Author Archives: Erik and Bridget Martin

The Power of an Invitation

By | March 13, 2011

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. – Matthew 4:19-20 One of the great things about living at Covecrest is that each week you have an opportunity to meet some amazing people and hear some powerful stories. Recently I met an amazing young girl named Tori.  Now she has been up to Covecrest many times before and I’m sure that I had “met” her on several occasions, but this particular time was different. It was the first time I

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Are Missions Worth the Risk?

By | November 20, 2010

So in light of our annual Life Teen Summer Staff and Friends mission trip to Mexico which is coming up January 3rd through the 11th, the question, “Are mission trips worth the risk?” has been coming up frequently. I have been praying about this question a lot lately and trying to determine what is the proper response. I think the underlying question here though would be, is spreading the Gospel message and the love of Christ worth the risk of losing ones life for? After much prayer and thought,

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Rebellious Against Love

By | November 14, 2010

So recently I tore my achilles.  No, it wasn’t leaping from tall buildings or skydiving or bull riding, God is so much more creative.  I tore it playing kickball.  Yes, kickball.  One may ask the question, ‘How does a person tear their achilles playing kickball?’. Well, I must say in self-defense, this wasn’t any ordinary game of kickball, there were four year olds. So you can imagine the intensity level.  The Lord in His humor is finding more and more unique ways to humble me.  If

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THIRST FOR CHANGE

By | October 8, 2010

WATER2

As the Global Life Night, THIRST FOR CHANGE, is on-going it got me thinking about how amazing it is that just about everywhere we go in America, in every public place, we have FREE drinkable water available to us. Whether it is out of a faucet or a drinking fountain, the fact of the matter is we can drink it if we were thirsty and we never really have to worry about getting sick.  Not only that, but we have a variety of other beverages at our fingertips, the difference though is that the other beverages

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Life Teen Ghana Mission 2010

By | September 6, 2010

Our Life Teen Mission trip back to Ghana this year was incredibly blessed. We took 12 missionaries, 3 of which were with Family Missions Company. The greatest blessing this year for me was seeing all the people we built relationships with last year, and having the opportunity to go deeper with them, from all the young adults we worked with, to the people and the children in the village, to Rose Mary and all the children that lived around the house where we stayed.

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What Do We Really Need?

By | February 17, 2010

This morning during morning prayer we were praying the intercessions, one of the intercessions really summed up what God put on my heart while in Haiti.  The prayer as we begin Lent on this ash Wednesday was “may we abstain from what we do not really need, and help our brothers and sisters in distress”.  This concept has been sitting very heavy on my heart. As we were coming back from Haiti and landing in Miami I couldn’t help but look down and see the vast difference of scenery than what

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Setting the Captives Free

By | January 23, 2010

We were meeting in the Houston Airport and gathering for the Life Teen Summer Staff and Friends mission trip to General Cepeda, Mexico with Family Missions Company.  It was great to look around the airport and see the missionaries already reaching out.  One of the missionaries was speaking to a man in a wheelchair, I then watched him go and purchase a newspaper for the man. God was already moving in little acts of love and obedience. Two of the missionaries bags didn’t make their connection

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Lever and a Fulcrum

By | December 9, 2009

Lately I have been re-reading the Story of a Soul, by St Therese.  I’m reminded of how this woman understood the power of love.  She quotes a famous scholar with once saying, “Give me a lever and a fulcrum and I will lift the world.”  But Archimedes didn’t fully understand the power of this statement, because his thought process was driven from a material point of view and not directed toward God. She states that what Archimedes lacked, the Saints have obtained in all its fullness.  She

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Ups and Downs

By | November 24, 2009

I have come to learn that in the spiritual life there are plenty of ups and downs, highs and lows, peaks and valleys, crosses and resurrections call them what you want, but what I struggle with is why?  Why can’t there just be peaks, why does there have to be valleys? This week has been tough.  This month we have had the opportunity to go out and do a lot of meals on wheels routes.  We go and pick up food from the senior center and then drive around and give them to people on this list who

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Do You Want to go to Heaven?

By | November 15, 2009

So I heard a homily this weekend from this awesome Deacon that comes up to camp frequently and in his homily he told this story.  A priest was talking to a group of kids at  his Catholic school and he posed the question to them, “Do you want to go to Heaven? Who in this room wants to go to Heaven?” Of course all their little hands rose in the air, but then he added more emphasis, “ Do you really want to go to Heaven? If you really wanted to go to Heaven then why is it so hard to give an hour

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