My church family

My church was having a special time of praise and worship this evening. I found myself standing in the corner -- distancing myself from the rest of the congregation. I was feeling a little alone and was quite willing to continue my pity party--alone. But the Lord reminded me that I'm only as alone as I choose to be. So I slowly moved to one of the rows and slipped in beside a lady I knew. I was singing with the second or third song when I paused and looked around me. Teresa, one of my prayer supporters, was on my right. John and Barbara, financial and prayer supporters, were in the row behind me. Dana and Joe, prayer supporters, and their two boys were on my left. And I could see Pastor John and his family ahead of me and Jen and Aubrey worshiping on the stage. I was no longer alone, but surrounded by people who love me and pray for me.

I enjoyed eating afterwards with Pastor John and his family and Pastor Scott and his family. They treated me to Fuddruckers and I enjoyed their stories and conversation. I left tremendously encouraged. Thank you, my church family!

Lead me to the cross where your love poured out.
Bring me to my knees; Lord, I lay me down.
Rid me of myself; I belong to you.
Lead me -- Lead me to the cross.

System Administrator Appreciation Day

Today was System Administrator Appreciation Day. While our print server celebrated the day by going haywire and sabotaging all the printers in the office, one of our office staff celebrated by making me an "IT Superhero" cape. We snapped a picture together today. I'll have to find a copy to put up here.

I was also gifted with a writing pen with a small flashlight in the cap. Here's the quotes from the back of the card the pen was sold with:

"Ballpoint with light"
"Equipped with high and and longtime battery"
"Usage the thumb be then light to press button can illuminate"
"Function characteristics: The electric power is ample, give out light to hold out light to hold out for long time. Write flowing freely, a thing two use."

Today's $17 question

You are preparing food for 200 people. It's a BBQ with hamburger/chicken, baked beans, potato salad, watermelon, cake... You are slicing tomatoes and shredding lettuce to top the hamburgers/chicken sandwiches. How many tomatoes and heads of lettuce should you slice/shred?

I'll post the answers after I get a response. :)

Do you study the Bible?

Thanks for all your prayers! The Lord has really been working in each of our hearts here at the intern house and is continuing to draw us together in unity. We were talking about our weekly Bible study recently and most of us came to the same conclusion. We know how to listen to a Sunday School teacher or pastor teach on the Bible. We can pull out our commentaries and write a paper for you on the Bible. We may even be able to answer the questions in a Bible study book. But we've never been taught how to study the Bible by itself.

We're planning on going through some Inductive Bible Study classes next month to get some tools we can use to help us study. In the meantime, we're going through Ephesians. After reading through Eph 2:11-22, here's a few excerpts from my study questions. They're not meant to be profound, just something to help us walk through scripture a little more thoroughly.

• v11. "Therefore" is a connecting word, encouraging us to look at the previous verses. What is Paul trying to get us to see?
• v11 & 12. Paul uses the word "remember" twice in two verses. Why?
  
• v12. What phrases does Paul use to describe his audience in v11 and v12?
  
• v14. What does 14 and 15a say that Christ has done?
• v15. What does 15b and 16 describe as Christ's purpose?
• v14 & 16. What repeating theme do we find in v14 and v16? Is it the same group(s) mentioned each time?
• v17 & 18. What is the result of Christ's work of reconciliation?
• v19. Verse 11-12 describe how we were. What do we find in v19?
• How many references do you find to "in/through Christ" during these verses?

Still battling - God is faithful

I'm still finding myself in the middle of a spiritual battle. I think that it's over, but then I'm surrounded once again by anxiety, miscommunication, lack of trust, and self-condemnation. These things can all very well come from me without the help of an outside enemy, but the more I pray about it, the more I believe it's still spiritual warfare. How hard it has been recently to praise the Lord! I sat in church this morning during worship and simply cried.

It was good to spend time this evening fellowshipping with GFA coworkers over shish kabobs (how ARE you supposed to spell that?) and dessert. I found a large red-eared water turtle crossing the city street as I was on my way to fellowship, so I brought him with me. He was larger than most we see around here -- about 12" from shell front to back. As I told our hostess, "I didn't know what kind of meat to bring, so I brought some fresh turtle. Will this one work?" At least I got some good laughs before I let him go in his new creek.

I reminded of something God taught me while I was at ICCM this year. God knows me. Not just in some nebulous "God knows everything" sense, but in a very real "God knows each of my emotions and struggles intimately and He cares" sense.

As Gail and Ezra used to sing:
Jesus knows me and this I love
Because He's always watching me from above.
No matter if you are big, no matter if you are small
Jesus knows us, one and all.

Yes, Jesus knows me.
Yes He knows me; Jesus knows me
Just remember that - Jesus knows you and me
The Bible tells me so.

Spiritual Warfare

Contrary to my emotions in my post a couple days ago, it's not just me. I've ended up in numerous conversations with various people on our office staff, each of whom have shared with me their recent "sudden" struggle with past issues, anxiety, faith, trusting God... It's not just me having a bad day. There's too many "coincidences" for that. I can see in the eyes of my co-workers, friends, and interns. There's a battle going on. I don't know what you believe about spiritual warfare, but I believe that some of us at the ministry are in a more intense battle than usual.

2 Cor 2:11. Paul is talking about forgiving people, lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Pray - that we would be in the Word, using it as a sword against the enemy, discerning the truth and the lies/emotions. Pray that we would praise. For God inherits the praises of His people (Ps 22:3). And through praising Him, victories are won (2 Chron 20:21-22).

The end truth? 2 Cor 2:14. Now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

*reads back over the post* - I think I sound slightly off the wall, but I'm unsure how better to explain what is on my heart and what the Lord has been reminding me of without writing a three page post. I am tired, probably complicating this post, but I am determined to fight. and praise.

Planning Redemption

Thought from my coordinator: Before Jesus created, He planned our redemption. For me that's both mind-boggling and comforting.

Praise God for His grace. And strength.

Do you ever have those days that you're just tired? Not really tired physically. Just maybe drained emotionally. It's one of those days. There's nothing really wrong. No emergency prayer requests. Just tired. And finding it hard to believe for God's guidance in everyday life. I know he will guide. I know he will answer. And I know I just need to stand up against the enemy. But I'm tired.

Prayer requests for the week

Just a few prayer requests for you:

• Bhutan is experiencing another wave of persecution. You can see a recent story here.
• I'm continually seeking the Lord on what it means to be a leader. I'd appreciate your prayers.
• My intern girls and I have been talking about living out the lessons we are learning both here at GFA and when we are with friends/family. It's hard, sometimes, to take the lessons from one "world" and live them out in another "world."
• We want to glorify God and work in unity at our house.
• And...my newsletter needs sent out. You're probably anxiously waiting on it, aren't you? Yes, well, you can pray for that.

Your prayers truly make a difference. I'll have praise reports for you at the end of the week.

The Tujia People

More China notes: The Tujia people group in central China number about 740,000. To quote from Operation World: The Tujia are one of the larger peoples in the world without anything of the Bible, and not yet even a [portion]. There are now about 30,000 Christians (0.3%).

Prayer: For the Tujia people to have God's Word in their own language.

Working to achieve

I was visiting with a pastor this evening who mentioned the following quote from retired Dallas Cowboys' coach Tom Landry: Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.

We compared it to like-mindedness. We as Christians have a common goal -- to know Christ and become more like Him. But we often have to help each other do things that we don't really want to do in order to achieve that goal that we really do want to achieve.

5-K Completed!

Sara and I successfully completed the Liberty 5K run/walk this morning. And we knocked our time down to 38 minutes! I didn't like how the finish line was set up -- you couldn't see where it was until you came around a corner and it was less than 50 yards away. It's sometimes hard to believe that phrase "keep running, you're almost there" until you see the finish line for yourself.

I guess that's how life is too, sometimes. We don't know what finish line God has for us -- we just have to keep pushing as hard as we can.

I found out later that my mother and father ran the 5K in their small KS town. Comparing times, Dad finished about 12 minutes ahead of us and Mother finished about 6 minutes behind us. Way to go, Mother and Daddy!

Utsat what?

The Utsat people: A people group in China (Hainan Province) that are all Muslims. There are no known believers and no known attempts to reach them with the Gospel.

Pray that the Utsat would hear God's Word.

13.5 million people

I'm trying to read through Operation World this year -- praying for each of the countries as I read about them. I'm a little (okay, a lot!) behind, so I'm "traveling" through the provinces of China right now. I'll probably include several tidbits over the next few days.

Beijing - a municipality of 13.5 million people. And 8 registered churches.

Nearer to the cross

Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord
To the cross where Thou has died
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord
To Thy precious bleeding side.

If I asked you if you wanted to be closer to God, would your hand be raised? Mine would be. I would guess that all of ours would be. We all want to be closer to God. But too often I fail to realize that the pain and struggles and situations that come across my daily path are the Lord's way of answering that prayer/song.