I am going to the Philippines!
This last week has been absolutely crazy, and the busiest by far. Teams were announced on Tuesday, and we had our first team time on Wednesday. As a team, we chose a verse for this upcoming season. The verse we have chosen is Habakuk 1:5:
"Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told."
- Habakuk 1:5
On Saturday, we competed in our teams in the "Amazing Trek Race." This consisted of approximately fourteen hours of running all over Abbotsford competing in various challenges. It was a lot of fun, with some moments of healthy frustration and extreme exhaustion mixed in! An event like this placed us in a stressful team environment, forcing us to learn how we each respond to stress, in order to better be able to work together as a team and serve each other on the field. It was a really good experience, and despite how exhausted we were, a lot of fun!
This week we will be doing a lot of sessions on team building, as well as an all night prayer on Friday. I am really looking forward to that time of worship, hearing from other missionaries, and interceding for the nations.
A few prayer requests would be:
1. Endurance, as we are all starting to wear down. That we would have the stamina and mental endurance to process everything we are being taught.
2. That God would continue to move in us individually, in our teams, and as a group, and that we would be constantly learning, growing, and moving closer to Him.
3. For our team leaders - that God would bless them with wisdom and discernment, and that He would grant them special favour.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Week 2
This last week has been an incredible experience. The theme was hearing God's voice, and we has sessions on hearing God's voice, how hearing God's voice builds trust, listening to God through your heart, listening to God at work around you, and listening to God through the word. This was followed by a forty-eight hour silent retreat from 2:00pm Thursday, to 2:00pm Friday.
The silent retreat was an amazing experience. It was wonderful to have that time set aside and purely devoted to listening to God and enjoying His presence. God really spoke to me in that time, and I can out of it feeling refreshed and reconnected.
The theme for this next week is personal holiness. Tomorrow (Monday) Trek leadership will be discerning God's will for the outreach teams. The three possible locations are (1.) Southern Germany (Bavaria), (2.) Ukraine, and (3.) Philippines. This will be taking place tomorrow morning from 8:30am to 10:30am. Please pray, as we will be, for the Trek leadership during this time, that God would grant them wisdom and discernment, and that the teams would be established by God - that He would make His will know. We will find out the teams on Tuesday morning, at 9:00. Please pray for us as students, that we would see God's will at work, and that we would be able to look back on that moment as a testament to His grace.
The silent retreat was an amazing experience. It was wonderful to have that time set aside and purely devoted to listening to God and enjoying His presence. God really spoke to me in that time, and I can out of it feeling refreshed and reconnected.
The theme for this next week is personal holiness. Tomorrow (Monday) Trek leadership will be discerning God's will for the outreach teams. The three possible locations are (1.) Southern Germany (Bavaria), (2.) Ukraine, and (3.) Philippines. This will be taking place tomorrow morning from 8:30am to 10:30am. Please pray, as we will be, for the Trek leadership during this time, that God would grant them wisdom and discernment, and that the teams would be established by God - that He would make His will know. We will find out the teams on Tuesday morning, at 9:00. Please pray for us as students, that we would see God's will at work, and that we would be able to look back on that moment as a testament to His grace.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Be Still and Know
This week we have been learning about hearing the voice of God. We've heard from different speakers on the topic, in preparation for our upcoming forty-eight hour of silent retreat. It's been a really great week, and I'm really looking forward to this concentrated time of just listening to God. Please pray for me, that I would really hear God's voice, and experience Him in a way I never have before.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Week 1
Week one is officially coming to a close. Tomorrow I will have been here for exactly one week, and what a first week it's been! From overviews of the Trek program and of MBMSI, to sessions on finances and journaling, it has been an incredible week. Work duties gave a welcome chance to get moving with snow shovelling and an all day renovation project. We've spent the week getting settled, getting to know each other, living, learning, loving and having fun.
On Monday night, we read through the gospel of Mark together, which we have since been discussing. I am realizing more and more how valuable to look at each book of the Bible as a whole, rather than just separate chapters and verses. I find that I gain a much better perspective of the individual truths when looking at it within the whole truth.
I look forward to beginning our series on hearing God's voice next week, which is to be followed by a forty-eight hour silent retreat. A few prayer requests I have are:
1.) Discernment for Trek leadership as they decide on teams and team leaders in the upcoming weeks.
2.) That over this next week in learning about hearing God, and during our silent retreat, that I, and all the other Trek participants, would be opened and able to hear God's voice and what He wants to say to us. Please pray that I would hear His voice and experience Him in a way that I never have before.
I look forward to this next week of learning and adventure!
On Monday night, we read through the gospel of Mark together, which we have since been discussing. I am realizing more and more how valuable to look at each book of the Bible as a whole, rather than just separate chapters and verses. I find that I gain a much better perspective of the individual truths when looking at it within the whole truth.
I look forward to beginning our series on hearing God's voice next week, which is to be followed by a forty-eight hour silent retreat. A few prayer requests I have are:
1.) Discernment for Trek leadership as they decide on teams and team leaders in the upcoming weeks.
2.) That over this next week in learning about hearing God, and during our silent retreat, that I, and all the other Trek participants, would be opened and able to hear God's voice and what He wants to say to us. Please pray that I would hear His voice and experience Him in a way that I never have before.
I look forward to this next week of learning and adventure!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Arrival
Yesterday signifyed the beginning of a new journey. 12 students from Canada, the United States, and Germany, met together to begin what would quickly become the most intense, most death defying...okay maybe that's exagerated.
Trek began yesterday! We started off with a pizza dinner at five, and spent the evening hanging out, playing board games, and just getting to know one another. There are twelve students in total, and we seem to have a really wide span of skills and ablities. Today will be our first sessions - or lessons, and I am really looking forward to just delving right into the things we will be learning.
Finishing John's Pipers Don't Waste Your Life I was brought to a renewed awareness of the importance of "seeking first His Kingdom..." I look forward to that over the next two months, and to taking this time to simply spend with God. I'm realizing more and more that even if I spent my whole life doing "good" things, if I am not using the time He gives me to seek His kingdom, then it is all nothing. I want to spend these next months seeking His kingdom, and moving closer towards Him.
"Today is the day the LORD has made,I will rejoice and be glad in it." This is my goal for the next two months. I'm already getting excited about outreach, wondering who my team will be and where I will go. So my goal is to not simply look to or live for tomorrow, but to rejoice each day in the Lord's presence, and thank Him for what he is doing each day. I want to live each day to the fullest, and take in as much as I possibly can while I'm here!
Trek began yesterday! We started off with a pizza dinner at five, and spent the evening hanging out, playing board games, and just getting to know one another. There are twelve students in total, and we seem to have a really wide span of skills and ablities. Today will be our first sessions - or lessons, and I am really looking forward to just delving right into the things we will be learning.
Finishing John's Pipers Don't Waste Your Life I was brought to a renewed awareness of the importance of "seeking first His Kingdom..." I look forward to that over the next two months, and to taking this time to simply spend with God. I'm realizing more and more that even if I spent my whole life doing "good" things, if I am not using the time He gives me to seek His kingdom, then it is all nothing. I want to spend these next months seeking His kingdom, and moving closer towards Him.
"Today is the day the LORD has made,I will rejoice and be glad in it." This is my goal for the next two months. I'm already getting excited about outreach, wondering who my team will be and where I will go. So my goal is to not simply look to or live for tomorrow, but to rejoice each day in the Lord's presence, and thank Him for what he is doing each day. I want to live each day to the fullest, and take in as much as I possibly can while I'm here!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Faith and the Bride
It is officially less than one week until I leave for Trek! Besides the many shopping lists, packing lists, loads of laundry, and stacks of things to place into suitcases, I have been doing a lot of spiritual preparation for this upcoming season. I have been reading John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life, and was really struck by one passage on faith. Piper states:
"...We need a definition of faith. Ordinarily faith would mean trust or confidence you put in someone who has given good evidence of his reliability and willingness and ability to provide what you need. But when Jesus Christ is the object of faith there is a twist. He Himself is what we need. If we only trust Christ to give us gifts and not Himself as the all-satisfying gift, then we do not trust Him in a way that honours Him as our treasure. We simply honour the gifts. They are what we really want, not Him. So biblical faith in Jesus must mean that we trust Him to give us what we need most - namely, Himself. That means that faith itself must include at its essence a treasuring of Christ above all things."
Faith in Jesus Christ is not based on the physical; rather, it is based on Him - trusting that He will give Himself to us, what we truly need. As I grapple to understand what it truly means for the church to be the bride of Christ, I realize that my view of this has been rather one sided, and that my definition of faith will influence by ablity to see this. My faith needs to be a faith that trusts in Him to provide not the physical, but the spiritual. A faith that trusts Him to provide Himself. I desire Christ to desire me - I want Him to know me and to love me. I'm realizing more and more that although I seek to know Him, rarely do I try to understand and know His heart. If we are the bride of Christ, and we desire Him to know our innermost thoughts, should we not also be seeking His? If we want Him to seek our hearts, should we not also seek His?
This is what faith is; trusting that Christ will provide Himself for us, and seeking after Him with that expectation. That is my desire as I go to Trek. Not that the Lord will see my heart, but that I will see His.
"...We need a definition of faith. Ordinarily faith would mean trust or confidence you put in someone who has given good evidence of his reliability and willingness and ability to provide what you need. But when Jesus Christ is the object of faith there is a twist. He Himself is what we need. If we only trust Christ to give us gifts and not Himself as the all-satisfying gift, then we do not trust Him in a way that honours Him as our treasure. We simply honour the gifts. They are what we really want, not Him. So biblical faith in Jesus must mean that we trust Him to give us what we need most - namely, Himself. That means that faith itself must include at its essence a treasuring of Christ above all things."
Faith in Jesus Christ is not based on the physical; rather, it is based on Him - trusting that He will give Himself to us, what we truly need. As I grapple to understand what it truly means for the church to be the bride of Christ, I realize that my view of this has been rather one sided, and that my definition of faith will influence by ablity to see this. My faith needs to be a faith that trusts in Him to provide not the physical, but the spiritual. A faith that trusts Him to provide Himself. I desire Christ to desire me - I want Him to know me and to love me. I'm realizing more and more that although I seek to know Him, rarely do I try to understand and know His heart. If we are the bride of Christ, and we desire Him to know our innermost thoughts, should we not also be seeking His? If we want Him to seek our hearts, should we not also seek His?
This is what faith is; trusting that Christ will provide Himself for us, and seeking after Him with that expectation. That is my desire as I go to Trek. Not that the Lord will see my heart, but that I will see His.
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