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Opportunity (n): a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something. This year has flown by! I guess it is true that the older you get, the faster times seems to go. I can honestly say that 2017 has been the best year I’ve had. If I could review this entire year of my life, it might turn out to be more of a book than a blog post. I could focus on many things that happened in my life like graduating college, connecting with numerous people in my possible career field, starting school at UAB, meeting Dale Earnhardt Jr., or my many adventures. When I first started attending Gardendale on a weekly basis, one of the first sermons Pastor Kevin preached on was on a watch word. A watch word is a word that God gives you and uses it to grow you throughout the year. I deeply felt the word “opportunity” whispered into my soul. My final post of this year will focus on 3 opportunities that occurred in my life that I didn’t see coming. 1) God Gave Me the Opportunity to Get Connected

The Chavez Family has obviously been through a lot this past week with a tragedy that has occurred. I'm not here to talk about details about it. If you want more details, you can check the local TV station websites. I'm here to talk about how God has comforted us this week. This audio blog is a little long (close to 40 minutes), but it is worth listening to. Listen to it on the way to church, a loved ones house, or even in your spare time. Why can I have joy, hope, strength, and forgiveness in this hard time? I would pray that you would listen to the podcast and even follow along with the notes provided. Again, thank you for your prayers for our family during this tough time. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST/AUDIO HERE DOWNLOAD AN OUTLINE WITH REFERENCE VERSES AND TO FOLLOW ALONG HERE *NOTE: When I speak about "us", "we", or "family" and how we feel, I am speaking on behalf of the five of us, not necessary how the entire family involved feels.*

Everyone has their own way to work out and exercise. For me, I walk about half a mile every day I go to class. But on the weekends, things change! I have a collection of VBS DVD’s and VHS cassettes from every VBS I have attended (with the exception of 2005, 2008, 2015, and 2016). My favorite parts are the music videos. If you’re familiar with LifeWay VBS, you probably have heard of Jeff Slaughter. Jeff did the VBS music from 1996 to 2012. Every Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon, I grab a few of the VBS DVD’s or cassettes and go to the music section. Some people may consider these VBS songs just for kids. All of these songs hold a special place in my heart. Sure, they were written for VBS, but they are loaded with scripture and important truths found in the Bible. For example, there’s one song from 2009 that drilled the verse, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Another song from 2011 teaches about the Great Commission. I could go on and on. All th

This past weekend I celebrated my 21st birthday! Nothing big, just time spent with my family. The one thing I prayed/wished for, God granted. I did a birthday fundraiser to help raise funds for my mission trip in 2018. All 21 spots were taken, and I am very thankful for the people who decided to donate. The day I came into this world was December 2, 1996. Interesting fact…I was born a UAB. Who would’ve thought that 21 years later, I would be attending UAB. I was born with a sinful nature. We all were. No matter what good I do in this world, if I didn’t have Jesus as my Savior, it wouldn’t help me get into heaven. I realized this at a young age. As many of you know, Vacation Bible School has always had a special place in my heart. Since 2001, I have attended VBS at Cleveland First Baptist. The people there mean a lot to me. They helped me build my foundations of Biblical knowledge. Jesus said that everyone needs to be born again. I encourage that you read this truth in John 3: 1-21

This week's post will be short because it's actually an audio recording. This past week, I had the opportunity to speak at Highlands in Cleveland, a small group for teens in the Cleveland area. Just like any small group, there are games and activities, a time of worship, and a message. I was invited by Mrs. April and Mr. Browning to speak on a subject. God laid on my heart to talk about living by faith. Click HERE to listen to the message God placed on my heart to talk about to these teenagers. Click HERE to download an outline to follow along.

Many of you may know that I am a HUGE NASCAR fan! My favorite driver since I started watching has always been Dale Earnhardt Jr. Although he might not be as successful as his dad, he is always a fan favorite. He’s won the most popular driver award 14 times in a row and has won 8 Cup races since I became  a fan in 2007. I was fortunate enough to be at Talladega Superspeedway when he won in 2015. In April 2017, Dale Jr. announced that the 2017 season would be his last; his career would end after the Miami race on November 19, 2017. It had always been a dream of mine to meet Dale in person! Wait. You might be thinking, “Isn’t this a blog about Noe and what God has taught him?” The answer is “yes!” God actually taught me something related to Dale Jr. in late March of 2017. During Spring Break 2017, my family went to spend the week with some family in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Charlotte area is known as the capitol of NASCAR. I had planned to take a day to visit the raci

“You said ‘go’, so I will go. You said ‘tell’, so I will tell.” Missions has been apart of my life ever since I can remember. Whether it was VBS or dad going to Central America on many occasions, I have always been around missions. I love missions so much that I have a segment in Kidz Worship at Gardendale First Baptist Church called “Missionz With Noe”. You may ask, “Why is he so passionate about missions?” The answer is simple…Jesus tells us to go and make disciples of all nations. It was His final words before ascending back to heaven. I’m told that a person’s final words are usually their most important. I believe that is true with Jesus. He did so many amazing things while on earth. How would one know about Him if no one was willing to share what He did for them. He died on the cross and restored a broken relationship with the Father. As a follower of Christ, I need to connect with people, whether it’s my neighbors or someone from across the world, and tell them about

These last few weeks have been full of many exciting things. One of the things I look forward to during the fall is the NASCAR Playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. Close to 200,000 fans make the journey to cheer on their favorite drivers. This Talladega race was would be an exciting, yet somber one, for myself and all Dale Jr. fans. This was Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s final Talladega race of his career. The Earnhardt’s have been very popular at Talladega. Dale Sr. won 10 races at Talladega, and Dale Jr. won 6 races at Talladega. To honor all his fans, Dale Jr. and Mountain Dew allowed fans to sign up on its website to have their name on Dale’s final Talladega car. Over 54,000 names would adorn the #88 Mountain Dew Chevrolet SS. As a big fan, I of course signed up! I wanted to make sure my name was on that car! Weeks leading up to the race there was lots of uncertainty. Would my name actually be on the car? Did I make the cut? I wasn’t sure. FINALLY, the day before the race, Mountain Dew

Where has the time gone? It’s October! Fall festivals, cooler weather (hopefully), and TALLADEGA! What also begins this month is Operation Christmas Child. Thousands of shoeboxes will be collected throughout the country to give to kids, helping spread the Good News of Jesus around the world. I will actually be doing a few Missionz With Noe segments that have to do with Operation Christmas Child. In preparation for this, I ordered a DVD with many stories about what these shoeboxes mean to the children who receive them. One story caught my eye. A little boy from Africa was very fond of his grandmother, who had taught him about the Bible. This little boy loved reading out of his grandmother’s Bible. She passed away, and the little boy wanted a Bible for His own. He prayed for a Bible. When he received his shoebox, one thing struck his eyes. It wasn’t the cool toys or anything else. It was a BIBLE! Don’t tell me that happened to be coincidence. That was God at work! The more I read Go

I have really enjoyed my first two months of serving in Kidz Kingdom at GFBC! I love being able to worship alongside the kids and building relationships with the kids. I have also loved working on my Missionz With Noe segments. When I was approached about leading a mission’s segment, I was excited, but didn’t know what it would consist of. My first segment was talking to kids about being missionaries at their schools. I acquired multiple mission’s stories from LifeWay Christian Resources, mostly videos. I then started thinking, “I could make my own videos, highlighting local missionaries from my community and my church.” My second MWN segment was a video interview with local missionaries who spent 27 years in Germany. Ideas then started flowing into my head. I needed to start making more of these videos! After all, I am majoring in broadcast communications. Since then, I have recorded many segments for upcoming MWN videos. I currently am in the process of producing 3 MWN videos. In

The last few weeks have been full of a lot of firsts for me. I recently started school at UAB. I have enjoyed every aspect of being at UAB. One other thing that also started (or restarted) this year was UAB football. Let me go ahead and say that I am a person who doesn’t like football because I don’t understand it. Or do I? I had planned to attend at least one football game because it is my school and I want to support it. The night before #TheReturn of UAB football, I got a text from a close family friend. They asked if I had any plans to attend the UAB football game. I said “no”. They then told me they had an extra seat in their car and would love for me to go. I decided to go. I mean, since I’m a student, I get in free. (I’m sure that’s somehow included into my cost of tuition.) WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! I had been to many NASCAR Cup races at Talladega before, but this was a football game. One team versus another. In my sport, it’s one driver versus 39 other drivers. The atmosp

This week in Kidz Kingdom, we talked about Proof, the first ever missionary dog. Proof is 18 inches tall, and can sit, stand, or roll-over better than any other Southern Baptist missionary. Her owner, Andrew Mann, is from Missouri. Proof and Andrew live in the Bronx, in New York City. Andrew felt called by God to leave Missouri and start an after-school program in the Bronx. Andrew obeyed, and of course took his dog Proof, with him and started Graffiti 2 Ministries. Proof is no ordinary dog. She is a trained therapy dog. She is always by Andrew’s side. I guess you could say that Proof is a local celebrity. In the after-school program at Graffiti 2, many kids come from rough environments. The Bronx has lots of drugs, crimes, and other situations that make life scary for a kid. The kids who come to Graffiti 2 also have a hard time with school. People help out these kids during the after-school program. Many of the kids are below reading level, and that’s where Proof comes in. Kids

Tragedy is all over the world. Hurricane Harvey, personal issues, issues with our country, issues with our world. We live in a world that’s just messed up. This past Sunday, Pastor Kevin from Gardendale First Baptist preached on 5 theological truths when tragedy strikes. We didn’t have an outline as usual, so I grabbed my notebook and took notes. Maybe you’re going through a tough time, a hard season. Maybe you don’t understand what God is doing in your life. This week, I want to share my notes I took from the sermon. You can watch the sermon for yourself HERE . 1) It’s OK to Grieve • If you don’t grieve properly, it will stay with you. • Sometimes you want to get mad or be away from people. • Love God, Hate people? NO! • Love God, Love People 2) Tragedies Will Happen in this Life • You can’t love God enough to be insulated from trouble. • Jesus says, “In this world, you WILL have trouble.” • God is eventually going to make everything ok. • We live in a sin-sick

UAB: The first three letters of this week’s post but also the first 3 letters of my new school, the University of Alabama-Birmingham. I’m so excited to start this new journey on August 28. This has been a transforming summer for me. I’ve rediscovered and strengthened my relationship with God. This point last year, I was a disaster! Anxiety had taken over every part of me. Fear had come in. Thoughts like “what if I don’t do well in school?”, “What about the next phase of my life?”, and many other things. I was so obsessed with making perfect grades, planning MY life for the next six to ten years. These thoughts swirled in my head for months, even into early 2017. I was trying to force things to go MY way. I got to the point that I just wanted to be isolated. I wasn’t enjoying life. In March, I started attending a college group called SUB25, part of Gardendale First Baptist Church. I felt God saying, “I am taking you here. Trust me!” I didn’t know anyone from GFBC and was very nerv

Monday, August 21, 2017 is a day that has been hyped for the past few weeks, months, and even years. It is the day of the total solar eclipse! It’s been a while since the last one that went through the United States, which occurred in 1979. It’s easy to assume that anyone younger than 40 did not get to see the eclipse. Stores are busy selling glasses, which have been very hard to come by. Many people, young and old, will be looking at the sky that will turn dark in the middle of the day. For those who live in Alabama, the peak time is expected to be around 1:30 in the afternoon. It’s hard to not pay attention to it because it’s not every day the sky goes dark in the middle of the day. Photo Credit: timeanddate.com This reminds me of a story in the New Testament. Many people know the story. During this story, darkness came upon the sky in the middle of the afternoon too! In Luke 23:44, it says, “It was about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoo

I am blessed to announce a new opportunity that God has blessed me with. I'm so excited to have the opportunity to be able to serve in Kidz Kingdom at Gardendale First Baptist Church. I want to introduce “Missionz With Noe”, a new segment that will emphasize missionaries across the street and around the world. After being a part of Galactic Starveyors VBS at Gardendale First Baptist Church this past June, I wanted to find a place where I could serve God with my talents. I learned so much about teaching children about Jesus and how He wants a relationship with each and every one of us. I discovered a gift I had, the gift of being able to share my faith with kid. I didn’t want to get right into it though. I wanted to take some time to pray if this is where God was truly leading me. I pondered this and prayed about it for the rest of June and July. One Wednesday night, during our Wednesday night service, Pastor Kevin said something that struck me. “Now is the time to get up and gi

Photo Credit: FreeBridge Media Dear God, You are great and mighty. My heart leaps for joy when I get to serve you. I pray this special prayer over everyone who is going back to school, whether it’s teachers, students, college students, or anyone else involved in school. I pray for the students. Lord, this world is crazy and messed up. There are many different influences that come towards the students in these days. Let the ones that proclaim you as Savior and Lord of their lives not be afraid to stand up for what is right, even though it may mean they stand alone. Give them boldness, give them strength to share with their friends what You have done in their life. Let them shine like lights, and help them guard their testimony. Protect each and every student, whether it’s elementary, middle, high school, or college. Raise up a generation that will love, serve, teach, and go for You! I pray for the teachers and faculty at all the schools. I pray that you would guide them and h

In late-July 2014, I was about to go into my senior year of high school. I still attended Cleveland First Baptist with my parents, and was a part of the media team. Our pastor, Rick Dill, had informed our CrossWalk youth group that we would be hosting some youth from a church in Weimar, Germany. Pastor Rick and his wife Nancy served in Germany as missionaries for over 25 years. I was excited to meet new people from another part of the world! I took off media duties for that week and went to Sunday school to greet the Germans. I loved getting to know them! As many of you know, I come from a Spanish-speaking family. I have always been surrounded by people who speak English or Spanish. It was weird to hear the German youth speak and not understand what they were saying. I would have the opportunity to learn a little German later that week, as the German youth group would be leading a kid’s camp at our church. After Sunday school, the German youth led the worship service. During that

The past two weeks I have shared about the two VBS’s I got to serve at this summer. Today, I wanted to write about what I realized or what God revealed to me during VBS this year. 1: VBS is a Mission! I remember when I was young, I used to always look forward to Missions class and learning about missionaries from all over the world. It was so cool, and still is, to see people going around the world and sharing the Good News to people of all ages and ethnicities. I went on my first mission trip when I was 17, with my church youth group along with a youth group from Germany. We went to West Virginia to do a kids camp. In three of the last four years, I have been to Mexico, mainly to visit family, but also to observe what needs the people have. Although I sometimes get discouraged because I may not be able to travel on more mission trips because of schedule, school, or lack of funds, I know that God is in control over that. When the time comes, I believe that God will open a door