Shine Your Light.

(Romans 1:11-13 ) I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

Paul wrote this to the church in Rome to let them know how he felt about them. When I read this, I felt that it related to my life immediately because it's exactly what I'm going through.Paul said, "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong -- that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith." In Paul's life, after he got saved and after he gave his whole life up for the sake of the gospel, his goal was to help others and let their faith increase. In my life, I love to help people, to see them grow makes me think of a mom taking care of her kid and being so proud of how she has raised him. After devoting so much time, focus, and attention to be a supporting friend to others, in turn, I would like to see them grow and to see that after all that hard work, we can mutually encourage each other instead of it just being a one way thing.

The past two weeks I have been very encouraged by a friend whom I've been talking to more. Seeing how she has grown in her spiritual life and how now we are able to communicate about anything with the same focus and goal in life makes me so happy. It allows me to see that there is a God who changes lives, who can do all things and that he will never forget about us. This, in turn, gives me hope to see my friends who still need to be fed in all different ways, that one day they would grow and understand, and one day the encouragements would not just be going one way but it would be going both ways.

On top of that, the past two weeks, working with TEAMLIGHT has been a blessing. Though my team wasn't big at all, it was actually just one-to-two people helping me per day, it was a blessing to see how they've gotten out of their comfort zone so fast. In the first week, I had Renee in my team, and we both went out to do outreach and try to get raffle tickets signed. in the beginning she was telling me how she was very uncomfortable doing this, she wasn't good at outreaching and she wasn't good at talking to people. So we did it together so that I could help her and encourage her in becoming more bold for Christ. On Thursday Nichonar was on my team and I also went out with him individually to help him and to show him how to speak to others and how to reach out to others using raffle tickets. He said the first time he ever did it, he didn't know what to say to people, how to approach people, and what to do when they asked questions. After a couple of runs doing it with him, he became more comfortable approaching people. So although my team wasn't big, I got to work individually with two great people who were opened in taking the next leap of faith, evangelism.This week, which is a week later, we had to continue on doing our TEAM LIGHT outreach. In my mind, I really wanted our team to show that as Christian, we are considered light of the world, we can shine no matter how weak we are, for Paul said, when we are weak, then we are strong. So what really made me smile was, on Monday I went to Renee's small group to support her while she leads. She was talking about boldness and how we should pray and fast to do things even like evangelism and how important it was. On Wednesday when I went out with her to do outreach again, she said she didn't mind doing it by herself anymore, in fact, she actually went by herself the other day and started from the 13th floor and was outreaching all the way down. I was so proud and happy to see that after just a little push and encouragement, she turned around and encouraged me all the more. On Thursday, Nichonar was the same thing. After more information and understanding how to reach out, he was able to go on his own and talk to other people more comfortably. Though he still needed a lot of work he said, it was getting a lot better.

These two things really made me smile, to see that people I invested some time in helping, God worked for the good. It reminds me that I should never give up in helping a soul, helping a friend, helping someone God calls their child, because in the end, it will all be worth it.