Overwhelmed

I am overwhelmed. So overwhelmed. How can I put up with this? How is it possible for me to continue to live like this? I am easily distracted by it. By what? (asks you, the reader). Joy. Love. God's love. Faithfulness. Well, just God in general. Today was a day dedicated to fundraising, I should more properly say, be dedicated to those who are dedicated to my work here in Boston. So, I started working on my newsletter in the after-morning, right before lunch, and found myself extremely frustrated because I had no "Microsoft Office" or "IWork 09" to work with..or even photoshop. I was stuck with GIMP, which is a free version of Photoshop, basically. I was getting all flustered because usually my newsletters are really nicely done, I kinda take pride of them, and now I couldn't do a nice one. Then I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me that it's not how nice my newsletters look, but how God touches the heart of those who read them, and it's really not me at all. That was a nice thing of the Holy Spirit to do :). So I stopped freakin out and just made a regular newsletter and chose Joy. I got really excited all of the sudden, cause I know God will use my newsletter to reach people and His Will will be done! I am hyper now too, cause I had an idea for a stencil to spray-paint onto a t-shirt, and I did it (even though i supposed to be working on my newsletter!) and it turned out awesome! Thank you Jesus. He has been blessing me so much lately. I love Him a lot. This blog really is just for me to get out there that Jesus rocks, and is so involved in our every day lives. Choose Joy people. Choose it.

OH! And i can't forget about Dragonforce! Amazing music. Amazing.

Yup. I pray the fruits of the spirit may be evident in your life! Choose it! :)

Dragonforce.
Aaron.

Faithfulness

So today started off with me not wanting to get up. Reason being, I got in at 1:30 after driving for a total of 14 hours from Grove City, PA. Tiredness loomed over me all the way to work and gave me a bad outlook for the day. My attitude got worse when I found out our internet wasn't working at work, so I therefore could not download programs I needed to to get some fundraising done. Great. Then, my camera charger blew up when I plugged it into an outlet, which then preceded to catch on fire. Yippee. This day=amazing. I can't charge my camera, get online to get stuff done, and I am super tired. I was bumming around upstairs, complaining out loud to myself, and my friend Aaron Cieply suggested I go and pray for my supporters and just spend time with Jesus. So I sucked it up and grabbed a notebook that I used to write in (the last entry was in April!) and went to pray. I opened up the notebook and a couple things fell out, that brought a lot of joy to me. Two, were of art pieces of mine, and one was a sheet of paper that had a list of Gods promises and work done in me. This boosted my spirits and I started praying and thanking God for all the people He has brought into my life to support me and pray for me. As I was writing these prayers down I felt my negativity melting away and the joy of the Lord infiltrating my heart. I then went into praying and asking God for continuous provision and I was reminded (by myself) that I need a good play-around winter coat (i have a nice pea-coat, but it is really nice, not sledding material). So I finished praying and I got a call from my friend Laura Messina, and she said she was in the neighborhood and wanted to take me out and buy me a Christmas gift! So, I got a new winter coat, and some new technicolor socks! Oh how the Lord provides! So awesome. So ya, God provides and He is awesome. :) Choose Joy! I feel silly for being negative this morning, and am thankful for the accountability from my bro Aaron.

That's it! There's the story of the day :) Have a good one! :)

Aaron

Thanksgiving!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I have decided to be completely cliche and let everyone know what I am thankful for!

Above everything else I am thankful for my God, my Father, my Savior and King, for He is full of grace and mercy. His provision overwhelms me, as well as His unceasing and furious Love! He is the best Father anyone could ever ask for :)

I am very thankful for the large number of people who are constantly praying for me, and supporting my ministry with YWAM financially! You enable the work of God here in Boston and in my life as well!

I am thankful for my new friends and old ones. I'm continuously blessed by my friends, they never cease to encourage me, pray for me, and be there for me. Thank you! :)

I am soooo thankful for my wonderful and beautiful Family! My awesome parents, whose Godly example has inspired me to be a man of God, my beautiful sister Rebekah and her husband Caleb, for the love and encouragement they speak into my life! My awesome brother Hastings who I am so proud of! He is the coolest dude in the world and will forever be one of my best friends. My little sister Rachel, who is so talented and gifted it's sick, always bringing a smile to my face! :) For Dave, who also is one of the coolest people I know! His humor and creativeness is freaking awesome. And last, but certainly not least (actually probably the greatest) I am thankful for Philip. He always brings joy to my heart! He always looks out for others, puts them first and is one of the funniest people in the world, no doubt. OH! and of course i am thankful for dog Esther! She is the best anyone could ask for :)

I am thankful for the countless amount of times I have had the privilege to go out on the streets of Boston, sharing the Love of Christ! I'm so thankful for the ideas He has given us to be fully effective in reaching the "lost" children of Christ!

I am specifically thankful for a few friends that I really wanna mention: Jordan Esquivel, my very dear friend who has been a wonderful brother to me, telling me when I need to shape up and encouraging me when I do something right! Jeesh, I love him! For Taryn and Alisa Wobbs, my long-lost Fargoan friends! You two are such a massive encouragement to me, and I am so blessed by you! For Spooner, dude, you freaking crack me up and really bring joy to me in a way not many people do! Miss ya bud! For a new friend, Mari, who's faith and willingness to do what God is calling her to is super inspiring to me! For Josh Keller and Jake Peterson, two close friends who have mentored me all through my teens and even now! Love ya!

I am thankful so much for my friend Joe Mills, cause He is a man who does not give up and really fights to be an honest man in God's sight! I love him alot, and am super blessed by Him!
Aaron Cip, I'm thankful for him! Yup.

I am thankful for all of my friends here who are apart of YWAM Boston! Jessi, Jer, Kandia, Kopacz, Cip, Jordan, Joe, Debra, Nehemias, John, Amanda, Rapach's, Doug and Debi, Bob Hummel, Jessica, Hilary, Heidy and Javian, Katie. You are all a blessing and amazing!

There is a lot more that I am thankful for, but for the sake of keeping things short, I'm not gonna write them! This isn't really even that short. If I were you reading this, I probably would have stopped by now! Good job for making it this far!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and never stop thanking Jesus for what He has blessed you with! Thank Him in the good times and the bad times! Peace!

Reeves

moustache

For the first time in my blip of an existence I have a moustache. M-O-U-S-T-A-C-H-E is the proper way to spell it. I looked it up.

I moved into a new apartment the other day. This apartment is the bomb. I love it a lot. I have realized that as much as I want the guys I live with to be like my brothers back home...they are not. They are very different. We all are, really. Making our lives work together in our place is a stretch. I am glad to say I am heavenly blessed by the dudes that have to deal with me. They are forgiving, understanding, and convicting. This blog is dedicated to them I just now decided. To Aaron, Joe, Jordan, Ryan and Nehemias. You are all awesome and a blessing. They probably won't even read this but everyone else should know how awesome these dudes are! They rock!

Countdown to seein my fam: 14 days. heck ya. shabooya

Jesus is awesome. As usual. I'm diggin what He is doing here in the city. Praise the lord, for last week a bass player i met on the street named Bill gave his life to Christ! Pray for Him!

Made some friends at church on sunday, i joined a Church team...the welcoming committee i think. I'm pumped! God is answering prayers! It's the bomb. He is the bomb. Yup.

well, that's all for now folks until next time,

Reeves

yo yo yo

So it's november. Or shall is say Noshavember? Novembeard? Hmmm. all of the above. This month is sooo packed full of goodness. 1)Aaron Cieply comes on staff. 2) The robot costumes will be showcased all around town 3) The second week of November i'm staying a weekend in Cape Cod cause i am singing in a wedding: shabooya. 4) I'm livin in a new, cozy apartment 5)I have a mustache almost as big as Rhode Island 5)My bed is 76 inches off the ground. 6) my entire family is getting together for Thanksgiving in PA: doubleshabooya 7) my friend jordan is going to witness thanksgiving with my family.

It is gonna be an awesome month.

Love.

Reeves

I love Koreans

I love Koreans. Today we had a whole lot of Koreans join us for breakfast. They came over from Seoul on a specific mission to pray for the city of Boston, to intercede, asking God to break the spiritual darkness this city is in. We ate our breakfast and went right into passionate worship as a community of Christ-lovers, then into prayer. Tomorrow they are going to Woodstock to have a time a worship of 24 hours straight. Why? 40 years ago was when the "rock-fest" at Woodstock was held. Free sex, drugs, and rock n' roll, all over the place. From then on, our nation has really down spiraled, leaving us at 1.5 million abortions a year. I could definitely go on with statistics of how this country is walking into Satan's hands, but that is not what I wanna focus on. I wanna focus on that since living in Boston, I have met, seen, and heard about countless groups of foreigners who constantly pray for this nation, and even come here as missionaries to reach out to people searching for truth. These Koreans are heading to Woodstock to break spiritual barriers and basically curb-stomp Satan. Heck ya! Praise Jesus! In the last 2 weeks we have had 5 visitors, either YWAMers, or pastors, church/ministry leaders come to us and say that God has put a burden on their Heart for this city, and that He is gonna be doing something big here. A revival in the City of Boston. How cool would that be?! One of the most cultural, educational, artistic cities on the is heading to revival. I pray that happens. Heck, I hope you do too. But not only for Boston, but for where you live too. I'm just biased cause I live here! Haha. Here's the thing though. Nothing happens if you don't do anything, if you just continue to go through the motions of life that our government/media/world tells us you have to. Live what Paul writes in Romans 12:2: Do not conform any long to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind!!!! Amen! Do it. Don't just read it, think about it, then forget it. Tell someone daily about the love that rescued you from darkness and brought you into His Marvelous Light. Ha. I love Koreans!

Fall

I love the fall. I love the coolness of the air, I love the beautiful nature that God has put around me and I love the feeling of winter sitting on the doorstep. As the beginning of fall has started, Jesus has put several things on my heart. I have been meditating on the same scripture daily (along with other stuff, of course) and that scripture is found in Galations 5:22, and 1 Corinthians 13. These two passages talk about the fruit that "Life in the Spirit" yields, and then, Love, being the greatest gift from God. The reason I read these daily, over and over is because it is so important to ask Jesus to fill your heart to over-flowing, every day, with His unconditional love, so that in return, we can freely give that love to anyone and everyone we meet.

Paul also tells us several times in his letters that if we have truly left our life as slaves to our flesh, then we have begun to live life by the Spirit. One of the ways we can check to see if we are really living this life is by looking at Galations 5:22-25:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

So, daily, I ask myself: Do I see these 'fruits' in my life? If not, why? What can I do to see them grow? I challenge everyone who reads this to do this as well daily. Never keep the love that God has given you to yourself either! I always think to myself: If people around me can't tell that I am in Love with Christ by the way I talk and act, then something is wrong with me, and I need to change that! Again, I urge you to do the same :)

Infect the world with Love, the Love of Christ.

Reeves

Pawn Kings

This show is so amazing. One day, when I go to Vegas, I will go to Pawn Stars.

Sir Galahad

I'm longboarding home after a good day at work. It's kinda warm outside, upper 60's, maybe 70 degrees. A gentle breeze wafts through my hair, cooling me off. I look down at the pavement. The curb is moving at a good 6-8 mph. Perfect. Then, movement. Surprised, I quickly loop around. Bending over where it happened, I peer into the gravel. There, a small reptile is battling for life. Struggling in the gravel a brave young turtle, 2 days old, tops, fights for his way in this harsh world. Lovingly, I hoist him up into my strong fingers. I then delicately grasp him as I make my way to my place of dwelling, soon to be his as well. Approximately 8 minutes later I arrive at my abode and hurriedly walk up the stairs. He needs shelter. A place of refuge. There. I spot a cardboard box in the corner. I empty it's contents and place the young solider inside. Now, He needs habitat. I grab the box and head back outside. Putting the box down, I scoop up a good amount of sand and dirt. I pour it in the box. Then, for some scenery, I pluck some weeds, some little Dandies, and place them upright in the box. Perfect. I head back upstairs. He needs water. I grab a shallow dish, fill it with water, and place it amongst the outdoor scene-in-a-box i have just created. Food. What does he crave? Meat? Veggies? Cheese? All of the above I place in his home, in bite-sized morsels, of course. Now, a name. What type of name do you give such a magnificent creature, whose battle scars remind you of your grandfather? Sir Galahad. Perfect.

I'm a slave!

So I recently had the opportunity to do a devotion on "slavery" in the bible. Slavery to what? To our flesh and to Christ. What does it mean to be free in Christ? This is what I felt like sharing, what I have learned through scripture.

In Romans, starting with chapter 7 verse 14:

¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^a]">[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God's law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Paul ends this part of his teaching in a very awesome way: “So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s Law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of Sin.”

When we are re-born into the Body of Christ, by accepting, believing and Confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, we also adopt a new Law to live by. This law is life through the spirit. We can read about what it means to live a life "in the spirit" in Romans 8. Bound to the law of God, and the spirit, we are slaves to that law. We realize that “nothing is good lives in me, in our sinful nature”. We “have the desire to do what is good, but cannot carry it out” because of the law of Sin we are also slave to. The question is, who are we going to let be our master? Are we slaves to our Flesh, our Sin? Or to Christ? The Law of God? Truly as Christians, it is our goal to get to a place in our walk with God where we can call upon Him to give us the discipline and determination to shut down our flesh. To be self-controlled. This is what “living by the law of the spirit” looks like: Romans 8:5-11:
⁵Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶The mind of sinful man^a]">[a] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; ⁷the sinful mind^b]">[b] is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. ⁸Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

⁹You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

Because we have accepted that Christ has risen, we are forgiven, and he now has “lordship over our lives”. Our sinful nature cannot control us any longer, if we truly have Christ living in us. We are dead to our sin, alive by our spirit. Our spirit in christ, now fuels our bodies, which have died. So sick. So, throughout your day, keep you mind on the spirit, and check and see if you are, in fact, living by that law, a slave to Christ. Remember the fruits of the spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Goodness, Faithfulness and Self-Control. So, "since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit, Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." [Galatians 5:25-26]

-Aaron

I love showing the road who's boss, by throwin myself into it

So, the past couple days have been very productive for me! I have been making newsletters, and designing some personal stuff and making phone-calls and getting in contact with old friends. I'm still all alone in my apartment, which usually isn't all that exciting. I've had to find ways to entertain myself, without being destructive. So far I have frozen two rubber gloves filled with water, creating the perfect pair of ice hands. I've written a couple songs..which is awesome! God totally was just like "write about me" so i did, in a song form. :)

Today I had plans on going and mailing out my newsletters, then at 3 going to the RMV to get my Massachusetts license, then going to the gym and back to my apartment to watch a movie. I have a little extra money in my account to get a $1 movie brought to me so lovingly by RedBox, so I'm thinkin it's a good idea. Well...i saw clouds starting to come in around 3, so I grabbed my board and quickly went to Stop-n-Shop, where the RedBox is located, to pick out a movie. I get there in no-time and pick out a movie and when I leave the rain starts comin down all soft-like. This is not good because water destroys bearings, and mine are brand-new and i don't want them to be destroyed. So i start booking it home with almost a full wall of rain following me the entire way there. As I start to turn off the road into my parking lot my wheels decide to loose traction and i biff it hard. And i wasn't just lolly-gagging into the parking lot. I was cruising. at least 12 mph or more. Then i biffed. Now my right hand, wrist, arm hip and leg are all bleeding! I have to say..i'm not bummed out about this at all. It was a sick bif, and God saved my bored from getting hit by a car somehow, and I'm now sitting writing about my escapade.

Besides that, God is doing an awesome work in people that I have been talking to about supporting me! God has raised up 5 people so far to support me, and I am praying that number doesn't stay like that! Please continue to consider to support me monthly at $10-20 a month, or more! I am looking for at least 20 people to support me at $10/month. Thank you and God bless!

Aaron Reeves

I have now been a full-time missionary for a whole year! I want to thank everyone who has supported me through prayer and finances, it's been a huge blessing and the hundreds, maybe even thousands of peoples lives that were influenced by God through me wouldn't have happened if it weren't for you. So thank you! :)

Now, with one year behind me, you're probably wondering what I'm doing next. Well, God has made it very clear to me, my parents and Doug and Debi Tunney (YWAM boston founders) that I should stay and work here with YWAM in Boston.

Staying on with YWAM means that I'm going to continue to need the financial and prayer support that I have been receiving this past year...and even more! You're probably thinking "oh no, he's asking for money again". I would like to make it as clear as I can that I am not a lazy mooch-boy who doesn't want to work. Trust me, if I could work another job, I would! But, I am already working a full-time job, it's called being a missionary! I work just like everyone else, 9-5, weekdays, and weekends even, and most the time working more than 40 hours a week. God has called me to do this, and He will provide the means to continue to! So I would just like to ask you to start thinking of ways you could maybe help out, whether that be by joining my prayer partner team, or financial team, but I'll expound on those two things in another paragraph. :)

Before I go on, I'd just like to share some biblical references about what I'm asking you to do. In Numbers 18:20 it says, “And the Lord said to Aaron, 'You priests will receive no inheritance of land or share of property among the people of Israel. I am your inheritance and your share.” God is their share. Let's continue: (verse 21) “As for the tribe of Levi, your relatives, I will pay them for their service in the Tabernacle with the tithes from the entire land of Israel.” Cool! So you see, the Levites did not inherit any land from God. In that time, if you didn't have land you might as well be dead, because with land you plowed, tilled and harvested different crops and then traded and that is how you survived. So God decided to pay the Levites with the tithes of the people of Israel. So, in my life right now, I'm a Levite. I haven't inherited land to work on. So I'm just asking those who calls themselves the Body of Christ to help me live! (There are more biblical references, but I don't want this to be a long note, so I'm not putting them up..I'll leave a list at the end of the note if you're curious.)

I do have a budget made for myself, a simple one, just to keep a long-term goal of my support. I have decided that if I can get $1000 a month I could live like a normal person. $400 of that goes to staff fees, the rest of the $600 goes into groceries, savings (for taxes), traveling, and other odds and ends that I have to pay for. I realize this isn't going to happen right away so my short-term budget is $700 a month. Think about it this way: Most people spend about $6-$10 a day on coffee. A day. And that's just coffee, what about eating out, or seeing a movie? Instead of doing one of those things, you could be attributing to the work of God in my life, and ultimately helping YWAM reach Boston for Christ.

So this is how you can help. I have done some math (crazy, I know) and if I can get 40 people to support me $10 a month, then I will meet my staff fees every month. Or if 80 people give me $5 a month, or 10 people $20 and 20 people $10, and so on (that was a lot of math for me haha). Or, if you would like to just give a one-time donation, that works too. I'm in serious need of monthly supporters though, because I currently only have 1.

Also, you supporting me does not necessarily take the place of the tithe to your church! I'm just asking you to please pray over each tithe and see if God would have you partner with me financially and give a certain amount a month.

Of course, If you do decide to support me financially I will send you newsletters, updates of my blog, and a phone-call every now and then as well, just to let you know what is happening with the work of God in Boston! Currently my financial status is quite sad..I'm 3 months behind in staff fees (which is $1200). So I need support, fast. I will always need prayer support as well! Please continue to pray! I will be updating my blog [hopefully] every week, and there will be guidance on there of how you can pray.

I just want to say that above all of this is the relationship built between members of the Body of Christ is so much more important to me than money is. Getting people "in" on what God is doing in my life is high priority for me, because He is doing a lot in me, and through me, and I want to be able to share it with you!

So please, see if God wants you to give up that trip to starbucks, or McDonalds or a movie once a month and support me with that money instead!

if you're gonna send a check, send it to: 23 Emerson St, Newton, MA 02458

Thank you so much and God bless

Aaron (Destructo) Reeves

list of some more biblical references for missionary support: Acts 4:32-35; 1 Chronicles 29:1-29; Luke 8:1-3

So, I am a horrible blogger...I really do hope to get better at it...but we'll see. The more I don't blog, the more guilty I feel cause I know people like to know what's going on in my life...so hopefully that guilt will keep me blogging regularly this fall lol

Alright! Well, it's been quite an insane spring, and summer for me. Starting on May 12th, I have been out of the country, then back in the country, then doing Joshua Generation, then finishing our Discipleship Training school and seeing my friends leave, and now I am hanging out with my family in Grove City Pennsylvania till the 15th! So, now in this blog I'm gonna try and answer some questions that you, the reader, are probably wondering! Let me give it a shot...:)

first question (that i think you might be wondering?)

"How was outreach in the U.K.?"

Outreach was wicked awesome!!! We went to Belfast, N. Ireland; Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Walsall, England. Now, it's really hard to say my favorite place we went...cause they were all awesome in some way, but if I would say my favorite place we went to where I saw the Spirit of God move the most, was probably Walsall, England. When we were traveling to Walsall, I got like super sick and was throwing up and it was bad and I had no energy, and it also just happened to be the 4 hottest days of the year while we were there. We worked with a church that was going through some really hard times, but despite their hardships, they hosted us, took care of us, got us into 2 schools (5 days each school) and treated us like we were, well, themselves. It was an experience of the body of Christ I will never forget because it was their love for God, and for us, that kept our teams energy up. About the schools. Our team split up into two teams and for 5 days went into the school and taught in the Religious Education classes. Now, what I mean by "taught" is we performed our drama that presents the Gospel, then shared the gospel, 1 on 1 with the students afterward, and prayed with many students to recieve Christ for the 1st time. Now, getting into a school and sharing the gospel is amazing in itself, but this is gonna blow your mind. Both of these schools were over 50% Muslim schools. That means we got to bring the message of Christ straight into the Muslim Culture in Walsall. Boy, did God rock the place! It was incredible!
That is just one of the hundreds of stories about our 5-6 weeks in the U.K.. One ending statistic for you: out of our 6 weeks there we saw 1229 people accept Jesus for the first time and 68 re-dedications. Now if that ain't something to stand up, freak out and praise God about, then I don't know what is!!! Praise Jesus!!!!!!!

"How (and maybe what) was (is) Joshua Generation?"

So, after we got back from our radical time over-seas we had one week to finish preparations for our summer camp called Joshua Generation. This was a 10-day boot camp, 10-day outreach missions trip for students from age 12-19. During boot-camp, there are sessions during the day teaching the students how to hear from God, do devo's, evangelize, and many other things. The afternoon consisted of different classes, like music class, drama class, gym, all preparing the students for outreach. Then, every night was a time of worship through music, dance, art, whatever and we would have a speaker, and as far as I can remember, every night during boot-camp was a critical night for our students. I have never seen teenagers give their lives so fully to Christ and actually get what "surrender" really is. For me during JG was a really interesting time as well. I got a huge dose of leadership tossed at me, as I was in charge of an entire room of young men, and also in charge of worship some nights, teaching some worship and drama classes, and I tri-led an outreach team for 10 days all over Boston. I have never had that much responsibility. Ever. It was hard, frustrating, stretching, but, so very worth it. I got to see myself being used by God in a powerful way, and also made friendships that will last my lifetime. Our students really went for it hardcore on our outreach despite being young, afraid (sometimes), hot, tired, annoyed, and burnt out. But each one of them let the love of God fill them every day so that they can go out on the streets and tell people about that same love! There were 5 outreach teams out of us 140 staff and students and during thosed 10 days, 1666 people recieved Christ for the 1st time, and 440 people rededicated their lives!! HOORAY! JESUS rocks!

"So what now?"

Well, our Discipleship Training School ended on July 29th, and our now-graduated students left for home starting the next day, and disappeared one by one after that. Some went home, never to return to us, but most, yes, most, have heard from God to stay on staff with YWAM Boston. 9 of them to be exact. This makes me so happy cause these people are going to bring so much to our Staff, we're just gonna explode!

"how long do you plan on being with Ywam?"

Well, if you didn't guess, I am staying on staff for this next year, and well, am also planning on being here for as long as God calls me to be here. So, right now, indefinitely. Learning and education is a very important thing to me, but God has called me to be in Boston right now, so I have put that on hold for now. All I know is this: I will continue to live my life as a slave to Christ, leaning on Him in every way, surviving only because He allows me to.

I would like to publicly and generally thank everyone who has supported me in prayer and finances in the past year! You have enabled the work of God through your dedication and sacrifice and are a huge part of the Body of Christ in my life because of that. Please continue to keep me in prayer! I will be writing about my finances in another blog, for that is not what this blog is about. So until next time (which I hope to be next week), God be with ya :)

Aaron Reeves

Freedom

"So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country.

Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did.

That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God.
What Is True Freedom?

So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!

I'm using this freedom language because it's easy to picture. You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?

As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn't have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.

But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.

Romans 6:1-23 from the Message Bible

This little chunk of instruction and guidance from the bible is a fav right now. Being in the U.K. for these past few weeks have been incredible. We are now almost half way through our outreach and God has been so amazing, just like always :) His love is penetrating the lives of hundreds of people who now know about him, and they are either choosing to follow Him or not, even still, the seed is being planted!

Doing straight up evangelism 6 days of the week is not an easy thing,I have come to again realize. I now know, more than ever, that being a Christian really isn't always easy...but, then again, I am no where near dead, and I have countless blessing in my life too, so I really can never complain! Haha.

The reason I decided to post those select verses is because that is part of the message this world, our world, needs to hear. Everyone I end up talking to after one of our shows, or just at random on the street here in the U.K. will hear me say this message at some point: A life without God is a life in slavery to sin. It's so true! When we commit our lives to follow Jesus as close as we can, we are set free from that slavery, and can really see the freedom found and Christ! And the job appointed to those already free, is to lead other people into that freedom. Sharing with someone the good news of a free life in the love relationship with God is one of the biggest privileges that God has granted us! So, I encourage all who read this, do that! There should never be an excuse for someone not to know you're in love with God, if you follow Him close enough, He should be rubbing off of you, you know? Like the shining face of Moses in the OT! hahah! Wouldn't that be cool?

Well, there is what I have been going through lately. Hope you enjoyed it! Remember this: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."
1 Corinthians 13
Nothing you do matters if the love you receive from God is behind it! and with that, I love you all! Until next time!

Aaron Reeves


oh! ps...just an update on how things are going: Our time in Glasgow has been incredible! We did our production on monday night and again on Friday night and have seen 732 people come to Jesus since our time of arrival in the U.K. and of course and always in heart-felt follow-up with those people as well! Praise God! We head out to Birmingham, England on Sunday, and we know that will be a blast! Thanks for all your prayers and God Bless!

Consider it PURE joy

James 1:2

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

This verse is basically what my life has been very much about in the past 4 months. I have realized that one of the reasons I have come back to YWAM is because I wanted to be in a christian environment, with people that I clicked with and were comfortable with, where I can sorta feed off of their relationship with God, and call it my own. I didn't fully realize that I needed to make my relationship with God my own, and really get into the Word every day and pray for at least 1-2 hours every day and spend time with God every day, without ceasing. To let His love, spirit, thoughts and Word penetrate my life, flow through me, and impact the people I am living with and ministering to. Now, I have strived to do this, and of course I haven't done it every day because I am human and not perfect, but even through my striving and yearning for this, God has taught me soo much. He's taught me to persevere, and to keep seeking Him when I need guidance. To go to those older and wiser than me when I need help making a decision. To rely on my peers and friends to be there when I need to confess sin, and to be completely honest and open to everyone I meet and live with. To let the furious Love of God fill me, and give me Joy whether I am doing well with finances, or way behind in finances; or when I am worried about taxes or not, or when I am dead sick and tired and can't go on, I rely on Him to give me Joy and I pray He fixes me and I rejoice in whatever happens!

I have now realized the deepest meaning and longing for me to come back to Boston and work with YWAM, instead of going to college right away. It's because 1) God is changing New England, He is on the move and has been for many years and I want to be a part of it! 2) I love telling people about Jesus! I love using my talents to bring the gospel to all of the world, and yes, I totally could be doing this in college, and it would be good, but I have been led by God here and I can say that it is not only good, but the BEST way to use energy and talents and life. I have learned so much about living for Jesus by being here in Boston. I absolutely love living here, I am excited about being here, our students are amazing and are becoming unbelievably FEARLESS about telling people about Jesus! We had an outreach yesterday (april 15) and went to 2 parks. Our staff did a drama called Doors (a mime) and we saw 27 people over 2.5 hours come to the Lord for the first time, starting a relationship with Jesus, and with us! This is why I love being here! Because God has called me here to teach me and use me to help change New England. And man, am I excited about it!

So now I just gotta praise Jesus and thank everyone who has helped support me and send me money and pray for me because what keeps me safe, and in health and keeps me living is your prayers! God is listening and he is answering! So, thank you! Keep it up! Pray now for Maria, Gabriella, Devin, Deshawn, Christian, Hosea and whatever other kids, and adults that decided to follow Jesus yesterday! Pray that they fall in complete Love with Him and that He keeps them safe!

So, ya, despite my struggles and my emptiness and my down-right stubbornness, God has changed me. He's grown me. He's filled me with love and I am exploding! And His joy has filled me, and I pray every day it stays with me, no matter what the day will present me with.

God Bless!

Aaron

So I definitely lied about updating this weekly...I just always forget. Sorry!

So it's been a while now, about a month since I last updated, and a lot has happened in my heart, and life in this past month. God has started testing my faith, challenging me so that I may be more in tune with Him. And it is hard. Really hard. One way He has and is still testing me is by stepping back. I'll explain that this way: when a child is learning to walk, you don't stand directly in front of him and expect him to go anywhere, and you don't continuously hold the child cause then it never learns...you have to take a couple steps back, risk the child falling or tripping over themselves and getting hurt, and beckon them towards you with all your might. If he does trip and fall, you run towards him, pick him up, brush him off and set him on his feet again and take a couple steps back and start calling again. Hopefully the child will get you eventually after learning from his mistakes.

Lately this is how my life with God has been. He has taken a couple steps back. And I don't fully experience Him like I used to. It's really difficult for me right now because His presence isn't with me like it used to constantly be, but it is causing me to constantly persevere towards Him and keep looking into my own life to see what sin may be causing me to stumble and separate me from Him. This time in my life has also challenged me to think about why I believe in God, and if i really do. If he is really real. If He is not just something that is a once in while experience but someone who is always with you and and leads and guides you through life. I really believe that God is strengthening my faith in Him in this time and there are 2 options that I can take right now. 1 is to give up, say He isn't real and just live my life being a good person. 2 is to believe He is real and continue to devote my life daily to Him and persevere and eventually, through stumbling and some crawling, arrive back at the feet of my Jesus. I'm taking the 2 option :)

So another God is testing me is through my finances. I have had not the greatest financial support for probably the last 2 months or so and because of it..bills are stacking up and I will have to leave if I don't get the support. There are a couple of reasons that I can see why this is happening to me. One is because I have been pretty lackadaisical in keeping people updated and involved in what God is doing in and through me here in Boston. Another reason is He is testing my faith in Him even more, and continuing to convict me of how I spend my money and how to spend it wisely and when to tithe or to give away.
Staying on that topic, giving, I was in prayer the other day, asking God, like, what is holding back your financial provision for my life? What sin or idol have I made that has taken your place? What do i need to give up (sin or like, idol-wise) in order for you to provide for me? And so after asking this I felt God telling me to go up to one of our students here, her name is Joanna, and tell her that I am supposed to give her something of mine. But the thing is, i am not to determine what to give her, God is, and so i told her to pray and ask God what he wants me to give her! anything of mine. from my ipod to shoes to my talent or time to my computer. Well, knowing that is like a big thing to say to someone i gave her time to pray about it and she actually ended up praying about it for 7 or 8 days, to get complete confirmation from God for what i was to give her, cause, it was reallllly big. And so, after her heartfelt prayer, and confirmation several times through different people and God, she told me what God told her to ask me for. My computer. wow. that's like big. really big. So, immediatley I started asking God, like, why did you tell her that?! Why my Mac?! I love my mac...my life is on there...and then with those last words, I felt kinda silly. My life? on a computer? How sad is that? That i thought my life was on a piece of hardware? Then I felt really convicted that I had made my computer like an idol. That is was sucking up time that i could be spending with Jesus or building relationships with friends here. And i'm not saying that i spend a boat-load of time on my computer, but it is one thing in my life that was keeping me from fully trusting in God. And so the test wasn't only, am I gonna give away whatever God told Joanna to ask for, but more so, am gonna fully trust and rely on God so that my life can be on Him and not a computer.
So, ya. no more Macbook. One day i'll get another computer...no clue when but whenever the time is right. The most important thing is that now I am one baby step closer to unity with my Father, and my Jesus.
Now, can i ask you something? My support right now is far behing...$1150 behind actually. I want to include people in what God is using me for here in boston, and well, you are people. You can be a part of God changing Boston. How? by supporting me. By sending me your tithe mabye once a month. Like 10 bucks even. By you supporting me you are allowing God's work to be done through me. and what do i do? what happens? Well i can't tell you the future but i can tell you what has happened through me so far....our student's, especially our guys, they have someone to come and talk to about what they are learning. And i'm their age. how cool is that? I've gone through what they have, God has prepared me to lead and counsel them and I get to be a part of the changing process of their life! Not only that but I am one of the worship leaders here, i get to help teach music, theory, evangelism and i get to lead teams in boston to tell people about Jesus! That is so cool! At least I think it is....it's amazing to me how like perfect God has hand-picked each and every person here out, and put us together, for such a time as this. And i know for a fact that if i weren't here, things would be very off and not complete! So, please, pray and ask God what you might give to help me out, so that you might be a part of what God is doing here, so that i can stay here and continue His work He has called me to! thank you and God bless!

in christ's love
Aaron Reeves




email me at aaronmreeves@gmail.com or call me at 701 212 8390!
if you wanna send anything send to 23 Emerson St, Newton, MA 02458 and if it's a check make it out to YWAM Boston Inc.

In Touch

So I have recently figured out that I am horrible at keeping in touch with people. Horrible horrible horrible. So for all of my friends and people who care about me, I'm terribly sorry about that. I was convicted of that this week. So again, I am terribly sorry and I PROMISE to keep in touch better! :)

Sooooooooooooooooo on the other hand, it has been a while since i have updated this blog!

So, to let everyone know everything, our 2nd Discipleship Training School has started!! yay!!! students started arriving on the 9th and we started the next Wednesday! God clearly hand-picked our students because, they are all amazing and God is really doing amazing things in their lives!

So even though this is their DTS, I am definitely learning just as much, if not more, than they are. God is really teaching me how to be a leader. Not gonna lie...it is hard leading people of your own age, having responsibility over them, telling them when fun needs to stop and they need to go to bed (even though I don't wanna stop myself) and just leading them in general. It is my heart-felt prayer that God is using me to lead them, even if I do mess up sometimes. But, when I mess up, I learn, and won't (hopefully) do it again! :)

Recently I have also really been learning how to listen to God's voice in my everyday life...and not just when I need to. Like...we are all "praying" ("talking") to God at some point everyday (at least I hope you are!) and it occured to me that He likes talking back! Personally, I really don't like it when I strike up a convo with someone and all they do is talk to me...and never let me get my 2 cents in! So think about God! How many times do we just talk and not let God talk back to us? and think about it....He wants to talk to us throughout our whole day...not just when we pray. So, when you are on a jog or at the gym or painting something or writing or listening to music, listen! Ask Him what he wants you to work out or paint or listen to...He will definitley answer you..and you'll hear Him as long as you are "tuned in" correctly. Even go as far as asking Him His favorite color...i'm sure He'll want to share it with you :) So, ya, I encourage you to do that! Our God made us relational for a reason....:) Because He is relational too! :)

and again with like random things you might not know...we do have an official "YWAM Boston" base building now! It's actually just about 6 or 7 blocks away from the house I was living in, which is great! This building is 4 stories and it's huge and perfect for us and our DTS! So Praise Jesus! He always provides :) Speaking of provision...I know I have talked to alot of people about this but... I am running low on support at the moment. and by low i mean none. So please just pray and ask God if it would ok to help me out so I may continue my ministry. MORE IMPORTANTLY than that though....sending me money is not just sending me money!!! NEVER think that! It is joining in with the body of Christ to fulfill what God has called us to do and it makes you every part of my ministry as I am. So basically, I owe my life to you. and God :) of course. So please. Pray :) thank you deeply and God Bless! :)

i will certainly try my hardest to update this every week...but we will see how that goes! :)

oh...and by the way... GO STEELERS!!!!!!

In Christ's Love,
Aaron :)