Monday, February 25, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
[Clever and Witty Title]
So we know. It's been a little while since we actually wrote something in here. I would like to formally apologize for that, as Jared wrote the last post and, as it being my turn, I have neglected the responsibility. I am sorry.
"WOAH WOAH WOAH! You just wait a minute there! Is this James typing?? With capital letters and semi-correct punctuation and other grammatical components that I don't know the names of??" You may be asking yourself this extremely important question. Yes, it is I. Please let your beating hearts be at rest. I am turning over a new leaf in my blogging excellence. Atleast for the next few minutes while my coffee high lasts and I am motivated to keep hitting shift at the beginning of each sentence. Enjoy it, and please extend a hand of grace when I lack the perfection you all deserve. I can't promise I will be able to hold out much longer, as I have already broke out into a sweat.
No, it's actually not hot for once. It's just a lot of work hitting the backpace this much. It's 5:08pm and we are enjoying our daily afternoon torrential down pour here at the office/our residence. It is the most optimal napping environment ever. What's that look like James? Where on earth are you typing this from? What are you looking at? Whats it like? Lots of colors? Florescent lights? Rice? Monkeys? Are there monkeys? Guys, seriously chill. I'll show you if you just wait a second. This is it. The monkeys are napping too, sorry.
I know. It's a great picture. I just want you to feel like you're here drinking coffee with me. Jared is taking advantage of the napping environment currently, as he just returned from a 4 hour motorcycle trip outside the city to contact some of the student scholarship recipients that the company supports (there are 1600 students that the company pays for to be educated from elementary school through college, including uniforms and school supplies. It's incredible). Yes, riding motorcycles in the Indonesian countryside is literally, and I mean this with all my heart, a dream come true.
like this.
BUT, with that being said, it is the equivalent of sitting on a skinny stool for 4 hours, and can be a bit painful on the donk, if you feel me. If you don't feel me, feel free to look up "donk" at urbandictionary.com. (derivation: shortened form of badonkadonk). Needless to say, the little fella earned himself a nap. I was doing Medical Mobile today, which is why we were separated.
Ok. I'm calming down now, and will stop all this foolishness. Your time is valuable and I definitely don't want to waste it. Except that I just taught some of you new vocabulary, but whatever.
Jared and I have officially been in Indonesia for over a month now, which I guess now that I say that it's not really that hard for me to believe. I feel like I can speak for both of us when I say that this place is truly growing on us, in many more ways than one. I wouldn't say that we have necessarily hit a "rhythm" since every single week we have been here has looked different from the one before it. And I don't want to make it sound like we didn't like it in the beginning by any means, but we just had no idea what to expect. It was the equivalent of someone putting us on a plane and saying, "Guys, you're going to Indonesia, it's different there, and I don't know where you'll be sleeping or what exactly you're going to be doing, but you'll figure it out..buckle up." I wish they would have also told us to bring legitimate sunscreen too. Oh well. But in our relationships, in the culture, in the food, figuring out the roads and traffic, learning the language, learning what our role here is, and just making this place somewhere that we are not just visiting for a few weeks but actually home, we are finally starting to feel more comfortable here. We went to Pizza Hut with Letto and Supri for our one month celebration...our stomachs both gave us a big ol "thanks for eating that" after. but it tasted so good.
On the other side of food adventures...there's this...If you missed the grasshopper video, it's below. This is us buying about 40 grasshoppers with their heads impaled on sticks. They were still moving. We fried them then put them into our bodies. Cobra, frog, grasshopper, snail, quail egg, dog. Bring it. You can't scare us.
Especially for me, coming to this place at first was definitely difficult, as I thought Jared would be the only human I could speak to face to face (and not through a computer). It has taken a bit for them to warm up to it, but all of the people that we work with and interact with in the company can definitely understand me. I didn't think they could at first, because they would just look at me and smile and I would feel like a freak, but it wasn't because they didn't understand me, it's because they were too afraid to mess up their English. See, Indonesian doesn't have verb tenses like English has, they just say a verb in a sentence and have little indicators through out the sentence that make you understand what they are trying to say, whether it is past, present, or future. English, on the other hand, is a gigantic mess of a language, with the same words meaning different things, 93 different tenses, prepositions being the worst thing ever, and their sentence structure is basically opposite of ours. Needless to say, it makes them all quite timid to try, but now that they know that it's just 'ol Uncle James and Jared, they have all opened up much more. It helps me learn, and they get to practice English. Win/win. It also helps to be able to communicate with people so i don't feel completely isolated.
I'm going to give you a snipit on what we have been doing, but then I just want to share really quick a bit that's on my heart. I don't really have many pictures worth putting up at the moment, but thats what videos are for.
So we continue to work with the company, and both Jared and I have taken on different roles with the different strengths we have. I am continuing to work with Medical Mobile each week, going to schools 1-2 hours outside the city in the remote areas to give the students and teachers at the sponsored school a check up and necessary medicine. We seriously have an entire pharmacy we bring us to each school, whether they need meds for flu, colds, antibiotics, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, stomach viruses, ulcers, vitamins, etc. It's sweet. It's like a mobile medical van. That's why they call it Medical Mobile. I really love it and am building great friendships with those that I work with. I have also been able to tour different hospitals here to see what their healthcare is like. I've been able to visit a few different emergency rooms, operating rooms, and med/surge floors at different facilities, and they have been so gracious and kind to let me explore around. Here's medical mobile today...dispensing the meds.
Jared is beginning to dive into helping the company translate their materials into English. They have a ton of material that they send out to schools, donors, churches, and communities, and Jared is going to help take those materials and translate them so that people in the states and else where will be able to follow along with what the company is doing. This past saturday, we went to do the normal saturday kid's program at a school a couple hours away, but it was something they called Mobile Library. If you put the pieces together from Medical Mobile, it's the same thing, but a library van for kids. Since the kids here don't really have access to books that interest them, whether because there is a lack of decent children's books or the schools can't afford them, the kids don't see reading as fun at all. The company is trying to change that. So they send a van full of kids books to schools every saturday, and the students get to pick their own book out and read it for a few hours.
Here's some of the guys with the van behind them....
The kids aren't really encouraged to use a whole lot of creativity or imagination when it comes to reading and writing, and they have asked Jared if he will help the company develop a strategy to change that. They want him to speak to the kids about writing, how it can be fun, and how you can create anything and any story you want. You just have to write it down. He will also be writing for the company's magazine that they distribute to all of those places I just mentioned. Maybe even write some Indonesian short stories for kids to spark their imaginations.
Ok so I know that this is already pretty long, so if you need to stop for a bit and come later to finish, I understand. Just make sure you close the browser out so it shows up as another page view when you come back, thanks. I'm totally kidding, but also extremely serious about that.
Just a few things that I'm learning and are just on my heart.
So I recently listened to a sermon by David Platt on how a high view of the sovereignty of God is what fuels "death defying devotion to global missions." He broke down Revelation 5:1-14 to show his point. If you read it this will make more sense. It was the best sermon on missions that I have ever heard. What I took away from it (and still am) this is:
Getting to be apart of something like this is truly an honor. I am so grateful for the opportunities that the Lord has given me to be apart of what He is doing in the world. But this message reminded any sort of pride that might rise up in my heart of something that I never want to forget. God is sovereign. He does not need me, He does not need you. I am not doing God a favor by being here, or doing ministry at all for that matter. It is easy for me/Christians to look at the situation of the 2+ billion unreached people in the world and think to themselves..."man...God must really need my help to get Himself out of this terrible situation that He's gotten the world in. Thank goodness someone like me is lending Him a hand." Of course it's not that extreme, but how many people in ministry have been tempted to give themselves a little pat on the back for being so great and doing so many great things for the Kingdom? Let us never forget this truth: our sovereign God holds the destiny of the world in the palm of His hand, and apart from Jesus Christ, man is completely, and utterly hopeless. It is the grace of God that allows us to be apart of what He is doing in the world, and He lets us be used by Him because He loves us. But by no means does He need me. The greatest news in ALL the world is that Jesus Christ, the slaughtered Lamb of God, is ruling sovereign over everything. He is our hope. He is our salvation. He is the one that holds the world in His hand. There are over 2 billion people in the world who have no idea the significance of those statements. If every single church and denomination vanished from the earth right now, He would STILL make a great name for Himself, because He promised it. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, and it is absolutely worth giving your life for it.
So yes. There is a lot of work to be done to get the gospel to the people in the world who have never heard the name of Jesus. They have no way of hearing unless someone bring them this good news. God uses us to spread His kingdom to the ends of the earth and will use believers all over the earth to fulfill His plan. But never mistake His allowing us to help as Him needing us.
Sorry if that is a bit deflating. I need that a lot though.
This is long. Sorry. All the extra punctuation adds up I guess.
Love you all. Thank you for praying for us and following us and video chatting with us and loving on us. Please continue to do so. More videos to come.
J^2
"WOAH WOAH WOAH! You just wait a minute there! Is this James typing?? With capital letters and semi-correct punctuation and other grammatical components that I don't know the names of??" You may be asking yourself this extremely important question. Yes, it is I. Please let your beating hearts be at rest. I am turning over a new leaf in my blogging excellence. Atleast for the next few minutes while my coffee high lasts and I am motivated to keep hitting shift at the beginning of each sentence. Enjoy it, and please extend a hand of grace when I lack the perfection you all deserve. I can't promise I will be able to hold out much longer, as I have already broke out into a sweat.
No, it's actually not hot for once. It's just a lot of work hitting the backpace this much. It's 5:08pm and we are enjoying our daily afternoon torrential down pour here at the office/our residence. It is the most optimal napping environment ever. What's that look like James? Where on earth are you typing this from? What are you looking at? Whats it like? Lots of colors? Florescent lights? Rice? Monkeys? Are there monkeys? Guys, seriously chill. I'll show you if you just wait a second. This is it. The monkeys are napping too, sorry.
I know. It's a great picture. I just want you to feel like you're here drinking coffee with me. Jared is taking advantage of the napping environment currently, as he just returned from a 4 hour motorcycle trip outside the city to contact some of the student scholarship recipients that the company supports (there are 1600 students that the company pays for to be educated from elementary school through college, including uniforms and school supplies. It's incredible). Yes, riding motorcycles in the Indonesian countryside is literally, and I mean this with all my heart, a dream come true.
like this.
BUT, with that being said, it is the equivalent of sitting on a skinny stool for 4 hours, and can be a bit painful on the donk, if you feel me. If you don't feel me, feel free to look up "donk" at urbandictionary.com. (derivation: shortened form of badonkadonk). Needless to say, the little fella earned himself a nap. I was doing Medical Mobile today, which is why we were separated.
Ok. I'm calming down now, and will stop all this foolishness. Your time is valuable and I definitely don't want to waste it. Except that I just taught some of you new vocabulary, but whatever.
Jared and I have officially been in Indonesia for over a month now, which I guess now that I say that it's not really that hard for me to believe. I feel like I can speak for both of us when I say that this place is truly growing on us, in many more ways than one. I wouldn't say that we have necessarily hit a "rhythm" since every single week we have been here has looked different from the one before it. And I don't want to make it sound like we didn't like it in the beginning by any means, but we just had no idea what to expect. It was the equivalent of someone putting us on a plane and saying, "Guys, you're going to Indonesia, it's different there, and I don't know where you'll be sleeping or what exactly you're going to be doing, but you'll figure it out..buckle up." I wish they would have also told us to bring legitimate sunscreen too. Oh well. But in our relationships, in the culture, in the food, figuring out the roads and traffic, learning the language, learning what our role here is, and just making this place somewhere that we are not just visiting for a few weeks but actually home, we are finally starting to feel more comfortable here. We went to Pizza Hut with Letto and Supri for our one month celebration...our stomachs both gave us a big ol "thanks for eating that" after. but it tasted so good.
On the other side of food adventures...there's this...If you missed the grasshopper video, it's below. This is us buying about 40 grasshoppers with their heads impaled on sticks. They were still moving. We fried them then put them into our bodies. Cobra, frog, grasshopper, snail, quail egg, dog. Bring it. You can't scare us.
Especially for me, coming to this place at first was definitely difficult, as I thought Jared would be the only human I could speak to face to face (and not through a computer). It has taken a bit for them to warm up to it, but all of the people that we work with and interact with in the company can definitely understand me. I didn't think they could at first, because they would just look at me and smile and I would feel like a freak, but it wasn't because they didn't understand me, it's because they were too afraid to mess up their English. See, Indonesian doesn't have verb tenses like English has, they just say a verb in a sentence and have little indicators through out the sentence that make you understand what they are trying to say, whether it is past, present, or future. English, on the other hand, is a gigantic mess of a language, with the same words meaning different things, 93 different tenses, prepositions being the worst thing ever, and their sentence structure is basically opposite of ours. Needless to say, it makes them all quite timid to try, but now that they know that it's just 'ol Uncle James and Jared, they have all opened up much more. It helps me learn, and they get to practice English. Win/win. It also helps to be able to communicate with people so i don't feel completely isolated.
I'm going to give you a snipit on what we have been doing, but then I just want to share really quick a bit that's on my heart. I don't really have many pictures worth putting up at the moment, but thats what videos are for.
So we continue to work with the company, and both Jared and I have taken on different roles with the different strengths we have. I am continuing to work with Medical Mobile each week, going to schools 1-2 hours outside the city in the remote areas to give the students and teachers at the sponsored school a check up and necessary medicine. We seriously have an entire pharmacy we bring us to each school, whether they need meds for flu, colds, antibiotics, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, stomach viruses, ulcers, vitamins, etc. It's sweet. It's like a mobile medical van. That's why they call it Medical Mobile. I really love it and am building great friendships with those that I work with. I have also been able to tour different hospitals here to see what their healthcare is like. I've been able to visit a few different emergency rooms, operating rooms, and med/surge floors at different facilities, and they have been so gracious and kind to let me explore around. Here's medical mobile today...dispensing the meds.
Jared is beginning to dive into helping the company translate their materials into English. They have a ton of material that they send out to schools, donors, churches, and communities, and Jared is going to help take those materials and translate them so that people in the states and else where will be able to follow along with what the company is doing. This past saturday, we went to do the normal saturday kid's program at a school a couple hours away, but it was something they called Mobile Library. If you put the pieces together from Medical Mobile, it's the same thing, but a library van for kids. Since the kids here don't really have access to books that interest them, whether because there is a lack of decent children's books or the schools can't afford them, the kids don't see reading as fun at all. The company is trying to change that. So they send a van full of kids books to schools every saturday, and the students get to pick their own book out and read it for a few hours.
Here's some of the guys with the van behind them....
The kids aren't really encouraged to use a whole lot of creativity or imagination when it comes to reading and writing, and they have asked Jared if he will help the company develop a strategy to change that. They want him to speak to the kids about writing, how it can be fun, and how you can create anything and any story you want. You just have to write it down. He will also be writing for the company's magazine that they distribute to all of those places I just mentioned. Maybe even write some Indonesian short stories for kids to spark their imaginations.
Ok so I know that this is already pretty long, so if you need to stop for a bit and come later to finish, I understand. Just make sure you close the browser out so it shows up as another page view when you come back, thanks. I'm totally kidding, but also extremely serious about that.
Just a few things that I'm learning and are just on my heart.
So I recently listened to a sermon by David Platt on how a high view of the sovereignty of God is what fuels "death defying devotion to global missions." He broke down Revelation 5:1-14 to show his point. If you read it this will make more sense. It was the best sermon on missions that I have ever heard. What I took away from it (and still am) this is:
Getting to be apart of something like this is truly an honor. I am so grateful for the opportunities that the Lord has given me to be apart of what He is doing in the world. But this message reminded any sort of pride that might rise up in my heart of something that I never want to forget. God is sovereign. He does not need me, He does not need you. I am not doing God a favor by being here, or doing ministry at all for that matter. It is easy for me/Christians to look at the situation of the 2+ billion unreached people in the world and think to themselves..."man...God must really need my help to get Himself out of this terrible situation that He's gotten the world in. Thank goodness someone like me is lending Him a hand." Of course it's not that extreme, but how many people in ministry have been tempted to give themselves a little pat on the back for being so great and doing so many great things for the Kingdom? Let us never forget this truth: our sovereign God holds the destiny of the world in the palm of His hand, and apart from Jesus Christ, man is completely, and utterly hopeless. It is the grace of God that allows us to be apart of what He is doing in the world, and He lets us be used by Him because He loves us. But by no means does He need me. The greatest news in ALL the world is that Jesus Christ, the slaughtered Lamb of God, is ruling sovereign over everything. He is our hope. He is our salvation. He is the one that holds the world in His hand. There are over 2 billion people in the world who have no idea the significance of those statements. If every single church and denomination vanished from the earth right now, He would STILL make a great name for Himself, because He promised it. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, and it is absolutely worth giving your life for it.
So yes. There is a lot of work to be done to get the gospel to the people in the world who have never heard the name of Jesus. They have no way of hearing unless someone bring them this good news. God uses us to spread His kingdom to the ends of the earth and will use believers all over the earth to fulfill His plan. But never mistake His allowing us to help as Him needing us.
Sorry if that is a bit deflating. I need that a lot though.
This is long. Sorry. All the extra punctuation adds up I guess.
Love you all. Thank you for praying for us and following us and video chatting with us and loving on us. Please continue to do so. More videos to come.
J^2
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
Monday, February 4, 2013
Mixup Monday
You are all probably really confused right about now. Maybe you are thinking, "whoa guys, I expected a Wednesday update, not a Monday one. Why you gotta throw my week off like that?"
Okay maybe nobody is thinking that. However, the reason for today's update is because James and I will be in the jungle from Wednesday until Friday. Therefore, we wanted to give you guys a quick briefing of what we have been up to this past week.
We are going to Kalimantan on Wednesday. We have heard that it is home to some pretty awesome animals such as tigers, boa constrictors, cobras, monkeys, crazy bugs, etc. It's a jungle. Also, I wanted to note to all of those people who watched our last video and heard James say the "I" word (Indonesia), that it is okay. We can freely use the name of the country. We talked to the company we are working with and they said no problem. However, we will probably continue to use The East Pole just cause it sounds pretty sweet.
In Kalimantan we are going to be putting on a children's camp where we will play games, do teachings, sing songs, and probably get asked a bunch of questions like, "what kind of animals are there where you live?" To which we will disappointingly have to explain to them a squirrel...doesn't sound too cool when you live in a jungle with tigers. Oh well. We are excited to be going!
This past weekend we spent a lot of time with the company we work with. They had a retreat and it was a great time to grow closer to them and just hang out. We went to a cave a couple hours away and then to a beach. Following this beach James and I parted ways with the company and went with our friends Wisnu, Ferii, and Letto to two other beaches. These were the three best beaches I have ever been to in my life. Words don't do it justice and pictures hardly do either. But here are a few...
Following the cave James and I got to stay at our friend Ferii's house. His family was incredibly kind. In fact, everyone here is kind. You almost have to be careful of making a joking comment about something you want or wished for. For example, James was sitting near a window and it started to rain. A small drop fell on James' shoulder and he began to joke about how water was coming through the roof. Probably would have gotten some laughs in America. But here, Ferii's father grabbed a tarp, climbed a pole in the house, and walked outside onto the roof in the rain just to cover it so no more water would fall on James. Can we think about that for a second? How many times would you, me, or anyone else we know do that? I can honestly say that at this point, I wouldn't.
I have never seen such selfless people who genuinely care more about others than themselves. It seems to be the case with everyone here. It has been so humbling for James and I to be around. We talk a lot in America about honoring others before yourself. We talk about outdoing each other in kindness and every once in a while you will see little sparks of that here and there. But never have I seen a majority of people give all the food they have, offer their homes, climb a roof in a rainstorm to stop a drop of water, and constantly offer warm smiles and tea. Lots of tea. This kindness is so foreign to me. Sure, I know kind people. What I don't know are the people that have nothing and instead of asking for help or a handout, they are giving all they can simply to make someone else happy. I don't know why these people are so kind. Perhaps they have it figured out that being selfless is a better way to live than being selfish? I don't know the answer. All I know is that I am humbled.
Okay maybe nobody is thinking that. However, the reason for today's update is because James and I will be in the jungle from Wednesday until Friday. Therefore, we wanted to give you guys a quick briefing of what we have been up to this past week.
We are going to Kalimantan on Wednesday. We have heard that it is home to some pretty awesome animals such as tigers, boa constrictors, cobras, monkeys, crazy bugs, etc. It's a jungle. Also, I wanted to note to all of those people who watched our last video and heard James say the "I" word (Indonesia), that it is okay. We can freely use the name of the country. We talked to the company we are working with and they said no problem. However, we will probably continue to use The East Pole just cause it sounds pretty sweet.
In Kalimantan we are going to be putting on a children's camp where we will play games, do teachings, sing songs, and probably get asked a bunch of questions like, "what kind of animals are there where you live?" To which we will disappointingly have to explain to them a squirrel...doesn't sound too cool when you live in a jungle with tigers. Oh well. We are excited to be going!
This past weekend we spent a lot of time with the company we work with. They had a retreat and it was a great time to grow closer to them and just hang out. We went to a cave a couple hours away and then to a beach. Following this beach James and I parted ways with the company and went with our friends Wisnu, Ferii, and Letto to two other beaches. These were the three best beaches I have ever been to in my life. Words don't do it justice and pictures hardly do either. But here are a few...
These are the beaches. Again, pictures don't do them justice. The last picture was a private beach where James and I were finally able to swim. There was literally no one else there other than James and I and Wisnu, Ferii, and Letto. Most beaches prohibit swimming...try and stop us. Here is a picture of the cave we went to...
Okay okay, it's really just a picture of James and I with a cave behind us. So what?
I have never seen such selfless people who genuinely care more about others than themselves. It seems to be the case with everyone here. It has been so humbling for James and I to be around. We talk a lot in America about honoring others before yourself. We talk about outdoing each other in kindness and every once in a while you will see little sparks of that here and there. But never have I seen a majority of people give all the food they have, offer their homes, climb a roof in a rainstorm to stop a drop of water, and constantly offer warm smiles and tea. Lots of tea. This kindness is so foreign to me. Sure, I know kind people. What I don't know are the people that have nothing and instead of asking for help or a handout, they are giving all they can simply to make someone else happy. I don't know why these people are so kind. Perhaps they have it figured out that being selfless is a better way to live than being selfish? I don't know the answer. All I know is that I am humbled.
This is Ferii and his family serving us a great meal. James, unfortunately, took the picture.
This is the family again just before we headed back home. We were blessed to spend time with them.
Here is Wisnu and I trying to outdo one another in kindness by insisting the other go down the stairs first. In the end, we decided to go together.
It is pretty surreal to be surrounded by such beauty. The other day James and I took the bike out to find a spot to read and relax. We found our way to a rice field and walked out to the middle. As far as we could see were fields of lush green rice plants. Beyond that was Mt. Merapi, a volcano that looks a lot like Mt. Doom. I would be lying if I said I didn't pretend every once in a while that it was indeed Mt. Doom and that James and I were on a mission to destroy the... okay I am getting a little off topic here.
As we sat there and read I couldn't help but think to myself, "God did this. I have lived my whole life not ever thinking about or seeing this place, and yet here it is." There are people hard at work in the fields collecting rice in a process that I can only pretend to understand. This is their life and this is where they work. I will leave here in a few months and they will continue on. It made me feel so small and made God seem really big to me. In that moment, being surrounded by the beauty and the people, I sat and admired God's creativity and the fact that He really is everywhere.
I think that James said it perfectly in his last post about missions. I just wanted to make the point again. It has been interesting for both of us to live here. Most of the time the short term trips are full of schedules and pre-assigned tasks of work. There are sermons and a few prayer groups here and there. I suppose that in my mind I romanticized missions. I took a short-term trip in my mind and multiplied it until it reached a period of six months. That has not been the case. Missions has looked, I would say, almost 100% different than I had thought. James and I are here living our lives with these people. We aren't carrying a Bible and throwing it in the face of strangers who we assume are not saved (not that I would do that anyway), we are not building homes, painting houses, walking through poor villages and returning thankful with the thought 'man I sure have it made back home' stuck in our heads as we skip back to our car and drive away.
We are living life and we are building friendships. I suppose I thought that something would change in me. Maybe I thought that I would get here and be ready to take the streets, go door to door, and shout the Gospel anywhere I could. But I am still me, just in a different place. I am still building friendships and loving those who are around me just like I would be doing back home. It has made me realize something...that we are all missionaries. That may sound redundant. But we are. James and I are not missionaries overseas facing the wild unknown for the name of Jesus. We are James and Jared loving Jesus and loving those around us like we should in every single place that we are. The same goes for anyone who is reading this.
We spoke to one of the few guys who speaks English here and were asking him about missions. He told us that perhaps loving others is the most important. He said, 'we see Jesus and how He loved and so we want to love others too. It doesn't matter if they are Muslim, Hindu, or whatever. We want to love them. And perhaps in the end they will see the love of Jesus in us.'
It was encouraging to hear. And it seems strange to me right now. It is so simple and yet it is what we are supposed to do. Love others. It isn't a hard job here. Everyone, as I mentioned earlier, is incredibly kind to us. What can I say to someone who lives all the way across the world, who thinks differently, who talks differently, and even eat differently than I do. This language barrier has caused me to stop relying on myself. I can do and say nothing apart from Him. And that has been comforting. I know that the Lord will present us with opportunities to speak of Him and to share our love for Christ. I hope to see new brothers and sisters in the Lord. And perhaps the way to that is simply by loving and letting the Lord pull on their hearts and open their eyes.
I know that there will be trials. I know that the Lord will teach us more. But for now, I am comforted in the thought that missions is different than we thought and that is okay.
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