The Race

These 7 weeks of orientation are quickly passing - this week already marks the halfway point of our time in Richmond. I feel like there is a race to learn as much as possible as fast as possible so that we are as prepared as possible when we all leave for our prospective locations in less than 2 months! Whew! It sounds overwhelming, but then this past weekend, God reminded me of something. I was thinking about one of the verses I have committed to memorize. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." The key phrase is "looking unto Jesus." I had been trying to run this race in my own power. What was I thinking? Not only is doing something in my own power useless, but without Jesus as my focus I am not running in the right direction. I'm so thankful for God's Word and how He speaks directly to us through it. God has just continued to show me daily how amazing He is and how much He loves the peoples of the world! Listen to Psalm 36:5-9 (if you know the worship song, you can hum along to the words!): "Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like a great deep. O Lord, You preserve man and beast. How precious is your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They drink their fill of the abundance of your house; And You give them to drink of the river of your delights. For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light."

Something else that we have been learning about over the last couple of weeks is worldview and how to share the Gospel with our specific people group. We have been talking about bridges to sharing the Gospel and also barriers. For example, with people who are traditionally of a tribal religion, the belief in one God is a bridge, but it is also a barrier. It is a bridge because the tribal religions generally believe in one high god, but it is a barrier, because they also believe in lesser gods and they believe that the one high god is very far away and that they could never have a personal relationship with him. It has been so eye-opening to begin to think about how to relate to our people group and to think about how to specifically share my testimony so that they will hear the Truth of God's love and sacrifice.

In the midst of Bible study, training sessions, and learning about our region, there is still lots of time for fun. We go off campus sometimes for dinner or a Wal-Mart or mall run, we play charades, we go on mischievous adventures, and sometimes we do (or watch) things that are just plain silly (see pictures of the Gallon Challenge below for proof).

Thanks for keeping up with my time at orientation and for your prayers! I have listed some specific requests that you can pray for:
~Pray for health here on campus - several of my friends are sick and colds, etc. tend to spread around pretty rapidly in tight quarters!
~Pray for Crystal in Botswana - she is having severe stomach pain and so far the doctors have not been able to diagnose it.
~Pray for the Batswana people - that God would prepare their hearts for His message.
~Pray for Emily and I as we still do not know what city/village we will live in.
~Pray that God would continue to work here at MLC and that He would prepare each of us specifically for His work on the field.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Psalm 136:1