Daniel Buys
Nice to meet you!
Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out my blog. I hope to use this space to give everyone a little window into my life as I embark on this radical new adventure called Mission Year. I guess I will start by giving you a little look into where I’m coming from.
I have grown up in Grand Rapids Michigan for most of my life. I am 18 and just graduated from high school this past May. I was blessed enough to attend a little school called The Potter’s House from second grade on. At my school, I experienced the awesome diversity of God’s kingdom; as a white male, I was often a minority. In the 150 students in my high school, there were at least 15 different countries represented! Through this experience, God has molded my heart with a soft spot for people of other races and nationalities. There is nothing that gives me more joy than loving others and learning from different people!
I hope you are beginning to see why I have decided to participate in the Mission Year program…or rather why God has willed this as the next step in my life. To be honest, I had a whole different plan for my life. I had everything planned out and I was pretty comfortable with myself. I have begun to realize God’s calling for me to live outside of my comfort zone in order to further His Kingdom. So, here I am, preparing to head off to Chicago where I will be stationed for my Mission Year and I am excited! I can’t wait to meet all my neighbors and build relationships with them. I look forward to sharing in their joys but also in their sorrows. I truly look forward to the challenges and I pray that God will give me the strength to embrace them and learn from them. Most of all, I look forward to doing my best to live out Matthew 22:37-40 where Jesus explains: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” I have so much to learn and I can’t wait to get started.
Thank you for showing enough interest in my life to read this blog entry. This Mission Year experience does not come free, so if you would be interested in investing in a strong, Christ centered foundation for my life, please consider donating; the button is just over there on the right. Lastly, I offer you a couple things that you could pray for. Please pray that:
-God will continue to prepare my heart for all the changes He will make in my life during this year.
-I will be humble and accept those changes in my life.
Till later, be blessed and be a blessing! Hasta luego!
About Mission Year
Mission Year is a year long urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship. We take teams of young people, place them in an area of need, and help them to serve people and create community. We are committed to the command of Jesus to “love God and love people,” by placing the needs of our neighbors first and developing committed disciples of Christ with a heart for the poor. Learn more about our first year program…
Daniel Buys's Blog
Yo Quiero Aprender / Nov 5, 02:08 PM
“Yo quiero aprender” is Spanish for “I want to learn.” This is the Spanish phrase I have used the most over the past two months living in La Villita. I deeply desire to know more Spanish. Each day as I am surrounded by people speaking with one another in Spanish, I realize what a significant difference it would make in my ministry to be able to speak to them in their own language. To my advantage, opportunities to learn and practice Spanish are not hard to find around here. The native Spanish speakers here are very eager to help me learn their language. Many of them have expressed how encouraging it is to have someone learn their language rather than constantly badger them to learn English. On that same token, many of them are eager to learn English and enjoy practicing speaking with me. We seem to have a sort of language exchange, teaching each other our own native language. However, this exchange is more than just words. To learn someones language is to learn their culture, and this fosters a connection beyond the primitive conversation shared by two people learning new languages. I must add that such a connection requires significant effort. It requires a deep level of humility to go to someone and try (very feebly) to relate to them in their language. This is something I certainly have not yet attained. Yet, it is something I desperately want to work towards. I want to be able to relate to my neighbors and that means I might look foolish…a lot! But hey, yo quiero aprender.
Updates and Day Dreams / Sep 26, 12:37 PM
So, here I am in Chicago. This whole Mission Year thing that I have been telling you all about for the past several months is actually happening! I am both elated and overwhelmed. But most of all, I am thankful. God has truly blessed me in far too many ways for me to express in a blog post (or in words at all).
My community here is awesome. We have been getting to know a few of our neighbors and they have been very hospitable. We have already attended two birthday parties and have been invited over for Thanks Giving dinner (yes, two months in advance, I am looking forward to that fiesta!). I have had the joy of joining some of the neighborhood kids in playing pick-up soccer games on numerous occasions. Pretty much every parking lot or decent sized slab of concrete is transformed into a soccer field each afternoon. They have warmly welcomed me to come play with them. I see this as a great ministry opportunity and I look forward to getting to know these kids better and showing them God’s love. Our Church here, Nueva Vida (New Life) Community Church, has been extraordinarily welcoming. The staff have invited us into their homes and into their lives and then have really helped us transition into the neighborhood smoothly. God is good, all the time!
I am a day dreamer! I often find myself dreaming of huge success which is not inherently bad. However, the time tables within these day dreams are often far off from being feasible and this fosters impatience in me. My greatest challenge in these past few weeks has been to release those wild dream. I feel right now is a time for me to be open minded, joyfully learning from the struggles I face, embracing the awkwardness, and opening up my whole life to be used without limiting God by my day-dreaming. Granted, this is much easier said than done! I will certainly need your prayers for me as I love, learn, seek, and serve in my new community! I love you all, blessings!
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God's Eyes / Aug 8, 01:03 PM
This summer has gone by so fast! God has challenged and stretched me in so many ways this summer but in each experience, I know that He has prepared me more and more for this coming year that I will spend in the intercity of Chicago.
I little while back, I was hanging out with some friends of mine and we were listening to a Christian radio station. This song came on and it had a nice beat but I didn’t really listen to the words until a friend of mine expressed how much she like the song as she turned it up a little. I began to listen as the artist, Brandon Heath, sung this prayer:
“Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me your heart for the once forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see”
I have tried to make this a personal prayer of mine lately; that God would give me His eyes and His perspective into my everyday life. It is often painful to see through God’s eyes; there is a lot of heart break in this world. Yet, my prayer for this coming year is that first, God will open my eyes to see the heart break and second, God will give me the power to share His love with the broken.
Another area I need to work on viewing through God’s eyes is in the daily challenges and obstacles He places before me. So many times this summer, I have wanted to complain because things weren’t going as I desired. Yet, its not really my desire or my perspective that counts. I have been challenged to seek out the lessons that God is trying to teach me in each experience. I pray that I will be given the grace enough to see things through God’s eyes throughout this coming year.
Check these out for yourself:
James 1:2-3
Matthew 25: 34-36
be blessed and be a blessing! 4 weeks till move in!
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