and since Hernando United Methodist was so overly gracious to provide me with some much needed extra support I'm able to take my time finding a paying job. Thanks again for all the prayers and thoughts. I've been pretty busy the past week or so, it's been nice. until next week! au revoir!

thanks

so i decided to break this up into a couple of posts, first off i'm going to thanks lots of folks... so here goes.

1. God- for creating such an amazingly beautiful country for me to drive accross and getting me to Seattle safely.

2. Mom&Dad- ya'll raised me to pursue God. without that i'd probably be sitting in midtown memphis right now picking my butt and complaining about how bored I am.

3. Gran and Grandpa- for showing my mom how to raise a kid. For buying me a GPS, and for being some pretty great grandparents.

3. All the people that graciously hosted me along the way:
-Megan Jones and co. (Denton, TX)
-Kendi Sparks (Austin, TX)
-Helen Stevens (Farmington, NM)
-John and Barb Feth (Phoenix, AR)
-Army Feth (Los Angeles, CA)
-Aero Feth (San Francisco, CA)
-Lance Moore (Seattle, WA)

4. Megan Jones again for adopting and loving Lucie!! so glad she has a good home and other dog friends to play with.

5. Caleb Sparks- for unrelentingly pushing me to go to Seattle, and for being so incredibly handsome.

6. USA- for having so many awesome national and state parks.

7. Shell Gasoline- for having gas stations all over the place

8. Andrew Guerieri- for the best friend a guy could ask for and for making me 6 awesome CDs to drive to.

9. All the people that said or are saying prayers for me.

Thanks to everyone and stay tuned for some more creative writing about the whole concept of 'the journey' and how God is revealing himself to me every second of every day.

this is my job description

Sam Hatch
Integrated Arts Intern /Downtown Campus
Qualifications:
• Fulfill the duties required of MH church members as outlined in the membership covenant
• Fulfill the duties of a deacon as taught in the Scriptures
• Discretion, perseverance, patience, and a sense of humor
• Professional-level skills and experience in people, business, and leadership
• Flexibility: should anticipate and enjoy a rapidly changing environment requiring frequent adjustment of job roles and duties

Knowledge and Skills
• Efficient and Proactive dependability
• Knowledge of general campus duties and protocol
• Multi-tasking, time management, organizational, attention to detail and prioritizing skills
• Ability to handle sensitive issues and maintain confidentiality regarding church and counseling information
• Ability to work with and maintain positive, loyal relationships with others
• Ability to maintain professionalism attitude and emotional stability when dealing with difficult or stressful
situations

JOB DESCRIPTION/DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Communications
• Maintain communications/promotions information between Integrated Arts Director and Leads
• Communicate with website admin to keep content updated with things pertaining to Integrated Arts
• Assist and manage specific projects using various social media and work flow tools
• Assist in coordinating campus marketing, promotions, and publications that pertain to Integrated Arts
General Administration Assistance
• Maintaining efficient file and report system
• Organize notes and information from meetings and events
• Assist on building systems to connect people and get them plugged in to the arts
• Assistance with e-mail response and communication
• Assist Integrated Arts Director with many miscellaneous tasks
Events, Projects

o Help coordinate event details with appropriate people as needed
o Assist with event setup/teardown as needed o Responsible for coordinating various projects as needed
o Assist in facility maintenance coordination
o Promotion of events via social media and various other tools as needed
Study
o Complete Discipleship assignments
o Research assistance as needed
o Regular One on One meetings with Integrated Arts Director

Schedule: Thursday & Sunday required: various other times as needed Hours: 20-30
*must be available for misc. special events, church meetings, etc. as needed Benefits: Serving Jesus and his mission Downtown. Being a part o
g movement of God

i promise to be better with this thing..

I am sitting in the office of Mars Hill Downtown and I'm getting settled in. I promise a more in depth post about the whole drive across the country and things I learned and a lengthy list of thank you to people that helped in one way or another. stay tuned. if i don't get it done tonight i will most definitely do it tomorrow. thanks for the prayers...

closing the book

So, I officially started packing today. It's way harder than I thought it'd be. I thought it'd be just throwing all my clothes in bags, all my stuff in boxes, chunk all that and my guitars in my car and go. WELL considered how tiny my car is, I'm forced to pack boxes to leave at my parents' house and bags to give to good will.

Sorting trinkets, pictures, and random knick-knacks is not a very fun. Im not sure what I want to take and what I want to leave. Found alot of pictures of Mary Margeret and I bundled together with a couple letters she wrote me. I can't help but think about what she would be doing right now if she was still alive. Probably smiling and being awesome. miss her.

4 more days in Memphis. wow. that's not much time at all. even as i'm typing that, reality sinks in deeper. Which is kinda of strange, because most of the time when reality sinks in on me i feel a weight on my shoulder and stress, but this reality makes me feel like floating. God is relentlessly awesome. He finds ways to encourage me in even the most mundane of tasks.

I'm still a little worried about money, but it's not a paralyzing fear. Money doesn't rule me; I'm not moving to Seattle to make lots of money! I've been telling some people about this thing that Mars Hill had me fill out in the internship application, It was 164 questions that tested you on where you are spiritually gifted. I assumed mine would be creative something or leadership something, but my number one spiritual 'gift' is poverty. Which doesn't mean that i SHOULD be poor, it says that I COULD be poor. Which struck me as odd because I struggle with money and financial stability as an idol fairly often. Basically screaming 2 Corinthians 12:9

"But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

OK, i've got to go finish packing. here is the current version of my route

26th- Denton, TX
27th- Austin, TX
28th- Roswell, NM (AREA51!!!!)
29th- Farmington, NM
30&31- Grand Canyon

here's where it gets kinda tentitive

may 1st- maybe joshua tree/ maybe LA
2nd- maybe LA/maybe San Fran
3rd- Maybe San Fran/maybe Northern CA
4th- maybe NoCal/maybe Seattle


I'm aiming to get to Seattle by May 7th at the latest. so we'll see.

things i'm praying for:
Safe travels
Easter!!!!! (Jesus wins)
money for travel
at least most of my loose ends to be tied up
Lucie to find a new home ( I had her one, but the girl backed out at the last minute, I really need some help with this...)
Courage

Jeff's blog

so before I even met Jeff, I read his blog, which made me want to plug-in with what God was doing through him. Here's the URL.

http://jsuffering.wordpress.com/

To get to know who I'm working with and what he's about, then check it out. His most recent post is about the Artist Reformation Project. That's one of the thing I'll get to help with.

that's all for today, going back to work.

14 days!!!!

Hebrews 10:31

So, I decided to start a new blog, since I will be entering a new season of my life in a 15 days. My plan is that I'll update this at least once a week.

For those who don't know by now, I'll be moving to Seattle, WA to intern at Mars Hill Church. Once I get there, I'll be Jeff Betger's Assistant. Other than that, I'm not 100% sure what I'll be doing. I know that I will be going through intense gospel centered discipleship and training. I honestly cannot be more excited about this. Being in Seattle is something that God put on my heart about 2 years ago, and as I look back, even into tiny details or occurrences that have happened to me in the past 2 years, EVERYTHING points to me going to Seattle. The fact that God has an ordained purpose for everyone's life has become so clear to me in the past 2 weeks that I really want to encourage other to earnestly pursue what God has planned for you. It might not be easy, but trusting in the Lord is key for discerning what that looks like for you.

As I was doing laundry and sorting books to give people today, I realized that I only have vague ideas as to what God is calling me to do. I have a sense of what my spiritual gifts are, and I know that Seattle is where he is calling me to, but beyond that, I have no clue. Thats one of the things that I hope to get out of this internship, a better sense or vision of what God is calling me to do for him.

I feel like here in Memphis, it's really easy for worshiping God to be a hobby, and only occasionally do I make it my default mode of existence. It's easy for me to be prideful here, because people like me here, and I'm content with that. Which when I realize this, it's disturbing. This life that was given to me is not for me to be liked by people; it's for me to point to God and his sacrificed son in everything that I do. I've been easily tricked into the myth that I'm a 'good' person. I'm a prideful and selfish sinner. In God's eyes, I deserve death and Hell. HOWEVER. Jesus paid that price. So who am I to think that I could do anything good apart from Christ?

I know that moving to Seattle isn't going to automatically make my life awesome. I know that this internship isn't going to be sunshine and roses the whole way. I also know that the all powerful, loving, creator, God loves me, and has relentlessly pursued me, so beyond all else, I will give him glory, honor and praise.

Am I afraid to move 3000 miles from everything I've ever known? kinda. however, I'm even more afraid of what would happen if God were to undeniable tell me where to go and I didn't go. I don't want to have to be eaten by a fish and spit up on the seattle shore. Hebrews 10:31 says, "It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God" (ESV) and that's really starting to hit home with me.

I'm on mission. here's some stuff that I'm praying for:
- for Lucie (my dog) to find a good home
-safe travel
- a job (it's an unpaid internship)
- a place to live (Luke 12:22-32)
- courage
- support (prayers, money, or whatever)