A new song will be coming this week!!!

Over the summer, God has really brought my attention to Job 38 and 39. I’ve always loved this chapter but it really captivated my heart in a new way. In these passages God is basically putting Job in his place by asking questions like “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?” and “Do you give the horse his strength

or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?”

I don’t know about you, but these are not the kinds of questions that I want God asking me. The thing is though, I feel like I’m asked these questions a lot in different ways. I wish I could say that I that I never question God, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I wondered what it would be like to hear God audibly asking me these questions. The only thing that flowed from my heart was “Hosanna, O my God.” One of the things that I adore most about God is the fact that He made the earth and all in it and yet...

He’s still interested in me.

He knows my name.

My failures.

The terrible things that go on in my mind.

And yet...

He still loves me.

This is what this song is about.

Watch it at...

http://www.youtube.com/user/ryanroksflipflop

Job’s Song

Who directs the great waters

and guides them with His hands?

Who can tilt the jars of heaven

to quench this parched land?

Who makes earth’s floor tremble

and sends light from the clouds?

Who commands the sun to rise

and calls forth brilliant stars?

There will be children dancing and

drummers drumming tonight

And all the people kneel

and bow their heads and cry

Hosanna Hosanna O our God

Hosanna Hosanna O our God

Who has loved me in the midst

of my eleventh hour?

Who has kept my feet from stumbling

and been my Strong Tower?

There will be children dancing and

drummers drumming tonight

And all the people stand

and lift their heads and cry

Hosanna Hosanna O our God

Hosanna Hosanna O our God

Who keeps me from all harm

and watches over my life?

Who hears my faintest prayers

and stand by my side?

There will be children dancing and

drummers drumming tonight

And all the people clap

and lift their hands and cry

And all the glory of out King

appears before eyes

Then all the doubts and fears

they will roll out of sight

Hosanna Hosanna O our God

Hosanna Hosanna O our God

Music by Ryan Nosay

Lyrics by Ryan Nosay and Beth Fields

Over the summer God has been working on my heart like never before. He’s been showing me so much about loving and caring for people as well as many other things. More than anything though, He’s been showing me the weak points in my life. Like I’ve said before, this is the whole reason why I wanted to go to Hawaii in the first place... to draw closer to God.

I feel like my eyes are opening up and I’m really seeing the world for the first time.

Throughout the summer, whenever I would be going through something I would pick up my guitar or ukulele and start playing.... just to relieve some stress. Well, God used those moments and turned them into prayers of worship to Him. Before I left this summer, I had written a couple of songs, but this summer God has placed song after song after song in my lap. Some weeks I couldn’t even keep up with what chords went to what song.

I feel that God has placed it on my heart to start putting these songs on the internet. So, from now on this blog will be dedicated to the stories behind the songs with a link to the videos on YouTube. It will be about the things that God has been teaching me and the things that I’ve seen. Some of the songs are bright “cheery” praise and worship songs, while others are raw and darker... but all of them come from the depths of my soul.

My purpose is not to be famous or anything even close to that. My purpose is this: to help others through the music and stories/experiences that God has been showing and teaching me. If I help someone somewhere then I’ve reached this goal.

Hopefully, I’ll have the first video up with in the next two weeks. Bear with me though, for I am technologically impaired!

Also, if you have any advice please feel free to give it! You can Facebook me or email me at rnosay@gmail.com.

Mahalo!

A new post will be coming soon!!! (Within the next week) Yeah!

Aloha! Well, my time in Hawaii is coming to an rapid end. It’s hard to put into words all of the experiences that I’ve had here. One thing’s for sure... it has been an exhilarating, fun, and exhausting roller coaster ride! I came here with the hopes that God would open my eyes and to also, twist and mold me into who He wants me to be. That was my prayer from the very beginning. I wanted to love people with His love and draw closer to Him. I knew that I would be leaving my comfort zone and be placed into a completely new environment with different situations. I was excited about this because, with all of these elements combined, I knew it would help me rely on God even more.

I came here to learn and serve, in every way I possibly could. The biggest thing that I have learned this summer is that our lives are pointless if we aren’t using them to serve others with the love of Christ. I’m completely baffled by the level of commitment, service, and love that comes from Waianae Coast Christian Women's Job Corp (WCCWJC) and Waianae Baptist Church. Both of them truly exist to reach the lost. They don’t just talk about reaching the lost. They do it! Not only that, but they reach out in every way that they can think of. I was astonished my this. I still am. However, more than my astonishment, I’m inspired. I want to take this heart that I’ve seen in these people and reflect it in Elizabeth City, NC and beyond. And I want to inspire others to do the same.

At the end of this journey, I still feel like God is calling me to Hawaii, not because it is amazingly beautiful, but because there is great need. You are ignorant if you think that Hawaii is only filled with beautiful people, hula dancers, aromatic leis, and crystal clear waters. If you come to Hawaii for a tropical get away, what you don’t see is that on the edges of the waters and behind the bushes are people who need a meal, a friend, and home, and most importantly, Jesus. I am proud to have been given the opportunity to serve WCCWJC and Waianae Baptist Church and hope to return at every opportunity that God allows.

Again, I am left with this thought: Our lives are pointless if we aren’t using them to serve others with the love of Christ.

Aloha Ke Akua

When I found out that I was going to be gone for 3 months, I was a little bummed that I was going to be missing camp with my church. So, I was super excited when I found out that I was still able to do camp this year, just in Hawaii. One thing that I really enjoyed about this camp is that not only was it geared toward the spiritual health of the campers but also the counselors. This week God has really exposed some dark places in my heart.

For those of you who know me best, you know I’m a very private person. I don’t easily open up or wear my heart on my sleeve. However, one of the biggest points of this blog is to stop hiding behind myself and the walls that I have created. I want to be transparent. The most miserable time in my life is when I put up these walls with paintings of perfection and self-righteousness. You know them. Unfortunately, we all do.

With that being said, I’m about to expose a small part of my heart through the letters on this page. I ask for you to keep this in mind.

This past week we went through several Old Testament stories. One of the days we talked about Jonah. (Yes, the guy who was swallowed by the big fish.) We talked about why he ran from God and that it was so much more than him simply not wanting to go to the Ninevites. What was really highlighted was the deep seeded hate that Jonah had for these people. Not the kind of hate that you have for getting up before the sun or for certain types of food, but the kind of hate that makes you not want to share God’s Word with someone because you don’t want them to accept it.

We were asked who (a person or a people group) we are prejudice of so much that we didn’t want them to come to God and we were asked to write them down on a piece of paper.

So I thought... and thought... and thought some more.

I honestly couldn’t think of any one person or any people group that I hated. Then she said, “We all have one.” and I wondered if I was the odd man out and didn’t have one. I wasn’t sure why this question stuck with me until this morning.

Switching gears...

I don’t even know how to gracefully segue into my next train of thought but to just come out and say it.

This past week I struggled so much with pride.

I’ve struggled with it off and on for years but NEVER like this. The bad thing is that I don’t even know where it came from. I don’t know what came over me. I know that everything that I have is from God but that simple thought didn’t ring as loudly this week as it usually does. This week of camp was super spiritually challenging, and yet, I found myself getting full on attacked. I just don’t understand. And I hate it. I hate it that I can’t control my mind better than this.

Switching back...

This morning when I woke up, I did my devotions and then it hit me.

I’m prejudice of prideful people.

The very people that I can’t stand is the person I became this week. Prideful. I’m still mulling over what God is teaching me through this situation. However, the question that I’m left with is, “Why am I doing such a great job at avoiding and (mentally) condemning these people?”

Last week was amazing! It was one of the best experiences that I've ever had and was hands down the best week since I've been here in Hawaii.

A group of us went on a missions trip to Kauai at Lihue Baptist Church. This whole summer Lihue Baptist Church has been holding a summer camp for about 4 hours everyday and this camp is completely free. Each week they have a different theme. Some of the themes are Art, Games, Drama, and Music. We came for music week and taught them a musical (which they had to memorize). My job was to audition the kids who wanted to try out for solos/duets, select them, work with them, and then direct them for the program. I’ve never really worked with children when it comes to music before and this past week I found out that I love it!

One of the things that really stuck in my mind from this trip was watching the kids, close to a 100 of them, sing to God. There is something so amazing about seeing them, so full of heart and purity, while singing to God. They sing as if He’s real!

(click here to see the video http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1478056241776)

One of my biggest focuses in life is music. It’s in my blood. I think about it ALL the time. Seeing those kids sing made me wonder “How often do I sing like them? How often do I come to Christ as a little child and believe and sing as if He’s real?” I often find myself getting caught up in the minutia of music instead of Who it’s all supposed to be for in the first place. When I saw these kids singing, it just melted my heart and I couldn’t help but be moved to tears.

I think we all need to step back and examine our abilities and talents to see if what we are doing is really glorifying God or are we (like myself) getting caught up in the tiny details and forgetting the main goal. What are we worried about? Perfection? The people who are watching us? Or life in general?

Plain and simple, our focus needs to be where our focus needs to be.

Please pray for Kauai. I was told that about 6 out of every 10 teenage girls get pregnant and only 2-3% out of all the people on Kauai are Christians.

So, it’s been like a million years since I have posted my last blog, especially since I wanted to post one every week! I’ve been super busy and loving it. Some of the ministries I’m involved in is feeding the homeless (B&B), helping out with the youth, tutoring women to help them get their GED, and having a Bible study with a group at the homeless shelter. Then I’ve got my praise and worship internship responsibilities. In a couple of days, a group of us are leaving for Kauai for a missions trip. We are going to be teaching a group of about 100 children a musical in a week. Then shortly after I get back I’m going to be a counselor for a week of camp. And somewhere in there is a week of VBS. I’m loving the business though!

One of the biggest reasons that I wanted this internship is because I wanted to be picked out of my comfort zone and placed somewhere entirely new so I could have new opportunities to grow closer to Him. I think sometimes we get stuck in our daily routines and are so comfortable with our lives that we just settle and get in a funk. I know I do. I’ve wanted this internship to be a time of spiritual growth and stretching and God certainly is stretching me.

One thing that I’ve been struggling with is my attitude. I’ve been on my own for almost ten years now and I’m used to doing things my way, coming and going as I please, and having as much alone time as I need. I’m a person who wants and needs solitude. It’s a bit different here. Because I’m involved in so many ministries, I’m always around people and because if this my attitude gets a bit crappy at times. I started praying that God would give me patience and direction.

Then I was finishing up "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and God really brought to my attention the last chapter of the book where Chan is challenging us to treat people as if they are Christ. He talks about the scripture... "Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to Me." That struck me. Despite what is going on in my life, I always need to treat people as if it were Christ Himself.

Then a couple of days later my super cool advisor (that’s for you, Amanda!) sends out an email that challenges us (those who have an internship this summer) to remember that we are serving God. She bluntly asks us how is our attitude and reminds us that we need to check our hearts and priorities. She goes on to tell us that ministry is not an easy thing but in the midst of it we need to recognize that we are serving Christ... even if we are scrubbing the toilets (her words, not mine)!

THEN it gets even cooler! When we were having our Bible study at the homeless shelter (called "Talk Story"), the lady who leads it read from Pilippians about how we are doing what we do for Christ and not for the recognition of man or for ourselves! Crazy! Three times in less than a week. It's pretty sweet and very encouraging that God cares so much for us and hears our prayers that He'll send us a message from so many (completely) different sides. One's a famous author, one's in Hawaii, and one's in NC. Pretty good stuff!

So, I don’t chat your ears off, let me wrap this up. If you could, please pray for all of these ministries, especially the missions trip to Kauai. Over half of the 100 children are kids who don’t go to church at all. It’s a pretty cool deal.

Also, I’m going to try to make this a weekly deal not a once-every-month thing. So keep checking!

About 6 months ago I began to pray that God would help me love people as He loved them. Shortly after I began praying this prayer, I started to become extremely convicted of how I was spending my time and money. It was all for and about myself. I helped others, but only when the circumstances conveniently crossed my path. Everyday the burden pressed on my heart like heavy weights that I needed to serve others selflessly. So, I started looking for ways that I could help others. Not only others but the lost. Somehow, God led me to working with the homeless. The more I worked with them the more I began to love and care for them.

What’s so amazing about this internship, besides that it’s in Hawaii, is that Waianae Baptist Church actively searches for ways to serve others and spread God’s love, especially to the homeless. God placed me in exactly the right spot.

So, I’ve been here for only a short time and it’s already been so busy... but incredibly amazing. I knew from the beginning that God orchestrated every thing so beautifully before I left, but I had no clue how much until I got here. And I have a feeling that I will recognize so much more as time unfolds.

One of the coolest ministries at the church is their “Breakfast and Food Basket” ministry, which is typically called B&B. This is an enormous outreach to the homeless community where they feed them breakfast, make them food baskets, and preach God’s word to them.

This is how it runs... When they first come they print their name and how many adults and children they have in their family. Then, after they sign in, they eat breakfast. After breakfast, they go to the sanctuary to listen to a devotional. While they are listening to the devotional, people from the church make food baskets which consist of a myriad of food items. Then after the devotional they take their baskets home.

It’s by no chance that God gave me such a huge heart for the homeless and I ended up at a church that helps and loves the homeless so much. There’s something freeing about serving others, not out of selfish ambition but God’s pure love. My relationship has never been this close to God until I started serving and loving others. God is answering my prayer and everyday I’m so amazed at what He is doing in the lives of others.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne said:

I am concerned for the poor but more for you. I know not what Christ will say to you in the great day.... I fear there are many hearing me who may know well that they are not Christians because they do not love to give. To give largely and liberally, not grudgingly at all, requires a new heart; an old heart would rather part with its life-blood than its money. Oh my friends! Enjoy your money; make the most of it; give none away; enjoy quickly for I can tell you, you will be beggars throughout eternity.

Please pray for a lady that is desperately looking for a job and a place to stay. She lives at a place called the Civic Center, which is like a transition place for the homeless to stay for a couple of years and then they need to move out and find a place to stay. She’s usually such a bright joyful person but she’s having such a hard time right now because she has to be out by the end of the month. Mahalo.

A year ago I would have been satisfied to graduate college, get a decent job, and just blend in with the rest of the population. Yeah, I’ve got some talents, but I’ve never had high hopes for myself... and I was okay with that. Mediocrity is what I longed for the most. As the Queens of the Stone Age say, I wanted to “go with the flow,” with a side of Christianity.

And then, one day, that all changed. I no longer desired that mediocrity, that need to merely blend in amongst everyone. I was meant for more. I didn’t simply want to exist anymore. I wanted to thrive, not thrive in the sense where I would become famous and/or rich (I can honestly say that I don’t have a desire for either), but the kind of thriving that makes your brief life on this earth mean something. I wanted to make a difference. I realized that I was living my moment, my life for myself. Every day, I became increasingly more aware that God wanted me to live my life for Him and to love others with the love and passion that He does. He started to change my heart; I felt like it started beating again. God brought back those pieces of me that I dropped and deserted from long ago. I felt whole again. My life and my purpose of living life for myself started to fade. I started to wake up, and the world seemed like it had color again.

I felt God pulling me in directions that were unfamiliar to me, things that I would never do on my own because I feared rejection. However, I wasn’t going to allow fear to paralyze me anymore.

So here’s how the story goes...

Almost a year ago, my brother and I took a vacation to Hawaii. We went to the Big Island, where we biked around a volcano, went snorkeling with manta rays, and drove to the green sand beach (which I dreamt about 3 nights in a row before we finally went). I fell in love with Hawaii.

Ever since then, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Hawaii. I can honestly say that I feel like God is leading me there. But I thought, “What if the only reason I want to go back so badly isn’t because God is actually calling me there? What if I just had a great vacation and Hawaii is just an awesome place?”

So I started praying…and praying…and praying…

Then it dawned on me, I need a Praise and Worship internship to complete my degree. So I did something that I never would have done last year. I sent an email to about 54 different churches in Hawaii seeing if they needed an intern for praise and worship for the summer. I started this in December of last year. I figured that if I could get an internship for a few months in Hawaii that I could experience the culture (as opposed to a vacation experience).

I finally stepped out of my comfort zone! I took a risk! In my mind, it was okay if I didn’t get an internship in Hawaii. The main thing is that I actually did something about it.

Then just a couple of months ago, one of the churches, that I had been in contact with, invited me to serve at their church as the summer intern! I cried and praised God. Then I called my closest family and friends who I knew were praying for me and told them the exciting news.

So here’s the point to this blog: Please pray for me! I need your help. I still feel God is calling me to Hawaii, and I am going to keep desperately seeking His will for my life. During this time that I am away, I’m praying that God will show me if this is someplace He is calling me or someplace that Ryan wants to go.

Please pray for me.

...and keep reading!