Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Trip Highlights

A friend asked me (Emily) the highlights of my recent trip and after sharing with her I thought I would share with you!

1. Sharing the Gospel with 2 students from Mongolia.
2. Worshiping God with 2 Muslim girls who video taped the whole thing.
3. Meeting brand new believers and answering some of their questions. (most from Kenya and China)
4. Meeting a Christian family from Mississippi living in KL b/c of a work assignment with Shell Gasoline and who are sharing the Gospel with Muslims and Buddhists
5. Talking with a man about good and evil and Christ from Vietnam who lives in GA (USA), but his wife and son still live in Vietnam (we were on the plane)

The pictures can be found on the post from Aug. 17.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

One Step at a Time

Sooooo.....we have some big changes in our life! Some are behind us and more are in front of us. Over the summer God closed a lot of doors and opened one big fat one so wide that it was impossible for us not to jump in with both feet.

As we have spent the past couple of years serving as Campus Ministers at UNC-Chapel Hill God has used us to challenge students in their walk with the Lord, to share Christ with International students who had never heard the depth of the Gospel, and to send students overseas on short-term mission trips. We love campus ministry and college students. Our plan was to stay there for at least 10 years or more. According to "our" plan we would finish a long season of Campus Ministry and then head to the mission field. But (my professor always says the "but" is the most important part) the problem was that "our" plan was not God's plan.

All that to say God gave us a clear command to obey Him and to be obedient and that means for us we must go. Go where? Wherever He says. And He is saying go lay down your life for the people that do not know about the hope only found in Christ. Go and tell the people(s) of the Gospel that no one else is going to. Perhaps a place that no one else is going to. Go to the nations. What nation? A nation that God has given us a passion for the people and culture. A nation that is worshiping false gods. A nation that needs to be taught and trained according to the Scriptures to make disciples. Maybe a nation you already love that God has given you a passion for.

Brasil is the next big change in our life! We have put in a job request with the IMB and are in the application process currently.

Yes this has been in motion for a while, but we also had to make some changes that would better prepare us for the big change to come. We are transitioning out of Campus ministry in order to 1. spend more time with our local church family since they will be our biggest support in Brasil and 2. for me to finish my M.A. in Biblical Counseling. This also came at a time when we had to renew our lease in Chapel Hill. Since our top two priorities were not located in CH we decided to relocate to Wake Forest so I would be close to school and where there is a larger part of our church family. Not to mention also it is a whole lot cheaper.

For now we are working random jobs to pay the bills and Steven is looking for something full-time. I am in school full time (feels overwhelming at times) and we are leading a Home-Fellowship in Wake Forest with our local church FBC-Durham.

We plan to use this blog as a tool to keep you informed on our progress and preparation for Brasil. We ask you to join us in prayer for the unreached people(s) of Brasil and to please pray for us as we prepare to go.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Pictures are UP!

Check out all of our pics from our trip to Malaysia!

Find Steven in this one:

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Olympic Gold

Team USA is loving all the gold... Michael Phelps is racking up. Most of you probably do not know that Steven is a HUGE Michael Phelps fan. This is what I found in my living room...

Sunday, August 10, 2008

We're Back

I'll be posting a few times later this week in hopes of reflecting on more of what God showed us over in Southeast Asia and the work that God is doing there. Thank you all for your prayers for us and for the work Christ did. We are grateful for his abundant mercy in keeping us as we traveled home. August 7th might have been the longest day of our lives (literally). 2:00 AM - We leave from Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai, China and arrive 7:00 AM. 8:30 AM - We head out into the city for exploration and food. 1:30 PM - We return to get our luggage out of lockers and check our bags for the flight to Atlanta, Georgia {USA}. 4:30 PM - Our flight leaves. (Time Change + 15 Hr. flight) 7:05 PM {EST} - We arrive in Atlanta. 8:30 PM - The students leave to Raleigh. Emily and I find tickets home for Friday morning. Emily and I leave for a hotel 11:00 PM. All of this still on August 7th. CRAZY! Christ preserved us and still is as we seek to make his name famous and to serve the church.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Stuck in ATL

After making it on every flight of our trip we were sure we would make our last one. Over booking it pushed Steven and I off, but the rest of the group made it home as planned. We are getting paid to spend the night in Atlanta. We leave at 7am on Friday (today). More blog when we get there!
Wearing the same clothes for three days on 3 contents is gross... just in case you were wondering!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Mixed Emotions

Our time here is coming to a close. We are playing in the mini Olympics here on campus and then one more meal with new friends. Our day of Aug. 7 will be a long one as we travel back through China. We leave here at 2am Thursday which is 2pm on Wednesday there and arrive at 9pm Thursday there and 9am Friday here. Please pray for our travels.
Also please pray for a friend of ours back home who was in a really bad accident. He will be in the bed for the next 6 weeks and will have to endure a lot of physical therapy. More about that when we get home.
Time for team USA mini Olympics in Malaysia!

Friday, August 1, 2008

Loving Christ, the City, and My Wife




Today was an interesting time for us all as we were able to go into the main city of KL and see some of the amazing things that are there. Emily and I got up really early and commuted with Chan to KL to stand in line to get tickets for our group to see the famous Petronas Towers later in the afternoon. We then met up with our group and walked to an old Buddhist temple where we engaged a young lady with the Gospel and her beliefs. It was very unfortunate to hear her perspective on how to attain salvation and how it depends all on man's own efforts. Please pray for her. We then took a train to Pesar Seni which is an area of KL that contains many Malay markets that have arts and crafts. Our afternoon ended there and back at the Petronas Towers. This evening we spent time with Malay believers who are seeking to make an impact on their campus. Please pray for them as we encourage them tomorrow in that ministry is not just for vocational ministers, but everyone who has been saved by the gospel. Please continue to pray for our team as we are getting bolder with the gospel message and our students are learning to share more and engage the unbelieving students at the campuses. Also, today is our 8 month anniversary. So congratulations to Emily for being able to put up with me for the last 8 months! Amen. Come Lord Jesus! :-)