I've just awoken into my final week here at home in Akron, NY before embarking on a new journey. On September 3rd at 10:28am I will have boarded my flight back to Hawaii as a volunteer staff member at YWAM Honolulu. During these two years I will be part of a team that trains and ministers to students enrolled in YWAM's Discipleship Training School. ...and I am beyond excited.
So why me? Why Hawaii? Well those are good questions to which I don't really have a good answer. There are approximately 2.2 billion Christians on the earth all with unique and colorful talents and gifts. In the US alone there are 450,00 churches. YWAM is one of 4,000 known evangelical missions organizations and has over 1,200 ministry centers on six of the seven continents. So why me? Why Hawaii?
I'd love to be able to proclaim, "My name's Brice Livingston and I'm called to YWAM Honolulu!" with that zeal and fervor and crazed kind of look in my eye that screams of surety and boldness. I'd love to be able to tell people how God came down on clouds of lightning and fire and spoke to me in a slow, thunderous voice saying, "Brice...I want you to go to Honoluluuu."
But the truth is, a year ago after a particularly long shift at work, some prayer, a few conversations with friends and family and a Google search, I found myself going to Honolulu for a DTS. Six months later after a week back at home and some encouragement to go back on staff, I decided to do just that and...here I am with September 3rd drawing nearer, running around trying to get ready and inwardly cursing my affinity for procrastination.
Here's the thing, We're Christians; children of God whom He loves beyond anything we can comprehend. We're free from sin, free from fear. We serve an almighty, all powerful, awesome, one and only God. And we're all called to love other people. 1st John 4:19 says, "We love because He first loved us." When I graduated from high school I didn't know what I wanted to do. People asked me, "What are you passionate about?" I came up with answers to satisfy people but the truth was that I didn't know what my passions were. It bothered me that I didn't know. It seemed like everyone was passionate about something; music, sports, careers, maybe their pets; but by the grace of God a few years later, Jesus Christ got a hold of my heart and He didn't let go. He guided me, protected me, provided for me, showed me a love I'd never experienced before and gave my life a purpose. Thank you God for my parents who raised me to respond to Your voice. That purpose is to go. That purpose is to show. That purpose is to love. I finally have a passion. It dawned on me not too long ago that my salvation isn't really about me at all. Jesus died on the cross, took my sin away and now I belong to Him. That's amazing! That's beyond amazing. But now I'm called to be like Jesus and Jesus never did anything for himself. So my relationship with God is actually all about you. And him. And her. And her son, and her son's sister. And everyone because Jesus died for everyone and rose again for everyone. And it's all just really cool.
I'm not sure how to wrap this up. But I guess I'm going to Honolulu to show people God's love and live out my purpose through Jesus Christ. Thanks for reading!
Brice Livingston
2707 Hipawai Place
Honolulu, Hawaii United States 96822
bricelivingston@gmail.com
716.800.7991
http://www.gofundme.com/brice-livingston
