Almost half way through, and loving it even more!

Well, it's been a couple weeks since I've written, so I guess I'm a little overdue. I guess maybe a post every other week is a bit more of a realistic goal.

Things here have been great these last couple weeks. It's been awesome going back to the beginning of it all in Genesis and Exodus and seeing how God's promises continued through the generations. It's really been interesting reading about Israel growing as a nation and has made me realize how, even though we hate to admit it, we can be really similar to them. We, or at least I, always look at Israel after they come out of Egypt and always think, "How can you guys be so stupid?" when I see them grumbling and not having faith and turning away from God, but how often do we in our lives do the exact same thing? I know, they've just seen God do some amazing things and have no reason to doubt God, but when you think about it, they're a people who have been living in slavery all their life and haven't really had much to believe in about God other than some stories about their ancestors. Not to mention the Egyptian gods, who don't care about man and definitely aren't trust worthy, who have formed their mindset about what God would be like, so it's kinda understandable that they would have some trust issues with this God that has allowed them to be in slavery for hundreds of years. Meanwhile, I've grown up in a Christian family and know all about the character and nature of God and have seen Him do some awesome things in my life and in providing for me, yet I still have a hard time trusting Him sometimes about finances and about Him providing for me as I follow Him. I'm doing the exact same thing that the Israelites were doing, just in a different way and in a completely different situation. It's really interesting when you step outside the situation and really think about it.

Anyways, it's definitely been an interesting journey these last couple weeks, and I can't wait to continue it with Leviticus this week. We started it at the end of this week and are through our first few reads, and the more I read it, the more excited I get about it. I know this may sound crazy to those of you who have read it before, I mean, all it is is a bunch of laws, but it's the message behind them that's the exciting part about it. All of the laws that God gave them wasn't just so that they would live a certain way and act the way that God wanted them to do, but they were all put in place to protect the Israelites from disease, falling into the wickedness around them, to prevent any sort of idolatry or pagan worship, etc. The laws on their own can be a bit dry, but when you start to see the heart of God behind the laws, that's when it gets really exciting, and I haven't even really started digging into it and haven't had a lecture to understand the laws better yet.

I must admit that things were getting a little dry for me when we were getting close to the end of the New Testament, but since I've really gotten re-focused these last couple weeks after God smacked me around in Revelation, it's been awesome! I've definitely gotten a new found joy in doing my work, even when I stay up all night doing it (pulled an all-nighter the last 3 books.....oops), and the further we get into the Old Testament, the more excited I get. It's definitely like nothing I've experienced before when I read the bible. It's amazing how much God has shown me that when I read my bible before I never really got the point of it, but now that I'm actually understanding that it wasn't written for me but was written for people who lived thousands of years ago and am starting to look at it from their mindset, even the most dry books just come alive!! Please be praying that this continues the deeper we get into the OT.

Other than school work, things have been pretty awesome here. I just celebrated my first birthday away from Canada. It was a little strange, and to be honest, a little tough at times leading up to it cause it kinda made me suffer from a little bit of homesickness (first time yet really, so not too bad), but it was still an awesome time and I was able to skype with my family and some friends, which was definitely a blessing and helped. A really exciting thing for me is that I've found a bouldering rock climbing wall in a park in Taipei that's free to use, and pretty legit too. It's amazing. It's really helping me enjoy being in Taiwan that much more, and although my hands were like little girls so they are pretty torn up right now, it's been awesome. I'm planning on going pretty much every Sabbath, since it's only about 1hr away using the public transit, and it's a nice way to get out of Dan Shui and just spend some time in the outdoors since I'm inside basically all week, and it's rock climbing, which I missed terribly.

Anyways, it's getting late here, so I should head to bed, just wanted to send you all a quick update first. I hope you guys are all doing fantastic back home and that God is blessing you all. Please be keeping me in your prayers, it means so much to me knowing that people are praying for me back home.

God bless.


Prayer Requests

• That God will continue to refresh me and to be speaking to me through the Old Testament
• That God will be speaking to and empowering our staff as they teach us
• That God will be with our school leader Lachlan as he goes home to South Africa for a couple weeks
• That I will be able to connect with some of the rock climbers here and that I will be able to build relationship with them and share the gospel with them
• That God will be working through our surf ministry and that He'll be giving Chris His vision for what they are doing and how He wants them to reach the surfing community in Taiwan
• For Taiwan in general that God will be breaking down the barriers to Christianity here so that they can be freed from the bondage of their ancestor worship
• That God will be protecting our school from sickness (a lot of people still getting sick, but nobody's been to the hospital lately - Praise God)
• That God will just really be blessing our entire school and that we'd all be giving Him our 100%

Getting refreshed with a new start in the Old (Testament that is)

Hey everybody, hope you're all doing great! Things are going awesome over here. We've now finished the New Testament and have gone from the end (Revelation) all the way to the beginning of it all (Genesis). I has been an interesting week and a half since I last posted, and God has been teaching me some lessons and has refreshed me and given me a renewed zeal to study His Word through them.

Revelation was an amazing book, but was a difficult one for me. We had a lot of time to do Revelation, and because of that I did exactly what I didn't want to do, I slacked off....a lot. But God is good, and He taught me heaps through it, and was faithful to help me out of the hole I dug for myself after I repented and laid myself at His feet again. It was amazing going through Revelation and seeing it in a new light and realizing how wrong I had been in how I had looked at it before. Going through the bible this way has made me realize how silly it is to try and just take the things written in the context of our culture instead of focusing on what it meant to the original reader, and showed me that I have always done that with Revelation, which led me to not understand it at all and just get confused and avoid it. Through studying it this time I was able to see how it is basically a rallying call to the Christians  to continue to persevere through the persecution and suffering that they were experiencing (most likely under Domitian) because Jesus is victorious and we get to join in His victory (it actually says twice "Here is a call for the endurance of the saints" - 13:10; 14:12 ESV). It was an awesome experience to get a better understanding on one of the most misunderstood books of the bible, even if it wasn't the easiest book to get through.

If you've been reading my recent posts you know that I I've been thinking a lot about the future lately, and that I strongly feel like God wants to use my passions for rock climbing and the outdoors for His glory. This is amazing news and is really exciting, but it was because of this that I got myself into a hole with Revelation. I had been thinking about the future so much and starting to look at rock climbing websites and videos so much that I started to lose focus on what God was doing in my life NOW. I was starting to focus so much on the future that I wasn't giving my all to SBS and was starting to look at it as a stepping stone or something I had to get through before I could go onto bigger and better things.

Thankfully, God is faithful and last Sunday He showed me how I was doing this when I was slacking off instead of working since I had pretty much taken Saturday as my Sabbath because I had surf ministry last weekend. God really convicted me about how much I had been paying attention to rock climbing and was showing me that I was even starting to covet rock climbing and was starting to wish I was already done SBS just so I could be rock climbing. So that night I spent some time praying and humbling myself on my knees before Him and repented of how I had let rock climbing almost become an idol to me by focusing on it too much.

The next morning at base meeting one of our base staff, Martin, spoke about giving God our first fruits and giving God our current situation and being 100% where He had put us. This spoke directly to my heart and completely connected with what God had been speaking to me the night before. This really helped me realize that I had been focusing on the future so much that I was completely missing out on the present and was missing out on the amazing gift that God has given me in allowing me to do SBS and study His Word as a full time job. This definitely refocused me, and really humbled me and helped me to get back on my knees at His feet and admit that I was weak and needed His help to finish the work that I had to do.

With His help I was able to finish Revelation, even though I had to pull an all-nighter. He definitely gave me strength when I was weak and enabled me to get it done on time and still be able to do my outloud read for Genesis and study for our test on the entire New Testament the next day, which I did great on. Praise God.

Through this experience God really showed me how He is faithful to help us, even when we mess up and dig ourselves into a hole because of our own stupidity. He also showed me that I really need to stop thinking and praying about the future for now and just trust Him that He will bring it together in His timing, and to really focus on the amazing gift that He is giving me over the next 5 months in SBS.

Because of all of this, I've decided that I'm not going to pray about the future until the end of this term, and am going to try not to even think about it until then. That will still give me enough time to figure out if I'm going to do Titus Project (http://www.ywamtaiwan.org/us/training/titus.html) after SBS before the deadline to apply, and will help me to stay focused on what I'm here to do. I've also realized that I need to not allow rock climbing to distract me from the work that I'm doing, so I'm going to limit myself to not looking at any rock climbing websites or videos or anything except on my Sabbath. I know that this may sound kinda silly to some people, but God has really reminded me through this how easily I can get consumed by my passions and how I tend to have a hard time waiting to get the things that I want. These are things that I have always struggled with and that I need to continue to give to God and to look to Him for strength in.

Through all of this I have really been refreshed and have gotten excited again about studying the bible, especially with us starting the Old Testament. I can't wait to see how everything connects to the New Testament, and I'm already starting to see how God had a plan from the very beginning to redeem us and that the bible is just one big love story between God and the people who didn't deserve and often didn't even appreciate the love that He gave them. It has also just been an awesome change to get into some stories and narrative since the New Testament started to get a little repetitive by the end of it since as you study it more closely you can see how it is basically just telling us about God's love and about how we need to show that love by putting others first over and over again. It has been an amazing gift so far being able to understand the bible so much better, and I'm so excited to see what else God has for me through the rest of my time here.

As I mentioned earlier, I am now doing surf ministry with a couple guys from our base that head up Christian Surfers Taiwan. I go for 6 hours every other week, and last week was my first week. Unfortunately there was basically no surf, but we had an amazing time hanging out with some Taiwanese people and I was able to meet a couple really awesome Taiwanese and spent the day just hanging out with them and showing the love of Jesus to the people we came across at the beach and the surf shop. I'm really excited to be a part of this ministry and to learn more from Chris and Zack about how they use their passion for surfing to spread the gospel, since this is something that God has put on my heart to do with rock climbing. It's also just an amazing atmosphere to meet some Taiwanese people that may not have ever heard the gospel or even met any Christians before, and show them God's love through friendship and fellowship. Chris has made some amazing relationships with the surfers here over the last few years, and I'm blessed and excited to be a part of it.

This week we're studying Genesis all week. We started it on Wednesday, and have had 1 lecture so far and still have 3 more to go. This is a really big book and is done a little differently than we did the New Testament, so please be praying that God will help me to get through it and will help me adjust to the new style of charting and the new style of writing too.

I hope you are all having a great summer back home, and thanks so much for spending the time to read my blog. It really means a lot to me. I love you and miss you all.

God bless,

Matt

Prayer Requests:

• That God will help me to stay focused on what He has for me now and that He will be speaking to me through my studies
• That I won't get overwhelmed by the size of the books in the OT, especially since we go through them really quickly
• That I will adjust well to the change from the NT to the OT
• That I will make good connections with people and will show God's love to the people I meet in surf ministry and throughout my time in Taiwan
• That I will continue to focus on God and to be willing to learn everything that He wants to teach me through this time
• For my Grandpa who just had open heart surgery that he will have a quick and full recovery (and thanks that he was able to get in so quickly)
• That God will comfort me when I'm missing home or feeling lonely
• That God will be empowering and leading our staff as they help us through SBS and teach the different books (for the schedule of what books were studying, see my last post)

A little overdue for an update

Well I just realized that it's been almost 2 weeks since I last wrote an update, so I figured I should probably let you guys know how things are going.

The last couple weeks have been pretty good, but really busy as well (of course). The rest of the break was a great time, and God really reenergized me and really spoke to me and showed me how He has been speaking to me and continued to motivate me to spend more time with Him in prayer. After the break we started up hitting the ground running with the gospel of John, which was difficult because we only had 1 week to do it, and unlike most books where we work on the Saturday to get started on the book, we didn't start any of the work until Monday morning, which made me feel like I was behind from the beginning. I also had some struggles with getting my mind back in to charting mode after the break and had some kinda unproductive days, which led to me getting really behind and having to have a HUGELY productive day from Friday to Saturday. This was a little draining and killed me a little, but in the end, I think it was a bit of a blessing because it showed me how I can pound out a ton of charts in a day, which has given me confidence for the Old Testament. This is really good because I was a little worried and intimidated about the Old Testament because how big the books are and because of how quickly we move through books (I'll post our schedule at the end of my post, it's INSANE, but it's gonna be AWESOME!!!).

We just finished 1 John on Tuesday morning and since 2 and 3 John are both so small we did something a little different for them and rather than charting the books we had to prepare a small 20 minute sermon from a passage in one of the books. It was a lot of fun and was a great change from charting. We were able to choose a hypothetical audience and had to write a sermon to meet a need that they would have. For my sermon I decided to speak from 3 John vs5-8, chose my audience to be DTS students, and spoke on the subject of supporting missionaries and asking for support. This is obviously something that is close to my heart since I've been praying about support, which made it pretty easy to speak for 20 minutes about it. I basically gave the biblical basis of supporting missionaries, then spoke about being obedient and diligent in raising support and finished it off with a bit of application, like writing a letter to share with people what God is calling you to do and asking them to partner with you in it. It was a fun experience and I was able to get some good pointers and constructive criticism out of it. It really showed me how much I want to spend some time staffing some DTSs and discipling younger people in living their lives for God, even if I wasn't actually speaking to an actual DTS.

We're now just starting on Revelation, which is going to be a huge and heavy book, but I'm pretty excited for it. I've just read it the first time through today and am about to do my colour code and read it again and I'm already realizing that I have no idea what it all means, but am super excited to dig into this and try to get a better understanding of the revelation that John had. So please be praying that God will speak to me through this book and will give me a revelation (haha) of what it all means and what it means to me in my life.

Other than that, there's nothing too exciting going on, which is probably a good thing since it means things are getting better. My Grandpa just had open heart surgery yesterday, so please be praying for him for a quick recovery. The surgery was a complete success with no complications, so hopefully that stays the same with the recovery process and he's able to get around better after he recovers. Also, we had 3 people leave SBS at the end of the break, my buddy Breno that I mentioned last post, and a couple named Calvin and Camille, who were also good friends. They've all gone over to the Kona YWAM base, so please be praying for them that their transition will go smoothly and that God will be using them mightily there. This has also been difficult for our staff because it's always difficult to have students leave the school, so please be praying for them as well that God will be affirming them and that He will be speaking to them and filling them so that they can pour into us, especially in this difficult term that we have ahead of us.

Finally, I also want to mention that my friends Jari and Tanya Koivu who work with YWAM Alternatives Network in Toronto are preparing for a Supernatural Ministry DTS, which starts in September, so please be praying for them that God will be sending them the staff and students that they need and that God will bless the school and will use the school to touch many lives. If you want any more information or if you or someone you know may be interested in the school, either as staff or students because I know they have room for both, check out their website at http://www.ywamalt.net/dts/dts-overview.

I hope you are all doing great. I love and miss you all. Also, I don't think I've mentioned this before, but it looks like I'll be home at least for a few weeks, or maybe even longer, at Christmas, so hopefully I can connect with some of you then. Thank you so much for reading my blog, your prayers mean so much to me, and if you ever have any questions or just want to say hello, feel free to email me at stelps1@gmail.com. It may take me a little while to get back to you, but it's always great to hear from people back home and I definitely will get back to you.

God bless

Prayer Requests

• That my Grandpa will recover well from his heart surgery
• That Breno, Calvin and Camille will have a smooth transition to the Kona base
• That God will continue to speak to me through my work and will continue to change me into the man that He created me to be
• For Jari and Tanya and the school that they are preparing for
• That God will continue to send people to support me (and praise Him for sending some support since my last post!!!!)
• For our staff that God will continue to bless them and fill them up and equip them to be a blessing to us
• That God will help all of us to be able to understand Revelation and that God will be speaking to us through it

Schedule

Here's the schedule for the second quarter, in case you're interested. It would definitely be appreciated if you could all be praying for us as we finish the different books and for the speakers that will be teaching them to us.

• July 7-13 - Revelation
• July 15-23 - Genesis
• July 23-29 - Exodus
• July 29-Aug 4 - Leviticus
• Aug 4-9 - Numbers
• Aug 9-16 - Deuteronomy
• Aug 16-20 - Joshua
• Aug 20-25 - Judges
• Aug 25-27 - Ruth
• Aug 27-Sept 5 - 1&2 Samuel
• Sept 5-12 - 1&2 Kings
• Sept 12-16 - 1&2 Chronicles
• Sept 19-23 - BREAK!!!!!!!!!

Taking a break and spending time with God

Hello everybody!

I hope you are all doing fantastic! Things here are great. We have just finished our first term of SBS, and are on our week long break that has been very refreshing so far. I was able to get out camping for a night, which was brutally hot and I ended up sleeping outside on a picnic table, but gave me a chance to spend some time at the beach with some friends and we had an amazing time. The rest of the break so far has just been relaxing, spending time with my classmates and enjoying each other's company and fellowship, and really trying to spend some time connecting with God.

I've really found it difficult connecting with God on a deep level since I've been here and my prayer and worship and study times have been a little dry. I've struggled with making my studies into a homework assignment and just trying to get through books, which is difficult because we are so crazy busy and always moving, and have really been trying to hear God through His word. It's great to get the head knowledge of the bible, but the real reason I'm doing this is so that God can continue to make me into the man He created me to be. So I've really been trying to seek God and really see how I can connect with Him more deeply and personally and to really be seeking Him through my work. So far the time I've been spending with Him has been great. I've been reading Can you hear me? by Brad Jersak, which is a great book on hearing God that I started reading a while ago, but never finished, and have just been spending time each day praying and worshipping Him. It's been great kinda saying alright God, I want to hear you like I used to so lets get back to the basics, which is also kinda humbling for me too since I used to hear God pretty well and may have taken that for granted.

Other than that, I'm just really reflecting on first term and really focusing on getting reenergized for our second term, which I've heard is the toughest term of SBS. First term was an amazing time and even though my studies did seem a little dry and trivial at time, I did feel God speaking to me and changing me and doing work in me, and I can't wait to see what else He has in store. I have been able to make some great connections with people here, despite being so busy, and have really been forging great friendships with people and have been able to enjoy living my life here, even if it is crazy sometimes and I struggle with the language.

Something that has been really tough for me is that my best friend that I've made here, Breno, who I've spent a lot of time in prayer with and talking with has decided to leave SBS. He was having trouble focusing on the work a little, and although we both believe that God brought him here for a reason, through prayer and discussion with friends and family, he really feels like his time here has passed and that he is supposed to move on from SBS. This has been really tough for me, because as I learned at the end of DTS, one of the hard prices you pay with being in YWAM and missions is that you make these great friendships and then are split up from the people you just became so close with. So it's been hard seeing my friend go through a difficult decision and letting go of him and encouraging him in moving on, but I know that this is all part of God's plan for him and I really feel like we became close friends for a reason and that God will use that friendship for His glory.

So please be praying for me that God will be speaking to me and guiding me and that through this break our relationship will be refreshed and renewed and that He will fill me up and give me the energy and focus to have an amazing second term. Please also be praying for Breno as he seeks God's vision for what's next and follows Him where He leads, that God will be opening doors for him and will be speaking to him and really just filling him with His love and joy during this time of transition.

Please also be praying that God will continue to provide for me, and maybe even pray about if God wants you to help support me as well. I actually just found out how to add a donate button to my blog, which is kinda exciting for me because it gives people a quick, easy and secure way to donate money to me using a credit card or paypal instead of the only way to support me being to send a cheque or cash to my parents. So if you want to make a donation to help support me, even if it's only a dollar or two, every little bit helps and is greatly appreciated, just click the donate button on the right side of my blog. Like I've said before, unfortunately tax receipts aren't available right now because I'm only a student with YWAM, but hopefully in the future I should be able to start providing people with receipts because I'm starting to think more and more that God is leading me to start staffing DTSs and to help disciple people into following Him and experiencing the joy and love that He gives.

Another thing that is kinda exciting is that they've recently added the ability for people to subscribe to receive blog updates through email, so for those of you who would like to receive my updates, but don't have a gmail account that allows them to just click follow, you can just enter your email address where it says follow by email.

I hope you all are having an amazing summer, and although I miss home an it's really hot here and we don't get to use A/C during the day, I still know 100% that this is where I'm supposed to be and am so excited to see what God is going to do through my time here.

God bless you all. Love ya.

Prayer Requests:

• That God will continue to give me His vision for my future
• That God will be speaking to me through my work
• That God will help me with my time management and that I will be diligent with the time I have
• That this break will revitalize and refresh me and my classmates and our relationship with God
• That 2nd term will be a blessing even though it looks like it will be very busy
• That God will send people to support me (especially regularly) as I follow His call
• That God will be speaking to and guiding Breno as he continues to follow Him

Almost through first term

First off, I have to apologize that it's taken me so long to post again. I know that I said I'd be posting every week on my last post, and although things are busy it's something that I intend to do. I know it's important that I keep you guys up to date on how I'm doing so you don't forget about me, but also because I need you guys keeping me in your prayers cause I need them to help me through the tough times that arise during SBS.

Things have been a lot better these last few weeks. Romans was definitely a difficult week for me, and God's really been teaching me lately to be focusing on one thing at a time, and also about expectations and performance issues that have been causing me to have difficult times in my charting and have contributed to me feeling overwhelmed at points by the enormous amount of work that we still have to do in SBS, which makes it difficult to get work done. I got some amazing encouragement from my checker after he had gone through my Romans and my 1 Corinthians, which were the books that I was really feeling like I was struggling in, and he let me know that I actually did a great job on the books and really spoke truth into me and encouraged me and let me know that I gotta make sure that I don't have unrealistic expectations of myself. He really helped me realize just how much pressure I put on myself and how I seemed to think that I had to have huge epic interpretations for every observation instead of just asking God to speak to me through the text and to write it down.

Through that talk and studying 2 Corinthians, which has a lot about weakness, God did a lot of work in my heart and helped me realize that in SBS and throughout the future, the only thing that matters is that I am following His call and being faithful with what He tells me to do. He's really been teaching me that if I am going to make it in the life of being a missionary that I have to completely forget about what the world thinks is successful and thinks that I should do in order for me to be "successful", and just look to Him and realize that being obedient is what it means to be successful in my life. Especially with looking at the future and thinking about support and everything, I was starting to think more about what the world was thinking of my role in ministry and it was starting to affect my work here as well. So God's really been speaking into this area and helping me to realize that I don't have to have some epic crazy ministry in order to be successful or for people to support me, but all I have to do is follow Him and share with people what He's doing in and through me and why I'm doing what I'm doing, and I will be successful.

Another thing that God's been speaking to me about is doing my part while trusting Him to provide. When I started on this journey of following God wherever He led me, I really felt that He was telling me not to really ask anybody for money, and that He was just going to provide for me, which was awesome, because I'm more of a giver and I hate asking for things. But now that I'm almost a year into things and am definitely in this for the long haul, and plan on living my life following Him, I feel like He's telling me to start doing my part to seek out support now. Something that God's really taught me over the last year is that in following Him, you sometimes have to step out of your comfort zone, whether it be preaching the gospel or asking for support or calling out someone on something they're doing or not doing or whatever. God's really shown me that I need to show my dedication by swallowing my pride, stepping out in faith and asking for help.

The reality of my situation is that I basically have two supporters, one being my parents and the other being our next door neighbour who I almost feel bad taking money from because she is a widow and doesn't work or anything, but she still wants to support me, and that's it. This definitely isn't enough for me to live on long term. I've gotten by well so far because when I left for DTS I got an amazing amount of support from friends and family, I've received some support from some people during the time I've been gone, and I've basically sold all my possessions and got a great tax return back this year because of my old job. These sources of money have now gotten low and I basically should have enough for my next term of SBS, but definitely don't have enough to support myself past there.

I know that some people may be thinking that because I'm doing school and not out in the jungles preaching the gospel, that I'm not really a missionary yet so I should be paying for my schooling myself, and I don't blame them because from an external point of view that makes sense, especially since I had a good job before I left. I know that I could have waited to go to DTS and worked another year and saved up heaps of money and probably been fine for money for the entire DTS and SBS, which was actually what I originally planned to do, but the problem with that plan was that it was man's plan and not God's plan. God told me to go right away and to put my faith in Him and trust that He would provide for me, not only for DTS, but for my entire life. So I did the only thing that I could do and I followed Him and trusted Him, and now I'm living in Taiwan, which is actually a surprisingly unreached area and actually is a very spiritually dark place, and am spending my time studying the bible because God told me to so that He could equip me for what He has for me next, which I don't even know what it is yet. I know that in the world's eyes, I may not be doing things "the right way" or how some people think I should and that I should have a long term plan and should know exactly what I'm going to be doing, but God didn't tell me to wait and do it that way, He told me to go and trust Him. All that I know is that I'm doing what God wants me to do and am trusting Him to lead me to what He has for me, to make me into the man that He wants me to be so that I can do that, and that He will provide for me whatever I need.

So what I'm getting at here is I am asking you all to spend some time praying for me and asking God about partnering with me and supporting me in following God's call. It doesn't even have to be much, it can be a one time gift or a regular gift, whatever you can give will be appreciated; even $10/month would help and make a difference for me. I don't want anybody to give out of obligation, I'm not writing this to guilt anyone into giving, I only want you to give if it is something that you want to do and feel like God wants you to do.

Unfortunately, because I'm not a full-time staff member with YWAM, there is no way that I can get anybody tax receipts, but hopefully that will be an option in the future. Right now, basically the best way to support me is to send a cheque or money to my parents so they can put it into my bank account. Their address is

Jack and Alice Stelpstra
48 Tweed Cres
London, Ontario, Canada
N5X1Z4

I also definitely need you all to be supporting me with prayer. Like I said earlier, Taiwan is a very dark spiritual place where Christianity is not followed much, so I need as much prayer support as I can get. Specifically if you could be praying for me that I won't get overwhelmed with the workload that we're going to have second term, which is considered the hardest term since we're starting the Old Testament and the books are much longer than the New Testament. Also please be praying that God will be speaking to me and giving me more of a vision for my future, and that He will also be filling me up and giving me peace when I'm missing my family and friends back home. This adventure has been amazing so far and I wouldn't change my decision to leave for the world, but it can sometimes be very difficult living far away from your loved ones in a place where you can't even really speak the language. Please also be praying that God will be helping me with my time management so that I have enough time to get my work done and still have time to work out and to spend time in prayer and to even have some chances to relax other than just one day a week on my Sabbath.

Sorry that this was another long message. I will definitely be updating my blog in the next week or so because I have my week off between terms, so I will have some time to relax and be refreshed and let you guys know how it's going. Hope you all are doing great.

God Bless!!


Prayer Points

• That I won't get overwhelmed with the workload in 2nd term
• That God will be giving me more of a vision for my future
• That God will be giving me peace and filling me with His love in times when I miss my family
• That God will help me improve my time management
• That God will continue to teach me to be alright with not being perfect and have realistic expectations for myself

2 months into the roller coaster that is SBS

Wow....it's hard to believe it's already been 2 months since I've been in Taiwan. It's been a great 2 months, but it's also been interesting at times and just plain hard at other times, but God is faithful and He's been with me the whole way!

Like I said in my last post, God has been smacking me around a little and teaching and humbling and correcting and directing me over the last couple months. Acts was a really hard book for me, but not so much because of the book, but more because of what was happening in my life and because of what I realized was my pride.

On April 19, I received some really tough news that my good friend Anna Booth, who was on my DTS passed away because of some lesions she had on her brain and the complications from her surgery. This was some hard news to get cause she was such an awesome person to be around and was a good friend that I joked around with all the time during DTS, and also because it was so sudden.

Then during Acts, we had been talking about sharing the gospel again and as I had been praying and spending time with God, He put a friend of mine on my heart, who had deleted me off of facebook and had completely cut off communication from me without any reason. I felt God was telling me to message him, so I did and I found out that the reason that he had deleted me wasn't because of something I did, but because of how I had changed and how I was living for God and he had been hurt by the church before so he decided he didn't want to be my friend anymore. This was really hard on me and was a huge blow because this was a really good friend that had been there for me during some tough times, and although I knew that he had cut off contact with me, I had never really had time to process it and hadn't thought about it.

So these two things together combined really hit me hard and made focusing so difficult and I was feeling overwhelmed and hurting and everything all together, but through this God was speaking to me. He helped me understand that I have to swallow my pride and share with other's when I'm going through difficult times and struggling. He helped me realize that by not sharing I'm actually preventing people from being able to pray for Anna's family and for my friend and I'm not just hurting myself, but others too. This was really big for me because I've always been one to keep things inside and to be "strong" and not want to burden others with my problems, but I never ever thought that could possibly be pride until now. God had been talking to me through others about being vulnerable, but I had never made the connection until all of this happened.

I ended sharing with my class what was happening, and I've started a Monday morning guy's prayer time to give people a chance to share with each other what they're struggling with and be vulnerable with each other and to support each other. So far I've only been there for 1 morning because I was in Hong Kong the next week, but I'm really hoping this will be a blessing to me and all the guys in our SBS.

This lesson also helped with my pride in another way, because I ended up doing horribly on my charts that week and I really felt God telling me to remember that it's not about marks or about how awesome of charts I have, but it's about hearing Him and learning from Him.

These lessons continued this week. We were doing Romans this week, and because of my trip to Hong Kong I was behind from the beginning, and it was a huge struggle to make up any ground. I was having such a hard time concentrating and could just feel a horrible weight and depression on me, and I just felt like I wanted to quit and give up and go home. I had no idea what was causing it, and I tried everything from repentance to making amends with someone from many many years ago to just crying out to God. This gave me an opportunity to put into practice what God taught me during Acts, and I sent out a message to my fellow SBS students and to my friends from DTS and to my church asking them to pray for me, and it was encouraging the response I got from people.

Things got better; it was still a struggle to get through the book, but through it God showed me how I am in a completely different world over here and it is a much different spiritual atmosphere that I'm used to. Here there are only a small percentage of Christians, and the majority of people worship their ancestors, which creates a very heavy and difficult spiritual atmosphere. Because of this, God showed me that I need to be taking care of my body mind and spirit better by making sure I get enough sleep, making sure I'm taking time to just relax and enjoy myself, as well as spending time with Him everyday in prayer. It was kinda surprising to me that I never realized or thought of how different things are here compared to Canada or New Zealand, but now that I do, I know how to prepare, and I know that God will help me and will protect me from anything the devil throws at me.

So now that you've heard all about the struggles I've been having, it's time to tell a little about the awesome things that have been happening. First and foremost, God has put some awesome people around me here at SBS, and we are forging some great relationships that will last forever. It has been awesome getting to know everybody, and although we are all different and come from all edges of the world, we are all so similar in different way and we have an amazing atmosphere in our class.

An exciting thing for me has been that God has been giving me a bit of a vision for the future recently, which is something that He hadn't given me until now. During 1 Timothy, I was really meditating on the passage where Paul tells him not to let anyone disregard him because of his age, and it made me realize that I had disregarded myself because of different things throughout my life, whether it be because of age or inexperience or whatever. While I was thinking and praying about this God gave me an amazing vision of pioneering a rock climbing DTS and using one of my passions to bring people into His kingdom! It was amazing to hear God so clearly again and it was a message that went straight to my heart and lifted me up completely, especially since pioneering was an area that I had been disregarding myself in. Also, I had been seeking God and praying for more a vision lately because it was a little disheartening to be constantly telling people that I didn't know what the big picture was when they were asking what my plan was, so this was an answer to prayer.

This long term vision gives me more of an idea of what I need to do in the short term, which is to learn the language. Unfortunately learning languages is another area that I struggle in and disregard myself in, but I think God is trying to teach me that the bible wasn't lying when it says thatI can do all things through Christ (Phil. 4:13). I have a strong feeling that this vision is to be based in Taiwan, and since I am here for a while, I'm starting to try to learn more of the language and to set aside a couple hours a week to learn it, but what I really believe God is calling me to do is to spend 2 years here after this school is done learning the language. This is exciting and scary for me at the same time, but I am trusting God that He will lead me and provide everything that I need to do this. I'm also starting to talk with some people around the base that have learned the language and ask them about the schooling and what kind of ministry they did during school and things like that. I've heard from one of the guys on our base that he's gonna be studying Chinese and while helping get a surfing ministry started, which is what kinda started my thinking about using passions to spread the gospel, so I'm also gonna meet with him and see if I could possibly get involved in that ministry too.

So it's been an exciting last couple weeks, and I'm still seeking God for confirmation about what is next, but there's still a long way to go in SBS, so God has some time to confirm what He wants me to do. If you could all be praying that God would be leading and guiding me and that I wouldn't let my own desires get in the way of hearing what He wants me to do.

I could go on and on about what's been happening over here, but this has been a long enough post already. A quick note though - I had an amazing trip to Hong Kong and had an awesome time meeting with an old friend of my parents' Gerry Denbok who lives with his wife and son in Hong Kong. It was really uplifting to hear from a fellow Canadian who has been living in Asia for about 15 years or so and to hear stories about what God's been doing in Hong Kong and China.

I'm going to leave you with some prayer requests because I've felt God telling me that I need to keep you all updated on how you can be praying for me, and I know that you probably want to know what to pray for as well. Also, I'm going to try to write an update every week so that it's not such of a novel for you guys and to keep you up to date better.

Hope you're all doing great, love you all.

God bless,

Matt


Prayer requests:

• That God will continue to show me His vision for my life and will confirm the next step He wants me to take
• That God will help me to focus on Him and not forget why I'm doing this school
• That God will continue to provide me with wisdom, revelation, close friendships, as well as financially
• That God will continue to empower me to be the man that He created me to be
• That God will help me be able to learn some Chinese
• That God will help me manage my time effectively
• That I will be diligent with all the resources that God has given me

Time to get serious about sharing the gospel

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've posted, and they've been some interesting ones. We've been studying Luke, Acts, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, 1 Timothy 1 Thessalonians and we just started 2 Thessalonians, and God's been smacking me around here and there throughout them, which is always good, but difficult. I was going to only write about the last few weeks all in one post, but while I was writing about what God was speaking to me through Luke I realized that it had to be a post of it's own, so I will write again soon to give the rest of my update.

Throughout Luke, there was a big focus on sharing the gospel and how we all are called to share the gospel, and not only through our actions. This really convicted me and made me realize how I am willing to sell all my possessions, give up my career, leave my entire family and all my friends and move to the other side of the world, but I'm afraid to go next door and tell my neighbour about Jesus. This is a big problem to me. I was amazed to hear that of all the Christians that live in this world, only 5% will lead a person to Christ. That's a shocking statistic, and it helped me realize that I have to be a part of that 5%, and I have to do all that I can to encourage others to change that 5% to 6, 7, 8 or 20%.

It got me thinking about why I and others have a difficult time sharing the gospel. We live in a world where people hate absolutes and your are even looked down upon by some if you do believe in absolutes. We like to believe more in relativism and in finding your own truth and what is right to you is right and nobody should ever tell you otherwise. Unfortunately that in itself is WRONG. Truth is not relative and what is right for you is not right. Those arguments are contradictory and do not hold any water. You want to argue with me whether right and wrong are relative to what you believe? Well how about I punch you in the face because it seemed right to me, do you still believe that?? No way you would. There is definite right and wrong and truth in this world no matter how much people like to think otherwise. It is because of these beliefs that many Christians never share the gospel because they are afraid to tell somebody the truth. To me, it seems ridiculous when I think about it, yet it is still something that prevents me from sharing. We are so afraid of offending someone because we are right and know we are right, but unfortunately because we don't have a scientific or mathematical proof, we are scared to tell people. That's the problem with the age we live in is that we've completely lost faith in everything and always want a complete and undeniable scientific proof, but you won't get that with God because that would make faith absolutely useless. We do however have historical proof.

There are 4 detailed records that Jesus exists, they're call the gospels, the only problem is that people have decided that because they're in a religious book that they're not reliable, when in fact they are the most reliable historical books that we have today from that time period. The gospels were written as a record of the events of Jesus, Luke even states his purpose of writing an orderly account at the beginning of his gospel, and have the most manuscripts of any historical writing available. Not to mention, they were written astronomically closer to the dates of the actual events than any other literature of that time, which means that when they were written there were still eyewitnesses to the events around, yet they were not called inaccurate at that time, but now we decide that they are??? Interesting that we know what is the truth better than people who were actually there at the time. To argue that the gospels aren't reliable is to say that any history we have from that time is unreliable, yet people will agree with the writings of Josephus and other historians even though they were written way after the events took place and have very few complete manuscripts compared to the gospels. Basically to call the gospels inaccurate is absolutely ridiculous, and if you disagree I challenge you to read the book A Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, who is the former legal editor for the Chicago Tribune, who used to be an atheist but became a Christian when he started investigating Christianity because his wife became a Christian. Heck, even if you don't disagree I would still recommend reading that book because it is fascinating, but I also like that kind of stuff.

So if we can prove that Jesus existed, then why do people doubt so much? Some say that sure He lived, but He was just a great teacher and wasn't the Son of God, but if that was the case, then why did all but two (Judas killed himself for betraying Jesus, and John appeared to die of natural causes, but they tried to kill him and weren't able to so they exiled him to Patmos) of His disciples die proclaiming Him to be the Messiah?? If He wasn't really who He said He was, then what would compel them and countless others to proclaim His name until they were eventually killed?? I can tell you, it wasn't for popularity, read how many cities Paul is driven out of in Acts. It couldn't have been for money, the apostles didn't have many possessions and a lot of them sold what they did own and gave the money to those who had need (Acts 3:42-47, 4:32-37). And it obviously wasn't for power because you don't have much power in this world when you're dead. So if it wasn't for any of those things that men strive for, then the only logical reason they would ever do what they did is that Jesus died and rose again and was the Son of God. The greatest example that shows that this must be the truth is the account of Paul, who was formerly a Pharisee who tortured and killed Christians relentlessly and approved of the first Christian martyr's death, Stephen. This man who was out for the blood of all Christians was miraculously converted on the road to Damascus and made a 180 degree turn and went from persecuting the Christians to being the greatest evangelist that ever lived. If that's not proof that Jesus was the Son of God, then I don't know what is. And you have to remember that all these guys either were with Jesus when He was alive or knew the people who were with Him while He was alive, and all of this happened within 40 years of His death.

What I'm getting at, is why are we so scared about offending people by telling them that we know the truth, when we do in fact actually KNOW THE TRUTH?!?!?!?!? Just because they don't want it to be the truth doesn't make it any less of the truth. That's like being scared to tell a sports fan that their team lost the game because they don't want to upset them. Just because it's not what they want to hear doesn't mean it's not the truth. Anybody that goes and looks into Christianity with an open mind and really looks at the information should not in their right and logical mind be able to believe anything other than the fact that it is the truth. I think Lee Strobel (who was a complete atheist remember) said it the best when he said that after he had researched the Christian faith he realized that it would take more faith to not believe than it did to believe. Remember this isn't some guy off of the street, this is a man who has a Masters from Yale Law and won Illinois' top honours for investigative reporting during his 14 years as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers.

I know that some people will disagree with me and some may call me some not nice things because I'm willing to follow God and am willing to tell people that they should follow Him too, but that's not my problem. I know that this is the truth, and now I'm finally learning to not be afraid to say it. If you think I must be off my rocker and that I've been so misled, send me an email and I'll tell you what God's done in my life and how I know from my own experiences in my own life that He is the King of Kings, Lord of Lords and Creator and Ruler of this universe. It probably still won't convince you one bit, but I always enjoy talking about God and I'm not afraid to discuss some hard questions and even admit that I don't know all the answers, and I'm fine with that.

No matter what, I hope you all still enjoy reading my blog, and I promise that my next post will not have such a serious tone, but when God convicts you about something, you gotta listen to Him, even if it may not win you any friends.

Until next time, I love you and miss you all, and I hope that you are all having a fabulous May!

God bless!!