Raising Up Christ-Centered Leaders

Here in Campus Crusade Dominican Republic, our goal is to not only see people enter into a relationship with the Lord, but also to help them grow into Christ-centered leaders.

For those of you who have been reading my blog and monthly newsletters, you are familiar with Ruth, one of the girls I am discipling (read more about what that means here). Meeting with Ruth and the other girls I disciple has been such an encouraging experience as I see this second part of our mission being fulfilled.

Always participating in our group’s events and willing to offer thoughtful suggestions to improve our reach at UASD, Ruth was recently asked to be a part of the Friday weekly meeting leadership team! This means that in addition to her 20 credit hours and working her part time job, she will also be responsible (along with the others on the team) for the preparation of the Friday weekly meeting: finding a speaker, having a fun community building activity, organizing prayer and worship, and asking students to share their testimonies).

Ruth and I are currently reading Beth Moore’s So Long Insecurity and are working through discipleship material that will prepare her to disciple someone else in the near future! Please pray for this young woman’s growing walk with the Lord, protection from evil, and for improvement in a physical health struggle she has had for a couple of years. Praise God for the ways he is raising up Christ-centered leaders at UASD!Ruth giving the message to students at our weekly meeting with Maira translating

Spring Break Day #2

“I’m getting a deeper understanding of the culture,” said Star, one spring breaker who is here for her second weeklong trip with Cru. I remember Star from when she was here last year and how well she connected with the Dominican students, asking pertinent questions about their lives, learning some Spanish from them, and enjoying their company.

Before I tell you more about Star, I want to first say that I am a huge fan of mission trips, no matter the length. I am especially a fan of the weeklong spring break trips such as these for two reasons:

1. For their dedication to spend as much time as they can telling others how they can have a personal relationship with Christ and experience God’s love—in fact many have already come to know the Lord!
2. And for what God does in their own hearts as they discover the joy that comes with their role as Christ’s ambassadors. After participating in these short term missions, many decide to make spreading the Word of God a normal part of their lives.

It’s been exciting to see Star’s story unfold when it comes to how that first spring break trip impacted her life. Since then, she began taking Spanish Immersion classes (six hours a day, four days a week!) so that she can be prepared to serve others wherever the Lord takes her. She surprised me this year when I heard her speaking with complete fluency!      At right: Star with Obed, a Vida student 

God does amazing things through missions. To those of you who financially support myself and others so that we can bring the Gospel to other parts of the world, thank you. I pray that if any of you reading have the opportunity to go on a mission, for any length of time, or the opportunity to give to someone going on a mission to do so. It’s a joyful experience to be a part of bringing others to know the Lord!

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”         Romans 10:13-15

Spring Break Week #1

Finally! Another blog post! I have recently felt convicted of not communicating very frequently through my blog, especially since it is one of the best ways that I can share with you what God is doing in students’ lives here in the Dominican Republic. I apologize and hope to pick up the habit of updating more frequently!

I will kick off my re-blogging by telling you about how God is using Cru college students  from the States during their spring break. We have two teams visiting over two weeks. This first week we have with us students from NAU and UofA, two of which are returners from last years’ spring break trip that I remember interacting with.

While it may seem trivial to only have a week to spend doing missions, their role is actually very important. They will be going to campus for six hours a day meeting students, sharing the Gospel with them, and—the key part—asking God to lead them to specific UASD students who will remain in the ministry long term.

Why is this so critical? We have unfortunately seen a pattern of Dominican students being initially excited to make friends with Americans and while many of them truly do experience God through their friendships, the majority don’t get involved in our ministry. While we celebrate the ways God can use foreigners to lead people to Christ, we also know that it is equally as important that some of them join us in our cause: that every student at UASD knows someone who truly follows the Lord. 

Here are some ways that you can pray for this week’s spring break team and Vida Estudiantil:

1. For energy to withstand humidity and cultural stress they are not accustomed to
2. For the Lord to show them who to invest their time in
3. For the spring breakers and Vida Estudiantil members at UASD to work well together to reach students on the campus
4. For our Stint team and national staff to guide everyone with wisdom
5. For God to reveal to the spring breakers more about his compassionate heart for people while they are serving here

Thanks for praying for us this week!          Stinters getting to know the Spring Breakers

Why Wednesday is My Favorite Day

Each Wednesday at 1pm, the Stint team and students from Vida Estudiantil meet up outside the library to share our faith. The first thirty minutes are spent reading a passage from the Bible that helps us understand more about why we share our faith and discuss what we can learn from the example Jesus set for us. We also do some sort of training—how to prepare and share your testimony, using illustrations to communicate the Gospel, becoming familiar with booklets and other materials to share with people—before splitting up in pairs to tell UASD students about knowing God.  

This past Wednesday, I got partnered up with José*, a pre-Med student who has been part of our movement since the spring break teams came last March. This student was led to know Christ through their visit, another reminder of how important even short team missions are!

We forgot to bring the Four Spiritual Laws with us, a booklet that illustrates clearly and briefly the main points of the Gospel, but went out anyway trusting that God would help us communicate clearly how much he loves us and how in need we are of Jesus.

I was astounded when during our conversation, José* shared with the girl we were speaking to all of the main points and key scriptures from the Four Spiritual Laws from memory; he even recalled the illustrations and drew them himself on a scratch piece of paper. He also used his own illustration about how receiving Christ’s gift of salvation is like a sick person taking the prescribed medication that will make them well again. To not take the medicine is to deny the very aid you need. What I thought was cool about his example was the way he used his interest in medicine to clarify a spiritual truth.

It was encouraging to see how over the last eight months, José* has grown in his personal walk with the Lord and understands his role as Christ’s ambassador. His dedication to memorizing the truths that could speak most clearly to lost people challenged me to be more prepared to give an answer to anticipated questions about God.

I share this story with you for two reasons. One, because I want you all to be informed about what God is doing through the ministry he has sent me to serve and how you can be praying for us. Second, I hope that hearing stories about how young adults—even those with little time walking with the Lord—are living missionally will encourage other Christ-followers to be more bold about sharing their faith. 

If you’re interested in getting your hands on the Four Spiritual Laws and other tools to help you communicate the Gospel with others, download this great iPhone app or visit this link.

Josh with some students during evangelism time

Investing Your Life in Others

I want to share with you a major part of what you might technically call my “job” as a missionary, but really is so much more than that to me.

As a team, the six of us are here to support the current group of students and staff that make up Vida Estudiantil (Campus Crusade for Christ or Cru). Simply put, our presence here allows us to be committed to reaching more students at UASD for Christ, equipping students to do the same, and proving resources and an environment where they can grow in their faith.

Something that I have found particularly rewarding is my time with my disciples, three girls that I meet with weekly that are seeking a deeper relationship with the Lord and how to follow him. Together, we are all learning practical ways that we can understand God’s will for our lives through various materials.

With two of the girls, we are studying apologetics (rational basis for the Christian faith, click link to find articles on this topic) which is helping us realize the importance of understanding what we believe and how to communicate that clearly to others. One of them is also reading Beth Moore’s So Long Insecurity after I read it as recommended by one of my supporters back home. We are hoping to get a hold of a Spanish copy so the other can read it too!

 

With the third girl, we are reading a book called Taking Every Thought Captive by Jerusha Clark. As we read, she and I have been made aware of the lies that we have been deceived by about our worth, relationships with others, and our God. It’s been exciting that as I share what I am learning, she is vulnerable with me and is allowing the Lord to help her have a healthier thought life.

God has been teaching me what it means to really invest in these girls’ lives. I want each of them them, as well as any student in our ministry, to know God deeply and be equipped to bring others into a meaningful relationship with Him too. A verse that helped me understand how to do that better is 1 Thessalonians 2:8:

We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.

Just as Jesus demonstrated the significance of “doing life” with his twelve disciples, Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians tells us that sharing every day life moments with them was a crucial (and enjoyable!) part of his ministry.

It has been such a cool thing to see how the girls God has given me to care for are opening up more and more as we share normal experiences like going grocery shopping, eating lunch together, visiting each others’ homes, discussing our family trees, even cleaning together! Every meeting with them doesn’t have to consist of a huge spiritual revelation. I will never be able to love them fully if all I am seeking is to force spiritual growth on them. But building friendships filled with fun, silliness, sharing of burdens, intentional conversations, and prayer will help me better understand how to serve them and draw them nearer to God.

You don’t have to be a missionary to invest in other people’s lives. God has given each of you people in your sphere of influence with whom you can reveal his love by simply sharing life with them. My prayer is that all of us would be able to love these people genuinely, not seeing them as some sort of project that could benefit from our time and expertise, but waiting on the Lord to show us how to point them to Him as we place ourselves in their lives. 

Little Things That Bring Me Joy #4

Yesterday, my parents celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary! The coolest part of this day for me—and every year I always seem to forget so it’s a surprise every time—is that my Dad gives me a call and tells me Happy Anniversary too.

Twenty years ago, in my parents wedding ceremony, my Dad called three year old Jessica up to the altar to place a necklace around my neck as he told me that he was not just committing to being a good husband to my mom, but a father to me.

Even separated by 3,000 miles, I still got a long distance call from my Daddy yesterday to say “Happy Anniversary.” Definitely brought me joy as I thought about what a special gift he is!

When I was having a really tough time in the DR last year, he was on a plane a week later to celebrate Thanksgiving with me, he always offers a perfect mix of gentleness and strength when I need him, he planned an incredible three week trip to Europe just for the two of us, and is the best example I have of what it means to live with Christ-like integrity and wisdom. Love you Daddy!

Attempt at Perfect

I’ve been distracted from blogging for a while. We’ve had quite a few visitors this month and have been keeping busy, but I’ve also been sick all week—which has given me some time to reflect on a few things.

A month ago, my roommate Katie told me about how some friends of hers dedicated an entire year to making the perfect batch of chocolate chip cookies. They would bake at least a batch a week, trying different recipes, playing with oven temperatures, tweaking measurements. The best part is that everyone got to be taste testers in the mean time.

So we decided that we should take on a challenge of our own, to use this year to “perfect” a culinary endeavor. What will mine be?

Scones.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of trying one of these delectable foods (perhaps you were more of a muffin person when faced with the decision at Starbucks), scones are a British biscuit-like snack that many enjoy with tea. Personally, I treasure scones for how they contributed to one of my fondest memories growing up of having tea parties with my mom, grandma, and siblings.

I finally got around to baking a batch this weekend. Here’s the basic recipe I used, though had to make a few cultural adjustments (stores don’t sell baking soda or buttermilk; fortunately these are easy to substitute). 

They came out pretty great!

As I ate my tasty scone, I reflected on what it means to be made perfect. My scones tasted great already, but were they perfect? What would need to be changed about them to be without flaw? If people eat and enjoy them, does it really matter then if they are perfect?

To confess, I have been guilty of trying to make myself perfect. I recently discovered this (though not for the first time in my life) as I realized how worn out I was and how much I depend on affirmation from the things I am able to accomplish.

Key example: the first couple days of being sick, I felt really guilty for watching t.v. when I could have been working on something productive—emails, newsletters, this blog, even studying the Bible.

Yikes. This is when I realized that I need to relearn what it means to rely on God’s grace and remember that love is the greatest thing He’s asked from me.

A recent entry of a blog I subscribe to called The Resurgence puts it this way:

“…Our humanness is bound up in imperfection and that Jesus has perfected us by grace and thus we press on for his words of “Well done” and nobody else’s.”  

Long story short, I am not perfect and my scones will probably never be either, but both are still enjoyed despite their flaws!

The Cost of Transformation

I wrote the following exactly a year ago today. It’s amusing to read things you’ve written in the past, and I share it on my blog today because even after an entire year, it still has meaning for me.

We're studying Forgotten God in our small group and this question got some heavy reactions:

"Are you open to being transformed [by the Holy Spirit] no matter what that may mean for your life? If you do want to be changed, why do you desire this? If you don't, what is keeping you from desiring this change?"

So what is my answer?

Before I offer it, I want to share how the story of Elijah has captivated me lately. The story is in 1 Kings 17-19. What caught my attention was what he said in Chapter 19, verses 3,4:

Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. Then he went alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died."

I can totally relate with what I imagine Elijah was feeling. His lament followed a sequence of events in which he saw God provide free refills of flour and oil to a widow, raise her child from the dead, burn an offering that was drenched in water, send rain after years of drought, and run faster than a chariot to escape that rain. In all honesty, this man saw God do astounding things. What could cause him to find himself alone and waiting for death to take him? Was it taxing on him when the widow cursed God for allowing her son to die? Was he nervous when the worshippers of Baal were calling on their god to ignite their offering? Did he feel burdened in being the one to pray fervently for the rain to come? Surely Jezebel's threat of death sent him right over the edge.

I said that I can relate to Elijah. While I've never witnessed God's work in the same way that Elijah did, I have seen God do mighty things before my eyes. When I asked for a way out of the temptation to follow my peers and their recreational drinking for sake of keeping companionship, he provided a community of new friends who were truly following Christ, who were fun and helped me walk in a path that was life giving. I received courage as the Lord brought me to East Asia to share the Gospel with college students and witness some give their lives to Christ despite a language barrier and a strong opposition by the national government. Now as I am in the Dominican Republic, I am leading our team of five young adults who have never been out of the country for a year, not to mention never with the sole purpose of reaching students for Christ as a profession. We don't know what students need to hear to be free to experience Christ, my Spanish is at best mediocre, and our team dynamics are far from seamless.Despite how I've seen God work in my past, most days the weight of these responsibilities brings me to the same disposition as Elijah: "Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died."

Before we answer if we are open to transformation by the Spirit, we have to analyze the cost.

Is it too honest to share that there are days when I wish that the success of my job didn't depend on God working through me? That it would be more comfortable for me to go back to being a high school math teacher where I can put in the hours of preparing lessons for students, being a good role model for eight hours a day, then go home and relax?

Instead, I am challenged with continuously seeking God's counsel to lead my team with wisdom and strength to obey his commands. When the Spirit asks me to drop my anger towards a teammate and spend time in prayer that unity and love would abound, I can't help but think, "No, thank you!" When the Spirit is asking me to lead my team in a time of worship, I want to crawl in a hole and stay there because I'd rather be shy about my gifts of singing and playing the guitar than to trust God that His Spirit will provide much needed rejuvenation to our team despite my lack of proper training.

So how can we be sure that the benefits of letting the Spirit transform our lives out weigh the costs?

Growing up, my mom always challenged me to do socially risky things: sing in talent shows, try out for cheer, run for student government, wear a super trendy outfit to school, take back food that wasn't cooked to order. I always groaned and tried to get out of doing these things, but she always convinced me that it really wasn't that big of a deal and that I had more to gain than to lose. I'll never forget the day that I learned that the reason she pressed me so hard was because she was too afraid to take these kinds of risks! We were at a water park and she refused to go down the water slide. Even after I told her how much fun it would be and that it wasn't that scary, she still resisted.

While I won't compare the thrill of living in compliance to the beckoning of the Holy Spirit to a trip down a water slide, it does help me realize how much I've gained when I've accepted my mom's challenges and how much we have to gain when we take the risks He asks us to take. I received attention and appreciation by my family when I sang for them. In cheer, I was able to express myself through movement and blossom in a time when my self confidence was in need of a boost. Being in student government put me in situations where I needed to meet new people and I saw myself being able to encourage those who felt unseen in our student body.

We won't always know what the benefits are of following the Holy Spirit. They might not even benefit ourselves, but someone else. If I want my answer to be "Yes, I want to be transformed by the Holy Spirit no matter what it may mean for my life," I have to remind myself daily of the truth in Psalm 84:10-12:

A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked. For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. O Lord of Heaven's Armies, what joy for those who trust in you.

Little Things That Bring Me Joy #3

Playing games is a favorite family pastime, college experience, and one way that I still enjoy interacting with friends. They can be fast paced like Catch Phrase and Speed, or thought provoking and strategic like Settlers of Catan or Bang.

A fun group game that I haven’t gotten to play since my days at ASU (a whole year ago I know…) is Mafia. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it’s basically where all players are secretly given roles and everyone has to figure out which ones are the Mafia by reasoning it out with the other players.

My moment of joy today was seeing five of my Dominican friends—including Leyla—learn the game as they played it with us for the first time and love it! After one round, they begged to play again. I am loving being able to bring in pieces of what is fun to us into our growing relationship with them.

It was a little tricky to play the bilingual version, pero vale la pena!

Eucharisteo

This post was really hard for me to sit down to write.

I will only use one sentence to describe the chaos that has been overwhelming me last week:

Our electricity has been completely out for eight days now—no fridge, washing machine, internet, lights, hair dryer, charging of phones…nothing!

There’s no need to go into the gory details of how that’s affected our daily lives, because this post is not aimed to glorify the problem, but rather glorify our Caretaker.

You know how people say they hate praying for patience because then they are faced with situations that require patience? Well, since this summer I’ve been seeking to know the joy that comes from gratitude. Hence, the electricity has been out among other circumstances that force me to look a little harder to find that beauty amidst the ugly.

It may be hard for us Westerners to relate to the passage in Matthew 6 about worrying over what we will eat, drink, or wear because God knows and provides for our needs. Even as I go on week two of no electricity, I still have my fundamental needs met and then some.

But I don’t think it matters how difficult a trial we are walking through; God still wants to be our provider AND even more importantly, wants us to experience joy regardless of our circumstances:

I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. Philippians 4:12

But how is that joy possible when the world is chaos around me? Ann Voscamp, author of 1,000 Gifts puts it this way:

“I would never experience the fullness of my salvation until I expressed the fullness of my thanks every day.” (40)

Eucharisteo in the Greek language means “to give thanks” and is where the practice of Eucharist, or taking communion, gets its name.

The secret of being content and filled with joy despite your circumstances is recognizing that there are many things to be grateful for. That God is still good. That He is not withholding electricity from my apartment because He doesn’t love me, but He dearly loves me and I can experience that love despite that problem.

I don’t know if that makes much sense, and I hope no one reads this thinking I never complain about things because I’m grateful for the good things in life (believe me, I can be an expert complainer!) But I just want others to know that there is peace and joy to be found when we choose to seek God, thank God, and enjoy the good things of life.