John Andrus, Neal Heary, Lucas Hastay and Alex Magallan

We recently performed in South Carolina as a part of a citywide festival in Spartanburg called the “Spring Fling.”  We were schedule to perform four times throughout the weekend but due to weather we were only able to do two out of the four. When we arrived on Friday it began to rain 30 minutes before our performance and on Sunday it rained non-stop all day!  We were left with a beautiful Saturday though and we put on two awesome demonstrations and had a great response from everyone who was able to watch. Not only were the performances awesome but we had the chance to share Christ and see God at work in that place!  If you want to see more photos from this event head over to www.facebook.com.outcastbmx and check them out!

It is no secret that we all struggle, at some point, with our own identity.  Of course we all cling to what we claim to be our “identity” but often times what we cling to is what is leaving us empty, or in the best case scenario partially full.  I personally found myself guilty of allowing my identity to be based on the approval of others. I surrendered my identity and my value into the hands of others!  With that being the case it’s easy to see how I was left feeling empty in my vain pursuit of approval through people.  In most cases I sought approval from people through my skills as an athlete, which allowed me to feel as though I was in control.  That idea of control quickly came to an end each time I fell victim to injury.  In a sermon I was listening to by Alyn Jones  he had said, “if you practice something long enough you will find it’s true.”  In my case I had practiced receiving approval from people based on my skills for so long that I only felt good when others felt good about me.  That was my process for so long that when I could no longer perform at the level I was used to I literally felt my identity being stripped from me and I no longer saw value in myself.  I found myself being ruled by my “need” for approval, and when it comes to needs we all know that they are never ending.  The danger in that was this; I found myself being ruled by my needs (which are never ending), by people’s approval of me (which I have no control of), and the selfish pleasure I found in my skills (which are totally temporary).  This would be the equivalent  of me trying to fill a glass to the brim but ignoring the fact that there was a hole in the bottom of it!

I needed to make a change in my life!  I had to evaluate what my needs are, whom I should seek approval from and what I give my heart to.  With that being the case, this came to mind: You are loved by God, not because of what you have done, but because of who you are.  For so long I needed to seek approval from others based on the things that I have done and what I continued to do.  I allowed my selfish desires to take part in what defined me while ignoring the fact that those were lies (this was me trying to fill a glass to the brim while ignoring the hole in the bottom.)  There is no way that I could feel full while filling myself with lies!  I needed to be defined by the truth and that truth is found in a relationship with God through the blood of Jesus.  God loves me, approves of me, thinks highly of me as I WAS THEN and AM NOW.  He loves me so much that he desires a relationship with me based on true love. This love was not conditional on me making a change to receive it, it was unconditional and free offered to me as I was.  It does not stop there but continues with God loving me too much to leave me in that place!  When I hit rock bottom I was in a place where I was left with no identity or value and it was there that God said, I love you just as you are.  It was right there that God said, I love you as you are but I love you too much to leave you that way!  God changed me, by the blood of Jesus Christ I was made new and I am made new every day by faith.

My identity is found in the love that God has shown me.  I need that love, and it is endless!  I seek approval from God, and he gives it to me every day!  I have given my skills to the LORD, and he tells me that he is so proud of me!

Think about, and be honest to yourself, where your value and identity come from.  Do you feel fulfillment in those places?

John 17:23 (Jesus said) –  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 

- God loves us just as much as he loved his own son!

Hebrews 8:13 – By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

- God made his old covenant obsolete with a “new” covenant!  Just as God did that, he makes our old self obsolete in the creation of a new self through Jesus!  Let your old ways disappear and be filled with a new way defined by the love of our Father in Christ Jesus!

If you practice something long enough you will find it’s true, this is extremely true of the way you see yourself and who you believe you are; your identity.

Pressure is removed when you do not need to have the answers for everything! 

There are things in this world that we often times use as the gauge for what defines us and gives us our identity.  These things are people, possessions, power, and pleasure.

We have to stop being “need” driven because “need” will never cease.  If we gauge our success on needs then we will never succeed!

What are you ruled by?  Those are the things you will base your decisions on and ultimately they will play a role in what defines you, thus playing an important role in your identity.

Make a list: not of who you are, but what you want to be known for!

Keep Shredding!

This blog would be way too long if I were to write about every aspect of this trip so I will try and make it as short and to the point as possible but if you want to see more check out our FACEBOOK!  We were able to perform in 11 schools over three days alongside Rick Gage.  It was awesome to engage the students in our performances so that together we could deliver a message of hope, life and encouragement to the students in attendance (nearly 7,000 students total).  Rick was able to speak to the students about what it means to take a stand against anything that will hurt their lives or harm their futures. As I was watching the students’ faces I knew that they were really listening to what he had to say and taking it to heart. When Rick was finished sharing his message he finished by encouraging each student to come to the Crusade Wednesday night for youth night.  There they would receive free pizza and the chance to see us put on our full demonstration before the Crusade began at 7pm.  It was incredible to see such an awesome turn out for our demonstration.  It looked like there were nearly 1,000 people surrounding our demo area to see the show and many had faces I had seen earlier that week in their schools!  Despite the short time slot we were able to put on an awesome demonstration and speak for a few minutes about why Outcast BMX exists.  I was excited to know that we had connected with many students in their schools and this was my chance to speak about Jesus to all those watching.  I am always really excited to be able to talk about our true purpose in life and the awesome gift God has given us through faith in his son Jesus.  It was really encouraging to be able to hang out with so many kids from the schools after the show and one in particular was a huge help to us.  His name was Devin Watson and he was at our performance at Richmond High.  He stuck by us throughout our tear down time and we were able to speak to him about his life and pray for him.  I truly believe that God brings us people and it was a blessing to meet, speak and pray for such an awesome dude like Devin.

I know that God did work at this event and it was evident through the responses that happened during each night of the crusade.  It was also really encouraging to be partnered with such an awesome ministry and really feel that we were operating as the real body of Christ.  To be so different from other ministries but share the same mission is amazing in itself, but it is even more amazing to work together to see lives changed through a relationship with Jesus.  I am continually humbled that God can use a BMX team to further his kingdom and I look forward to the next time we are able to work together with Rick Gage and Go Tell Ministries.

We have tons of photos and more information available throughout this website and on our facebook, www.facebook.com/outcastbmx!

We were blessed by God to have an amazing host home full of welcoming people with incredible servants hearts!  We were fed better than we could have imagined and made to feel that we were at home for the next couple of days.  We were able to leave that home well fed and show up to the venue where we were invited to a service with those who were putting on the event and that turned into a huge blessing from God.  We were able to listen to the minister speak and it was a message from the LORD that was prepared to speak to our hearts!  The message was followed by a time of intense prayer and worship where the Holy Spirit broke down walls just to build them stronger on a more firm foundation in Christ Jesus!  The Spirit was moving that night and it was all in preparation for the next day.  We could not have asked for a better afternoon/night than that.  We left filled with the Holy Spirit in preparation to overflow into the lives of those who would come the next day!

We were told about an issue in the community concerning self worth and suicide so as a team we were prepared to have conversations regarding that issue and we asked God that we could be a light to those who may be struggling with those thoughts.  We put on two demonstrations that went extremely well but most importantly we were able to come with a message of love in Jesus Christ and the restoration that comes with a life given fully to him.  We were able to encourage many people to find value in their lives based on the love of Christ and that filling your life with things of this world (drugs, sex, possessions, people) will only leave you empty and wanting!  With that message came prayer and words given to us by God to speak to individual people.  The Spirit was moving in us and in the people that came to that place and it was incredible to see and hear so many people responding to the work of he LORD!  We truly believe that there is a revival taking place in Sarnia and that God, is and will continue to use the people there to change lives for Christ!

One revelation that the LORD put on our hearts at this event is that there is power in the name of Jesus Christ.  There is power in the work that he has done for us and living in that is all we can do to really change lives.  In a community that has been so affected by suicide we had an urgency put on our hearts to share that with people.  It is unreal to think that a few kind words or a few intimate moments of time spent with someone has the power in the name of Jesus to save their life.  It has the power to change their minds from taking their own lives and to ultimately give their life to the LORD and really LIVE!

We were extremely blessed to be a part of this event and we are so thankful for every person we met at The Landing.  God brought us to Sarnia, ON to do his work in people’s lives there and to also have our lives changed by the people in that place.  We were so incredibly blessed to be ministered to by the people there and it sparked a revival in our team!  It gave us the overflow that we needed so that we can effectively pour out to the many other venues we will be at!

God thank you for that event, those people and that place! In the name of Jesus Christ change that place and continue to develop leaders that change lives!  Thank you for the change in us as a team because of the love we were shown and fill us God!

1,000 MORE LORD!

When: Saturday, August 25

Where: DOW People Place – 160 George Street Sarnia, ON

We are extremely excited to be a part of this awesome event and to share a venue with an awesome band “The Letter Black”!  If you would like to see more information about this event be sure to check out the official website, www.thelandingsarnia.com!

GET PSYCHED CANADA!!

We all live in a world of uncertainty and it can definitely take a toll on you if you decide to embrace that uncertainty.  In years past I have lived in uncertainty apart from God’s promises and it broke me down to the point where I was losing sight of what God was actively doing in my life.  I openly spoke to my mom about the situation and she quickly pointed me to scripture and how I should be finding assurance in my life from God’s word.  She gave me a picture that referenced Jeremiah 29:11 which says “For I know the plans I have for you says the LORD, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  That verse has stayed with me since then because we live in a world of uncertainty and that verse blatantly speaks against uncertainty.  It speaks of life and direction in God’s plans for our lives and that was the exact point I was missing in my life.  I also think of Matthew 6: 25-34 which says ²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Considering this series of verses we should be living in confidence that God has our best intentions in mind and that worrying about the uncertainties we live in should not even be in our minds.  We have a God who keeps his promises and only wants the best for us and who wants us to live in confidence in him!  I am constantly faced with times in my life where I really have no idea what is going on or what I am going to do but I no longer live in uncertainty, but in confidence that I will be provided for.

Life on the road is awesome and having a full schedule is a great thing to see but unfortunately that is not the reality of my situation.  I constantly face times in my life where I don’t know how I will pay my bills or what I can do with my time off from traveling to work.  I used to let this really get to me and I would become stressed out but that is not me any longer.  I seek comfort in God’s promises to provide for his people.  I have confidence that God’s plan for me is greater than anything I can imagine and that he only has my best intentions in mind at all times.  I no longer live in uncertainty, but I live in faith that God is always leading me in a direction where I will be lifted up and taken care of.  Some people think that living a life on the road can be stressful.  I can say from experience it is the life off of the road that is the most difficult  but I live day to day in confidence that my God has my back and is making my path for me and that I just need to always seek him in all I do in order to see that path clearly!

We are always excited to know that we are partnering with Premier Festivals for events so when we were told that we were going to be at an amusement park in NC we were really excited.  At this point in our trip we had done a lot of driving and had done a large show the night before so we were all looking forward to the short drive and relaxed day at the park.  We arrived early and quickly got started setting up and we had a lot of help doing so which made the work a ton easier (Thank You Carowinds!).  A huge reason that we wanted to get everything situated early is because we all wanted to head over to the water park and cool down a bit before we had to perform.  Lucas, Alex, Tyler and myself made the long trek across the park and made it to the water park only to wait an hour to ride down a water slide that lasted 1 minute, but it was worth it!  We quickly made our way back to the show area and got ready for our first performance which went down without a hitch!  Each of the guys rode really well and had even decided to pull out some new tricks.  A crowd favorite was watching Lucas throw a bike stand on the deck of the box jump and Alex blasting an air over top of him.  Even Tyler and Alex worked together with Tyler throwing a 270 to the deck of the box and Alex going over him with a nosedive 360!  We were all quite beat after the first show so we decided to go inside the artist area  to eat and we were psyched to run into Lecrae and it turns out that we have some mutual friends so it was cool to talk about that!  It wasn’t long before we had to head back to the show area for our second performance which, like the first, was awesome.  This time we were pleased to see about 300 people watching so the energy level of the show was much higher.  All of the guys threw out their best tricks going higher and faster than the first show and the crowd reacted really well!  It’s always awesome to see everyone’s mouths drop seeing Alex air 7 feet our of our 6 foot quarter, Tyler throw a nac nac over 90 degrees and Lucas float a backflip over the box to end the show.  We had a really awesome response from people after our shows and it was encouraging to hear them say how much they enjoyed the show but were also really happy to know that we do it to give glory to Christ!  It was sad to leave the park but we were all really exhausted and were looking more forward to a hot tub and a bed than a roller coaster!   We left the park feeling really good and are excited for the next time that we are going to be able to work with Premier Festivals again!