Training School Videos

A few weeks ago the Training School took all four services at Common Ground to communicate just a few of the many things we experienced and learned the past nine months. My friend and training school mate Josh Davis made these videos. Enjoy: 

The Praia Canyon

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the Training School's recent trip to the Praia Canyon. The canyon really is the most unique, dynamic, awe-inspiring, and humbling trails I have ever walked through. I am beyond blessed to have walked the trail with these fellow pilgrims.  

Uganda Vision Trip

 Friends and Family, 

For almost eight years now I have had a dream to visit Africa and experience the people, culture, and the unique way God is working there. My dream will finally become a reality as I have committed to be a part of Common Ground Christian Church’s vision trip to Uganda this May.

If you have seen Invisible Children’s most recent video, you are already familiar with the wake of destruction Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army left in Uganda. If you haven’t watched their most recent video I encourage you to do so here.  The trip I am a part of this spring is to join in the restoration of a country that has been brutalized by a 20-year war. Restoration Gateway (RG) is a ministry located in Northern Uganda that provides holistic restoration for the people that have been ravished by the wake of violence left by the LRA. RG helps restore the community by caring for orphans, providing medical and dental care, empowering Ugandans, and ministering to the church of Uganda.

Our team will spend time with the 70+ orphans that live at RG as well as engage in ministry opportunities with RG workers and the people that live in the surrounding villages.

Through studying Religion and Peace Studies at Butler University I acquired a passion for supporting communities that have been ravaged by violence. I also recently decided to attend seminary next fall in Chicago. I am excited about the opportunity to experience what God is doing to restore northern Uganda through Restoration Gateway as I head into seminary. 

There are 3 ways you can help me on this Adventure:

1. Prayer

As I step into the uncomfortable space of raising support for this trip and preparing my heart and mind to travel to Africa I desperately need your prayer.

I need prayer for:

1.The financial support I have to raise for the trip. The trip costs around $2500 dollars. I have begun to save my own money but that will unfortunately not be enough to cover the cost. I encourage you to consider donating money to help me reach my goal of $2500.

2. I also am in need of prayer for the posture of my heart and spirit during the trip. The trip is sure to be emotionally and spiritually draining and transformational. Please pray that God would prepare me for the trip and have great things in store for me when I get to Africa!

If you would like to commit to praying for me please email, text, or call to let me know so I can send updates as the trip approaches and after I return.

2. Write a Check

Make a check out to Common Ground Christian Church and send it to David Brodsky at 10721 Timber Lane Carmel IN 46032.

   3. Donate Money Through Pay Pal http://bit.ly/HLpXgd

Click on the link below and you will be sent to a website where you can donate to    me through pay pal.

(This option is for the young folks who do not own a checkbook anymore.)

http://bit.ly/HLpXgd

If you have comments, questions, or just want to connect about this trip or life in general hit me up through the info below.

Joseph Kony 2012

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

The Centrality of Worship

I have the most major man crush on N.T. Wright. Here is an exert from his book Simply Jesus that I just finished today. I have read almost all of Wright's books and this, in my opinion, maybe one of the most powerful exerts I have read from him: 


"All kingdom work is rooted in worship. Or, to put it the other way around, worshipping the God we see at work in Jesus is the most politically charged act we can ever preform. Christian worship declares that Jesus is Lord and that therefore, by strong implication, nobody else is. What's more, it doesn't just declare it as something to be believed, like the fact that sun is hot or the sea wet. It commits the worshiper to allegiance, to following Jesus, to being shaped and directed by him. Worshipping the God we see in Jesus orients our whole being, our imagination, our will, our hopes, and our fears away from the world where Mars, Mammon, and Aphrodite (violence, money, and sex) make absolute demands and punish anyone who resists. It orients us instead to a world in which love is stronger than death, the poor are promised the kingdom, and chastity (whether married or single) reflects the holiness and faithfulness of God himself. Acclaiming Jesus as Lord plants a flag that supersedes the flags of nations, however "free" or "democratic" they may be. It challenges both the tyrants who think they are, in effect, divine and at least ecclesial, that is, communities that are trying to do and be what the church was supposed to do and be, but without recourse to the one who sustains the church's life. Worship creates-or should create, if it is allowed to be truly itself-a community that marches to a different beat, that keeps in step with a different Lord."

My Recent Trip to Tijuana

This was the "bridge to mexico." They didn't check our passports, id's, baggage, nothing! Just... bienvenidos come on in!  

This is the orphanage compound that we spent most of our time at. This kids love to hoop. 

This was probably my favorite moment of the trip. It was right in the middle of our longest day of experiencing the suffering in Tijuana. We came back from the "dump" and some kids were helping the cook make dinner. I asked if I could help and they taught me the proper Mexican way to roll out a perfectly round Tortilla. My last tortilla was definitely a lot better than my first but I was no where near the perfection the locals were turning out every three to my one tortilla.

This was the meal I helped make. Actually, "helping" might not be the best word choice since it implies I some how aided or quickened the process of making dinner.

We played an epic soccer game in the Mexican mountains against the kids that live in an orphanage there. We lost badly, but like the tortillas it was one of those cool moments where I felt like I was diving into the Mexican culture by playing soccer on a dirt field and a perfect setting in the mountains. 

This community is built on what was once a garbage dump. 

The dump was shut down years ago and they covered the trash in dirt. The entire mountain and valley in this picture is literally a trash pile covered in dirt that people have made their homes on. 

At the bottom of this valley was a river that was full of trash. I was reminded of the River of Life promised in Revelation to appear in the new Jerusalem to be an eternal source for the living water of Christ. I long for Jesus to come back and fill this river with water. 

As you know, all the injustices of this world can be traced back to Disney. I thought it appropriate to record the obvious source of the suffering in the dump. 

Aaron touching the Pacific Ocean for the first time 

Every night we snuck out of the compound and headed to a corner six blocks away that was serving up the best tacos I have ever had! It is pretty obvious from the expressions of Larry and I that we were pretty excited about these tacos. The best part was the fact that one taco was only one dollar! 

Ocean Beach California

The Training School recently took a week long trip to San Diego and Tijuana. 

Conclusions from the trip: 1. Four years of Spanish and I can only ask people who their favorite soccer player is. 

2. I love Cali and would not mind at all living there one day. "Ocean Beach Christian Church" has a nice ring to it..eh?

3. The human spirit is incredibly resilient and creative in the face of poverty and suffering. 

4. Sex trafficking is seriously fucked up and I am really struggling with why God allows this to happen. 

5. I really really love Cali. 

Here are some pictures from our short stop in San Diego's Ocean Beach neighborhood. More pics from Tijuana to come soon. 

Ocean Beach is an awesome community full of local surfers and vagabonds that have travelled all the way across the country for the promise of sleeping on the beach next to a bonfire ablaze with Christmas trees that were dug out of a dumpster. 

I had forgotten how refreshing and rejuvenating the sun, sand, and waves are. 

Some how Ocean Beach has remained a haven for those of us who hate the "man" and corporations. There were no big businesses, hotels, resorts, chain restaurants, and the homes were literally surf shacks sitting on five million dollar lots. 

We watched the sun set one night. Did you know when you watch the sun set on the Pacific coast you can see a green flash when the last rays of the sun disappear under the horizon? I thought I might have some sort of little flash that evening. 

Some of us stopped into the Hummingbird Coffee Shop to load up on some of this molecule to keep us going. The coffee shop was split right down the middle. On one side was a coffee shop the other was a fed ex store.