I asked my Step-Father, he realized that I knew nothing about the church. He started to question me and saw that I always have assumed it was just family and friends gathering around and sharing the stories at nice brick building. On that night, he took his time to introduce me to Jesus Christ and explained about how He created the Earth and His life on the Earth. After that, he made sure that I had a Sign Language Interpreter at our church for the rest of my life. For twenty years, I was very involved in my church such as serving, praying, signing, and teaching.
Jim Jones was born in Indianapolis in 1931. He was strongly against segregation. He wanted to preach and had early visions of an integrated church. To raise money for his cause, he began holding services as a “faith healer,” (he had actors in the crowds that would pretend to be “healed”) which drew large crowds, and large donations. In 1956, in his hometown of Indianapolis, Jones used these donations to launch his multi-racial church, the Peoples Temple.
The development of a nationwide revival mainly centered at his church was only an image of God moving among his people at will. Jonathan Edwards would never claim the responsibility for the hundreds of people converted at his church or the thousands converted across the country following the two years of revival in Northampton. After it subsided, he spent many hours writing and exploring the mechanics of the conversion process. Biography Jonathan Edwards was a preacher’s kid of the extreme. He had eight sisters and no brothers.
When it comes to the reading of the scripture this was the part of the visit that I enjoyed the most. He started off by saying that he knows that it is early but this is going to be his first of many Christmas sermons. He opened up by asking why do you think that God decide to tell the shepherds first that Jesus was going to be born. He went on to talk about how being a shepherded used be a noble and kingly thing, but in the times of Jesus birth they were more known as the outcasts, if anything went wrong the towns people would always blame them. Then he went on to talk about how to young boys that go to this church had been caught stealing some electronics from the church and how the ministers had been working with these boys to try to teach them the word of the lord.
Even though many people felt religious beliefs would perish in the nation, Protestants grew stronger in unity as never before. Revivals and camp meetings began to spread in every state and attracted many to gather and listen to the preachers. “In other words a competitive religious market place had come to place in America”(Lambert 42). According to Lambert, with Protestants coming across one another in religious gatherings, they noticed how much they had in common and united in an evangelical movement (42). They all shared the belief in biblical authority and the importance for individuals to experience New Birth, through connection with God directly.
They all can’t be something you want them to be. Last but not least, religion. Just be yourself. Believe in what you want to believe in. Very religious people that are my friends have told me they are forced to go to church every Sunday which they don’t want to.
However I do see quite a difference after my own experience of doing an act of kindness, I believe it came a long way before, I did the act. this project came at the right time in my life to pay it forward in helping out a young man at my church who has been struggling with his past, my heart went out to him, after seeing the number of times he has traveled many hours on train to make his court trials do to the past of stealing and fighting. Knowing that this young man had no income, no transportation, I realized after he opened his heart with me about his past, he was humble in obeying God and trusting in Him to provide for him, that’s where I came in a week later and handed him a hundred dollar bill that I needed to pay my water bill with, but instead I trusted that if I gave it to this young man, it would make a difference in his life, even though I knew I was going to maybe struggle, I knew Gods rewards are always greater when we humbly give. I believe that it was for a great cause. The past couple days I have seen a change in his attitude towards his surroundings, he is a lot more willing to do things out of heart, in my opinion my act was not only spirit led, but a blessing in disguise for me.
Mission to Kenya In the summer of 2010 my missions team and I went to the southern African country of Kenya to assist with the teaching of the work of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Before I went on the trip the only person that I knew was my pastor but towards the end of the trip the missions team became a family. This was because the mixture of minds to pull toward a common effort brings together even the worst of enemies. Before the trip my mother was trying to prepare me for the wonders to come in the unknown possible wasteland of Kenya. At first I didn’t believe that I could go on this trip and teach about Christ when I knew that I didn’t know him.
Both are very distinct from one another but share some similarities. One of the differences, although minor, is religion. It is minor in that both religions are based off of Christianity but the Greek Orthodox religion is more demanding. I was baptized by the Greek orthodox church, which demands that I wear a suit to mass, that I attend mass every Sunday, and worst of all, that I stay from beginning to end of all masses, which last an average of two hours. I constantly challenge what the church say’s because of all the rules it implements.
I realized something about myself that I needed to improve, which is now one of my strongest personality traits. That trait is patience, and thats because no matter how hard something feels, God always has a plan to make the outcome even better than it was before. Another huge impact on my life is when my best friend, Caleb, moved to Colorado. Caleb went to the same church as me and has been my friend for the entire time I have lived in Missouri. He had encouraged my faith in God to a whole other level, but it didn’t realize how important he was till he moved away.