My Testimony

I've just turned in my first official draft of my testimony to our team leader who will need to review it to make sure it translates well.  I'm going to post it below but keep in mind, this is really a condensed version and written as simply as possible.  If you want more details, let me know and I'd be more than happy to share :)

There was a time in my life when I did not believe in God. I did whatever I wanted and believed that there were no real consequences for any of my actions. This is how I lived for many years of my life. I have always enjoyed reading books and one day I started a reading a book that was talking about God. It described how he was not happy with man and how he will judge everyone after they die. And it talked about the end of the world and how everyone will either be on God’s side or not. There was no in between and it did not matter how good you thought you were because you had still broken God’s laws.

When I first read this I became a little alarmed. I had always thought that even though I didn’t really believe in God, that if there was a God, I had done more good than bad in my life and he would let me into heaven when I died. After all, I knew lots of people who had done much worse things in life than me. I did not believe what I was reading and so I picked up a bible and read it for myself to see if the things it said about God were true. And they were! I started to think that I might be in trouble because the bible said we had all done things that were offensive to God and that no one was good enough to get into heaven.

In the Bible in Proverbs 1:7 it says that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. And as I became afraid of what might happen to me when I died I started to read the bible more. I wanted to know what God had to say about heaven and hell. I read that God himself became man and took my punishment for all the wrong I had done. He died for my sins and that if I accepted this gift he gave to me and trusted him and followed him then I would be saved. I would be able to go to heaven even though I had done so much wrong in my life.

So I took a chance and decided to give my life to Jesus and the freedom and peace he has given me since then is amazing! I no longer fear death because I know that by trusting in Jesus, even when I die I will be saved into eternal life. I don’t have to worry about all the bad things I’ve done in my life because God has forgiven me because I have accepted Jesus as my savior. The Bible says in Romans 8:1-2 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”

I used to be afraid of dying and many other things in life but Jesus has freed me from my fears. One of the things I used to really be afraid of was flying - mostly because I thought crashing in a plane would be a horrible way to die. I would be so scared on the airplane that I could never really relax. Then one day, God showed me that I no longer needed to be afraid. 2 Timothy 1:7 says “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”

God told me that if I really trusted in him and believed that what he did was always good, then I should not be afraid to die – even in a plane crash. God completely took away my fear of flying! In fact, he took away all my fears because I know that he loves me, that his plan is perfectly good, and that I can trust in him for all things that happen – both good and bad. I no longer need to worry about the things in this life because God has given me his perfect peace. Romans 8:28 says “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

Next Assignment

It's been just over 2 weeks since our last team meeting and one of the things we needed to do (by last Friday =/) was write our personal testimony for the purpose of delivering it to a group of people in Thailand. 

I just got through typing out a rough draft and it's harder than it seems - mostly because it has to be translatable.  This means that as we are giving our testimony to a group of people (probably both kids and adults) we will have someone there translating everything into Thai.

Here are a few of the things we need to remember while we are composing our testimony:

• Keep it short - no more than 3 minutes long
• Avoid slangs or idioms that don't translate well such as "by the skin of my teeth"
• Avoid long sentences
• Avoid Christian jargon or clichés
• Avoid jokes
• Avoid illustrations that are specific to North America such as "as wide as the Grand Canyon"

Funny how we don't really think about these things in our everyday language and how it might sound to someone from another country.  I'm also trying to keep my testimony simple with the kids in mind.

Once we have written it down we have to consider the following when actually delivering our testimony in Thailand:

• Don't read what you have written down (lol)
• Open with a greeting in their language (Sawadeet Kaa is Hello in Thai)
• Face the audience, not the translator, when speaking
• Speak in short sentences - only 1 or 2 at a time

I'm pretty sure this will be the very first time I've ever given a speech in another country using a translator - should be an interesting experience!!  Once I have my testimony completed I'll post it =)

Odd man out

Wow, where did the week go!  I wanted to post something about last Sunday and then before I knew it, it was almost Friday! So last Sunday, we had our second official team meeting for our mission trip.  We spent about 2.5 hours split up into smaller teams to work on the projects we've been assigned. 

We have 5 teams total - each working on one piece of the outreach program (the games, the crafts, the main message, the skit and the Sunday School lesson).  The main outreach program will be done a few times in villages and orphanages and keep in mind that all of these things center around the message of the cross.

The Sunday School group, however, is working on a lesson that will be presented only once and to a group of kids that presumably already attend Sunday School.  That's my group.  Our theme is going to be God's love.  So far I think we have a pretty good outline of our main points we'd like to make.

So this experience has been interesting thus far although I have to say that sometimes I feel a little left out.  Everyone there already knows someone else - either there are married couples, entire families or mother/daughter teams or friends that are going on this journey together.  And then there's me :)  Don't get me wrong - it's not that anyone has been unkind or anything like that, but it's hard to find where you fit in with a group of people that all seem to know each other already.  So I'm hoping and praying that I'll find my place in this group and that God will use me and my gifts where He sees fit.

The Cross

A good portion of today and this evening have been spent preparing for tomorrow's second ZOE mission meeting.  Yes, I'll admit, I'm a little behind already...

So one of the things we need to do for this mission trip is assess why the cross is important to us.  The main theme of the outreach program we'll be doing is The Cross.  And so as we embark on this task, it's important to think about what the cross means to us individually and to really reflect on its meaning in our own lives.  We were given a short article to read by J.C. Ryle (1816 - 1900) titled The Cross of Christ. Here is an excerpt from this article:

"Reader, mark what I say again. You may know a good deal about Christ, by a kind of head knowledge. You may know who He was, and where He was born, and what He did. You may know His miracles, His sayings, His prophecies, and His ordinances. You may know how He lived, and how He suffered, and how He died. But unless you know the power of Christ's cross by experience,—unless you know and feel within that the blood shed on that cross has washed away your own particular sins—unless you are willing to confess that your salvation depends entirely on the work that Christ did upon the cross,—unless this be the case, Christ will profit you nothing. The mere knowing Christ's name will never save you. You must know His cross and His blood, or else you will die in your sins."

This was a good reminder as I think about and write about what the cross means to me.

"As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
- Galatians 6:14

Humbled

I found out today that the money I needed to cover the airfare portion of this trip was provided for and then some! I don't know why I doubt God so much sometimes - I know He will move in the hearts of people as He sees fit. 

When I got that email I was really speechless - I did not expect to have that much of the cost taken care of so soon and while I don't know everyone who has given yet, I do know that my Mom was mostly responsible.  I am so blessed to have such a loving and supportive Mom!

Fundraising

I spent a couple hours last weekend putting together a support letter and self addressed stamped envelopes to hand out to people.  I have to say, this is not my favorite part of going on a short term mission trip.  On the one hand I know that asking people to help support you gives them an opportunity to share in what you are doing, but there's a part of me (the prideful part) that really would rather find some other way to fund the trip.  This truly is a humbling experience...

In addition to that, I'm forced to really trust in the Lord - to trust that he will provide what I need in order to accomplish his goals.  Again, I think my pride gets in the way here...I'd rather do this myself.  And please don't get me wrong, I'm not writing this to convince anyone that they need to financially support me.  I'm just sharing my thoughts on how uneasy this process has made me and how the Lord is stretching me to let go of some of my pride.