So Much learning!

I am learning a ton of new things here at School of Discipleship…. but don’t worry…. I still do manage to have fun 🙂 Like today, for example… we got to start our house meeting before supper, then have a wonderful supper of barbequed burgers, macaroni salad, chips, and pickles….

Then, best of all 😉 ice cream, chocolate sauce and bananas for dessert 🙂 It was scrumptious!! While enjoying our dessert, we finished our house meeting. Tonight was an evening where a few of us girls were having tons of fun just being silly 🙂 After fooling around for a bit, we got down to doing our assignments…

Right now, we are going through the book Before You Hit the Wall, along with the booklet Learning to Pray, the combination of these two are called Spiritual Disciplines. Prayer is a huge part of the ministry of Gospel for Asia, and it is an area that I consistently need to work on at this point in my life. Going through this book has been quite helpful, it has given me quite a bit of head knowledge, but the issue is that now I need to get down to it and make the choice to apply what I am learning, otherwise this year will benefit me very little!

Sometimes the choices that we have in life can be aggravating, and we complain that we have too many, but then when we were not given as many choices…. we complained that we didn’t have enough choices! I am so glad that God is in heaven, and that He knows what we are in need of and what will be a hindrance to us! May God be praised!

 

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It is Spring Cleaning in Stoney Creek!

You know it’s spring when………

The grass starts turning green, temperatures rise, birds fly back from the south and flowers start blooming everywhere!!

These are all wonderful signs of spring and the Lord has given me a new appreciation for them, but they have nothing to do with the sign that I’m talking about. Everyone’s “favorite” sign of spring is when mom says “Guess what? It’s time for Spring Cleaning!! ” Groan!!!!!

If this has always been your perspective of Spring Cleaning then you should try it at the Gospel For Asia Canadian office! The whole family, aka “staff“, takes the afternoon off once a year to clean the entire office. You know what they say, ” Many hands makes light work.” This is such a true statement! We all cleaned our own personal spaces first and then it was off to help others clean the common areas in the office. We had a blast!! I even got to stand on the kitchen counter to clean in and on top of the counters!! It’s not every day that you get permission to do that, now is it?? I didn’t think so!

Now, even though the cleaning was a lot of fun, all good things still come to an end. So, instead of ending our day together with cleaning, we had a barbecue outside and more  Gospel For Asia families showed up for a great time of fellowship. The excitement didn’t stop there though, first we got blown inside and rained out by a surprise shower. After rushing inside it was time for some dessert and arm wrestling!! ( I may or may not have participated in those) Okay I did win a few arm wrestling matches, but who’s counting?

Family BBQ 500px

Then, we watched Toy Story 2, enjoyed a few laughs and some hyper children, and went home to a comfortable air conditioned house. Praise the Lord for spring and a wonderful loving family at Gospel For Asia’s School of Discipleship!

I wonder what the sign for summer is, don’t you?

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Prayers in Philly

So, right now I am raising my support so that I can come back to Gospel For Asia as a staff, and I would like to share with you the amazing day God blessed me with yesterday and from that you can see some of the reasons why I feel God is soooo amazing.

Yesterday I went with one of my friends from my church Calvary Chapel Chester Springs to go meet one of her pastor friends of Calvary Chapel Antioch in Philadelphia. When I got there, I felt like I was amongst family. Their love of Jesus was practically oozing from the walls of that small church. After the service, I was introduced to this homeless guy named Daniel (One of the guys from the Homeless ministry that I’ll share about later), the thing about Daniel is that his marriage is like that of Hosea from the Bible. He adores his wife, but she is being unfaithful. He prays for her daily, but because of this, he is out on the street. Please be praying for him, he is totally on fire for Christ though, and I praise God for that.

After talking with Daniel, I met the pastor of this Calvary chapel, Aaron Campbell. This brother is dedicated to spreading the Gospel of Christ. His message was practically dripping with how all of us are called to spread the Truth, even if we all aren’t called overseas, we are called to our families, our work place, and our community. It was neat talking to this brother and about Gospel for Asia.  He wasn’t opposed to me sharing with him and the elders about the need for me to raise support.

After Church, Dana (my friend from church), Jonah (the leader of the homeless ministry) and I took Daniel out for lunch at a Chipotle. It was a great time of fellowship. After eating, we headed over to the park area where a whole bunch of the homeless people in Philly live. Before I share more about what we did there, let me say that this is an answer in prayer. I had been praying about getting involved in a ministry at my church here while I was support raising so that I can still be actively serving God, and evangelizing, while I’m not in the office. My mom then mentioned this Homeless ministry that had started a few years ago by a group of the 20’s-30’s in our congregation. I had always been interested in getting involved, but then God called me to Gospel For Asia and so I left. So when my mom presented to me this opportunity, I prayed about it and decided to try it out. And boy was it an answer to prayer! I was there and I was so blessed by these Homeless guys and God spoke through me, there was no fear because God placed this overwhelming love for these guys that could have only come from Him. And God’s perfect love casts out all fear, and boy is that a true statement!

So we are at this part talking to these guys, three of them Drew, Johnny, and Angel are believers, and mr. Black and Ali were not. So it was an interesting mix. After a few hours talking with them (they gave me the nickname “green-eyes”) we headed over to another church (Tenth Presbyterian Church) with Drew and Johnny (I think that’s his name… I’m really bad with names, but I’m trying to memorize them for the next time I see them).  We met up with this guy named John. I got talking to him and then one of his friends Josh, came up and talked with us too. We somehow got on the topic of the south and I brought up that I live in Texas now, and they asked why, so I told them about Gospel For Asia. Well, John knows all about Gospel For Asia and pretty much freaked out he was so excited that I actually worked there! He has read the Revolution in World Missions and the The Road to Reality and loves Bro. KP tremendously! Then he asked about which church I go to down there and I mentioned the Village Church, and he knew about Matt Chandler! How crazy is that?! I’m in the middle of Philly, talking to these two college guys, and they know about Gospel For Asia, and the Village church! So John asked what I was doing up in PA, and I mentioned that I was in the School of Discipleship and that I’m now on staff and then he asked if I was support raising, I of course said yes, and I gave him and Josh my prayer cards.

We chatted for a bit longer, and then Jonah, Paul, Drew, Johnny, and I went out to dinner. During dinner, I was asked about art, and I mentioned that I was studying in Highschool to do something with graphic arts or video stuff, and then Paul and Jonah asked if I would work on illustrating Paul’s children’s book he was working on. I said I’d work on it if I have time before I get back to Gospel For Asia. But I was completely blown out of the water of how providing God is. Seriously.

After dinner, we walked back to the park where Drew and Johnny sleep. We talked for a bit more, and I got to share with Jonah about my trip to India, which was awesome. Then we headed home and got back to my house. But that whole entire time I was so comforted to know that in this season when I am support raising, I am where I need to be. And God’s got my back!

Thanks for bearing with me through this long post! Just wanted to share with you all how amazing God is, and how’s He’s moving all over the world! 😀

-Alley

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Fellowship, Soccer and Wrestling!

Something I really like about GFA is the community and closeness we have with each other as brothers and sisters with the same purpose. I have never experienced a more closer community of Christ then I have here at GFA. Every day we work together, pray together and occasionally we have GFA family nights here at the ministry…those are just good times to talk with one another, encourage one another and just enjoy each other’s company. Often, we eat together as a GFA family. I enjoy the fellowship here so much as we all work together to reach the lost in Asia.

Along these lines, I enjoy playing soccer, as do many others here at GFA. As often as we can, we try to plan a soccer game at a soccer field near the GFA office. It looks like we’re shooting to have these soccer games about every other week. I love soccer…it’s probably my favorite sport to play and I enjoy doing this with my GFA family. Sometimes it can get pretty competitive but for the most part it’s just for fun. We have anywhere between 10-20 people that end up usually showing up to these games. The age range is anywhere between little kids to adults to whole families showing up. Over the last couple years, I’ve seen some of the kiddos really develop and get good at soccer, making it harder for an old folk (I’m 22) like me to play soccer against them…hehe. The reason I say all of this, is I just love playing soccer with my GFA family and I love just seeing all of the kids and adults coming out and playing together. It’s good exercise, it’s fun and we try to be safe and respectful of one another, making sure not to hurt each other or get too competitive that it takes the fun out of the game for others. It really is edifying too as a body of believers. I’ve never left these soccer games feeling down, disappointed or like I wasted a couple hours. I’d rather do this then watch TV! hehe.

Another thing I like doing with some of my brothers here is just the enjoyment of wrestling…hehe. No, we do not have a GFA wrestling team or club of any sort. But ever since my brother Stan came to do the School of Discipleship we’ve seen wrestling matches start in the living room of GFA families’ houses! I’ve taken an enjoyment in that too. It’s good exercise and it’s just fun. As I was thinking about our wrestling matches (they’re friendly!) I realized that I used to do this kind of thing back in Junior high but I did this out of anger towards someone and I’d beat people up. But now that has all changed and I was thinking about this with my brothers here at GFA and just realized we’re doing this because it’s fun and it is a guy thing. We’re not doing it because we’re mad at each other…we’re doing it because it’s a thing that we brothers like doing and it’s good excercise and I find it rather edifying and builds character too….what I mean by it builds character is that when I lose (which I often do…hehe!) I know it’s just for fun and I still love that brother who won and we’re still friends and we’re still brothers!

Along with this at GFA, there is volleyball available to people. Though I don’t enjoy volleyball as much, others do enjoy it. There’s opportunities to play basketball too and many other recreational things with your brothers and sisters here while still working together to reach Asia with the Gospel.

I cherish these times of fellowship and it’s something I’ve learned to not take for granted. I haven’t got this kind of fellowship and close community anywhere else like I have here. Aw, I love hanging out with my GFA family in this way!

These things mentioned above are just a few things I’ve thought about or the Lord showed me in regards to these activities that some of us enjoy doing together here at GFA. Ah, what a blessing it is to be here and apart of this GFA family!

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Great Expectation

I have been at home for almost two weeks and seeing how truly important my time at the School of Discipleship was. Even though I may have not realized it at the time I have been equipped with so many things

For about a week now my mom, sisters and I have started praying every morning. I feel like Gideon and the 300 men going into battle. We are few but by and for God will accomplish great things. While reading ‘Stoked’ by Danny Lehmann God put this desire on my heart. At the time it was but a dream , but now I am a part of the sweet and precious reality!

This world is truly in shambles but we have a big GOD and as I go out on the front lines in prayer I wait in great expectation to see all God will do through this Mighty Minority.

I would definitely encourage you to get together with friends or family and start your own prayer times.

 

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