Carried to Completion (April 2012): Spring in Nashville

For He started a good work, He will carry unto completion! 

Howdy! Hope your spring is going great. 

 We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves here in Nashville. April was a very fruitful month.

 God is definitely moving and has His hand on us here in Nashville. The year couldn’t be off to a better start and we are expecting some great things from God this year. 

Good Friday Baptism: 

 What a powerful night. This was our first time as a church to have a separate baptism day. It was great seeing young people committing their lives to the Lord. 

 Easter Sunday: 

 We had a great Easter Celebration and we were able to bring a couple of local hip-hop artists to come perform. We had an absolute blast! 

New Orleans: 

 I was invited to speak at a youth camp in New Orleans. I decided to take some of our youth with me. We had the best time. 

 It was great to meet new friends and seeing our kids build such strong relationships with the students from New Orleans. We had so much fun playing games, dancing, rapping, but most importantly experience a move of God. 

 It was great seeing our students ministering and sharing their testimonies. This was truly an experience that we will never forget. 

Baja, Mexico:

 Finally, we are taking a group of our students to Baja, Mexico this summer for a missions trip. We are in the process of raising funds for this trip.

 Samantha and I need to raise $4000 between the both of us. If you want more information on how to support us, please click here.

Thank you for all your love, prayers, and support.

We love you, 
Rob and Samantha

Carried to Completion (March 2012): Unity in Diversity

Things are moving along well here in Nashville. Spring is here and it is absolutely gorgeous. We absolutely love it!

This month went by in a blur.  After coming back from our trip to New York, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Baltimore, and Washington D.C., we turned right around and brought a team to Campus Harvest.  

Not only did we do that, Samantha's mother and sister came to visit from the Philippines.  I absolutely love my in-laws and I think I have officially gained 10 pounds this past month.

CAMPUS HARVEST (RALEIGH/DURHAM)

It was really powerful!

We piled up in a 15-passenger van and had a nice road trip.  We had a great mix of people and was really blessed by the diversity of our group.

Not only was there diversity but there was a strong unity as well.  It was really like one big family.

 UNITY IN DIVERSITY!

There was one kid that we brought that I wasn't so sure of.  He didn't even know where he was going.

Kareem is a young man who I never really that much time with.  He lives with his uncle (Spencer Richardson), who is a good friend of mine. 

Coach Spencer recently surrendered his life to the Lord and is on fire for Him!  He told Kareem to pack up his clothes and he was going out of town.

We met at 4:00 am and Kareem was asleep and very quiet.  About 3 hours in the trip, he asked everyone what is Campus Harvest and where are we going :-)

Everyone was shocked! It was hilarious.

Needless to say Kareem was the life of the party and had a great time.  He has never been around Christians his age who were on fire for the Lord.  

He was so blessed and the first night he responded to the Gospel.

There were a couple thousand of college students from different parts of the states.  There was so much energy.  

Worship was strong and anointed.  I was so blessed seeing my friend Jon Owens lead with such passion like always. 

 Late last year he lost his precious baby girl.  They still aren't quite sure what happened; she just never woke up in her crib.  Seeing people like him who faced that much tragedy respond with faith and perseverance inspires me so much.

Preaching was powerful! It was good to hear people who were touched at Campus Harvest now on stage preaching.

The second night the spirit of God fell.  Here is clip to give you a glimpse.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8BWV6Eoe14  

This went on for more than 10 minutes.  It was POWERFUL!

One of the girls Madeline Moore who came with us last minute wanted to get baptized.  She said she was water baptized as a little girl, but wanted to make her own decision to so.  

FAMILY FROM THE PHILIPPINES

There is nothing like family.  We had such a great time together, and I know I gained about 10 pounds while they were here :-)

They came to visit for a month.

ANSWERED PRAYERS  

For about 3 years Samantha has been praying that all of her family will be able to reunite and visit Samantha's grandmother.  She stays in a nursing home and to be honest wasn't sure how much longer she was going to have.  They were all able to meet up in Atlanta and visit :-)

So much is happening here in Nashville.  We are gearing up for the summer and I can just feel what God is going to do.

Thank you for partnering with us, we can't do it without you.

Much Love,

Robert and Samantha


If you would like to be a partner of what God has called us to do in the youth in Nashville, please click here.

Carried to Completion (February 2012): Acquire the Fire

"Jesus did not come to make bad people good, but dead people come alive."  

Ron Luce

What Ron Luce was referring to was the human heart.  God wants to resurrect dead hearts.  This past month we did a lot of preparation for Acquire the Fire Conference.

RUSH Youth Movement brought 140 people to the conference.  120+ were students it was pretty much split down the middle between its two congregations: Brentwood and Franklin.

It was a lot of hard work coordinating everything, but things went really well.

Here is a brief recap on what took place:

Friday Night

We met up at Bethel Brentwood, got checked in, hopped into a couple of school buses and vans.  We were on our way to the Municipal Auditorium.

Worship

School of Worship led it, and The Afters had a concert afterwards.  It was annointed.

Skit

The skit was a 3-part series that kept everyone wanting more. It was performed Friday Night, Saturday Morning, and then Saturday Evening. It was compelling and powerful.

Word

Ron Luce, the guy who started Acquire the Fire, spoke on Friday Night, the word was powerful.  Many of our students responded to his invitation to give their lives to Christ.

Meet Sam, Cielo, and Ian

Both of these students came up front and I had the opportunity to pray with them.

Sam and his mother came to the conference.  Sam lost his father a few yeas ago, and has been struggling with the whole situation.  We shared a powerful moment together, which resulted in tears in thanksgiving.

Cielo was a kid who came last minute and was sponsored by a one of our church members.  He received Christ as his Lord and Savior of Friday Night.  

Ian was also sponsored to come to the conference.  He did not want to come for the longest time, but I believe the Holy Spirit prompted him to go.  He surrendered his heart to Christ as well.  

There were many other stories on Friday Night, and it couldn't have gone any better.  God moved powerfully, and it was only the beginning.

We got back about 11:00 pm. Everyone was exhausted.

Saturday

Call time was 7:00 am for the students.  We asked all the leaders to get there at 6:15 am for prayer.

We had breakfast and snacks for everyone.  The morning went pretty flawless.  Although people were tired, the energy level was quite high.

The morning session was powerful.

Lunch
A friend of mine named Wes volunteered to grill for us and we enjoyed lunch at Bicentennial Mall.  During lunch we had everyone get into their assigned groups with their leaders and discuss what God was doing in their hearts.  It was great to see everyone fully engaged and enjoying the discussion.

Shonlock
After an anointed afternoon session, Shonlock had a concert.  He was amazing and everyone was absolutely loved it.  Followed by Chik-Fil-A together for our final dinner.

Overall the experience was great.  We had an incredible team to help make it all possible.

Due to the generosity of so many people we were able to sponsor 20 people.  Thank you so much to all who gave.

We look forward to partnering with Acquire The Fire every year.  They do a phenomenal job!


Vision Night
The Sunday after Acquire the Fire we had Vision Night.   So we invited the parents to see and hear what we have been doing at RUSH.

Several students shared their testimonies.  And had a powerful moment with just the parents afterwards.

Road Trip!
We just celebrated our 5th Year Anniversary!

Acquire the Fire fell on Samantha's birthday and our 5th year anniversary.  When we first thought about partnering with ATF I wasn't sure how she was going to react.

But being the selfless woman that she is, she decided there was no better way to celebrate it than with the youth.

We went on a road trip for 10 days in New York and through the East Coast.  A dear family blessed us with a hotel stay in Times Square.  It was our first time to go together and we had an incredible time.

God is so good!

Thank you for partnering with us.  We truly are humbled to be able to do what we are doing.  Together we are strong!

Love You,
Rob and Samantha


If you would like to be a part of what God has called us to do with the youth in Nashville, please click here. Together we are making a difference!

Carried to Completion (January 2012): "I am about to do something new ..."

2012 is here and we can't be more excited.  The verse that God has put on our hearts that we claim not only for ourselves but for you as well is from Isaiah 43:19:

"See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland."

We brought in the new year in Jacksonville, Florida with my family.  My parents drove down from Nebraska, and then we drove to Jacksonville to see my sister and her family.  It couldn't have gone better.

How did you bring in the new year?

We are so thrilled of what God is going to do here in Nashville this year.  As much as God did last year, I feel that it was all preparation for this year. 

Here is a recap of what took place in January 2012.

Albuquerque, NM
We were able to go to the beautiful city of Albuquerque to witness and be a part of beautiful wedding.  Mark and Shirlena are like family to us and I was honored to be asked to be one of his groomsmen.

Samantha looked absolutely stunning at the wedding, I don't know why God blessed me with such a beautiful wife... but I sure am not complaining:-)

RUSH Franklin
I invited Pastor Greg Wark to share and kick off our year.  Pastor Greg is the founder of Stop Child Trafficking Now.  He is also the president of Force Ministries, which is a ministry that works closely with the military, primary with special forces and Navy Seals.

We felt inspired and challenged.  It was a great night.

Pastor Greg launched our Breaking Good sermon series and that has been amazing.

Annual Prayer and Fasting

We started the year off with a week-long prayer and fasting.  We had prayer meetings every night at the church.It was amazing seeing the breakthrough in many peoples lives.  Especially among the youth.

It was so inspiring to see the students wanting to participate. Some fasting food and meals, others fasting television, social media, and video games.  It was so great seeing their hunger for God.  One Wednesday night in particular, there was a lot of personal breakthrough.  It brought tears to my eyes seeing God restoring relationships in families, especially among siblings.  It was powerful!

D3 Groups
We launched our D3 groups which is our small groups.  We truly believe with all our hearts, that one of the best ways to develop spiritual growth is in a small group setting.

The students have been extremely responsive.  We already have 6 high school groups and 2 middle school groups that are meeting weekly.

Sports Ministry
God has opened up doors for me to do more coaching and personal training.  Last year I helped coach an AAU team and worked with many others student-athletes.
.
God has put it on my heart to continue to use the gift of basketball, to be able to help teach, coach, and mentor the next generation.  We are currently holding a free basketball clinic, on Monday afternoons for elementary age children.  We also have devotionals before every practice.

We will slowly add middle and high school student-athletes. We are now having talks of having an Every Nation Sports Camp this summer.

On a personal note:
During our January fast, I asked God to search my heart to see if there was anything there that would not be honoring to Him. He did. One of the areas has to do with confidence in raising financial support.

We must strengthen our team, and we do need your help. Our biggest need at the moment is monthly partners. God has put it on our hearts to invite people to join our team at $10 a month.  We have set a goal to have 100 new people by April.

Will you join our team?


Thank you for all your love and support. This year is going to be amazing!

Please let us know how we can be praying for you specifically.

We love you so much,

Rob and Samantha




If you would like to know how to join our team, please click here.