Who Is Augustus Van Houten

Growth and time reveal old hurts but in the midst we can always find God’s love and grace. Gone are the days of chasing approval of men (and women). Instead I lean into the One who sought me first. And now my heart’s desire is to be transformed daily into the image of Christ.

I was in a place I was not familiar with, however, I would soon fall in love with. When I stepped off the giant steel contraption, I was greeted with a hot summer’s air. We then got into an old rusty van with the stench of cigarettes. Two hours later we finally reached our destination. Our destination was no resort on an island. Our destination was a small village out in seclusion. We walked around the village meeting the natives. As we was walking, I looked over my shoulder and saw a young lady. I glanced at her feet and noticed the red dirt overtaking the color of her skin. My preacher and I went over to her mud hut and told her about Jesus Christ. As my preacher was speaking, a little girl peaked her head out from her momma’s tattered skirt. I motioned her to approach me and handed her some candy. Her little smooth hands snatched the candy from mine. I welcomed her with a big grin and she returned with the same. Just to see one little girl smile made my entire

Back home the question, who really cares? Would continually float around in my head. I felt betrayed by my own family. They were just rushing me away and wanted me to have a personal life beyond just a relationship. My mom had lied to me and the very religion I was founded upon I started to question. My mom was a minister of music so how as a minister within a church could you do exactly what you’re teaching against? My foundation was shaken and all I knew for sure was I had just signed my life away.

I remember the time I first met Jesus like it was yesterday. It was after school and like any other day everyone in our neighborhood would go to the big open field in the front of our neighborhood to age everything was about being good at sports. After the day I realized that he wasn’t the best and wasn’t completely sure whether or not I would like him or not. After a couple of more days of playing soccer we began to talk and started to talk more throughout school. Time went by and we started getting closer with one

I was raised Catholic, but I left the church soon after I enlisted. Many years later, a co-worker shared the gospel with me. At that time (2003), something in my soul awakened and I fell upon the mercy and grace of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

My name is Jessica Thomas and I was born and raised in Oklahoma City. My parents were born in India but as soon as they got married they moved to America with their siblings. I grew up in a Christian home so my faith in God has always been a big part of my life because it has always been a big part of my families lives. About two years ago my cousin Jency lent me her book called Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. This book touched me in a very profound way. It is a novel about a little girl who was sold into prostitution by her uncle but was bought by a very good hearted Christian man when she was an adult. Once he bought her he married her because that is what God told him to do. He loved her unconditionally and tries to show her the love

In my junior year of high school, I started dating a girl with whom I would get into a serious relationship with. We grew close and shared our deepest secrets, and I genuinely loved this girl. However, this relationship shattered when I found our she had cheated on me by sleeping with my best friend. I was in a dark place after the event. I retracted myself from society and locked myself in my room only to come out for food. I became cold and saw the world as a cruel joke placed upon its inhabitants. I believed everyone had a side of evil, and that I could trust no one. However, I spent a week of that summer in a program called Marianist LIFE. The program preached to its participants to build Christian communities. There I met kindhearted people

As a follower of Jesus, I view the world not as a great evil that must be constantly condemned, but as an incredible opportunity to demonstrate unconditional and unflinching love. To love unconditionally, I must live in a new normal in which I’m able to reach out to people wildly different from me and find a common ground of friendship. I must seek out people from different walks of life with ideologies that are perhaps at war with my

However, at the end of this long train of feelings, I found hope. I felt Jesus wash over my body and mind with peace. He reassured me that He knows what He’s doing and I can trust in Him. I do believe that to be true.

In my heart I forgave those that hurt me, and mocked me when I was young. I have so much joy that often people call me names such as “smiley” or “bubbles” instead of “dumb a¥¥” and “retard”. The community that the Lord has surrounded me with do nothing to hinder my relationship with Him, but everything to help me pursue Him and a relationship with Him. The place I am at right now with the Lord is greater than it has ever been but only greater will it become with the group of friends I have now. I have to attribute a lot of my surroundings to Stasia, HP, Carista, Andrew, Karissa, Natasha, Ben, Rylee, Nygia, and the Misirian’s for all that they have taught me and led me to learn on my own. I said names just in case you read this out

If I am so focused on being right in my beliefs, that I forget to focus on Jesus then I have missed the whole point. I know that I’ll never know everything, but if I’m focused on loving God and others then I achieved the main point. There is a non-profit organization called To Write Love on Her Arms that I think embodies some of the love the McKnight mentioned. This organization was founded by a follower of Jesus who, in order to show love to his broken friend, launched this pro-love organization. They help people of all backgrounds, in various mental-health and addiction problems. They provide a judgment free place for people to heal. For me, Jesus is like this organization. Someone who is pro-love, no matter the background or problem. He provides the ultimate place of ultimate healing. He is someone, who unlike the religious leaders of his time, helps everyday people carry out the laws. Jesus commands two things: love God and love others. When I go on my Argentina SIMS trip this summer, I hope I am remembered by my love. Not my knowledge of memorized scriptures from bible quizzing days, nor my ability to always say the right things, but by my love. My family has given me great guide lines on loving people. My mother has taught me to give love to others, and my father has taught me how to receive love I know I do not deserve. Giving love to others, however, can be way more difficult than it seems. Even though I know that Jesus’ kingdom is a kingdom of love, some days it feels like people are trying to make it hard to love them. When this happens, it is refreshing to realize that even when I mess up one of only two of Jesus’ commands, I am still fully loved by Him. It is refreshing to know, in that same manner, when other people have trouble showing love to me, I am still loved by

P:The Lord appears in Ananias. A quote that really stuck up to me was, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For

AFter everyone was settled we started opening our stockings it was amazing I loved it. I got chocolate, a iPod touch everything was perfect and it was about to get even more perfect. Once everyone is done opening their stockings, we open the presents that we get from our parents. We opened lots and lots of gifts when it came down to the last present that was to my siblings and I, we ripped the paper off this little box and what did we find in it? WE found a coupon that had the Culvers logo and some other suff. We didn’t know what it was so we just said thank you and moved on to play with all the other stuff that we got. Before we could do anything else my parents asked us if we knew what it was and I said that I didn’t know. Right after I said that they told us and we were so, so, so happy about it. We didn’t even know what to think. After we calmed down and hugging them they told us what a name was that they were thinking of. So, they said to us, Valkano. At first when we heard it we didn’t really think that it was a very clever name. But, after they said it multiple times we got it that it was spelled V-A-L-K-A-N-O after we found that out we knew that, that was the name that it was going to

situation seemed. One of the most impacted people in the novel was Peter Van Houten. Hazel saw him at Augustus’s funeral and stated that “Peter Van Houten wore a white linen suit, tailored to account for his rotundity, a powder-blue dress shirt, and a green tie,” (Green 271). When Hazel and Augustus first met Peter he was a rude, solitary man who wanted nothing to do with them, but before they left they got to share a few choice words with him. Peter would never have gone to Augustus’s funeral if he himself had never felt the impact of losing someone to cancer. Although Peter was still very forward, he became more understanding and sympathetic toward Hazel, even editing and delivering a letter that Augustus wrote for her. Overall The Fault

Since Jesus Christ has been in my heart, I believe that he is living in me, through me, and with me at all times. I am a child of God that is continuing to live through him by obeying his commands because He has given me numerous promises and blessings that He desires us to experience. By showing his love to others by being kind and compassionate, I am growing closer to God one step at a time. Although disappointments are yet to come, I know that God will be here every step of the way to help us overcome these battles so that we are conquerors through him that love us. Romans 8:31 “What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”