His Daughter - Viral Video and Why I love it!

The video was shot on a cracked iPhone and played on an out of tune piano. 

Molly Kate Kestner's first take of recording and the video has exploded. Originally posted on Easter Sunday, it currently has over 6 Million Views and counting. She appeared on Good Morning America this morning so I expect the views to go up again. 

Listen to it real quick. Then check out why I Love it below.

I Love It Because:

The story she tells is very close to many stories of faith or lack there of that I have heard over the years. Too often it is assumed that being a Christian means having everything together, and believing in God so much that everything just falls into place. This myth is perpetuated by evangelical pastors that say over and over again that "God is in Control" or "God has a reason." Their message on the surface gives the impression that the crap going on in the world around me is my fault. 

Instead this song takes the reality of the pain that many have in their lives and says God is big enough for the pain to be real and valid. God is big enough to answer the prayers of even those children whose parents are the ones causing the pain. God is big enough for the parent who wants to show their child a better life. 

Maybe your life hasn't been this rough. Maybe you have never felt the pain of and alcoholic parent. Maybe you have never cut yourself, starved yourself, slept around, or been bullied. Maybe you never felt scared and alone, like you can't make it another day. If you haven't then consider yourself lucky, and be sure you smile at the people you see today. Make sure that you show love to anyone you interact with because they may be at the end of their rope and not even know how to say it.

And maybe you see yourself in these lyrics.

Maybe your prayers haven't been answered yet.

But....

If your one of the people who has seen the grace of God in your life. If God has redeemed one of these pain's for you, tell as many people you can that: "There's a God out there who heard my prayer."

If your prayer has been answered I'd love to hear about it in the comments below. If it hasn't then shoot me an email and I will be glad to join you in praying.

Grace and Peace

Jacob Fields

Lyrics -
"Everything's gonna be alright."
She whispers to herself.
She was only 6 years old that night.
As she hid behind that shelf.
Cause daddy had a little too much to drink.
And mama didn't want her to feel the pain she felt.
But she still felt the pain...

Well 10 years they came and went,
and dad was gone.
So she looked for love in other men.
And tried to act strong.
Broken hearts and Scars in only places she could see.
Cause she just wanted, she just wanted to feel something.

And as she sat there on that bed,
thinking bout what those girls said,
tears streamed down her eyes.
She cried...

"If there's a God out there
Please hear my prayer.
I'm lost and I'm scared,
and I've got nowhere else to go.
I've come a long, long way.
But I'm not sure I can make it much farther...
So if you're listening, could you give a helping hand.
To your daughter."

Well her path started to change.
She reached out and grabbed God's grace.
And finally, she saw a light.
Until that night...
Where she decided one drink was alright, 
and one thing led to another.
Next thing you know, 9 months go by, 
she's a mother.

And as she laid there in that bed.
Stroking that small angel's head.
Tears streamed down her eyes.
She cried...


"If there's a God out there.
Please hear my prayer.
I'm lost and I'm scared,
and I've got nowhere else to run.
I've come a long, long way.
But I'm not sure I can be the best mother...
So if you're listening, could you give a helping hand.
To your daughter."

Well that baby grew into a boy.
Who became her pride and joy.
He loved her like no man could.
And her heart felt peace, cause she finally understood.
God's love.

And as she laid there in that bed,
99 years old.
She grabbed her son's hand and said.
"There's something you must know..."

"There is a God up there. 
Who heard my prayer.
I was lost and afraid.
And I had nowhere else to go.
I had no clue, what to do
And then He sent me you."

So if you're lost and afraid, 
and you feel so alone,
don't worry child,
cause there's a Father who will love you as His own.
Just like he loved his daughter.
Like he loved His daughter.

So Thursday Happened

My team had just enough stuff left to do on our work-site that I was thinking we should be done around lunch time. All we had left were a few small things painting wise like the trim and the front gable. Basically it was detail stuff. Turns out my work team is not a very detail oriented group and when it comes to doing trim they struggled. For many of you who know me details aren't always my strength either, but when it comes to painting all the years of experience I have gotten good at the details. There were many points where I had to try hard not to get frustrated. I wanted to just do it all myself, we would have gotten done a lot faster. I kept reminding myself that my role this week when it comes to the work is to encourage, equip, and teach the students to do the work... even if it takes longer than it should. After all, adults who took the time to let me do the work, is exactly how I learned to paint a house. So we are going back to the same house today and we still have a bit of work to do. 

Worship was awesome. We ended the service by opening the alter for as long as the students needed for prayer... an hour later we had to close it down 'cus they weren't going anywhere and sleep is important too. 

There were students who were grieving the death of a friend. There were students with all sorts of other baggage who just needed some time to deal with it. And certainly there were some who we just tired. 

We got a video of my sermon, I will try to upload it sometime soon. 

Last but not least there is a Facebook group for our living center with a bunch of pictures in it. I just realized that I could invite folks to it so I sent some invites this morning. If you would like to be invited and you have not gotten one yet just let me know and I will send one.

Mission Trip Wednesday

Why is it that mission trip is typically a week that I put on a few pounds?

It might just be because the cooks for the week are often some of the best cooks in a church that come to make food for teenagers and they make sure there is plenty of it. We have a fresh cooked breakfast, a sack lunch, an afternoon snack, a huge dinner, and fantastic desserts served 2 hours after dinner. Anytime there isn’t food being served there are snacks out. Lunch is usually your opportunity to eat a bit lighter. Yesterday that wasn’t the case.

Our client wanted to show her appreciation for the work we were doing by grilling for us for lunch. She was an expert grill master tackling hamburgers, hotdogs, and BBQ pork chops all at the same time. She paired that with

sweet tea and caramel cake. So Brad, Ryan, Autumn, and I ate really well for lunch. I personally wasn’t hungry again at dinner time but when these lovely ladies hand you a plate of food you take it. Ryan tried to say no to dessert the other night and ended up with twice as much as the rest of us. Which lead to the quote of the day Tuesday when Matt said, “if you were my grandma, I would be really fat.”

Ian won the activity for the evening which was a 2 round ninja tournament. He beat out a gymnast who was clearly a real ninja and another student who was jumping and flying all over the place. Then Ian had to play a bonus round with myself and the music leader for the week that incorporated feet and hands. He didn’t win that but still won the prize of a ninja turtle half-shell.

Worksite updates:

This is a map of where we are working

Patrick, Ian, and Dylan’s group finished their painting project and are being moved to a new worksite where they will be building a 30 ft wheelchair ramp.

Laken and Eli’s group is still working hard on their house. It’s a huge project over there with painting, siding repair, and a wheel-chair ramp all to get done by the end of the week.

Matt, James, and Gabe’s group is nearing completion of their wheel-chair ramp and is working on a fresh paint job.

Me, Brad, Ryan, and Autumn’s group has finished the major part of the our project of new siding on one side of the house. We have finished painting the majority of the house and Thursday morning should finish. Brad and Ryan will do a minor roof and water damage repair then head over to help Patrick’s group with their wheel-chair ramp.

I wrote this post Thursday morning before breakfast because I preached on rest last night and it was midnight before I had a chance to sit and write so I went to bed. 

Mission Trip Tuesday - #CTCYMphilly #instahunt

As it turns out when it comes to air mattresses, firm is the way to go. My air mattress had a bit of a leak the past two nights and when I woke this morning I was sunken into the middle of the mattress that had become as moveable as a water bed but even less comfortable. So for the sake of being able to move during the day the rest of the week I got a new one.

This morning I was awake a bit before everyone was woken up, and I noticed something odd. Almost every guy in the room was awake minus one row of students and a few others. Every guy from Lake Cities was still asleep.

Yet when it came time to get going they went. The vans rolled out right around 8 again and from what I heard there was great productivity all around.

Today the stories come from our evening activity. It was an Instagram scavenger hunt, and pictures tell a thousand words so instead of telling you about it, get on Instagram and search #ctcymphilly (I would provide a link but Instagram’s online version is a bit too limited to actually do that.)

There was some amazing dessert tonight as well… I am not sure what all was in it but it was great.

Hope you enjoy the pictures on Insta. My work team is on breakfast set up in the morning so I should be asleep now.