Day by Day

Clark and I have been gone for a little over 3 weeks now and wow, God has been so good to us! Just to catch you up, we have had a lot of firsts.  

To start, we have had lots of new foods, from lomi to bibimop, and Clark even judged a nutrition competition where most all the food was fried! Lol 

  We had an adventurous hike into a volcano where it rained the whole time, and Clark got to swim inside the volcano.

 One of our favorite Hondurans, Jeferson, scored his first goal and the first goal for the Dream Center Eagles!! (They won their first game. We hate we have missed it!) 

We have started to figure out public transportation here, and Clark loves riding on the back of the jeepneys.  

We got to be apart of one of the sweetest blow up pool baptisms. Our friend Josh got to participate in a baptism of a student, James, who he had discipled. 

We got to see God's beautiful creations from a different perspective scuba diving with some other guys from East Tennessee doing mission work here.  

We also started teaching English at a local school, where we hope to share the gospel.

 Most importantly we have gotten to share the gospel with many students and lead them in weekly bible studies.  Clark and I have about 12 different groups of students we are helping through bible study. The Lord has provided, and we pray that we are diligent in our own relationship with Christ so that we can help students build a love relationship with God.  After all, that's what he really wants from us. 

Though we have gotten to be apart of a lot of things here so far, our focus is discipling students in senior high and college.  How? By sharing the gospel with them, focusing on the relationship we must have with our Heavenly Father and true repentance. Then we follow up with a series of bible studies that show the meaning of salvation and what it means to have a relationship with Christ. Our relationship with God is not about us, it's all about Him. It's not a relationship where we tell him our needs and problems and hope for the best.  It is an intimate love relationship where we submit our love to Him, and because of our love for Him we strive to know Him more and be obedient to Him. Our needs and requests to him should be of what he wants from us and not what we want from him.  

In our bible study this past week, I read about God's Will. This is something in the church you hear a lot of talk about. However, not a lot of scripture talks about "God's will for my life"but more about "the Will of God."  The focus changes, it's not about my life but about God.  John 14:6 says "I am the way", not that I will show you the way, but that He is it.  Henry Blackaby says it like this, enter in a love relationship with Him, see where God is at work and join Him there. We are to follow God. If He is working somewhere, follow Him in that. The Lord is at work in the heart of students here. They are responding to the truth of the gospel and interested in a relationship with the God of creation.

So Clark and I have taken Hanry's advice. God is at work here so we have joined Him to be servants in His plan.  We may not know what the future looks like, but day by day obedience for us is sharing the gospel and discipling the students that come to the student center.

Please join us as we pray for the lives of the students here where God is working.  If you are searching for what God wants for your life, join Him wherever He is at work already, and He will do amazing things in your life. 

"Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment."  Matthew 22:37-38 

God wants us to have a love relationship with Him where we love Him with all we have.  I am still figuring out what that looks like in my life.  Stay tuned for updates on how the Lord is working here in Batangas and in my love relationship with Him.  I am excited to see where He leads and hope you can share in the excitement with your own love relationship with Him.