brad beamon

So I was reading in Ecclesiastes where one who loves money will never have enough and always want more. As I was reading, I thought about how this is true for any genuine passion of ours. For instance, I love football. I love to watch it, play it, coach it, and purchase things that revolve around it. But I thought about Sunday after Sunday, and on Monday and Thursday, if I can, I watch it. Why is that? How is it that something so pleasing can leave me wanting more. The 1pm game goes off around 3:30 and so I just sit around until the 4:15 game will come on again. And I will be just as pleased with both games. How is this!? I think about this and in the terms of, “I love football”. And so maybe this is how Jesus loves us. He just can’t get enough of us. Maybe this is why He chooses to be new to us each day. And in Him we are a new creation. Why a new? Maybe as pleased as He is with us, He just wants more. And the same is us in Him. But the special part about loving Jesus is that as pleasing as He is, He is also satisfying. And yet, as satisfying as He is, His Spirit continues to draw us closer to Him. Wow, thank you Jesus for holding on to me and continuing to draw me in!

So I had an interesting conversation with my family today over lunch. They were concerned to find out that we at Harmony church humbly asked people to leave if they were not on board with the specific mission and vision of Harmony. My family was coming at it with the thoughts of by asking people to leave, we were telling them that Jesus wasn’t for them. This was definitely NOT the case. We encouraged them to find a church that matched up to the mission God has placed in their hearts. But if it wasn’t Harmony, as much as that is okay, we don’t have time to hold the hands of christians expecting a show. I know that this is a touchy subject, however, we see in Mark 5:18-20 Jesus telling a man to return home because he was not apart of Jesus’ specific mission at that place and time. The man’s mission was at a different place, his home town.

I love my family and it is emotionally and spiritually difficult to handle their concern. But hopefully God can reveal to them what He had instilled in me.

Happy Birthday to me!!!!!

turned the big 21 yesterday! hung out with friends all day and then went to the bar our church meets at on sunday mornings for fellowship and the famous first beer. I tried several, but wasn’t really fond of any of them. they all told me that it was an acquired taste…well, i don’t have it yet. But the preseason football game between the bengels and packers was awesome!

my prayer is that God can use me to redeem alcohol for His glory, however He sees fit.

thanks Jesus

-amen

Just finished Jesus, M.D. and the entire premise of the book was a physician examining the Great Physician. He began by declaring that the type of doctor Jesus would have been was a missionary doctor. After reading this book, I can definitely agree. He came to this foreign world to save it and heal the broken hearted and spiritually blind. Just as a missionary doctor, Jesus encountered a variety of cases. However, unlike a missionary doctor, he was well prepared for each one.

So what’s your main complaint?

So, I’ve started (and now half way through) reading this awesome book of a missionary doctor in Africa. He relates his work over sees to the Great Physician and true Missionary Doctor, Jesus himself. One of the newest things that has struck me is that Jesus was willing to be on call every night. We see one example of this in Luke 4:31. It is on the Sabbath (when Jesus wasn’t supposed to be working anyway) when, after a long day’s work laying it down for the religious people in the synagogues and then traveling and preaching in other synagogues when the entire city was lined up at the door of the house where Jesus was staying to be healed and delivered of demons. And guess what, Dr. Jesus stayed up all night with them taking care of business. The next day people were looking for Jesus (who I am sure was exhausted by this point) and what does He tell them when they find Him? He simply says, “I must go preach the good news and be about my Father’s business”. That’s incredible. So my prayer is this:

Lord, when I am a med student and doctor, forgive me when I get frustrated because I am tired for being on call during the nights. Let me have the same strength, drive, and compassion that you did that late night you stood at the door healing and ministering among the people. And let me always remember your ultimate will; to preach the good news to the poor, and in my case, through medicine.

Yo! So derek and miranda are married!!!!!

So for July 4th, we shoot off fireworks in awe and wonder. Ooo, fire in the sky to celebrate our freedom. But this year, much of that was canceled around the area due to a very strong thunderstorm and powerful lightening. And God spoke to me and said, “look at how much greater my fire in the sky is to yours.” So how about from now on, every time we get the odd urge to just sit on our front porch and watch the lightening, we celebrate our freedom in Christ Jesus.

Amen and Amen.

Once again, sorry for the late posts. Wednesday I went with the mobile clinic again and we had the medical clinic inside a church. This was an awesome site to see. People were lined up outside the church on the side of a city road in order to recieve real and practical help.

Thursday we went to another church in another city to have our clinic. This was cool because the construction team had built the foundation of this church a couple of years ago. And yesterday we were able to minister to the physical needs of those people.

Today we all were in the main clinic. We saw only around 300 people because we had to close down early in order to eat and be at the crusade on time. The crusade was alright. In the past, it has been an enormous event in the middle of the road in the slums. But today we had it in the old airport which is now the convention center. It just seemed to eliminate the opportunity for passers by to hear the gospel and be lead by the holy spirit.

Overall this trip has been awesome. I will return home tomorrow night and then in Greenville Monday night.

till then

-peace

Hey guys, sorry for missing Sunday and Monday…been really busy (obviously). So Sunday we went to a church that our construction team built 2 years ago. We found out Sunday that the church we built and its people are mission oriented and are sending out funds, members, and prayers to the community and cities around their church! And please keep in mind that this is a church in a 3rd world country and members who are surviving in a 3rd world country giving and reaching out to those around them with God’s love. What more can we do back home?

Monday we had the first medical clinic. It went very well and we saw about 500 people. It is so cool to be able to reach out and, if do nothing else, just be able to love on the people of Ecuador. In the clinic, I worked in intake and filled out the patient’s information and main complaints. I also got to take vitals and give rectal temps to babies for the first time. Discusting, but awesome for the first time.

Today, Tuesday, I went with the mobile clinic. This is a portion of the vision set in our leader’s heart. One enormous medical clinic has reached its maximum potential. What we want to do is, instead of having one main clinic in the same place for 5 days, is have 3 or so small clinics in different places every day. I was able to go on the test one today. It went great! We saw about 250 people with about 15 workers. I did intake again today and it was good. I’m having fun. Please keep me in your prayers. I want to see God truly draw glory to himself.

-Much love

Well, we left Raleigh, NC at 12:45pm and arrived in Ecuador at 10pm. No, it wasn´t a 9 hr flight. We had a lay over in Miami. Once we got here, they said that we couldn´t bring our medical bags into the country. So we waited around for about an hour until they finally let us go through. So we got to the hotel and are now setteled in.

God is good