My awesome teammate Georgia Dewey made a great highlight video of our ministry and lives last month! It just got posted so I wanted to send out another update with the video added to this blog! You can watch the video by clicking on this link or it will be posted at the end of this blog! Thanks for watching and reading this and I hope they both bless you!
If you like the video and are blessed by it if you can give Georgia a quick shoutout letting her know how you liked it on her blog at: http://georgiadewey.theworldrace.org/?filename=malaysia
Being illegal in Christ…
Well I am finally in my last country of the World Race. I honestly can’t believe I am in month 11. It’s been a long hard, yet amazing journey! I am living in the city of Phnom Penn where we are working with a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) ministry where we are teaching English to kids about 4 hours a day, playing soccer 4 days a week in a sports ministry, and serving at the church helping the kids and others feel the true love and hope of Jesus Christ within their lives! I am also excited about other opportunities that the Lord will bless me to have to serve him with living in the very big, yet poor overpopulated city. I am really excited about this month and relying on the Spirit of the Lord to give it all that I have and live this month to the fullest serving and helping the people in any way that I can.
Here is a summary of last month that I had in month 10 of my world race.
__________________________________________________________________
I’m going to refrain from using the country’s name because it is actually illegal to share the truth, love, and hope of Jesus Christ to the people within this country. When we arrived we were warned that we would have to use a lot of caution in telling the people that we were missionary’s that were there to serve the Lord. See this country has three different cultures a part of it, Indian, Chinese, and then the local people of the country. The Indian and Chinese people are allowed to be Christians but everyone else are forced to be Muslims. If people are caught sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ they can be arrested and even persecuted for it. So this was a big eye opening experience for me in never being told that I can’t or that I must use much caution in sharing Jesus with people. No yelling out the windows of cars yelling “Jesus loves you” in their language or sharing amongst crowds in the markets or streets this month. I was forced to throttle down and use prayer and discernment in how to share the truth and hope of the Lord!
Some people reading this may think that I am wrong to disobey the law or to disrespect the other religions and I understand why you might think that. Maybe like your-selves, I dislike strongly when people push their beliefs on me and try to force me to believe something. This happened to me growing up from people and even sometimes still does to me with people who don’t know me.
I NEVER WANT TO BE LIKE THIS! I want to be passionate about sharing the true hope and love that has changed and saved my life, but I never want to push beliefs on someone because it is everyone’s own personal decision to decide what they want to believe and receive.
Yet at the same time, I have realized that people who don’t know and have Jesus within their hearts are going to end up in a very sad place eternally separated from God in heaven after this life on earth. This truly saddens my heart more than I can or know how to describe. I would never tell someone that they must believe in Jesus to scare them about not being able to enter heaven, but in all truth, I am scared for anyone to die who hasn’t accepted Christ as their Lord and their Savior.
I strongly believe when one’s heart has experienced the true love of their heavenly Father God that their hearts will be changed and saved forever by the living love of the Father through Jesus Christ experienced and encountered through the true living life of the Holy Spirit.
I say this because when I get too scared to share Jesus or feel too tired or weary, sometimes thinking about the realization that these people will never be in heaven with Christ motivates me to humbly, respectively, yet passionately share the true love and hope of Jesus Christ with them. I do this knowing (especially this month in a country that is not allowed to hear the truth about Christ) that this might be their one and only chance to hear of the true love and hope of Christ. I try to always share my story and what Christ has done to my heart and then leave it open to let them choose to believe it or not. I always try to ask if I can share my story in respecting them and not pushing my own beliefs on them. In many situations I will walk right at the line of passionately sharing the true hope and love that I believe in with all of my heart and life. I do this not wanting to be disrespectful to them but wanting them to be saved and be in heaven and have the living life, hope, love, and salvation of Christ today in their hearts and lives.
It is important that I must remember that I cannot force them to believe…
It is theirs, yours, and my choice to make and it always will be!
* God loves us too much to force us to believe…yet he is always there waiting for us to accept his free gift of his unfailing, graceful, non condemning true and ultimate love.
I must trust that God is God and He will work in and through His people’s lives in ways that only He can, just like he worked in mine to save me. At the same time I am realizing that He sometimes wants to do that in and through me today within their lives. Yet other times it’s about planting seeds of faith trusting and believing that they will grow in his timing and in his way.
So this month there were many different forms of ministry. It consisted of doing manual labor early in the morning a couple days each week helping to prepare the ground to build a church for the Indian pastor that we were working with. We also went and did many house visits to the Indian community where we would share the love and truth of Christ with the people who were Hindu. Now let me please just say that these were not random visits where we just knocked on people’s doors and forced are selves in, but they were set up meetings that our pastor had made with them by building relationships and friendships with them in advance! I believe this is the best way to share God’s love, by building a friendship with a person to the point that they trust you where you can openly share about the true love and hope of Christ within your life to them in a safe and graceful way. In this friendship I believe we need to show them that we love them no matter what they believe in and until they believe that you will be a friend who believes for them…
* I believe it will be the true love of Jesus Christ living and shining through your hearts of love for them that will open their hearts to believe and truly receive God’s love for them!
There were many chances to share our personal stories and testimonies with the people. We got to work with a Chinese church where we did children’s ministry and got to meet so many wonderful and amazing people from the Indian and Chinese culture! We traveled to different churches and learned a lot about our lives with the Lord in the process!
________________________________________________________________________
* One of the most amazing things that the Lord has shown me living this life on the race is that real ministry takes place not in set “ministry” times, but in times where I am just living life fully opened and surrendered to the Lord to move! Real ministry is when the Lord prompts my heart to move and by his Spirit within me and his grace helping me I say “yes!” Then God uses me in ways that only He can! It’s honestly the most amazing blessing, gift, and feeling that I have ever experienced or received within my whole and entire life.
So here is the story that God blessed me so much to be a part of:
I went running one day and found a park that had a soccer field and found a set of monkey bars that I stopped by at to do some pull ups on (hey I have to find some way to work out)! As I started doing pull ups many kids noticed me and came my way. As I started introducing myself to the kids, more and more came and these were kids of the local people of the country that I was living in. I then started playing soccer with them where before I knew it 2 hours later I had made friends with about 30 to 40 kids that aged from middle school, to high school, to young adults. They asked me many questions of who I was and why I was in their country. I must admit it was hard for me not to tell them the whole reason of why I was there. I had to narrow it down to just say I was doing “volunteer work.” I did say I was a Christian and loved Jesus but that was it.
I was blessed to play soccer with them two more days after where on the last day the Lord blessed me so so much! Many of them wanted to take their picture with me (let’s be honest, I’m not that great, but they don’t see many white Americans walking down their streets everyday) and get my facebook information to keep in touch because they knew it was my last day there. After we got done playing soccer I asked them to huddle all together (football style) and told them the real reason why I was there! I told them I was there to share the true love and hope of Jesus Christ! I told them that even if they didn’t believe it or know it, that Jesus is real and loves them so much. I explained that Christ is always there for them and then after asking their permission, I even got to say a quick prayer with them!
* Wow, I was blown away and amazed at this!!! God has the amazing way of blessing me when sharing his love in a true way that I cannot even really express or explain! I will admit, some kids were laughing (probably thinking what is this white crazy guy saying) when I prayed, but I also saw many close their eyes and take it seriously. Do I know if any kid asked Jesus into their hearts at that moment, knowing if they did they would most likely be kicked out of their family and possible even arrested or persecuted for it, no I do not. But I do believe a seed of God’s hope and love was planted within their hearts that I hope they will always remember and believe in their entire lives!
I was so blessed by this experience and now even talk to one of the kids on facebook on a regular basis! He told me that he didn’t want to learn about Jesus because he was Muslim. I told him that I understand and that if he ever wanted to learn about Jesus Christ that I am always here to talk to him as his friend! I told him that Jesus is real and does love him and is always waiting there for him! I then followed it up asking him how his soccer playing was going and our conversation has continued on since!
I hope one day even if he’s 60’s years old, he might message me and ask me to tell him about my Jesus who has changed and saved my life! Until then I hope to stay in contact and friendship with him letting him know that I love him no matter what he believes! Why..because that’s what Jesus does!
I will wait and hope, trusting that God will do what only God can do in his heart!
__________________________________________________________________________
I will admit that it’s hard to share stories like this on my blog sometimes. I never want to share these things so people look at me and think I’m great for the things that I have been so blessed to be a part of. I share it in hopes that it will inspire you to know that God can use you in ways that will truly amaze you and bless you! Sometimes we share God’s love with our actions and lives (well I hope to always do this) without saying a word, and then other times Christ opens the door whether it be a small crack, or a wide opening to share the true love and hope of our hearts and lives in Christ! I just hope all of us, including myself will walk and even run through those open doors in courage and faith with God’s love in Jesus Christ when given the opportunity to openly share about the true love of Christ!
I encourage you today as you read this to ask God to use you to share the love of Christ today with one person in your life. Maybe’s it’s writing a small note and putting it on someone’s car saying “God is real and He Loves You.” Maybe it’s praying for your neighbor next door and asking to help them with something, or maybe it’s just telling someone in your life that there not alone and that God and yourself loves them and will always be here for them.
Ask God to speak through you and use you and I promise if you’re open to Him,
He will!
God Bless you all and thanks for reading my blogs! God loves you and lives in you!
I promise with all my life that He is real and alive….if he wasn’t I would be completely and utterly lost without any hope and life at all
….but I’m not because I have Jesus and He has me…
and even if you don’t realize it…
He has You too
and for some is just waiting for you to say “Yes”
“I came to bring Life, Life to the full” – Jesus Christ
– John 10:10
“For those who are in Christ, all that matters is living out your faith rooted in the love of Christ”
– Galatians 5:6
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we could ever imagine or ask. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.”
– Ephesians 3:20-21
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
– Matthew 5:14-16
“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in and through all darkness and no darkness can overtake it.”
– John 1:4-5
Here are some pictures from the month of ministry: a big thanks to my teamate Georgia Dewey who took so many awesome pictures during ministry and people we were blessed to minister with when half the time we didn't even know that she was. Thanks Georgia!
My friend Chong who we met at the bustop as we were leavin the country. We were blessed to become friends with him and he never heard about who Jesus was. So after we spent about an hour or two talking with him and explaining how Jesus changed and saved out lives…he then asked me how he too could recieve Jesus into his heart to be His Lord and Savior! I was then so blessed to pray with him in asking Jesus Christ into his heart to be His Savior!!!
…..God's Amazing and truly with God anything is possible!
My Team the one and only "Risky Business"
Thanks for taking the time to read this and pray for me – You are all blessing in my life!
See you Soon!
