Posted in Human Trafficking by Matthew Snyder on 8/27/2010
:: Social Injustice Demands a Response ::
If you're following me on this blog, then you probably know me to some degree. And if you know me to some degree, then you know that I'm crazily passionate about putting an end to human trafficking.
Yesterday I posted a blog from Seth Barnes that spoke to the fact that social justice isn't enough. We need to spread the other half of the gospel in the process. I think that it's really easy for myself and a lot of other individuals in my generation to lean on one side of the fence; we typically prefer the "cool" factor of standing behind social justice trends. But the second that you put the glory of God behind it, we get uncomfortable, we squirm, and we're afraid that people will get offended.
Have we forgotten that the glory of God is what should be magnified in the first place? NOT our own human-ability to respond to needs?
I could probably rant all day about it but I won't this time. I just wanted to say that there is a glorious opportunity here to respond to a need... (Read the rest here)
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Posted in General Articles by Matthew Snyder on 7/8/2010
my uncle passed away yesterday, so prayers for the family would be appreciated. i wrote a blog post about it here.
-- matt
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Posted in General Articles by Matthew Snyder on 7/7/2010
... and what better way to get changed...
... to change...
Share this link with your buddies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n_WEIx16JQ
I mean, especially if you want to see a rising generation empowered and a world changed...
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Posted in Articles by Matthew Snyder on 6/29/2010
My time in Guatemala has been absolutely incredible and just what the doctor (a.k.a. JESUS) ordered. The Lord knew that I needed a little revival in my own spirit. It's been a crazy past month with a lot of ups and downs, questions, fears, doubts, leadings, misleadings, travel, couch-surfing-ish, and the beyond.
I've been in Guatemala for the almost last two weeks helping lead an short-term mission trip through the Edge program at AIM. We had two groups of 52 total that came down here to Guatemala and the Lake Atitlan region and did ministry. We had a blast.
I recently have been utilizing another blog that I fired up several months ago on Wordpress. I know, I know. It's a crazy move because I have a pretty stable following here. I've been using my World Race blog for the last three years or so but have felt the nudge to venture out a little. I have been posting my updates on Guatemala there.
If you would like to subscribe to blog updates on my new blog, you can do so on the right-hand side of the blog page.
I will continue to update this World Race blog on occasion, but am moving to a new site. I am still working with AIM, still doing mission work, still helping mobilize a generation of Christians to go change the world - the whole shot.
Just... a new site.
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Posted in General Articles by Matthew Snyder on 6/18/2010
I realize that it's been awhile since I've updated on here. I've recently been blogging more on my wordpress site. You can get to it by click here:
It's not that I'm not going to blog on here anymore, it's that... well... I've been blogging over there more recently. I really don't know why and don't have much of an explanation.
I just know that I've blogged maybe six times in the last week there. You should check it out. Eventually it's going to become my main platform. I don't really like introducing things before they're "finished' and this is definitely under development, but you should check it out anyway.
Add it to your RSS feeds and feel free to subscribe to it.
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Posted in Updates by Matthew Snyder on 6/5/2010
I used to do this incredible thing where I would write a weekly update. I stopped doing that. It became kind of discouraging when I realized that I didn't have much happening week-to-week and my commentary on the last season of 24 was kind of drab. The good news is that I'm writing one now. So read up!
Here is the latest from the last month or so of my life:
 From frigid rain to searing humidity. I've been down south since about the second week of May. Transitioning from the north to the south was quite adventurous. Not only was it last minute, but it was 43 degrees and raining when I left Michigan. It was 90 degrees and humid as heck when I landed in Georgia. I've been doing a plethora of things since being here.
Finding a roof to nestle under. I'm moving to Gainesville in about a month. It's weird to think that I won't be living in Michigan. I've been there for the past year and a half. I didn't realize how many connections I made up there. It's sad to separate from them all. But I've been apartment hunting with the guys I'm going to live with. I think we're settling on a condo that we found, which is surprisingly cheaper than another apartment we were looking at. Condo... apartment... bigger and nicer... smaller and not-as-nice... I think we settled for the condo.
Why, yes, God provides abundantly.
Training camp craze. We recently had our largest World Race training camp to date about an hour north of Gainesville, Georgia. It was a blast! Jonathan David Helser came and led worship, the participants were empowered quickly, and now they're ready to take on the world. We're currently in the middle of Real Life training camp, which I'm leading worship for. These guys and gals are awesome, too!
Voy a Guatemala. I am. Seriously. On June 19th I'm hopping on a plane to Guatemala. Some of you might be thinking, weren't you going to a worship school this summer? Yes, I was going. However, I felt God leading me another direction, doors were shutting, things weren't lining up. Less than week later, I had a ticket booked for Guatemala where I'm helping lead a short-term trip for roughly two weeks. Am I excited? You bet. I love that country. And in light of recent events (erupting volcanoes and tropical storms), there's a lot to do down there.
How to pray. I'm beyond blessed to have so many people out there praying for me. A lot of you are wondering of some ways that you can pray for me. For starters, I have a cold that's destroying any kind of voice that I have. Pray that that's taken care of immediately. Secondly, that we get this condo. Third, I'm in desperate need of a vehicle - pray that the Lord provides! Fourth, I still need about $150/month in support. Pray that the Lord leads people my way!
That's all I have for now. I hope to share more next week! Blessings!
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Posted in Support Raising by Matthew Snyder on 6/3/2010
 I stormed into Jake's office with my mouth gaping wide open. He looked up from his desk and gave me the look that beckons a response. "Jake," I said, "I made less than $10,000 last year."
He pursed his lips together, smiled, threw his hands up in the air and said, "hey, God's been taking good care of us!"
It's so true! He is such a faithful and dependent Father who takes such good care of His kids!
I've been wrestling a lot lately with feelings of insufficiency, feelings of being overwhelmed, and feelings of whether I'll measure up and be able to provide for someone the way that a job in the "normal" workplace could. But sometimes it takes a simple glance backwards to remind ourselves of God's faithfulness in providing for us when He says that He will.
I look back to last year and see so much abundance in my life. I had a roof over my head, and not just any roof! It was a giant eight-bedroom house crammed full of people who are just as silly as I am. It's been a community rich in love and overflowing in laughter. Not only that, but I flew over 30,000 miles and set foot in three different countries. I had my hands in helping mobilize thousands of people to the mission field through AIM.
I saw miracles
I saw dreams become a reality.
I helped cast vision and create things.
There was never a moment that I went without. Never a day that went by that I wasn't able to pay my bills. I ate like royalty (we had a lot of steak last summer) and I always had a way to get around (even though I don't own a vehicle).
God is faithful!
So sometimes it just takes a quick glance backwards to say: Lord - thank You. He is so good, is He not?
 The interesting thing about living on faith in America is that it's one of the hardest things that I've ever done in my life. It's harder than traveling the world for one year. It's harder than leading a group of college students through the streets of Nashville. It's harder than approaching strangers and harder than gagging down tuna.
It takes a lot out of a person.
So I was wrestling with this last night and asking the Lord what the hell He really wants from me. As I sat on the deck of my friend's apartment and listened to the Lord, I just kept recalling of all the ways that He said He'd provide for me. He said that He would always give to me in abundance, that He would always provide, that I would never be without, and that I wouldn't even know what to do with all of the blessings that He's going to give me.
I chuckled and simply said, "Lord, all I have is Your word at this point." Then I distinctly heard Him whisper, "John 8" in my ear. So I grabbed my Bible and this is what I immediately turned to:
Jesus replied: you're right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true.
I'm not kidding - that's the first thing I read!
And so I know two things to be true: 1) that God is faithful; and 2) that God has a sense of humor.
My question for you is:
what does living on faith look like for you?
Do you live by faith, too?
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Posted in General Articles by Matthew Snyder on 6/2/2010
Can i vent for two seconds?
i don't like it when passions become burdens.
i don't like it when things that made my spirit soar now make me frustrated.
i don't like it when brick walls shadow over me.
i don't like it when i'm told I can't.
i don't like it when i'm challenged.
i don't like it when i'm not challenged.
i don't like mundane things.
i don't like the ordinary.
i don't like settling for 'getting by'.
i don't like submitting to mediocrity.
i don't like it when others die.
i don't like it when dreams shrivel.
i don't like it when hope is lost.
i don't like it when defeat overcomes victory.
i don't like lack of provision or good things.
i don't like paralysis or lack of empathy.
i don't like forgetting what motivates me.
so what do i like?
i like it when heaven invades earth.
i like it when passion bubbles from within.
i like it when i'm alive.
i like it when i'm doing things that make me infectious with joy.
i like it when i'm part of something bigger.
i like it when i'm challenged to be better.
i like it when i get to create.
i like it when dreams become reality.
i like it when i see transformed lives.
l like it when i get to walk on foreign soil.
i like it when i make people laugh.
i like it when His provision isn't hopeful, but tangible.
i like it when i get to touch the world first-hand.
i like it when i experience the Father's love.
i like it when i'm His vessel.
just needed to get that off my chest.
thank you.
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Posted in Stories from the Field by Matthew Snyder on 6/1/2010
I read this today. And I thought it was flippin' incredible. Who gets to share stories like this? Oh yeah. World Racers do. World Racers like Ashley Higgins.
i don't really know what i was expecting to see today. but i certainly
didn't have this in mind.
i've known for a long time that cambodia is the place of the killing
fields. i never knew what those were. i've heard certain words thrown
around, sure. words that could only attempt to paint an accurate
picture.
khmer
rouge. torture. atrocity. recent. mass genocide.
but i had no idea what i was actually getting myself into. we pulled up
to the old prison this afternoon. the halls of this place were once
bustling with enthusiastic adolescents who were eager to learn and
excited about making a difference in their world. this high school
became a main setting for detention, interrogation, torture and killing
after being overtaken by order of pol pot in april 1975. over the span
of four years over ten thousand innocent people came through the doors
of this concrete hell. only seven people walked away from the torture
chambers that should have been an inevitable death.
chum mey is one of those people.
i would not hesitate to call it a
divine appointment.
as we were walking up to building c of the prison campus today we
noticed an elderly cambodian man. we asked him why he was there and he
told us that he is one of only three survivors who are still alive. he
visits the prison periodically to tell his story in hopes that people
will never forget about the cambodian genocide. as we continued talking
to mr. mey he recounted his story to us and was gracious enough to
answer all of our questions.
he and his wife were taken captive in 1978 by the khmer rouge regime.
he was split up from his wife and put into the torture chamber we stood
in today. he was held captive there for four months before being
rescued by the vietnamese army. during his time in the torture chamber
he was confined to a small brick cell with nothing but a small box to go
to the bathroom in. he was given only two small handfuls of rice
porridge each day. his hands and feet were shackled while he was
beaten. if he made a sound they would beat him more. he told us of a
time when his back was so swollen from the beatings that he couldn't
bear to have it touch anything. he tried to sleep sitting up but the
guards made him lay on his back, forcing him to endure the excruciating
pain. all he could do was cry silently. screwdrivers were lodged into
his toe in an effort to pull it off. he was given electric shocks twice
everyday and as a result is blind and deaf on his right side.
i have never before heard firsthand of such brutality and malice.
as i stood listening to mr. mey's testimony i was overwhelmed with
compassion and love for him. we told him that we are christians and
that we wanted to share the love of christ with him. we offered to pray
for him and he obliged. and before i knew it there we were. fourteen
jesus-loving westerners praying over one cambodian-buddhist.
we prayed over him in the same cell he was once
tortured in.
if that's not redemption, i don't really know what is.
when we had finished we shook hands and began saying our goodbyes.
fire didn't fall from heaven and no one busted out of the prison cell
this time around. but the air felt thinner to me. the spirit of god
was resting in a place where maybe it never has before. mr. mey had an
encounter with the one true god today, whether he knows it or not. my
prayer is that the lord would continue to encounter him and speak to him
and save his soul. that jesus would capture his heart and anoint him
to bring the good news, to heal the broken hearted. and from one to
another, truly set the captives free. [isaiah 61]
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Posted in Dreams and Visions by Matthew Snyder on 5/26/2010
"There's always a remnant. Always."
The Lord started speaking to me this morning about dreams. Not the kind of dreams that flit through our heads at night, but the kind of dreams that stir our hopes, desires, passions - the things that provoke our heart to movement.
 It's easy to get overwhelmed, discouraged, and defeated by the harsh realities of life. But it's important to remember that the harsh realities of life aren't reality at all.
The Master Dreamer has planted seeds of dreams in our hearts. He wants those seeds to grow. True reality's locked on the inside of us and sometimes we have to wrestle with dirt and fight with nourishing those dreams so that they can sprout into something great.
There's always a remnant. Always. It was true throughout Israel's history and it's still true today, even within our own hearts. There is a remnant of hope. There's always that voice that says there's something more to this and I'm ready to step into a greater reality, to awaken my spirit to the truth of my dreams.
My dream - as I have learned over this weekend - is starting to sprout from the dirt. It's a hard reality to grip, but one that's relinquished itself from gravity. I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it, but my heart knows that it's real. This is really happening. I've never been challenged more with embracing the truth of God's dreams in me.
What's your dream? What's the remnant of hope He's placed on this inside of you?
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