Bullen had the opportunity to write the blog for this week.
This is our fourth week here at the ThreeSixty house and it has been really good to get to know each other more and more. We have been working together and praying for one another. I am so thankful for the great opportunity that God has given to each of us to be here as brothers under one roof and to be discipled and to go and impact the world for the glory of Christ, what a great privilege to all of us.
This week was a very busy week and we were all excited about the first week of school. Since we all have different class schedules the first day was also very busy for Lala and Pal as they drove all of us to school and back home throughout the day. Andrew was the chef of the week and the food was great. Janet came to help teach him a new recipe on Thursday.
Bullen
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Importance of Staying Together
This week's blog post is written by Andrew Mahandis.
To begin with, I would like to talk little bit about living together in the African traditional society. In the African traditional society, families have many children and stay together at one home in order to help one another. Every member of the family is required to participate in the different activities at home. For example, the men are responsible to build and repair a mud hut, go hunting, digging a garden and many other such activities. The women prepare the meals, take care of children and fetch water for the family.
It has now been three weeks and God has united us as one family at the ThreeSixty house, to educate us to be a great servants of God. Now we have learned term building. This week, we had a great time together at home. On Monday night, we had a great time at the house studying God’s word . We discussed regeneration which means an act of God in which he imparts a new spiritual life in us. Everyone of us participated in the studying of regeneration. Mama Lisa asked a question as we were talking about regeneration. She said, if a child accepted Christ as Lord at the age of 5, 10, 15 through 18 years then he or she backslides and becomes lost in many years of doing bad things, then he/she comes back God, then at what age did regeneration occur? During the first or second time? Find the answer through yourself.
Yesterday, we went to Restoration Academy, which is where Stephen and Jerime completed their high school. We met Ms. Cookie Griffin, their mom, at the school. She showed us all the class rooms and we met many teachers as well. We also met Mrs. Amy at the school, she is a teacher and she worked with World Harvest Mission in Uganda for two years. The world Harvest Mission is now in Mundri Sudan. She has even heard about Mundri . This morning everyone woke up earlier to carry their duties of cleaning.
In conclusion, it’s Important to stay together, work and support one another. Together we will stand, but one will fall. I pray that God should teach us to obey his word and follow the right way.
Andrew
To begin with, I would like to talk little bit about living together in the African traditional society. In the African traditional society, families have many children and stay together at one home in order to help one another. Every member of the family is required to participate in the different activities at home. For example, the men are responsible to build and repair a mud hut, go hunting, digging a garden and many other such activities. The women prepare the meals, take care of children and fetch water for the family.
It has now been three weeks and God has united us as one family at the ThreeSixty house, to educate us to be a great servants of God. Now we have learned term building. This week, we had a great time together at home. On Monday night, we had a great time at the house studying God’s word . We discussed regeneration which means an act of God in which he imparts a new spiritual life in us. Everyone of us participated in the studying of regeneration. Mama Lisa asked a question as we were talking about regeneration. She said, if a child accepted Christ as Lord at the age of 5, 10, 15 through 18 years then he or she backslides and becomes lost in many years of doing bad things, then he/she comes back God, then at what age did regeneration occur? During the first or second time? Find the answer through yourself.
Yesterday, we went to Restoration Academy, which is where Stephen and Jerime completed their high school. We met Ms. Cookie Griffin, their mom, at the school. She showed us all the class rooms and we met many teachers as well. We also met Mrs. Amy at the school, she is a teacher and she worked with World Harvest Mission in Uganda for two years. The world Harvest Mission is now in Mundri Sudan. She has even heard about Mundri . This morning everyone woke up earlier to carry their duties of cleaning.
In conclusion, it’s Important to stay together, work and support one another. Together we will stand, but one will fall. I pray that God should teach us to obey his word and follow the right way.
Andrew
Monday, August 17, 2009
Settling in....
Last week's blog was written by ThreeSixty participant Jerime Griffin.
This week at the house has been kind of slow but it has been a good slow. This week was Steve's week to cook, I didn’t know what to think about that, it could have been bad or it could’ve ended up good. Shocking, we didn’t die, so he did well this week. My family came over this week for dinner, it was good to see them. Steve cooked for our mom for the first time and I think she was very pleased with what she ate. Friday was our first cleaning day and I got to clean toilets which is not a lot of fun.
This week at the house has been kind of slow but it has been a good slow. This week was Steve's week to cook, I didn’t know what to think about that, it could have been bad or it could’ve ended up good. Shocking, we didn’t die, so he did well this week. My family came over this week for dinner, it was good to see them. Steve cooked for our mom for the first time and I think she was very pleased with what she ate. Friday was our first cleaning day and I got to clean toilets which is not a lot of fun.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
The First Week
Each week, the ThreeSixty guys are assigned projects at the house on a rotating basis. One gets cooking duty, one gets trash duty, one is responsible for cleaning the dishes and the last one gets a free week but they do have one responsibility. To write the blog. The only direction they receive on writing the blog is - write what ever you want. This will be posted by Saturday morning each week. Below is the entry that Stephen Griffin wrote. I invite you back each week to follow the guys through this journey....
August 2 has finally come and now Jerime, Bullen, Andrew, and I have moved in together with Rick and Lisa. I want to thank everyone who helped make this house like a five star hotel. It was a scary feeling at first because I had left my mother behind and I am staying with people who I knew for just a little while. As the days turn into weeks staying with everybody was not that bad after all, I had fun the first week. The things that I like the most was when Chad put us four in two teams and made us battle against each other. One battle was being blindfolded and your partner had to lead you to the flag by giving verbal directions. The second battle was building a structure with only toothpicks and marshmallows in 20 minutes (It was very sticky business). When we tied, we had to answer Bible trivia questions to break the tie. What I liked about the team battles was it helped us bond with each other and show our leadership skills. The other thing I liked about this week was the small group we had with Derrick Thomas from Brook Hills. We talked about John chapter three and what I liked about it was he made me looked at that chapter in a different way and he made it interesting by asking us question and keeping us involved. This week I have discovered that we all have different slangs and accents and it is going to be one interesting year as we come together and learn more about each other.
God Bless,
Stephen
August 2 has finally come and now Jerime, Bullen, Andrew, and I have moved in together with Rick and Lisa. I want to thank everyone who helped make this house like a five star hotel. It was a scary feeling at first because I had left my mother behind and I am staying with people who I knew for just a little while. As the days turn into weeks staying with everybody was not that bad after all, I had fun the first week. The things that I like the most was when Chad put us four in two teams and made us battle against each other. One battle was being blindfolded and your partner had to lead you to the flag by giving verbal directions. The second battle was building a structure with only toothpicks and marshmallows in 20 minutes (It was very sticky business). When we tied, we had to answer Bible trivia questions to break the tie. What I liked about the team battles was it helped us bond with each other and show our leadership skills. The other thing I liked about this week was the small group we had with Derrick Thomas from Brook Hills. We talked about John chapter three and what I liked about it was he made me looked at that chapter in a different way and he made it interesting by asking us question and keeping us involved. This week I have discovered that we all have different slangs and accents and it is going to be one interesting year as we come together and learn more about each other.
God Bless,
Stephen
Saturday, August 1, 2009
From the Beginning
The walls are constructed, the carpet is laid, the beds are made and move in day is tomorrow. What began as a dream some 20 months ago to impact young men in a way that will change their lives forever will reach another milestone, welcoming our first class of participants. At times this week it has been an emotional week for me as I sit back and reflect on the work that God has done to bring us to this point. I, along with members of my small group, had been spending extensive time in one of the housing projects in the Avondale area of Birmingham. Through this time I began to think there has to be a different way to have a meaningful impact on these young people. We would spend one, two maybe three hours a week with these young people but the need was much greater. As I began to speak to some of the high school kids about their dreams for the future I became saddened - not necessarily because they had low expectations (which they did) but rather because their goals and dreams were misplaced. Nothing seemed to focus on God or life in Him. From this point I began to pray "God if I can be used to impact this generation use me." From that point He birthed a vision of what was to come.
I remember sitting in the former Anchorage Restaurant in Homewood sharing the vision of what has become ThreeSixty to Clark Watson. At this point there was nothing on paper, there was no written plan, it was a God birthed vision. Clark was the first person (besides my wife) to hear about what I then was referring to as "The Center for Urban Disciple Making." Much to my surprise Clark was interested in this ministry and provided great insight and wisdom. Soon Josh Caldwell and I would stand talking in the lobby of Brook Hills for long periods of time about this dream of impacting the nations by radically impacting a select group of young men. I praise God for men like Clark Watson and Josh Caldwell who are willing to follow God's leading.
From that point I began to prepare a formal outline and plan. I conducted extensive research (I am sure that my wife will long remember the 900+ pages of research that I had "neatly sorted" throughout our home for weeks. I say neatly sorted because I knew where almost every article or statistic was but to the casual observer it looked like my children had gotten a hold of a large stack of papers.) Through many hours of prayer and much research a 25 or so page document outlined the need and the plan that God had birthed. It was this document that I would soon present to my pastor, Dr. David Platt. I remember David asking one of his staff members "What am I supposed to do with this? Does he really expect me to read this?" He did end up reading it and told me in the end he couldn't stop reading it. I remember David asking the question "who is helping you with this? Who is supporting you in this?" My response was "well I have shared it with Clark Watson and Josh Caldwell." For the most part to this point it had been me and God and I was the only hindrance in the group. Just as God used Clark and Josh to provide wisdom and insight, He also spoke through Dr. Platt.
Several months go by and I begin to share what God had birthed in my heart with a select group of believers. Each time that I share this vision God continued to clarify His plan. I began to realize that "The Center for Urban Disciple Making" was not the most appealing name to the age group we would be serving. I began to trust God to reveal the name of this ministry He had birthed. I was taking the family on a beach vacation and we passed a sign that said "OneEighty". I immediately proclaimed aloud "that is it! It is supposed to be called ThreeSixty". This declaration needed clarifying. Why ThreeSixty? ThreeSixty is representative of 360 degrees - a complete circle. Or more appropriately defined as ministering to every aspect and area of a young mans life.
To fast forward to today. God has brought a diverse group of young men together for the purpose of glorifying Himself and has burdened the hearts of men and women throughout Birmingham to help prepare these young men to be world changers - to be disciplers makers - to long to see the fame of Jesus spread to every nation, tribe and tongue. May it be so. May God use these men to shake the nations for His glory.
I remember sitting in the former Anchorage Restaurant in Homewood sharing the vision of what has become ThreeSixty to Clark Watson. At this point there was nothing on paper, there was no written plan, it was a God birthed vision. Clark was the first person (besides my wife) to hear about what I then was referring to as "The Center for Urban Disciple Making." Much to my surprise Clark was interested in this ministry and provided great insight and wisdom. Soon Josh Caldwell and I would stand talking in the lobby of Brook Hills for long periods of time about this dream of impacting the nations by radically impacting a select group of young men. I praise God for men like Clark Watson and Josh Caldwell who are willing to follow God's leading.
From that point I began to prepare a formal outline and plan. I conducted extensive research (I am sure that my wife will long remember the 900+ pages of research that I had "neatly sorted" throughout our home for weeks. I say neatly sorted because I knew where almost every article or statistic was but to the casual observer it looked like my children had gotten a hold of a large stack of papers.) Through many hours of prayer and much research a 25 or so page document outlined the need and the plan that God had birthed. It was this document that I would soon present to my pastor, Dr. David Platt. I remember David asking one of his staff members "What am I supposed to do with this? Does he really expect me to read this?" He did end up reading it and told me in the end he couldn't stop reading it. I remember David asking the question "who is helping you with this? Who is supporting you in this?" My response was "well I have shared it with Clark Watson and Josh Caldwell." For the most part to this point it had been me and God and I was the only hindrance in the group. Just as God used Clark and Josh to provide wisdom and insight, He also spoke through Dr. Platt.
Several months go by and I begin to share what God had birthed in my heart with a select group of believers. Each time that I share this vision God continued to clarify His plan. I began to realize that "The Center for Urban Disciple Making" was not the most appealing name to the age group we would be serving. I began to trust God to reveal the name of this ministry He had birthed. I was taking the family on a beach vacation and we passed a sign that said "OneEighty". I immediately proclaimed aloud "that is it! It is supposed to be called ThreeSixty". This declaration needed clarifying. Why ThreeSixty? ThreeSixty is representative of 360 degrees - a complete circle. Or more appropriately defined as ministering to every aspect and area of a young mans life.
To fast forward to today. God has brought a diverse group of young men together for the purpose of glorifying Himself and has burdened the hearts of men and women throughout Birmingham to help prepare these young men to be world changers - to be disciplers makers - to long to see the fame of Jesus spread to every nation, tribe and tongue. May it be so. May God use these men to shake the nations for His glory.
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