Donation needed: plastic barrel/bin for shoe and sneaker drive for the poor

Hello,

I was wondering if I can get your help. My friends from Bunker at Karport at the Fort, Philippines are going to run a shoe and sneaker drive from November 15, 2008 to December 15, 2008. Bunker is a sneaker and apparel boutique and wants to help those in the less fortunate communities with something special for Christmas.

Need

• 1 plastic barrel or bin, 3.5 feet high x 2.5 feet wide, with a lid.
• need it before November 7, 2008 of next week

Contact me at 0908 * 688 * 1375 or ryan @ design48.net. Thank you so much if you can help!

Encouraging everyone around you, Barnabas the encourager

Tuesday, 9:12am – Mandaluyong, Philippines

“23When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.”
Acts 11:23,24

Reading this verse today, I have come to learn today that Barnabas was a great encourager of Paul and Mark and of the new Christians in the early church when they set off on their ministry to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is great to see and learn about as God has been revealing to me in the past 4 days that this is what He has set forth for me to be talented at. God has given me this natural ability that I will be responsible with and continue to do so, strongly, with the Holy Spirit, to lift up all those around me. God has been grooming me for this ever since I was young up to present:

1. from encouraging the under dogs and those that were bullied in grade school up until now
2. from helping those that lacked talent or ability in a group project or in a social setting
3. to encourage my friends always in whatever troubles they were facing
4. to encourage my road racing motorcycle team and friends whenever they doubted their abilities
5. to encourage youth to be their best and how to realize their dreams through a non-profit organization I worked with called Racers Who Care
6. to encourage co-workers and colleagues on projects to finish them diligently and with accuracy
7. to encourage Christians and non-Christians of the Word and of love and how we should live our lives with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Those that help me when I question are reminded. Things that I learn I boldly share like a child excited to first learn of the alphabet or their multiplication table.

Thank you God for showing me and leading me to understand this. To know your talents and purpose allows you to cultivate it and drives you with more focus, determination and joy. Especially for God. All for You, Jesus.

Fixing my motorcycle. Teammates Alex and Jason working diligently. They saved the day, I lost my motorcycle key the day of the big race!


Close friends from Burbank where I grew up. From a birthday bbq on May 31, 2008.


Racers Who Care presentation to kids at the Hollywood Community Center on July 30, 2008. Presentation was on tips for kids to achieve their dreams and goals.

Money matters, encouraging others and how Jesus changes our hearts

Monday, 11:00am – Mandaluyong, Philippines
Yesterday was insightful and such a blessed day as always and always will be. God’s message delivered in Sunday’s service was about money and Pastor Joey Bonifacio’s verses that he referenced and examples he used were clear and concise. Overall the message was that there are 2 aspects to money: (1) that it is good if it’s considered a slave for you, that you use it responsibly and (2) that it is bad if it becomes your master, where you end up lying, cheating and stealing for it, and that you turn or push yourself further away from God because of it. You can not serve two masters and when money is loved, there is a great conflict.
After service spent time with two brothers, Pooh and Louie. We headed to my buddy PJ’s DJ gig at Karport at the Fort for another Reggae/Dancehall/Dubplate night. A whole bunch of people were there, vendors selling clothes, people enjoying music and skateboarders doing demos. After that we went to a Gospel House event which was nice to see a whole bunch of people come together to a venue that played House music, both to praise God and to enjoy the company of other Christians.

Going home later that night, we stopped at Chow King for a snack and the topic came up in discussion about integrity and encouraging others based on our lives and love for Jesus. I mentioned to them that it’s important to me, that even in the smallest things, I push to change my heart for good and with Jesus’ help, so that small things that are bad do not turn into something greater. The example I chose was downloading mp3s illegally or buying DVDs that have been pirated from the local Tianggea or swap meet/street vendors. I expressed that these small things of not having integrity may lead to bigger things, maybe, it will lead to other bouts of trying to save money, cut corners, or bigger purchases where you know the items or products have been acquired illegally or from bad intentions.

The danger of this is two-fold: (1) it can effect your heart and lead you to do worse and worse things, pushing you away from God and leading you down a dark path of destruction of yourself and others and (2) that if you are a Christian trying to encourage other Christians or non-believers that are inquiring about God, if they do not see your life changed by knowing Jesus based on your actions or speech, how will they know that Jesus can change their lives?

The point here is not to “try” to do good things, the point is to look to God to change you. I feel guilty when I do bad things. This is the Holy Spirit telling you that there is something wrong with the situation that you need to fix. Guilt is good! It’s like pain, it’s an indicator that it’s something wrong for you. What God has shown to me is that I am to encourage others, to lift others up when they are down, and to spread the Gospel of salvation any chance I can get. If Jesus hasn’t changed my heart in all aspects of my life, if I don’t strive to achieve God’s standard on how He wants us to live, if I don’t obey His commands for us, then I can not do these things. We are not perfect as humans, but with God, He can change our lives. All I want now is of God and to seek goodness in everything.

My brother Rocky shared this chapter in the Bible with me before when he was sharing with me how husband and wives should be toward each other and how they should be with their children. I read further and found a verse that I have held close to my heart. It’s about encouraging others and setting an example. This was a letter from Paul to Titus, a man sent to Crete to organize and oversee churches there.

“Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”
Titus 2:6-8

Reading further, I came across this:

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
Titus 2:11-14

I will be careful on what happens in this world that will effect and influence me to love this world. I will be careful to balance my life in seeking to know more about the life and death of Jesus and to know God so that I do not get burnt out and push myself away to be satisfied with things in this world. I will be careful on balancing my life by doing things of this world, so that I can enjoy fellowship with friends and Christians, but still hold Jesus close to my heart. I will look and pray to the Holy Spirit, to guide me and change my heart so all of it is good and of love, and that I can show that love back to God and to everyone I am connected with.

Posting pics and write-up laters of last Saturday’s ministry and outreach. So much to share of that day as well.