My Story

Introduction

Good Morning Zaik Church family. It is a pleasure to be here with you all and to share my story, message, testimony with you all. My name is Alan Grajeda ( or Graheda in spanish, the proper way to pronounce it. It’s been butchered just about every way possible). Anyhow, I am the Young Adults & College Pastor here at Zaik Church, and I am also the Chi Alpha Director at Wichita State University alongside my beautiful wife Lauren. In fact, I have a picture of pur little family and I want to start out by showing you all just how blessed we are. That beautiful lady is Lauren, and she makes me feel like the luckiest guy on the planet. And that precious baby boy is our greatest blessing, Noah Louis Grajeda. Now, his name has meaning behind it. His middle name Louis, was the name of Lauren’s father and my father in law who passed away exactly two weeks after Lauren and I got married. It was awesome to see him be able to walk Lauren down the aisle and we wanted to honor him and keep his name and legacy. Noah, means comfort and rest in Hebrew. Now, he is just a little over 6 months old, and y’all I am quickly realizing that parenthood is basically taking a bunch of little cavemen or cavepeople and trying to civilize them. That’s parenthood in a nutshell. Civilizing little cavemen and women. I mean he’s starting to eat human food, and it’s just like a horrendous battle scene from a Quentin Tarantino move.. Like messes everywhere. Anyhow, we love it though because all it takes is a little smile from him, and our hearts melt.. In similar fashion, College and Young adults ministry is very similar to this.

For those of you who may not know about Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, our mission is to reach the University and also young adults who will go on to reach the marketplace and the world. So my wife and I live as missionaries reaching our university campuses and young adults for God. How cool is that right? my job is to do life with college and young adults everyday and show the love of God. And this church has been super supportive of it. Thank you to Pastor Stephen, the church in general, and those of you who have helped support us financially and by praying for us and our ministry.

Friends, I want to start out by reading a very important verse from the 2 letter to Timothy. In fact, its so powerful

Whether you’re a child, a teen, or an adult, or an empty-nester, your legacy is to influence the world for Christ until Christ returns.

The Master Plan of Discipleship A Ministry Life-Style

The Great Commission is not a special calling or a gift of the Spirit; it is a command—an obligation incumbent upon the whole community of faith. There are no exceptions. Bank presidents and automobile mechanics, physicians and schoolteachers, theologians and homemakers—everyone who believes on Christ has a part in His work

Daniel was a man on earth who was in touch with heaven and therefore able to bring heaven to bear on the things of earth.

Studdert Kennedy was a chaplain during World War I. His role often thrust him into danger on the front lines of battle. One day while traveling through war-ravaged France, he wrote this letter to his young son:

The first prayer I want my son to learn to say for me is not “God keep daddy safe,” but “God make daddy brave, and if he has hard things to do make him strong to do them.” Life and death don’t matter … right and wrong do. Daddy dead is daddy still, but daddy dishonoured before God is something awful, too bad for words. I suppose you’d like to put in a bit about the safety too, old chap, and mother would. Well, put it in, but afterwards, always afterwards, because it does not really matter near so much.

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