Today’s Picture – 365
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Camping with Walking Sticks!
September 17th-19th I had the opportunity to go camping with the Bales family to the piney woods of East Texas. It was so nice getting a break from the city and getting to enjoy the outdoors. I love camping. It’s refreshing and a wonderful time to get out and spend time with Jesus in the woods. God showed me something on this trip and that was through some visitors we had. They were Walking Sticks. Walking Sticks are like the coolest bugs ever! These cool bugs were all over the place and we sure were entertained by them all weekend. But I started thinking about these bugs and God showed me something about these bugs as I observed their charecter and just how much they do look like sticks. I observed these bugs up close and oh man they looked like little twigs. These bugs would even freeze to make themselves look like a stick or a twig. We’d have fun with them and move one of their legs up and they’d just be stiff and frozen. It’s amazing that they look like sticks and even know to protect themselves by making themselves stiff and looking like a stick.
I started thinking and realized that this proves that there is a God and it proves all of those theories that scientists have come up with to be false…it proves that there is only one true and holy living God whom all men can know through Jesus Christ! To me, something as simple as a stick bug gave evidence that the One True and living God is very much real and who He says He is! How can evolution or a big bang creat a bug that so happens to look like a stick and who knows to defend himself by looking like a stick. Just think about it for a moment. It’s amazing. These creatures amazed me. The only way these creatures could have created to look like a stick was for God to have creatively created it. God wanted variety and He wanted to creat a bug to look like a stick and God even gave him the defense and protection to stiffen up and pretent to be a stick when threatened. Just think about this. God is amazing and this simple bug proves the existance of the God whom we can know. It’s not that we need this bug to prove to us God’s existance ( We just need child-like faith and to simply believe everything God says), but it sure does add to my faith and helps confirm it and reassures me that God loves me and wants to have a personal relationship with each of us.
Anyways this is something God showed me on this camping trip. He always shows me something new when I go camping, even if it’s simply through a Walking Stick bug. Ah! This gives me such great joy in the Lord!
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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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Today’s Picture – “The Beach”
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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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Don’t Forget To Tell Your Friends
School of Discipleship Home Page http://www.gfa.org/schoolofdiscipleship School of Discipleship Blog http://disciples365.org School of Discipleship Twitter http://twitter.com/gfaschool School of Discipleship Facebook http://www.facebook.com/gfaschoolPlease like and share this post:
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