The moment is as fresh in my memory as if I were still there. Walking down the busy rainy street with motos and their tired drivers maneuvering around the streams of murky water and the hoard of white people all consumed with the drown of shop owners calling out in chines for the foreigners to come and buy what they are selling. Thats when I heard the reminder that had been spoken over this outreach so many times but I heard it again in the midst of the noise "This is going to be REDEMPTION"
I looked up at that moment from my sopping wet target shoes to see my team walking ahead of me. I had realized since my last outreach I had simply been hoping that God was good, but as I had been seeing this team of 10 grow and serve, I was beginning to see Gods goodness.
This last outreach was filled with songs and games at elementary schools and lots of prayer walks. Something that was most noticeable about this team was the way they made friends. We have so many people in Taiwan who have parts of our hearts, most notably a group of aboriginal youths. From worshipping together in english and Chines to playing sardines in a small church till 11 o'clock at night, we truly did life with this group of 15 young adults.
Sometimes missions is the simplicity of doing life with people so that through you they can see Jesus not just hear about him, that was a lesson we as a team learned.
There is nothing more fundamental than the knowledge of Gods redemptive qualities in the young believer. That is one of the basic foundations of the Christian faith that Jesus death and resurrection was for the redemption of the world.
However, wonder fills my heart and mind when I look back on these past 5 months seeing that Jesus not only desires redemption to be written across our souls but also our experiences.
This time last year I returned home from Cambodia and Thailand feeling the burden of my best simply not being good enough. My head and my heart were filled with words that reminded me of my inadequacy and I held on to those things in the spring school and beginning of this last fall school.
My favorite phrase in the Bible "But Jesus" showed up and completely changed all that. It wasn't this giant moment of bright lights and magical shift in thinking, but it was in the small day to day things. Watching missions click in the minds of students and watching passion overcome apathy slowly but surely re-ignited the passion God had given me for this generation. I saw a student who had such a fear of public speaking share her testimony in-front of a church of people who don't speak her language. I got to have sweet moments with multiple girls on my team talking about Jesus and how He sees them and has created them to be. I got to champion the young men on my team in the times they walked out in leadership and in the days that they felt they fell short. I got to be the biggest fan of my outreach band and I got to call them higher when all they wanted to do is give up. God has a special plan for this generation of youth who are fed by culture yet longing for more. I have never been more assured of the purpose I have in this place with this generation than I am after this outreach.
So after this redemptive outreach what is next? This upcoming spring quarter I will be attending TESOL in Lakeside MT! What is TESOL? glad you asked TESOL is Teaching English To Speakers of Other Languages. This 3 month course will give me not only the tools to teach english over seas as a missionary but also give me a secular certificate so that I am qualified to teach english anywhere!
I have been praying so much about what God wants me to do since my 2 year commitment ended this last summer and the more I have pushed in in prayer the more I have felt that my time here in the DTS department is not over. As part of working in the DTS department I have gone on outreach 3 times in the last 2 years and on all 3 of those outreaches my team and I have taught english. Seeing this need all over the world I felt God release me from the DTS department for a season so I can go and equip myself even more for the department I love.
If you want to be apart of this wild ride and apart of discipling the next generation of radical Jesus lovin missionaries I urge you to pray about partnering with me financially.
the link to donate is https://giving.ywammontana.org
I looked up at that moment from my sopping wet target shoes to see my team walking ahead of me. I had realized since my last outreach I had simply been hoping that God was good, but as I had been seeing this team of 10 grow and serve, I was beginning to see Gods goodness.
This last outreach was filled with songs and games at elementary schools and lots of prayer walks. Something that was most noticeable about this team was the way they made friends. We have so many people in Taiwan who have parts of our hearts, most notably a group of aboriginal youths. From worshipping together in english and Chines to playing sardines in a small church till 11 o'clock at night, we truly did life with this group of 15 young adults.
Sometimes missions is the simplicity of doing life with people so that through you they can see Jesus not just hear about him, that was a lesson we as a team learned.
However, wonder fills my heart and mind when I look back on these past 5 months seeing that Jesus not only desires redemption to be written across our souls but also our experiences.
This time last year I returned home from Cambodia and Thailand feeling the burden of my best simply not being good enough. My head and my heart were filled with words that reminded me of my inadequacy and I held on to those things in the spring school and beginning of this last fall school.
My favorite phrase in the Bible "But Jesus" showed up and completely changed all that. It wasn't this giant moment of bright lights and magical shift in thinking, but it was in the small day to day things. Watching missions click in the minds of students and watching passion overcome apathy slowly but surely re-ignited the passion God had given me for this generation. I saw a student who had such a fear of public speaking share her testimony in-front of a church of people who don't speak her language. I got to have sweet moments with multiple girls on my team talking about Jesus and how He sees them and has created them to be. I got to champion the young men on my team in the times they walked out in leadership and in the days that they felt they fell short. I got to be the biggest fan of my outreach band and I got to call them higher when all they wanted to do is give up. God has a special plan for this generation of youth who are fed by culture yet longing for more. I have never been more assured of the purpose I have in this place with this generation than I am after this outreach.
So after this redemptive outreach what is next? This upcoming spring quarter I will be attending TESOL in Lakeside MT! What is TESOL? glad you asked TESOL is Teaching English To Speakers of Other Languages. This 3 month course will give me not only the tools to teach english over seas as a missionary but also give me a secular certificate so that I am qualified to teach english anywhere!
I have been praying so much about what God wants me to do since my 2 year commitment ended this last summer and the more I have pushed in in prayer the more I have felt that my time here in the DTS department is not over. As part of working in the DTS department I have gone on outreach 3 times in the last 2 years and on all 3 of those outreaches my team and I have taught english. Seeing this need all over the world I felt God release me from the DTS department for a season so I can go and equip myself even more for the department I love.
If you want to be apart of this wild ride and apart of discipling the next generation of radical Jesus lovin missionaries I urge you to pray about partnering with me financially.
the link to donate is https://giving.ywammontana.org
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