Monday, November 12, 2007
2007.08 Summer Adventure
You can never know what God is going to bring down your path; you only need to be ready to respond with a Godly perspective. This summer was filled with excitement, challenge, tragedy, and provision. A terrible accident like a forest fire can be devastating. It doesn’t seem like much good can come from anything like this, but we just had to trust God for each of our next steps. We were evacuated from the premises two times. The first evacuation was voluntary because there was a lot of smoke and we wanted to be safe. We waited in a church for a couple of days and then the city claimed that the fire was under control. We moved back in the following day thinking that everything was okay, but to our surprise the fire had jumped over the backfire that was used to contain it. Amazingly no one was hurt and none of the buildings went up in smoke. The fire came within 200 yards of our place: craziness!
Patrice was challenged to help out with a group of student women for the first time this summer. It was a little intimidating for her, but she rose to the challenge. The staff woman she was helping was pregnant and excited to be a new mom. After some complications she found out that she had lost the child. This was an incredibly difficult experience for her and her husband to endure, so they left the project to mourn with their family. This was a really difficult time for us to go through as we had become close with the family and even stayed together when we were evacuated. But in the midst of this tragedy, Patrice was again challenged to minister to these women solo. To say the least, it was a great time for Patrice to trust the Lord to use her despite her weaknesses and feelings of inadequacy.
I was privileged to be able to dig into 4 men's lives and be a sounding board to what I believed that God wanted to bring out in them. It’s easy to hear good things about ourselves, but when we have our weaknesses pointed out, even in love, it’s a learning process to turn those things over to the Lord so He can refine us. These men grew in areas of pride, overcoming fear, trust and identity in Christ alone. Praise be to God.
National Conference:
Reunion, Re-affirming, Heart tugging, Blessed!
After escaping the fire zone, we traveled off to Fort Collins, CO. There we participated in the National Conference for Campus Crusade for Christ. We spent 12 days meeting, being encouraged by old friends, and having the opportunity to see where God is leading us as a ministry. I have found it easy to be very egocentric in ministry at times and just focus on what God is doing through me, but God tugged on my heart to show me that I need the entire Body. I was especially moved when they stopped one of our sessions to pray for the missionaries from South Korea that were being held hostage by the Taliban. At that point no one had been executed and we as body were crying out to God for their lives. It was powerful to engage God for another part of the world. Later on in the conference, the leaders from the JESUS film ministry celebrated the 1,000th language translation. It was a huge milestone to celebrate and a blessing to hear of the ways God is using the film to enable many to hear the Gospel for the first time in their own language. It was really special for us to hear what God is doing through the film and to know that we played a part together in making those 1,000 translations. Praise God for He is good! And His love does endure forever.
Personal Note:
God has really revealed to me during this summer my need for more grace with my family. I find at times that I am very quick to judge, quick to correct, quick to blame rather than offering understanding, compassion and grace. This has been troubling to me as I have processed this with Patrice and other friends. I am offering this insight into my life as I desire to grow unto His character, but I know that I cannot do this alone. It troubles me because I do desire to reflect God’s love and character to my family, those closest to me. I don’t want to find myself trying to share the love of Christ with others yet fail in my own personal life, with those who know me most deeply. Please pray that His grace would abound in all areas of my life.
Patrice was challenged to help out with a group of student women for the first time this summer. It was a little intimidating for her, but she rose to the challenge. The staff woman she was helping was pregnant and excited to be a new mom. After some complications she found out that she had lost the child. This was an incredibly difficult experience for her and her husband to endure, so they left the project to mourn with their family. This was a really difficult time for us to go through as we had become close with the family and even stayed together when we were evacuated. But in the midst of this tragedy, Patrice was again challenged to minister to these women solo. To say the least, it was a great time for Patrice to trust the Lord to use her despite her weaknesses and feelings of inadequacy.
I was privileged to be able to dig into 4 men's lives and be a sounding board to what I believed that God wanted to bring out in them. It’s easy to hear good things about ourselves, but when we have our weaknesses pointed out, even in love, it’s a learning process to turn those things over to the Lord so He can refine us. These men grew in areas of pride, overcoming fear, trust and identity in Christ alone. Praise be to God.
National Conference:
Reunion, Re-affirming, Heart tugging, Blessed!
After escaping the fire zone, we traveled off to Fort Collins, CO. There we participated in the National Conference for Campus Crusade for Christ. We spent 12 days meeting, being encouraged by old friends, and having the opportunity to see where God is leading us as a ministry. I have found it easy to be very egocentric in ministry at times and just focus on what God is doing through me, but God tugged on my heart to show me that I need the entire Body. I was especially moved when they stopped one of our sessions to pray for the missionaries from South Korea that were being held hostage by the Taliban. At that point no one had been executed and we as body were crying out to God for their lives. It was powerful to engage God for another part of the world. Later on in the conference, the leaders from the JESUS film ministry celebrated the 1,000th language translation. It was a huge milestone to celebrate and a blessing to hear of the ways God is using the film to enable many to hear the Gospel for the first time in their own language. It was really special for us to hear what God is doing through the film and to know that we played a part together in making those 1,000 translations. Praise God for He is good! And His love does endure forever.
Personal Note:
God has really revealed to me during this summer my need for more grace with my family. I find at times that I am very quick to judge, quick to correct, quick to blame rather than offering understanding, compassion and grace. This has been troubling to me as I have processed this with Patrice and other friends. I am offering this insight into my life as I desire to grow unto His character, but I know that I cannot do this alone. It troubles me because I do desire to reflect God’s love and character to my family, those closest to me. I don’t want to find myself trying to share the love of Christ with others yet fail in my own personal life, with those who know me most deeply. Please pray that His grace would abound in all areas of my life.
2007.11.Fear Not
I am challenged as I read through Acts. In Acts 4 the apostles Peter and John are persecuted for proclaiming the truth of Jesus and then let go. After they are released they return to the body and pray for boldness to speak His words and they ask God to heal and perform signs and wonders through Jesus. And after they prayed these things the earth was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak the word of God with boldness. They prayed for more boldness with the full knowledge that speaking and performing signs in the name of Jesus Christ could bring on more persecution and even death to their lives.
This passage has challenged me greatly because I do not often pray for boldness to speak of God. I become content with praying for protection or asking God to just keep us safe where we are. This obviously isn’t the greatest attitude if we are trying to take new ground for Jesus Christ. My director has challenged us to really focus on what we are trying to accomplish here at the University of Oregon. We could be satisfied with just gathering those who are believers and not be bothered about those who need to hear the Gospel.
Fortunately God has called us to go and make disciples of all nations. It has become clear that we need to encourage one another to pray and speak with boldness no matter the consequences. It has been good to ask God for boldness and seek what we have asked for together.
One student, Jayson, has been a part of our Asian-American ministry Epic for three years now. He is not the most outgoing of men but God has given him a heart and excitement for those students who don’t know Him. The Vietnamese Student Association is known for having a rowdy bunch. Jayson and I were a little nervous about presenting our purpose to the group but we knew that it is a significant place that we could reach out to lost Asian Americans. We prayed that God would give us favor as we spoke with the students and that God would lead us to students who might be searching for Him. We presented our ministry and gave opportunities for those who wanted to hear more about Christ. We praised God for the response we received and the chance to offer Jesus to them. I am encouraged to minister with Jayson and see him grow in His trust of the Lord in situations where God must show His power in Jayson’s weaknesses.
I believe God wants us to continue to trust Him for new ground. It is easy for us to be discouraged, but we must look to Christ who does not change and look to Him for our strength. Thank you for your prayers and support that enable us to minister for Christ’s name sake,
This passage has challenged me greatly because I do not often pray for boldness to speak of God. I become content with praying for protection or asking God to just keep us safe where we are. This obviously isn’t the greatest attitude if we are trying to take new ground for Jesus Christ. My director has challenged us to really focus on what we are trying to accomplish here at the University of Oregon. We could be satisfied with just gathering those who are believers and not be bothered about those who need to hear the Gospel.
Fortunately God has called us to go and make disciples of all nations. It has become clear that we need to encourage one another to pray and speak with boldness no matter the consequences. It has been good to ask God for boldness and seek what we have asked for together.
One student, Jayson, has been a part of our Asian-American ministry Epic for three years now. He is not the most outgoing of men but God has given him a heart and excitement for those students who don’t know Him. The Vietnamese Student Association is known for having a rowdy bunch. Jayson and I were a little nervous about presenting our purpose to the group but we knew that it is a significant place that we could reach out to lost Asian Americans. We prayed that God would give us favor as we spoke with the students and that God would lead us to students who might be searching for Him. We presented our ministry and gave opportunities for those who wanted to hear more about Christ. We praised God for the response we received and the chance to offer Jesus to them. I am encouraged to minister with Jayson and see him grow in His trust of the Lord in situations where God must show His power in Jayson’s weaknesses.
I believe God wants us to continue to trust Him for new ground. It is easy for us to be discouraged, but we must look to Christ who does not change and look to Him for our strength. Thank you for your prayers and support that enable us to minister for Christ’s name sake,
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