You Make Beautiful Things...

Tears of joy streamed down my face as I left her apartment complex tonight. In the car she said to me, "I believe that Jesus changes lives. I want to work on trusting Him with my life." These are the precious words of my dear friend who is studying english here in the states for the next few months. Before leaving her home in Korea, she had no idea who Jesus was nor of His importance. Six months later, she's wondering what He would do for her life.

Please join me in praying for my dear friend Sheila*. Pray that she would decide to commit her life to trusting Jesus. Pray for the two of us, as we search the scriptures together, practicing english and learning about the Savior of the world, that God would continue to reveal Himself to her. Praise God with me for the ways that He draws His creation back to Himself.

And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. -- Isaiah 42:16

SMT Retreat :)

30+ students. 6 staff members. Wednesday & Thursday... All coming together for the Student Ministry Team retreat!!

Please be praying for us as we gather together in Mission Viejo for a time of re-connecting, vision casting for the school year, encouragement and prayer!

60 days until travel

... to Cincinnati :)

I'll be coming home to Cincinnati August 10th - 17th. I'll be meeting for funding and I'd love to catch up with you if possible. God has been doing awesome things lately, which I should probably blog more about...

Anyway, please continue to pray for my summer & my time here in Long Beach. Pray that I would continue to grow more intimate and close with the LORD. Pray for my heart to be protected as I travel home for funding in two months. Pray for my time in Cincy as well...that it would be a time that is focused on vision casting, funding, encouraging and restorative.

summer study update

This is a blog to thank you for praying! Study last night went really well. My friends from the language school asked if they could come back and actually want to start hanging out with some of my Nav friends. Please keep praying for S & J. Pray that they would really connect well with our students. Pray that Christ would be revealing Himself to them and that they would come to know Him as Lord and Savior. Pray for Andrew and I as we continue to lead this study. Pray also for my friends at Long Beach... that they would continue to love and speak as "men [and women] of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ." (2 Cor 2:17b).

Summer Study

Tonight, we are having our second meeting for the summer Bible study :) We will be reading through 2 Corinthians this summer and I'm really looking forward to studying this book with my friends from Long Beach.

Please be praying:

• For our time in the Word tonight. Pray that we would be encouraged from reading God's Word together
• For good fellowship with one another
• I'm bringing a couple students from the school where I taught ESL for a few weeks. They are not followers of Christ, but are very interested in learning english, making more American friends and are open to hearing about Jesus. Please pray that they would be able to hear and receive something from the Lord tonight :)

Ask and you shall receive

God really answers prayers!

Today, I received a text from a friend who teaches ESL to Japanese and Korean students. Her school needed a person to teach a class for the month of May and she immediately thought to recommend ME!

Ah! I've never really taught before... outside of leading Bible studies and speaking at our Student Ministry Team training seminars. So I'll be coming up with lesson plans and taking these students through conversational english and teaching about the LA area.

This is awesome!

If you have ideas for me or would like to give ANY input at all, please please please leave comments.

As always, please keep me in prayer. Pray for my lesson planning, ability to be a friend with these students and for my time with them. Pray that God would be using me to impact these lives and His kingdom!

Still in process...

A friend of mine sent me a message and asked me about what God had been doing in my life lately. I felt really cliche´when I told her that God was teaching me how to trust in Him more. I feel like that is a lesson He NEVER stops teaching... sometimes, we (or at least I) feel like there is a point in the lesson where the conclusion has been reached and there is no longer a need for teaching...

I went into Aerie to pick up my schedule today and was greeted with one shift this week... I already knew of this, but was secretly hoping that I had an extra shift somewhere on the schedule. When I inquired why this was still happening, I was informed that new hires all have to wait out a 90-day probationary period where they receive one or two shifts a week in order to prove themselves worthy of working more hours. Hmm...

Here's where trusting God comes back into play. I realize that when I was hired at Aerie, I immediately stopped looking for jobs. I took my resume offline, discontinued all of the job update emails I had been receiving and was completely convinced that this was it. I no longer needed anything and that God had completely met my need. God was done working.

I'm learning that God isn't through with this process yet. He's teaching me a lot about what it means to trust Him, to seek His kingdom first and how to be in the present season where He has led me.

Please continue to pray for me. Pray that I would trust that where I am is exactly where God Himself has placed me and that I would continue to have an open/soft heart to receive what He has to teach me.