Hello Friends!

A few months ago I received a message from a dear friend about the idea of traveling to Egypt to assist in building a skate park and ministering to some young adults.

If the money comes in, my trip will be from October 28^th- November 8^th. On November 2nd, there is a huge festival that will have 10,000 people in attendance. A church in Egypt as asked me to speak.

I believe the gospel has the power to change lives, and that why I believe this trip has the potential to be so powerful. Many of us know, that without the redemptive work of Christ on the cross, our lives would be utter chaos. I believe the youth in Egypt are lost, searching for something beyond daily routine and my goal in reaching them is to point them towards the cross of Jesus Christ where he washed away our sins and gave us a second chance. 

I didn’t ask for it, but God is slowly starting to build me a platform through skateboarding through and it is shaping me to be an advocate for change in a generation chasing a false hope. It breaks my heart to see people around me give their focus to things of this world that will ultimately leave us empty.

It took me many years to give up what pop culture defines as happiness. The American dream swallows us up and spits us out unsatisfied. 

Egypt is just another stop on the way towards my goal in sharing Christ with everyone I come in contact with. If you believe in what I am doing and want to see the love of Christ manifested through a broken skateboarder, I need your support. Prayer would be the first step. I am human, which means I fail. Please pray that the Lord will continue to break me and humble into the likeness of Jesus. Also, pray that the youth in Egypt will be radically changed by the realization that Christ died for them specifically. 

As far as financial support I only have to raise airfare, which would be about $1,200. I’m currently working two jobs but I have rent, food, gas and many other bills just like everyone else in the world. Ha!

If you are thinking about giving a donation, please prayerfully consider it. I don’t just want your money. I want you to be involved in this trip and be just as passionate as I am about it.

If for whatever reason the trip does not go through, your money will be returned in full.

Thank you for your time, and I pray that God is revealing himself to you more and more each day.

-Jordan Lovelis                                                                                                          (951 240 8861)

You can send letters of inspiration to:

Jordan Lovelis (smells)
1050 N Wanda Rd.
Orange, Ca 92867 

Or via Paypal Here:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=G7WPAV9WK8FNG&lc=US&item_name=Send%20Jordan%20to%20Egpyt%21&currency_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donateCC_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted

Have you ever seen the television show “Intervention?” It is incredibly sad.  Since moving to California, I have had some down time while I wait for school to start and I look for a way to make some income. One benefit of this season of life is that the family I’m living with has Netflix, so I’ve been watching way too much television. But I didn’t have television the past two years, so I don’t feel too bad about it.

Intervention is a show about people with addictions. Whether it be alcohol, drugs, sex or anything of that nature, everyone in the show has an addiction. These addictions are consuming their lives. So much so that relatives or close friends contact the producers of Intervention and have them come in to film the addicts life. The way the show is set up makes the addicts think they are just being filmed to be in a documentary about addiction, but in reality they are shortly going to have an intervention.

It is seriously mind-blowing and incredibly sad. These people are jacked up and their family is at their wits end. They don’t know what else to. The love they have for their brother, sister, cousin, or whoever it may be is incredible. During the intervention they speak in a way that calms the souls and shows the addict how much they care. Day and night they pray for them and ask God to give them a second chance. I watched as one father professed his love to his daughter, but ultimately had to give up because of the destruction she was causing to herself.  He kicked her out of the house and no longer supported her habit.

As I watched one of these episodes, I began to weep. I sat on the couch and began to think about the immense love that Christ has for us. In all reality, we as humanity are addicts. We are addicted to everything that is not of God. We constantly follow our own desires and our own ideas of what we think brings us happiness. The American dream won’t fulfill us.  We can’t fix an internal problem with external items.

Like the family in the interventions Christ loves us but call us to change. He can no longer support they way we live. He loves us so incredibly much but love us too much to allow us to continue to live in our sin. He came to earth, and died on the cross to erase our pain. He came to give us a second chance. The moment He died, and was raised from the dead, He had victory of our sinful nature. He shows us that what we are doing is wrong, even if we don’t see it. Some of the addicts on the show yell and are bitter towards the people throwing the intervention, but what they fail to realize is the love that is coming from their family.

So I sit here reflecting on Christ and the love he has for us. At some point, he give us an “intervention.” He can save us and give us hope, but we have to let go of the very thing that is destroying us. So many people are broken on this Earth and it makes me so incredibly sad. They fill their arm to avoid the reality that we are all sinners. 

Christ offers true freedom, freedom from ourselves.

“And I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves us”.   – John Mark McMillian

I’m going to try to be more frequent in my updates. As my platform is growing through skateboarding, I want to keep everybody updated. Facebook is cool, but I can’t really write and express things like I can on here, so I’m going to do my best to keep people interested. Its been about 2 months since I moved back to Cali. Being down here again, I’m reminded of how much I love it here. Good weather, good people, and all around good vibes. I love living with my room mate George and encouraging each other in the Lord. I live with him and his family and they are the nicest Mexicans I’ve ever met. Its amazing. (Not to say mexicans aren’t usually nice). Haha! 

Anyways, I’ve had a lot of free time on my hands due to school being out and skateboarding trips being less frequent. Instead of wasting time, I want to be productive. After doing a devo today I felt really convicted about being lukewarm. Reflecting on my time in India, and remembering what I saw I was reminded of the overwhelming realization that Christ didn’t come to die for my failures so I could live a lukewarm life. He came to set me free from myself. I want to be constantly on a path of being Jesus to everybody around me. Life gets crazy sometimes, and we all fall short of the glory of God but thats exactly why Christ is so compelling. He came to us. We didn’t have to go searching for a God we can’t obtain. Its a beautiful story. 

So, I’m sitting at a coffee shop in Orange, Ca and making a conscious effort to be more diligent in my studies and more aware of God who loves me. Check back often for updates. I want to be doing this atleast a few times a week. 

Love you

New Direction- Today is the first day being back in California. I’ve been living in Portland for the past year and a half doing skate ministry. It was such an amazing experience and I’m so thankful for the time I spent there. A few months ago I got an offer to ride for a company called Siren Skateboards which is apart of KKSM. I’m excited to see where this leads me. My first demo with them is this weekend and I can’t wait to experience the ministry that happens through this season of life. God is good!

India- Day One

We arrived in India last night. It was 11pm and now it is Saturday afternoon. Currently it would be 2:16am in Portland, but it is 2:45pm here. Needless to say, our bodies are trying to recover from the 30 hours of traveling and time difference. Today we are taking it easy, since we don’t have the wood for building the ramps yet. We skated on a 20 foot concrete slab earlier today and kids from the neighborhood came and watched. It is very surreal to see how interested they are in something like skateboarding. They don’t have leisure time, so it comes as a shock. 

Today, I am just trying to prepare my heart for the rest of the trip. The morning devotional and prayer time was amazing. We are staying with some good friends of ours and they gave us the statistics for poverty and human trafficking. It is so incredibly sad. The video above is a shocking realization of what is happening in the world around us. My heart breaks for these people. A human soul used as an object for mans pleasure. The reality is though, it breaks God’s heart more. The effects of sin are devastating. The root of every sin is separation from Creator. He is what we need. Christ came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 

Continue to pray for the team and I. Tomorrow we are doing a demo at a mall. Apparently, kids are going to flock to us. Pray we can have real conversations, and be the hands and feet of Christ. Here we are Lord, do with us what you will.

This was fun to make…

I thought it would be good to make a blog. I feel kind of ridiculous doing this, but since so many people use the internet now a days, it could be good. I’m mostly doing this to gain support for my upcoming trip to India with Skatechurch. I’ll have more on that later. Thanks for showing up.