Skip to main content

Training: Day 1

Today has been another long but very eventful day.  I slept at Theta Xi last night crashing for a few hours before going to Midtown at State Street with Adam Caracci and Cam Phillips.  It was an amazing service that I was glad to be back in Atlanta to participate in.  After worshiping the Lord and hearing how the Lord commissioned Peter to go forth for the Lord I went to finish up some work before training.  Around 3pm I got a ride with another team member down to the Crown Plaza hotel down by the Airport.  We checked in and got situated for a few hours meeting members of other teams going to Salerno Italy, and South Africa.  It was great to be able to also meet the members of my team that I will be spending the next seven weeks with.  They seem to be a great team that will be united under the common goal of serving the Lord in Sarajevo.
We went out and got some dinner as a team, the Pizza was delicious.  After dinner we had some meet and greet games that we played just to get us talking.  We then had some time in prayer for our trip and what we each need prayer for individually.   What are our fears for this trip, how can we trust in the Lord during this trip.  Not our will but his be done.
Now is time for rest as we wind up for a full day of learning about how we are going to try to reach the students in Sarajevo, and growing in unity as a team.  Keep our team in your prayers as we go forth in our training and into our time in Bosnia starting with our 18 hour trip to Bosnia on Wednesday-Thursday that will end up taking a whole day(24 hours) with time changes and everything.

All is Great in the Crown Plaza Hotel

Paul Shackelford

Popular posts from this blog

Rise Again - Needtobreathe

I have been reading a book about the arts and Christians role in creating culture.  Steve Turner, the author, asserts a major critique that modern Christian art does not speak about real life.  The art created does not sound genuine or have any ties to real life that people outside the faith can connect with.  While reading the book I listened through this album and I think that this song does a great job of breaking the mold.  The members of Needtobreathe are all outspoken followers of Jesus but very little of the art that they produce mentions Jesus or Christianity at all.  Instead they craft creative music, written from places of pain and joy.   "Rise Again"  steps through pain that occurs in life as we see relationships stretched and torn.  The bitterness of broken hearts and friendships is then contrasted with the truth that we will get up from this pain and rise again.   "I can see us moving on, I can feel that coming on strong", the joy that comes after the

Twenty-Four - Jess Ray

Lately I have been listening to lots of music and podcasts while working and biking to work.  I was feeling a need for some new music so I turned to NoiseTrade to check out some new artists.  My favorite thus far is Jess Ray because of the honest lyrics, tastefully simple musicality and overall enjoyable listening environment.  While on my flight back to Atlanta I was struck by this song at first because of the drums that propel this song behind the walking guitar.  If I were to add drums to a track like this it would have been done in a very similar manner.  Once I got past the drums I was awe struck by the simple power of these lyrics, take a read below and follow the link to her blog to listen.   To me it was not written for an outward expression of hope or encouragement but rather as a inward proclamation to the soul.  As the psalmist often choose to sing, this song speaks inward in a call to stand up and be reminded of truth all to often forgotten.  As I gear up for the star

Alleluia - Jesus Culture with Martin Smith

Once again worship last night was Glorious!  Had a great day just chilling with my SDP folks from last summer, went up the river and just talked about the past season of life and where the Lord is leading us into.  Exciting and scary stuff but it was great to be back with some awesome people who speak some potent truth.   Last night during worship was one of many firsts...  For the first time in a long time I actually stood while I sang, for the first time in a long time I was singing from a place of Joy, for the first time in a long time I did not care how I worshiped my Lord I just worshiped.  Well its not like these things have not happened ever in my life, but I just felt so much peace during worship.  So I decided to throw the song that we just repeated for a long while up here, mainly cause I did not know the name so I was looking it up and now I am pumped, gotta buy this album!   All the angels cry out, Holy is the Lord God All the earth replies, Holy are You Thi