by Jason Joyner | Jan 9, 2012 | Blog, Mission Monday, missions, prayer, YWAM
Many people would like to pray for missions, other countries, and different prayer needs. Where can you find such information?
One tool I know about provides this and a whole lot more.
Youth With A Mission produces a Personal Prayer Diary each year. It comes in a nice day planner with areas for notes, calendars, articles about Kingdom issues, as well as information about every country and specific prayer highlights each month. The diary also has a Bible reading plan that takes one through the Old and New Testaments once and Psalms and Proverbs several times.
The diary also includes an encouragement to pray for the Seven Spheres of Influence that I’ve talked about before. Each day of the week is reserved to lift up concerns regarding Church and Religion, Family, Government and Law, Education, Science/Health/Environment, Business, and Media and the Arts.
I’ve used this for years, although often sporadically. This year I am committed to diligence in praying for the daily topics. I know many people are tied to their electronic devices, but this slim and durable book is a more than a planner – it has the potential to impact the world if people use it to pray for the nations.
Right now they’re only $11.89 at the World Christian store, and I’ve seen it listed on Amazon as well. Check it out if you’d like a simple way to make a difference!
—
by Jason Joyner | Jan 9, 2012 | Blog, Mission Monday, missions, prayer, YWAM
Many people would like to pray for missions, other countries, and different prayer needs. Where can you find such information?
One tool I know about provides this and a whole lot more.
Youth With A Mission produces a Personal Prayer Diary each year. It comes in a nice day planner with areas for notes, calendars, articles about Kingdom issues, as well as information about every country and specific prayer highlights each month. The diary also has a Bible reading plan that takes one through the Old and New Testaments once and Psalms and Proverbs several times.
The diary also includes an encouragement to pray for the Seven Spheres of Influence that I’ve talked about before. Each day of the week is reserved to lift up concerns regarding Church and Religion, Family, Government and Law, Education, Science/Health/Environment, Business, and Media and the Arts.
I’ve used this for years, although often sporadically. This year I am committed to diligence in praying for the daily topics. I know many people are tied to their electronic devices, but this slim and durable book is a more than a planner – it has the potential to impact the world if people use it to pray for the nations.
Right now they’re only $11.89 at the World Christian store, and I’ve seen it listed on Amazon as well. Check it out if you’d like a simple way to make a difference!
—
by Jason Joyner | Jan 3, 2012 | alliterate much?, Athena Grayson, Blog, blogging, Free Friday, Mission Monday, Writing Wednesday
An announcement!
I’ve been blogging since 2006. I’ve posted regularly for quite a while, but in the last half of 2011, I started struggling. I didn’t always have inspiration for a post. I questioned whether I should continue with this blog, as I am working on a novel and wondered about splitting my writing time.
Friends encouraged me to continue, and I know that an author needs a presence online to help chances of publication in this brave new world of books and ebooks. Even with this, I limped to the end of the year.
|
| Keepin’ it fresh, yo? |
What do I do? How to keep it fresh after 5+ years of blogging?
Good ideas are worth stealing, and I’m going to borrow an idea from my writing and geekery friend
Athena Grayson and her blog. She has themed days that keeps her going with a structure and regular posts. That’s what will happen here at Spoiled For The Ordinary.
1.
Mission Mondays. I started this blog without much of an idea of a theme. Over time I wanted to bring out ideas and news about missions and being a world Christian. The time I spent in missions
led to the title of this blog and a radical change in life for me. Now I will be deliberate with it and highlight different stories related to the mission of God’s Kingdom on Mondays.
2.
Writing Wednesdays. The other major focus of this blog is on writing. I talk about my writing journey, Christian fiction issues, and publishing in general. Heaven knows writing blogs are a dime a dozen out there. Still, I’m interested in the process and will continue to add my own 2 cents to the never-ending flow of words – because writers never met a word they didn’t like (maybe “actually” is getting there, but I digress).
3.
Free Fridays.
Freedom! I’m not limiting myself here. I can post random stuff. I’m not committing myself. There may or may not be content on Fridays. Because I am giving myself that freedom. Nuff said.
There will be breaks in this. I am a regular contributor to the
Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy tour, which routinely runs Mondays through Wednesdays. This will supercede things when I participate.
I hope this helps me keep motivated and lets readers know what to expect and when to find things. I’m excited for 2012, and I want to continue on this journey with all of you. Yes, you in the back as well. Okay, even you Mark.
Here we go…
—
by Jason Joyner | Jan 3, 2012 | alliterate much?, Athena Grayson, Blog, blogging, Free Friday, Mission Monday, Writing Wednesday
An announcement!
I’ve been blogging since 2006. I’ve posted regularly for quite a while, but in the last half of 2011, I started struggling. I didn’t always have inspiration for a post. I questioned whether I should continue with this blog, as I am working on a novel and wondered about splitting my writing time.
Friends encouraged me to continue, and I know that an author needs a presence online to help chances of publication in this brave new world of books and ebooks. Even with this, I limped to the end of the year.
|
| Keepin’ it fresh, yo? |
What do I do? How to keep it fresh after 5+ years of blogging?
Good ideas are worth stealing, and I’m going to borrow an idea from my writing and geekery friend
Athena Grayson and her blog. She has themed days that keeps her going with a structure and regular posts. That’s what will happen here at Spoiled For The Ordinary.
1.
Mission Mondays. I started this blog without much of an idea of a theme. Over time I wanted to bring out ideas and news about missions and being a world Christian. The time I spent in missions
led to the title of this blog and a radical change in life for me. Now I will be deliberate with it and highlight different stories related to the mission of God’s Kingdom on Mondays.
2.
Writing Wednesdays. The other major focus of this blog is on writing. I talk about my writing journey, Christian fiction issues, and publishing in general. Heaven knows writing blogs are a dime a dozen out there. Still, I’m interested in the process and will continue to add my own 2 cents to the never-ending flow of words – because writers never met a word they didn’t like (maybe “actually” is getting there, but I digress).
3.
Free Fridays.
Freedom! I’m not limiting myself here. I can post random stuff. I’m not committing myself. There may or may not be content on Fridays. Because I am giving myself that freedom. Nuff said.
There will be breaks in this. I am a regular contributor to the
Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy tour, which routinely runs Mondays through Wednesdays. This will supercede things when I participate.
I hope this helps me keep motivated and lets readers know what to expect and when to find things. I’m excited for 2012, and I want to continue on this journey with all of you. Yes, you in the back as well. Okay, even you Mark.
Here we go…
—
by Jason Joyner | Dec 31, 2011 | Blog, Mission Monday, peg-leg jeans, Thailand
Welcome 2012! Tuesday I will be talking about something new for Spoiled For The Ordinary. Here’s a teaser – a story only God can write!
—
Twenty years ago I was part of something that became pretty incredible. It started with listening to God and a hunger for pizza.
I was on a Discipleship Training School (DTS) outreach through Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Montana. We had two different teams, and my group was in Chanthaburi, Thailand during Dec/Jan of ’91/’92. It was a great group of people – single men and women, married couples, and families that were all strangers a few months ago, coming together to learn what it means to serve God overseas.
Chanthaburi is a neat city, but it is small enough that it didn’t have any Western food outlets at the time (No McDonalds or KFC sadly – or maybe not). We enjoyed the Thai diet of rice, vegetables, fish and chicken, but comfort foods are magnified when a few thousand miles from home.
One day a few of my teammates really had a craving for pizza. We had a few translators with us, and somehow they found out about an Italian restaurant in town. They hailed a taxi and made it there for lunch.
I heard the pizzas were interesting – no tomato sauce, so they improvised with ketchup.
However, the owner spoke English and was intrigued by the foreigners visiting his establishment. Chanthaburi is not a hot spot for tourism, so we did stand out. It turned out he was quite the businessman, and he also owned a disco in another part of the city. It also turned out that we had a group of musicians in our team – some of these guys were sick!
The businessman was excited, and asked if we could play for his disco. No big deal, right?
Our show date was New Year’s Eve, 1991.
The musicians in our group enjoyed scouring the markets to see what Thai music tastes were like. At that time they ran towards Credence Clearwater Revival, Phil Collins, and Richard Marx. Interesting.
They put together a set of songs from these artists plus some up-tempo worship choruses. A few of the songs lent themselves to a horn section. We had a really good sax player. Then there was me. I brought my trumpet, but I was more concert-trained. Where was my sheet music? I muddled through, and they humored me and let me play with them! We had three guitarists, but they were so good one switched to drums and another to bass to fill out our band. We were christened – “Lightforce”!
December 31st came, and we drove up in taxis to the disco location.
That’s when our leader’s chin hit the ground.
He had been on another outreach to Chanthaburi about three years prior. He remembered being on this street – the town’s small red-light district. He knew the disco.
Their group had prayed that this disco would be used to glorify God. That His praises would be lifted in this place.
We were there to do exactly that.
We serve an amazing God, who knows what is coming three years down the road when we are praying over a building in a foreign city, that something will happen. He can use even a craving for pizza. Shoot, our leader wasn’t originally scheduled to come to Thailand with us. He joined up as a co-leader to help out as our other leaders were first-timers as far as leading an outreach. If he hadn’t joined us, we wouldn’t know that God was cooking up something.
Something greater than pizza even.
 |
| That’s me on the left rocking the peg-leg jeans. And I still have hair! |
—
by Jason Joyner | Dec 31, 2011 | Blog, Mission Monday, peg-leg jeans, Thailand
Welcome 2012! Tuesday I will be talking about something new for Spoiled For The Ordinary. Here’s a teaser – a story only God can write!
—
Twenty years ago I was part of something that became pretty incredible. It started with listening to God and a hunger for pizza.
I was on a Discipleship Training School (DTS) outreach through Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Montana. We had two different teams, and my group was in Chanthaburi, Thailand during Dec/Jan of ’91/’92. It was a great group of people – single men and women, married couples, and families that were all strangers a few months ago, coming together to learn what it means to serve God overseas.
Chanthaburi is a neat city, but it is small enough that it didn’t have any Western food outlets at the time (No McDonalds or KFC sadly – or maybe not). We enjoyed the Thai diet of rice, vegetables, fish and chicken, but comfort foods are magnified when a few thousand miles from home.
One day a few of my teammates really had a craving for pizza. We had a few translators with us, and somehow they found out about an Italian restaurant in town. They hailed a taxi and made it there for lunch.
I heard the pizzas were interesting – no tomato sauce, so they improvised with ketchup.
However, the owner spoke English and was intrigued by the foreigners visiting his establishment. Chanthaburi is not a hot spot for tourism, so we did stand out. It turned out he was quite the businessman, and he also owned a disco in another part of the city. It also turned out that we had a group of musicians in our team – some of these guys were sick!
The businessman was excited, and asked if we could play for his disco. No big deal, right?
Our show date was New Year’s Eve, 1991.
The musicians in our group enjoyed scouring the markets to see what Thai music tastes were like. At that time they ran towards Credence Clearwater Revival, Phil Collins, and Richard Marx. Interesting.
They put together a set of songs from these artists plus some up-tempo worship choruses. A few of the songs lent themselves to a horn section. We had a really good sax player. Then there was me. I brought my trumpet, but I was more concert-trained. Where was my sheet music? I muddled through, and they humored me and let me play with them! We had three guitarists, but they were so good one switched to drums and another to bass to fill out our band. We were christened – “Lightforce”!
December 31st came, and we drove up in taxis to the disco location.
That’s when our leader’s chin hit the ground.
He had been on another outreach to Chanthaburi about three years prior. He remembered being on this street – the town’s small red-light district. He knew the disco.
Their group had prayed that this disco would be used to glorify God. That His praises would be lifted in this place.
We were there to do exactly that.
We serve an amazing God, who knows what is coming three years down the road when we are praying over a building in a foreign city, that something will happen. He can use even a craving for pizza. Shoot, our leader wasn’t originally scheduled to come to Thailand with us. He joined up as a co-leader to help out as our other leaders were first-timers as far as leading an outreach. If he hadn’t joined us, we wouldn’t know that God was cooking up something.
Something greater than pizza even.
|
| That’s me on the left rocking the peg-leg jeans. And I still have hair! |
—
