Pastor To Private - Why I did. at 7:06 PM

I never was a pastor and as far as I am concerned I never will be. I don't feel like its my calling. But I can explain.

A few years ago if you would've told me I was going to be in the military I would've peed my pants and said no way Jose. 2 years ago I thought I had it all planned out for me. Here's what I had going on

Two years ago I dreamed of being a youth pastor...hence the title, "Pastor to Private" I loved it!! I loved following my old youth pastor around, doing youth ministry things. I dreamed youth ministry. Well of course God threw me an unexpected curve ball and my emotions eventually changed.

Last year I went on an incredible missions trip with an incredible group of people. We stayed in Juarez, Mexico. While we were staying in El Paso, TX we were living right next to a military base. FT Bliss. It was cool driving by and seeing tanks, cannons, soldiers, barracks, Humvees and all other crazy military things. While down there in Mexico I was seeing how cool it was to serve. I was out of my comfort zone, even though most of you seem to think Mexico is my home (You know who you all are, and I hate you :-)

While in Mexico I experienced serving in a totally different environment. Now I am a mind-reader and I know what you are thinking, "If you loooove God, and you love serving, and you wanted to be a pastor than why don't you just work in the field of doing missions trips?" That's a great question! I loved helping the people in Mexico but....

I love danger
I love protecting others
I love blowing stuff up
I love guns
I want the challenge
I want the experience
I want the uniform
I want to be a part of the United States Armed Forces

As I was sitting on the plane home, on a plane with more soldiers than civilians I was thinking about life and what I wanted to do...

Im going to serve my King, and my country.

Hooah,
Evan

Casas Por Cristo - Juarez, Mexico at 6:40 PM

As I was sitting on my plane pending its arrival to El Paso, Tx I was interviewed by Laurie one of the crews cameramen. She asked me a bunch of questions I really never thought about before. She asked me questions like, "What are you expecting?" or " What do you think it will be like?" "What do you think you will learn?" As i was starring into the camera i simply blurted lame answers that I came up with in a few seconds. As Laurie went back to her seat I sat their thinking about what she asked me. I couldn't imagine what it would be like, I've never been to anywhere in the world like that before and I've never done something like build houses for less fortunate people before. I continued to think, "What will this whole experience be like?"
Our first day in Mexico was quite a sight. The south is quite an interesting place and beyond the border can not be described well enough with words, pictures, or videos. As we began to arrive in the outskirts of Juarez it looked like a trash dump combined with a dessert with small shacks people call home scattered around. It was certainly nothing i've ever seen before.
When I learned our work schedule I was a little nervous, working intense hours in the Mexico sun worried me a bit but as soon as we began to build none of that mattered anymore. I made sure that the last thing I worried about on the trip was my myself. The week was about serving, and it was incredible. On the third and final day working on the house, I looked at it when it was complete and I thought about how each persons hand had something to do with the house. Each persons hands created what we called, "a free gift from God." As that day progressed it got even more amazing. Our dedication ceremony touched even the hardest hearts. This blog post isnt even 1/100th of what happened there but just the shortest possibly cut down version, maybe the real deal will come later on when I've fully understand what really happened there.
It was definitely an honor serving with each and every person on that trip. Our first meeting was scary and I didn't know many of the other people going, but by the end of the week I felt like I could talk to anyone. It was truly amazing we felt like one big family.
Thanks everyone for making it one of the best experiences of my life.

Passion at 8:36 PM

I've been thinking about this new feeling that I've been getting lately. For a few months now I've had the passion to go somewhere else in the world and do missions. Its something I have been thinking about lately and its something that I would really love to do. I would love to be somewhere else where people don't have the opportunity to learn about God. And its been a growing passion.