Vietnam.

From December 1, 2013 to January 1, 2014 I went to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with five other people.  Going there I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I knew our trip was predestined and God would do just what He wanted with our time there.

The main ministry focus here was meeting people, and hanging out with them.  Kinda seems simple right?  You may think that it's something you can do anywhere, and you're right.  But it wasn't just to become great friends, that was just a huge plus along with it.  Our main focus was sharing the love of Jesus Christ and sharing the incredible heart-aching love story of the gospel.  The short time that I was in Vietnam I was able to make countless lasting friendships with the Vietnamese that God totally made happen.  Three days a week we went to an English club, where we got to talk with Vietnamese for a few hours.  Within the first night we were able to make plans to meet with people.  Many say that miracles only happen in the times of when the Bible was written.  Yet, I saw miracles.

Many heard the name of Jesus for the first time in their life. (Let that sink in)
People started to believe & seek after Him.
God planted seeds in those who were consumed with the world.
God focused peoples eyes away from the love of money.
The poor were served & loved.
There was healing of the broken.
Hope given to the hopeless.
Love to the unrighteous.
Girls being truly loved & called beautiful for the first time. 
Satan defeated.

When I would walk down the streets of Vietnam my heart just kept breaking. It was full of abuse, alcoholism, pain, broken hearts, prostitution, sex trafficking, drugs, lies, false idols, and beautiful people.  Beautiful people that God loves so dearly.  People that He SO desires to have a relationship with.  People that have gotten themselves so deep in sin that they feel as if there will never be hope for them. But they are souls. Souls that God created for such a greater purpose.  Souls that will either end up in Heaven or Hell.  

When we really think about life, how short it is, and what is to come... It should make us RUN after these people to tell them the incredible grace that Jesus has for them.  The grace that is given to us so freely and yet we ignore or push it away. And even then God still pours it on us. 

But that's when we need to make sure we're careful.  That WE aren't trying to do it ourselves.  That we let God do it.  To let HIM use us. We cannot expect to change the world by ourselves. The only world changer, is Jesus Christ.  Yet, we cannot use that excuse to sit around in our comfort and just say "Welp! God will use someone else."  He has called ALL of us to go be His hands and feet.  "He said to them, Go into ALL the world and preach the gospel to ALL creation." Mark 16:15.  Whether it's America, Asia, Canada, Africa, some far-out jungle, anywhere. We are His hands and feet. 

My pride and my heart was constantly tested when I would see older white men walking around with young Vietnamese girls strung to their sides.  I kept getting angry.  Angry at the men that were & are misusing these women, and seeing how little there was that I could do.  I constantly had to keep going to God asking Him to change my heart.  Because here's the thing, when you actually are seeing it happening in front of you, to countless women and children, anger starts to build up.  Where every ounce within you wants to beat the crap out of the men.  Obviously, that's not from the Lord.  Good thing i'm not God! Yet, as time would go by my heart turned from anger to love.  Love for the men that use these women.  Seeing the deep need of Christ in their life and how lost they are.  Seeing how I am no better than them, and how our creator has such a beautiful life He wants for them full of love and grace.   

We are no better than those men.  They need Jesus Christ just as much as the prostitute, the person you passed while going to work, the cashier behind the counter, the pizza delivery man, and you.  We all don't deserve it.  But, He freely gives it. 

Please continue to pray for Vietnam, and all the people that God touched and loved.  They need Jesus. We all need Jesus. And without Him we are nothing.   Thank you everyone who has continued to support me and pray.  God used your prayers to make miracles happen. Here is a video from the outreach, hopefully it helps you understand everything even more! 

 Copy and paste the Video Link in your search bar: http://youtu.be/lCFBTS4Cuuo

"Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."  And once more He bent down and wrote on the ground.  But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him.  Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."  John 8:7-12

 "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news."

 

Romans 10:13-15

A Corrupt World And A God Of Grace

The past two months have been crazy here.
There's always so much going on.
But it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's good to be busy sometimes.
Especially if you are doing what God wants you to be doing.

Fun fact, we just had an earthquake around 6.5 right before I started to write this.

This past week my outreach team had the opportunity to go to Zhanghua, Taiwan for one week.  I was so blessed, and it was such an amazing time that the Lord used to spread His gospel.
Almost every day we went to the Elementary school, and the Jr High School.
At the Elementary school I was able to teach English (for the first time) and even though we just taught them fruits, colors, clothes, as well as some small other topics.. God was still able to use us in an incredible way.  Many of these children do not live in a good or comfortable home life.  Some don't have anyone to love them.  Some are mistreated, and are never shown their worth from God's eyes.  That's why we were there. To love them.  So once we started showing them love, they wouldn't let us go.  They had to always be holding onto a piece of us, trying to hug us, or talk to us in Taiwanese.

See, you have to understand.  It that area of Zhanghua, there were many people who were living in poverty.  But it wasn't something they really noticed, because it was just life for them.  The crumbled buildings, abandoned homes, and stray dogs running around is their norm.  They don't think that they need fancy things to be satisfied, or the newest technology.  But that doesn't mean that they aren't looking to other things for satisfaction.

What they look to and focus on in their life is false god's.  One of the biggest temples for the god Matsu in Asia was in this small poverty filled county.

Everywhere you went there would either be alters or temples. Everywhere. 

Every house you looked in had alters to different god's they continually worship.  (Many homes are very open in the front.)  Since most of them were young they have worshipped these false god's because their parent's did, as well as the rest of their family has for decades.  And if they left their religion, some would be excluded from the family completely.  Satan is trying to do his very best to exclude God in every way.

But
Satan will never win.

My God has already won.
My God is greater. 

So many places in this world just like Zhanghua are filled with people who have never heard of the Lord.  It is so important that we are reaching out to our local communities.  I wish that when I was back in America, that I went out as much as i've been going out here.  Visiting nursing homes.  Going out and finding people to share the gospel.  Listening to God's voice to guide me. There might not be as many temples in American to foreign god's, but there are ALWAYS people who need Jesus.  Their god's are the things in their life that they put before Christ.

This is why we must do as He calls us.  You and me.

"Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit."     Matthew 28:19

We've gotta go out and preach His name.  Yeah, sometimes it's gonna be awkward and you are going to get rejected.  Jesus was so rejected that He was crucified on a cross, and all He ever did was show us love.  It's not going to be easy, but this life is so short.  How could we live for this, and not for eternity.

The world needs Jesus. 

"The God who made the world and everything in it - He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands.  Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things."  Acts 17:24-25

Overloaded With Love

"The God who made the world and everything in it - He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands.  Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things."  Acts 17:24-25

An uncountable amount of things have happened since I've been here.  An enormous amount that I will not be able to talk about on this small blog, but ALL of them are only possible because of God.  Because life itself wouldn't be existing unless He loved us from the very beginning.    

We've had class five days a week with incredible mind blowing lectures.  

Fellowship with the 23 other roommates in the house.  

Ministering to people who don't even speak English (and I definitely don't speak Chinese.)  

There has been plenty of laughter, and plenty of pain.

Too much Taiwanese food.

A LOT of pancakes. 

Reading through the New Testament in four days out loud with a small group.

Eating Squid and "The Thousand Year Old Egg" (don't eat them)

Hearing God's voice. (You can do it, trust me. Ahhh so good!)

Ministering at The Rock.  Which is the coffee bar owned by YWAM, where anyone can come in and get free coffee or tea, practice their English, or talk to people who truly want to love them.

TEA TEA TEA

Ministering to the elderly at a convalescent home.  (One of my favorite things so far)

A absolutely beautiful hike in the mountains. 

Shopping in the markets to find the place with the cheapest fruit. 

And a tremendous amount of other things.

  

But something that I'm always really blessed to be a part of is when we worship with SBS.  For those who don't know, SBS is an intense study that goes through the Bible five times in nine months.  It's an extremely hard course, but I have heard is the most rewarding thing many of the students have done.  When we stand in that small room singing praises together, it is such a beautiful thing.  At that moment so many different nations are gathered together to praise one God.  Even though we all come from different backgrounds and struggles, we end up being unified in fellowship because the creator of all is the one we devote our lives to.  It puts such an breath-taking picture in my mind, when one day we will be gathered together again.  Not in the classroom of SBS, but with the heavenly father, singing praises with the angels, in the presence of the one who deserves every breath we take. 

"For you were bought with a price.." 1 Corinthians 6:20 

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience... But GOD being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were DEAD in our trespasses, MADE US ALIVE together with Christ - By GRACE you have been saved." Ephesians 2: 1-2, 4

"But we will devote ourselves to the prayer and ministry of the world." Acts 6:12

   

The start of a new adventure

One more week. 

One more week till the Lord takes me to the other side of the world to the busy city of Taipei, Taiwan.  

Sometimes I think to myself "Man this is crazy! I can't believe it's actually happening." But here's the thing, it's not.  Nothing is crazy or hard to believe about it.  Why?  Because God is in complete control.  Why should I even think any of this is crazy when He literally spoke and the earth and everything in it was formed.  When He holds the galaxies and stars in place.  When He keeps our lungs functioning properly so that we can breathe in every breath that keeps us alive. 

So this mission:

Going across the world

To a place i've never been

To love people who don't speak my language

To be spiritually wrecked

To be completely out of my comfort zone

Giving everything to God

Letting Him lead no matter what the cost

and so much more...

This mission, and journey that the Lord planned before my existence is about to start.  I'm so incredibly blessed and excited to see what He has planned and how I will grow.  Every day I am constantly blessed by Him, in all things.  Even those days that don't seem so great, trials are just another HUGE blessing and a time of growth.  Thank you Lord for this incredible opportunity.  

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."  
                                                                 James 4:13-15

"Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what things are behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
                                                               Philippians 3:12-14