Alaska

Wow, for those of you who don't know, I will be going to Alaska on Aug 11th and coming back on Aug 16th. Charisa Nicholas and I will be going up there to visit her parents church and I am pretty excited about it. I have never been to Alaska and I have always wanted to go. I am really blessed, the two states I most wanted to visit, Alaska and Montana, I will have visited this summer.

I also heard that I am speaking at the 8:30 church service in Ketchikan. Charisa and I are even in the church bulletins already.

Wait, hold on, ME???

I have never been asked to speak at a church before and somehow I don't think it will be the last time. Usually when I get to do stuff like speak or lead worship, it is at PSCC Youth and there it seems sometimes that I am kind of the last resort.
Oh, no one else can do it, so we will ask Samuel.

It really blesses me to have been asked to speak somewhere, it means that they want me to and that they are waiting to hear what I have to say. I don't know why, but I have some self-confidence issues about being in front of people. I keep waiting for someone to say,

Stop Samuel, you actually don't know what you are talking about.

Call it irrational fear or whatever you want, I like to think of it as my wanting to please everyone and have them like me. I know that this is not the right thing to be feeling or to think about, but it is there. But to be asked, speaks to my heart and really goes a long way toward lessening that fear. I am very blessed to fly to Alaska and I want to bless them as well.

Bruce Clapp, my intership host Dad in Aberdeen asked me if I would consider coming back out to Aberdeen to lead worship for them. That also really blesses me. I am not an incredibly confident musician and Aberdeen has been a really challenging place for me to lead, because I would try and do it out of God's plan. To be asked to come out and lead suggests that they trust me in music and in worship, which is nice. I always hear that God has a timing for everything and I guess that I am starting to see that.

So pray for me as I embark on this adventure, God only knows where it will go.