Leadership Equipping
"That's not food!" said my new apartment buddy as I showed him the macaroni and cheese in my cupboard. As an organic health expert, he came to teach on our campus to students in Saint Marc about organics and proper nutrition. He's sharing my apartment while he's here. In the morning he shares fruit smoothies with me which are packed with organic green foods. Turns out cornflakes and milk is not a nutritious meal, despite the vitamins displayed on the box. I've decided to buy a good-quality blender and make my own green fruit smoothies when he leaves. I've been getting sick a lot and I think it's because of the food I am eating. God doesn't want a fatigued, unhealthy church! (and by the way, the Mac and Cheese is my plan B stuff, I know it's not nutritious)
Before my organic friend came to stay with me, Bradly Vater from New Joy, Pennsylvania stayed here for 7 days to teach a seminar. I had filmed his outreach team back in March. He sent the video to one of his non-Christian supporters and the response to it, he says, has been nothing. Brad's always gotten responses to his Christian beliefs from this guy in the forms of counter-arguments and reasons why the church aught to go. Brad was so happy to have something to show, and the fact this guy has not responded yet, Brad believes, is because something has hit home. I was thankful to know what I was giving to those who have no clue what it means to be in missions.
Message of the Month: Hot or Not
Now I'm able to do more with a new Macbook Pro that came in early August. It's allowing me to blaze through projects which would have taken weeks (such as the DTS promo!) One of those projects was another wedding I was hired to film, the third one this year! The Christian couple, Philipson & Kelsea, held a pure relationship and serve as an example to their local community in Montrois. Capturing their beautiful wedding was a way to bless their right choices and promote more of it to those who the couple plan to share their wedding DVD with. Sorry, I can't post it to the public just yet!
Every monday, all the men on our campus gather together to have jokes, laugh, and enter into serious discussion about our Christian lifestyle. A few Mondays ago we got into the hype around missions.
Non-profits want to look like they have the hottest gigs. They compete for supporters and sway with the emotional trends of the world. Africa has become a hotspot many times, and when God has called people to, say, Puerto Rico, church pastors have a hard time promoting the support of such a not-so-hot location. Haiti was a hotspot in 2010, but it's not anymore. Those who sway with the emotional hype are not the kind of people to stick around when your work becomes drab. Kingdom work, like all work, does have it's tough, long, boring parts and it needs stable people to stick with it. YWAM Haiti was birthed out of a hype from several great missionaries, but it's taken 20 years to reach where it is, and only because some people, such as my dad, held through those tough, drab times. Without them, YWAM wouldn't have had access to Saint Marc in 2010 when the earthquake made Haiti the hottest spot for missions for a short time. There are lots of other missions out there with good, honest foundations in need of the support of those not into what is just 'hot'.
I want to say thank you to those who've held on to supporting the not-so-exciting times of our mission, and of my life. You're not giving to hype, your seeing the individual and God's calling. Jesus's faith wasn't in the works of his disciples, but the discipleship of their hearts. As for me, I've made the decision to start focusing on all matters of missionary work in my video updates, not just the ones that create 'hype'. That means looking more into the people involved and the discipleship happening. They are what matter, and for many of you, they are the people you are investing in!
I'm attending the Caribbean Equip happening from September 15-October 20th. It's leadership development and ministry pioneering skills, both which I need to plant my vision of a filmmaking team. Between my videos projects and my computer crashing with all my teaching notes, I've not been able to pioneer that team yet. Maybe God wanted me to attend this school first? I know that as I've rebuilt my teaching notes from scratch, they are becoming more uniquely Christian. Re-assembling all that work has caused me to focus on putting Christianity into the filmmaking, and not just teaching it. I can't say when teaching sessions will start, but I'll be having them for people in the city who show a desire for Christian television, and might want to link up with YWAM in the future.
I travelled to Lancaster, Pennsylvania on September 13 to attend YWAM Haiti's 8th Annual Benefit Banquet. I often attend these banquets to build slideshows & videos for the speakers, but also re-connect with ECC church where I am launched from. This years banquet had the best turn-out ever with over 400 people. There was some very powerful words spoken by my brother concerning the past, present & future of the mission due to the two DTS schools and several building projects happening in 2014. I felt re-energized by listening to him!
Want to Give?
You can use paypal in the footer or write a tax deductible receipt to YWAM Haiti and send it to the address below. Include a seperate note in the envelope designating the funds for "Kristian Snow".
YWAM Haiti
PO BOX 236
Akron, PA 17522