Reaching Out

Hello everyone! I didn’t get a blog posted last week, so this one might be longer. Last week we had Bill Payne speak for the week. He spoke on the character of God. It has been so amazing to look at how much God truly loves us. That it’s not just that He loves us, but that throughout all eternity God’s love has always been the same. Nothing we do or the failures we’ve had can add or subtract from His love because God loves us with ALL that He is. Bill talked about Jesus’ death on the cross. We all know that He was crucified and died for our sins, but you know about how the Bible says that He was speared and blood and water flowed out of Jesus’ chest. Well, when someone is stabbed first water would come and then the blood because the heart would be punctured last, but it says blood and water flowed out together, which means that a blood vessel or Jesus’ heart would have had to burst for it to be mixed. Jesus literally died of a broken heart because of His love for us. That just amazes me!!!

God has been continually pouring into us and reminding us of His love. He just keeps saying “I love you, and you are to love people like I love them.” He longs for everyone to love Him, but since love is only love if it is freely chosen, He gives us the free will to choose to love Him. When we choose to follow Jesus, we are commanded to love others. We learned more about that this week when Joe Rystrom, one of our base directors, spoke on missions. We as Christians are called to go out and spread God’s love with every tribe, tongue, nation, and people. This is God’s heart to see them all worshipping before Him (Rev. 7:9). God speaks of love around 559 times in the Bible. He speaks of reaching the nations around 559 times. Do you think there is a connection? God loves everyone, but He needs us to go out into the world and share Him with them. I never realized how few cross-cultural missionaries there are in the world. There are only 400,000 full-time missionaries in the world, and they are working to share the Gospel to around 3 billion people in the unreached nations of the world. The sad things is that our churches aren’t supporting God’s call to reach the world enough. Statistics show that a total of $330 billion are spent in churches a year, but of this money only .1% ($400 million) is spent on missions to reach the unreached people of the world. And only 5.9% ($19.6 billion) is spent of regular missions. How will every tribe, people, language, and nation come to know Christ if people are willing to go and to help?

We had a time to think about what we learned and to pray and ask God how He wants us to help in reaching these people. I feel that God placed me in Lincoln for a reason, but that I’m called to raise up students and take them out into missions. To open their eyes to reaching out to people around the world. I know that I just need to trust God and He will guide me to where I’m to go and who I’m to reach.

So I’m learning a lot, but I’m also having a lot of fun too! Last weekend was Chinese New Year so a group of us went to a parade in the city. Next weekend there will be a huge celebration in the temple area next to our village. It’s so fun seeing this culture and learning about it. We have also have been hanging out a lot and just being crazy, which is normal for us :) Last weekend a few of us climbed the mountain that is behind our village. It was quite a hike, but I pushed through! Sadly, it was cloudy on the top and we couldn't see mainland China, but it was still a fun and challenging adventure I enjoyed!


Please continue to pray for me and all of us here. Next week we will be learning about personal strongholds. If you could just pray for me to continue to be open and willing to learn and to let my heart be molded into what God wants it to be. Thanks so much! Love you all