His Story. His Word.

Inspiration to read the Bible. Daily. More. It came from here. God has worked through the lost people of this country to inspire me to know more. To learn more about His Story. His Word. I am so excited for the plans God has for the next few days while here on this trip. I pray that He will use our team to continue to bring these people closer to Him. I pray for Him to prepare students to be open to His Word and for Him to provide us with the opportunity to bring up the Gospel in conversation. I pray for the strength of the Holy Spirit to fill myself and the other members of our team with courage to do what we are here for. What we have been called to do. To serve our Lord in the most glorifying way possible.

Changing the mind set from something we have to do, to something we want to do. We want to follow Jesus, not because we have to, but because we want to. We are given the ability to love from the Grace of God. Because we have Christ we are able to love each other, even with hurt. Because Jesus took the suffering for all of our sins, we can love. And this isn't because of us, but because of Him. So depend on Him, not yourself. Give yourself to the Lord. All that you have, give it up to Him. Rejoice because your name is written in the book of life. Rejoice because your name is written in Heaven. Not because we are glorifying Him, but because even if we find no one to share with today we will one day be in Heaven with Jesus, and there are many people in this world that won't.

I think it is important to remember the difference between our natural and our spiritual bodies. A body which temorarily lives on earth versus a body that lives eternally because it is filled with the Holy Spirit. Here in this country the Holy Spirit is very easy to feel working through you. This may be because of our purpose here. What we are doing. This is something I want to be more aware of as I return to the United States. In the States we are so consumed with the materialistic things of life. It is easy to think that this stuff can satisfy. But the truth is, it won't. It may satisify for awhile, but eventually you'll lose interest, until the next thing. The pattern will continue, but we will never be fully satisfied with stuff. The Holy Spirit is always present if we are aware. God is always working through us if we are aware. He will satisfy. I want to spend more time in rest with the Lord. We try so much to be doing things that are Godly. Things that make us a good person. But the fact is that we cannot earn God's love. We cannot do anything to earn or to lose God's Grace. Jesus gave us the ultimate gift. He gave us eternal life when He sacrificed His own life to save our sins.

Today while in a cafe Allison and I met a girl who said she spoke English. But then when we sat down we realized that all she could say in English was yes and I love you. Hmmmm...in my opinion that is not able to speak English haha, but it was okay. It was obvious that God had a reason for us to sit down with this woman. As we were trying to communicate the man behind us noticed that we were not getting very far. He spoke a little more English, but still it was hard to have a flowing conversation. So...long story short we shared the Gospel over Google Translate. Maybe not how we originally planned, but God was at work. The man had his computer and so we were able to have a conversation that way, which eventually turned spiritual. He actually was the one who initiated this. He brought up some history about his country and talked a little bit about where the first church was found. Not what we were expecting for a conversation topic, coming from this man, but we continued to lead the conversation toward God. Pretty neat. This man was very interested in learning more. God at work.

After meeting this man and young woman Allison and I went to a cafe down to road to talk about what just happened, pray, and eat lunch. Lunch was very good. We prayed for our new friends that we just met, and prayed that God would stick with them as they think about the story we just told. When we were done eating the manager at the resturant brought us coffee and a small candy called a delight on the house. It really makes you think about how kind people are here. Especially with us being foreigners. They have treated us so well. It made my stomach actually hurt because of how we treat foreigners in the United States. I would say generally that most people would rather just turn away instead of try and interpret "their form of broken English." I'm not saying everyone is like this, but I'm saying many Americans act this way. Instead of welcoming foreigners into our country we do not treat them with respect. It really made me think. Think about this next time you see someone who is new to our country. Treat them with respect. Be kind. Life is too short to not be.

To follow up on this passage read Luke 10: 17-20, Mark 12:28-34, John 13:31-35, and 1 Corinthians 15

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