Aloha, I hope you had a wonderful holiday season! God's blessings are often hard to quantify in a day or a week or a month, how much more so in remembering his faithful love, provision and guidance through an entire year! As you look back on 2010, I pray that you would see with new eyes, the unmistakable fingerprints of the God of the universe, actively enriching your life, and that those reminders fill you with expectation to see Him even more in 2011! As I think back on God's faithfulness, I think of an incident in May, traveling from Herrnhut, Germany to Indonesia. Due to my own oversight, I missed the train I needed to take to the airport, and ended up waiting an hour and a half for the next train. I stepped off the train at the Herrnhut airport 7 minutes before take off, rushed to the ticketing desk, was escorted through security, onto the plane, and took off on time! I sat down in my seat (14A) nearly fainting from shock or gratitude or a combination of both as I thought to myself "only God could have gotten me on this plane!"
Central American excursion
The past two weeks I've been in the nation of Costa Rica. In addition to this little Latin-American country's legendary beauty, I believe God has some amazing plans in its future, and I was incredibly blessed to be part of what He's doing there now. Several years ago, a missions base and training center called "Pura Vida Missions" was founded in Heredia, Costa Rica, in order to reach out to nearby communities, assist local church leadership and serve the local church in practical ways. Most recently, this has included launching a 10-month ministry school to train both native Costa Rican Christians, as well as international students with a heart for that nation. I was invited to teach for two weeks in that school on Bible survey and tools of inductive Bible study. It was an incredible time of fellowship, and mutual encouragement and learning, as I was challenged by each of the students' dreams for serving God, and blessing the nation of Costa Rica. In addition to taking ministry related classes each week, each student is regularly engaging in the local community in areas of evangelism, church work (leading youth groups, worship times outreaches etc.) as well as community development work in exploited communities and disaster areas.
sunset over Heredia, Costa Rica
campfire at the Heredia YWAM base with
With some students, going to visit YWAM
Campfire worship time
Costa Rican possums Back to Business
This year won't see me traveling as much as last year, which is partly a blessing :-). I will be leading a 9 month ministry school called School of Biblical Studies back in Kona, Hawaii. I am really looking forward to this opportunity, both to invest into a new group of students, hungry for Gods' word, and also to invest into the community of Kona. I am believing that God will speak to the hearts of the students He wants to see take this course, and multiply His message in the nations. Could you be praying that the way would be opened for these students to come? Many from the developing world are still believing for things like visas, plane tickets and financial provision in order to be part of this school. Students for this school are expected to come from nations such as the United States, Norway, Rwanda, South Korea, China and Moldova.
Teaching Inductive Bible Study for DTS in Kona, HawaiiPrayer for Nations
India:
I spent some time in India last summer, and recently had lunch with a friend who had just returned from a medical mission there. As we talked, I was reminded of some of the things that stood out to me while I was there, not just the visible, ever present poverty, idolatry and social oppression, but the subtle darkness, perceptible to believers as we look from the outside in on those whom Isaiah describes as "walking in darkness." The thing I would ask for you to join me in prayer for is the numerous new churches in regions such as Orissa, India, where the violence and hatred stem from not only religious animosity, but economic exploitation and a still present, if not condoned or legal, oppressive caste system. Pray for supernatural protection of believers in communities targeted by fundamentalist groups. Pray that Christians will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to respond in the opposite spirit, with love and compassion. Pray that the enemies of God's people will, like Saul on the road to Tarsus, be won over by the power of Jesus to transform any life. You can visit persecution.org for more information on the persecution in India and how to pray for these events.
Some of my team in Indian garb, experiencing the local transportation
The local produce market
Visiting the Taj Mahal