Traveling the World to Spread the Word!

Where in the world am I going next?
Some of you have asked where God is leading me this year!?  I'm pumped to announce that I'm going to Romania this summer!  July 12-22.  I will be leading a team, thru Calvary Chapel Chattanooga, to Oradea Romania to assist "Pathways to Joy" Ministry in running a Camp for Orphans between the ages of 8 and 18.  It is going to be an amazing and humbling experience, I'm sure!

What will we be doing?
The camp will be Monday thru Saturday and will be filled with all kinds of awesome things:  Small Group Morning Devotionals, Crafts, Team Sports, High/Low Obstacle Courses, Games, Free Time, Chapel (Dramas, Worship, Testimonies, Teaching), and evening events like a Masked Ball & Camp Fires.  We will be sharing the work load with another church from up North too!  So, at this point, I'm not sure who will be leading or assisting in what activities but I'm excited about working along side another group of believers!

Is there a theme?
Royalty:  Sons and Daughters of God.
Verse for the week:  1 John 3:1 "See what great love the father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God!  And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him."
Each day there will be a sub theme in which we will dig deeper into within the small groups and main chapel teaching.

How can I get involved?
We need your prayer as we prepare over the next 7 weeks or so.  Prayer that the team raises the support financially but more so that we prepare our hearts spiritually for serving some beautiful Romanian orphans!  If you would like to donate towards our team then please email me at kyle@calvarychatt.com and I will let you know how.

My prayer!
I cannot wait to see what God is going to do in my heart!
Break me, mold me, make me into whatever vessel You need, Lord, in order to pour out Your spirit onto these beautiful orphans!  Help me to be the leader to our team and assistant to Pathways to Joy & the other church!  Fill me to do as much & humble me to do as little as You want me to do!  Use my gifts, that You have given me, for Your glory!

I will update you on the WHO that is going in the next week or so when we get it down solid.  That way you will better know how to pray!  Thank you guys for your love & support always!

In Christ,
Preacher Hawk

Kyle Hawkins
Ministry Assistant
Calvary Chapel Chattanooga

Sometimes life is like Bamboo!!

THE PLOT:
Bamboo takes years to get itself established with a deep enough root system to handle what it will become BUT when it is ready it grows at such a fast rate that you can see the growth daily...

Bamboo has fascinated me for years.  Near the location where I surrendered to God 12+ years ago some Bamboo grew.  Each year in March I have made a pilgrimage back to the area in which this long road began!  On my 10th Anniversary of Surrender I found a 6 foot dead stalk laying near the creek spot so I took it and have it on display at my house.  Since then I have found other decorations and even instruments made of Bamboo that I love.

THE PAST:
How does this relate to me personally?  Well 16+ years ago, September 1996, I was given an amazing opportunity as an emerging Senior at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe HS.  I was approached and asked to be one of 6 "guinea pigs" in a new work program called "Georgia Youth Apprenticeship" which helps students that have a vision and drive towards a professional career to get interviews and possible apprenticeship positions in that field.  For me Mechanical Engineering was my thing and the first week of September 1996 Tennessee Rand Inc. hired me as a Draftsman/Engineering Apprentice!  In fact I was fortunate to make it on the front of the Chattanooga Times Free Press...

Skinny little 17 year old Kyle Hawkins is shown here with, then Mentor, Brent Boxall.  What an amazing opportunity and what an amazing ride it has been since then.  I started at $6 an hour, which at the time was quite a bit more than my friends, and when I graduated the owner Randy Nunley called me in his office and said "Now that you are a man I'm going to pay you like a man and expect you to step up to be a man!"  I then got a several dollar an hour raise.  The company allowed me to continue to work for them while I was attending Tennessee Tech in pursuit of my Mechanical Engineering Machine Design degree.  They allowed me to take a computer and do drafting work from my Apartment, work weekends, holidays, and summers.  A humbling adventure as I was just a kid trying to make it.  This company, whom 16 years later still puts up with me, has literally taken me under their wing as a son and helped groom me into the man that I've become!  For that I am eternally grateful. 

 

In the last 10 years since they hired me back after I left to pursue Bible College and gave up engineering I went from Engineering to Purchasing to Applications Engineer and didn't deserve to do that honestly but again they took care of me.  For the last 10 years I have tried my best at TR while also trying my best to be doing ministry full time on a volunteer basis.  God has used in so many ways in my life such as funding all of my ministry endeavors.  Not literally paying for it but by paying me well I have been able to give to others and follow my heart and dreams of ministry.  I've been able to travel the world, literally to 10 different countries while working at TR, to share Christ and never having to really raise money as so many others do.  All because they took care of me and gave me paid vacation to boot. 

 

I say all this to say I am so thankful and grateful to God for allowing me to work at such a great place and so thankful and grateful to Tennessee Rand for putting up with a 17 year old to now 33 year old, literally 1 year from being half of my life I have spent here!  In fact I had resolved that I would end up retiring here doing part time ministry BUT God stepped in...

 

THE FUTURE:

God directed me to Calvary Chapel on South Broad Street downtown Chattanooga in March of 2010 and I have tried to apply the work ethic that TR built in me as well as the spiritual foundation God has given me through an awesome Godly family and through Bible College.  Like Bamboo it has taken years to build a strong enough root system but as of Monday God has said it is time to start growing.

 

I  have accepted a full time ministry position at Calvary Chapel Chattanooga and turned in my 2 weeks notice at Tennessee Rand Inc.  Do I know what all is in store?  No.  Do I know how it will all take place?  No.  Do I know what the future holds?  No, but as it has been said "I know Who holds the future!"  I am again humbled at this opportunity that I DO NOT deserve but I am going to step out on faith to take this and allow God to work IN me and THRU me.  I cannot wait to see what He has in store and to help CCC to continue to reach the greater Chattanooga area and to the uttermost parts of the world.

 

Though it will be sad to leave this wonderful place, TR, I am excited to join the fight at CCC.  Please pray for me in this transition and that I will remain faithful as I know God will take care of me!

 

Thanks for reading!  Thanks for everything Don & Tennessee Rand!  Thanks for the opportunity Pastor Frank & Calvary Chapel Chattanooga!

 

Thanks to God, Family, Friends, and these places I believe that I have a strong root system and so it is time to grow!!!  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!

 

In Christ,

Kyle

Musically Multiplying...

In an effort to continue in multiplying my musical side I have purchased or am purchasing a few new items and thought I'd share because I'm excited.  I will blog later more of why I am doing this but for now the details...

1st purchase, to be delivered today:  Dual Direct Box!

This will allow me to plug my Guitar and 1 other item 1/4" into this but then run XLR (mic cable) out of it into the sound system directly.  The church has a few when I go there but some are old and this past weekend I had to swap out twice.  Other gigs I've played I haven't had one and had to borrow or just not use it. I got a Dual Direct Box so I could plug in my guitar and maybe this...

2nd purchase, which is en route from Arizona now, so I'll have it early next week:  Stomp Box!

This Stomp Box is pretty self explanatory but I'll elaborate.  It's a box...and you stomp on it... Ok, I'm just messing.  There is a trigger inside of the box that has a 1/4" plug that when you "stomp" on it then it sends a Bass Drum sound like it would if I had a bass drum.  This will allow me to keep a steady bass beat while I play guitar.  I currently have a Tambourine for my foot that I use...I may use both some.  This would be for when I play alone only.  I'm pumped though.  Didn't know they existed and almost bought a bass drum because I saw Avett Brothers or Mumford & Sons do it but then in Ireland I saw a guy with one of these!

3rd purchase, which will take place tomorrow in person:  Acoustic / Electric Ukulele!

What?  Yep!  I didn't even know they made Aucoustic/Electric Ukulele's until a couple weeks ago.  I don't know how to play this but since I've started playing guitar I wanted to learn.  There are a couple soft songs that I think would be awesome with this.  Also could start the song with this and then go to guitar.  Matt knows how to play and is going to teach me.  It is such a good deal that I can't pass it up and it is in Rossville so I get to see it before I buy it.  But as you can tell from pics...it looks great!!

4th purchase, which I'm in a bidding war but have already found a back-up plan:  A/E Bass!

This Acoustic/Electric Bass is soooo sweet!  It's a steal if I can keep the bidding down on Ebay...if Not I've found another like it with a solid price that is still good but it isn't Green Wood Grain.  This caught my eye after going to Ireland.  ha.  Again, I don't know how to bass but was picking up on it pretty good about 4 years ago when Matt tried teaching me.  Now that I can play guitar Matt says this would be much easier.  I would still play guitar mostly but we had a gig last month where I could've had 2 guitar players beside me but no bass.  If I learn, even simple bass and nothing fancy, then I could play it and invite the 2nd guitar player.

I am super stoked about these current and future purchases...not only for increasing my musical awareness but for what it will allow in future situations.  More about that later when I post:  Rubicon Revived!  Check back later!

In Christ,

Kyle

Amendment:

I didn't win the Irish Green Acoustic Electric Bass but I'm not giving up on finding a good deal on one.

Also, the Stomp Box didn't work as well as I had hoped.  So I'm going to sell it and have already purchased it's replacement...the real thing:

An Acoustic 16" diameter x 12" deep Bass Drum and Pedal, made by Pulse!  I will have for real bass sound now when I play.  Will get this stuff possibly by the weekend or first of next week.  I love internet shopping!

Back in the saddle again!

After a full week back at it and now mid way through second week, I can comfortably say that I'm back in the saddle again.  Work has been steady but not overwhelming.  I had the opportunity to book 4 jobs while I was out of the country, which was good.  I have a few more that are pending too, which is great.  If you don't know what I do then the simplest explanation is a Salesman for a company that designs and builds Assembly Lines for mass producing products, usually including Robots.  Ok, maybe that wasn't even simple. I always dread explaining my job.  I just realized though that in 3 weeks I will be celebrating 16 years with this company...whoa!  Next year, if I make it ha, I will be celebrating 17 years here...I was 17 when I was hired.  That is crazy to think of...I will have worked here exactly half of my life.  It has been a roller coaster, changing departments several times, but finally finding my way into Applications which I've loved the most.  Pray for me as there are a few strange things here that need some tweaking and God will have to do it.

Ministry wise it has been good getting back into things.  This past Sunday leading Kids Live was awesome!  I always enjoy it but this week it just went so well that I loved it.  Played Guitar and sang 3 songs before I taught about Zacheus, acting the story out.  Had a great time.  Pray the kiddo's got something out of it!

We are transitioning over the next month into a new curriculum which I'm helping decipher and put together for the Worship/Teaching portion while Joel, my friend, is in charge of the classroom part.  Both of us under Billy & Bethany of course who are in charge of Kids as a whole.  I'm pumped about this new curriculum:  Gospel Project thru Lifeway!  I will be going through the videos and the teaching material and sift / condense / add to / subtract, etc. depending.  There is a 1st and 2nd grade material as well as 3rd thru 5th but we do 1st thru 5th right now together, so I have work to do.  I'm excited about this though.  Pray for me in this!

My mens Small Group was set to meet tonight but Calvary is having a special prayer service (3 Wed in a row actually, tonight being the middle).  The youth pastor, Kenny Engals, wife has cancer and they aren't giving her much hope without a miracle.  So we are praying so!  There are other needs in the church and with people in the church which makes this a necessary wonderful opportunity.  Please pray for Christi and Calvary Chapel Chattanooga!

Last thing i'll mention is my friend Candi has asked me to assemble Rubicon for a Youth Conference her church in Tunnel Hill GA is having next Friday night.  I'm pumped about this and am praying God is exalted!  Some of the ole Rubicon guys aren't available but God is working on who He wants.  As of right now I will be playing acoustic and singing lead, Chris Morrow playing lead guitar and singing BGV's, Candi will play keys and sing lead/BGV's, and my brother Kevin will be playing drums.  Looking for a Bass player.  Also Paige will be going with us to perform one of her Sign Dramas!  We are pumped and pray God opens more doors like this.  We'd like to maybe do this type of meeting once a month until God brings who He wants together and then see where He takes it from there.  So pray for us!  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Thanks for all the prayers past, present, and future.  Feel free to email me with prayer requests or if you need some encouraging words.  Let me know you are reading these or praying for us!

In Christ,
Kyle
preacherhawk@gmail.com

European Adventure Re-Cap!

So as I've been back in the states and now finished 2 days of work, I've had time to reflect on the Adventure that just took place.  It was a very interesting, very fun, very productive trip.  Though the productivity wasn't exactly what I expected I feel that it was good.  Let me explain!

At one point while in Dublin the girls expressed a little bit of disappointment in the trip to that point.  I understood their point and agreed to an extent.  Their disappointment was because we weren't getting to do as much "Ministry" as we thought we would be able to.  I was encouraged by their disappointment as it shows their heart was truly about serving God and not just a vacation!

The original intention of the trip to Ireland was to take 3 musicians and 3 drama people and to get involved in ministries and churches there as well as do street ministry.  This had to change some as 3 of the 6 of us couldn't go at the last minute.  So since I'm so new at the guitar our musical opportunities were limited.  Mainly just one day did I play the guitar around the city.  Since we couldn't do much street ministry due to limited resources and due to weather it made it nearly impossible to pull off any kind of dramas with the girls.  Thus their disappointment in one sense.  We also planned to get involved in a church and in at least one ministry Dublin Christian Mission.  In this we saw opportunities for both Music and Drama.  Well once we were there we realized that DCM had actually taken kids from Dublin a good ways off for a camp, so they weren't even in Dublin in order for us to help.  This was a bit of a let down but we were able to contact them and establish at least the interest and find out how we might be able to help them next summer, as God leads.  The same thing with the church.  We had a 2 hour long meeting with Paddy, from Core Church.  He let us know what the church was doing in the community and what his ideas were.  At the end of the conversation I was able to share my heart and burden and in turn we discussed leading a Youth Camp with them next summer.  Now what God does with this, I don't know but these two conversations meant more than I had even realized.  Let me explain.

After having this discussion with the girls, we sat down with Jim and Laura (the missionaries living there) and they enlightened us even more on Ireland in general and this conversation tied everything together.  They let us know that ministry in Dublin is very different then some places.  There has to be relationships built before ministry can be done.  If we just showed up and stood in the streets and forced Jesus in their faces then we would've probably done more harm than good and it would've even hurt the Pettit's ministry there as they are trying to build relationships and will continue after we are gone.  They assured us that what they had envisioned for us is what we did and that we even exceeded it by building the relationships with CORE and DCM that we did.

So this trip, originally thought to be a hardcore evangelistic mission, turned out to be a Scout Trip with us getting to know the culture and build relationships for future trips.  Not that God will allow us to come back but because we were willing to sit back and let God guide our steps we were asked to come back and do things that we were not going to be allowed to do otherwise.  So I'm very excited to see what God does through this "mission" trip!

I know now how to pray for Ireland, the people there, the missionaries, the missions, the church (CORE and others).  I met lots of people and got email addresses of people who aren't Christians that God may use me to lead to Him via email and conversations.  I even met a wonderful couple from Paris France who invited us to come stay with them which is yet another beautiful opportunity to share Christ and maybe a door for future ministry in Paris, that was never there before.

So to re-cap and to be honest:  The Mission and Ministry that we intended on doing there did not happen but what God wanted to happen and what needed to happen did.  We all were taken out of our comfort zone, we all learned to live among other cultures, we all built relationships which may blossom into something more, we all learned that God's ways are not our ways and that He takes care of His own.

So was this a Mission trip?  Yes it was!  Was it what I had envisioned?  No, but it is only the beginning!

We thank you for your prayers and how you stuck with us through the trip.  Now go to my Facebook page and begin seeing the pictures of these beautiful places that God allowed us to see!  Pray for Ireland!  Pray for Jim and Laura Pettit, as they serve God in Dublin!  Pray for CORE Church as they serve God in Dublin! Pray God does amazing things in Rubicon now that we are back and are fired up about serving God in Chattanooga!  Pray about maybe going next year to Dublin yourself, with or without me!

In Christ,

Kyle Hawkins
Team Rubicon

London to Munich... belated too!

Here I am sitting in the London Airport awaiting our flight to Munich.  Had a wonderful experience in London the last 3 days.  Didn't really have Wifi in order to update blog, therefore I'm writing now.  We stayed in a hotel in Paddington area of London.  It is next to Hyde Park, their Central Park of NYC, which is beautiful.  We stayed there because it was one of the only hotels in London that had vacancy.  It was more expensive than a Hostel as originally considered but well worth it for the accommodations.  Also we stayed there as one of my best friends, Dan & Marcy, were staying there too.  They currently live in Oxford but were down to see some Olympic events and Apartment search as they are moving to London soon while Dan finishes his PHD at a school in Geneva Switzerland.  He just finished his 3rd Masters Degree at Oxford.  Clearly the smart one in the friendship.  Ha.  

Funny God story about them.  He emailed me and said meet him in the lobby at 5pm but we didn't get there until almost 6.  Once we got in room I decided to go outside while the girls freshened up.  We were on the Basement level so I had to go up to Ground.  Almost took the stairs but last second pushed Lift button.  The Lift was going up from ground but for some reason came down first.  When the doors opened it was Dan & Marcy who had left but came back for a jacket in their 4th floor place.  Such a provident meeting it was insane.  We then walked around with them until after midnight.  Got to see some awesome night life spots and ate at a BBQ restaurant which is the only one in London and it was good.

Tuesday we bought an all day Underground pass which allows us all day access to the Tube or Subway which saves a lot of walking time, though we still walked miles and miles still (or it seemed).  We got to see the tail end of the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, The Eye, London Bridge, A Huge Military Ship, A Tall Ship (Pirate Style), Towers Bridge, and St. Paul's Cathedral.  We used the Underground to cross some of the ground between places.  We then walked to the British Museum, which is free to public, and stayed there for a while touring all of the awesome stuff they have...such as the actual Rosetta Stone, Parthenon Statues, Egyptian Ruins, and much more.  We then slowly made our way back to the hotel, which was miles away.  We stumbled upon a free Olympic event in Hyde Park.  They had 4 huge theater style screens with seats and tables in front of them for people to watch different events.  It was so awesome and a great way to experience because you're in a huge crowd of passionate sports people.  One had Boxing, Two had Girls Soccer (which was Great Britain beating Brazil...we stayed til the end and got to experience the eruption of the crowd), Three had swimming (which we got to see Phelps get his magic Medal), and the fourth had Badminton (which we stopped and watched cuz it is intense).  Met a lot of awesome people along the way too. What an amazing day!!

We had a slight change of plans to save travel time which actually may not but it did save some money.  We were to take a train to Paris and then to Munich which ended up being more than twice the price of this plane ticket.  The train would've taken about 10 hours straight where the flight is only 2 hours.  Why we aren't saving much time is we had to check out of the hotel at 12 and the flight isn't until 6pm and is a 2 hour flight.  So technically this travel is 8 hours but at least we saved money.  HaHa.

So now on to Munich to see what we can see and what God might do.  Thanks for praying for us.

In Christ,

Kyle

Dublin to London...belated!

Here we are on the train, viewing the beautiful country side of Wales.  After having a most glorious week in Dublin and surrounding areas we are on to the next part of the adventure...London.  
Our week in Ireland did not end up looking exactly like we had anticipated but realize God is in control and He allowed what He wanted and not one thing more or less.  I wasn't sure how much actually ministry (or mission work) that we would be able to do but was hopeful to be able to stay covered up with opportunities.  We quickly realized after arriving in Dublin that in order to do ministry there has to be some relationships established, for many reasons.  That is exactly what God ended up doing with our visit.  I cannot say that I had the opportunity to lead someone to the Lord or even get to that depth of a conversation but I can say that I was able to invest some time in some people I met there, 3 different occasions throughout the week specifically, that only God knows where He will take it as we exchanged email addresses.  I'll describe the occasions in more detail later.  We were definitely able to see and actually live in the Irish culture and see where they are and how we could pray for them and those that will stay behind, like the Pettit's, who will be able to better minister to the Irish than we could in 1 week.  Prayer can do so much more than we could ever.  Also a time to really get to know the wonderful Pettit's better was amazing.  Their hospitality and heart was very awesome and such a blessing to get to see first hand.We were also able to have a meeting with Paddy from CORE Church in Dublin.  This was an amazing talk that not only let us know where the Church was in the fight, how they are ministering to the community, but also how we could participate in this in the future.  Paddy talked about wanting for years now to have a Children/Youth Camp through CORE Church but he hasn't been able to yet.  After we talked about our passions we discovered an opportunity for bringing a team next summer to help lead their first Camp.  This would involve Drama, Music, and Teaching minded people.  Honestly this 1 hour conversation was worth the whole trip.  I don't know if God will allow me to come back or the girls but this was a pivotal moment for American Mission work.  So we are super excited to get this news back and see where God takes it.So as you can see, though we had thoughts of tons of Drama and Music opportunities we didn't have many to any but still had a very fruitful Scout trip.  A much needed rest and relaxing time for me was definitely had and I am very thankful God allowed that.  The opportunity to get to know Dublin City Streets and even forms of transportation intimately and to see some of the most beautiful places God created was amazing.  Even now as I type this I am amazed by the sights:  Huge Hills with beautiful colorful houses in the green valleys to my right and the Sea to my left...just passed a Castle...what??  Gorgeous!!God is so good and gracious and knows exactly what we need way more than we do.  Continue to pray for us as we walk in The Way in London for next few days.  We may be stopping in Paris next on the way to Munich Germany, our final destination before retuning to America this Saturday.  Please continue to pray for us!

In Christ,

Kyle