Summer Art Classes

This summer the media ministry tried something new, we started weekly classes on different art forms to train students how to use their artistic gifting to serve at Oasis.

We asked Amber, Summer, and Wilson some questions about their summer in office.

What was the most difficult project?

W: Natural paint, mashing stuff for paint.

A: There was no blue!

S: The biggest challenge was getting used to fonts and putting them on slides.

What was the easiest project?

A: I think, they are all challenging in different ways. The easiest was… no they were all hard. Digital was easier, I’m gonna say because it was just a sketch.

W: Probably the same thing

S: Probably the thumbnails

What was your favorite project?

W: Mashing the different materials for paint.

A: The stamp made of the eraser, my bear was so cute.

S: I liked all of it, I might of been challenging but it was fun.

Favorite part of your time in office?

W: Being in this class, it was pretty fun.

A: being back for a second time, I was more comfortable being myself. I’m like wat up yo.

S: I had fun working with Jackie, doing extra stuff and hanging with the pastors.

What would you add to this class?

A: rocking chairs made out of Popsicle sticks.

W: Something having to do with splatter paint

S: I can’t thinking of anything

What will you take away from this summer?

W: Artistic abilities

A: learned that it is okay to be yourself, Because non of y’all have been rude about it.

S: Basically everything in this class. This summer I can take it and use it in the future. Special the devos we had.

Any other comments?

A: Hi!

W: We should do it again next summer!

S: I just really enjoyed the class. I want to thank everyone for letting us come taking the time to put stuff together.

Spring Interns – Final Thougths

I meet with our Spring Interns on their last week to ask a few questions about their time at Oasis… these two have brought so much joy, laughter, and energy to the church office during their time here. Here’s a glimpse into their time with us, their hearts for ministry, and there future hopes. Below K is used for Kaylee, T for Tiffany, and A for Angel Alvarado (all questions are asked by me).

What was your favorite experience while interning at Oasis?

K: “You first”

T: I really enjoyed getting to know all the people… the staff and people on Sundays… and seeing Christ in them… and working with the kids

A: Can you pick one?

T: Getting to know the people.

K: It will probably change Fri case it’s the girls event but I really loved working with the students in the Wave.

What was your least favorite experience?

K: ummmm…  when I’m thinking of the good things it’s hard to remember the bad…  idk like emptying the dishwasher

T: When it snowed and I had to get home.

K: Like when it only snowed 2 inches and we told Kameish we couldn’t get out of the parking lot and she laughed at us. (Laughing)

T: No it was another time when it started snowing while I was here and I was ok but Kameish got worried cause I had never driven in the snow and then I got a little scared.

K: Can I change my answer… I didn’t like it when Kameish had the heater on in April… I would take off my jacket and shoes and she would be like “What are you doing?” lol

Describe our team dynamic in 10 words or less.

T: Encouraging.  Unified.  Loves Christ and people.  Fun and exciting.

K: Passionate about the Bible. Family (It’s like a big family reunion with the crazy uncle… and aunt too… that’s Kameish… in a good way).

What will be the memory that will mark this internship for you?

K: Probably sitting with the middle school small group after the Gospel was presented, one of the girls said she wasn’t saved yet and we got to talk to her about salvation being a personal relationship.

T: How much everyone loves God and how they live out the Bible… I have never been in a church that was so friendly before… it has really impacted me… and how during staff devos everyone is so eternally minded.

What experience did you not get to do; you think we should add to the process?

T: It would have been nice to spend more time with the Ministry Director and learn more from her.

K: Serving in the community with the youth or church in general.

If you took over the ministry tomorrow, what would be the first thing you would change?

K: (Youth) I would try to get more involved with the schools in the county in order to invite more students to The Wave.

T: (Kids) For the lesson plans, I would probably make copies and send them out electronically (and still keep the paper ones) so that the teachers would have them sooner and when someone needs to sub in they can get the lesson quickly via email.

What will you miss most?

T: The people. Really everyone that I have met and been able to build relationships with… staff, congregation… children.

K: I’m coming back next semester but not as an intern so I guess I will miss being involved with the student ministry behind the scenes and being mentored by Kameish.

T: It stinks that right when we start to get to know everyone we have to leave…  like on Sunday I went into the Rapids and the kids came running over excited to see me.

It has been such a pleasure to work with both of these young ladies and we hope that if you were not able to get to know them you will take the opportunity to get to know our summer interns. Each semester we have interns that play a vital part in helping us serve your children and youth in both creative and practical ways.

Are you a sideliner?

Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.”

1 Samuel 14:6

Where are the men and women today who live like this? With boldness and surrender, courage and decisiveness… aggressively accomplishing God’s purposes here on Earth! When God tells us that he will never leave us, that promise is not meant to leave us trying to figure out God’s hidden will for every decision we make, rather, it is meant to give us a fearless boldness to seize every opportunity we can that God sends our way. Maybe things will turn out great, maybe they won’t (like Jonathan said) but if life is short (and it is) and God is waiting for us in heaven (and He is) then what a GREAT way to go out!! Daring great and small things for God!

How many of us consider the work of Christ our personal responsibility? I have a suspicion that there are far more sideliner Christians than we could ever imagine. People who look as if they’re in the game, but in reality are watching from up close. To follow Jesus is to move with God. When you become a part of God’s movement, you are a missionary.

“Every missionary has a mission. The mission gives him both intentionality and purpose. He has no minutes to waste. He is required to seize every moment that God gives him. Is it possible that God longs for this for all of us?

Maybe you’ve been afraid to get in the game because you’re afraid to lose. In the Kingdom of God, victory comes the instant you refuse to simply watch life happen and you get in the game. For too many of us, because we fear failure, we are afraid to try. Sometimes we live vicariously through the lives of others. Instead of being life voyagers, we become life voyeurs. I think it’s one of the reasons we entertain ourselves to death. We find our romance in You’ve Got Mail, and we fight our battles through William Wallace and Maximus Aurelius. And there might as well be a glass screen between real life and us because the closest we get to fulfilling our life’s dreams is watching them. We’ve accepted our place, our lot in life, as sidelines.”

When someone near us seizes his divine moment, it stirs something within us. A lifetime of passivity only makes dormant our longing for adventure. A life where endless moments are left buried in the cemetery of unfulfilled opportunities may grow cold, but not dead. Until our bodies return to dust, there will always be a voice crying out within us to move from existence to life. The possibilities that await us in each moment are fueled by the potential God has placed within us. Seizing your divine moment is not simply about opportunity; at the core it is about essence. It’s about the kind of life you live as a result of the person you are becoming. The challenges you are willing to face will rise in proportion to the character you are willing to develop. With the depth of godly character comes an intensity of godly passion. It is in this process of transformation that we find the fuel to engage with confidence the opportunities placed before us.”

Seizing Your Divine Moment

In the End, mature Christianity is realizing that WE ARE GOD’S WILL. WE are the representatives of Christ in this world. So we can dream, take action, be bold, make decisions, and God promises to empower us and to bless what we do in His name! So let’s seize these “Divine Moments” that God sends our way…maybe it’s a kind work here, or selling something to give the money to someone who just lost their job, or opening up your home, or going overseas on your first mission trip, or listening to that hurting person, etc…whatever it is, realize that most big things in the kingdom starts with small things here…or at least, what appears to be a small thing. The Word tells us to “Despise not the day of small things”. Need I remind you that the feeding of the 5,000 started with 2 loaves and some fish.

Brady N. Rose
Pastor of Mobilization

Where’s Brady – Update 3

The Lord has done so much in such a small amount of time…

Pastor Brady has been busy preparing to share the Gospel with all those who are working for them as well as their families. Part of the way he is doing this is by making it part of their payday. The men have been encouraged to bring their families with them, then after arriving to receive their money the Gospel is shared with them by a local pastor before they are paid. God is moving!

The Lord is also using Pastor Brady to change individual lives.

One such life is that of little Angelo. As you may have seen on his facebook post, Pastor Brady met a little boy with a a cleft pallet… after meeting him and taking a picture of him to remember to pray for him he logged into facebook one day and saw that a girl he went to high school with was working for an NGO in MANILLA and had posted a picture of a young boy who had just had a successful cleft pallet surgery. He then contacted her to find out if she had “room for one more?” She checked and found a way to get him in which meant Brady needed to find this random little boy again. He returned to where he had found him and the first boy he asked if he knew him was… HIS BROTHER!! The next day they had a five hour journey to Tacloban and would then fly Angelo and his Mother to Manila for his surgery… all expenses paid!

There is another man who walks for miles using sandals on them and he farms on his hands, picking up coconuts for a living… he is very poor and is unable to afford a wheelchair.

God provided a wheelchair for this guy!!! A wheel-chair bike with room for a cooler on the back so he can sell stuff from his chair!!! For this guy! Now, just have to find him!!

“I can’t do everything…but I can do something.” – Jerry Harding

Pastor Brady’s prayer request:

Please pray for some of the little boys that follow me everywhere back at my base.

Please pray for Angelo, pray for a strong and good recovery!!! He’ll be in Manila for a few weeks following his surgery to heal up.

Pray for the group I hired (all 55 of them). Pray that the seeds that have been planted in them would grow and God would continue to draw them!!!

Pray as I wrap things up here in our pay outs. Gotta move all our stuff 6 hours down the road to Tacloban. Pray that my exit would be honoring to the Lord and a blessing to everyone here. Pray I could bless all the staff and expats of Samaritans Purse as I go.

Where’s Brady – Week 2

The Lord has been at work in the Philippines! After arriving traveling nearly an entire day Pastor Brady and his team arrived in Samar. They were met with a people stricken with poverty and little spiritual training. He has hired many for the Samaritan’s Purse Cash for Work program he is over and is working to find a building to set up the SP base. Those he has hired will work as farmers, boat/canal builders, mangrove planters, or as laborers in other areas to improve the conditions of the island. Earlier this week Pastor Brady asked some of the locals what the children in the area dream of doing when they are older, the responses were sobering, “To eat three times a day… and maybe have some fun with friends. Finish school and occasionally you’ll find one who dreams of getting a job in another village.”

A note from Pastor Brady:

“This guy was one that I hired over a year ago immediately after typhoon Yolanda. We call him iron man. (He’s a welder). Glad to see he is still working with Samaritans purse in their warehouses. He was So pumped to see me! What a reunion!! He wanted to show me that he still wears the shirt I gave him and the belt. (He’s wearing the belt here). What a grateful spirit…makes me want to give more and more…reminds me of the truth Christ told us, ‘it TRULY is better to give than to receive’. I’ve seen several others who I hired and are still working with SP…such a blessed reunion! Man! Just think how awesome Heaven will be one day soon! People coming up and saying, ‘hey! (Fill in your name) it’s SO GOOD to see you again!!! Thank you so much for the water! Or the clothes or for letting me stay in your home when I had no where to stay or for sacrificing your time for me!! Or for that belt or that shirt…’ Man, that’s gonna be awesome. Jesus said, ‘as many of you who have done for the least of these, well, you’ve done it unto me!’ Wow.”

Praise Reports:

• They now have internet!!! This has been a huge need for the last several weeks and Pastor Brady is very thankful for all your prayers.
• This trip has been more balanced and Pastor Brady has actually had some free time to hangout with the he has hired.

How you can join us in praying:

• That there would be no “speed bumps” for the team sharing the Gospel.
• That the Gospel will take root in the 47,000 plus that will be attending the evangelistic gathering Pastor Brady is planning for next week.
• Discipleship for those who receive salvation.
• For the salvation of the rebels in the Island of Samar.

Meet our Intern: Tiffany Lawson

Meet Tiffany. She’s a cheerful and vibrant student who is serving as a Children’s Ministry intern at Oasis. Here’s a chance to get to know her better:

What is the thing that sold you on deciding to intern at Oasis?

Everyone is so friendly and I could see God’s love shinning through them and I knew it was the place I wanted to learn more about working in Church Ministry.

If a blizzard hits and you can’t get out for seven days and you are left with one entree to eat for every meal, what would you like it to be?

That’s a hard question… probably salad  cause I really like it and it fills you up.

If money wasn’t  worry what is one thing you would do, one thing you would buy, and one place you would go and why?

Oh goodness… (DO) Oh I know… I’d learn to play the harp, cause it’s really expensive… (BUY) I know… botany textbooks… (GO) North Dakota… it’s the only continental state I haven’t been to.

Do you own any Camo?

No.

Where’s Brady?

“As Christians, if we aren’t in over our heads we are swimming in the wrong ocean.”

                                                                      -Brady Rose

Pastor Brady will be spending the next two months on an island several hours away from the large Philippine city, Tacloban.

He is there as a part of the Samaritan’s Purse efforts to provide relief to an island that has been struck with two hurricanes since the major storm surge, Yolanda. The team is bringing with them ten vans, one truck and different types of aid for distribution. The team will spend their initial time cleaning up the island, clearing paths and building relationships. Then they will try to restore the community physically and spiritually.

As Pastor Brady is on this journey, pray for strength and wisdom as he leads this team. Pray that the people of Samar’s hearts will be softened and that through everything Christ’s name is lifted high.

Update: Sunday night Pastor Brady made his team chili, Philippine style, and lead worship. This was the day before the team made the all-day trek to the island of Samar.

Desiring God – Pastor’s Conference 2015

Each year the Oasis Pastors take the time to travel to a Pastor’s Conference, this year they traveled to Minnesota to attend the Desiring God conference. Here an inside look at why the trip is an important one and what the Lord had for our Pastoral Team.

Pastor Bubba, why do Oasis Pastors take the venture out to Minnesota each year to attend the Desiring God conference?

Every year the Oasis pastors look forward to sharing together  a time of fellowship, prayer, brain storming, vision casting and in/depth teaching from the Scriptures with other visionary pastors and church planters from across the across the country and around the world.  It is always a time of much needed spiritual refreshment, encouragement and rest…..A Time for Refueling for our mission in Amherst County and Central Virginia!

Pastor Brady, what was the focus of this year’s Desiring God conference? And how did it impact your time there?

Where sin increased; the rebellion of man; & the abundance of grace. It addressed false teachings in churches in American today and encouraged us to realize we are more sinful that we could ever imagine and more loved than we could ever fathom.

Pastor Jonathan, what session impacted you the most? Who was the speaker and how can you apply his message?

Dr. John Piper’s session Make War: The Pastor and His People in the Battle Against Sin was the most impactful message of the conference for me. One quote in particular stuck out to me:

All human suffering, especially the suffering of the Son of God, is meant by God to portray, for dull souls like ours, the unimaginable ugliness and offensiveness of sin — That’s why God subjected the world to this horrible futility (Romans 8:20) — to make plain how ugly and offensive sin is.

I was reminded of how dim my view of sin is. Each day is given to allow us to see the wretchedness and insanity of sin specifically in our hearts. We cannot take sin seriously until we see it for what it is and we can only see it for what it is when we see it in light of God’s holiness. We cannot go into the violent war against sin without a proper view of God’s holiness. Without this view we are blind. In fact, without this view of the holiness of God we are not even fighting. I left with a renewed desperation for God to show me the ugliness and offensiveness of my sin. May the slightest bend of my heart towards self be repulsive to me as it is to God.

Pastor Steve, what was the most memorable moment of this trip?

The friendship we developed with the taxi drive who picked us up from the airport who we found out was a fellow brother in Christ. We called him later and invited him to dinner where he shared his testimony with us.

Jared, why would you consider conferences like these vital to church pastors?

Even Jesus needed times of silence and aloneness with God the Father away from the crowds and chaos. “And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone” Matthew 14:23. My natural rhythm as a man is to be constantly on the go, constantly doing. Pastors especially need to “be still and know that he is God”. We must acknowledge our desperate need for him in life and ministry. Conferences and retreats are vital for pastors to deliberately carve out multiple days throughout the year to seek the face of God for vision and clarity amongst the chaos that comes with ministry.

Kameish, while the Pastoral Team was out, what did you do to get renewed and revived??

We had some much needed time of fun (nails!), relaxation (movie night!), bonding (Barnes & Noble), AND digging into the Word! Nedra took us through an introspective study on the Book of James, especially viewing ministry life through the lens of Biblical truth. I most significantly recall the correlation made between James 1:11 and 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, a reminder that any works not done purely for Christ will be burned. It was certainly a time that allowed me to refocus my energies and the priorities of my heart.”

Meet our Intern: Kaylee Capps

Meet Kaylee. She’s a joyful and energetic student who is serving as an intern at Oasis with the Student Ministry and Mobilization Team. Here’s a chance to get to know her better:

What is the thing that sold you on deciding to intern at Oasis?

Definitely the community feel when you walk in… everyone’s family and they totally accept you.

What surprises most people about you?

They think I’m quiet and shy but then I come out of my shell and I’m outgoing and like to dance.

If you had to be alone on a deserted island with one person you’ve met at Oasis who would it be and why?

Kameish. I feel like she would conjure up a plan and we’d get off the island some how… she wouldn’t be able to stay there long… she looks like she could build a boat.

Do you own any Camo?

I don’t think so… I think it’s the only pattern I don’t own… I’m accepting donations.

Oasis: Behind the scenes

As you can imagine, there is a lot of work that goes into maintaining the church property that God has blessed us with. This week starts off with a little fresh paint and organization.

Shout out to Daniel for helping us get that fresh paint up!

Nedra stopped by to give us a helping hand

Amado, hard at work as usual

Even our littlest volunteer was getting in on the action