"I Am With You Always"

Above: SarahBeth, Brittany, Bess, and I celebrating our first exam

Below: Three of the little boys that we teach on Sunday mornings

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a missions conference where the main speakers, Dr. Weldyn Houger, and his wife, Dr. Barbara Houger, were speaking about the importance of being the Church and living in such a way that people are attracted to the Christ-like qualities within you.

One of the verses that everyone thinks of (myself included) when they hear the word "missions" is Matthew 28:19-20, which says: "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." That's an important verse, with an important command, but we need to look at the rest of the picture. In verse 16, the disciples were headed to Galilee when they saw Jesus for the first time since He was resurrected. It says that, "When they saw Him, they worshipped Him- but some of them doubted!"

This encourages me because we all have our doubts for His plan. The disciples were some of His closest friends. They knew Jesus so well, yet some of them still doubted. Although they doubted, they still chose to worship Him, because even though they didn't understand, they knew that Jesus ALWAYS keeps His promise, and that He could be trusted. The disciples knew that By Faith, The Lord Will Provide The Lamb.

Jesus, in Matthew 28:20, says to, "Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Something that Dr. Houger said during the conference when talking about making disciples was this: Imagine you have a newborn baby. You would feed the baby, clothe the baby, love the baby, etc. If the parents decided to just put the baby on a shelf, admire it, and not care for it, the baby would eventually die. THE SAME IS TRUE WHEN MAKING DISCIPLES! In order to make a true disciple, we need to encourage them, feed and clothe them spiritually, and love on them as Christ would. If we just lead them to Christ and move on, their faith will eventually die because they won't know how to spiritually feed themselves.

The second part of the verse that stuck with me was that Jesus said, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." He knows that this isn't going to be easy. He knows that this takes a lot of courage and strength. But what I love about it is that He is promising that He will walk through this hardship of obeying His command with us. He isn't going to just send us off and see how it turns out. He is going to come alongside us, take our hand, and encourage us in His strength while we walk in obedience to Him.

This last month has been filled with language class, intentional bonding, shift work, observing births, and learning how to live so much like Christ that people are attracted to our kindness, grace, compassion, and Christ-like love. It's not easy, but it's worth it. It's not easy, but at least I can be assured that God is walking alongside me, holding my hand, and giving me His strength.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support! Specific prayer requests:

-Continued Bonding

-Ilocano Lessons

-Apartment to be Finished Soon

-I would live like Christ and make disciples while learning midwifery