Preparation Day 4 - 6/12/18 - Oh Fruitful Day
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
James 1:2-4
Hey guys! As the weeks sprint by and the mission looms ever closer, our preparations have begun to ramp up. The past few days, many of our team members have been able to spend several hours together, and the results have shown us both how weak and unprepared we are alone as well as how much God can shape us and move us.
For the most part, today's meeting was a work and discussion-heavy session with Emily, Josh and me, as Amy has already left for China, and Adam was hard at work with Jon at Mrs. Song's lab. Please pray for each of them, the troubles they will inevitably encounter in each of their respective places, and their ability to balance their time and thoughts between their everyday responsibilities and the mission.
Diving right into the meeting, our work started with development of the curriculum. Josh and I (assigned to Famous Sports Teams) had already met the day before and prepared most of our slides, so we spend the first few hours of the meeting finishing up that slide deck while Emily began creating her presentation on Money. As we transitioned from preparing slides to working on activities and songs, we rediscovered our materials from last year, which were both more organized and more comprehensive than our materials for this year. This prompted a complete reorganization of what work we had done this year so as to promote greater efficiency in the future. We also took some time to continue making our song tools and brainstorm ideas for gifts to our hosts and the Taiwanese youth.
As we found our productivity gradually dropping, we decided to step out of the house and visit Providence Town Center to pick up some of the necessary materials that we had thought of during out work session earlier. That went relatively smoothly, as we found candy and cards at Walgreens, and on the way back we decided to read a passage of scripture upon our return.
And here we find ourselves at the critical point in today's preparation time. The passage Josh chose for us was James 1, an encouragement and admonishment in times of trial and tribulation. We were all greatly convicted by the content of the passage, as this year's mission was an entirely different beast from those of years before.
(Hi everyone, this is Josh picking up from where Jeremy left off. He's currently on his way to China with his family. Our team will miss him.)
From where Jeremy left off, we spent a chunk of time talking about our doubts for this year's trip. We've been facing a lot of hard doubts, rooted in how inadequately prepared we are: our curriculum is far from finished; our spirits have not been adequately nourished; and our meetings are far too scarce. Our team has yet to come together as a whole, all six of us, and regretfully, this will only take place once we arrive in Taiwan. Furthermore, as the returning members, we have each had our doubts in how well we've prepared the new members for the weighty task ahead of ourselves. We sorely lack preparation. We sorely lack confidence. We sorely need to rely on the Sovereign Lord, our God.
Soon after we concluded, Jon and Adam both joined us for the rest of the evening. Jeremy treated us out to a meal at Red Robin, after which we hastened back to share some of our previous years' experiences with Jon and Adam. Per Jeremy's foresight, we prepared a comprehensive rundown of a day in the life at camp to share with these two. To conclude our time, we went around the group and each of us presented a concern before God in prayer. To conclude this blog, I would like to list those prayers and charge you, the reader, to pray for just one of these concerns and bring it before God for our team.
Jon: for God to share the Gospel through us (and to give us the Chinese words to do so)
Josh: for the weight of this work to press on our hearts, to truly see the eternal implications we'll have on these kids
Jeremy: for peace in our doubts and to trust & rely on God even more because of them
Emily: to remember God's sovereignty and find comfort in his plans, no matter what happens
Adam: for peace in the midst of all the overwhelming outside forces pressing in and fighting for our attention
(Hi everyone, this is Josh picking up from where Jeremy left off. He's currently on his way to China with his family. Our team will miss him.)
From where Jeremy left off, we spent a chunk of time talking about our doubts for this year's trip. We've been facing a lot of hard doubts, rooted in how inadequately prepared we are: our curriculum is far from finished; our spirits have not been adequately nourished; and our meetings are far too scarce. Our team has yet to come together as a whole, all six of us, and regretfully, this will only take place once we arrive in Taiwan. Furthermore, as the returning members, we have each had our doubts in how well we've prepared the new members for the weighty task ahead of ourselves. We sorely lack preparation. We sorely lack confidence. We sorely need to rely on the Sovereign Lord, our God.
Soon after we concluded, Jon and Adam both joined us for the rest of the evening. Jeremy treated us out to a meal at Red Robin, after which we hastened back to share some of our previous years' experiences with Jon and Adam. Per Jeremy's foresight, we prepared a comprehensive rundown of a day in the life at camp to share with these two. To conclude our time, we went around the group and each of us presented a concern before God in prayer. To conclude this blog, I would like to list those prayers and charge you, the reader, to pray for just one of these concerns and bring it before God for our team.
Jon: for God to share the Gospel through us (and to give us the Chinese words to do so)
Josh: for the weight of this work to press on our hearts, to truly see the eternal implications we'll have on these kids
Jeremy: for peace in our doubts and to trust & rely on God even more because of them
Emily: to remember God's sovereignty and find comfort in his plans, no matter what happens
Adam: for peace in the midst of all the overwhelming outside forces pressing in and fighting for our attention
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