I have been thinking a lot about this word lately. It's a really wonderful concept, just spending time with people who share a similar interest. This can be anything, but it is so much cooler when that similar interest is God. The cool part about making new friends at events like Passion and on missions trips is that you meet them and you very first connection is something that is at the root of your being. When you begin a friendship with people starting out with the idea that you are there for God and not for yourself, you are able to make deep connections instantly, and it provides a basis for the best friendships.
I'm experiencing the coolest thing this week that reminds me of what the Church is meant to be. After getting back from this trip to Peru, nearly all 100 of the students who went on the trip are in a group message together, and it is a constant flow of love and encouragement, just last night we were up until almost 2 am talking about our favorite Bible verses. It is an absolutely amazing experience. One of the most difficult parts of coming home from a missions trip is that you get used to this way of life that is missions and you pour out God's love constantly on the trip, but that's ok because you are surrounded by people who are constantly filling you up and encouraging you. But then when you get home, you try to continue living the same way, but now you don't have that constant pouring in to match your pouring out. So, this message that it a constant flow of encouragement has made theses first days back into normal life so much easier. We still have people who think were are crazy for our love for Christ, and it still breaks our hearts to see the lost missing out, but now we have a place to go for encouragement and accountability. It is the most wonderful thing.
I have been thinking a lot recently about the joy the comes from fellowship with believers. I feel like the people I am around day to day drain me of all my energy, but when I am around strong believers, I am filled up with energy and joy. And I think that that makes perfect sense. We are meant to be poured out as much as we can when we are surrounded by the lost, but then we go back to believers to find a new joy and new life, not that these things are coming from the people, but from their connection with God, He provides the source and they then turn it over to you. The even more beautiful thing about that is that believers who are mutually drained can strengthen and encourage each other, because it all flows from God.
I think that we severely miss the idea of the Church when try to confine it to a time and a place. The Church is not the place that we meet on Sunday morning. The Church is the body of believers who encourage each other on a daily basis. If you experience something like that (like my group message) and you begin to read Paul's letters to the churches, then you really feel like he could be writing directly to your group. You get a new understanding of what he is saying to the churches. It makes so much sense!
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Music
I really love music, and I feel that it is one of the ways that God continues to speak to us. At the times when I am feeling really close to God, my time in worship always seems to be a conversation, I will saying something to Him and He will answer with the song. So, at any given time, I usually have some song that has been on my mind recently that has been my main prayer or praise or reminder. Right now, it is Good Father, but recently, these songs have been really clearly outlining my past year and I just want to walk through that.
About this time last year, my prayer was "Oceans" that God would lead me to a place where my trust is without borders, that He would call me deeper than I would ever go on my own. This prayer was answered recently when all of my college decisions happened, and I ended up choosing to go to the University of South Carolina next year. The cool thing about choosing USC over Tech is that at Tech I think I would have had my one comfortable way of doing things and I wouldn't be open to following Him beyond my borders. I already knew which sorority I wanted to be in, who I wanted to be friends with, and where I would want to buy ice cream. And because of these things I would have set up the boundaries of my life and not wanted to reach past them. But with going to USC, everything will be new, I won't have anyway to have borders of my life already set up, so the Spirit really is leading me to where my trust can be borderless and I can spend time letting my faith grow stronger. This song has turned from a prayer that God will act to a praise because I have seen Him be faithful to act.
Another song that Has made a similar move from prayer to praise is "Whom Shall I Fear?". The bridge of this song was my prayer of a while when I was completely unsure of what God's plan for my next year looked like. It says "Nothing formed against me shall stand, You hold the whole world in Your hands, and I'm holding on to Your promises, You are faithful." I was desperately holding on to God's promise of a plan for my life, and that He works all things to the good of those who love Him. With His timing on all of my college decisions, instead of feeling downcast and rejected about going to South Carolina, He gave me the time from January to March to fall in love with the school until it really did become my first choice. Now these lyrics are my praise that God is faithful and that I can hold on to His promises because He fulfills them.
This brings us to "Good Father". It doesn't matter how many times I hear this song, it never grows old. It even frequently has something new for me to discover. I love how simply it tells the relationship and identity of God and ourselves: He is the Good Father, and we are loved by Him. I am one loved by the Good Father. That's exactly it. That's our God. Clearly there is so much more to it than that, but at its absolute most basic, that is what it is. Most recently, the very last verse of this song has been stuck in my head. "Love so undeniable I can hardly speak, peace so unexplainable I can hardly think, yet You call me deeper still into love." God has shown me His love in really sound and sure ways and given me a peace that doesn't even make sense. But even with all of this, He is continuing to call me deeper, and that is just beyond belief.
About this time last year, my prayer was "Oceans" that God would lead me to a place where my trust is without borders, that He would call me deeper than I would ever go on my own. This prayer was answered recently when all of my college decisions happened, and I ended up choosing to go to the University of South Carolina next year. The cool thing about choosing USC over Tech is that at Tech I think I would have had my one comfortable way of doing things and I wouldn't be open to following Him beyond my borders. I already knew which sorority I wanted to be in, who I wanted to be friends with, and where I would want to buy ice cream. And because of these things I would have set up the boundaries of my life and not wanted to reach past them. But with going to USC, everything will be new, I won't have anyway to have borders of my life already set up, so the Spirit really is leading me to where my trust can be borderless and I can spend time letting my faith grow stronger. This song has turned from a prayer that God will act to a praise because I have seen Him be faithful to act.
Another song that Has made a similar move from prayer to praise is "Whom Shall I Fear?". The bridge of this song was my prayer of a while when I was completely unsure of what God's plan for my next year looked like. It says "Nothing formed against me shall stand, You hold the whole world in Your hands, and I'm holding on to Your promises, You are faithful." I was desperately holding on to God's promise of a plan for my life, and that He works all things to the good of those who love Him. With His timing on all of my college decisions, instead of feeling downcast and rejected about going to South Carolina, He gave me the time from January to March to fall in love with the school until it really did become my first choice. Now these lyrics are my praise that God is faithful and that I can hold on to His promises because He fulfills them.
This brings us to "Good Father". It doesn't matter how many times I hear this song, it never grows old. It even frequently has something new for me to discover. I love how simply it tells the relationship and identity of God and ourselves: He is the Good Father, and we are loved by Him. I am one loved by the Good Father. That's exactly it. That's our God. Clearly there is so much more to it than that, but at its absolute most basic, that is what it is. Most recently, the very last verse of this song has been stuck in my head. "Love so undeniable I can hardly speak, peace so unexplainable I can hardly think, yet You call me deeper still into love." God has shown me His love in really sound and sure ways and given me a peace that doesn't even make sense. But even with all of this, He is continuing to call me deeper, and that is just beyond belief.
Love Does (Days: Wednesday and Thursday)
(Again, read the other two posts first.)
Wednesday we were able to speak on a radio station to people all over that part of Peru, and share some of our favorite verses and worship songs, as well as a presentation of the gospel, and answer questions from those that called in. Though it lacked the relational quality that I prefer, it was really cool to know that thousands of people were hearing the gospel through us. Wednesday afternoon at VBS was when I really began to notice myself needing to rely on God's strength more and more, and He provided just what I needed for the day, no more, no less.
Wednesday night we went into the central shopping area of a town and set up a sound system and drew people in with some crazy guys preforming a dance to a One Direction song, it's so crazy to me what God can use to bring people close enough to hear about Him. We then showed the story of Christ using two different skits and from the speaking of Thomas. After the program was over, we all split up into small groups and began talking to people who had seen the program, it was really cool to see how quickly God could work in someone and cause them to ask questions and to give us the answers to them.
Thursday was our last day of ministry, and we were scheduled to spend the morning doing some games and sharing testimonies at a high school that they had been working with all week, but for some reason the principal decided that he did not want us to come in that day because of the exams some students had to take. Though we were disappointed one of the translators said that there was a school right down the road that might let us come in and share, and because of our delay at the planned school, we arrived at the other school just in time to be able to go in during their lunch time and share with them. My friend Riley and I got to speak to two girls who were clearly very interested in the life changing stories that they had heard. It was one of those times where it was clearly the Holy Spirit working because we never would have been able to do it on our own. The group as a whole was only equipped with four translators who had all already been claimed by other groups of students. So, Riley and I had a person from the local church with us who understood a little bit of English, and was some how able to understand what we were struggling to say in spanish and tell it to the girls we were talking to, I am still not really sure how it happened, but it was amazing and we left the girls with some ways to answer their many questions about God's love.
The entire week God worked through us to advance His kingdom in major ways. And He has chosen you and I to be His ambassadors in all of the world, even here where it seems that people wouldn't be able to not hear the gospel, they still need Jesus.
Wednesday we were able to speak on a radio station to people all over that part of Peru, and share some of our favorite verses and worship songs, as well as a presentation of the gospel, and answer questions from those that called in. Though it lacked the relational quality that I prefer, it was really cool to know that thousands of people were hearing the gospel through us. Wednesday afternoon at VBS was when I really began to notice myself needing to rely on God's strength more and more, and He provided just what I needed for the day, no more, no less.
Wednesday night we went into the central shopping area of a town and set up a sound system and drew people in with some crazy guys preforming a dance to a One Direction song, it's so crazy to me what God can use to bring people close enough to hear about Him. We then showed the story of Christ using two different skits and from the speaking of Thomas. After the program was over, we all split up into small groups and began talking to people who had seen the program, it was really cool to see how quickly God could work in someone and cause them to ask questions and to give us the answers to them.
Thursday was our last day of ministry, and we were scheduled to spend the morning doing some games and sharing testimonies at a high school that they had been working with all week, but for some reason the principal decided that he did not want us to come in that day because of the exams some students had to take. Though we were disappointed one of the translators said that there was a school right down the road that might let us come in and share, and because of our delay at the planned school, we arrived at the other school just in time to be able to go in during their lunch time and share with them. My friend Riley and I got to speak to two girls who were clearly very interested in the life changing stories that they had heard. It was one of those times where it was clearly the Holy Spirit working because we never would have been able to do it on our own. The group as a whole was only equipped with four translators who had all already been claimed by other groups of students. So, Riley and I had a person from the local church with us who understood a little bit of English, and was some how able to understand what we were struggling to say in spanish and tell it to the girls we were talking to, I am still not really sure how it happened, but it was amazing and we left the girls with some ways to answer their many questions about God's love.
The entire week God worked through us to advance His kingdom in major ways. And He has chosen you and I to be His ambassadors in all of the world, even here where it seems that people wouldn't be able to not hear the gospel, they still need Jesus.
Love Does (Days: Tuesday)
(If you haven't read it, read the Saturday, Sunday, Monday post before this one.)
Tuesday was a full day of evangelism. This normally doesn't work out this way, but my family group was assigned both Home Visits (visiting the homes of Christians already in the Churches we are working with or people who have come to the church before but stopped going for some reason, with the pastor of the church after having made appointments to meet with them before that day. (that sentence doesn't make sense but I have slept for about 10% of the time that has passed since Thursday morning.)) and Door to Door Evangelism (random people in the community who we go and just knock on the door of their house and then start talking to them about why these white people are in Peru blasting Christian music and playing with children at the church.This usually ends with a presentation of the gospel.) In past years when I have been to the Dominican Republic, I and others have usually been the least excited about the day with evangelism like this, because it is generally difficult and awkward to just strike up a conversation with someone right outside their house about who God is and why we want them to know His love. So, a full day of this had me worried, but after getting a little bit of awkward out of the way with the first of our home visits in the morning, my family group got really comfortable with just talking to people. the second house we went to in the morning was a family of clearly strong and solid believers. When we walked in the woman who lived there was so excited to have us their and to share her story of salvation with us. She told us how when her son was only 18 months old, he accidentally drank some gasoline, and was very sick for about a month. The doctors did the little they could and then just sent him home. From there he was in a coma like state for a month and on the times when he did come to, refused food and did very little. During this time, the woman had heard of some missionaries who had come and were having an event near the community, so she and her husband went to that and both accepted Christ there and spent some time praying for their son. When they arrived home afterwards, they heard crying from the room with their son in it, and went to find him awake and begging for food, his healing was truly a miracle of God and he is now 15 years old and perfectly healthy. She talked about how that started her complete trust in the Lord to take care of her and her family. I think we sometimes forget that god does things like that here at home, we are so used to the doctors telling us what's wrong and their ability to fix it, but God works some amazing healing miracles all the time. (Another cool thing about this family: the mom had a dream the night before that God was going to be sending someone to visit her, and she had no idea we would be coming.) It's funny how we go to these things thinking that we are going to encourage the Peruvians, but they end up encouraging us.
That afternoon, we were given 2 hours to do door to door evangelism, and we were told that we would probably get to 5 houses to share, but God had bigger plans. The first door we knocked on was a woman and her neighbor just spending some time together. We began talking and we asked her if she attend a local Church, her reply opener up a major door for us to share with her. She said that she had gone to church for a little while, but when she had tried to attend consistently, she had had these terrible dreams about serpents that scared her away from going to church. We spent the next hour explaining to her that this was clearly satan trying to keep her from a relationship with the Lord, and that if she would put her trust in the Lord she could call on Him anytime for protection from such dreams. She and her neighbor decided to give their lives to the Lord right there. We then we to the house of a man who had lost his leg in an accident, but had found comfort and strength in the Lord, and when we asked him what we could pray for, he did no ask for less pain or anything for himself, but instead asked that we would pray that his family could find the Love of Christ that he had found. We then got to share the gospel with his grandson who was home with him, and he accepted Christ. God's love, once it's found, changes our hearts in a way that we want everyone to be able to experience.
Tuesday was a full day of evangelism. This normally doesn't work out this way, but my family group was assigned both Home Visits (visiting the homes of Christians already in the Churches we are working with or people who have come to the church before but stopped going for some reason, with the pastor of the church after having made appointments to meet with them before that day. (that sentence doesn't make sense but I have slept for about 10% of the time that has passed since Thursday morning.)) and Door to Door Evangelism (random people in the community who we go and just knock on the door of their house and then start talking to them about why these white people are in Peru blasting Christian music and playing with children at the church.This usually ends with a presentation of the gospel.) In past years when I have been to the Dominican Republic, I and others have usually been the least excited about the day with evangelism like this, because it is generally difficult and awkward to just strike up a conversation with someone right outside their house about who God is and why we want them to know His love. So, a full day of this had me worried, but after getting a little bit of awkward out of the way with the first of our home visits in the morning, my family group got really comfortable with just talking to people. the second house we went to in the morning was a family of clearly strong and solid believers. When we walked in the woman who lived there was so excited to have us their and to share her story of salvation with us. She told us how when her son was only 18 months old, he accidentally drank some gasoline, and was very sick for about a month. The doctors did the little they could and then just sent him home. From there he was in a coma like state for a month and on the times when he did come to, refused food and did very little. During this time, the woman had heard of some missionaries who had come and were having an event near the community, so she and her husband went to that and both accepted Christ there and spent some time praying for their son. When they arrived home afterwards, they heard crying from the room with their son in it, and went to find him awake and begging for food, his healing was truly a miracle of God and he is now 15 years old and perfectly healthy. She talked about how that started her complete trust in the Lord to take care of her and her family. I think we sometimes forget that god does things like that here at home, we are so used to the doctors telling us what's wrong and their ability to fix it, but God works some amazing healing miracles all the time. (Another cool thing about this family: the mom had a dream the night before that God was going to be sending someone to visit her, and she had no idea we would be coming.) It's funny how we go to these things thinking that we are going to encourage the Peruvians, but they end up encouraging us.
That afternoon, we were given 2 hours to do door to door evangelism, and we were told that we would probably get to 5 houses to share, but God had bigger plans. The first door we knocked on was a woman and her neighbor just spending some time together. We began talking and we asked her if she attend a local Church, her reply opener up a major door for us to share with her. She said that she had gone to church for a little while, but when she had tried to attend consistently, she had had these terrible dreams about serpents that scared her away from going to church. We spent the next hour explaining to her that this was clearly satan trying to keep her from a relationship with the Lord, and that if she would put her trust in the Lord she could call on Him anytime for protection from such dreams. She and her neighbor decided to give their lives to the Lord right there. We then we to the house of a man who had lost his leg in an accident, but had found comfort and strength in the Lord, and when we asked him what we could pray for, he did no ask for less pain or anything for himself, but instead asked that we would pray that his family could find the Love of Christ that he had found. We then got to share the gospel with his grandson who was home with him, and he accepted Christ. God's love, once it's found, changes our hearts in a way that we want everyone to be able to experience.
Love Does (Days: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday)
Where to even begin? I just arrived home from what was probably the most amazing trip I have ever been on. One week in Peru was marked by God's capability to immediately answer prayers and to set heaven on the hearts of men. (If you haven't actually heard me talk about it yet, I spent my spring break on a mission trip with 100 high school seniors in Peru.)
If you will note, this post has the extra label of "days: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday" because I could not decide if the best way to talk about this would be to walk through the day by day impact we had on Peru, or the person by person impact on me, so I chose both.
On Saturday, April 4, 2015, we arrived at the church to leave for Peru, even from the first day, everyone was incredibly excited to be going to share this love that we have been shown. After a long flight and a drive, we finally made it to the convent where we were staying at about 3:00 am sunday morning. Then, with a few short hours of sleep for the night, I was awoken by an army of birds creating a tremendous noise that echoed around the marble complex. There was no better way to have woken up that morning, and I even recorded the morning song of the birds later in the week to use as my alarm. We spent Easter Sunday morning on a mountain/cliffside having a time of worship and preparation for the week, and of course taking pictures. We then headed to Santa Clara where we gathered some people with loud pop music and some incredible boy band type dancing, and shared the gospel using both a wordless skit (The Everything Skit, if you haven't seen it, please look it up, it is a wonderful representation of the gospel that transcends language barriers.) and the giving of testimonies and our college minister, Thomas, speaking. If you have never seen or experienced spiritual warfare, in my experience it is unmistakable on trips like this because it is so specific, I would go into my ideas about the difference between spiritual warfare in different places, but this is already going to be a really long post. Satan tried to do everything he could to stop the gospel from begin shared that day, but the Lord overcame and His love was shown. Everything was fine until we moved to the sharing part of the afternoon, and all of the sudden, speakers didn't work the way they were supposed to, it began to rain, and it felt like everything that could go wrong did. But, to me, when these things happen and the gospel still gets shared, it is really exciting, because Satan would not waste his time keeping the gospel from people who aren't going to do something with it. All that to say, on Sunday afternoon, as I sat there praying for people to be focused on the message being shared and not the dogs barking, or the rain starting, or the static on the speakers, God was working in someone's heart through the message shared. And He worked the whole week answering prayers with just the right timing.
On monday, we started out going to a hospital to speak and share with people in the waiting areas (I don't say "waiting rooms", because they weren't rooms, it was just a space outside where there were chairs and some shade). As it always does on the first day of a trip like this, things started out a little bit awkward, you have to remember to stop every few words to let the translator translate, and all the while, you are trying to remember and piece together all of the things you have been preparing the past few months. The funny thing about Peru is that the people at the very least don't mind speaking with you, and many of them really want to talk to you and get to know your life. So, we walked around the hospital asking people what they needed prayer for and talking to them about the awesome love and peace and healing that is found in Christ. The very first group of people that we spoke to was a family waiting to hear the news about the treatment of this man's (Juan) newborn child's Jaundice. If you don't know, Jaundice is simply the discoloring of a newborn's skin that is pretty common in babies, and is very easily treatable... in the United States. However, this Peruvian family was legitimately worrying about if this child would make it or have brain damage (that is possible with untreated Jaundice). We explained to them that God is the ultimate healer and comforter, and that He knows exactly what He wants for this new baby. We shared some comforting verses and prayed over them and the baby. We then spent the small remainder of the time just walking around from place to place sharing with people and praying over them. As we went to get back onto the bus to go to our vacation Bible school church, my friend Davis was explaining to me how he had been talking to a woman who had asked him why if she was a Christian and a good person, why would he be sick? He was in the middle of explaining when she was called back to be seen by a doctor. We sat down on the bus and all of the sudden, there was a commotion up front and there was the woman he had been talking to, and she had just received some news about a mental health issue that she did not think she had. So, we all filed off of the bus and put our hands on her shoulders and prayed over her health. Though we were then rushed off because we needed to get to our next stop, we got the chance to pray over her and offer her some encouragement. We probably won't get to see what happens to that woman now, based on how we saw God work the rest of the week, I know that our prayers were heard and answered by the Healer of all infirmities.
That afternoon we spent time with some kids in a place called Hiuycan, just showing them love and starting relationships to build on throughout the week.
If you will note, this post has the extra label of "days: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday" because I could not decide if the best way to talk about this would be to walk through the day by day impact we had on Peru, or the person by person impact on me, so I chose both.
On Saturday, April 4, 2015, we arrived at the church to leave for Peru, even from the first day, everyone was incredibly excited to be going to share this love that we have been shown. After a long flight and a drive, we finally made it to the convent where we were staying at about 3:00 am sunday morning. Then, with a few short hours of sleep for the night, I was awoken by an army of birds creating a tremendous noise that echoed around the marble complex. There was no better way to have woken up that morning, and I even recorded the morning song of the birds later in the week to use as my alarm. We spent Easter Sunday morning on a mountain/cliffside having a time of worship and preparation for the week, and of course taking pictures. We then headed to Santa Clara where we gathered some people with loud pop music and some incredible boy band type dancing, and shared the gospel using both a wordless skit (The Everything Skit, if you haven't seen it, please look it up, it is a wonderful representation of the gospel that transcends language barriers.) and the giving of testimonies and our college minister, Thomas, speaking. If you have never seen or experienced spiritual warfare, in my experience it is unmistakable on trips like this because it is so specific, I would go into my ideas about the difference between spiritual warfare in different places, but this is already going to be a really long post. Satan tried to do everything he could to stop the gospel from begin shared that day, but the Lord overcame and His love was shown. Everything was fine until we moved to the sharing part of the afternoon, and all of the sudden, speakers didn't work the way they were supposed to, it began to rain, and it felt like everything that could go wrong did. But, to me, when these things happen and the gospel still gets shared, it is really exciting, because Satan would not waste his time keeping the gospel from people who aren't going to do something with it. All that to say, on Sunday afternoon, as I sat there praying for people to be focused on the message being shared and not the dogs barking, or the rain starting, or the static on the speakers, God was working in someone's heart through the message shared. And He worked the whole week answering prayers with just the right timing.
On monday, we started out going to a hospital to speak and share with people in the waiting areas (I don't say "waiting rooms", because they weren't rooms, it was just a space outside where there were chairs and some shade). As it always does on the first day of a trip like this, things started out a little bit awkward, you have to remember to stop every few words to let the translator translate, and all the while, you are trying to remember and piece together all of the things you have been preparing the past few months. The funny thing about Peru is that the people at the very least don't mind speaking with you, and many of them really want to talk to you and get to know your life. So, we walked around the hospital asking people what they needed prayer for and talking to them about the awesome love and peace and healing that is found in Christ. The very first group of people that we spoke to was a family waiting to hear the news about the treatment of this man's (Juan) newborn child's Jaundice. If you don't know, Jaundice is simply the discoloring of a newborn's skin that is pretty common in babies, and is very easily treatable... in the United States. However, this Peruvian family was legitimately worrying about if this child would make it or have brain damage (that is possible with untreated Jaundice). We explained to them that God is the ultimate healer and comforter, and that He knows exactly what He wants for this new baby. We shared some comforting verses and prayed over them and the baby. We then spent the small remainder of the time just walking around from place to place sharing with people and praying over them. As we went to get back onto the bus to go to our vacation Bible school church, my friend Davis was explaining to me how he had been talking to a woman who had asked him why if she was a Christian and a good person, why would he be sick? He was in the middle of explaining when she was called back to be seen by a doctor. We sat down on the bus and all of the sudden, there was a commotion up front and there was the woman he had been talking to, and she had just received some news about a mental health issue that she did not think she had. So, we all filed off of the bus and put our hands on her shoulders and prayed over her health. Though we were then rushed off because we needed to get to our next stop, we got the chance to pray over her and offer her some encouragement. We probably won't get to see what happens to that woman now, based on how we saw God work the rest of the week, I know that our prayers were heard and answered by the Healer of all infirmities.
That afternoon we spent time with some kids in a place called Hiuycan, just showing them love and starting relationships to build on throughout the week.
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