Updating Again

More thoughts from my journal April 7, 2005... These appear almost exactly as they appear in my journal in order for the world to see that work God has done... take a look here if you missed the first entry from this trip.

Today we did a lot of sitting and listening to several speakers. I have been amazed at several points today. I am "getting" things like I never have before and they are striking hard at my heart. While listening to the speakers, I am overwhelmed by my own unbelief in God and frustration with what He has done in my life.

For a hour or so the topics was God centered vs. man centered Bible teaching. I have always thought that the Bible teaching I have done and have been a student of was God centered until this session. We (people) all too often make the BIble about the characters and leave out the main character GOD. The speakers used the story of Baby Moses, his mother, Miriam, and pharoh's daughter to make the point clear. It was an awesome illustration of how we have left God completely out of this story, God was there. He protected Moses until God told the mother to put Moses in a basket. And then God protected the baby as he floated down the river, while He sent Miriam to watch. God sent Pharoh's daughter to the river in perfect timing and God made her love that baby. I could go on...but I hope you see the sovereignty of God here. This was a huge "ahhh" moment for me. I sat there and listened in awe as the speaker went through 2-3 more stories just like this. Before I knew it I was crying and this was the first time that I realized my current unbelief in God's perfect plan and His power.

This was an awesome, yet hard thing to realize. I spent several minutes just praying and begging God to restore my belief in His power. This time feel like I have understood this truth on a whole new level. I pray that it is true, for this is a lesson that comes with great pain and confusion.

On Thursday afternoon we walked to a local coffee shop and drank our coffee in a nearby park. It was awesome, the weather was perfect and the company was fun as well. AFter we had been at the park for a few minutes one of the guys that was with us, Tony, started a conversation with 2 elderly men in the park. It was cool praying for to watch, I am still praying for God to give me the courage to strike up a conversation with someone about God, all by myself. That afternoon He gave me the chance to talk to some ladies in the park with a friend. In this community there is a large Somilian population and we were curios, so off we went to talk to some of the ladies and there children. After talking to one lady who knew very little English and another young mom who didn't know either, we had a wonderful, God ordained conversation with two ladies. One of them was a young mom with a BEAUTIFUL 3 week old baby boy and the other was her aunt. Both of the ladies have come to the United States for refuge from the Civil War in their country. Listening to them talk about the violence and poverty their was hard and it made me very sad, yet thankful that they were here in America. The older lady told us that she moved here after her sister was raped by 20 men and shot to death in front of their mother. SHe was very sad when she sharded this with us, I asked how we could pray and started to walk away. God told me to stop, go back and pray with them right then. So I did and I am so glad that I did. She was very grateful and emotional. I am still praying for those ladies and the baby boy. I pray that our time in the park will be the a seed of Jesus' name in their lives.

I left knowing that I had done exactly what God had planned for that afternoon. I have never been so blessed in my life.

I'll write more later...