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
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
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
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
Thursday, August 2, 2012
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!
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
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