Well, we are home, we are safe, we are relatively sane and our trip to Nepal was amazing! We felt like it was important to sit down and write out a reflection on the trip sharing some stories about what happened and how we saw God working during our time there.
Most of the trip can be categorized by the overwhelmingly large amount of teaching that we did. We taught seminars in churches to groups ranging from brand-new believers to people who have been Christians their whole lives; we also got to teach to missionaries and youth desiring to become missionaries at Youth With A Mission (YWAM) bases in Nepal; we also got to teach the importance of proper Bible study to first year students at a Bible college. The diversity of the people we taught to was really cool because it showed us how we were having an influence on so many different spheres within Nepal, teaching the farmers, the business men/women, mothers, children, teachers, missionaries, the old, the young, and the teens but all of these people had one thing in common – they were passionate about Jesus Christ.
About my time teaching I will just share a couple of things: First, God really worked on my heart about the kind of teaching I brought to people. I have had opportunities to teach for a number of years now, working with youth, going through college and even in my time in YWAM and God showed me how content driven my material typically was. I love theology and doctrine so my sermons and teachings would reflect that where the content or material of the message would consume 80 to 90 percent of my message and then application would get 5 or 10 minutes at the end but God really used this trip and this training in teaching to remind me of the importance of allowing our teachings to transform lives. If all I bring is content than lives are not necessarily being changed, so I had a great opportunity to see how my teaching began to change and become more balanced between content and application. I want to teach to see lives changed not just teach so people can see how smart I am or come away with lots of information, even if that information is good stuff.
Second, I had a number of opportunities to be stretched as a teacher. I found out we were leaving for Nepal that I would be teaching the book of Hebrews. This being the first book of the Bible I would be teaching I was excited but also extremely nervous that the deep and difficult book of Hebrews would be my first book. But by the grace of God and time in preparation I was able to teach through the book and see how the truth of this profound book worked in the lives of the students. But then part way through the outreach I found out that I would be teaching another book…the book of Revelation. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh…I think this was all I could think of for the first couple days that I found this out. Who am I to teach a book like Revelation? How could I possibly teach such an incredibly difficult book? Is it too late to just leave? I felt completely under qualified and overly stupid to be able to teach this book and with only a couple weeks to prepare it I felt sure of certain disaster. But again God showed up and his Holy Spirit worked through me. What a beautiful reminder it was of the fact that it is not our power, abilities, skills or wisdom that makes us successful as teachers but it is God’s power inside of us. Could the teaching have been better? Of course and with more preparation and experience I hope someday to be able to teach through the book again but God showed me what happens when we are obedient and rely on Him.
There are so many other stories that I could share; stories of people finding salvation in Jesus; stories of how specific teachings impacted the lives of different people; funny stories about teaching “mess-ups”; and fun stories about the beautiful country we got to experience during our time in Nepal, but one of the biggest things that I came away with from this trip was once again a reminder of the huge need for Biblical teaching all over the world. There are Christians all over the world who are desperate for Biblical teaching and discipleship. Many pastors of third world churches have found themselves in that position because they are the first convert of a village and are left there with no direction and no discipleship. Understanding the truths of the Bible and seeing it transform are essential to seeing God’s kingdom come to the lost and I am so blessed to be a part of it.
If you want to hear other stories from Nepal feel free to say hi next time you see us or we would love to share a meal with you and talk more about the impact of this trip.
Jeff
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Time to take it in
Disclaimer: This update is from Becky, it is of what I learned while on my Titus outreach in Nepal. Jeff's update will follow in a few days...
When I first came to Titus I was scared out of my mind. I did not want to be a teacher nor did I ever see myself as one. I struggled with the very idea of teaching, since I was a young teen I hated being in front of people speaking, it seemed like a sick joke that now I would have to do that for a living. During the three week Titus lecture phase we taught a total of four practice teachings. We would prepare four different kinds of seminars that we might encounter on outreach, including a sermon, we would present our teachings and then would be critiqued on them by our staff and fellow students. Surprisingly (for me) I did well in each of my teachings and instead of feeling good about them I got more and more frustrated. I was angry that God would dare make me a good teacher. I didn’t want to be a good teacher because I didn’t want to teach, I wanted to be able to commit two years to becoming a SBS staff/teacher but I didn’t want it to go any further than that. If I was a good teacher I feared that God would make me teach more beyond that two year commitment. The day we arrived in Nepal I realized that I was doing what God called me to do, but that I was rebelling in my heart. I couldn’t believe that after studying the Bible for nine months I didn’t even see that I was falling into the same pattern that got the Jews fell into. I was following in action only. God wanted my heart but I only wanted to give Him my actions. I was following what He said but I would not let Him change my heart, I would not let myself feel peace about teaching. That day my team prayed over me; that I would not just surrender my life but that I would surrender my will and my heart to God.
Looking back on that time I almost want to laugh, I have successfully completed my outreach phase and now not only do I not mind teaching but I actually enjoy it. It didn’t happen right away, I didn’t magically stop worrying about speaking in front of people, but God did change my heart. I went from stressing out over having to speak for 15-20 minutes, not knowing how to fill in all that time, to teaching an 18 hour seminar in the DTS, having more to say than I had time for. Even then I became aware that even when God gives me the ability to teach and be comfortable doing it that without Him all my words would mean nothing. I not only had to learn to teach with my words/content, I had to learn how to teach through Him. This became so clear the third day of my teaching in the DTS, for me it had been a rough start, I felt like they were getting it but that something was missing. That night as I was teaching on God’s love, the Spirit fell on the students; it was an amazing time of reflection and ministry for them. Afterwards some of them came up to me and thanked me for my teaching, it had touched their lives. However while it was my words that were spoken the glory belonged to God, He used me in a powerful way to impact their lives and to bring truth. What I learned from Titus is that it is not about me, God is giving us all the greatest gift, to be apart of His ministry and He uses the weak to show His strength. On my own I believe now that I am a good teacher, but with God I can be a great teacher, not because I know the most or have all the answers, which isn’t a bad thing, but because God has called me to teach and He does not call us to do His without equipping us for it.
When I first came to Titus I was scared out of my mind. I did not want to be a teacher nor did I ever see myself as one. I struggled with the very idea of teaching, since I was a young teen I hated being in front of people speaking, it seemed like a sick joke that now I would have to do that for a living. During the three week Titus lecture phase we taught a total of four practice teachings. We would prepare four different kinds of seminars that we might encounter on outreach, including a sermon, we would present our teachings and then would be critiqued on them by our staff and fellow students. Surprisingly (for me) I did well in each of my teachings and instead of feeling good about them I got more and more frustrated. I was angry that God would dare make me a good teacher. I didn’t want to be a good teacher because I didn’t want to teach, I wanted to be able to commit two years to becoming a SBS staff/teacher but I didn’t want it to go any further than that. If I was a good teacher I feared that God would make me teach more beyond that two year commitment. The day we arrived in Nepal I realized that I was doing what God called me to do, but that I was rebelling in my heart. I couldn’t believe that after studying the Bible for nine months I didn’t even see that I was falling into the same pattern that got the Jews fell into. I was following in action only. God wanted my heart but I only wanted to give Him my actions. I was following what He said but I would not let Him change my heart, I would not let myself feel peace about teaching. That day my team prayed over me; that I would not just surrender my life but that I would surrender my will and my heart to God.
Looking back on that time I almost want to laugh, I have successfully completed my outreach phase and now not only do I not mind teaching but I actually enjoy it. It didn’t happen right away, I didn’t magically stop worrying about speaking in front of people, but God did change my heart. I went from stressing out over having to speak for 15-20 minutes, not knowing how to fill in all that time, to teaching an 18 hour seminar in the DTS, having more to say than I had time for. Even then I became aware that even when God gives me the ability to teach and be comfortable doing it that without Him all my words would mean nothing. I not only had to learn to teach with my words/content, I had to learn how to teach through Him. This became so clear the third day of my teaching in the DTS, for me it had been a rough start, I felt like they were getting it but that something was missing. That night as I was teaching on God’s love, the Spirit fell on the students; it was an amazing time of reflection and ministry for them. Afterwards some of them came up to me and thanked me for my teaching, it had touched their lives. However while it was my words that were spoken the glory belonged to God, He used me in a powerful way to impact their lives and to bring truth. What I learned from Titus is that it is not about me, God is giving us all the greatest gift, to be apart of His ministry and He uses the weak to show His strength. On my own I believe now that I am a good teacher, but with God I can be a great teacher, not because I know the most or have all the answers, which isn’t a bad thing, but because God has called me to teach and He does not call us to do His without equipping us for it.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Three Weeks Left!
Hello! We have internet again!
Where do we start? There is so much to tell, right now we are in Pokhara, Jeff will be teaching Revelation in the SBS starting on Thanksgiving and on Friday as well! Next Monday I will be teaching Character and Nature of God to the DTS here for five days, these are our last teachings before we debrief and we are very nervous and excited. J The last five weeks have been amazing and we (especially me) have been growing more and more confident in our abilities as a teacher. Hopefully you have read our last update and so you know what happened the first three weeks of our arrival, if not it is on our blog @ jeffandbeckymissions.blogspot.com
One story that I did not get to share in the update is that while we were in Tarakset the church leader there told us with a huge smile on his face that he was so happy to hear what we were teaching. He had been a Christian for four years, and it was the first time that he had heard a lot of the things we were teaching in the seminar. Things like Character of God, Worship and Forgiveness, he was just so happy that his church had the opportunity to hear about these things and to grow as Christians.
The last two weeks were very hectic and amazing. We went to Jiri, a town that is popular to tourists who want to climb
We had three days with the people from the church including the day we got there, Jeff gave them an overview of what to expect for the next few days and taught them the importance of knowing the Bible. We had a total of six hours which is really not a lot of time to teach Bible Overview. We stuck to the basics of the redemptive plan throughout the Bible.
1. Character and Nature of God
2. Creation
3. The Fall of Man
4. The Redemptive Plan (which is in Genesis when God says that an offspring of the woman will bruise the head of Satan Gen. 3:15 indicating that He will send Jesus)
5. The Call of Abraham
6. The Law
7. The
8. Jesus
9. The Holy Spirit
10. The Second Coming
While we were there a woman from the area came to the church to have her son and daughter prayed over, she had two other sons that had gotten sick (on separate occasions) and she took them to a witch doctor, they both died shortly after. So she decided to come and see if the Christians would pray for her children since she was afraid of seeing them die as well. One of our team members said that it sounded like spiritual oppression and possession. We prayed for them and while we didn’t see them be instantly healed, we also didn’t see them sick, she decided to believe in God and accepted Him in her life. It was so amazing to see that God is bringing people to Him and that sometimes all we have to do is be there to show people who it is that is seeking them.
We also got to meet the pastor who planted the church and learned that he had planted a total of 18 churches in the surrounding areas over a time period of 15 years, he must have been around 45-55 (very hard to tell since Nepali’s often look the same until they reach their 70’s J). He tried to visit every church around once a month and once a month they all get together to fellowship with one another. When they get together there is about 500-600 people! He was an amazing man of God who is passionate about God’s word going out to the people of
After the three days we went back to Jiri to teach another Bible overview seminar to the church there. Again seeing that there were so many people there that were hungry for God’s word in their lives. We actually had one woman on the first day that used to be a witch doctor, but had heard about Jesus and three weeks before she became a Christian!
Now here we are in Pokhara, trying to not let our anticipation of going to
Prayer points:
1. Health:
Jeff has been sick since we hiked up to the village in Jiri, first with some sort of weird flu thing and now with a lingering cough and aches, it might be bronchitis, he’s on antibiotics right now, please pray for his recovery as Revelation is coming up in two days
2. Focus:
For both of us to finish strong and not be distracted by anything that would hinder us in teaching, or that would lessen our teachings in anyway.
3. That our time in debrief would be good and relaxing and that we would be able to finally rest after so much teaching.
We love you all and are keeping you in our prayers,
Becky and Jeff
Monday, November 2, 2009
Update!
Hey all!
Below in brown is the update that we sent out, if you didn't get the e-mail please send us you e-mail address so that you can get it for the next time.
So I just wanted to give you all an update with what we have been doing for the past 1 1/2 months and what we will be doing in the future. The training time went incredibly fast and it was very sad the day we had to go, I know that I will see you guys again but for our Titus family we may never see some of them ever again. :( The training time was good and it gave me some confidence to teach even if I did not want to. God was working on my heart to be a teacher, not just to teach, if that makes sense, but I was still fighting Him on that one. :) The day after we got here in our team meeting I told everyone that I didn't want to be here and that I didn't want to be a teacher, but that God wanted me to stop doing what He called me to in action only, in essence I was being a Jew (yes so funny Marci, I actually realized the other day that I am not just a Bible nerd, but that I am a Bible geek too. A geek, as defined by Angelica, is someone who is technologically smart while a nerd is book smart... I digress). So they all prayed for me and that day I taught in the Bible college, it was scary but it was alright. The next day I taught again and so did Jeff, I was starting to like our class and the third day while I wasn't supposed to teach I was still going to go and evaluate the other teachers that were there from day one with me (Jeff and Jason, he's Canadian).Well, I got sick, and couldn't speak, we were going to the temple to see what their worship was like and I still went even though I thought it would be better to die since my head was super painful. It was impact-ful, and I stubbornly went to class anyway. It was great! After class Jeff and Jason stayed to play "football" (soccer) with the boys from class and me and Estela, also from class, went to watch, we had some great time of talking and getting to know each other. The next day at 6am we left to go to Pokhara with Jenn and Micah, the other married couple in our team. Jenn taught Mark in the SBS and Jeff taught Hebrews in between I led a Bible study for a local church. Then we went to Tarakset to teach the new believers in this village. We gave a three day seminar with beginner topics like Character of God, Repentance and forgiveness, Discipleship, Worship and Quiet times. They were amazing and so thankful to us. This is where we got our first taste of spicy dried goat meat, eating cooked sweet potatoes for snack and "first milk" which is basically your worst nightmare in food form. It is actually a delicacy and it is basically milk that has been boiled down to the "curds?" its like dried out cottage cheese that is bigger and tastes smokey and when you chew it, it squeaks in your mouth and if you try to swallow it whole it squeaks in your throat. They call it first milk because after a water buffalo has a baby (oh yeah, its water buffalo milk) they milk it before the baby has drank any, hence the first milk. Today we came back to Kathmandu, where we started out from, and we are waiting for the rest of our team to come back from the villages they have been teaching at. Our team is of 8 people which is like 4-6 people more than usual so we split up into two different teams. That is what we have been doing, and coming to the close of our third week in Nepal I find that God has given me a heart for these people, some of it may be the fact that everyone here thinks I am Nepali, or that I am considered to be tall here ;) but I have loved being here with these people and they have definitely found a way into my heart. Also I have really been putting my heart into my teachings since God confronted me about not aligning it with my actions and I have actually enjoyed teaching!:) God is always good. Up next we leave for Jiri to do more seminars, one team will stay in Jiri and the other will travel, on foot, to other villages and hold seminars, probably on Bible overview, we are there for two weeks. After that one team will go to Elim to teach in the DTS there and two people will go to Pokhara, one to teach Revelation to SBS and the other will teach in the DTS there and possibly two others will go to Darjeeling to teach the refugees. We're not sure how the teams will split up yet, but whenever
we have internet I will try to update you all. Here are some pictures!
The market Kathmandu from the rooftops
The "holy" river
Cremation for the poor
Rich cremation
Sorry this is all its letting me upload. :(
*DTS (Discipleship Training School, this is the first school that YWAM has everyone who wants to partner with them do, we did ours in England in 2007) SBS (School of Biblical Studies, this is the nine month program Jeff and I did last year where we learned how to study the Bible inductively and went through the whole Bible as well.) Titus (This is the "school" we are currently on, this takes SBS's and sends them to third world countries to teach the Bible to pastors, leaders and basically anyone who wants to learn) YWAM calls all of their programs, outreaches and training schools.
Below in brown is the update that we sent out, if you didn't get the e-mail please send us you e-mail address so that you can get it for the next time.
So I just wanted to give you all an update with what we have been doing for the past 1 1/2 months and what we will be doing in the future. The training time went incredibly fast and it was very sad the day we had to go, I know that I will see you guys again but for our Titus family we may never see some of them ever again. :( The training time was good and it gave me some confidence to teach even if I did not want to. God was working on my heart to be a teacher, not just to teach, if that makes sense, but I was still fighting Him on that one. :) The day after we got here in our team meeting I told everyone that I didn't want to be here and that I didn't want to be a teacher, but that God wanted me to stop doing what He called me to in action only, in essence I was being a Jew (yes so funny Marci, I actually realized the other day that I am not just a Bible nerd, but that I am a Bible geek too. A geek, as defined by Angelica, is someone who is technologically smart while a nerd is book smart... I digress). So they all prayed for me and that day I taught in the Bible college, it was scary but it was alright. The next day I taught again and so did Jeff, I was starting to like our class and the third day while I wasn't supposed to teach I was still going to go and evaluate the other teachers that were there from day one with me (Jeff and Jason, he's Canadian).Well, I got sick, and couldn't speak, we were going to the temple to see what their worship was like and I still went even though I thought it would be better to die since my head was super painful. It was impact-ful, and I stubbornly went to class anyway. It was great! After class Jeff and Jason stayed to play "football" (soccer) with the boys from class and me and Estela, also from class, went to watch, we had some great time of talking and getting to know each other. The next day at 6am we left to go to Pokhara with Jenn and Micah, the other married couple in our team. Jenn taught Mark in the SBS and Jeff taught Hebrews in between I led a Bible study for a local church. Then we went to Tarakset to teach the new believers in this village. We gave a three day seminar with beginner topics like Character of God, Repentance and forgiveness, Discipleship, Worship and Quiet times. They were amazing and so thankful to us. This is where we got our first taste of spicy dried goat meat, eating cooked sweet potatoes for snack and "first milk" which is basically your worst nightmare in food form. It is actually a delicacy and it is basically milk that has been boiled down to the "curds?" its like dried out cottage cheese that is bigger and tastes smokey and when you chew it, it squeaks in your mouth and if you try to swallow it whole it squeaks in your throat. They call it first milk because after a water buffalo has a baby (oh yeah, its water buffalo milk) they milk it before the baby has drank any, hence the first milk. Today we came back to Kathmandu, where we started out from, and we are waiting for the rest of our team to come back from the villages they have been teaching at. Our team is of 8 people which is like 4-6 people more than usual so we split up into two different teams. That is what we have been doing, and coming to the close of our third week in Nepal I find that God has given me a heart for these people, some of it may be the fact that everyone here thinks I am Nepali, or that I am considered to be tall here ;) but I have loved being here with these people and they have definitely found a way into my heart. Also I have really been putting my heart into my teachings since God confronted me about not aligning it with my actions and I have actually enjoyed teaching!:) God is always good. Up next we leave for Jiri to do more seminars, one team will stay in Jiri and the other will travel, on foot, to other villages and hold seminars, probably on Bible overview, we are there for two weeks. After that one team will go to Elim to teach in the DTS there and two people will go to Pokhara, one to teach Revelation to SBS and the other will teach in the DTS there and possibly two others will go to Darjeeling to teach the refugees. We're not sure how the teams will split up yet, but whenever
we have internet I will try to update you all. Here are some pictures!
The market Kathmandu from the rooftops
The "holy" river
Cremation for the poor
Rich cremationSorry this is all its letting me upload. :(
*DTS (Discipleship Training School, this is the first school that YWAM has everyone who wants to partner with them do, we did ours in England in 2007) SBS (School of Biblical Studies, this is the nine month program Jeff and I did last year where we learned how to study the Bible inductively and went through the whole Bible as well.) Titus (This is the "school" we are currently on, this takes SBS's and sends them to third world countries to teach the Bible to pastors, leaders and basically anyone who wants to learn) YWAM calls all of their programs, outreaches and training schools.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
In Christ Alone...
Hello Everybody! We just wanted to start off this update with exciting news. We have officially been accepted to come to Taiwan and staff with the School of Biblical Studies (SBS). We had already been pretty confident that we were going but it is really good to know for certain. Now all that stands in our way is the visa process, so please pray that all the details will go smoothly. We have also found out that we were able to extend a layover at the end of our outreach so that we can spend time in Taiwan meeting our fellow staff members, look for a place to live and get to know the culture.
We are leaving for Nepal in one week! The time here has gone by so fast and has been filled with so much learning and stretching. We have been really built into to become better leaders and teachers and it has been amazing working on our skills to be effective communicators of God’s word. This week it seems like one of the biggest areas of challenge has been bringing teaching that is truly transforming. We got to prepare and preach a sermon this week that we could use on outreach and we were encouraged to have fifty percent of our material be focused on application. I (Jeff) hadn’t realized how content driven my teaching had been up to this point so it was a good challenge to practice bringing a sermon that would help people to act and live the message being taught. We have had regular team meetings with our smaller outreach teams and it has been encouraging and heart breaking as we learn more and more about the culture. Nepal is a country that is so in need of the Gospel and God’s truth. We did some research on Nepal this week and found out that Christianity is much less than 1% of the population whereas Hindu is over 80%.
Everything we have been learning has just been increasing our passion about the Titus Project (the program we are currently involved with) as well as School of Biblical Studies. Being able to understand and study the Word of God is so crucial in seeing the lives of individuals and even nations transformed. As the Scriptures are opened up to people who haven’t had the opportunity to study it before they are confronted with the beauty of who God is and how He loves them.
I wanted to finish this update simply by sharing a way that God touched my life this week. During a worship service we were able to sing “In Christ Alone” the words to this song are as follows:
In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ alone! who took on flesh
Fulness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.
As we were singing the third verse we got to the line that talks about how Jesus rose again and a number of people moved by the Spirit simply shouted out their voice in excitement and love for what God has done. It reminded me of how often I forget what an amazing thing it is that Jesus rose from the grave, that he conquered death and broke the curse and bondage of sin in our lives. I want to be a person who always carries the excitement of a glorious Jesus who is risen from the dead. And then finally the end reminds us that because of his resurrection we are able to stand in the power of Christ! I hope that encourages you the way it has encouraged me this week :)
Prayer Requests:
- please pray that our hearts will continue to grow for the people of Nepal as we prepare to leave
- pray for our finances: we are still $2,500 short for our trip to Nepal
- pray for our travels: we have a long flight with a number of layovers to get there including an overnight layover in Seoul Korea!
Thank you for your prayers and love! We love and miss all of you!
Jeff
We are leaving for Nepal in one week! The time here has gone by so fast and has been filled with so much learning and stretching. We have been really built into to become better leaders and teachers and it has been amazing working on our skills to be effective communicators of God’s word. This week it seems like one of the biggest areas of challenge has been bringing teaching that is truly transforming. We got to prepare and preach a sermon this week that we could use on outreach and we were encouraged to have fifty percent of our material be focused on application. I (Jeff) hadn’t realized how content driven my teaching had been up to this point so it was a good challenge to practice bringing a sermon that would help people to act and live the message being taught. We have had regular team meetings with our smaller outreach teams and it has been encouraging and heart breaking as we learn more and more about the culture. Nepal is a country that is so in need of the Gospel and God’s truth. We did some research on Nepal this week and found out that Christianity is much less than 1% of the population whereas Hindu is over 80%.
Everything we have been learning has just been increasing our passion about the Titus Project (the program we are currently involved with) as well as School of Biblical Studies. Being able to understand and study the Word of God is so crucial in seeing the lives of individuals and even nations transformed. As the Scriptures are opened up to people who haven’t had the opportunity to study it before they are confronted with the beauty of who God is and how He loves them.
I wanted to finish this update simply by sharing a way that God touched my life this week. During a worship service we were able to sing “In Christ Alone” the words to this song are as follows:
In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.
In Christ alone! who took on flesh
Fulness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.
As we were singing the third verse we got to the line that talks about how Jesus rose again and a number of people moved by the Spirit simply shouted out their voice in excitement and love for what God has done. It reminded me of how often I forget what an amazing thing it is that Jesus rose from the grave, that he conquered death and broke the curse and bondage of sin in our lives. I want to be a person who always carries the excitement of a glorious Jesus who is risen from the dead. And then finally the end reminds us that because of his resurrection we are able to stand in the power of Christ! I hope that encourages you the way it has encouraged me this week :)
Prayer Requests:
- please pray that our hearts will continue to grow for the people of Nepal as we prepare to leave
- pray for our finances: we are still $2,500 short for our trip to Nepal
- pray for our travels: we have a long flight with a number of layovers to get there including an overnight layover in Seoul Korea!
Thank you for your prayers and love! We love and miss all of you!
Jeff
Sunday, September 27, 2009
We're on fire! Literally!
Hey all,
We just got back from our retreat which was amazing and fun, we got there Saturday and spent the night, leaving after lunch on Sunday. We got there around 11:30am had lunch which we had packed the night before and then set up our room which was a covered wagon!
The retreat was at a ranch set up by our staff and allowed by a very generous ranch owner that frequently gives both the opportunity to spend time on his property and financially to the Titus project.
After eating I got some much needed girl time with the other girls on Titus and Jeff and the boys went off to shoot some bows and arrows.
When they came back we went in search of the horses we heard were there and we found them! There were three of them and they were so sweet. The one I am petting tried to nibble on my hand.
As you can see, we had some fun with the skins from the animals that our host had taken down.
It was a great time and we were so thankful to have a day of rest after the crazy first week of Titus. That is until Saturday night when we started getting calls from the base about a fire which is right above the base in Lakeside, MT.
Below are the pictures taken from our base, as you can see the fire is very close and for a while they were not sure if they would have to evacuate the whole town. They are working hard to ensure the safety of the people in the town. Please pray for their safety as well as for the safety of the people whose homes are near the fire.
We spent a better part of the night praying and worshiping, coming back to the base today we found that However now they have been able to beat back the fire 20%. However there is still a danger. Below are more pictures and a link that talks more about it.
Some highlights of this week are that we have to prepare a 20 minute sermon this week, which is due on Friday, write a research paper and Jeff is going to lead worship for the SBS on Wednesday.
Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. We love you guys.
Becky
http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=11205497
We just got back from our retreat which was amazing and fun, we got there Saturday and spent the night, leaving after lunch on Sunday. We got there around 11:30am had lunch which we had packed the night before and then set up our room which was a covered wagon!
The retreat was at a ranch set up by our staff and allowed by a very generous ranch owner that frequently gives both the opportunity to spend time on his property and financially to the Titus project.
After eating I got some much needed girl time with the other girls on Titus and Jeff and the boys went off to shoot some bows and arrows.
When they came back we went in search of the horses we heard were there and we found them! There were three of them and they were so sweet. The one I am petting tried to nibble on my hand.
As you can see, we had some fun with the skins from the animals that our host had taken down.
It was a great time and we were so thankful to have a day of rest after the crazy first week of Titus. That is until Saturday night when we started getting calls from the base about a fire which is right above the base in Lakeside, MT.
Below are the pictures taken from our base, as you can see the fire is very close and for a while they were not sure if they would have to evacuate the whole town. They are working hard to ensure the safety of the people in the town. Please pray for their safety as well as for the safety of the people whose homes are near the fire.
We spent a better part of the night praying and worshiping, coming back to the base today we found that However now they have been able to beat back the fire 20%. However there is still a danger. Below are more pictures and a link that talks more about it.
Some highlights of this week are that we have to prepare a 20 minute sermon this week, which is due on Friday, write a research paper and Jeff is going to lead worship for the SBS on Wednesday.
Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. We love you guys.
Becky
http://www.montanasnewsstation.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Day three, four and five
As I write this I am trying to hurry as we are in class right now, don't worry, we are on break.
How can I describe how busy this week has been? It's like trying to prepare for a dinner for 25 in two hours, it might be possible, but you feel like you are trying to accomplish the impossible.
We have had lectures everyday, we are reading two books simultaneously, going through three booklets on teaching, journal-ing and preparing our teaching of the inductive method which was supposed to be 45 minutes long. Needless to say we have a lot on our plates right now. :) We have been lucky enough to have our staff plan a trip to a ranch this weekend! They want to make sure that through all the stuff we have going on during the week that we have time to relax, even though it is recommended that we bring our books to read.
Ahhhh! It's Friday and we have successfully completed our first teaching! Both of us did a great job apparently, but I have a few minor things to improve upon before I am perfect. ;) But it is nice to know that the potential is there.
There are eight people on our team including us, one other married couple, one guy, two girls and our leader Kerry. The details are still in the process of being worked out but we should know shortly where we are going, and what we will be teaching.
With love,
Becky
How can I describe how busy this week has been? It's like trying to prepare for a dinner for 25 in two hours, it might be possible, but you feel like you are trying to accomplish the impossible.
We have had lectures everyday, we are reading two books simultaneously, going through three booklets on teaching, journal-ing and preparing our teaching of the inductive method which was supposed to be 45 minutes long. Needless to say we have a lot on our plates right now. :) We have been lucky enough to have our staff plan a trip to a ranch this weekend! They want to make sure that through all the stuff we have going on during the week that we have time to relax, even though it is recommended that we bring our books to read.
Ahhhh! It's Friday and we have successfully completed our first teaching! Both of us did a great job apparently, but I have a few minor things to improve upon before I am perfect. ;) But it is nice to know that the potential is there.
There are eight people on our team including us, one other married couple, one guy, two girls and our leader Kerry. The details are still in the process of being worked out but we should know shortly where we are going, and what we will be teaching.
With love,
Becky
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