Rewind & Fast Forward
As some
of you may have noticed you haven’t received an update or blog from me in a
while. The race is half way over, time is flying by it seems. Now that I have
some time, I want to catch you up on my life in the mission field over the last
2 months.
In the
Philippines during the month of March, I was elected to be a squad leader. What
is a squad leader you ask? Well there are currently 52 people on this January
world race team with me; the 52 people in their entirety make up a “Squad”. There
are 7 teams of 7 people, which make up a “team”. Now, when we started the race,
we had a guy squad leader, Mark, and a girl squad leader, Kyla, who had been
with us since training camp in October. They did the world race back in 2008 and
volunteered to lead us for the first 4 months of our world race January
2010.
The
reason they only squad lead for 4 months is because while they are leading,
they are actively looking to raise up new squad leaders to take over for the
remaining 7 months. They asked me to be one of the 3 new squad leaders in March-
this is a very high honor. This means my ministry changes to leading the squad
spiritually, emotionally and physically, not a simple task by any means. So,
Liz Norris, Noe Rivera and myself are now the squad leaders for the M-Squad
(January 2010) and have been leading for the last 2 months.
why you have and will at times see blogs I repost from one of the guys or girls
on my squad. The squad is now my primary ministry and just like a proud Father,
I get excited when God moves and works in their lives.
(Kyla, Mark, me, Noe, and Liz at the Tree Temple in Cambodia where Tomb Raider was filmed)
Also in
March, before I left the Philippines I was plagued with Kidney Stones for a
week, which ultimately landed me in the Hospital for 4 days while the rest of
my squad went onto Cambodia. To read a great blog about how God used this
painful event in the lives of my squad mates go here and ready Danny’s blog on
it http://danielstinson.theworldrace.org/?filename=fighting-for-healing
month of April, I was visiting some of our different teams placed throughout the
country of Cambodia. As a squad leader part of your role some months is to travel
around every few days to visit the small teams of 7. You get to do ministry
with them, invest in their lives, and enjoy God together. About half way
through the month, Liz and I both got extremely sick, which wasn’t fun at all.
We ended the month by having our whole squad together for a few days, which is
called “debrief.” This is a time where we can worship together, talk, catch up,
and also say goodbye to our old squad leaders, Mark & Kyla, as they were
returning home back to the states the following day. The biggest thing God taught me this month is that I can
fall asleep spiritually really quick if I don’t spend time with Him in prayer
and His Word as soon as I get up each day. I now fight for this part of my day
to spend with God because it affects my attitude, how I treat others, and strengthens
my relationship with God.
Now this
brings us to the month of May. This month is a special month on the race
because it’s “manistry” month. What is Manistry? The textbook definition is
when you combine the words Ministry and Man together. In our case it’s when all
of the men (14 men total) from each small team join up for the month and do
ministry together without the women. In the month of May, we journeyed into the
jungle of Thailand where we would be doing construction on a home to house future
mission teams. We did a lot of concrete work, we herded cows, planted banana
trees and tapioca plants, bathed in lakes (no showers), spent most the month
with our shirts off and slept in our tents in a makeshift tree house. As you
can imagine when you put 14 guys in there 20’s together in the jungle it can
get quite entertaining. In addition, we also grew out our mustaches for the
month because we could. We had 3 days off during the month and each day off was
incredible. We played with Tigers, rode Elephants, and hiked up waterfalls
where you could see monkeys in the wild. It was surreal.
part of the month though, was how the men opened up by telling their stories of
everything they had been through in their lives and how they got on this world
race. I saw God move in incredible ways by the way He bonded the men together,
how they encouraged one another, and how many started to walk in freedom. We
walked into the jungle 14 men; we walked out 14 warriors for God. It will
probably go down as one of the best months of my world race.
Bathroom & Shower # 1 Bathroom & Shower # 2
there you have it folks, you are now caught up on my life in the mission field.
Please be praying as our squad heads to Africa, where we will spend our next 3
months. We expect to see God work in our lives in huge ways and touch the lives
of those we’re ministering to in even bigger ways. Thank you guys for all of
your love and support through e-mails, prayers, comments, and finances.
