The Senior Year & Faith

Faith. So many talk about having a "faith" or being faithful to someone or something, but how does faith come into play in the life of a future missionary? Unfortunately, I don't know if I have always been a stellar example of keeping faith in God's provision, but He has provided for my needs none the less. When my faith has been weak, He has been strong.

I find myself now ending my first week of classes. The first week of the last year towards my missions diploma, or BA equivilant in Missions has been filled with many challenging prospectives. I really feel that my classes this semester will be especially helpful towards preparing me for the continuation of learning.

The Senior Year almost didn't happen for me. Due to several circumstances, I was unsure whether or not I should come back until I actually regestered for my classes. Not that I planned on quittting, but just taking some time of to pay down my school bill and prevent further burnout from overwork. I have no doubts that this semester will hold many problems for me, but the more I have prayed the more I place it into the Lord's hands. Do I have any idea how I'm going to pay my school bill by Memorial Day? Nope, I have no idea at all. But this much I do know, that I will do my part in paying down my bill and the Lord will help make up the difference.

I'm in one of the last steps now towards reaching God's instruction towards me to go to the mission field. Do I know where? Nope. Do I know how? Nope. But I know wherever it is, that's where I'm going!

Update - Finally!

Hard to believe my junior year is over already. I've been on one missions trip and am beginning to plan for my two internships that are required in order to receive my diploma. Due to various circumstances, I had to cancel a planned internship for this summer.

I can't deny that things have been very tough the past few monthes. Several times I have had a draft ready to update this blog and only found myself deleting the little I had written. I finished the semester, but in the process I was wiped out. There were one too many events taking place each weekend on top of school and work. Guess it's been fantastic preparation for life and ministry!

While I don't have definitive plans nailed down for next summer, please pray that God would line up the plans in accordance with His will and in His way. I'm praying for the right direction to pursue, as I begin living on my own this summer. New adventures pop up all the time it seems!

Making Headway - Moving Forward

Revival is always a busy time at Bible College. It seems especially busy to me this semester as I prepare towards Missions Convention, the Junior-Senior Banquet, and an internship! Many of these aspects are incredibly exciting, and I have just contacted some missionaries about interning. They have agreed to host me, and I am currently in the process of applying with HIM for the internship. I am super excited, as I have been making a lot of headway spiritually lately.

This past Sunday, the Lord met with us in a special way and helped ground me again in the center of His will. Sunday night, I preached a message on listening to The Still Small Voice, and not to be surprised in the way that God speaks to us. It has helped me prepare for our revival with David Spivey here at Penn View.

Pray for Penn View during this revival time! Please pray for me as well, that I can balance my school work with my internship planning and everything else life throws at us. I hope to post more information soon about my internship, as soon as I have more confirmed and have permission from all the places that I need.

Til' the Storm Passes Over

The day by day struggle sometimes catches up to us, overwhelming us. Sometimes God allows a storm to come into our lives that catches us off guard. Storms don't bother me so much, but the storm that sticks around for a year or two... well it gets a little bit tiring. It can be difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and to just get through a day seems like a giant in my eyes.

On Sunday night, the speaker spoke on the storms in life. The speaker mentioned that sometimes God allows us to thrash around for a while, but is ready and waiting for us as soon as we cry out to Him. I've been thrashing around for a while now, finding it difficult to place my trust in Him that He will help me through this rough point. It's been so long without things getting better that everything just has started to ache. However, I AM crying out to God! I will not stay in the storm forever, but even if were to. I will look to the God of my Salvation, who has redeemed me from bondage. I am very thankful for His patience with me, for I have chosen to place my trust in Him at last.

In the dark of the midnight have I oft hid my face,
While the storm howls above me, and there's no hiding place.
'Mid the crash of the thunder, Precious Lord, hear my cry,
Keep me safe till the storm passes by.

Many times Satan whispered, "There is no need to try,
For there's no end of sorrow, there's no hope by and by"
But I know Thou art with me, and tomorrow I'll rise
Where the storms never darken the skies.

When the long night has ended and the storms come no more,
Let me stand in Thy presence on the bright peaceful shore;
In that land where the tempest, never comes, Lord, may I
Dwell with Thee when the storm passes by.

Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more,
Till the clouds roll forever from the sky;
Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand,
Keep me safe till the storm passes by. 

Prayer Commitment

Been quite a while since I last update this blog, and a lot has happened. My first semester of my junior year has finished at Penn View, as well as our two week intensive intersession class. I greatly enjoyed the Contemporary Mission's intersession class. We took three days to visit many of the major mission's organizations in southern Pennsylvania and learned about what God is doing around the world. Some of my favorite organizations were CLC International and Eastern Mennonite Missions. A mission's organization I couldn't recommend more is Mission Helps. Br. Wil Byler and his wife met with us on the first night of our trip and told us what Mission Helps does and how they help missionaries and churches across the Holiness movement. If you are wondering what you can do at your church or if you are willing to give assistance to missionaries when you can, start looking into Mission Helps!

One of the most important things that I got out of one of our trips was the importance of prayer. One organization requires that you have 100 people committed to praying for you daily. I have begun (not as faithfully as I like, but I'm working on it) to pray for several of my classmates and closest friends on a daily basis, and earnestly pray instead of the general "God bless so and so". So my question for you all is this: will you commit to pray for me daily? Weekly? I can testify that your prayers work. I need them, and I covet them. To know that people are praying for me on a daily basis helps keep me going when all I want to do is give up. Many people think that Bible College is easy and that it is an amazing place to grow spiritually. The reality is that it isn't easy, and while it can be a place to grow spiritually, it doesn't always happen in the way most people think. God is good, and the prayers of His people help. As I prepare for missionary work, will you commit to pray for me daily? Weekly?

Youth Camp Over!

Well, youth camp is now over bringing two weeks of our time to a close in Ukraine! What a youth camp! In-spite of the language barrier, we all made tons of new friends that will last a life time! I hardly know where to begin in describing the adventures that we had.

At first I was a little apprehensive about being a part of the youth camp. I didn't feel like I was connecting with the youth at all, while it seemed everyone else was. That did not last long however, and soon after I joined team Orange, I started developing friends. This fast-talking American learned how to talk slower and incorporate Ukrainian into his English whenever possible!

We played a lot of really fun games, including Wiffleball and Volleyball, and the young people really jumped into the games! Tuesday night, team Orange was on Security Duty. I stayed up till 3:30 that morning, and when I finally had the chance to start falling asleep, my sleeping bag almost caught on fire!! After that, I gave up sleeping by the fire and went back to our tent for a shorter night of sleep!

Now, with such a primitive youth camp, one might think we didn't eat too well. The reality is quite the opposite, as we found ourselves enjoying such dishes as Chicken Alfredo and Potato Soup! They were better than a lot of meals I've had back in the states, and they were made over a camp fire!

Although I could include many many more stories, I will try and add more pictures soon. Next on our agenda, is to head to Slovakia on Monday, then to Budapest on Wednesday, and fly home on Friday. I'm already not looking forward to leaving Ukraine. God has taught me so much here, and the sense of His governing hand as I gave the closing message of the youth camp was so clear! He is a truly great God!

Traveling to Ужгород (Uzhgorod)

Lviv--Perhaps one of the biggest surprises on our trip, we were not even meant to end up in this city, but I am glad we did! This is a picture of the most beautiful church I have ever seen, found about half a mile from the train station we came in on. Lviv's architecture is older than that of Kiev, and while it has all the modern conveniences, the ancientness of the area was felt!

Our original plan was to purchases tickets for an overnight train to Uzhgorod, and one of the first things we did when we got off the plane was go to the place to purchase said tickets. However, all tickets had been sold out, and the earliest ticket they had was for August 3rd. Mind you, the youth camp starts on the 1st, and a lot of prep-work still needed to be done, so this was not going to work. So instead, we purchased tickets to Lviv, and then tickets from Lviv to Uzhgorod. Getting up at 4:30 AM (about 8:30 PM EST), we headed for the station for our first train ride that lasted 5 hrs, only to wait in Lviv for another 5, and then take the final train to Uzhgorod--another 5 hours. Needless to say, our beds that night looked pretty welcoming!

The most important thing I came away with from Lviv was a simple truth: God has His people everywhere. As we walked by a park on the way back to the train station, Josiah heard a song that he recognized coming from the park center. As we got closer, we saw a group of people standing in a stone 'gazebo' that echoed the sound of their voices. Although we did not understand the words, we did know that they were singing Christian songs in beautiful harmony (albeit some mistakes with laughs from the singers themselves). Walking away, I thanked God that He had people in a city that were still being a LIGHT! As far as I know, the holiness movement has no churches there, and although the Catholic and Orthodox churches stand, I was encouraged to see believers worshiping God in sincerity and truth!