An update on recent events.

Hello there friends,

It has been a while since my last update and quite a few things have happened since then. I hope that you will journey with me as I relate to you the tales that make up my last few weeks. 

Church in Geneva, Illinois.

First of all, there was my 5 day trip to Delnor Hospital in Geneva, Illinois. Anna was admitted to Delnor for some complications with her previously broken ankle as well as suspected whooping cough. For a full account of what happened during that time, you can take a look at Anna's blog for her latest update here - Anna Winters - Loving Jesus when life goes south.

While at the hospital supporting Anna, I got to meet her mother in person for the first time; not quite the circumstances that I had originally anticipated, but we made it work. Over the next few days we had our fair share of ups and downs, constant nurse visits throughout the night and early morning, and of course the surgery itself which added it's own adventures. Through all this, though, life was still bearable as Anna and I were finally together again (after four months of long distance). As a result we were able to handle these most recent challenges with endurance and thankfulness as we stood in gratitude under our great Yeshua. It wasn't long before our time at Delnor was up and Anna was on her way back to Wheaton to resume her studies. Anna's mother and I accompanied her back to college to help her get settled in as she was back in a wheelchair due to the cast she had to wear yet again. She was moved from the 5th floor of her dorm down to the ground floor to have a wheelchair accessible room for the weeks that followed. Despite the emotional high of all the hospital events and just being able to see each other again, my inevitable departure had to come. We parted ways with a heart-tugging goodbye (yet again) as I headed for the train station and made my way back to Madison.

The next major plot development took place over Halloween during an event called Freak Fest Outreach (FFO). YWAM Phos House throws an annual event during Halloween where we set up some stations around the house in order to provide free hot dogs, hot cocoa and some outdoor heaters to help warm up any patrons of the night's festivities. We gave away a total of 1,300 hot dogs and boat loads of hot cocoa to whoever was in need of some sustenance on that cold and busy night. The outreach itself commenced at roughly 10:30pm and went until 2am, with a shift change of the crew working the stations at midnight. I chose to start off in the kitchen helping with the prep of the hot dogs for the first rush of the night. However, once the clock struck midnight, I was off to my next station: I got dressed up in my chosen get up and hit the streets, inviting all the passersby to come warm up and receive free hot cocoa and hot dogs. 

My costume for FFO

While interacting with the locals and seeing their adventurous costumes I began to sense a disheartening theme in the majority of my conversations: "It's all free? Nothing is ever free!". I of course expected this comment at least once or twice, but during my two hours on the street it become a more and more common response. I found their disbelief disheartening as we, as Christians, know of the greatest free gift ever given, but these college students couldn't even accept free hot dogs at first. I should say, though, that there were some positive responses as well, so it wasn't all doom and gloom! "Really? It's all free?! C'mon guys, let's go!" The balance between these two viewpoints fluctuated throughout the night, but I couldn't help but contemplate the reasoning for such a negative perspective on our outreach. As I communed with the Lord about this topic, a few thoughts came to my mind. I wanted to share some of them with you:

- In this day and age everything costs something. Typically it costs money, so naturally, when someone advertises something free we tend to think that there is  a catch (Thanks to get rich quick schemes and the like). I meditated on this for a while and expanded my vision to encompass the whole of the world and, surprise surprise: the theme I had gotten during FFO was simply a byproduct of what is happening in the world. Greed. The desire for money, power and control is consuming our world to the point where brothers are turning against brothers. Father is turning against son. Wife is turning against husband, and all for what? Some extra money that disappears in the blink of an eye once you spend it, never to be seen again. Why is it that we pay such a high price for something so trivial as mere money? I had numerous people ask me what the catch was for what we were doing and make comments about the hot cocoa being spiked with drugs as no one gives away free things. This stung me a little bit as all we wanted to do was love on people as Jesus does. During all this, though, the Lord brought back to mind the words of a preacher I had listened to, this man said in one of his messages, "Some people say that if it's too good to be true, someone is about to get fleeced. But I say, if it's not too good to be true, it can't be God." To get a full understanding of his backstory behind this you would need to watch the whole message, but as a general rule I thought that this sounded fairly solid. God loves to bless us with all sorts of things (Especially spiritual blessings, Ephesians 1:1-3) and He did promise us life in abundance, but we seem to have gotten ourselves to a place in our world and mindset that tells us that we need more money, more materials and more security in our lives and that we have work for it. While I am not against these things, I personally don't wish to focus on them in my life. We entered this world the same way that we will leave it and that is with no material possessions. We will have only the treasures that we have stored up in Heaven.

One of my fellow volunteers at YWAM here in Madison wrote a post about her experience during FFO with a touching story of the sorts of things that God often does for, with and through His children. He works this way at anytime of the day or night, regardless of the occasion. I invite you to take a read this story and partner with us in reliving the experiences of FFO: Abbie Fox - A joyful heart.

The circumstances we find ourselves in are irrelevant; Jesus is always walking with us. As we walk down the street, He walks with us. As we go to work early in the morning, He walks with us. As we are on our way to do our finals, you better believe that He has already gone before us. Even more than that, He prepares us for what is to come before we even get to it, so that as we follow Him we are lead to places we are, in some ways, already prepped for. I love that fact that Jesus does all the hard work and yet all He desires for us is to love Him and seek Him. Sounds too good to be true, eh? Not in the Kingdom!

I wish to pose a question to all who are reading this. What if scripture is accurate? What if what Jesus taught was actually true? What if, when God said that He will never leave us nor forsake us, that He actually meant it? The Word of God says "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Jesus Himself said, "Take heart! For I have overcome the world!" What if Jesus actually has already overcome the things that we are facing? And yet we believe all the lies of the world that tell us what we face is greater than the Cross. Imagine that. Do you believe that the battle is won? Or do you believe that God has withheld blessings and provision from you because you stumbled and fallen along the way? I think Jesus has some things to say about that...

Thank you for taking the time to read, until next time friends.

Aaron.

Psalm 136:23 - It is He who remembered us in our low estate, for His steadfast love endures forever.