Listened to a really interesting few messages by John Piper. He said, "You exist to share in and to share God's passion for God's glory." Surely this is the motivation a missionary needs.
If you don't know anything about Piper's ministry, then this may be a very different way of thinking about God, but I believe his statements are biblical. In fact, his teaching has given me the greatest awakening in my life as Christian since the day I first had faith in Christ to forgive&save me. You could ask a bunch of ppl including my boyfriend, I went a little crazy for a few days when I couldn't believe how my world was changed-I started seeing everything differently. Somehow for years I had missed a crucial point: God wants me to enjoy Him in everything! That is worship. That's why I should be a foreign missionary-to enjoy God.
These 3 links are messages by John Piper based on the text of his book, "When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy" Personally, I like his style and he also does get practical in the 3rd session. I've been big-time confused about joy in God for awhile because I know the Bible says that faith is a gift and also something we battle for. How can both be true and what I am supposed to do with that? If Piper's writing books about it, then other people have probably had some of the same experiences. I hope you give him a shot!
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/how-to-fight-for-joy-session-1
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/how-to-fight-for-joy-session-2
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/how-to-fight-for-joy-session-3
No real idea where I'm going with this.
Isn't it incredible that the day I return a bit discouraged from a visit to GIAL (grad institute of applied linguistics) which ended with some surprises/confusion, is the same day Oswald Chambers writes "What is a Missionary?" in My Utmost for His Highest ?
John 20:11 Jesus said to them again, "...As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."
Chambers writes:
A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus...."Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations" (Matt. 28:19)
Christ commanded and also called me personally. Do I not trust that God will bring me everything I need to do what He has planned?
It's been over a year since I posted anything here and over a year since I returned home from my internship at Wycliffe USA hq. Since then I've crawled through my senior year of college, but I did successfully graduate. I didn't deal with the load well, but felt a great sense of pride in finishing that degree. However in this year, I haven't prepared myself well to make steps to go out on the mission field. I'd love to say that I've been saving money, researching countries I might serve in, faithfully following the Lord, and moving forward or waiting on God to move the obstacles, but I don't believe that's the case. I think that I've dropped the ball, definitely been distracted.
I'm feeling a lot of things right now, and few of them positive. Worried, scared, confused, hypocritical, ashamed even. I know I've been in (and out of) this place before; I'm struggling to believe and hold onto the truths I know. I don't know what to do next and I'm afraid of making the wrong choices.
I want to be open about what's really going on. If it's REALLY true that His power is made perfect in our weakness and His grace is enough, then He will be honored and I'll see good come about because of this vulnerability. That's what I pray.
And here's the most interesting thing Oswald says on Oct 26's passage about missionaries:
When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, "What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!" But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were "foolish" enough to trust God's wisdom and His supernatural equipment.
Please join me in praying that God will renew my heart & give me childlike faith. I want to trust fully in His wisdom and His ability to make me as ready as I need to be for what's next. Deeper waters, I need a deeper faith.
John 20:11 Jesus said to them again, "...As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."
Chambers writes:
A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus...."Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations" (Matt. 28:19)
Christ commanded and also called me personally. Do I not trust that God will bring me everything I need to do what He has planned?
It's been over a year since I posted anything here and over a year since I returned home from my internship at Wycliffe USA hq. Since then I've crawled through my senior year of college, but I did successfully graduate. I didn't deal with the load well, but felt a great sense of pride in finishing that degree. However in this year, I haven't prepared myself well to make steps to go out on the mission field. I'd love to say that I've been saving money, researching countries I might serve in, faithfully following the Lord, and moving forward or waiting on God to move the obstacles, but I don't believe that's the case. I think that I've dropped the ball, definitely been distracted.
I'm feeling a lot of things right now, and few of them positive. Worried, scared, confused, hypocritical, ashamed even. I know I've been in (and out of) this place before; I'm struggling to believe and hold onto the truths I know. I don't know what to do next and I'm afraid of making the wrong choices.
I want to be open about what's really going on. If it's REALLY true that His power is made perfect in our weakness and His grace is enough, then He will be honored and I'll see good come about because of this vulnerability. That's what I pray.
And here's the most interesting thing Oswald says on Oct 26's passage about missionaries:
When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, "What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!" But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were "foolish" enough to trust God's wisdom and His supernatural equipment.
Please join me in praying that God will renew my heart & give me childlike faith. I want to trust fully in His wisdom and His ability to make me as ready as I need to be for what's next. Deeper waters, I need a deeper faith.
An Action-Packed Visit
For now I'll skip my apologies and excuses for the past week of silence; you know that I'm busy.
I've had a wonderful, long weekend because Mom and Dad came to visit! They drove all the way from Texas (2.5 days) to see me and visit the Wycliffe USA headquarters where I'm working.
Friday I showed off my tour guide expertise in the Discovery Center, they checked in, we walked around a cutesie part of Orlando called Winter Park, and enjoyed a yummy dinner out.
On Saturday, Mom and Dad met up with me at Lake Eola downtown after my internship activity. Knowing what they love (the outdoors) and the weather here (sweltering) I decided to take them to Wekiva Springs State Park since I loved it too. (This time without any canoeing in alligator infested waters.) What started off as an innocent walk through the lush foliage turned into Florida boot camp as our hike dragged on and on. We did not appreciate the poorly proportioned park map. Finally, we got back to the trailhead and I was the first to jump in the icy, face-numbing, body-shivering, heart-stopping, freezing cold water! It felt awesome :) And some piping hot pizza ended the late night.
Sunday, we attended Cross Pointe Church with a bunch of the other interns. For lunch, several of the other interns grilled yummy burgers and everyone met Sarah's family too, also visiting. Sunday night, Dad took Mom and me to Downtown Disney; I had no idea how much fun that would be! We ate delicious dessert at an Italian restaurant there. We saw giant Lego creations-a shark, crab, fish, dragon, t-rex, tourists like us, and miniature Lego cities like Paris, Sydney, Hong Kong, New York and St. Petersburg. (Can you tell I loved that part?) We browsed the Disney shops, rode the boat at night, and my only wish is that the Cirque de Soleil show played on Sundays...
Getting the day off, I was blessed to be with them Monday too. We saw the Jesus Film Studio tour at Campus Crusade for Christ International (very inspirational.) The film's content is heavily based on the Bible (book of Luke) and dubbed into over 1,000 languages! It's a really neat partnership; the scripture translations done mostly by Wycliffe members make that production possible. And I also introduced my parents to a lot of wonderful people in my office.
Today was good, getting back into the swing of the office, but I will be very excited to see Mom and Dad again in just a few weeks, along with all the other friends and family I miss so much.
I just got really used to living here and it'll be over before I know it! The outreach team is only responsible for 2 more events before the summer's up. This week we're working on writing and telling our stories so we can know better how to tell what God's done for us in our lives.
Thank you so much for reading, encouraging and praying!
I've had a wonderful, long weekend because Mom and Dad came to visit! They drove all the way from Texas (2.5 days) to see me and visit the Wycliffe USA headquarters where I'm working.
Friday I showed off my tour guide expertise in the Discovery Center, they checked in, we walked around a cutesie part of Orlando called Winter Park, and enjoyed a yummy dinner out.
On Saturday, Mom and Dad met up with me at Lake Eola downtown after my internship activity. Knowing what they love (the outdoors) and the weather here (sweltering) I decided to take them to Wekiva Springs State Park since I loved it too. (This time without any canoeing in alligator infested waters.) What started off as an innocent walk through the lush foliage turned into Florida boot camp as our hike dragged on and on. We did not appreciate the poorly proportioned park map. Finally, we got back to the trailhead and I was the first to jump in the icy, face-numbing, body-shivering, heart-stopping, freezing cold water! It felt awesome :) And some piping hot pizza ended the late night.
Sunday, we attended Cross Pointe Church with a bunch of the other interns. For lunch, several of the other interns grilled yummy burgers and everyone met Sarah's family too, also visiting. Sunday night, Dad took Mom and me to Downtown Disney; I had no idea how much fun that would be! We ate delicious dessert at an Italian restaurant there. We saw giant Lego creations-a shark, crab, fish, dragon, t-rex, tourists like us, and miniature Lego cities like Paris, Sydney, Hong Kong, New York and St. Petersburg. (Can you tell I loved that part?) We browsed the Disney shops, rode the boat at night, and my only wish is that the Cirque de Soleil show played on Sundays...
Getting the day off, I was blessed to be with them Monday too. We saw the Jesus Film Studio tour at Campus Crusade for Christ International (very inspirational.) The film's content is heavily based on the Bible (book of Luke) and dubbed into over 1,000 languages! It's a really neat partnership; the scripture translations done mostly by Wycliffe members make that production possible. And I also introduced my parents to a lot of wonderful people in my office.
Today was good, getting back into the swing of the office, but I will be very excited to see Mom and Dad again in just a few weeks, along with all the other friends and family I miss so much.
I just got really used to living here and it'll be over before I know it! The outreach team is only responsible for 2 more events before the summer's up. This week we're working on writing and telling our stories so we can know better how to tell what God's done for us in our lives.
Thank you so much for reading, encouraging and praying!
Indebtedness
I'm thankful for another day to live. God is a faithful provider; I always have what I need. I'm thankful that I wake up in peace, comfort and shelter-all blessings from the Lord that I don't deserve. I'm thankful for language and communication and translation- incredible gifts! I'm thankful for the other interns and all I'm learning from them. I'm thankful that because of Jesus sacrificing His life for me I don't live in fear or guilt or shame. Instead now I'm free. Free from what I was stuck in, to follow Him and to be new & loved.
Last night at "Close Call" during the singing time, what stood out to me were the lyrics from one line of Enough."You satisfy me with Your love and all I have in You is more than enough." And this morning I read about Paul spending his life for the sake of others as a bondservant of Jesus. Romans 1:14 says, "I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish." I'm thankful for the beginning of this understanding that I am obligated and indebted to Christ because of what He's done for me.
God's answering my prayer for motivation to do evangelism. :)
Last night at "Close Call" during the singing time, what stood out to me were the lyrics from one line of Enough."You satisfy me with Your love and all I have in You is more than enough." And this morning I read about Paul spending his life for the sake of others as a bondservant of Jesus. Romans 1:14 says, "I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish." I'm thankful for the beginning of this understanding that I am obligated and indebted to Christ because of what He's done for me.
God's answering my prayer for motivation to do evangelism. :)
Like Rain in Florida
It's coming. Something every day is going to interrupt my plans and frustrate me probably. I'm learning that it's better to approach every day knowing an unhappy circumstance is likely just around the corner and waiting to see where Jesus is in it, how I can learn to change because of it. It would be better to see problems like opportunities. Mom told me, and I really think she's so right about this one, that it's our selfishness and need to control that keeps us from living this way. When plans have to change, which will happen, or when things don't go my way, I can choose (with some preparation) to believe there's something different in store that will make Jesus Christ more real and give Him more glory than what I'd arranged.
Basically, I'm just done being surprised that life happens. It doesn't make any sense to expect or hope that everything will be easy and happy today. That false presumption only makes the unexpected more emotional and difficult. Conflict is like rain in Orlando-it's not a question of if, but when, and when today.
For instance, Cameron Townsend could have thrown up his hands when people couldn't read the Spanish Bibles he was selling. He could have just complained to God that his mission trip was a waste. Instead, there God opened the perfect door to something new and unplanned: to provide the Cakchiquel people with a translator and eventually a Bible they could understand, not to mention the huge movement of Bible translation work around the world that flows from Wycliffe and is finally within a generation of completion!
Last summer in Guatemala, Arvid Westfall (an incredibly humble, sweet, brilliant, hilarious man who translated the K'anjob'al New Testament and guided my trip) said over and over again as he gave our schedules to us daily, "Here are the plans we will deviate from." Many times he's seen God take control and use what look like the wrong circumstances to do wonderful, earth-shaking things. And he trusts God enough to switch plans and be patient with people and do things that don't make sense. I want to learn to live with that kind of rest in God. I hope it doesn't, but I suspect it will take me years.
Basically, I'm just done being surprised that life happens. It doesn't make any sense to expect or hope that everything will be easy and happy today. That false presumption only makes the unexpected more emotional and difficult. Conflict is like rain in Orlando-it's not a question of if, but when, and when today.
For instance, Cameron Townsend could have thrown up his hands when people couldn't read the Spanish Bibles he was selling. He could have just complained to God that his mission trip was a waste. Instead, there God opened the perfect door to something new and unplanned: to provide the Cakchiquel people with a translator and eventually a Bible they could understand, not to mention the huge movement of Bible translation work around the world that flows from Wycliffe and is finally within a generation of completion!
Last summer in Guatemala, Arvid Westfall (an incredibly humble, sweet, brilliant, hilarious man who translated the K'anjob'al New Testament and guided my trip) said over and over again as he gave our schedules to us daily, "Here are the plans we will deviate from." Many times he's seen God take control and use what look like the wrong circumstances to do wonderful, earth-shaking things. And he trusts God enough to switch plans and be patient with people and do things that don't make sense. I want to learn to live with that kind of rest in God. I hope it doesn't, but I suspect it will take me years.
Bibleless People Prayer Project
One of the things I get to tell people about in the Involvement Area is our most powerful tool for accomplishing Bible translation-Prayer! With the Bibleless Peoples Prayer Project, you get info about how to pray for a specific language community that doesn't yet have the Bible. Here's a little blurb about it from Wycliffe.org:
Click on the prayer tab at Wycliffe.org to read and see some videos on this prayer project and more! Nikki's video on the left side of the BPPP page is cute.
Luke 1:37 "For nothing will be impossible with God."
Awesome fact: We currently have 9,003 prayer partners around the world!
Pray with us for a specific people group to receive God's Word in their own language. BPPP prayer partners receive an orientation packet, which includes a profile on the language and its speakers, a how-to-pray bookmark
and an annual project update.
BPPP participants also receive updates on their language group.
Click on the prayer tab at Wycliffe.org to read and see some videos on this prayer project and more! Nikki's video on the left side of the BPPP page is cute.
Luke 1:37 "For nothing will be impossible with God."
Awesome fact: We currently have 9,003 prayer partners around the world!
And What's Joy Up To??
A great deal of learning! That's what I'm up to.
Thanks to everyone who prayed for the staff's thank-you party last Thursday. I'm so proud of the way that it turned out; what matters most is that the staff appreciated the special evening. They were so grateful and blessed by all the personal touches. As initial entertainment, a slideshow game-Name That Intern-quizzed everyone with random, hilarious trivia. We each presented an award to at least one staff member, most of them completely and ridiculously off the wall. And we got to speak about what we had learned from them or appreciated. Dessert was fabulous too.
Friday was a wonderful day of rest and a little grocery shopping with my roommates, Melissa and Claire.
Saturday's outreach at Lake Eola was a lot of things, but mostly-HOT! We camped out on blankets at the beautiful park in the middle of downtown Orlando until the fireworks show at about 9 to meet people and mingle in the crowds.
Sunday was a really refreshing day for several of us. We visited at Cross Point Church again and I especially enjoyed the message from I John 5:14-21 about the wonderful results of our assurance in Christ.
This week the interns are large and in charge! We decided to combine Bible study with our worship night on Tuesday this week. Amy and Rachel arranged and served dinner; Sarah, Claire and Ruth led us in songs and worship; and Sarah, James, and Melissa each shared their experience with and the Bible's insight into some key spiritual disciplines (fasting, silence, solitude, and prayer.)
Today's "EnterMission" (the weekly chapel service for all of Wycliffe USA and open to guests) had the entire staff focusing on one of Wycliffe's core values: diversity. "We commit to follow the commands of Scripture to love all neighbors and act as one body of Christ, such that we intentionally engage and reflect the diversity of His Church in order to fulfill the Bible translation task at hand.” Sarah took a lot of responsibility in planning this with Ruth Hubbard (senior VP.) Sung Ah and Jean also, as a panel, honestly answered great questions about cross-cultural misconceptions and assumptions. It was a total blessing to me this morning too!
When people ask how I like the internship and my job, I keep coming back to one particularly funny event. It's an event that happened a lot more when I first started to give tours, but thankfully occurs less and less. I'm pretty excited when I get to lead people through the Discovery Center and tell amazing stories about Bible translation. So I go into as much detail as I know. I also happen to love languages, so it's natural for me to try and make visitors understand what great work this is. Well, I had to develop a new part to my introduction to avoid one thing specifically; I now ask how familiar the group is with Wycliffe. You see, when I haven't asked this question, I've spent 15 to 20 minutes explaining the process and signirficance of a task which some in the group have devoted up to 15 or 20 years of their life to! So I know now the importance of understanding your audience :) Free lesson, learn from my slip up. What's cool though, is that these people never interrupt or correct me. Instead they wait til the end and if I ask they'll admit they've been to headquarters before but not the museum and when I ask more then it comes out. And I feel like a fool. Period.
Thanks to everyone who prayed for the staff's thank-you party last Thursday. I'm so proud of the way that it turned out; what matters most is that the staff appreciated the special evening. They were so grateful and blessed by all the personal touches. As initial entertainment, a slideshow game-Name That Intern-quizzed everyone with random, hilarious trivia. We each presented an award to at least one staff member, most of them completely and ridiculously off the wall. And we got to speak about what we had learned from them or appreciated. Dessert was fabulous too.
Friday was a wonderful day of rest and a little grocery shopping with my roommates, Melissa and Claire.
Saturday's outreach at Lake Eola was a lot of things, but mostly-HOT! We camped out on blankets at the beautiful park in the middle of downtown Orlando until the fireworks show at about 9 to meet people and mingle in the crowds.
Sunday was a really refreshing day for several of us. We visited at Cross Point Church again and I especially enjoyed the message from I John 5:14-21 about the wonderful results of our assurance in Christ.
This week the interns are large and in charge! We decided to combine Bible study with our worship night on Tuesday this week. Amy and Rachel arranged and served dinner; Sarah, Claire and Ruth led us in songs and worship; and Sarah, James, and Melissa each shared their experience with and the Bible's insight into some key spiritual disciplines (fasting, silence, solitude, and prayer.)
Today's "EnterMission" (the weekly chapel service for all of Wycliffe USA and open to guests) had the entire staff focusing on one of Wycliffe's core values: diversity. "We commit to follow the commands of Scripture to love all neighbors and act as one body of Christ, such that we intentionally engage and reflect the diversity of His Church in order to fulfill the Bible translation task at hand.” Sarah took a lot of responsibility in planning this with Ruth Hubbard (senior VP.) Sung Ah and Jean also, as a panel, honestly answered great questions about cross-cultural misconceptions and assumptions. It was a total blessing to me this morning too!
When people ask how I like the internship and my job, I keep coming back to one particularly funny event. It's an event that happened a lot more when I first started to give tours, but thankfully occurs less and less. I'm pretty excited when I get to lead people through the Discovery Center and tell amazing stories about Bible translation. So I go into as much detail as I know. I also happen to love languages, so it's natural for me to try and make visitors understand what great work this is. Well, I had to develop a new part to my introduction to avoid one thing specifically; I now ask how familiar the group is with Wycliffe. You see, when I haven't asked this question, I've spent 15 to 20 minutes explaining the process and signirficance of a task which some in the group have devoted up to 15 or 20 years of their life to! So I know now the importance of understanding your audience :) Free lesson, learn from my slip up. What's cool though, is that these people never interrupt or correct me. Instead they wait til the end and if I ask they'll admit they've been to headquarters before but not the museum and when I ask more then it comes out. And I feel like a fool. Period.
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