The Last Training...

There's a week long training segment that's about to take place.  They say this is this most intense of all the training segments.  I honestly don't know what's about to happen... I just know there's going to be a lot of role play.  I think we're going to be put in "the worst case senario" so that we're prepared for anything.  It'll be good for us, no doubt... and they say that the worst part is the cold.  I just don't know what's about to happen.  Pray that we'll survive the cold and rely on God to make it through this last training.

Well, I'm off to finish the last of our homework and to study for finals.  I'll be home for Christmas in a few weeks.  The time has flown by so quickly.  I'm excited for what God holds in the coming months.

Thank you so much for your prayers!

"But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."

1 Peter 3:15

"For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Ephesians 2:10

Feasts, No-talent, PT, and Really Good News.

THE FEAST
Yesterday (Thursday), we celebrated Thanksgiving as a group.  It was fantastic!  Everyone contributed food to the table.  My team leader baked a delicious turkey; the other teams brought ham, more turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, pies (but sadly no pumpkin pie), cookies, and so much more.  I could barely fit it all on my paper plate.

NO-TALENT
After our stomachs had been filled, we laughed to our heart's content during the No-Talent Show.  Let me explain... the No-Talent Show is like a regular talent show, except the talents displayed are definitely not skills... just dumb fun.  So one at a time, each team got up on stage to perform.  My team performed a No-Magic Show, in which all the tricks were clearly not magical.  The other no-talents included: lip syncing to a song from the trailer of the movie, Despicable Me;  a skit that nobody really understood;  a skit about football (with tackling involved);  a line-dancing lesson;  a song from the movie, Nacho Libre;  a skit about the daily life of that team, in which each team member played the part of a different team member (it was hilarious);  and the winning skit was done by a team of girls that dressed up like one of the guy teams and did perfect impersonations that had us laughing tears.  But... I guess you had to be there.

PHYSICAL TRAINING
After our stomachs were still full and our hearts filled with joyous laughter, our PT instructors came to the front and told us, "Ok everyone, we're going to take a vote.  Would you rather have PT tomorrow morning as usual, or tonight at 10:30pm?"  My first thought was, "I just ate a full thanksgiving meal.  How is exercising after eating a bunch of food a good idea?"  But EVERYONE voted for night PT.  So, I had no choice in the matter.  But it ended up being the best PT yet.  We did push ups, crunches, and we almost did a three mile run.  But, we were surprised with a game of glow in the dark Ultimate Frisbee instead.  Woohoo!

REALLY GOOD NEWS
Lastly, I have REALLY GOOD NEWS.  Remember the family that we have been visiting this semester?  It's been interesting sharing the Gospel with them.  I've been able to share Bible stories with their six year old daughter, and Jeremiah has been able to have some really good conversations with Jack.  It's been kind of a long process, but every week, whether we got to talk to them or not, we could see that God was working in the heart of this family.  Jeremiah visited them on Wednesday and has been able to drive Jack to get groceries, since Jack's car isn't working.  Anyway, the good news is that Jack says that he really feels like he can believe the Gospel now.  His daughter has been asking him questions about Bible stories and he's become more interested in reading the Bible (Romans to be exact).  He wants to come to church on Sunday.  So, Jeremiah is going to pick up Jack and Amanda (his wife) on Sunday to bring them to church.   Their kids will be staying with someone else this weekend, anyway.  I'm so overjoyed to see God working in this family and drawing them to Himself!

PRAY
I know it's none of my doing.  I'm glad I have been able to talk to Amira (their six year old daughter), but I know that I can't take credit for the heart change that's going on in her family.  Praise be to God alone.  Please keep them in your prayers.  God is still working.  

Matthew 10:39

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Letting Go...

It's been a couple weeks since we got back from transportation training.  In this time, we've gotten back into the swing of school work, finished midterms, had a Chili and Flannel Cookoff (we make chili, carve pumpkins, wear flannel shirts, and sit around a campfire), and revisited people that we've been trying to share the Gospel with.

~~~

This past week, God has taught me about letting go. ...letting go of my dreams and hopes for my future.  To be specific: personal goals, marriage, etc.  That sums it up.  I've been focusing all my thoughts on my dreams for the future.  To focus on goals and dreams is not a bad thing, but it was getting to a point where I was getting impatient or worried, or I was just missing what was going on around me.
But in the midst of that impatient/worried pondering, God interupted my thoughts to say, "I want you to let go of these thoughts for awhile.  They're consuming your mind, but I need you to be consumed with Me first."
So, I ended up taking a deep breath and handing everything to God.  I'm not saying I can just change all my emotions and let go and say, "woohoo! I'm free!"  No.  I don't know how to do that.  But instead of trying to work out all my plans in my head, I'm running straight to Christ ...who has all good and perfect things in mind.  So, to the best of my ability, I let go.
That was Monday.  It's now Saturday.  I'm looking back over the week and I can say that it wasn't easy, but I allowed to God free my mind this week.  He then was able to fill my mind with more and more of Him.  I'm still pressing foward, eager to learn from Him and for His glory!

In conclusion: It is ok to let go of a dream (even a good one) for awhile.  Focus on the current task of drawing near to God and spreading His love, His Gospel.  When and if God wants to bring that dream back into focus, He will do so in His own perfect timing.  His purpose and glory will be evident in that timing.

Romans 8:5 & 6

"...but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ...the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace."

Psalm 139:23-24

"Search me, oh God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Ecclesiastes 3:11

"He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done form beginning to end."

~~~

How you can pray:

1. Please pray for the family that Jeremiah and I are visiting each week.  Things haven't gotten better for them.  But, I think God lets these bad things happen so that people can see how weak they are, and how much they need God.  So pray that He will draw them to Himself and that they will seek Him.  

2. Pray for unity in our group.  We not only need to be united with each other, but united by Christ first and foremost.  There are always things that try to tear us apart.

3. Praise God for the way He is working in each one of our hearts.  It gives me so much joy to hear what God is doing in everyone's lives.

Thank you for your prayers!!  I love you all!!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles... and Subways

Hey!  We finished a week a transportation training!! Woohoo!

So here's the story:

• Sunday. 12pm.  Arrived in Kansas City after Fall break.  Started packing for transportation training.
• Sunday. 10:45pm.  Met with everyone.  Received ten envelopes, each with a specific time to open it.
• Monday. 12am.  Went to sleep in the airport with my cohort. (It rhymes.  I'm sorry.  I had to point it out.)
• Monday. 4:30am.  Opened the first envelope to find out our first destination.  In all caps it said, DETROIT!!!!!!! and gave us a confirmation code to go get our tickets.  But, the problem was that the envelope did not give us our airline.  Therefore, we proceeded to try typing the code into every single airline kiosk in every terminal.  Of course, the code didn't work until the last airline we tried.  Oh, the adventures we have in airports...
• Monday. 2pm.  Opened the 2nd envelope in the Detroit airport to find out that we had to do some sightseeing.  So, I called up my grandparents (who live in Detroit.  what. a. blessing.) and they were excited to come pick us up and drive us around the area.  We had a good time visiting Comerica Park, seeing Canada across the water, and listening to my grandpa tell jokes (the same ones he loves to try out on new people whenever he gets the chance).  

• Monday. 7pm.  Took showers at my grandparents house, ate a homecooked meal (thank you grandma!), and slept in comfy beds. 
• Monday. 9:45pm.  Opened the 3rd envelope to find out that we had a bus ride to catch to Cleveland at 7am.  
• Tuesday. 5:30am.  My really super fantastically awesome grandparents got up to give us muffins and fruit for breakfast and drive us to the bus station.  THANK YOU GRANDMA AND GRANDPA!!!
• Tuesday. 7am.  Left on the bus to Cleveland. Slept the whole way.  mmm.  good stuff.
• Tuesday. 11am.  Arrived in Cleveland.  Our next envelope told us to visit various places in the city.  It was great weather and all of it was within walking distance.  We visited the Indians' stadium, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (just the really cool gift shop part) and we saw some circus elephant parade walk down the street... and another small parade of people followed them carrying homemade signs that wrote, "Save the Elephants! The Circus Mistreats Them!"  Awkward.

• Tuesday. 1:45.  Watched a movie in the mall because we were bored.  "Here Comes The Boom."  It's pretty funny.
• Tuesday. 5pm.  Spent 4 hours in Subway playing UNO.  In that time, we also opened our next envelope.  Our next destination was PITTSBURG!!!!... but not really.  That was just a stopping point before we had to take the next train to NEW YORK CITY!!!!!
• Tuesday. 9pm.  Hannah's friends (who live in Cleveland.) picked us up.  We and our backpacks made a very uncomfortably tight squeeze into the back seat of their car.  Then we spent another 3 hours talking in a coffee shop.
• Wednesday. 1am.  Our train was 2 hours late.  So at 3am, we took a 2 hour train ride to Pittsburg.  ...Coldest train ride I've ever been on.
• Wednesday. 7am.  Took a 9 hour train to NYC.  ...Much more comfortable.  We slept.  We took pictures.  We played UNO.  We went to the snack car.  We slept some more.  We opened our next envelope.  Apparently there was a place that was planned for us to sleep at that night.  But, we didn't have to be there until 9:30pm.  So, we took the evening to walk around Times Square, see Rockefeller Plaza, and eat NY pizza.  We also got to know the Subway system... fun times.

• Wednesday. 9:30pm.  We met at the place that we were going to sleep that night... unaware of future events that were meant to take place the rest of the week.  What were those events you may ask????  *PEANUTBUTTER*  (you will know what this means if you read my blog post about ground school)
• Thursday - Sunday.  We got a lot of opportunities to share the Gospel with people that we met along our journey.  God taught me (and every other student) SO much in that time frame.  

God showed me how much pride and judgement was still stored up in my heart.  He showed me that I was incapable of unconditionally loving people on my own.  My love runs out.  His love does not.  Here's the basic of what God taught me: 

I don't have the all the right words, fluency, or knowledge to share the Gospel.

BUT, God is the one who draws people to Himself, not me.

THEREFORE, I have nothing to fear or worry about.  

My delight and privledge is to be obedient to Christ.

I must share the Gospel.

God has undying passionate love for me and the rest of His children.

He loves everyone He has created and wants to give us His passion for the lost.

He wants us to understand Him more.

I have learned so much about God through letting go of my own desires and feelings in order to share the Gospel.

I am a child of the most high God.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul.

"I will proclaim His name without fear, follow Him without regret, and serve Him without compromise.

To Christ alone be all power, all honor, and all glory, that the world may know."

He is so faithful.

He is enough.

Psalm 103: 1-5 & 8-12

¹ Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

........

⁸ The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
⁹ He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Backpacking & I Need Prayer

Hey all you wonderfully supportive people!  I just want to tell you really quick... I love you.  Yep, I said it.  Now you know.

So, last weekend we went backpacking and it was strenuous, marvelous, and a learning experience... all at once.  We spent two nights camping in two different places.  The first was an actual campground with a complimentary firepit.  It was great!  The second place we camped in was... well... the woods.  After a good day of hiking, we came upon a small clearing (and by that I mean the trees happened to be father apart than the rest of the trees in the woods).  It was near a stream where we could purify water to fill our camelbacks.  But, putting up tents was the worst.
1. There were trees in the way, so it became a game to fit the tent like a puzzle piece into exactly the right spot.
2. I hadn't assigned myself to this tent (tepee) building task until now, so I only knew as much as the others did.  It took us 5 tries before we successfully put up that massive tent.

But once the tents were up and the fire built, we sat around the fire making dinner and hot drinks.  My cohort roasted bread dough on sticks... it was a delicious new experience for me.


The first day of hiking was fantastic because we got to take a lunch break at this really long waterfall (apparently the longest in Missouri).  It flowed down over tiers of massive rocks, which we gladly took the opportunity to climb.

The second day, we were already pretty worn out, so the nine miles we hiked were a bit strenuous.  But I took the time to get to know my friends better by exchanging testimonies and singing classic veggietales and disney songs.  Later, we found a tiny lizard which my friend, Jake, named Juliet.  Then our leader, Scott, ate her... ok, so he actually just put her in his mouth and pretended to swallow, but it was still pretty crazy.

Overall, it was a good time of fellowship, survival training, exercise, crazy pictures, and beautiful mountain views.  Praise the Lord for backpacking.



HOW YOU CAN PRAY:

1.  As I and other students are becoming closer to the Lord and actively living and sharing the Gospel, we're being spiritually attacked, distracted, and tempted by the devil.  I've seen it in myself and others have mentioned some struggles too.  Pray that God will deliver us from these distractions and temptations, and that He will build us and develop our patience through these trials.

2. Pray for Amanda and Jack and their kids.  They need Jesus, the true Gospel, to impact their lives and renew their relationship.  Jack says that their marriage needs strengthening.  And Amanda needs Jesus to be her joy.  Also pray that the Holy Spirit will give me and Jeremiah the words and wisdom to share the true Gospel with them.

3. Pray that we as brothers and sisters in Christ will remain strong in our faith in God and be devoted to prayer.  Some of the students here have families who don't accept their Christian beliefs.  And some students have friends they love dearly, but those friends won't open their eyes to see the truth of the Gospel.  We talked about it a lot today and committed to pray for each other and remain strong as a community in the Lord.  Praise God for these people I have here.

I praise God for the support and prayer I'm so blessed to have from all of you.

Thank you SO much!!

Not Disciplined In The Word.

The other day, I was lying in my hammock with the sides tucked in like a cocoon around me.  I took a lovely nap and then talked to God for a long time.  I told Him everything that was on my mind.  And I hadn't done that in awhile.  I love that He is not only our awesome King, but He is our friend.  I love that piece of the hymn What A Friend We Have In Jesus, "What a priviledge to carry everything to God in prayer."

So as I was talking to Him, I asked Him the question that I continually ask, because He answers it every time in different ways:  "How do I love like You do?"

{Honestly, I know that I'll ever understand the fullness of God's love.  Wow.  That concept always blows my mind.  I love that I can keep learning about Him and there's always something new to understand.}

 Anyway, I decided to tell you about this question, "How do I love like God?" because of the answer God gave me today.

Lately I've been trying to encourage my friends and be an Christ-like example to them.  I want to teach my Christian friends to teach others the Gospel, and I want to encourage those who are either struggling with their faith, or just need to know God (in general).  He's blessed me with opportunities to do that!  I've gotten to hang out one-on-one with some of the girls on my hall, pray with my team, call my friends who aren't here, and tell some Gospel stories to a family (that I've written about in previous posts).  

BUT (there's always a 'but') I realized today how worn down I was.  I felt like I really didn't have much to say to those people who I could've encouraged.  Why?  Because I haven't been disciplined in the Word.  I can't love people like God does on my own.  He is love.  When I'm not spending good solid time with Him, when I'm not asking Him to fill me with Himself, I have only my own love, and my own wisdom to give, which is very little... and never enough.  

So here I am, a believer in the Gospel training to share Jesus' love, telling you that I haven't been disciplined in the Word like I should have.  I've been lazy in seeking God's face.  And you have no idea how hard that is for me to say.  But I know from experience, that when I fall out of that good beautiful habit of personally seeking God, I simply (maybe not easily) have to get back into that habit.  He makes everyday that I pursue Him infinitely more wonderful, because His name is being glorified... not my own.

So, in conclusion, God showed me that in order to share His love, I have to consistently seek Him out.  It's like my car.  If I don't consistenly put gas in the tank, how will it take me anywhere?  If I don't consistently (daily) seek out God, then how is this relationship going to go anywhere?  He is faithful to provide His love, Himself, but this love He has for His children is clearly seen when we go to Him for it.

HOW YOU CAN BE PRAYING:

1. Please pray for the family (and others) that we share the Gospel with.  Ask God to prepare their hearts with peace and to keep their minds open to His truth.  

2.  Praise God for the obedience to God that people here have been showing.  It's truly so humbling and purely good.

3.  Ask God to teach me, and the other students here, how to remain disciplined in studying God and His love.  We need to be consitently filled with Him so that we can share Him.

Thank you for your prayers!  And Thank you for reading!  I'm still so excited for what God is doing now and will do in the future as we go overseas next semester!!

1 Peter 1:23 "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God."

1 Thessalonians 5: 23-24  "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."

Escape Routes & City Buses

About a week ago, we had our first official training weekend.  We took a day or two of class time to talk about being ready to leave at a moments notice, how to avoid being surveilled, and plans of escape.

In other countries that are potentially dangerous, we HAVE to be ready to leave our "home" at any time.  We learned how to set up escape routes, alternate escape routes, and escape destinations.  It's like setting up a fire escape plan, or practicing tornado drills, except that this is no natural disaster situation.  We have a cool phrase here that reminds us to be always ready: STAY ALERT. STAY ALIVE.

So we did some fun (maybe a little stressful) exercises during the weekend that helped us practice evreything we learned.  Then Sunday night, our second training segment started.  We stayed the night in *PEANUTBUTTER* (if you remember my ground school post, you'll know that peanutbutter means that information is confidential. top secret stuff. you know.) and the next morning, with our camelbacks loaded with snacks and water, we headed out in our teams to travel our city.  Walking and city buses were our main mode of transportation.  Let me tell you what, city buses are FULL of, what we call, very interesting people.  (Ask me about that in person if you really want to know).  We had a number of interesting destinations to go to throughout the day, while taking pictures of ourselves at each site (to prove that we were there).  Here's a few pictures:

Can you tell we're a little tired?  We walked to this cool little Jazz Museum.  There was a janitor there who saw us taking a picture and called to us from the door, "Hey you!  I can help y'all wich yo map!"  Our first instinct was to walk away, but he added, "I saw yo other groups earlier!"  So we decided he was trustworthy and got his help with our other destinations.

This is a very large badminton birdie.  Who comes up with this stuff?

This is our full team trying to do one of those cliche jumping photos in front of this amusment park called Worlds of Fun.  If it hadn't been closed, we would've tried to get a free ride by telling the park that we were doing an Amazing Race... well, maybe another time.