StreetLight. Tracks

Lifeteams Update # 15 Epilogue... What appears to be the end, may really be a new beginning.

It's hard to believe that its Lifeteams is over now...  Evry Lifeteams year at the end the students get together and make a banner to summarize what their year was about, a story in one picture. then at grad one of the students talks about it. I was nominated. So this is me speaking at grad, talking about the change and transformation, the journey that has taken place. I would love for you to check out the video and my accword speaking. ha-ha :)
Lifeteams is over now and now its time for the next step which I will soon be talking about here. As you can see the banner for this blog has changed and soon everything else on here will too as this goal has been fulfilled, God has provided people like you to come alongside me on this journey and adventure. I thank you . I can't thank you enough because of people like you all of my tuttion was completely paid for, all $7800.00 of it! I also thank all of you that have been praying for me and my housemates. Some of you I may never meet, you are just random passers by on this blog but regardless I thank you for all of your support!! because of this I got to have the best and most challenging year of my life, I got to impact lives while learning and attending school God is awesome that way isn't he! And now I am being called to a whole new dream, and level of faith which I will soon talk about... but for now stay tuned. thank you!
-Ryan Russell-Timbrell

“Who is it that I seek?  I seek the Lord my God!”

Lifeteams Graduation Ceremony 2010 2011- Banner talk

Lifeteams. For all of us we really had no idea the road we were stepping on, and for me to be honest I was scared out of my tree, this was uncharted territory. For all of us the Lifeteams adventure would mean giving up eight and half months of our lives, but any adventure it seems must start with running away from a place we call home. What started as nine strangers who didn’t know each other became a living breathing fellowship, a friendship, a team, and a family. We met God in new fantastic ways, where he shaped us, and refined all of us though the fire. At times we met the fire with tears and other times with great joy. It’s really hard to summarize everything that has happened this year, the transformation that has taken place at lifeteams in one picture. God shaped us in ways only the master at the potter’s wheel could, not to say He didn’t fire us in the kiln this year either. This year at lifeteams has been the most challenging of our entire life’s; but so entirely worth it! “Who is it that I seek?  I seek the Lord my God!” We chose this to be written on the banner because Seeking God is something we learned and experienced this year, seeking God in various aspects of our lives such as healing, community, Love, friendship, discovery and adventure and even in our daily lives. Seeking God means having a closer intimate relationship with Him, being more like Christ, doing good deeds, and humbling ourselves every single day. He is our Father; we should go to him in every circumstance, whether good or bad.  Jesus says in bible “you could say to this mountain move from here to there” nothing would be impossible. It takes faith! We put painted mountains on this canvas because there as been a lot of mountains this year at lifeteams, some that seemed like they would have been impossible to move or to overcome, and without faith in Jesus that would be true” This year we have been asked by the challenges we have faced, Will you take Jesus's hand and trust that he is there, and that He is Good?  You might notice as you look closer to the mountain two different individuals at the peak, this is the community symbolized.  We learned the roles each of us play in this family that is Lifeteams. If one of us suffers, everyone suffers with them; if one of us is honored, we all rejoice with them. These two people being above the mountains represent the clarity that we got about our lives, Jesus, and God’s will for us.  As you can see there are mountains that are ahead and behind of us, this represents journey that God has taken us on and where we need to go. Now that we reached this point, for us that means that we descend into the clouds, into the fog where the road is unclear. We are not alone though we have God as our Compass and the fellowship we have forged over these eight and a half months. Finally we come to the sun, rising in a glorious burst of light, this represents a new day. What appears to be the end may really be a new beginning for us, a new life in which we have been poured into, our cups have been filled and now it’s our turn to descended from the mountain, and pour into others back home. I often say “don’t accept nothing less then what God has for you” I believe this year has been just that, and it’s so surreal that it is over, now we enter into the “real world” armed and equipped with what we have learned and experienced. Were entering into a very broken world that needs God’s radical love and acceptance, I believe the nine of us, ablaze with the spirit of God will change this world for good and overcome this world with love, and we have already started! Now this arrangement is no more, this chapter of our lives has come to a close, this is where we turn to next page, where God reveals the story one moment at a time, were we seek Him in everything we do and we continue to see the story of life unfold and see our new life begin!