18 Days Out!

It's becoming very surreal to me that I'm going to be leaving. At church this morning it really hit me that I will only be at Crosspoint for two more weeks! I'm really going to miss it, but I know that God has something great for me in South Africa and I am ready to be there.

Just to give you guys an update on support, my one time gifts are up to $7,400 out of $8,000 and $550 out of $1,000, so we're hitting really close to the goal. God is really pulling through and so are his people.

I'm trying to sell a few things that I won't need over the next year and one of them is my car. That's going to be really important because I am still making payments on it. It's a 2002 Saturn SL2 and I am selling it for $3,000 dollars. So if anyone you may know is in need of a dependable vehicle in that price range, please send them my way!

When God moves, He moves!

I just want to say thank you to everyone who came out to my poker tournament! We had a great time, great food, and in the end $900 was raised! That is huge and it meant a lot to me that you guys were there. Congratulations to Charles for being our tournament champion, you played well for your first time ever playing poker. Makes everyone a little suspicious... just kidding! Seriously though, there are a couple of amazing stories that I want to tell you.

When you raise support, for each event you put on you are supposed to have a specific goal in mind, a number that you are shooting for. I was going real big with the poker tournament, I was praying for $1,500, which would have meant 50 people showing up. Obviously that didn't happen. Nine hundred dollars from about 30 people was still an amazing turnout, but in the end I knew I still needed more. I was praying that night and the next morning about how I was going to get the rest, and honestly I was worried. The next morning at church someone walked up to me with a Christmas card and told me that there was some support in there from her and her husband. In that card was $700 dollars! I couldn't believe it! Not only had I gotten the $1500 I had prayed for, I got an extra $100!

One more story; working at Starbucks I had met this guy who was just beginning to raise support to go to Kenya for 3 years. The amount of support he needs to raise is up front and monthly is close to 4 or 5 times the amount that I need. He's a great guy and every time he comes in we have awesome conversations about missions and ministry. Well, a couple of days ago he came to Starbucks and handed me a folded up piece of paper. When I got off work I opened it up and it had $200 dollars and a note explaining that he had been meaning to give this to me for sometime and he was trying to invest in what really mattered in the kingdom! Someone who has a staggering amount of money to raise compared to mine felt compelled to invest in me, I was humbled.

All that to say, God is truly moving. He is active in the lives of His people and He knows what we need. With that money and other money that has been pledged that brings my one time gift total up to $5,895 out of $8,000 and my monthly support pledges to $375 out 0f $1,000. There is still more needed, but God's people (that's you guys!) have been faithful thus far and I believe will see this thing through with me!

40 days and counting...

It's really interesting knowing that in less than 2 months I'm going to be hoping on a plane to go live halfway across the world. Lately I've been experiencing this mix of emotions that range from excitement to fear to joy to anticipation. Throw those in a pot and mix 'em up and you get a type of passion you can't just conjure up on your own. It's that type of passion that you just want to bottle up and save for a rainy day when you just feel like you can't keep doing what you're doing. I've been reading through the Song of Solomon as of late and it's a book that reveals God's intimate passion for us. In the same way Solomon desires the wife of his youth, so God desires us to be His, to belong to Him and to seek Him out with a fervent passion that never surrenders. When I wake up I think about going overseas and when I go to sleep I think about God's love for the world. I can't escape it and I'm willing at all costs to see this dream he has birthed in my heart fulfilled.

Major Fund Raiser!!!!

On Saturday the 15th we will be hosting a Texas Hold-em tournament at Delta Woods Park as a fund raiser for my trip to South Africa. The entry fee is $30 and there will be major prizes for the top 5 players. Registration starts at 3:30pm and poker begins at 4pm. We will be serving hot dogs and chili. Email me at seitz@crosspointlive.com to let me know if you'll be able to make it!

Update on Support

Hey everyone!
I just wanted to let you guys know how the support raising is coming. As of now I have $3,240 in one time gifts and $225 in monthly support! That is incredibly encouraging and I wanted you all to share in the excitement with me. With the final months counting down I'm still looking to raise $4,760 more in one time gifts and $775 in monthly support by January. I know that it is more than possible with God's help, the support of my friends and the support of my church. I could never have made it this far without you and I can't wait to see what God has for us on this journey.

So it starts...

First off I want to say a serious and heart felt thank you to Wayne and Tina for setting up this blog site! It means a lot to me that you care that much about what I'm doing that you would set up a way for me to communicate with you and the rest of the world. Enough of the sappy stuff...

This has and continues to be one of the most amazing and trying time of my life. I'm learning a lot about who I am and who God wants me to be. Moving to the other side of the world to learn what it means to live a life totally sold out for the gospel has been my dream for a long time, but I never realized that preparing to get there would be such an integral part of the experience. It makes me think of the process of refining gold, that when it is being heated all of the impurities rise to the top so they can be removed. It's an illustration that seems overused in the church, but right now it makes a lot of sense to me. It's almost like God is turning up the heat right now, removing certain things from my life and replacing them with His word and truth, so that when I get to South Africa I will be ready. So for now, that is where I'll be, learning and growing, knowing that He will be there to guide my steps and direct my path.

Welcome to my blog!

In just a few month's I'll be on my way to South Africa.

Here is where I will chart my journey...