Well it's been about a month since I posted anything, so I'm a little overdue. Things have been going great lately. It was a battle, and there were some sleepless nights, but we got through the Pentateuch, and it was awesome. We're now in the promised land and through the time of the judges, and we're just started on 1&2 Samuel. It has been an amazing journey seeing God's faithfulness and grace throughout the early history of Israel, even though the people were not faithful at all for the most part. It's also been pretty amazing to see how God was always never only for Israel, but chose them to reveal Himself to the world so that everybody had a chance to choose Him. It's so easy to forget the fact that a mixed multitude came out with the Israelites, that God used Rahab, a pagan prostitute who was accepted and lived with Israel after she helped the spies in Jericho, and that Ruth, a woman that had an entire book written about her and named after her, was a Moabite. My whole life I always thought that God only chose the Israelites and that all the other nations were screwed, but it's been awesome to finally look at it and realized that God used Israel so that the other nations would see that He was God and to draw the other nations to Him, only they didn't listen for the most part and continued to live in their wicked ways, which led to destruction. This term has been extremely busy and difficult, but it has been absolutely amazing and I can't wait for what the next 3 weeks hold with Samuel, Kings and Chronicles.
Something that God has really been speaking to me about the last little while has been my own insecurities. He's really been showing me my insecurities about my future ministry, as well as my insecurities about hearing His voice. In Joshua I was so amazed with Joshua's faith in God and in his ability to do amazing things through God. Joshua was thrust into a leadership position with HUGE shoes to fill, and rather than focusing on his weaknesses, he was strong and courageous (a command he gets from God a few times and then the people when he is being commissioned to lead), and had faith that God would fight for him and he walked in that faith. This really spoke to me and showed me the kind of faith that I need to have and how I sometimes focus on my weaknesses and my insecurities when thinking about the future and about what God's calling me to do rather than focusing on His power and His ability to do amazing things through me. This helped me realize that I had kinda been talking myself out of doing the Titus Project outreach after SBS because of my insecurity when it comes to teaching the bible, and had forgotten about my desire to do it and the call I had from God to do it from the very beginning (more on that later).
When we were doing Judges, the story of Gideon really spoke to me. When God raises up Gideon to lead the people, several times Gideon asks God to confirm and reconfirm that He is with him, and at first when you read it, it's easy to shake your head at Gideon and think he's foolish for wanting to test God so much when He had already spoken to him and told him that He was with him. As I read it and studied it, it made me realize how we are so similar and we do the exact same thing, we're just blessed that nobody is writing down what we do. It showed me how I always want so much confirmation from God before I do something rather than just trusting in His voice and having faith that I'm hearing Him, and doing what He's told me to do. This kinda showed me how I had lost confidence in my ability to hear His voice and that led to me looking for so many confirmations rather than just stepping out in what I believe He's telling me to do and to have faith that if I'm not doing what He wants me to do, He'll show me and redirect me back to His plan for me. This lack of confidence didn't just affect my being able to follow His guidance, but also affected my faith that He would bring me a wife at some point and that I would be able to have a successful relationship when He brought her along to me. During DTS I a speaker at our base meeting gave me a word that God wanted to restore my confidence in hearing Him that I lost through my broken relationships, and God reminded me of this and showed me that I had lost this confidence because of my past mistakes and how I had thought I was following Him in the past, only to have everything blow up in my face.
Through all this, God's really been showing me that I need to have faith in Him and lay down my wounds and my fears and everything at His feet and trust that He will lead and guide me and will bless me. I need to realize that the mistakes that I made in the past wasn't because I wasn't listening to Him or wasn't hearing Him right, but was more that I stopped listening to Him and that through the hard times He was teaching me and forming me into the man that I've become. He showed me that if I'm following Him and have a heart that only wants to do what He wants and not what I want, then He will give me the desires of my heart and that I can't go wrong. As long as I continue to seek after Him with all my heart, He will lead me and will correct my path if I start to stray. This is something that I'm going to continue to pray into, and if you all could be praying for me as well, I'd appreciate it.
So through all of this, God has really been giving me an amazing vision for the future, and has really showed me what I believe He is calling me to do for the next couple years or so. After God showed me that I was being stupid and just being insecure about doing Titus, I realized that I definitely need to do Titus and that it will be an amazing opportunity to travel to more countries and to give people a chance to learn the bible and to get a greater understanding of who God is.
Since most of you don't know what Titus is, I'll give a quick overview for you. The Titus Project was started by a woman that is actually on our base as an outreach program for after SBS. It consists of a one month school where we'll learn basically how to teach the bible effectively, and learn how to create sermons and teachings. Then we'll go on a two month outreach to go to teach pastors and church workers about the bible. This is an amazing opportunity for both us and them because the lack of biblical knowledge is a huge need in the developing church (one of the things that led to the starting of the Titus Project was a woman went and did a sermon in a church in a developing country and the pastor came to her and said that they loved her sermon, but his only question was who King David was). So this is going to be an amazing way to apply the things that I've learned during my 9 months in SBS and to gain some valuable practice and teaching on how to teach the bible and how to write sermons. It will also be an awesome way to give out what I've learned and to use it to bless others. (For more info, check out the website http://ywamtaipei.com/us/training/titus.html)
After Titus I'm planning on going to Thailand for a few weeks to connect with the YWAM base in Thailand as well as to go down to southern Thailand to see the climbing community and to learn a little bit about the area around Railay and Tonsai beaches. The reason I want to go there is that Thailand is a place that has always had a place in my heart, and I really believe that God has spoken to me about using rock climbing for His glory and that southern Thailand may be the place that He brings me to in the future to do that. It will also be an awesome opportunity to reach out to some travelers (since that who God has really given me a heart for), and will also be a nice and much needed break after such a long stretch doing DTS, SBS and Titus all in about a year and a half.
After that I will come home and hopefully get a job and work for 4 months so that I can reconnect with people back home and make some money to use for my next step, which I believe will take me back to New Zealand. I've been in contact with a YWAM base down in Oxford, New Zealand, and they offer a backpackers DTS that I really feel God is calling me to staff. They focus on using things like camping, hiking and rock climbing, as well as staying in hostels and doing the more European type backpacking, to reach out to the travelers that flock to NZ in the summer months. After reading their website and talking with them a little, it really seems like their heart is very similar to mine, so in September (2012) I plan to go down there and staff there for at least a couple years both in their backpackers DTS and in their Biblical Core Course, which is basically a 3 month version of the School of Biblical Studies that I'm doing. This will keep me busy for most of the year, but will also give me a chance to come home and visit in the summer. (For more info on the backpackers DTS and YWAM Oxford, check out the website http://www.ywamoxford.org/backpackers/)
So, it's definitely been a great last month, and sorry that this ended up being such a long post. Please continue to keep me in your prayers that God will continue to speak to me and continue to give me the strength to continue going strong in SBS. Please also be praying for me about finances. Right now I will have more than enough to finish SBS, but I won't have enough to pay for Titus. Because of outreach costs, Titus will cost between $2500-$3000, and as it stands now with the regular support I get, I will only have about $1000, so please be praying that God will bring in some more supporters (ideally regular supporters, but I'll take whatever I can get), and if you're willing, please pray and ask God if you are supposed to support me at this time.
One last thing I forgot to mention, I will be coming home for Christmas this year! Unfortunately it will only be for about 2 weeks, but my Mom gave up an opportunity to come down to Taiwan to visit me so that I could come home for Christmas instead. So hopefully I can see some of you while I'm home (even though it's a busy time).
Love you and miss you all, and I pray that God is blessing you all wherever He has you.
Prayer Requests
Something that God has really been speaking to me about the last little while has been my own insecurities. He's really been showing me my insecurities about my future ministry, as well as my insecurities about hearing His voice. In Joshua I was so amazed with Joshua's faith in God and in his ability to do amazing things through God. Joshua was thrust into a leadership position with HUGE shoes to fill, and rather than focusing on his weaknesses, he was strong and courageous (a command he gets from God a few times and then the people when he is being commissioned to lead), and had faith that God would fight for him and he walked in that faith. This really spoke to me and showed me the kind of faith that I need to have and how I sometimes focus on my weaknesses and my insecurities when thinking about the future and about what God's calling me to do rather than focusing on His power and His ability to do amazing things through me. This helped me realize that I had kinda been talking myself out of doing the Titus Project outreach after SBS because of my insecurity when it comes to teaching the bible, and had forgotten about my desire to do it and the call I had from God to do it from the very beginning (more on that later).
When we were doing Judges, the story of Gideon really spoke to me. When God raises up Gideon to lead the people, several times Gideon asks God to confirm and reconfirm that He is with him, and at first when you read it, it's easy to shake your head at Gideon and think he's foolish for wanting to test God so much when He had already spoken to him and told him that He was with him. As I read it and studied it, it made me realize how we are so similar and we do the exact same thing, we're just blessed that nobody is writing down what we do. It showed me how I always want so much confirmation from God before I do something rather than just trusting in His voice and having faith that I'm hearing Him, and doing what He's told me to do. This kinda showed me how I had lost confidence in my ability to hear His voice and that led to me looking for so many confirmations rather than just stepping out in what I believe He's telling me to do and to have faith that if I'm not doing what He wants me to do, He'll show me and redirect me back to His plan for me. This lack of confidence didn't just affect my being able to follow His guidance, but also affected my faith that He would bring me a wife at some point and that I would be able to have a successful relationship when He brought her along to me. During DTS I a speaker at our base meeting gave me a word that God wanted to restore my confidence in hearing Him that I lost through my broken relationships, and God reminded me of this and showed me that I had lost this confidence because of my past mistakes and how I had thought I was following Him in the past, only to have everything blow up in my face.
Through all this, God's really been showing me that I need to have faith in Him and lay down my wounds and my fears and everything at His feet and trust that He will lead and guide me and will bless me. I need to realize that the mistakes that I made in the past wasn't because I wasn't listening to Him or wasn't hearing Him right, but was more that I stopped listening to Him and that through the hard times He was teaching me and forming me into the man that I've become. He showed me that if I'm following Him and have a heart that only wants to do what He wants and not what I want, then He will give me the desires of my heart and that I can't go wrong. As long as I continue to seek after Him with all my heart, He will lead me and will correct my path if I start to stray. This is something that I'm going to continue to pray into, and if you all could be praying for me as well, I'd appreciate it.
So through all of this, God has really been giving me an amazing vision for the future, and has really showed me what I believe He is calling me to do for the next couple years or so. After God showed me that I was being stupid and just being insecure about doing Titus, I realized that I definitely need to do Titus and that it will be an amazing opportunity to travel to more countries and to give people a chance to learn the bible and to get a greater understanding of who God is.
Since most of you don't know what Titus is, I'll give a quick overview for you. The Titus Project was started by a woman that is actually on our base as an outreach program for after SBS. It consists of a one month school where we'll learn basically how to teach the bible effectively, and learn how to create sermons and teachings. Then we'll go on a two month outreach to go to teach pastors and church workers about the bible. This is an amazing opportunity for both us and them because the lack of biblical knowledge is a huge need in the developing church (one of the things that led to the starting of the Titus Project was a woman went and did a sermon in a church in a developing country and the pastor came to her and said that they loved her sermon, but his only question was who King David was). So this is going to be an amazing way to apply the things that I've learned during my 9 months in SBS and to gain some valuable practice and teaching on how to teach the bible and how to write sermons. It will also be an awesome way to give out what I've learned and to use it to bless others. (For more info, check out the website http://ywamtaipei.com/us/training/titus.html)
After Titus I'm planning on going to Thailand for a few weeks to connect with the YWAM base in Thailand as well as to go down to southern Thailand to see the climbing community and to learn a little bit about the area around Railay and Tonsai beaches. The reason I want to go there is that Thailand is a place that has always had a place in my heart, and I really believe that God has spoken to me about using rock climbing for His glory and that southern Thailand may be the place that He brings me to in the future to do that. It will also be an awesome opportunity to reach out to some travelers (since that who God has really given me a heart for), and will also be a nice and much needed break after such a long stretch doing DTS, SBS and Titus all in about a year and a half.
After that I will come home and hopefully get a job and work for 4 months so that I can reconnect with people back home and make some money to use for my next step, which I believe will take me back to New Zealand. I've been in contact with a YWAM base down in Oxford, New Zealand, and they offer a backpackers DTS that I really feel God is calling me to staff. They focus on using things like camping, hiking and rock climbing, as well as staying in hostels and doing the more European type backpacking, to reach out to the travelers that flock to NZ in the summer months. After reading their website and talking with them a little, it really seems like their heart is very similar to mine, so in September (2012) I plan to go down there and staff there for at least a couple years both in their backpackers DTS and in their Biblical Core Course, which is basically a 3 month version of the School of Biblical Studies that I'm doing. This will keep me busy for most of the year, but will also give me a chance to come home and visit in the summer. (For more info on the backpackers DTS and YWAM Oxford, check out the website http://www.ywamoxford.org/backpackers/)
So, it's definitely been a great last month, and sorry that this ended up being such a long post. Please continue to keep me in your prayers that God will continue to speak to me and continue to give me the strength to continue going strong in SBS. Please also be praying for me about finances. Right now I will have more than enough to finish SBS, but I won't have enough to pay for Titus. Because of outreach costs, Titus will cost between $2500-$3000, and as it stands now with the regular support I get, I will only have about $1000, so please be praying that God will bring in some more supporters (ideally regular supporters, but I'll take whatever I can get), and if you're willing, please pray and ask God if you are supposed to support me at this time.
One last thing I forgot to mention, I will be coming home for Christmas this year! Unfortunately it will only be for about 2 weeks, but my Mom gave up an opportunity to come down to Taiwan to visit me so that I could come home for Christmas instead. So hopefully I can see some of you while I'm home (even though it's a busy time).
Love you and miss you all, and I pray that God is blessing you all wherever He has you.
Prayer Requests
- That God will continue to speak to me and my classmates as we study His word and that we won't let it just become an academic exercise
- That God will continue to give me confidence in hearing His voice
- For finances for all the people in my class that are struggling to pay for their tuition and for their food
- That God will provide the finances I need to do Titus
- That my entire class will have the strength to finish this quarter strong (it's going to be busy)
- Praise Him for how He's working in my life and speaking to me and for giving me His vision for my future
