Teenagers who scale mountains, wake up at 5 a.m. on their own accord, cook and clean their own meals, research the mysterious of God, can it really be real? Well our superstar Seekers showed that given the tools and the opportunities, they truly can excel. Come read how in our 2016 Awakening Trip Recap.
The unexpected theme of our 2015-16 Intro trip. Primitive weaponry, 40 foot accessions in 20+ mph winds and 40 degrees, moonlight fireside talks, and mouthwatering healthy Texas style chili illuminate the tales we experienced. Come read and get a feel for yourself what in means to begin seeking after truth.
Last week we looked at how the art of giving is a practice, sometimes a difficult one, but one that has some immeasurable rewards at the end. These rewards come in various forms. This could be better health as the Berkeley study found, or seeing the results of your gift manifest in a life transformed. However, the best way for you to see just how Veritas Life Adventures is a part of this giving practice, and it’s immeasurable rewards, is to hear from a continual giver to Veritas Life Adventures, Jeff, and the life he helped change in Conner Jansen, a 4 year Seeker and graduate of Veritas Life Adventures.
The practitioner: Jeff Montgomery
Giving is choice. It is not always easy, and it comes at a cost, but the reward is immeasurable. Giving inexorably links you to the plight of another and that practice dislodges self-centered thinking that can become toxic. The Bible teaches not only to tithe and give to church; but also to be cheerful givers, even outside the church. I believe that the reason for this is to take your focus off of yourself and to participate in the world that surrounds you. These beliefs are what motivate me to give to Veritas Life Adventures, which is involved in raising leaders who have the tools to go and change the world.
If you want to find a charitable cause to give to, start with one that I support, and that can make the world that you live in a better place. That is the end result in empowering young men and women to grow in physical, nutritional, and spiritual health; so that they can embark on a journey to make a positive impact on the world they live in.
The Immeasurable reward: Conner Jansen
Conner in his first year with Veritas 2012.
Conner and Grant on the Forging trip his Veritas graduating year: 3 years later and 20 lbs. lighter...due to his improvements in all three aspects!
Four years ago, my main goal in life was to get Prestige on Call of Duty and eat an entire large Pizza on my own. I was involved in my church, but there were key things in my faith that were missing. I had a foundation, but I wasn’t building on top of that. All of that was about to change when I joined Veritas Life Adventures.
The first I heard of Veritas was from my youth pastor, Gary Malone. I was skeptical at first, but then I decided to take a risk. Since then, Veritas has continued to mold and change my life for the better through the three main aspects that Veritas focuses on: the physical, nutritional, and emotional/spiritual. One of the great things Veritas has taught me is that to be truly healthy, you need all three in balance.
First, I want to talk about the physical aspect. This is, I think, is the most obvious of changes in my life. When I started, I had no desire to do any physical activity, but through Veritas, that all changed. Through a lot of hard work and determination, Veritas has given me the knowledge and habits needed to maintain an active lifestyle. Today, I actually enjoy being active and have improved so much since then.
I remember going on my first backpacking trip and struggling through everything. Now, I can get through, still with some struggle, but I don’t need to take a break every five steps.
Nutrition is another aspect. When I started, I never thought about the nutrition facts on the back of the things that tasted delicious, and I hated anything that has color in it (ie: vegetables). I never even considered cooking. Then, when I joined Veritas, I started to see everything that I was doing to my body by eating bad things. I started to love cooking for my family and involving vegetables in my everyday life. Then, I started to see my body react in better ways. I was able to do workouts more easily when I didn’t eat Whataburger right before and instead ate an apple. My acne, although not completely clear, lightened up. My life took another turn with the gift of food Veritas presented to me.
The last aspect I changed in was my spiritual/emotional. When I started with Veritas, I had a foundation of a very basic love for Christ, but not anything much past that. I hated reading, I didn’t like deep conversations, and my world ended at my TV screen. Veritas showed me that there is so much more to life than just what I was seeing. I was able to build my faith in Christ and my intellectual thought was given food and strength. Now my faith in Christ is as strong as ever, but another thing Veritas has showed me is that you can never stop improving on yourself. So I continue to build in my faith in Christ. I have been asked to lead Bible studies in high school and now in college, I look for Bible Studies around campus. Ever since I was given the gift of Veritas I have never stopped growing.
Veritas has changed my life in unimaginable ways, and I am forever thankful for that. Our group trips have given me memories and experiences that will live with me forever. Veritas has given me the leadership qualities and self-confidence I needed to stand out from the crowd and follow my dream of helping deaf people. Veritas has given me everything I needed to be the person I am today.
Now is your chance to keep Seeker transformations like Conner's continuing on Thursday, September 17th from 6 am to midnight online with North Texas Giving day. Every dollar will be matched up to $10,000 and every $25 dollar gift, or more, will have a percentage match as well! Challenge your practice of the art of giving, and find your immeasurable reward here.
The History:
A man stands alone, really little more than a boy, his nation at his back defeated and dismayed. A giant stands before, the epitome of the word in every way, the pride of His nation that is behind him, just waiting to devour and destroy all the man boy holds dear. The man boy, David, stands; equipped with only a small sling, a stone, and a faith he holds which is all that keeps him standing. David stands, one man, courageous and steadfast, the sling spins, the stone flies, and the giant falls. One man, with one act, inspires and saves a nation.
One woman, compelled by the needs and suffering of the less fortunate in the world, armed only with her compassion, faith, and support of others for the tools of her work, takes it upon herself give of her life completely. She utterly pours out of herself to those who need love and the sheer basics of life. Her generosity, charity, and good works singularly elevate the standard of giving and becomes the benchmark name, that all who feel the tug at their soul to give, have at the tip of their tongue: Mother Theresa.
A culture drives itself towards perfection, and in doing so reduces the value of lives seen as imperfect, encouraging the discarding of its undesirable young to level of “infanticide.” One man, brokenhearted but not broken over this tragedy decides to take in all the “unwanted” that he can. He does so through a ‘drop box’ where those who make the decision to give up their unwanted child can anonymously drop the child off; thus retaining their dignity even through a difficult decision. This pastor, Lee Jong-rak, literally saves multitudes of precious infant lives, who have no power to decide for themselves whether or not they are wanted or what they are worth, by his ‘drop-box’ ministry.
One God gives to humanity His only Son. This Son gathers and trains a few, some skilled some unskilled, some upstanding some despised; men that take His teachings and change the course of human history and its future forever. This Son, Jesus Christ, lived and taught the love of the God who created all life and its’ systems, gave his life to the point of public execution without committing a single crime, and raised again so that all would have a way to know and love the God who sent Him.
The result:
Lets face it, our world, our history, our design, and most of our truly inspirational and influential accomplishments are marked by ‘the one’ and not ‘the many’. An entire nation was saved by a harp playing shepherd, thousands were helped and cared for by the compassion of a single nun, multitudes of unwanted babies were saved by one man’s desire to love the unloved, and the way was provided for all of us to have a relationship with our Creator by the sacrificial love of His only Son.
In a world that likes to determine its success by the quantity it affects, provides, and accomplishes it might be prudent to take a step back and look to the quality for a change. It just might be that we find it was the quality of these singular men and woman, or the small group of misfits under Jesus’ tutelage, who decided to make a change around them, which impacted the many. We might realize that it is not just ‘the many’ who can make large transformations. That it could be argued based on the previous and so many other examples, that ‘the one’ or even the few have a far greater, further reaching effect on the communities around them: even the world.
One of the most frequent questions Veritas Life Adventures gets is, “Why do you only take 10 kids a year, shouldn’t you want to affect as many as you can, at least more than 10?” To which my answer is, “Of course we want to affect more, which is why we only take 10.” Because we understand from these past examples, if we gain 10 youth who have a drive and potential to be the leaders of tomorrow and take the in-depth time and effort to equip them with the tools and opportunity to do so; then they will be the names our future generations will read about, aspire to, and learn from on how they impacted humanity.
Do we not desire and see the positive effects of smaller teacher to student ratios in our public schools?
Have you ever been shocked by the change you saw when you were instructed by a personal trainer compared to doing large class workouts?
This is why we know that keeping our goal of training ten Seekers a year in the program will have a far better outcome. That from these ten Seekers, tens of thousands they later lead will be motivated to change and grow, just as they were through the program.
Because they are ‘a’ soul, a potential great soul, created in the image of God, both fearfully and wondrously made. Made for a purpose, be it great or small, yet to be fulfilled.
So you tell me which is greater, ‘the one’ or ‘the many’? …
Or maybe, just maybe, we should start seeing it as ‘the one’ for the flourishing of ‘the many’!
