Beach hangout was a blast!

Even though tons of people couldn’t be there, and we all rushed to get there, and we almost got poured on, it held off and we managed to have super fun time of reflection on God and what He wants to do with our lives, swimming in the ocean, floating on the green dragon, watching Olivia fall flat on her face and eat some serious sand, and laughed at Rachel falling off the dune and busting her behind, and a super fun game of beach soccer. We’ll all be too sore to get out of bed tomorrow, but it was worth every second!

By popular demand we will be scheduling another one before the summer is over! And next time folks we’ll plan it for 1 instead of 5. Three hours of fun in the sun just isn’t enough for this crazy crowd. We will also grill hotdogs and have drinks for everyone!

We’ve had some crazy fun, now let’s go serve. Stay tuned for details on our next AXIS excursion to feed and minister to the homeless locally. More info. to come in a week or two!

Afternoon On The Beach

View invitation here!

Host: Anthony & Rachel Rowell
Location: Wrightsville Beach South End
S. Lumina Avenue, Wrightsville Beach, NC US

When: Sat. August 9th from 5 p.m. until sun set!

Phone: 470-0948 or 470-0947
Come join us for a fun-filled, afternoon hangout at the beach!

Bring your own chairs, coolers with drinks and food!

It’s gonna be a blast!

* Women, bathing suits are just fine to wear. Just please be mindful that we will all be in mixed company and dress appropriately. Thanks!

** Don’t forget change for parking! However, you only have to pay for parking until 6 p.m. After that time the meters are no longer enforced. Parking is $1.50 an hour.**

DIRECTIONS:

After you cross the Wrightsville Beach bridge, stay straight. When you come the the fork, do not veer to the left. Stay straight.

Go all the way to the end and you will arrive at the stop-light.

Turn Rt. onto Waynick Blvd. Stay on it and it will sharp curve to the right.

Turn right onto S. Lumina Avenue and follow it all the way to the end. That’s where we’ll be. You should see a long street of parking meters. Park there. We will be at the access with the gazebo.

THIS is our heart.

James 1:27 N.L.T. - Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

THIS is our heart. This is the calling. To let them know, HE is on their side.

 

The orphan clings to Your hand
Singing the song of how he was found
The widow rejoices
For her oppressors are silenced now

You sit at the table with the wounded and the poor
You laugh and share stories with the thief and the whore
When You could just be silent and leave us here to die
Still, You sent Your Son for us
You are on our side

The runaway falls at Your feet
You are what he has searched for
The rich man is broken
When he stands beneath a sky full of stars

You sit at the table with the wounded and the poor
You laugh and share stories with the thief and the whore
When You could just be silent and leave us here to die
Still, You sent Your Son for us
You are on our side

You sit at the table with the wounded and the poor
You laugh and share stories with the thief and the whore
When You could just be silent and leave us here to die
Still, You sent Your Son for us
You are on our side

Still, You sent Your Son for us
You are on our side

 

Just Another “Other”

        

The story of Josh continues on….. Today, once again because God loves him so much, He had sent people into his life weeks ago that loved Him all the way into His arms; Josh accepted Christ into His life. There are no fancy words that can rightly put into perspective the amazingness of what has happened, and none are needed.

I can say that I am so proud of the people in AXIS that have devoted themselves to looking past a person’s faults and simply loving them for who they are because that’s what Christ taught us to do.

Living for self is a worthless life. If you are a true follower of Christ, inside you there are “others”. And then others inside your others…and so on. Everyone you impact for Christ is your “others”, and everyone they impact are also your “others”.

I can’t help but have overwhelming joy in knowing that Josh is one of our others. And there will be others.

What It’s All About

      

Meet Josh. Josh is a new guy at AXIS, our small group ministry. This is just another story telling of an amazing God and how he loves us so much that He goes to the ends of the earth to find ways to reach us when we’re sinking and going down.

Josh came to AXIS thinking it was just something fun to do on a Saturday night, and to hang out with some people he didn’t even know. What he really didn’t know, was that there was a God so in love with him, He had set up, unknowingly to Josh, a divine appointment with His love through the people who follow Him.

I personally had never met Josh before in my life. But the moment he walked through the door of our home I knew that this was a young man with a life filled with pain, disappointment, anger, and hurt. Through his laughter, magnetic personality, and kind nature; in his eyes I could see these things staring back at me.

We had watched the video on baggage, and as the group discussion was hitting it’s peak, I wondered how he was taking it all in, ….if he was even taking it in at all. As soon as I opened the topic up for group discussion for everyone to share their hearts, he was among the first to pour out his soul. And I mean, literally pour out his soul he did. He explained the horrifying set of circumstances that this young man of 24 years old had already lived through. Just to name a few, at 16 he saw his older brother murdered right in front of him, he’s been emprisoned, he cleaned up the scene where his father committed suicide just last year, and was raised in literal poverty with 11 other siblings in a two bedroom house with a space-heater for heat, and is currently the main supporter of his mother and other siblings in his father’s absence.

The first thing out of his mouth was. “I believe there is a God, but I know one thing. He’s not in control of my life. Why would a God that’s in control let me endure such horrible things? There’s no way He cares about me. You don’t understand what I’ve lived through. You have no idea of the hurt and baggage I carry around with me everyday of my life! I will never understand how God could let this happen to anyone, let alone me.”

As he spoke, my heart broke. Literally. For a moment, I could almost feel his pain. As he spoke, my eyes filled with tears and this thought was running through my head like a CD that was skipping on repeat. “What do I tell him? What do I tell Him? What do I tell Him”? And then this. “Tell Him that I Love Him. Tell Him that I Love Him. Tell Him that I’m deperately in love with Him.”

I said, “Josh, I’m not even going to pretend to know the hurt you live with. And I completely understand how and why you would feel the way you do about it all. That is logical thinking. But I need to tell you that no matter what you feel, it doesn’t void out the truth. And the truth is, God loves you more than you can imagine, and HE IS in control of your life whether you believe it or not. You know, the Bible says that God will not put more on us than we can bear, and He must think you’re a pretty amazing person that could handle all that you’ve been through. He wants to take your pain, and make it beautiful. He wants to take your hurt and use it to bring you to Himself. He wants to take your brokenness and make you whole. He wants to take your life because of what you’ve been through, and make it a reflection of what He can do through a shattered life. You can reach so many more people than I can because you can look at them and say, I’ve been there. I know what you’re going through, and I am a living testimony to God’s grace and love.”

I told Him that I wasn’t asking Him to understand it all that night. God is much more complex than our human minds can wrap around. And when we try, we will fail. I said, “Josh, I’m asking you to do three things right now. First, to try to realize how much God loves you. -(That’s the toughest one) Secondly, to realize that we’ve all screwed up big time and are in need of His mercy. Last, to just open up yourself to a God that you cannot understand and just watch and see what He can and will do with your life.” He shook his head and said, “I can do that….yeah, I’ll do that.”

Huge seeds were planted in his soul that night. And somehow I don’t think God is finished with Josh. I think he has an unbelievably bright future to look forward to.  He left that night with a huge smile on his face, a hug, and said that he was so glad he came, and would definitely be back from now on, that this definitely had to be of God because it was like we knew his life and what he desperately needed to hear, and that he knew it was just time for a change. I still haven’t gotten over the awesomeness of that first night with Josh. He already feels so endeared to us.

Ya know. What we do doesn’t have to be fireworks. It just needs to be real. After all, what happened to Josh is what it’s all about.

TO BE CONTINUED………

 

Getting Rid Of Baggage

So many people are burdened with a load of emotional “Baggage.” You know what “Baggage” is–it’s the stuff from your past that you carry around in your soul. It’s the words people said and the things people did that still haunt your mind and seem to limit your potential. It weighs you down. It crowds your relationships. It causes you to stumble through life.

God wants to take the “Baggage” off your shoulders so you can be free from its bondage forever. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:2 The Lord invites you to come to Him and “check” your baggage once and for all.

In this series you will learn how to rid your life of the emotional pain, generational curses, and addictive habits that come with “Baggage.” God is going to take the load of guilt, fear, and regret off your back. You will never be the same.

This is a three part series at AXIS beginning Saturday, May 24th at 6 p.m. Come and join us. And ”check” your baggage forever. 

 

 

 

Mirroring Him in our brokenness

At AXIS this past weekend, we as a group learned and discussed an incredibly life-changing truth.  We learned that the point at which a piece of glass breaks in called the mirror. So we discovered that in our brokenness, Christ is mirrored in every break. There are so many people walking around broken, or with broken pasts that hold them back from being all that Christ intended for them to be simply because they feel that their brokenness somehow makes them unusable to God. In fact, the opposite is true. Each broken area is another opportunity for Christ to be reflected or mirrored in our lives. Is this not amazing?

 In the light of this study, we all stopped and examine our lives. Has the brokenness in us been an opportunity for Christ to be reflected? Have we allowed Him to fill in the cracks and bring about wholeness with the image of Him? The purpose of a mirror is not to become the image, but simply to reflect it. After all, we were created in His image. Which means that our lives should be a pure reflection of the image of the Father. I believe God loves to show Himself through broken things. He is glorified when what was broken is made whole and complete, and then is a relection of Him.

Picture of service

At last night’s AXIS meeting we began a study on knowing and having a heart after Gods. We learned that one of the major things at the heart of God is service. John 13 & Luke 7. Christ demonstrated this himself by washing the disciple’s feet. So last night, Anthony demonstrated this by washing others feet. This was intended to be an example to us on what kind of attitude and heart we should have towards others. We learned that it’s not about the actual act of washing another’s feet that is significant, but rather the attitude of service that one must have to kneel down in front of someone and wash their feet.

We also watched and discussed the video below. This embodies a Father’s amazing love for his son and his attitude of service that is at the very forefront of their relationship. We noted how obvious it is in this video that this father basically laid aside himself and his comfort just to serve his son and give him a life he could never have had otherwise. And how it came naturally, out of his immense love for him. It wasn’t really even something he had to think about, it simply flowed out of pure love.  Just like our Father has for us, and then commands us to have for one another as His disciples. This video is to us, such a representation of God’s love for us and how He loved us so much that He laid His life down so that we, in our frail state, could be free. And we could WIN, depite our weakness.

It left us all challenged to begin to implement this character of Christ’s heart into our own daily lives so that we can be more worthy of the title “followers of Christ.”

” We have not truly learned what it means to love like Jesus until we can lay aside ourselves simply to serve others. There is no greater demonstration than this.”

 

New AXIS group study: Experiencing the Heart Of Jesus….

We are excited to announce that we are beginning a new study together as a group at our next AXIS on Sat. April 19th 6-8 p.m!

 It’s Max Lucado’s: Experiencing The Heart Of Jesus. Knowing His Heart, Feeling His Love. We have throroughly studied the workbook and believe that the in-depth group studies on topics such as: Experiencing the Care of Jesus,  Experiencing the Grace of Jesus, Experiencing the Freedom of Jesus, Experiencing the Power of Jesus, Experiencing the Hope of Jesus and many more will equip us a group of people desiring to more fully understand and know what is the heart of Jesus.

What is it that He carries within his heart that we as His children should know and understand and also carry within our own? If He uses us to minister to those He desires to reach, we believe that it is essential that we contain the same attributes and burdens that our Father does so that we can in turn use it to help us most effectively minister to a dying world so badly in need of the Love of Jesus being taken to where they are.

 Come ready to experience the heart of our Father together and share what’s within your own.

They’re out on the ocean floor.

 Please read the previous blog posting before viewing this video so you will understand it better. Be sure your computer’s speakers are on.

Anthony and I made this video to represent what happened to the sins and struggles that the people nailed to the cross in the previous blog posting. We showed this at our second AXIS meeting. It’s impact was and is HUGE!

 Special thanks to The Rock Of Wilmington  for the inspiration!

Nailing it to the cross.

AXIS kickoff meeting was nothing less than awesome!! It was everything and more than we expected. Although we have to admit we had no clue what to expect. We had a packed out house. All of which, (except one couple) were people not currently attending church anywhere. That is the awesome part. We are reaching people outside of the four walls of a church.

People of all ages, adults, teenagers, and children came together simply to enjoy some great fellowship, create new relationships, learn  how to make Christ the AXIS of our lives so that everything centers around Him and everything we are and do revolves around him, and learn how He has called us all to be His disciples with one purpose. Reaching our world for Christ.

Because our intention is to eventually go out and minister together, we are starting the ministry from the inside out. And because tomorrow is Easter. At the end of the lesson time we did something very symbolic. Everyone was handed a piece of black paper to write down sins or struggles that they wanted their lives to be rid of and nail them to the cross. It was so powerful to watch this group of people nailing their list to, what represented for us, the cross of Christ. You could literally see the intensity in some of their faces as they pounded theirs into the piece of wood. Even though symbolic in one sense, I believe that it really was done in a literal sense. A group of people truly walked out this first meeting with a clean slate and a fresh start. Ready to begin and awaken their walk with Christ with the cleansing power of Christ and what He did for us on the cross that day. That is unbelievably awesome, and that is what it’s all about.

And So, The Journey Begins.

The other day we ministered to our first people in need. We knew about some people that were living in a concrete floor, one room, abandoned store front that they had petitioned off rooms with curtains for privacy. We took boxes of food and clothes to them. I had contacted another non-profit ministry that sells consignment items in order to raise money to help those truly in need. I contacted them simply to ask them about used clothing that we wanted to purchase from them for these people. The next day this organization  showed up at our house with boxes and boxes of food and clothes for people in need that they had never even met.

Wow! I was and am in awe of how God could bring together Christians who don’t necessarily even share the same beliefs on the “non-important” details of Christianity, but who have the same heart. The heart of God. They too are a part of those who desire to show others His love through His people simply by meeting their physical needs and creating loving relationships with the intention of bringing God to their world and meeting their greatest need, their spiritual need.

To make a long story short. The whole experience was life-changing. Life-changing in many ways. But specifically to affirm that those kinds of places, with those kinds of people, is where we belong. Standing in that dilapidated, abandoned, old building with all the belongings of three people huddled in one room, just talking, laughing, listening to and loving them. Never could we have felt more at home. People say that God’s house is the church building. I used to think that. Now I think God’s house could be anywhere, I think it’s wherever people that He loves live.

No applause, recognition, or fancy title could have given us the feeling we had inside as we drove away that day. We left knowing that we had just begun to do what it’s really all about. To live out the whole reason God saved us in the first place, to fulfill the Great Commission. He didn’t save us for us, He saved us for HIS glory!

So Much To Do, So Little Time.

Four days left until AXIS launch time and we couldn’t be more excited….or scared!!! We open our eyes in the morning and close them at night with one thing on our minds. Launching this new ministry, helping people grow in their everyday walk with God, and most of all, reaching people for Him through it. As we sat across the dinner table from each other this evening, Anthony reminded me that is was getting close. (As if I didn’t already know.) We gave each other that scared, (can’t believe we’re actually gonna do it), yet hopeful, excited (God’s gonna do something big through this) smile.  I saw passion in his eyes. Passion that is driving us just to touch people’s lives and make a difference in our world. However, anyone who knows Anthony, knows this is not a surprising thing. Yet thisis so out of the box (for us anyways) yet so honestly needed. We have hidden behind the four walls of the church “building” long enough. God is saying, it’s time to get up and do something, to get out there and put our faith in action. To begin our journey to fulfilling, The Great Commission. So in keeping with my committment to chronicle the journey, I list the things in progress, and still needed to be done. Here goes:

• Pray, pray, pray. Seek direction for the journey.  Ya’ can’t lead if ya’ can’t follow.
• Study. Read books with specific wisdom, ideas, and tips on how to evangelize and disciple effectively.
• Find people to be accountable to and get Godly input from.
• Plan
• Advertise
• Create and make communication materials for meetings.
• Send off business (ministry) card design to be printed and laminated.
• Finish buying supplies….I say finish, that could be a never ending task.
• Contact organizations to inquire about how to reach out to the needy and find where they are.
• Scan the city for homeless, needy, orphans, and widows to create relationships with. (So that we can show them Christ’s love)…to be done next week.
• Prepare to share our testimony and vision at first meeting.
• Find out from the people who come where they’re at. What’s going on in their lives and world. What kinds of things they are interested in learning more about.
• Plan and prepare food for we don’t know how many people.
• Prepare to care for and minister to the small kids that come with their parents.
• Create calendar of meeting dates. Two meetings a month is the immediate need.
• Find chairs, chairs, and more chairs…..more square footage would be a plus also. 
• Send out reminders for kickoff meeting.
• Lastly in all our hurriedness, refer to the top of the list. 

We may not feel ready, in fact we may feel unprepared. Nevertheless, God is calling us to be disciples.

Who Will Go?

              

Here is where we will describe to you the foundational basis of our ministry. Reaching people. This is the fire that’s burning in our spirits. It’s just gotta be done. No questions asked. Whoever they are, whatever their ages, whatever they look like, wherever they’ve come from. People are crying out for help and the churches today are not answering their cries. It’s a shame really. But somehow, the whole purpose behind the church today is slipping away. Jesus told His disciples before he left to go and establish the church, which is one body made up of many members, working together to reach people for Christ. But is this what we’re doing? Or are we sitting there hoping they’ll find their way to us. Instead many times churches turn themselves into only an incubator for ”Christians” that have been saved for years upon years, stuffing them until their fat with head knowledge and religion. Sadly, those same people lack the foundational evidences of spiritual maturity and sometimes even salvation.

So who will go? Who will go out and find these people, bring them in, love them all the way to the only one who can heal their pain, rescue their soul, and free them from their chains? We obviously can’t sit around waiting for the church to start some kind of organization to do it.  We simply cannot pass the buck off and blame the church for falling short, because WE ARE the church,  WE ARE the body of Christ. The church is not four walls and a name. What’s wrong with us? Why aren’t we capable? The Bible never says one must be prompted, and sent out by a church simply to minister. The fact is, we are all called to be ministers. And if we’re not doing it, we’re failing. Let’s get up and do something. Time is running out. we don’t have time to sit around decided if we should or shouldn’t, or all the what if’s. What if it doesn’t work, what if someone gets offended, what if, what if, what if?? While we’re fighting, they are dying. Does anybody even care? God depends on us to show them the way. How will they hear, how will they know if we don’t shout it out? They won’t. And their blood will be on our hands. 

We for one refuse to be part of that number. With or without them, we’re standing our ground. We don’t ask….we go! We go because we have no choice. Come on people, let’s stop joking around and playing our silly little games. Who’s going with us? Who will reach them? …Will you?

Our Passion

                     

 Well, here it comes. AXIS Ministries. The calling the God has placed on our lives is coming to life. For the longest time we have both known what it is that we’re called to do together. Not what we want to do, what we’re good at, what will give us a name, but what we are called to do. We have the calling, we have the vision, we have the plan, but do we have the ability? Is the question we keep asking ourselves. The vision has been set, the plans have been made, the advertising is in the works and on it’s way to being done.  So today, I sat  staring at the door, imagining the faces of people, young and old that would walk through it. I saw them filling the house past capacity. Saved and unsaved. Young people, adults, homeless, hurting, lonely, desperate for answers,  some who won’t have a clue why they came all they know is that they came searching for something. Anything. A change. Something to take away their pain. Something to change their life. Someone to love them and show them there is a way out of the hole they’ve been living in. That there is a light at the end of the tunnel. As I imagined the faces streaming in, tears filled my eyes as I thought, “God, how will we do this?” We can’t do this without you.” If you will send them,  lead us, and equip us, we WILL show them the way.” However, we realize that this whole thing is waaaay bigger than us. But we know, that it is not bigger than God.

The anticipation that overwhelms our spirits when we realize what God could do through this can’t be described. The lives that will be saved and reached. The broken spirits that will be healed. The growth that will occur. The people that will be reached. There’s a gigantic ocean of people out there, yes, even in this city just waiting for something. Not another church service,  or some super-spiritualistic experience where all their root issues just get polished over and made to look good on the surface for a while so they can “fit in” with another religious group. They are waiting for someone to show them the love of God by living it. Being real. Loving guidance, people who genuinely caring about who they are as a person. They are simply for looking for something REAL to hold on to. Something that will change their lives forever.

Yes, we realize that most are looking at us with blank stares as we share the burden for this ministry. Not many, even Christians understand. People have become over-absorbed in their own lives.  That’s one reason why we haven’t shared it with just anyone. However, it is not dependant upon others sharing or understanding the vision. It simply must be done. We will not be satisfied until it is. More importantly, neither will He.  It’s time that Christians stop playing church and get out there in their world and do something. Playing church never reaches anyone. We refuse to sit around not doing anything while there is a world of people all around us dying inside. What do we have to offer them? Realizing that no one can “change” another person. We can plant the seeds, give them love, give them hope,  show them Jesus….It’s up to Him to do the rest.

Some Inspiration

 I snagged this from a blog I just love. It’s Pastor Bryan McGee from THE ROCK of Wilmington.  It spoke to us and actually is what spurred us to take our calling off the back burner and just do it!  So I thought I’d pass it along. It’s very thought provoking.

In the book “Failing Forward” by: John Maxwell in chapter 11, he writes…

When it comes to taking risks, I believe there are two kinds of people: those who don’t dare try new things, and those who don’t dare miss them.

Don’t-Dare-Try-It People They resist opportunities. They rationalize their responsibilities. They rehearse impossibilities. They rain on enthusiasm. They review their inadequacies. They recoil at the failure of others. They reject the personal cost involved. They replace goals with pleasure. They rejoice that they have not failed. They rest before they finish. They resist leadership. They remain unchanged. They replay the problems. They rethink their commitment. They reverse their decision. Motto: I would rather try nothing great and succeed than try something great and risk failure.

Don’t-Dare-Miss-It People They find opportunities. They finish their responsibilities. They feed on impossibilities. They fan the flame of enthusiasm. They face their inadequacies. They figure out why others failed. They finance the cost into their lifestyle. They find pleasure in the goal. They fear futility, not failure. They finish before they rest. They follow leaders. They force change. They fish for solutions. They fulfill their commitments. They finalize their decision. Motto: I would rather try something great and fail than try nothing great and succeed.

Are you a “Don’t-Dare-Try-It” person or are you of the “Don’t-Dare-Miss-It” persuasion?

We chose, “Dont-Dare-Miss-It.”