Preparation Day 1-5/17/2018 We're Back!! (and Happy Birthday to Jeremy!)
Hi everyone!
It's so good to be back in touch with all of you as we prepare for another year in Taiwan! We are so grateful that God has given us yet another chance to serve with the Taichung Christian Assembly this summer!
Before we get into our progress so far, we are very excited to introduce to you three of our very own returning members, as well as three new ones that will be joining us this time around! Hopefully our returning supporters will all be familiar with Jeremy, Emily, and myself, who will be joining this trip for the third consecutive year. But we will also be joined by three new members: Amy, Adam, and Jonathan. You'll hopefully get to know them more as they write to you more personally in future blogs!
To catch you up, this year has been a bit more hectic than our previous ones. With the growing number of members, our schedules don't exactly all line up. So when we had our first official meeting this past Thursday at my house, it was great to have even four of us together (Amy, Emily, Jeremy, and me).
We started off the night with fellowship over some local Thai food. Returning home, we jumped right into reading & discussing an article on missions from DesiringGod called, "Doing Missions When Living Is Gain" (https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/doing-missions-when-living-is-gain). We've decided to hold weekly meetings, each of which will be spearheaded with some type of article or reading on missions in the hopes of shaping our mindset for the trip. We had a lot of great discussion, but we all related to one specific verse that was quoted:
This resonated deeply with all of us, having all worked with kids & VBS's in the past. We all experienced, in one way or another, forgoing simple love for these kids. Sometimes, the actual work itself would take precedence, making us forget the whole reason why we were serving them. Other times, our own selfish ambition and desires for the kids to like us would craftily slip into our hearts. We oftentimes deceive ourselves into thinking we're doing good and our desires our pure, but in reality we will always lack love and never have the purest of intentions.
But the author reassures us that, "all believers struggle with a heart divided. The subtle presence of immature or ulterior motives does not nullify the presence of good, biblical motives that are in your heart by the grace of God. You can rest your repentant soul in the good news that christ died to pay for all your sin." The awareness of our impure intentions or lack of love should not be used to discourage us.
However, the weight of this truth weighed deeply on each of our hearts. Thus, our group prayer for the night revolved around this idea. We asked God to give us real love for each of these kids, that our labor might not be in vain.
After this, we split off in pairs to talk about personal struggles and pray more intimately for one another. Jeremy and I had a fruitful discussion, from which I included a prayer point below... pray for us!!
We ended the night with a bit of a surprise... May 17th turned out to be Jeremy's birthday! So the team surprised him with a cake and some surprisingly well-decorated hand-written cards!
Prayer:
It's so good to be back in touch with all of you as we prepare for another year in Taiwan! We are so grateful that God has given us yet another chance to serve with the Taichung Christian Assembly this summer!
Before we get into our progress so far, we are very excited to introduce to you three of our very own returning members, as well as three new ones that will be joining us this time around! Hopefully our returning supporters will all be familiar with Jeremy, Emily, and myself, who will be joining this trip for the third consecutive year. But we will also be joined by three new members: Amy, Adam, and Jonathan. You'll hopefully get to know them more as they write to you more personally in future blogs!
To catch you up, this year has been a bit more hectic than our previous ones. With the growing number of members, our schedules don't exactly all line up. So when we had our first official meeting this past Thursday at my house, it was great to have even four of us together (Amy, Emily, Jeremy, and me).
We started off the night with fellowship over some local Thai food. Returning home, we jumped right into reading & discussing an article on missions from DesiringGod called, "Doing Missions When Living Is Gain" (https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/doing-missions-when-living-is-gain). We've decided to hold weekly meetings, each of which will be spearheaded with some type of article or reading on missions in the hopes of shaping our mindset for the trip. We had a lot of great discussion, but we all related to one specific verse that was quoted:
"If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:3 [ESV]
This resonated deeply with all of us, having all worked with kids & VBS's in the past. We all experienced, in one way or another, forgoing simple love for these kids. Sometimes, the actual work itself would take precedence, making us forget the whole reason why we were serving them. Other times, our own selfish ambition and desires for the kids to like us would craftily slip into our hearts. We oftentimes deceive ourselves into thinking we're doing good and our desires our pure, but in reality we will always lack love and never have the purest of intentions.
But the author reassures us that, "all believers struggle with a heart divided. The subtle presence of immature or ulterior motives does not nullify the presence of good, biblical motives that are in your heart by the grace of God. You can rest your repentant soul in the good news that christ died to pay for all your sin." The awareness of our impure intentions or lack of love should not be used to discourage us.However, the weight of this truth weighed deeply on each of our hearts. Thus, our group prayer for the night revolved around this idea. We asked God to give us real love for each of these kids, that our labor might not be in vain.
After this, we split off in pairs to talk about personal struggles and pray more intimately for one another. Jeremy and I had a fruitful discussion, from which I included a prayer point below... pray for us!!
We ended the night with a bit of a surprise... May 17th turned out to be Jeremy's birthday! So the team surprised him with a cake and some surprisingly well-decorated hand-written cards!
Prayer:
- Praise God for amazing mentors, like TCCGP Youth Pastor David Liu for his many great suggestions and wisdom on how to train for this STM, Hwa-Chi and Pauline for their continual guidance, sister Amy who has been a big help coordinating with us from Taiwan, and Mr. & Mrs. Song for their continual dedication to the youth here
- Ask God to stir our affections for these young ones, that we may serve out of sacrificial love
- Pray for fruitful preparations despite conflicting schedules and business in the coming weeks
- Pray for these weekly meetings to be edifying, equipping, and fruitful for the team
- Pray for Jeremy and I to keep each other accountable to read the Word every day consistently
Thank you, Joshua, for the update. Indeed, it’s a good start. We all serve Him with our own imperfections and hence often struggle. He is perfect in His forebearance and turns our struggles into growth.
ReplyDeleteI share your blogs with the saints in Chungke Christian Assembly. The local team has started the preparations as well. Pauline and I won’t be with you this summer. We surely will pray that the Lord’s grace be with you all.
HwaChi
Thank you for your wisdom and encouragement as always! We look up to both you and Pauline so much and hope to keep in touch with you even though you wont be with us physically!
DeleteThank you for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteI did struggle with a heart divide before .
But now I know I can't let the awareness of my impure intention or lack of love discourage myself. And I'll do my best to prepare all the work this time.