Support Update

As of now I have $4150.00 in my support account. That means I still need to raise roughly $2850.00 of support for my mission. Thank everyone so far who has given money, and please continue to pray that I will raise the amount I need in time, and that God would keep the door open for me to go. Most importantly, pray that it is His will that is carried out. 

Thank you again for all the support! 

originality

This semester has seemed to slip by so quickly, and I've been so busy I've just now stopped to realize that it's almost over. God has really been speaking to me as of late, which is always a good thing, so I thought I'd share a little bit of it.

As most of you know, I am an art major. I spend a lot of time creating things and working with my hands. God has gifted me with a vivid imagination and the talents to express it, yet I came to the funny realization that I am not original. I am unique, yes; in comparison to every other human being who has been, or is, or will be in existence before, now, and after me I am the only one like myself. My personality, my physical characteristics, my thoughts are uniquely my own, BUT still I am not original. All that I am both internally and externally, all that is produced by me and flows from me is not original to myself. I am not my own original idea or creation; I am God's original creation, and my every thought, idea, action, creation was first and foremost thought and breathed out by God. He is the only original. Which, when viewed that way makes me in all reality nothing more than a copycat, a follower.

The scriptures say in Gen. 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
In the beginning God created...
In the beginning God...
This is reiterated in the New Testament in John 1, saying "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made."

Without him was not anything made that was made. So nothing could be created by our hands without first God having created us by his. Therefore all that is created by our hands or thought by our minds is done because "in the beginning God"; because first God, then us; because God acted and we reacted. We reacted. We did it over, we copied it, we followed his direction.

I've noticed that there is a reason that in the Bible, we are referred to as sheep. Because like sheep we will follow anything that catches our attention, anything that seeks opportunity to lead us, and the devil is all too eager to step in and be that leader. However, rest assured he will lead us astray. He wants nothing more than to direct our focus away from God, to separate us from Him. But God is our shepherd and he is faithful. We are like sheep because he made us that way, after all, so that we would die to ourselves and follow HIM.

This whole realization is humbling as an artist, to know that nothing I create is truly my own. Yet at the same time it frees me to simply enjoy being his creation, and allow the work of my hands to bring glory to him who created me. Essentially God is bringing glory to himself through what he has already created anyway.

new semester

This has been the first week of Spring semester and for once I can say it has been awesome! Everything feels different than it has in the past, and I know without a doubt it has everything to do with the Lord. He's showed me some amazing things this week. 

Monday I was in sociology, and we had a man from the reading center come in and speak about proper studying techniques, etc, etc. At the end of his presentation he held up the syllabus and told us that it would be the most important thing we would read for each class. He called it our "Bible" for the course. That made me think, it's a fairly common thing that we do. But, there is something to be said about the Bible, that universally it is understood as a book of such importance and value, that we compare other documents to it in order to place emphasis on their importance to a certain subject. 

Next class, math, same day my professor was in the middle of teaching and went on a tangent to explain that he is from Sri Lanka, and has been teaching for 10 years. He said he makes it a point to renew his material and update his teaching every year, which is good. He asked whether he would still be considered a 10 year professor had he not done this, immediately responding, no. He would be a one year professor because he would never have renewed his material, the knowledge would not be up to date. Stinkin' sweet! Relate that same story to our spiritual walks. If we were to never seek his word, never pray, never talk about him to others, our knowledge of him would be limited. We should all seek to know more of him, and allow him to be new to us everyday. Were we to not do this our relationship, our walk with him would suffer greatly! Think of it this way, if you were to never feed a child, would it grow? No, it would slowly die of starvation. In the same sense if we are never fed by His Word, our spiritual lives, like the starved child, would starve, and eventually die altogether. We are warned against being idle. A stagnant pond can yield no life. Neither can an idle faith.

Next day: In philosophy (already a promising course) the same man from the reading center came in to speak...on the same thing. However he made some points that I didn't pick up on last time. One was that if we aren't reading to learn every time we pick up a book, why are we reading? Good point. While there's certainly nothing wrong with reading for fun, when we are reading the Bible, or some sort of theology, religious, Christian book, and really if you think about it, this should apply to any book, regardless of subject, why are we reading it? What's the point if we do not approach each reading with the intent of learning something we hadn't known before, especially when it's about our Lord. 

In addition, learning is a social skill: being able to converse intellectually, or fellowship, in our Bible studies, small groups, community groups - take advantage of the people around you. Bounce ideas off one another, openly discuss things you've been chewing on for awhile. And lastly, why do we learn? We learn so that we can share that knowledge with others. This is important! As Christians, we can't keep to ourselves what the Lord reveals to us. Share it! 2 Timothy 2:2 states "What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men that will be able to teach others also." Here's the cool part, God reveals himself to us in more than one way, at all times. Whether by natural revelation or special (the Scriptures) revelation. But, he speaks to us in whispers. It's a slight nudging to notice him. Oh that we would all have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. The point is, however he chooses to speak to us, chances are, it's not meant solely for the individual. Do not be selfish with the knowledge of the Lord, because it is not meant to be kept a secret, and it is certainly not meant for one person. "What you have heard from me...entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

God is so good. He will teach us so much, but he always makes sure we don't fluff ourselves up so much that we get prideful. He loves us too much to see us become a Pharisee. After learning all this, I locked my keys in my car and was quickly reminded I'm not in control...He is. He loves me enough to keep me humble. 

support letter

I finally finished my support letter! Let me tell you those things are no easy task, but in all honesty I guess this is just the first draft. I want to run it by Pastor Clay and get his opinion on it and see if he has any advice on how I could make it better. Never the less, it feels great to at least have it written out.

Time is of the Essence

Last night was the last resource for this semester. We took time to look over what the Lord has done this semester in our small groups and what we've learned. Kristen said it best; no one ever told me how much I would love these girls. Through all the lessons in LTC that we went over, all that they prepared us for, they didn't prepare me for how much my heart would ache over these women; I wasn't prepared for how broken I could become for the soul of another. The realization of just how little time you have with people can hit so hard when you aren't expecting the end of that journey to finally get here. It's as if all along the way you tell yourself keep going, don't give up, stay steadfast we'll get there someday, but before you know it that day is here and you are saying goodbye and are left with all the things you should have said but waited too long to tell them.

The time God gives us is so precious. It can't be wasted by being too scared that the truth will fall on deaf ears. How will I know they are unable to hear if I don't speak so that they have a chance to respond. If they don't hear my whispers then I speak louder, I shout if I have to. Only then will I know who is listening, only then will they have the opportunity to react. None of us can afford to have their blood on our hands simply because we allowed ourselves to be scared into silence.

What I have learned is that I have never in any relationship, with any boy, had my heart broken like I have had it broken for one of my girls. God has shown me how His heart breaks for his children everyday. It takes a MIGHTY God to be able to handle that much heartache.

This semester I have sewn the seed. Next semester pray that God will reap the harvest.

2 Timothy 2:2

"and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20

MTW called this morning with some great news. I am officially going to Dublin over the summer! God is so faithful. I can't say it enough, because he truly truly is. I know that he has placed this desire in my heart and I am so excited that he is sending me to serve him there.

A while a go I went to a missions meeting with my church and it was great to have the emphasis put back on the Lord. Missions have nothing to do with anything that we take upon ourselves to do. It is entirely the work of God and what he is doing through us. Missions are altogether the purpose, goals, and actions of the Lord, acted out through us as he leads us.

I've been asked numerous times through this application process why I wanted to do missions, or what made me feel called to the mission field. My answer is this. God said go. If for no other reason than that I feel certain that I am called to missions. Just as he asked in Isaiah "whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" God is looking for his people to go out and teach his word. So it isn't a question of am I called, we are all called to missions whether in our hometowns, or overseas. It's a question of how much of myself am I willing to give him; will I go where he leads me?

This is such a blessing to go and serve him. Thank ya'll for all your prayers and support, and I ask for continued support as the Lord leads me.

God Bless!!

Application Update

I had my phone interview today with MTW. I felt a little ridiculous once the interview got going for having felt so nervous before. My coach's name was Blair. She is AMAZING! Quite possibly the cheeriest, most positive person I have ever spoken with. And she was very encouraging throughout the whole interview and made me really comfortable. Anyway, we talked about different sections of my application in order for her to get a better understanding of how I came to find MTW and what drew me to missions and to Dublin, etc. Overall it was a very great experience.

What's more important than anything is that this is the Lord's will. I'm extremely excited about possibly going to Dublin and serving over the summer, but first and foremost it's important that this is aligned with God's will. I will be perfectly honest, I will be disappointed if I am not accepted, but I trust Him enough to know that he has other plans for me if I don't. I just want to be used by Him. So I feel calm and confident that it will work out ok nomatter what the outcome is. I KNOW he is in control.