Well, it’s just us Koinonians! This is the first month Koinonia has been alone for ministry. Its good. We are right in the Middle of the oldest part of this city. There is a large variety of cultures living here, mostly due to foreign migrants looking for work within this country. It’s a very large city, has to be one of the largest in all of Asia. Its very clean and loud with activity. Most speak english here, so its easy to start conversations and make relatonships. It’s funny, we’re all up in this loft in an apartment with our tents set up (because of all the dang mosquitos) and then we step out and walk into the city… Kind of an odd feeling. So there’s alot going on here, as far as ministry opportunities go; there are a lot of migrant workers that work with a contract visa (which is a jacked up situation all in itself as you can imagine for these foreigners) and we get to pursue relationships with them during their work hours. Because its illegal to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to Muslims, there’s a good amount of tension when people find out that we’re Christians, but God is above all of that and is planting seeds through us when we don’t see it. You can feel it sometimes when we walk together down the streets. There’s a lot of prostitution late at night on the streets and drug addicts passed out on the sidewalk in this old part of the city, and so it can be shady sometimes… but we get our directions by God, so its a good deal going on here.
As far as this race goes, this is my 5th month and 7th country I think of been to or through on this race. I think I’m getting to a stage when I’m tired; you know, physically, you just start to accept that you’re gonna be tired this whole race haha.We joke abou that a lot. Emotionally, I’ve been practicing not to determine how I’m doing based on my emotions, ’cause that can end up being sort of like a roller-coaster of emotions, getting off, and then realizing you’re still in the theme park. Mentally, you can be either lost or controlled with time on this trip. But one thing I’m realizing through this crazy awesome trip, is me and God don’t view time the same way. He’s not really concerned about “when” as much as I am; kind of like all of those times I’d wanna know things when I entered a situation or country.
“Do I need to bring anything?”
No response
“Wait! I didn’t take my medicine-“
Be healed! Just go!
So, I begin to realize that God doesn’t really give a rip if I’m mad about not knowing… He calls me to go, maybe with a specific direction, maybe not, and all kinds of questions arise! “I want answers!”-no response… Yup! You don’t need to know, Cameron. You can be obedient or you can miss out bigtime on what I’m about to let you be a part of… Hmph, A-PART of or APART from what God’s calling me to. So really, the battle mentally is control. When I have control of something, I’m basically stating that I don’t trust God at all with what I’m holding onto… WHAT!?? What in the world could be better off in my hands than Gods? Nothing.
I hope to post some more about what this race is like, but no worries about the tired part of things. God just wants me to remain in Him, and I gotta choose into that, or I’ll have a lame experience and miss out.
God is MY ROCK! God Bless you all,
~Cameron
