Thoughts and Ideas from us in Atlantic

Listened to this sermon this week … one of the best I have...

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:40:09 -0500

Listened to this sermon this week … one of the best I have heard on this topic. thoughts? let’s here them.

Hey Everyone! I would like to take a moment to share with you regarding the door God has opened for...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:30:40 -0500

Hey Everyone!

I would like to take a moment to share with you regarding the door God has opened for me to be his hands and feet in Central America. On January 5th I will be Boarding a plane in Toronto, Ontario and heading to Guatemala to work with a local missionary named Pastor David. I am very excited to join with Pastor Davis in what he is doing there. Most people don’t know that Guatemala is the 6th worst country in the world for malnutrition. In response to this, Pastor David planted a church back in 1982 in one of the most remote poor and malnourished villages in Guatemala. When the church was planted in the village it was run by gangs. Because of the hunger and poverty in the area, children in the village join gangs as a means to survive. Some join gangs while they are still as young 8 years old. For many kids joining gangs is a way of getting food but for the gangs, kids are very useful for gun running, drug dealing and prostitution and in time, kidnapping and murder. Most men in the village were not living to see their 30th birthday.

After seeing the needs in the community, Pastor David and his small church started a small feeding program for the children of the community. Children could come and get a good meal 5 mornings per week. The program has been running strong now since 2002 and kids no longer have to join gangs to eat. In fact, over 250 kids are a part of the program that now provides basic needs like: school supplies, shoes, health care and clothing. They also provide after school tutoring, as well as computer, vocational and english training. The Kids also hear from the Bible on a daily basis in the program. Since the implementation of the feeding program, gang involvement in the city has dropped exponentially in the village! The church is seeing miracle after miracle in the lives of the people in the community. God is at work in the this little Guatemalan church.

Ok, here is the really exciting part! God has now given Pastor David and his church a vision to do “feeding program planting”. The church is now working in 15 other remote Spanish and Mayan villages with local pastors to plant the same kind of feeding programs. At least one day a week people travel from Pastor Davids church to provide meals, vitamins, medical care, hygiene training, bible teaching and fun games for to over 1700 kids!! Wow! This is the church being the church.

So here is what I will be doing:

1. I will be the church along side of Pastor David and his congregation to these children in serving in whatever capacity is needed. As a community we are really excited about what God is doing through Pastor David’s church. We believe the way they are being the church in their community is an example to all of us here in North America. The opportunity is huge to come along side of this ministry and hopefully catch some of their zeal and passion for serving!

2. I will encourage the local body in the sharing of music, the Word and fellowship. I know very well what serving in full time ministry can take out of you. I hope to be an encouragement and blessing to these men and women of God.

3. I will be seeking the heart of God to find out how the Atlantic Community (that’s you too!) can be apart of what they are doing to spread the Gospel beyond these 3 weeks. It has been a consistent and growing passion on my heart and the heart of the other guys to be further involved in mission work. This is true specifically concerning those who are marginalized and on the outside - what Matthew 25 would call “the least of these among you”. I hope to come home with many tangible things that our greater community can be apart of in spreading God’s Kingdom in these Guatemalan villages.

My plane lands back in Toronto January 25th with just enough time to get all set to head out on tour (set to begin January 31st). I know that if you are reading this you are most likely someone who is all ready praying for our ministry. My heart is warmed all the time as I get feedback all the time from you. Your continued prayers are what keep us going so please be specifically praying for this trip.

If you are reading this and would like to financially be apart of helping me get to Guatemala there are a few ways you can give.

1. You can go to our web site - www.myspace.com/atlanticcommunity scroll down and click on the yellow donate button (just follow the instructions on there).

2. Write a check or some form of that made out to “Atlantic Community” and send it to:

Atlantic Community

10 Conant rd.

Presque Isle ME, USA

04769

3. Feel free to email me at corydoiron@gmail.com about any other methods

Thanks Guys!

- Cory

Here is a link to a video that was made about child sponsorship in the Pastor David’s village.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxFg_N46Fzo

Here is a link to Pastor David’s testimony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1QGEOGecyo

The "Agony" of Discipleship.

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:14:00 -0500

“I want to give my all to God, but I am scared of what He might ask me to do” has been a recurring statement among people within the church. This thought has also crossed my mind and still does so with some frequency. As I was reading this week, I was enlightened and reminded of something revolutionary: our hesitancy to commit to Jesus is rooted in a misunderstanding of His Gospel and his Kingdom. Will you unpack this with me?

There are two stories in the Bible that Jesus used as starting points for describing the Kingdom of Heaven (or “Kingdom of God”).

Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like where something of extreme value is concealed in a field. Someone discovers it, and quickly covers it up again. Overflowing with joyous excitement he pulls together everything he has, sells it all and buys the field.” (Matt. 13:44)
Jesus also said, “What the Kingdom of Heaven is like is illustrated by a businessman who is on the lookout for beautiful pearls. He finds an incredible value in one pearl. So he sells everything he owns and buys it.” (Matt 13:45-46)

Is this how we feel about being a part of his Kingdom? Or we might say, “Is this how we feel about being a Christian?” After reading this, I was very much convicted and began to think a lot about this concept. In both the stories, we see the Joy, the Excitement, the Preciousness, and the Opportunity. in being a part of the Kingdom of God. This however is such a contrast from our initial statement about giving our all. That statement is filled with Fear, Hesitancy and Worry! We are terrified of surrender…

What is the difference then? Why don’t our thoughts always line up with how Jesus said they should? Why are we so afraid of the “cost of discipleship”? The book I was reading addresses that. Here is something the author says:

Do you think the businessman was sweating over its cost? An obviously ridiculous question! What about the one who found the treasure in the field - perhaps crude oil or gold? No. Of course not. The only thing these people were sweating about was whether or not they would “get the deal.”… No one goes sadly, reluctantly into discipleship with Jesus…No one goes in bemoaning the cost. They understand the opportunity.¹

The reality is that we misunderstand the cost of discipleship. It is not a moaning and groaning kind of thing. “Oh how I hate that I must give up everything I own and all my dreams and passions and goals, but I suppose that is what I must do. How terrible it is!” The purpose of counting the cost is to give us clarity! The fact is, yes, God may us to give up all those things, but those passages show us how miniscule those things are in comparison. Jesus is trying to show us the joy in being a part of His kingdom, in following Him, in being a Christian.

A certain passage is often used to show us the cost of discipleship and how “painful” it is. Luke 14 talks about how we must hate our Mother and Father and family and take up our cross and all we own in this painful decision to be a disciple. The point of this passage is not, however, to show how painful it is to be a part of God’s Kingdom (although it will be painful at times). The point of this passage is this: to think of these things as more valuable than a relationship with God is to misunderstand the Kingdom of God.² There is such joy, excitement, and opportunity, even amongst some of the painful times.

If we don’t understand the value in the field, in the pearl and in the Kingdom, we will never be able to “count the cost”. We won’t have the “Clarity about the Bargain³” or the clarity about God’s invitation.

It is my prayer that instead of saying “I want to but…”, I will say, “Oh how precious the Kingdom and the relationship! How could I miss this? I would give everything for it!”

- Lord, give me clarity! Help me to see how valuable the pearl is. Help me to understand how great a relationship with you is!

May God help you to see more clearly!

- Josh

¹Willard, Dallas. 1997. The Divine Conspiracy. Pg 292

²Willard, Dallas. 1997. The Divine Conspiracy. Pg 293

³Willard, Dallas. 1997. The Divine Conspiracy. Pg 292

"It is both comforting and frustrating that no matter how fast I run, those who have long since died..."

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:57:00 -0500

““It is both comforting and frustrating that no matter how fast I run, those who have long since died have already arrived at where I am attempting to go.””

- Peter Rollins

(This is concerning new philosophy, understanding, orthodoxy and orthopraxy in the Christian faith)

The Abstract and the Right Now.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:01:00 -0500

Hey all, just wanted to share something I’ve been processing. Hope this makes sense:

If we are Christians, we try and live our lives like Jesus, right? We even ask ourselves things like “What would Jesus do?” I think that this is a good question to ask, but I also think that trying to live our lives like Jesus did, can sometimes be too abstract of a concept for us to grasp. Perhaps a better question is: “How would Jesus live my actual life if he were me?” It is then our goal to live like that.

I realize that these seem to similar goals, but to me, the second question is a lot more tangible - and a lot more difficult. It is not just an abstract question, it is a question of Jesus living out our current actual life right now. What would that look like? Our goal is to then live that out through him

This thought has been changing me. Hopefully it makes you think as well!

- Josh

Saturday, September 19, 2009 |Fillmore, New York| (listening to: At the drive in – relationship of...

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:12:00 -0400

Saturday, September 19, 2009 |Fillmore, New York| (listening to: At the drive in – relationship of command | Bright Eyes – I’m wide awake it’s morning)

Today we woke at our usual fall tour hour, 11:00am’ish. I enjoy the days when we can move at our own individual paces; getting some reading done, heading out on a jog, accomplishing some small errands or just enjoying a coffee and the scenery outside. When you live with 4 other guys spending every waking and sleeping hour together you enjoy the mornings that allow you to wonder into your own world.

Once we gathered to go set up for Sunday morning we headed to the church where we had left the van the night before. When we arrived Ben Last (Pastor at Fillmore) had some Houghton students clean our van for one of their service projects. We had to laugh because it was only on the trip to Fillmore that we had to push garbage aside to find a place to sit. It hasn’t been this clean since we received the van. It even smelled awesome! It was also a blessing to have some students still available to help us load all of our gear into the church.

Later that day we took advantage of the fact that there was a state park 10 minutes down the road. As we drove down the tree canopy road it lead us to a canyon filled with a couple of breath taking water falls. I know there are some people who see things like this and say, “That’s cool. Let us move on”. But when I see places like this I want to get a book and a thermos of coffee and spend some time just being surrounded by something that you only get to experience in certain spaces of time ( I could insert a good CS Lewis quote but I’ll save it for another time). This is one of the places you mark on your map so when you have more time next trip you can take full advantage.

On our drive back from the park we thought we would stop at the Houghton College to hang out with our friend Jessica who was on RA duty. This ended up being one night of pure awesomeness. We ended up making many new friends doing the dorm rounds with the RA’s as well we ran into some students that we have met along our travels. It is one of those nights that you can’t really explain. All you can say is “We had fun, and you should have been there”.

I write this because I just feel blessed. I wake up in a stranger’s house who is kind enough to give us food and a bed. We arrive to our next destination to have people serve us with helping hands. We then drive down the road to see the craftsmanship of the most creative Being to ever exist. The one who created us created the things around us, which just makes you think, if this waterfall is taking my breath away then how much more should the pride of his creation, you and I. Then to put some icing on the cake, we sing and laugh with people we’ve just met.

Life is good. Thanks for all who make this possible for us.

-Drew Wallace

Fall Video Journal: Sept 6 - Sept 11

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:29:26 -0400

Fall Video Journal: Sept 6 - Sept 11

My apologies

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:55:43 -0400

Hey, I haven’t posted anything in ages because I’ve been waiting for us to get a video camera so we can do little journals. Now we have one and we can start posting stuff. I might go back to writing some more and posting more stuff. Sorry I’ve been so lazy.

- Josh

I heard this sermon the other day and thought it was great....

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:57:33 -0400

I heard this sermon the other day and thought it was great. It’s called “Embracing the Pain” by Greg Boyd.

Thing of the Week 4 - Free Stuff!

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:18:08 -0400

Thing of the Week 4 - Free Stuff!

Hello from South Dakota!

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:54:06 -0400

Hello from South Dakota!

New Pictures

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:13:00 -0400

I’m working hard to get our backlog of photos posted, but it’s a daunting task to sort through all the shots (~2,000) I’ve taken in the past 2 months. I’ve posted pictures from some of our early shows on our Flickr. Check them out. More to come soon (hopefully).

- Chris

Josh’s Quick Video Blog 2

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:13:40 -0400

Josh’s Quick Video Blog 2

A little “Hello” from the west coast!

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:59:15 -0400

A little “Hello” from the west coast!

Tour 2009 - Day 37, June 27th 2009

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:51:33 -0400

So last night was a bit of an adventure for us. We got to Seattle fine and went to see Mewithoutyou. All the bands last night were really talented. I was actually really impressed by the second band The Dear Hunter. From the first song they blew me away. I had no expectations so that helped their cause too. They had sweet gang singing. There were six in the van and 5 of them were on mics. Mewithoutyou was really good as well. They played a good mixture of old an new songs and they were super tight.

After the show we really didn’t have a place to stay so we had to improvise. At the show we heard about this park that people often sleep in so we GPSed it and found it… we think. Either way, we found some grass near downtown and fell asleep. Cory slept in the back of the van, Chris on the roof and Drew, Dana Phil and I on a ball field. All was well until about 3am when I heard Phil’s voice “Joshy, we gotta go, sprinklers!” I was pretty groggy, but I grabbed my shoes, and sleeping bag and made a run for it. Only Phil got very wet so he headed to the van and the rest of us settled down just off the ball field a few hundred yard away. We slept for a few more hours until I woke up and the bottom half of my bag was soaked. At that point I joined the van crew because I was tired of being curled up avoiding the wetness. Around 9, we all rolled out of “bed” and went to find an IHOP.

On the way to IHOP though, we drove past this sweet farmers market so we stopped. It was awesome. We all kind of found our own food, but Dana and I shared a wonderful loaf of sourdough bread, some fresh cheese, a couple tomatoes and some homeade Strawberry-Apple cider. It was awesome. We are now on our way to Yakima, WA for tonight’s concert!

Peace be upon you!

- Josh

Tour 2009 - Day 36, June 26th 2009

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:31:27 -0400

Hey everyone! I hope today finds you well! Things are going great for us. We are in Oregon, which is awesome to start with and we just finished another awesome week of camp. This was our first time at this camp as Atlantic and it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of great kids there and we had a lot of fun hanging out, worshipping and learning.

Last weekend, we had some trailer troubles and ended up having to rent a U-Haul for the remaining 2 hours of our trip, but we made it to camp and got our trailer fixed throughout the week. We got the work done for under a grand, so it could have been worse. It was good it happened when it did. If it had happened the next day or farther from camp, it would have made life a lot worse. God took care of us and things worked out perfectly.

We are now in the Van (Which is where I usually blog and then post it later) and on our way to Seattle to see a concert; a little band called MEWITHOUTYOU!!!! (emphasis mine). We are pretty excited. Their music may be a little different that you like, but we are all pretty big fans of both their music and their message so give them a listen. Their new album just came out a few weeks ago and it’s a lot of fun and very different than their older stuff. It’s awesome. On top of that, the concert is in Seattle, which is sweet in itself. Well, thats all for now. I hope things in your world are going well. Keep in touch! Peace be upon you!

- Josh

June 26th, 2009

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:28:59 -0400

- Josh

June 14th...kind of...

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:43:00 -0400

(I meant to post this last weekend but didn’t get online - oops!)

Yesterday was played at a Festival called “Bash on the Farm”. It was a bit of an interesting day for us. We don’t do a lot of festivals or events where no one knows us so it was a different kind of day for us. Despite the differences though, we had a lot of fun. We met a lot of great bands, had a lot of great feedback and hung out with some super cool people. So yes, great times. It was a tad stressful now and again, working with all the other staff and working out the details of the stage we played on, but it was a good learning experience for us. Definitely something I would do again. Today we are off to camp for a week and I highly doubt there is internet there. So, until next time, have a great day!

- Josh

P.S. We are now on our way to Oregon!!

Day 23 of Tour - June 12th 2009

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:08:00 -0400

It is hard to believe our first week of camp is already over! It seems like we just got to Indiana and we are already off again. We had a great time here in Indiana. I had intended to post more often than I have, but it has been so busy. I see that it has already been almost two weeks since I last wrote something! I’ll try to keep it semi-brief for the sake of your reading, but I am not always good at that (something that has changed since high school English).

We started Indiana off soft, with only a couple of dates last week, but there were good. On Wed the 3rd, we went downtown to Shepherd’s Community to get involved in some hands-on work in Indy. It was a really cool night for us! Shepherds Community is a cool group of believers that believes in changing people lives in practical ways through programs, people and provisions. We were able to hang out for the day and do some cleaning around the center and at night, hold a worship time. Everyone was really appreciative and it was really great for us. It was nice to serve and do something hands-on for at least a little bit. We also had a great trip to “Steak and Shake” after with the interns at the center and had a great time just hanging out.

Later that week we played at a Church called E91 and were able to take part in a Young Adult hang-out and bonfire by putting on a concert and playing a sweet new (to us) game called Redneck Golf. If you are in Indiana, ask someone about it and play! I’d explain it, but this post is going to be long enough already.

Camp started on Sunday in Frankfort, In. and we spent the whole week there. We really had an awesome time. You teens were a lot of fun to hang out with, play games with and worship with! We even got in some sweet Roller-skating action one night. It was an incredibly dank and dingy roller-rink, but that was part of the charm. Note: Atlantic was NOT found in the counselor hunt this year. w00t!

Also, this week, we got our new merch, including our NEW CD!!! We are so pumped for this. We are hoping to have it online within the next week or two. If you ordered one, they will be on their way soon!

We are now on our way to Iowa for a festival tomorrow called “Bash on the Farm” (Google it) which should be an interesting but very fun day! Then on Sunday we are off to the next camp. Hopefully I’ll be able to update sooner next time! Until then I hope all is well your way.

Shalom

- Josh

Camp!

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:53:44 -0400

Hey there,

This is my first post on this blog! I’m excited about it! The first of many I’m sure!

We had a lot of fun setting up at Frankfort campground today! I hope our fellow Hoosiers are excited about the great week ahead! We were able to set up all the sound, and lights in the chapel and it is going to slam you into the back wall! It’s kicking to say the least!

We are going to be hanging out in the Fishers area for the weekend. I’m looking forward to watching the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings game tomorrow night, then we are heading to the Crux for church on Sunday before going off to camp!

Incase you were wondering, we went to see UP in 3-D the other night and it was awesome! I fully endorse everyone who reads this to spend a few bucks and hit that up (no pun intended)!

- Dana