Past 36 Hours in Haiti

Well, first blog since I have been in Haiti the last 36 hours. Internet went out last night so I couldn't post it. This account is from when we landed till yesterday night. I will type one for today separate because so many incredible things happened today. For those people that want the details of what has been going on I will give them to you in a short list: 

- Arrived at 12 PM to Port au Prince, Haiti. Wilson's bag did not make the trip down here but it did arrive today so that was a blessing! Got out of the airport where we met Stephen and Nathan our American team leads from Macon, GA. Both are around our age and have been in Haiti for 3 weeks now. 

-Took  a 10 minute ride from the airport to Blanchard where we are staying. At this compound Haiti Outreach Ministries has a church, school, and living quarters for teams. Very nice place and was not touch in the Earthquake. On the way to the compound we past the US Army base. Pretty crazy to see marines everywhere down here. 

-Yesterday at the compound was very relaxing. Got a tour and just hung out. Ate dinner on the roof and also slept on the roof. Food was really good. 

-Today woke up around 5:20 AM not PM, that is. Got into church around 6:30 AM and that just blows my mind that church starts at 6:15 AM. That really is crazy. Lasted till about 9:00 AM.

-Walked back upstairs took a nap. 

-Went to airport to get Wilson's bag. 

-Ate lunch

-Sanded two bathrooms and painted them at the compound. 

- Ate dinner. 

-Were all caught up now. 

So, I know that a lot of people are probably wondering is all of Haiti just destroyed. The answer is no. The earthquake hit downtown Port Au Prince really hard and thats where most of the damage happened. Where we are at there aren't to many buildings knocked to the ground but about 10 minutes away it gets really bad. I know I am looking forward to our time when we are going to see all the damage and all that. It has been so good to be in a 3rd world country again. I just love that I have sweat on my face as I am writing this because that means I am not comfortable. God calls us to uncomfortable. So I embrace where I am at because I know that is where God wants me to be. 

Tonight I heard a couple stories from a lady who came back to Haiti a couple weeks ago after spending 3 and half years here prior to the quake. She said that one of her friends attends a church in Port Au Prince and when the earthquake hit the children's choir was practicing and it is estimated 23 kids died in that building a alone. Crushed my heart when I heard that! More than likely they were singing praises to our Lord when they went to be with him. 

The other story she told me was about her friend who was taking an exam at the time and him and his professor got trapped under the rubble when it all happened. They were in the rubble for three hours when one of the professors friends came and rescued him. They looked at the boy who was trapped deeper and said we will come back to get you. Well, they never came back and he said that he sang and prayed to God all night. The next day he was crying out and a little girl said I can hear you but can't see you. At that time, he moved enough for her to see him and she went and got help. When he got out of the rubble, he told the guys I want to find the little girl who helped get me out. They said, there was no little girl. This boy was saved by one of the many angels that watch over you and I. Praise the Lord for a God who can save. 

To close Day 2 in Haiti, tomorrow is going kick off a lot of work for us to get done. Pray that we may see the Holy Spirit move in a powerful way in everything we do. We are going to City Soleil the poorest area in the western hemisphere. It was a land fill for trash but now it has turned into a slum. 300,000 people live in 2 square miles. Pray that the Lord would move in a powerful way through us to bring hope to people by simply reaching out and touching them where they are at. Loving this place so far! 

Stay tuned for a blog about today, I am going to type up here in a little bit! Big things happened today. 

-Nathan Ring

Church in Haiti

I want you who read this to try to imagine this scenario…

In a matter of minutes the place where you worship God whether it be weekly, every other week, monthly, or even just once a year has now gone to rubble. Now maybe your pastor, worship leaders, elders, deacons, administrative staff, and even members of the body of your church are gone in a matter of seconds. Chaos has now filled your streets, dead bodies can be seen and smelt in the air, needs are everywhere you look as you stand on what was the front steps of your church you once attended…

Where would you turn? For myself, I would like to say at that moment I would fall to my knees and shout, Oh God, use me to advance the gospel in this time of need. After watching Pastor Mark Driscoll’s sermon (www.marshillchurch.org) from this past Sunday morning about his 32 hours he spent in Haiti the individual stories of the pastors, seminary professors, teachers, fathers, women, and children are racing through my head. As I think about what would it be like if in a matter of seconds Brentwood Baptist Church or Fellowship Bible or First Baptist Opelika or wherever it may be for you is now in a pile of rocks. Wouldn’t you want to just ask God why it has happened to us? Maybe even out of some anger in your heart. The amazing thing to me is that story after story the men and women in Haiti Pastor Mark showed continued to smile and say my joy comes from the Lord. That is the type of person I want to be, that even in the days ahead where disaster may hit directly to my family I would be able to say God you are so faithful, my joy comes from you and you alone.

It is my prayer for you today that you might just take some time and think about how you can help what is going on in Haiti. I know that it might be the popular thing to do but I also know that already it is getting less and less attention via the internet, television, etc. One-day people will say that happened a year ago there isn’t much need for me now. Do not fall into that trap people. For I encourage you to check out www.churcheshelpingchurches.com and see how Pastor Mark Driscoll and James Macdonald are partnering with the global church to rise up the church in Haiti once again. Would you consider taking some time out of your day everyday to pray for a movement of leaders to rise up in Haiti to shepherd the hurting and broken hearted in the midst of a tragedy? I pray that you may be moved in such a way to see the urgency to do something now.

Acts 1:8 – “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

A new page in the book

Well a lot of things have changed since I last posted in April of 2009 but I really want to try to keep this blog updated on some things going on in my life these days…

April 2009 – November 2009- Worked at the Sheraton Hotel Downtown Nashville.

End of November 2009 – December 2009 – Returned to Uganda for about 3 weeks to Bethany Village and some surrounding areas. Incredible time. Will probably hear bits and pieces of the trip throughout a lot of blog postings.

December 25, 2009 – Christmas was great with the Family.

January 1, 2010 - Auburn won the Outback Bowl. War Eagle!

January 2-5, 2010 – Attended Passion in Atlanta, GA with about 23,000 college students. Absolutely amazing what the Lord did in 4 days there. The Holy Spirit was moving in a powerful way.

January 6, 2010 – Began traveling with my dad and working full time for Reach Out and Touch Ministries.

So the last date is a very important step in my life. In the days ahead as Dad and I embark on a journey to reach the world with all we have will you keep us in your prayers? There are some big dreams out there and with the help of you we can reach those. For right now I am just asking for you to pray that the Lord will continue to guide our footsteps and that we would daily surrender for what the Lord desires for our life. In the days ahead look out for a blog on my most recent trip to Uganda, a word from Mark 2 and how it applies to what we are about at Reach Out and Touch Ministries, some daily thoughts on life on the road, and much more. I would love to hear some feedback just to see if people even read these things anymore... Love you all.

Nathan

Clarity

Let's take a trip back to October 2007, on a Thursday night God called me to the ministry while driving home from Encounter (campus ministry). Ever since that night, I have known in my mind what I want to spend the rest of my life taking part in. I am at a point in my life right now where I have a huge weight on my shoulder to do something about that calling. I feel like up until this point I have taken major baby steps in observing what a life of full time ministry could look like. It seems like everyday I wake up with this sense of urgency under my feet to take off with it. I am ready to be used for the Kingdom. Recently I have been praying that God would give me clarity on exactly how he wants to use me. There are some options I know I could see myself in but I am seeking God's voice on how and where he wants to use me before jumping to any conclusion. As some of you know, I have a heart for the nations across the globe. I also know that America is a country right now in desperate need for this generation, my generation, to have leaders rise up and lead with passion uniting the church across this country to bring eternal glory to the Kingdom. I want to be apart of something that reaches people all across the world bringing glory to the throne of grace. I want all the glory and praise go to the one and only King of Kings sitting on the throne. Readers of this blog, I want you to know that I am praying for a sense of urgency to rise up in this nation and all over the world that leaders would get serious about serving the King. What would it look like if a generation of believers got serious about serving God? If that sense of urgency would come under this nation once again, what would it look like? What kind of impact could this nation have on the world if this generation got serious about serving the King? I am so thankful for the support of the people whom have invested truth into my life throughout the last twenty years. Please pray for clarity for me on what to do with the sense of urgency I have to put my calling in the sea.

"I will rise when He calls my name"

Living for the King,

Nathan

Embracing Life

Well it has been a while since I have updated my blog, so let me give you a quick update without going into a lot of detail because I have a lot I want to share but want to keep it short. After the fall semester in Auburn, I decided to come back home to be with my family with intentions of finishing up at Belmont University. I think that my college route might take another swing starting in the fall or next spring. I am currently in the process of looking into a couple bible schools to finish up my undergraduate work in Biblical Studies. I am taking online classes this semester while working a good amount of hours at the Fresh Market. Now that you have a short snippet of where I am at lets get into the meat of what I want to share for this article….

The last couple months of my life have been the hardest for me personally that I can remember. I came to Nashville thinking I am going to embark on a new journey where I am most comfortable being with my family. Little did I know I was really being stripped of everything that was comfortable to me at this moment in my life. All of you, who know me, know that I live for meeting and embracing people in their walk of life wherever they are at. Some may say to me that I am the type of person to never meet a stranger. Well I noticed that when I moved up here and all my close friends went back to school in January this gloom of loneliness fell right before my eyes. I could connect with some on skype or facebook or even a cell phone but that was not fulfilling my wants to be with people. I could go to work and deal with hundreds of customers a day but that was not even fulfilling the need. It might of given a quick shot but as soon as I got home by myself reality began to sit in. I found myself turning away from whom I truly was. I began to lose my zeal for life. Although on the outside I would tell people I was doing great but their was a raging war going on inside of me telling me to give up. It wasn’t until I finally realized that God was teaching me something by this that I could embrace the reality of the state of mind I was in. God brought me to Nashville to take me away from my comfort zone of life so I would grow in Him away from the distractions. While at Auburn in the latter stages of my time their, I began to find my identity in my friends instead of Christ alone. I found myself wanting to spend more and more time doing the fun stuff with my closest friends than dedicating some time to be alone with God. It was as if I was living a life that I wanted my friends and God to be at the top of my list but share that number one spot. It wasn’t until I moved up here that God was stripping the friends off of that number one spot so He would be the only one I find my identity in. Although I may still be walking in the desert and will be for a while I am finding my trust in an old wooden cross that provides strength for me daily. It’s in the midst of all the brokenness in my life that I am finding comfort in the healer of that pain.

The night I embraced the reality of walking in the desert has been the best thing to happen to me, I decided to let God have all of me with no distractions. I wanted to have a Yes attitude towards the Lords will for my life. No matter what I am put through I want to maintain that attitude. I happened to stumble across 2 Corinthians 1:19-20 which reads, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” That was it for me. That is right where I am. I want everyday I am alive to shout that bold YES towards God. I put the picture of White Sands National Park on this blog portraying the majesty of God in the distance with the desert in front of it. I would like that picture to accurately display where I am right now: In the desert saying yes to the Lord with my eyes-only being focused on the beauty of his light.

Who are the people that you know in your life that have made a life saying yes to anything the Lord calls them to? For me, I start with my own father. Saying yes to the call to ministry as a young boy and never doubting his call to serve. Then from there I think of Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, who started a church in Brooklyn, NY and pastors needy people week after week. I then think of a guy like Francis who is the father figure for nearly 200 orphans in Bethany’s Village in Ggaba, Uganda. Francis is in his later 20’s in a wheel chair due to polio at a young age but provides comfort to hurting children daily no matter what his physical problems are. I then think of Jason Swain (my youth pastor) and his passion for providing hope to people wherever he is. After God took Jason’s little girl at the age of 2 months he continues to serve the Lord daily. Lastly, I think of Matt Dean and by him saying Yes to the Lord to move to Hong Kong to provide hope for the hopeless over there. I pray that God will continue to bless these men that have had an influence on my life. As I conclude this blog I want you to evaluate what it means to say yes to what the Lord desires out of you? The Lord has been so good to me. He has blessed me with people that have poured so much life into me. Some of you may never know the impact you have left on my life but I want to say thank you. May God continue to bless you. Continue to keep me in your prayers.

Living for the King.

Just Stop and Think

Just stop and think.

http://crazylovebook.com

Videos/Just Stop and Think

It is as simple as that, I want you to just stop and think about your life right now. For some of you this could be the first time in a while that you have had time to just sit down and relax, and for others this could be just part of your daily routine. For all though, I want this to be a time before you go on in the reading of this blog to just sit with the creator of the Universe. He has offered us the greatest proposal known in the history of the earth to be His bride. So for however long your heart desires I would love for you to reflect on your life with the creator. Some of you need to just come to the Lord with a heart of thanksgiving, some may be angry, some may feel unworthy, the great thing about our Lord is that no matter what when you call upon His name, the mighty one, savior of the World, Jehovah, King, Jesus meets you right where you are with his arms open wide welcoming you into the household. Lay everything at this time at the feet of the King. May he speak to you.

“For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He is who makes the cloud rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightning’s for the rain and brings forth wind from his storehouses.” -Psalm 135:5-7

I love how when I walk outside I can see the beauty of what God has created. I sometimes wonder if I was in a people group where there was no bible translated in the language I spoke how the Holy Spirit would speak to me through his nature. Going back to the video clip, I loved how Francis talked about how God is Love. It is sometimes hard for me to grip onto the fact that the God who created the nature when I walk outside my front door desires a personal relationship with you and I. He is Love. He loves us so much that he sent his Son to the cross to die for us. Thanks be to God for the blood that washes us clean, because without grace no one would be able to stand before a all sufficient savior. The modern day church needs to get back to that simple truth of the blood of Jesus is the only thing that can make you and I whole again. How precious is that simple truth? It is so simple but yet so profound.

A short update on my life, I am home from Orlando and I do apologize for taking a week off from the blog. I am now back to posting every other day. Sage and Betsy’s wedding was fabulous and we had a great time. I am in Brentwood till August 15 and then I will return back to Auburn. It is miserably hot here. Currently I am headed off to the river to hang out with the boys for the afternoon about to leave work for an afternoon at the rope swing. I hope everyone is doing well and I challenge you today once again to just take some time and stop and think about what the Lord is stirring in you today. Just lay it all out on the line, living a life in risk for his Kingdom to be known. Glory be to the King who is worthy of my praises.

In Him,

Nathan

The Awe Factor of God and Orlando Update

I want to start this blog off a little differently. Instead of jumping right into what I have been doing the last couple of days here in Orlando, I want you to do me a favor. Go to:

http://crazylovebook.com/

And once you go there click on the video tab and watch the video titled “The Awe Factor of God.” To give you a heads up my next blog will be about Just Stop and Think video. So if you want to cheat watch that sometime soon.

I now assume that you all have watched this video. I think every time I watch it I find myself thinking “Wow, the God that created all of these Galaxy’s wants a personal relationship with me to bring his name glory.” His love has overwhelmed my life and is always refining my character of who I am in Christ daily. More than ever the enemy is trying to bring me down. It’s a raging battle that is going on daily due to the fact that he knows the Lord is stirring in me and even you a great plan to impact the kingdom. I am going to use something that I heard my dad say not to long ago in his message that has stuck with me since I heard it. When I wake up, I want the angels to salute me, while all of the demons and the devil are shouting oh no trouble has just woken up. But I wonder today even for myself, does the devil even flinch when I wake up? Does he even think that it’s going to be a fight today for himself? Its something that has stayed on my mind since the first time I heard it. Thank the Lord though even though the devil might think he has his way there is a higher force that one day the devil himself and all the demons will have to bow before the throne and declare that Our God is the one and only Savior of the World, the Holy and Righteous one that is worthy to be praised.

My prayer is that not only will you be reminded when you read this that Our God is Mighty to save and even though he did create massive galaxy’s for His glory, he desires to use you as a shining light for His ultimate glory. May your day be blessed by just taking a moment to stop and think of how wonderful the Lord has been and forever will be.

Back to an update of life. I am still here in Orlando, FL. Tuesday really was not filled with a whole lot of out of the extra ordinary for me to tell you about, but I will give you a brief synopsis of what went on. Woke up around 9 A.M. ate some breakfast and watched sportscenter. Sam went to a meeting at 11:45 so I just stayed around the house and got ready to do whatever when he got back. He came back and we went over to Sage’s where he and I fished for a little bit, but the fish weren’t biting at all so Josh (Sage’s Cousin from Texas) and I took a trip to Rainbow Snow Cone here in Winter Park. For all you people that love SnowBiz in Auburn, this place is like a New York Strip at Flemings compared to a T-Bone at Waffle House. Basically the point is that it is way better. After Rainbow Snow Cone we went to a place called Crispers to eat with the whole Steele Family (Betsy’s Family), Hirschy Family, a couple of Sage and Betsy’s friends from Nashville, Sam, and myself. This place was a good sandwich/salad place that was quick and easy. I saw The Dark Knight for the second time last night after dinner and that was how Tuesday rounded out to be.

Today was a big day in the life of Nathan Ring. I woke up and was off to the Mall at Millenia to the Apple Store at 8:30 A.M. to wait in line for the new Apple iPhone 3G. Getting there the line was already way out the door, so I just took my placement and waited patiently for a whopping 4 and half hours to get to the front of the line. That’s right somehow I waited patiently by myself for about 3 of those hours in line for a little new gadget. The guys in front of me were so different that I found myself dropping in on their interesting conversations filled with many funny but crude jokes. Sam waited in line with me for a little bit and was kind enough to bring me some Chick-Fila for breakfast but he had no reason to stand in line with me so he checked out. I finally got to the front of the line becoming really nervous at the time because at the Apple Store they tell you only account holders can purchase the phone. I knew all the answers to the questions they would ask me but was worried that somehow even though I have my dad’s name in my name they would tell me that I couldn’t get the phone. I found myself people watching the employee’s to see which one was going to be cool and then the older men who think there cool and trendy because they are working at the apple store who wanted a power trip with younger people like myself. The guy that ended up helping me was one of the people I labeled as cool. We went through with the process and about 20 minutes later my new phone was up and running as I walked out of the store. Sage happened to be in the mall at the time when I got my new phone so I met up with him and he drove me home. As I returned back to Sam’s, I put my old phone up for sale on Craig’s list and within 15 minutes I received a phone call from someone who wanted to purchase it. I ended up selling it to him for 300 dollars, which I was happy with because the new one cost me a little 200 after taxes. Sam, his mom, and I killed more time in the mall after selling my old phone until I picked up a publix sub for dinner and then just went to Sage’s to end the night. So now you are caught up with what has been going on here in Orlando.

At the request of Mr. Hirschy and Ned (Sage’s Uncle a.k.a. Dennis What?) I will add something in about the hog hunt that they have wanted me say something about after reading the blog. After it took me about five or six shots to kill the hog on about my 5th shot when I knocked it down for good even though it was still moving, I yelled out “See Ya.” The hog was not even dead yet but I was yelling that it was. It ended up being a good story to laugh about the rest of the day since it was the first animal I had actually hunted. Hope you enjoyed this long blog post! Thanks for continuing to keep up with me.

In Him,

Nathan