It's already past the mid-semester point.
Blessings blessings blessings.
I've been showered with them today.
Meeting up with one of our volunteers, Carrie Hartman, has been amazing. She's really a beautiful woman that chases after the heart of God. I'm so lucky to have the opportunity to meet up with her and learn about so many things. It's been so comforting and challenging.
Carrie and her husband, Dave, have a heart for world missions. Right now, she's looking to head over to the Middle East with her husband within the next few years.
She also has two younger sisters that are adapted from China. It's so cute the way she talks about them. She has the desire to adapt a child in the future as well. Now she's looking to start up a new program with the Binghamton community, trying to educate people about missions.
Oh, and she's a nurse both at a hospital and in home care. I don't know how she juggles it all!
I feel incredibly blessed to be nurtured and taught by such a great woman of God.
God has also been planting in me a greater desire for world missions. I never really thought that the mission field would be somewhere that God would call me. But lately, I get so excited and antsy to get out of school and actually go out in the world to spread name of Christ.
It's crazy...the U.S. is such a reached country that you can actually hear people throw the name, Jesus, around all the time. You can hear it through media, cusses, and Christians--it's totally a common thing.
I always thought that my role would be to stay within the U.S. and focus on church planting/building, but I'm totally wrong. I'm not sure that this is life-long commitment that God is calling me to, but all I know is that there is such a huge need out there in the world. Jesus will not come again to this earth until every nation is reached! So what am I doing sitting on my butt when people out there need to hear that name proclaimed??
I've also been so so so wrong about living in Mountainview.
It always made me cringe to think about evangelizing in this community because it's so darn hard when people just stay in their suites with their doors closed all the time. I even confess that I'm just as guilty of it. But today when Winnie and Sara were cooking in the downstairs kitchen, some random guy just stood there and was making the longest small talk that he ever could. To be quite honest, I was actually annoyed because he kept asking me so many questions when I had to read my play for acting class. Then we started talking about Christianity and the idea of sin and holiness. It was crazy how his annoying questions actually turned into a topic that I was captivated by. He totally got my attention.
It was amazing how easily the conversation flowed.
He wasn't angry or totally rejecting what we were saying, but was actually really receptive and conversational. After talking to him for about 30 mins, I think he realized that everything that we were saying was a lot to take in at once so he kind of left in a hurry.
It was an amazing feeling though. The way that God totally opened a door for us to share the gospel. Mountainview is actually a place where outreach can be done.
We're praying that by the works of the spirit, that young man's heart will be changed.
Please pray for us too.
"I caught a glimpse of Your splendor
In the corner of my eye
The most beautiful thing I've ever seen
And it was like a flash of lightning
Reflected off the sky
And I know I'll never be the same"
- Third Day
