Jason Vana: Becoming a Better Man

Greater Than You Know →

http://www.igniteyourcampus.com/greater-than-you-know

<p><a href=”http://www.igniteyourcampus.com/greater-than-you-know”><img alt=”Photo Credit: Flickr User kelsey_lovefusionphoto (Creative Commons)” class=”size-full wp-image-4605” height=”335” src=”http://www.jasonvana.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/impact_blog.jpg” width=”580” /></a><br />Photo Credit: Flickr User <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/supersonicphotos/4154108514/” target=”_blank”>kelsey_lovefusionphoto</a>(Creative Commons)</p>

<p>It’s difficult for us to see the impact we have on people’s lives.</p>

<p>Sure, there are those we can easily point to and see the impact we’ve made.</p>

<p>The friend who came to Christ after your conversation.<br />The coworker who is now going to church because you invited him.<br />The young person who is beginning to like how God created them because of your mentoring.</p>

<p>Those are easy to see. We can point to the fruit in their lives and know the difference we’ve made.</p>

<p>But what about the people we pour into once or twice and don’t see again?<br />What about the friends who don’t change right away?</p>

<p>That impact is much more difficult to see.<br />But it doesn’t mean an impact wasn’t made.</p>

<p><a href=”http://www.igniteyourcampus.com/greater-than-you-know” target=”_blank”>Continue Reading…</a></p>

Greater Than You Know →

Photo Credit: Flickr User kelsey_lovefusionphoto(Creative Commons)

It’s difficult for us to see the impact we have on people’s lives.

Sure, there are those we can easily point to and see the impact we’ve made.

The friend who came to Christ after your conversation.
The coworker who is now going to church because you invited him.
The young person who is beginning to like how God created them because of your mentoring.

Those are easy to see. We can point to the fruit in their lives and know the difference we’ve made.

But what about the people we pour into once or twice and don’t see again?
What about the friends who don’t change right away?

That impact is much more difficult to see.
But it doesn’t mean an impact wasn’t made.

Continue Reading…

Brokenness Redeemed →

Photo Credit: iStockPhoto.com

We’re all broken. We all have flaws. We all know those places in our lives we’d rather forget.

The recurring sin we can’t seem to break.
The heartbreak we endured at the hand of a friend.
The nagging insecurity, fear, or doubt.
The deep, dark secret we’re convinced no one could handle knowing about.
The broken relationship, broken dream, broken hope.

We’re all flawed, broken, and riddled with scars.
It’s part of the human experience.

It can be easy to look at our brokenness and feel disqualified to do, well, anything. We think if people know how we were broken, if they knew our flaws, if they knew the areas we continue to stumble in, they wouldn’t trust us. Or like us. Or allow us to speak into their lives.

So we hide our faults.
Bury our shame.
And convince ourselves we’ve messed up too much to be of any value to the kingdom of God.

Read more and join the conversation!

Brokenness Redeemed →

Photo Credit: iStockPhoto.com

We’re all broken. We all have flaws. We all know those places in our lives we’d rather forget.

The recurring sin we can’t seem to break.
The heartbreak we endured at the hand of a friend.
The nagging insecurity, fear, or doubt.
The deep, dark secret we’re convinced no one could handle knowing about.
The broken relationship, broken dream, broken hope.

We’re all flawed, broken, and riddled with scars.
It’s part of the human experience.

It can be easy to look at our brokenness and feel disqualified to do, well, anything. We think if people know how we were broken, if they knew our flaws, if they knew the areas we continue to stumble in, they wouldn’t trust us. Or like us. Or allow us to speak into their lives.

So we hide our faults.
Bury our shame.
And convince ourselves we’ve messed up too much to be of any value to the kingdom of God.

Read more and join the conversation!

A Needed Word →

Photo Credit: Blue Eye Brown Eye (Buy this card online!)

I have this image that God is embracing you right now.

I felt His presence around me as my friend spoke those words. I had asked a couple of guys to pray for me before we started the first session of the Ignite Encounter Retreat. I always ask for prayer before I get ready to speak. It helps me focus, prepares me to speak what God has put on my heart, and sets the atmosphere in the room, but I wasn’t expecting this.

God’s presence began surrounding me in a tangible way. I could feel His arms around me, His head next to my ear. Then I heard the words that would become God’s encouragement to me this weekend:

I’m proud of you.

Read more and join the conversation!

A Needed Word →

Photo Credit: Blue Eye Brown Eye (Buy this card online!)

I have this image that God is embracing you right now.

I felt His presence around me as my friend spoke those words. I had asked a couple of guys to pray for me before we started the first session of the Ignite Encounter Retreat. I always ask for prayer before I get ready to speak. It helps me focus, prepares me to speak what God has put on my heart, and sets the atmosphere in the room, but I wasn’t expecting this.

God’s presence began surrounding me in a tangible way. I could feel His arms around me, His head next to my ear. Then I heard the words that would become God’s encouragement to me this weekend:

I’m proud of you.

Read more and join the conversation!

Greater Things →

Background Photo Credit: www.bucharestdailyphoto.com

For greater things have yet to come 
And greater things are still to be done in this City

The words stuck in my throat as we belted out the song. The others in the car didn’t hear me trying to choke out those lyrics. At least, they didn’t seem to give any sign that they heard. This song holds a special place in my heart - and has become my song for Europe.

Greater Things

Read more and join the conversation!

Greater Things →

Background Photo Credit: www.bucharestdailyphoto.com

For greater things have yet to come 
And greater things are still to be done in this City

The words stuck in my throat as we belted out the song. The others in the car didn’t hear me trying to choke out those lyrics. At least, they didn’t seem to give any sign that they heard. This song holds a special place in my heart - and has become my song for Europe.

Greater Things

Read more and join the conversation!

A Whispered Reminder →

 

The past few days in Romania have been pretty powerful.

God has shown up in some powerful ways, opening doors of ministry and opportunity that only He could open. During our small group party Saturday night, while one of our team members shared his story of coming to Christ, an opportunity arose for the Agapia church members to really explain the importance of salvation and baptism to some Orthodox members of the group. We’ve had a few conversations with people in the streets as we’ve handed out fliers to our Practice Your English workshops. God has used those fliers, which can be very ineffective, to bring individuals to our workshops who never heard about the church and who aren’t believing Christians. We’ve spoken into people’s lives, are building relationships with people each night, and saw an open door tonight for the pastor of the church to share about Christ with one of the attendees of our workshop.

We even had an open door with the community center where the church meets to have the name of Ignite, the name of Agapia church, and our personal names typed up and presented before the mayor of Bucharest. The President of the community center was so moved that we came from America and were willing to paint doors in the community center, that she asked for us to type up a paragraph in both English and Romanian explaining who we are, what we did for them, and why we did it so she could take it before the mayor of Bucharest.

It’s been an amazing trip.

Read more about this trip!

A Whispered Reminder →

 

The past few days in Romania have been pretty powerful.

God has shown up in some powerful ways, opening doors of ministry and opportunity that only He could open. During our small group party Saturday night, while one of our team members shared his story of coming to Christ, an opportunity arose for the Agapia church members to really explain the importance of salvation and baptism to some Orthodox members of the group. We’ve had a few conversations with people in the streets as we’ve handed out fliers to our Practice Your English workshops. God has used those fliers, which can be very ineffective, to bring individuals to our workshops who never heard about the church and who aren’t believing Christians. We’ve spoken into people’s lives, are building relationships with people each night, and saw an open door tonight for the pastor of the church to share about Christ with one of the attendees of our workshop.

We even had an open door with the community center where the church meets to have the name of Ignite, the name of Agapia church, and our personal names typed up and presented before the mayor of Bucharest. The President of the community center was so moved that we came from America and were willing to paint doors in the community center, that she asked for us to type up a paragraph in both English and Romanian explaining who we are, what we did for them, and why we did it so she could take it before the mayor of Bucharest.

It’s been an amazing trip.

Read more about this trip!