Matt Odegaard

Haiti Recap

mattodegaard — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:56:18 +0000

Beautiful.

Joyful.

Broken.

There are so many words to describe the experience I had in Haiti.

The people are beautiful, joyful, loving. They dance, they sing, they play.

The island is beautiful, tropical, incredible. Mountains, valleys, beaches.

The people are broken, sick, malnourished.

The island is broken, polluted, deforested.

I painted. I worked in the medical clinic. I played soccer with the kids.

I played music. I worshipped in Creole.

It was encouraging. It was heartbreaking.

I can’t wait to go back….

Here are a couple pictures I snapped. I spent more time hanging out and working than taking pictures, but here are a few I took.

Haiti

mattodegaard — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:32:35 +0000

I’ve wanted to go to Haiti since the Earthquake, but for various reasons I’ve been unable to do so. A few weeks ago I was approached by a friend who was leading a trip and as we got to talking it was clear that it was time! God has been preparing the way for this trip and I’m incredibly excited to go! I’m headed down to partner with friends at Nehemiah Vision Ministries in early November.

I’m not sure all I will be doing, but I’m going down with an open heart ready to do whatever is needed. I do plan on bringing a guitar to play at a local church and then donate. I’m praying God will show me the person he wants me to give the guitar to.

If you have a moment pray for us to be right in the center of God’s will, to show His love, and for safety in our travel.

Grace and Peace!

-Matt

God is Able

mattodegaard — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:51:09 +0000

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the unbelievers run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:31-34 NIV)

Every day we have the choice to trust that God will provide what we need. Matthew 6 is clear that God knows what we need and is able to provide for us. Our job then is to trust that God will do what he says he will do.

Easier said than done! But, the truth is that God IS able. Faith sometimes is choosing to keep going in the hope that God will provide even when we don’t know how.

Holy Obedience

mattodegaard — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:37:32 +0000

“As worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in holy obedience. Holy obedience saves worship from becoming an opiate, an escape from the pressing needs of modern
life.” – Richard Foster

10 Years!

mattodegaard — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:00:55 +0000

Happy Anniversary to my Love, my BEAUTIFUL Wife Bethany!

10 years!

I LOVE YOU!!!

Take Heart

mattodegaard — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:45:42 +0000

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. – 2 Cor 4

Take Heart.
Hold On.
God is still in Control.

Brevity

mattodegaard — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:32:07 +0000

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit…
I will be brief.
~William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Google Music iCloud

mattodegaard — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:37:21 +0000

For several years now I’ve been accumulating music on hard drives and have constantly struggled with having certain songs when and where I need them. It seems that struggle may be coming to an end!

Enter Google Music and iCloud.

I will freely admit that I love all things Apple. Their products work well for what I do and I use them for everything from communication (phone, etc) to word processing (Pages) to music production (reason, garage band) etc…

But, I also love Google. It seems that most everything they do works well.

So I am excited to try Google Music and iCloud. Since iCloud is not yet available for music, I’m starting with the Beta of GoogleMusic.

So far – I LOVE IT!!! Finally, I have all my music accessible wherever I am. My music library is rather large, I’m upwards of 20,000 songs, which happens to be the limit of GoogleMusic right now, so we’ll see what happens when I hit that limit…

Just in case you were like me and not sure how to access GoogleMusic from the iPhone or iPad because they are not releasing an app for it on the iOS yet, the solution is pretty simple, although a bit clunky. You can simply point Safari to google.com/music, log into your account, select your music and enjoy!

Failure of Nerve

mattodegaard — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:51:47 +0000

On Leadership:
‘A major difficulty in sustaining one’s mission is that others who start out with the same enthusiasm will come to lose their nerve. Mutiny and sabotage come not from enemies who opposed the initial idea, but rather from colleagues whose will was sapped by unexpected hardships along the way.’ – Edwin Friedman in A Failure of Nerve

The Importance of Music

mattodegaard — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 11:10:40 +0000

Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten imparting grace.
-Plato