Zach Sminkey
Zachery Sminkey's Mission Year Blog Page!!!
Hi Everyone! My name is Zachery Pangburn Sminkey… or just Zack for short. I’m not really a huge fan of writing about myself, or blogging for that matter, but for the sake of letting y’all know about me, and why I’m doing mission year, I know I have to. I’m a soon to be 20 year old 6 foot 2 inch 300 lb bearded man. Well, that covers the physical aspect. Internally, first and foremost, I’m a son of The King, and have accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Growing up in a non-Christian home, I didn’t grow up a Christian, but God’s blessed me with a fire for Him since being saved in 2004. I enjoy watching football, playing football, acting, singing, as well as foreign food (Indian food, and Greek Food is DA BOMB!) I consider myself a pacifist, and am very much anti-war. I believe as Christians we should follow Christs command to love even our enemies, and because of that I believe we should never start conflicts such as wars that lead to people losing their lives. Instead, we should help the poor, and be a light in this dark world we live in. Well, getting off of myself, I also must mention I have a sister and a father who live in Japan, and I lived there 10 years. My mom passed away last year from cancer and is now in heaven with Jesus Christ. I seriously cannot wait to see her in heaven again. Well, that’s me in a nutshell, and now on to why I’m doing Mission Year.
I love people. I love God. And I want to share with those people who I love the love of God, which I believe all of us need. Jesus Christ is the life the truth and the way. People need him. And oh my goodness, do the poor need Him even more so! Life is difficult enough having basic needs. I can’t fathom the difficulty of poverty COMBINED with having no hope for the future through Jesus Christ. I want to share that hope to people through loving them. I want to be a light in the darkness by the power of Jesus Christ. :)
Well, Thanks for reading this about me section thingy. I thank you for the time spent, because I know that’s a pretty precious commodity. I pray God takes care of you and your family through whatever you may be going through. :) God Bless.
Love In Christ, Zack SminkeyAbout 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…
Zach Sminkey's Blog
My Walk With Christ & Bastketball / Nov 18, 12:13 PM
So I was just watching Curtis play some basketball and he was saying how he’s frustrated how he isn’t playing at the level he did in highschool. “It was just so natural” I heard him say. And it made me think….
Do things ever become natural?
Yeah, I know that things may feel more smooth, it may even FEEL more natural. You may even be better at certain things to start with, but even those need work. I’m talking about my walk with Christ here. I’m always going to have a flesh, I’m always going to have something pulling on me to be selfish and want to do things for myself and not God. Yeah, by following God and being more obedient, surrendering to Him more and more It’s going to be easier to surrender and trust God with things more and more. But I can’t end there. I need to CONTINUE to practice my relationship with God just as Curtis may need to practice his basketball. That’s how doing things for God will feel more natural. Loving (The way Christ loved) will feel more natural because I’ll hear God’s voice more and more. It may not BE natural because I’m a sinful human by nature with faults, but It’ll feel it because of Christ in me. I just need to remember to stay strong with my relationship with God in unceasing prayer & studying His word. :)
On another note please pray for our team. We’re really going under some trials right now with crazy things happening left and right. Pray that we’ll be reminded of
1 Pet 4:12-13 which reads:
“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”
Praise God for Mission Year and everything that’s going on! :D
Men's BBQ, Choir Musical, Studying With Elder Hayes & Men's Choir! / Oct 20, 11:53 AM
So a few new things have happened since my last blog entry. From Men’s BBQ at the pastors house to watching a choir musical at the church, having a one on one study with Elder Hayes, and even joining & singing with the men’s choir at church! Life’s been pretty exciting. Also a quick note that we’re finally going to get to start at Carver Highschool next week! This is a HUGE praise, for we’ve been waiting and waiting the paper work to go through, and it finally has. Let me expand on the other four things though.
Just to keep this in Chronological order as to what’s been going on, a few Fridays back our church had a choir musical. Which is basically like a Choir concert. Tons of Choirs from different churches came to our church and sang. It was a huge blessing to be ministered by them. It even got me really pumped to join our church choir. (more on that later) it was just good stuff.
So we had a men’s BBQ at the senior pastor’s house a few Saturdays back. And MAN! The food was awesome. Ribs, Chicken, Burgers, Hot Dogs, Potato Salad & Beans. Not to mention those Chicken & Ribs had Pastor Willis’ secret sauce on them! They were delicious. Even better then the food though, was the fact that even though at first I was socially closing up as I said in the last blog happened at the park picnic, (basically when I was on a school bus when I was younger and just got back from Japan I was made fun of and forced to sit on the floor. Most of the kids on the bus were extroverted black and puerto rican kids. Since then I’ve been terrified of the bus. God’s healed me of my fears of school buses, but I still think there needs to be more racial healing done in my life. I need to know it wasn’t those kids race. It was just though kids.), I was able to come out of my shell and fellowship thanks to prayer. It was awesome! And I praise God for that. And I was even able to ask Elder Hayes if he would talk to me every other monday or like once a month about the bible with me. And he said yes! Let me tell you how the first time with him went next.
Elder Hayes is awesome. He knows the Bible inside and out, and has been in the church 35 years. He’s very open about his past as well. So when he came over Monday we talked about the Bible. The topic we talked about? Predestination. The pastor had talked about it the last Sunday, and I totally ignored him, and shut down. I don’t want to do that to a fellow brother in the Lord even though i don’t believe it. So I talked to Elder Hayes about it. And now I have a peace. I can love my brothers who believe in it through that. It was exciting. Elder Hayes even lent me a book to read on all different kinds of issues and I’m excited about it.
Finally, the most recent thing to happen… I sang in the choir this morning! It was awesome! We sang two of my new favorite songs, Immanuel & My God Can Do Anything. Me and Tristan we’re the only white people up there. Pastor Willis said these brother’s up here are getting some color in them. hahaha. It awesome and I just love praising God in music. :)
So yepp, that’s all the new exciting stuff going on. Please continue to pray for me, and thank you for your support. Much Love in Chirst. God Bless. :)
D.V. ZackUpdate from New Orleans! / Oct 13, 11:14 AM
So a bunch of things have been going on here at New Orleans! I’ve finally decided what I’m going to be doing for my service sites, (though one of them I’m still waiting on for paper work), I’m getting to know people at my church and with Desire Street Ministries a little better, and all and I’m just getting situated better. Let me expand.
For what I’m going to be doing, I decided I’m going to be helping out here at DSM every Tuesday and Thursday, and I’m going to help out at the nearby high school, Carver High, on Wednesday and Friday. The high school is what I’m waiting on paper work for. As far as helping out here, I’ve been doing a bunch of different odd jobs. I shoveled mulch for a garden one day. I trimmed a fence full of grass with a trimmer the other day. I’ve also surveyed houses DSM is looking to buy so they can rebuild and sell to people at a cheap cost, and what I’ve found most rewarding, we’ve handed out flyers for the free health care van that comes here every Thursday from 8-3. To do that, I go out with one of the volunteer’s here at the ministry, Val, and put up the flyers on poles and then talk to people when they ask us. With many people not having health insurance in the area it’s been a huge out reach opportunity. It’s been cool working with DSM, and I can’t wait to start at the high school soon as well.
Speaking of DSM though, it’s been cool getting to know the staff here at DSM, from Dwana & Stacy & Oscar who kind of run the after school program thing, to Mr. Roney who does the grounds work, to Val who does out reach, and Marsha who’s in charge. They’ve all been a blessing to me in their own way, and I can’t wait to get to know them better. People from my church, namely the preaching staff of Pastor Willis and Elder Hayes, has also been a blessing as well. :)
We also had a picnic at a near by park Saturday, with free Po-Boys, Jumbalaya, and dessert. I was hoping to reach out to my neighbors more at that point, but I shut down and couldn’t extend myself. Through this curriculum book were reading called Restoring At Risk Communities: Doing It Together & Doing It Right I realized that might have to do with a past experience I had with race. And Race IS a huge issue I feel we as Christians need to STILL look at. (I’ll expand on that in a future blog). Just wanted to explain that’s why I didn’t reach out too much at the picnic. It was a good time though. And the lesson I learned that race DOES affect my actions was very important. Please DO pray I can over come that and be reconciled to others of different race this year. I feel it’s above me, and I definitely need God’s help.
So I know this was a lot of information in one blog so I’ll leave it at that. I hope all y’all are doing well. I love you guys very much. God Bless. :)
In Christ, Zack Sminkey
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Public Transportation= Walking / Sep 22, 03:35 PM
So I figured I would post another update on New Orleans. We’re still living the 12 of us at our home in Desire, and no, I still don’t know where I’ll be volunteering at just yet. haha. We have basically just been chilling around our neighborhood, doing church stuff etc etc. Last Friday we had a public transportation day though, so this is what this blog is about.
Public transportation day is basically a day where we got 5 bus tokens, and then had to visit all different places around New Orleans. We had to visit 17 places in all. I was cool with that notion, as we got to see th French Quarter and all that… but unfortunately, the bus schedule wasn’t very often…. so we ended up having to walk a lot. 10 miles total to be exact. It was very tiring, and difficult being fat as I am. Another difficult thing about it was that it was raining. I was dripping wet, and one of the girls even slipped and fell at one point. It was fun. Well, it was in a sense as we got to visit places. But not so much in other ways. :P
New Orleans though has been a blessing to be a part of. I still really love my church, and it’s been nice being a part of the Desire neighborhood. Hopefully I’ll have more to tell y’all in a while. God Bless, and do keep me in your prayers. Much love in Christ.
D.V. Zachery Sminkey
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Arriving in New Orleans / Sep 22, 11:19 AM
Hey Guys! I know I haven’t really written a blog since missionyear started so I’m pretty excited! My team is officially in New Orleans now! I live in this house next to this ministry called Desire Street Ministry’s with 11 other people. (Well, 5 on a regular bases, but one of the New Orleans teams had problems with their plumbing so their staying with us for now.) It’s pretty awesome.
The training camp at Atlanta on this farm with mission year was awesome. Worship with a great bunch of people my age, 94 people from around the country doing mission year in different cities. Training sessions with a bunch of speakers. And also just devotions in the morning. It set the tone right for New Orleans.
Once in New Orleans it’s been kinda different. It’s been slow for now, but it’s been nice getting to know people in my community. I go to a Baptist Church (where we stick out as a team… if you know what I mean) but the people there are awesome. Church service was great, we went to the men’s ministry last night, and are going to bible study tonight. I hope to find a service site to work at soon as well. Oh! And we found out there having this picnic with free food and music at a near by park saturday as well. I cannot wait!
Anyway, just thought I would give a quick update. I feel it may be hard to get online often so I thought I would while I had the chance. Love you all in Christ.
D.V. Zachery Sminkey
