Dear Family, Friends, and Supporters,
Today is July 13, 2011, and our team that went to Malaysia has been back a full month now. Thank you for all of your prayers, encouragements, and support; without y’all, there was no possible way that we could have made it there to be ministers of God’s kingdom.
Today is July 13, 2011, and our team that went to Malaysia has been back a full month now. Thank you for all of your prayers, encouragements, and support; without y’all, there was no possible way that we could have made it there to be ministers of God’s kingdom.
When we first started fundraising, we thought it was going to be impossible to raise the funds we needed in time for us to go. But we trusted God’s provision, that if this really was what He was calling us to do, He would provide for us. We prayed, begged, and pleaded with God to help us accomplish a borderline impossible task, and He provided big time, exceeding everything that we expected. We ended up raising enough money in a month and a half, with funds still coming in from anonymous donors. Even while we were already in Malaysia, some people still felt led to give. God definitely taught us that when we fully trust Him to provide, He does so abundantly.
As I prepared for this mission trip in the six months leading up to it, I was very anxious and scared out of my mind. I was responsible for leading the Evangelism workshop with Avina, but i knew that teaching was not one of my gifts. I felt like I would never know enough, have all the answers, or suffice to actually help any kids in Malaysia. That was definitely my pride and sinfulness controlling me, trying to convince me that I could actually do all of this on my own, with my own human strength.
The theme at the youth camp in Malaysia was “Truth Fitness”, meaning that we were to be teaching these students a lot of theology, doctrine, and essentials to our faith. The pressure was truly on; the leaders at Pantai Baptist Church wanted the kids to come out of this camp with a renewed desire to study Scripture and theology for themselves, and that was why we were coming in to teach workshops. We were partnering with PBC to support their ministry, and I did not want to fail them. I did not want to fail you all who supported me and the rest of the team; I did not want to waste PBC’s time, all the funds from y’all, and misrepresent Chinese Baptist Church. I wrestled for a long time with trusting that God would give me wisdom, understanding, and discernment regarding my workshop and also leading a small group during the camp.
Day 1: We left Sunday after church to begin our almost 24 hour transit to Malaysia. Here is an excerpt from my personal Tumblr blog that I wrote a few weeks before we left. This post describes my thoughts on Day 1 perfectly:
“I’m leaving for Malaysia in less than a month to help teach and equip youth there, and I am terrified right now. I constantly think about failing, about not knowing enough, about being boring, about not being able to fully convey how amazing the saving grace of our God is. I mean, it’s kind of a weighty responsibility, no? Why did God call me to this task if I’m not “ready”? Doesn’t He want me to be effective for the kingdom? What if I screw up? What if this ends up just being another camp workshop? How in the world can I possibly share how freaking broken I am, how much my soul aches each day because I can’t handle the weight of my sin, how I am renewed each day with the knowledge that I have a gracious Father in Heaven, how I will NEVER know enough, but that I have felt the immense discipline and humbling by God? How can I POSSIBLY do this? How can God possibly use ME? And then I remember, amidst my anxiety and frantic-ness: “BUT GOD” and there are many verses that begin with this, but all I remember is “But God”, and my heart can finally find rest in that moment—it’s not about how much I know, or how much I can understand, but about the glorious and redeeming grace of God that gives me knowledge, understanding, boldness, and comfort. God once again shows me how even while preparing for a mission trip, my heart is still sinful, stubborn, and blind to a personal and loving God right before my eyes. He will provide a way for me, will use me even when I don’t think He can, and will continue His sanctifying work in my life. His will WILL be done.”
Day 2: When we arrived in Malaysia, we were all pretty delirious, jet lagged, and exhausted. We arrived at 8 am their time, so we immediately had a long day ahead from the get go. We were able to eat at a local Malaysian cafe located in one of their huge malls for lunch. The food was delicious, and of course my favorite part was the dessert. Afterwards, we got to go back to our hotel and rest for a bit before we met with PBC’s youth leadership team. We went over camp logistics and got to meet some of the youth. Following the meeting, we went out to a nice Chinese restaurant with Uncle Bryan, a church elder that took ridiculously good care of us like his own kids during our stay. We were all pretty out of it by dinner, but it was awesome to get to spend more time with the leadership team.
Day 3: We woke up, packed up our things, and headed to PBC to get on the buses for youth camp. When we arrived, there was already a half day of events planned. We got to meet lots of the kids, began our week of heavy mealtimes, and got a feel of how the camp would go. We discovered very soon that their camp was the super camp of all camps. Everything that you have ever done in camp was all put into this one 4 day period; skits, small groups, games, workshops, free time, challenges. Not going to lie, I was pretty scared when I saw the schedule; I knew it was going to be a tiring but rewarding week. I got to lead my first small group session with my co-leader from PBC, which was extremely nerve wrecking and honestly slightly discouraging. Going into this trip, we had heard that the schooling system in Malaysia was different; that the students were not encouraged to ask questions in class. I knew that it would be hard to stimulate discussion, but I did not anticipate that it would be as hard as it was on this first day. I felt like no one really liked me or cared enough to talk about anything. That was definitely my pride getting to me, my impatience bringing out the worst in me. On top of these feelings, I was extremely stressed about my two workshop sessions that would start the next day. I did not think I was ready at all, and to be honest, I felt like my workshop topic was brushed over by the kids. Comparatively, my workshop did not sound as intense as some of the other ones, such as Sovereignty and Free Will, Pluralism, and Science and Christianity. I felt very inferior compared to the other workshops, like somehow mine was of less importance. Avina, my co-leader for the workshop, and I prayed a lot about this, about trusting in God to guide our words and hearts so that we might be vessels for His work. We still had so much fear, but as you will see, God definitely provided for us in big ways that only He could. By the end of this first day, we all pretty much just passed out from exhaustion; one half day was all it took to take out a good chunk of our energy.
Day 4: This is a clip from my personal journal during the trip. It describes how I felt for the beginning of the day:
“Today is the beginning of the second day of camp--I am feeling tired, frustrated, and weighty. There is a huge weight on my heart right now to plea and get on my knees to beg these students to listen. I feel like there is so much disrespect and lack of desire to learn (they just want fun). I have been at this place before, but from this perspective now, I really want to punch some kids in the face. I want to beg them to listen because their salvation is at stake. I want to tell them that Christianity is so much more than simply believing in Jesus so that they get to go to Heaven. I want to plead for their souls with them, to teach constantly because I know our time is limited. I feel like the teaching never stops, like I am constantly going--which is exactly the point that Paul makes in 2 Timothy. I feel a huge weight on my soul, like the sake of these students is on me. But thank goodness that it isn’t all me--You have already predestined a plan and already know what I do not. Father, thank you for being my comfort and my strength when I feel so week and defeated and upset. Thank goodness you are working in ways that I cannot see or understand.”
This day was the first time that Avina and I taught our workshop. It was extremely scary for both of us, and it did not go as smoothly as we had hoped. Our thoughts were not cohesive, the workshop did not flow as we had hoped, and many of the students were not listening to us. It was frustrating because we had so much to teach them in only an hour and a half, and yet it felt like no one really wanted to truly learn. At the end, Avina and I were both feeling pretty low. Yes, this was our first workshop, but we just felt so defeated. We prayed at the end together, just begging God to help us and guard our hearts from any feelings that we are not good enough and to give us wisdom to teach more effectively tomorrow. We prayed for the students, that they would take their faith seriously enough to want to learn it for themselves, not just play the infamous “church game”
The games were ridiculously exhausting but crazy creative and fun. Although there was allotted “free time”, it was almost always cut short because our group discussions lasted longer than the expected time, and other planned activities seemed to go longer than planned. We had a lot of fun doing everything with our group and such, but there were never any real breaks. God definitely gave us the energy to keep going, because I’m pretty sure we all felt like collapsing after Day 1.
Unfortunately, on this second day of camp people from our team started to get sick. It was probably a combination of the jet lag, adjusting to the food, and most importantly, God humbling us. I personally did not get sick during the whole trip, but i watched as may almost every member of our 11 person team started to drop like flies. God definitely taught our team about our true dependence on Him during everything, and that in all things, we should come back to God in pure worship and praise.
Small group discussion was still rough, but it was getting easier because some people started opening up. I begged God this night to plant a seed in the hearts of these students, that I would not be discouraged by what I physically saw. God sees the heart, and that was what mattered. We did not want to see the kids get a “camp spiritual high”, but rather, a completely life altering realization that they are hopeless without the work of God on the cross, and that THAT is what their whole lives should be about.
Day 5: Today was the second session of our workshops, and I have to say, God definitely showed up. It was such a beautiful thing to be teaching, but yet not know how all of the ideas and explanations flowed so well because God exceeded what we expected. Avina and I were
trying to study more and prepare more for this 2nd workshop, but we realized that we truly had to trust God to take care of us and guide us. We knew we were relying too much on our own abilities, which would ultimately lead to nowhere good. Here is a clip from my journal regarding how the workshop went:
“On the second day, God definitely showed up. Our ideas were a lot clearer, people weren’t messing around, and we could tell that people really wanted to learn. I felt so empowered by God to teach the Gospel in all parts of the workshop, and God truly provided. I definitely was not speaking--all the credit goes to God. The change from the 1st day to the 2nd was so radical--I really saw how powerful prayer was and how God really comes through when I put all my trust in Him.”
Day 6: This was the last day of youth camp, and it was definitely bittersweet. We were all kind of ready for it to end, especially since many of us were sick, but I felt like there was more teaching to be done. But what we had to remember was that we were not here to teach the students EVERYTHING about theology, doctrine, etc, but rather, we were here to support the PBC leadership in their ministry. We were never going to be able to teach everything, not matter how hard we pushed on. This realization gave me so much comfort and peace on that last day; that we were part of a bigger plan beyond these 4 days of camp. In my journal I summed up how I felt on that last day:
“I’ve really learned a lot more about how to do youth ministry--the dos and don’ts. The culture here is so different than at home--the way people interact, the humor, the characters, the way people treat one another. Despite our differences, I really grew to truly love the kids here. There were people that wanted to just have fun here, and that was okay, but there were also a handful of people that really wanted to know God more. God was faithful to provide this week even though there were times when I was discouraged and doubted His power. I felt a huge burden on my soul, a huge weight on my back because I was so in sync with God’s heart this week. I desperately want these students here to know God; not just know about Him, but have a true relationship with Him. My heart breaks for them when I see that they could have so much more than what their hearts are settling for--they could have Jesus Christ, our only true satisfaction. My heart is breaking for God’s children--they desperately need God--they are playing the church game just like I was in Middle school/high school. Life is so much more than this for them. I love and feel for them. Sessions were hard because people did not seem to care, but I know that God was at work despite what I saw. When I got frustrated, God humbled me and helped me love the students so much better.”
When we got back from the campsite, we experienced a true Malaysian rain. It rained super hard as we all were trying to get out of the bus--crazy! After we returned to the hotel and rested for a bit, we went out to dinner with Keith Chan’s parents who brought us to a delicious seafood restaurant. If you haven’t noticed, Malaysian people love food, even more than Chinese people--we ate such filling meals whenever we were taken out! So blessed :) And of course, after finally returning to the hotel, we all passed out.
Day 8: We went to Youth Service at PBC where Chris and Aly led worship and Justin gave the sermon to wrap up youth camp. Afterwards, everyone from our team split up to go visit various Sunday school classes. I went to the 16 year olds class, and in the class we basically talked about what we learned at camp (because some students did not go). It was a cool picture of the body of Christ teaching one another things about predestination, science, etc. After Sunday school, we went to a local restaurant where many of the youth came to fellowship with us and say their goodbyes, for we would be leaving the next day when they all started school. I ate some delicious noodles of which I don’t know the name of, but I got to sit with some hilarious people that shared their lives with me for that short 2 hours. Our team literally had to be pulled out of the restaurant when our rides beckoned us to go; lots of hugs goodbye. We rested at the hotel for a bit, then headed out again for a leaders training at the church. I was in the group of college students/ youth, and we got to give our perspectives on church discipline, bible study, and other topics that the leaders had questions about. It was crazy getting to teach older leaders, but it was such a powerful testament of what the body of Christ is supposed to look like. After this, we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant in a popular mall. We were told not to eat too much, for they planned to bring us out afterwards for another snack--Crazy! The food was great, I ordered Dim Sum dishes and shared with my table. I did not listen, because I was so stuffed after the meal. For dessert, we got this thing that was like 3 feet tall and had a tissue like texture; I can’t describe it, but it was freaking good! We got to see more leaders here, saying more goodbyes when the night ended.
Day 9: Today, we were sightseeing and shopping. We ate lunch at McDonald’s, which made many of us happy because we got to eat “safe” American food at last. Our whole team really wanted one thing from Malaysia to bring home--a popular flip flop called Fippers. We were obsessed! They were just like regular flip flops, but at the same time not at all. We went to a really upscale mall, picking up souvenirs here and there. After this mall, we took the tram to a marketplace that sold more traditional Malaysian souvenirs. At this mall, we each got to experience fish eating the dead skin off our feet. We paid the equivalent of two US dollars for like 15 minutes of giggling and putting our feet in fish. It was so gross! But I do have to admit, my feet were very soft afterwards.
We left the mall and then headed back to PBC for a little while before leaving for the airport. At the church, we were able to debrief with us as a team. We got to encourage and admonish one another, constantly giving God the glory for pulling us through this week and allowing us to be part of His plan.
Once we debriefed, a few of the leaders came in because they had bought us all Fippers! We were so excited and in disbelief because they literally bought 20 pairs of flip flops. We ended up taking lots of pictures with them and extending the inevitable good byes.
We actually got to the airport later than we should have, which resulted in us running through the airport to get where we need to go. It was quite the adventure! But God once again was looking out for us, thankfully not letting us miss our flight back home.
When we were finally on the plane, on the start of our long journey back home, I felt very content and peaceful. God showed up this week, was faithful, and taught me so much about myself. Even though there were moments when I doubted God’s plan, He was gracious enough to let me be a part of it, showing me that I am so loved and valued by Him. I learned firsthand the immense power of God when we actually trust Him to do what He says He will. I saw the beauty of the cross in my life as I taught my workshop; even when I thought I knew it all, God was faithful to keep showing me so much more. Even when I felt inadequate, like I couldn’t teach or communicate with the kids, God overcame my insecurities and blew my mind when I trusted Him.
If you made it all the way to the end, congratulations! I hope you were able to get a taste of what this trip was like for me; so much more than just a week of my summer, it was a life changing experience that taught me more about God, myself, and others. I got to see the universal church at work in Malaysia; believers on both sides of the globe coming together to worship and praise the same God. I pray that just as our team studied and prepared for “Truth Fitness” with a goal to help the students in Malaysia desire to figure out what they believe in, that you would continue to seek answers, seek truth, and ultimately find God. Thank you again for supporting, loving, praying, and ministering to us. This trip would not have been possible if God had not been faithful to provide supporters like y’all.
Day 2: When we arrived in Malaysia, we were all pretty delirious, jet lagged, and exhausted. We arrived at 8 am their time, so we immediately had a long day ahead from the get go. We were able to eat at a local Malaysian cafe located in one of their huge malls for lunch. The food was delicious, and of course my favorite part was the dessert. Afterwards, we got to go back to our hotel and rest for a bit before we met with PBC’s youth leadership team. We went over camp logistics and got to meet some of the youth. Following the meeting, we went out to a nice Chinese restaurant with Uncle Bryan, a church elder that took ridiculously good care of us like his own kids during our stay. We were all pretty out of it by dinner, but it was awesome to get to spend more time with the leadership team.
Day 3: We woke up, packed up our things, and headed to PBC to get on the buses for youth camp. When we arrived, there was already a half day of events planned. We got to meet lots of the kids, began our week of heavy mealtimes, and got a feel of how the camp would go. We discovered very soon that their camp was the super camp of all camps. Everything that you have ever done in camp was all put into this one 4 day period; skits, small groups, games, workshops, free time, challenges. Not going to lie, I was pretty scared when I saw the schedule; I knew it was going to be a tiring but rewarding week. I got to lead my first small group session with my co-leader from PBC, which was extremely nerve wrecking and honestly slightly discouraging. Going into this trip, we had heard that the schooling system in Malaysia was different; that the students were not encouraged to ask questions in class. I knew that it would be hard to stimulate discussion, but I did not anticipate that it would be as hard as it was on this first day. I felt like no one really liked me or cared enough to talk about anything. That was definitely my pride getting to me, my impatience bringing out the worst in me. On top of these feelings, I was extremely stressed about my two workshop sessions that would start the next day. I did not think I was ready at all, and to be honest, I felt like my workshop topic was brushed over by the kids. Comparatively, my workshop did not sound as intense as some of the other ones, such as Sovereignty and Free Will, Pluralism, and Science and Christianity. I felt very inferior compared to the other workshops, like somehow mine was of less importance. Avina, my co-leader for the workshop, and I prayed a lot about this, about trusting in God to guide our words and hearts so that we might be vessels for His work. We still had so much fear, but as you will see, God definitely provided for us in big ways that only He could. By the end of this first day, we all pretty much just passed out from exhaustion; one half day was all it took to take out a good chunk of our energy.
Day 4: This is a clip from my personal journal during the trip. It describes how I felt for the beginning of the day:
“Today is the beginning of the second day of camp--I am feeling tired, frustrated, and weighty. There is a huge weight on my heart right now to plea and get on my knees to beg these students to listen. I feel like there is so much disrespect and lack of desire to learn (they just want fun). I have been at this place before, but from this perspective now, I really want to punch some kids in the face. I want to beg them to listen because their salvation is at stake. I want to tell them that Christianity is so much more than simply believing in Jesus so that they get to go to Heaven. I want to plead for their souls with them, to teach constantly because I know our time is limited. I feel like the teaching never stops, like I am constantly going--which is exactly the point that Paul makes in 2 Timothy. I feel a huge weight on my soul, like the sake of these students is on me. But thank goodness that it isn’t all me--You have already predestined a plan and already know what I do not. Father, thank you for being my comfort and my strength when I feel so week and defeated and upset. Thank goodness you are working in ways that I cannot see or understand.”
This day was the first time that Avina and I taught our workshop. It was extremely scary for both of us, and it did not go as smoothly as we had hoped. Our thoughts were not cohesive, the workshop did not flow as we had hoped, and many of the students were not listening to us. It was frustrating because we had so much to teach them in only an hour and a half, and yet it felt like no one really wanted to truly learn. At the end, Avina and I were both feeling pretty low. Yes, this was our first workshop, but we just felt so defeated. We prayed at the end together, just begging God to help us and guard our hearts from any feelings that we are not good enough and to give us wisdom to teach more effectively tomorrow. We prayed for the students, that they would take their faith seriously enough to want to learn it for themselves, not just play the infamous “church game”
The games were ridiculously exhausting but crazy creative and fun. Although there was allotted “free time”, it was almost always cut short because our group discussions lasted longer than the expected time, and other planned activities seemed to go longer than planned. We had a lot of fun doing everything with our group and such, but there were never any real breaks. God definitely gave us the energy to keep going, because I’m pretty sure we all felt like collapsing after Day 1.
Unfortunately, on this second day of camp people from our team started to get sick. It was probably a combination of the jet lag, adjusting to the food, and most importantly, God humbling us. I personally did not get sick during the whole trip, but i watched as may almost every member of our 11 person team started to drop like flies. God definitely taught our team about our true dependence on Him during everything, and that in all things, we should come back to God in pure worship and praise.
Small group discussion was still rough, but it was getting easier because some people started opening up. I begged God this night to plant a seed in the hearts of these students, that I would not be discouraged by what I physically saw. God sees the heart, and that was what mattered. We did not want to see the kids get a “camp spiritual high”, but rather, a completely life altering realization that they are hopeless without the work of God on the cross, and that THAT is what their whole lives should be about.
Day 5: Today was the second session of our workshops, and I have to say, God definitely showed up. It was such a beautiful thing to be teaching, but yet not know how all of the ideas and explanations flowed so well because God exceeded what we expected. Avina and I were
trying to study more and prepare more for this 2nd workshop, but we realized that we truly had to trust God to take care of us and guide us. We knew we were relying too much on our own abilities, which would ultimately lead to nowhere good. Here is a clip from my journal regarding how the workshop went:
“On the second day, God definitely showed up. Our ideas were a lot clearer, people weren’t messing around, and we could tell that people really wanted to learn. I felt so empowered by God to teach the Gospel in all parts of the workshop, and God truly provided. I definitely was not speaking--all the credit goes to God. The change from the 1st day to the 2nd was so radical--I really saw how powerful prayer was and how God really comes through when I put all my trust in Him.”
Day 6: This was the last day of youth camp, and it was definitely bittersweet. We were all kind of ready for it to end, especially since many of us were sick, but I felt like there was more teaching to be done. But what we had to remember was that we were not here to teach the students EVERYTHING about theology, doctrine, etc, but rather, we were here to support the PBC leadership in their ministry. We were never going to be able to teach everything, not matter how hard we pushed on. This realization gave me so much comfort and peace on that last day; that we were part of a bigger plan beyond these 4 days of camp. In my journal I summed up how I felt on that last day:
“I’ve really learned a lot more about how to do youth ministry--the dos and don’ts. The culture here is so different than at home--the way people interact, the humor, the characters, the way people treat one another. Despite our differences, I really grew to truly love the kids here. There were people that wanted to just have fun here, and that was okay, but there were also a handful of people that really wanted to know God more. God was faithful to provide this week even though there were times when I was discouraged and doubted His power. I felt a huge burden on my soul, a huge weight on my back because I was so in sync with God’s heart this week. I desperately want these students here to know God; not just know about Him, but have a true relationship with Him. My heart breaks for them when I see that they could have so much more than what their hearts are settling for--they could have Jesus Christ, our only true satisfaction. My heart is breaking for God’s children--they desperately need God--they are playing the church game just like I was in Middle school/high school. Life is so much more than this for them. I love and feel for them. Sessions were hard because people did not seem to care, but I know that God was at work despite what I saw. When I got frustrated, God humbled me and helped me love the students so much better.”
When we got back from the campsite, we experienced a true Malaysian rain. It rained super hard as we all were trying to get out of the bus--crazy! After we returned to the hotel and rested for a bit, we went out to dinner with Keith Chan’s parents who brought us to a delicious seafood restaurant. If you haven’t noticed, Malaysian people love food, even more than Chinese people--we ate such filling meals whenever we were taken out! So blessed :) And of course, after finally returning to the hotel, we all passed out.
Day 8: We went to Youth Service at PBC where Chris and Aly led worship and Justin gave the sermon to wrap up youth camp. Afterwards, everyone from our team split up to go visit various Sunday school classes. I went to the 16 year olds class, and in the class we basically talked about what we learned at camp (because some students did not go). It was a cool picture of the body of Christ teaching one another things about predestination, science, etc. After Sunday school, we went to a local restaurant where many of the youth came to fellowship with us and say their goodbyes, for we would be leaving the next day when they all started school. I ate some delicious noodles of which I don’t know the name of, but I got to sit with some hilarious people that shared their lives with me for that short 2 hours. Our team literally had to be pulled out of the restaurant when our rides beckoned us to go; lots of hugs goodbye. We rested at the hotel for a bit, then headed out again for a leaders training at the church. I was in the group of college students/ youth, and we got to give our perspectives on church discipline, bible study, and other topics that the leaders had questions about. It was crazy getting to teach older leaders, but it was such a powerful testament of what the body of Christ is supposed to look like. After this, we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant in a popular mall. We were told not to eat too much, for they planned to bring us out afterwards for another snack--Crazy! The food was great, I ordered Dim Sum dishes and shared with my table. I did not listen, because I was so stuffed after the meal. For dessert, we got this thing that was like 3 feet tall and had a tissue like texture; I can’t describe it, but it was freaking good! We got to see more leaders here, saying more goodbyes when the night ended.
Day 9: Today, we were sightseeing and shopping. We ate lunch at McDonald’s, which made many of us happy because we got to eat “safe” American food at last. Our whole team really wanted one thing from Malaysia to bring home--a popular flip flop called Fippers. We were obsessed! They were just like regular flip flops, but at the same time not at all. We went to a really upscale mall, picking up souvenirs here and there. After this mall, we took the tram to a marketplace that sold more traditional Malaysian souvenirs. At this mall, we each got to experience fish eating the dead skin off our feet. We paid the equivalent of two US dollars for like 15 minutes of giggling and putting our feet in fish. It was so gross! But I do have to admit, my feet were very soft afterwards.
We left the mall and then headed back to PBC for a little while before leaving for the airport. At the church, we were able to debrief with us as a team. We got to encourage and admonish one another, constantly giving God the glory for pulling us through this week and allowing us to be part of His plan.
Once we debriefed, a few of the leaders came in because they had bought us all Fippers! We were so excited and in disbelief because they literally bought 20 pairs of flip flops. We ended up taking lots of pictures with them and extending the inevitable good byes.
We actually got to the airport later than we should have, which resulted in us running through the airport to get where we need to go. It was quite the adventure! But God once again was looking out for us, thankfully not letting us miss our flight back home.
When we were finally on the plane, on the start of our long journey back home, I felt very content and peaceful. God showed up this week, was faithful, and taught me so much about myself. Even though there were moments when I doubted God’s plan, He was gracious enough to let me be a part of it, showing me that I am so loved and valued by Him. I learned firsthand the immense power of God when we actually trust Him to do what He says He will. I saw the beauty of the cross in my life as I taught my workshop; even when I thought I knew it all, God was faithful to keep showing me so much more. Even when I felt inadequate, like I couldn’t teach or communicate with the kids, God overcame my insecurities and blew my mind when I trusted Him.
If you made it all the way to the end, congratulations! I hope you were able to get a taste of what this trip was like for me; so much more than just a week of my summer, it was a life changing experience that taught me more about God, myself, and others. I got to see the universal church at work in Malaysia; believers on both sides of the globe coming together to worship and praise the same God. I pray that just as our team studied and prepared for “Truth Fitness” with a goal to help the students in Malaysia desire to figure out what they believe in, that you would continue to seek answers, seek truth, and ultimately find God. Thank you again for supporting, loving, praying, and ministering to us. This trip would not have been possible if God had not been faithful to provide supporters like y’all.
In Christ,
Erica
Erica
No comments:
Post a Comment