Dare Mighty Things.  Just a couple of weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to go to Mexico with 21 High School students and 5 adults to build 2 houses on the SunHouse Mexico Mission Trip.   It was amazing!  Our high school students showed up on the first day to a huge pile of lumber and drywall and a foundation, and with their hammers ready, they built 2 houses in 3 days.  That is awesome!

And they dared mighty things.  Our theme for the week was part of a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, “Dare Mighty Things.”  I do think that high school students are daring something mighty when they give up a week of their spring break, and in fact, pay to go down to Mexico to build a house, and spend their week serving others.  But the real “Mighty Thing” that we are asking students to “Dare,” is to follow Christ with everything they’ve got.  During the week, we talked a lot about Romans 12:2 which Paul writes and tells the Roman church to “not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but instead to offer ourselves as living sacrifices.”   These students got to literally live this passage of scripture out, and you know what?  They loved it!  They loved it because they were living a life that Christ wanted them to live.   They loved it because they got to see what it feels like to not live to the patterns of this world, and to truly offer your life to Christ.   They loved it because they got to see what it was like to give a house away to a family that truly needed it.  They loved it because they got to experience what community as a Christ follower is all about.

And they dared mighty things.  One day we went out into a community and walked door to door inviting families in the community to come to a park to hear stories from these students and about Jesus Christ.   I was amazed by God’s faithfulness and goodness, when 125 people in the community showed up to hear what our students had to say.  Five of our students shared their testimony, through a translator, and almost all of the people there stepped forward to accept Jesus as their Savior and to write their name down to get a bible, discipleship book, and be contacted about being in a small group with the local church.  Our students got to build the kingdom of God.

And they dared mighty things.  By the end of the week, the students, adults, and local families that we were building the houses for, discovered that when we dare mighty things for Christ, that Jesus introduces us into a community that is bigger then we can imagine.  We got to see our students from La Jolla, crying and hugging families they had only met 4 days before in a joyous moment.  Christ had been working this week too in the hearts of all of us to see the need to realize that God’s love is bigger than any language barrier, bigger than a border, and bigger than this world.

Go and dare mighty things for Christ.