by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
It has been along time since I have posted primarily because I have been so busy. I know that is hard to believe that I have been busy without a job but I sure I have been. Rather than update about Mike Erre’s book (I will do that later) I thought I would just give some things that have been going on in my life.
I’ll start with the crusade we recently had. I meet with one of our Pastors pretty regularly and I really enjoy the time I get to spend with him. Leading up to the crusade he asked me if I would like to help with train the counselors I of course jumped at the opportunity because this is the very thing I love to do. So I spent a few nights getting things ready and going over the training and then we trained the counselors for two evenings, to be ready for the response we were expecting during the crusade. The Impact Macon Crusade was February 22-25 and I was there every night. We saw God move in a remarkable way during that week we saw over 100 decisions for Christ and over 90 0n one night. I must say I was not ready for over 90 people to respond to the gospel that night but it was wonderful. Hey they were all counseled to.
Secondly I was asked if I could teach a book of the Bible to the youth what book would it be. I replied I would go through the book of James and the response was “why don’t you teach it” of course I jumped at that any time I get a chance to teach some teens I am going to do it. So on Sunday nights I am taking our Student Overflow through James. I pray and hope they are enjoying it. I have already taught through James so I already have the messages done, but if you know me you know I spend a great deal of time with message prep even if I have already done it before and making sure I am saying what the Lord wants me to say.
Thirdly the first week in March I started taking over the Wednesday evening teaching to the Youth. This has been going great once again I love teaching the teens. On Wednesdays I typically play a game with them and then we go over prayer requests and then I teach. I desire to see both these ministries grow tremendously and I have seen God definitely working on the hearts of some of the teens that come.
Fourthly I received a call from the principal here at Atlanta school and was asked if I could come in and teach Science while the current teacher is away on maternity leave. I accepted the position. Which if you are a teacher you know the work that gos into lessons and so forth. So for the next few weeks I am now a Science teacher. I must say that teaching in the public school is a lot different then teaching in Christian School, or teaching at church, however the kids seem to like me as a teacher and some even thanked me for teaching.
Finally all of this has been happening while still sending out resumes (required for state aid) and while going through an interview process with a church that is interested me. So yeah I have been busy but hey I like being busy. Please pray I will be directed to the church God wants me at and that I will know it and so will the church.
It has been along time since I have posted primarily
by Josh Monda | Dec 12, 2011 | Seminary, Uncategorized
Starting Seminary
Well here I am 36 years old and just now getting ready to start seminary. Honestly I never thought I would go to seminary. I have been in youth ministry for over 17 years now and have felt that perhaps I did not need it. In addition I really am not that smart of a guy anyway. However after 3 years of searching for a position and still not finding a full time one I have decided to at least further my education. The circumstances are a bit strange.
Initially I had been talking with and interviewing at a Church in the Kansas city area and after a unanimous recommendation for their search committee and deacons we all felt that the vote would go through without a problem. Just goes to show you never assume anything in a baptist church. I enrolled in seminary thinking I would be pastoring this church and Kansas City and well why not make good use of this time living so close to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Apparently the Lord had other plans. One thing lead to another and hear I am enrolled to now take classes online to get a Mater Of Arts in Theological Studies.
Classes will begin August 22nd I have already highlighted my Syllabus for both classes entered all due dates in my calendar and have started to read the book of one class. Wish I was this ready in college. I pray I do well in these classes and can graduate with some sort of dignity. I have already added Master of Arts in Theological Studies on my resume with the expected completion date in 2013. Anyway there is a part of me that is hoping this will help in finding a position full time however I am not so sure about that and that my friends will have to wait for another post.
by Josh Monda | Nov 15, 2011 | Uncategorized
The Night Zephaniah Was Born
First let me start this by letting everyone know things have been crazy before the birth of my third child Zephaniah and this just added to the strange and weird experiences that seem to happen to me. My wife and I have just moved to southern Illinois, Marion to be exact from northeast Missouri as I took a position of youth and children. In addition to this I am presently enrolled in Seminary and during the move to Marion my wife was 8 months pregnant. I seem to be one for adventure at times. Anyway this blog post is not all about my move, me attending seminary, or starting a new ministry though they all could be valid blogs. I originally started this blog to blog about life and though not many come here to read about my life (the actually come to find a resume example) some do like to come and read.
So I wanted to blog partially so I would have a record of this event while it is fresh on my mind and well to just share the story because it is crazy. In fact all three of my children have now entered the world in their own dramatic fashion. In every one of them we have seen God at work. Here is the scoop
My wife was having contractions lastnight at church but they were far enough apart that really we were not all that concerned with them. In fact we went home thinking no biggy, she went to bed and I was working on a sermon for seminary. Around 10:30 she got up and was in the bathroom and I heard her moaning but me being the loving husband I am was preoccupied with my sermon writing, so I let it go because this sermon was already a day late. I finally decided I needed to check on her so I got up and asked her if she had been timing her contractions, and she responded with no, but she did not know if she would get through night. This was just after 11:00 pm. to which I posted on Facebook at 11:16 p.m.
“Well Tzigane is having contractions as far as we know the baby is still breech her Dr. appointment is Tuesday and her appointment for Insurance is late afternoon tomorrow not sure if she is going to make until tomorrow I hope so but I am doubtful.”
So I went back to my sermon and a while later she is still in the bathroom I think this is strange but she knows what she is doing. Finally I go in and start talking to her and I realize ok we have to go, we have waited to long. Both of her labor times for our previous two children have been short. With our first child she was in labor 2 hours 30 minutes and the second 2 hours. It was late at night so I call the pastor to get someone over to stay with our kids, he sent his wife right over, and we have it planned that as soon as she gets there we will leave. I know we are roughly 7 minutes if that from the hospital.
I take off doing 70 down the main road with my hazards on, worried I am going to get pulled over or a citation, thinking this is a great way to make a debut in Illinois. In my excitement between trying to get my wife to breath and driving fast I look up and say “look there is no wait in the ER” as there is a billboard that tells you this. In reading the sign I drive right by the hospital wasting precious time I now have to turn around. I speed to the next light thinking I have a red arrow but oh well I run right through it to turn around. Finally we are there and I am relieved so I thought.
I run into the ER and let them know she is in labor and the response is “come in and go through the door” I tell them “no the baby is coming get someone down here now”. I then rush back outside to be with my wife it seems like forever and finally I see a nurse come walking out casually I yell at her to hurry up. When she gets there and takes one look and totally freaks out and tells me to run and tell them “we need a Dr. Now”. Seriously whose to blame her it’s not everyday someone shows up in the parking lot with a breech baby. I run back inside and tell them “we need a Dr. Now”. I then run back out and the baby is now half out breech in our van. I am literally looking at half of my child rear first while the other half is not delivered yet. The nurse seems almost in shock I can see it in her face, I hear her yelling for the Dr. I see no one, all I see is baby and I am thinking “should I pull this baby out” I have no clue what to do. The nurse tells me to run inside because the Dr. did not see us. I run inside the hospital and yell at the Dr. to come out. Once again apparently no one trusted I knew what I was talking about the Dr. seemingly rather calmly comes strolling out as I am telling him to hurry.
After what seems like forever the Dr. gets to the van looks down and now he realizes the concern for the situation. For whatever reason I seem to be the only one calm at this point. The Dr. Begins to fly into action I am standing next to the him almost assisting him in this whole ordeal. The baby had been in this breech state of half in and half out for a minimum of three minutes. He tells my wife to push and out comes Zephaniah in the front seat of our mini van. It is at this point that calm went away and fear began to grip me. It was at this point that I realized the time for any human reasoning was over, the time for science was gone, if we had been relying on anything but God we could do so no more, we now had no choice but to rely on Him.
I looked at my precious baby that we had waited so long for and he was lifeless, I remember in my mind crying out to God to let him be ok. It literally seemed like and eternity My baby is blue he is not breathing the Dr. is wiping his little face, rubbing his chest doing all he can to stimulate him but nothing. I see fear in the Dr.’s face, he is yelling for the nurses to help him but nothing, no breath, nothing. Finally a breath, but that was it, one single solitary breath. He is still blue he is still not breathing the Dr. is talking to him “breath buddy” I am telling Tzigane not to look, my thoughts are “oh please God let him be ok” it seems like another eternity a he takes a second breath. Once again he stops he is still blue he is still not breathing and finally I hear what every parent wants to hear that first cry.
We cut the cord suction him out wrap him up and the Dr. and I run to the labor and delivery. I push the buttons on the elevator he cuddles my child in the blanket. I stay by Zephaniah’s little side the entire time. We bath him, give him his shots, I even assist in drawing his blood. The nurse was great as she told me everything we were doing. Praise be to God that he brought us our third miracle He gets the glory, He gets the praise.
by Josh Monda | Jun 16, 2011 | Uncategorized
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by Josh Monda | Feb 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
Well this weekend was a big one. I have decided to post somewhat of the process in thoughts that it might help others as they may go through the process. To my surprise many people read my blog though I am not sure why. This might be somewhat of a lengthy post and by all means if you do not want to read it then just move on you really will not offend me. Or you could just scroll towards the bottom and read that part.
We started our weekend by loading the van with everyone including my mother, and my niece and nephew. We had to drop my mother off at the church as she was heading to El Salvador on a missions trip and my niece and nephew were going to stay with their dad for the weekend. So we loaded up my mothers minivan and off we went. We had decided that we would just have a great family weekend as we needed some time together. So after dropping everyone off we headed for St. Louis first.
Our reasoning for going to St. Louis? We wanted to spend some time at the zoo. By the way if you have never been to the zoo in St. Louis you need to go. Parking is 11 dollars and the zoo is free to get in. I have always loved it there and the penguin exhibit is the best. Here is their link if you want to check it out www.stlzoo.org it will open in a new window. Well at the zoo it was great it was a little chilly but man we got to see everything and Micah (my son) ran around and he loved it. What made it so great in my opinion was two things. First there was hardly anyone there so you did not have to battle crowds, second we had the chance to see nearly every animal. We had a great time.
Well we left St. Louis and made our way to Jackson Mo. Here we stayed at the Drury Inn and I have to tell you it was a great stay. The Drury has started this thing called the 5:30 kickback in which they basically serve you dinner from 5:30 to 7 and it is free. On top of that you can get free fountain drink until 10pm and popcorn as well. I will tell you this is one of the most friendly hotels I have ever stayed in. We had a great time snacking on popcorn and sipping sodas as well as swimming and enjoying the hot tub. It was great to spend some time as a family just relaxing together and having fun. If you ever go through Jackson Missouri I would recommend the Drury Inn and you may even want to stay there eve if you doing things in Cape Girardeau. Here is the hotels site if you are interested Drury Inn.
Saturday we arrived in Golconda, Il. For those of you who may not have known where we were heading now you know. When we arrived in Golconda we took that opportunity to show Sarai the parsonage. She was very excited. Sarai has been ready to move for some time however I have tried not to tell her alot when I have spoken at other churches because I don’t want her to get her hopes up only to see things fall through. All of this to say that we loved the parsonage and so did she and it would be a nice place to live.
We then were taken out to our cabin where we would be staying. What I can say about that is awesome. I loved it, of course I am an outdoor person and I love being out in the country. I wish I would have brought my fishing pole as this cabin was right on the river. I have to tell you the church really took care of us and it was such a blessing. The cabin was just a wonderful experince and it was great to be out in country enjoying peace and quiet. If you want to check them out you can do so herehttp://www.popeco.net/barrencreekcottages/ I would encourage you that if you want some time away and are ever over near golconda or you like to fish then stay there. You can walk out the back door and walk down some stairs and be fishing. It was great.
Saturday night we had dinner with the Deacons and their wives. I must say I really enjoyed my time with them. I did alot of listening as I try to do anytime (I know it is hard to believe). One thing that stood out to me is the fact that my wife really had a good time Saturday evening. Tzigane is the exact opposite of me and she definitely is not as comfortable around new people as I am. If you put me in a crowded room of people I do not know I will get to know as many people as possible she would not. However, she loved her time with these ladies and for me that speaks volumes because I love my wife and need her to feel wherever we go as well. I will just say I really enjoyed my time with these men and they seem like they would be easy to work with.
Saturday evening we arrived back at the cabin and just enjoyed some quiet time together and I went over my sermon and then we went to bed we had to be ready for Sunday.
Some of you may want to skip to this point because you really just want to know how things went Sunday. Sunday started with Sunday School. My wife and I sat in the same class and I really enjoyed our time in that class. There was some good conversation and some great input. Sarai also went to a class and Micah to the nursery. Sarai made a friend right away which is fairly easy for her to do. Of course everyone seems to fall in love with Micah and he was just loving it all up. I must say I really was not nervous, during any of this time.
After Sunday school we headed up the sanctuary for the service. I had a great time in the service and as far as I could tell the sermon went well. My text was Mark 4:26-29 the parable of the growing seed. I preached like I normally do, even though I had all kinds of advice given to me about how to preach and what to say and not to say. If you are reading this and you are heading to a church in view of a call the best advice I can give you is be yourself. Whatever you do, do not try to be someone you are not. You will only disappoint the church when they think they are hiring one person and you turn out to be someone else. Be yourself, preach your sermon, and be transparent.
Following the service we had a lunch. Which I was the last one too because well I like to talk. It was funny because they told me to go to the front of the line which was nice but I almost felt bad. There was some good cooking down there in southern Illinois and man I enjoyed some great food. My daughter had way to much dessert but they can sure cook. During lunch I sat with some teens and talked with them a little bit. I love teenagers and to be honest I love hanging out with them and seeing what is on their mind. I enjoyed our lunch but I new the Q and A times was coming and I wanted to be focussed for that time. After we had lunch we had the Q and A time.
During this time I was asked several questions. However, I was never asked a question that seemed to have some sort of ulterior motive to it. I felt every question asked was a good question and I enjoyed answering them to the best of my ability. If you would like to know some of the questions just shoot me an email from the site and I will let you know. What I believe is important for any pastor in this process is to try to understand the question and think it through and then deliver the answer. So often we get frustrated or upset with a question and really there is no need to be. So my advice would be to remain calm, take a deep breath and think it through. If you do not know an answer just tell them you do not know the answer.
Taking everything into account I felt the weekend was great. I had a great time my family felt loved and we enjoyed ourselves. I could see myself ministering there. However that decision is not up to me. Nor really is it up to the church but up to God. Please pray for the church to have wisdom, and to be united no matter what their decision. I can tell you this no matter whether the answer is yes or no. I met some great brothers and sisters in the Lord and I pray God will bless them. It was a weekend I will not forget, and a weekend where this verse rang true. 1 Peter 1:22 “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart ( NKJV)”
Part 3 Is yet to come.
by Josh Monda | Feb 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
May 26
My Ordination, Where God is leading, and so forth.
Posted by Josh
It was a long time coming. I still remember the early days in my ministry after I had been ministering at First Baptist Church in Atlanta MO and right before I went to Exeter Bible Church in PA I was going to be ordained. However Exeter wanted to ordain me so I held off. The problem came when 9 months after I arrived at Exeter the pastor left and we began a rather long search for a pastor. We did find a Pastor and a few years after that I thought it might be a good time to go through the ordination process. Once again it was halted by my resignation and my subsequent move back to Missouri.
This all leads me up to where God may possibly be leading me. After moving back to Missouri I began to try to find a church to minister in as a youth pastor with little success. During this this time of looking for a youth pastorate I had many friends and family ask me if I had ever considered beign a Sr. Pastor. To be honest that has never even really been on my radar. So often my response has simply been no and God has called me to youth ministry. However that began to change for me over time.
I became a member at FBC macon nearly a year ago. I needed a place where my wife and myself could find healing and a place that we could call home. We found it at FBC macon. I have had the priviledge t osit under some great teachign while being there and have had the awesome privledge to have to pastors I consider friends. I know these men love me and I feel the same way about them. It was at this church that God began to change my though process. It was here that God let minister. It was a few months ago that I had a conversation with Pastor Tim and we began to talk and he said “i believe God may be calling you to be Sr. Pastor” and htough I had heard this many times before this time it was sinking in.
After that conversation I began to pray even harder and seek what God could be saying to me. Though I did not feel I had a clear answer from God I did feel that if God wanted this He would reveal it to me. So I decided to pursue it a little farther and I submitted my resume to a couple pf church that I felt would be a good fit for me. I really did not expect to get a call. One of those churches called me within minutes after receiveing my resume, in addition I have been contacted by other church that received my resume from others. Could htis be the Lord’s leading? Right now I believe it is indeed God’s direction. God has given me a peace about this which I never though I would have. I pray for god to lead me to the right place.
To top all of this off I had a wonderful ordination service this past Sunday night. The encouragement I recieved form the deacons and other pastors was overwhelming to me. I am honored the FBC Macon has seen qualities in me worthy of Ordination. I want to be where God wants me and nowhere else and if that mean I am a Sr. Pastor that is what I want. Please pray for God’s direction.
Uncategorized
May 19
God’s Miracle to us
Posted by Josh
One year ago today my son was born. Micah John Monda was a surprise to both my wife and I. After nearly 8 years of trying to have a second child Micah came along. What miracle he was then and still is. He brings joy to our lives on an everyday basis with our daughter Sarai. There is nothing quite like seeing a baby develop and begin to smile and in some cases to see their daddy in them. I hope people see my daddy in me I hope my life point to my heavenly father. I will write more later on some amazing things God is doing in my life right now. Here are some pics of my son.
Uncategorized
May 13
Clayton’s Story
Posted by Josh
This is a powerful video that not only all teens should see but all people. It is worth a few moments of your time
Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application
May 04
So Bizarre – Bizarre Foods Sneak Peak
Posted by Josh
One show I like to watch around my house is Bizarre foods. Now I know that this show may gross some people out but for me the culinary appetite of Andrew Zimmern is mind boggling. He often seems to have a way of taking some food that you may think sounds like the grossest things in the world abd make it sound good and even seem good when he tries it.
If you have not watched Bizarre foods it is on the Travel Channel on Tuesdays at 10pm eastern. On the show Andrew tries everything that you could possible imagine. From bats, to intestines, to everything in between. many times I wish I could be in the countries that he travels too and try some of the food he tries. Though I may never experience it I sometimes feel as though I get to experience it through him. Here is a sneak peak of tomorrows episode. I encourage you to stop by and watch it remember Tuesdays at 10pm on the travel channel.
My Thoughts
