Recently I was introduced to the song “Beautiful Things” by Gungor. It was in a worship set when I was back home with Illini Life Christian Fellowship at University of Illinois. Since then I’ve heard it in several other churches as I’ve met with folks around the Chicagoland area.
It’s catchy and I love to simplicity of the chorus
You make beautiful things,
You make beautiful things out of dust.
You make beautiful things,
You make beautiful things out of us.
As some of you may have noticed in our last update letter Illini Life sent off two different missions teams over Spring Break this week. Amy is currently in Memphis, TN with a team of 30 Students and 5 Adult leaders serving and sharing in the community there with SOS. They arrived on-sight Sunday afternoon.
Another small group of 15 headed to Haiti around 2:00AM CST today. They’re working with Mountain Top Ministries just outside Port-a-Prince. One of my ministry passions is helping engineering students find places to serve in the church and use their gifts. This trip allows quite a few of them to do just that. The 15 are divided into 3 groups:
We’re excited to be providing 15 laptops and wireless internet in the computer lab. You can have a look at some pictures a few of my friends took as they prepared the computers for travel and lab installation. If you’d like to follow along with the Haiti trip subscribe to the trip blog.
Music has always been an important part of my life. Not that I play any instruments; I simply consume a lot, I always have. I’ve heard it said that artists are the prophets of a generation – I think I agree. Some of the greats would being Dylan, the Beatles, Jeff Tweedy and maybe even Justin Bieber (not really though).
The messages that dance melodically into our ears shape the way we think about the world, inspire new vocabulary and raise social issues. At least the good music does.
An album that would make a top 10 list for me is 40 Acres by Caedmon’s Call. From start to finish it washes you with truth and honest, heart gripping stories of following God. Not long after I became a Christian I purchased this album. It was a little folksy for me at the time, but I came to love it. Listening to it again recently brought reminders of all the places and things I’ve been through in the past 12 years.
My response: Thankfulness for a God who walks with me. A needed reminder as I spend so much time on the road raising support.
You are currently browsing the nicknamy.com blog archives for March, 2011.
Greg Van Nada
VERY COOL Love you, Dad
On Mission in Haiti and Memphis / nicknamy.net
[...] some of you may have noticed in our last update letter Illini Life sent off two different missions teams
Desiree
Ahahah! Such a funny commercial!
Support Raising: By the numbers / nicknamy.net
[...] back I posted giving a brief rundown of the process of raising support most missionaries go through. It’s a
nick
Generousee seems a fitting word, surprised we made it this far without it. :-) Thanks for the prayers and kind words
