Hello Beautiful Family & Friends,
Well I have titled this blog "the blurr" because that was the month of January for me. I did a course called the Titus Project which is trains graduate students from the School of Biblical Studies in teaching and preaching skills. The goal is for those students to then take Bible teaching to places where there is great need. The school consists of a 3 week training period and a 2 month overseas outreach. In the training time several teachings are given on subjects such as Preparing a teaching, Presenting a teaching, the seven intelligences and learning styles, how to teach inductive bible method & bible overview, teaching oral communicators, etc.
I did the 3 week training course but did not attend the outreach portion for various reasons. During this school I felt so equipped for teaching God's word, it was an experience that taught me a variety of things and helped me to improve my teaching skills in so many ways, based on several different evaluations that were given to me from staff and other classmates. We gave several teachings within the training course and I felt incredibly blessed by each time, even the ones that were more of a struggle for me to get through.
I really learned a lot about myself during this school, I learned that I have a new sense of what I am doing for God here in Taiwan, that I am called to several things here but in the aspect of being a bible teacher I have an excitement in my heart that is growing each and every day. During the school there was a call to surrender everything that you are to God, whatever that looks like even if it were death would we be willing to give up our lives for the sake of the Gospel, and I stood that day, believe that I would have that complete faith in God that if that time came I would be willing to give up everything for the sake of making His name known, so my prayer in that is for true strength and courage that when I face those times, I would stand by the commitment I made.
One other pretty incredible thing that God has been teaching me is on the topic of reconciliation, during Titus we taught through the book of Philemon, and we also gave a sermon, mine was done on reconciliation...and nothing really hit me that hard while doing that, but it was after Titus had finished (and I had time to breathe) that I was reading through a book that was based on forgiveness and reconciliation, and I realized I had a huge area in my heart that was holding onto relationships in a way that was incredibly unhealthy and I began to sit down and pray & cry as God was showing me these relationships in my life that I needed to reconcile...needless to say after many hours and days I was able to write some incredibly important letters to these people & have seen God doing some restoration that is true and real. I am so thankful that God is doing this in my life, sometimes its just a matter of being obedient, even when it is PAINFUL.
Although I could talk for a lot longer I don't want to keep you reading my blog for hours on end.
So I will close with a couple prayer requests:
1. That I would continue learning to speak Chinese & become a successful Mandarin Speaker :)
2. The God would continue providing for me financially! Praise God for all he has given me so far!
3. That Relationships in my life here would continue to grow and deepen & my relationships back home would sustain all that they are--that I could really find the balance in both area's.
4. That my relationship with God would continue to be first in my heart & that I would know him in greater ways each day.
5. That God would really be with my family as I am so far away from them, that God would comfort all of us & bridge that separation until we can see each other again.
6. Praying for Money to buy a Moto :) (I know that scares some of you) ha.
PRAISE REPORT:
1. My relationship with someone very important in my life is being restored & I am so thankful for that! :)
2. God has shown himself faithful to me EACH DAY!
3. I get to see my friend Saul in March, he's coming for a visit!
