Truth & Love

Today's small group was interesting. The funniest thing was when three guys were fighting about what was right for a guy who was struggling. All of them were giving their own feedback and confess.

One was emphasizing on the scripture and talking about hope through scripture.

Another one was using scripture as well and using his own personal life experiences.

The other one didn't agree with both of them and told them both to shut up. He told the guy that there's nothing any of us could do and talking won't solve anything. He told the guy to just give up.

Anyway, it became very tense and intense for a couple of minutes but the result was that all of us realized how much care and love everyone had for each other.

One guy was speaking truth to the person's life.

The other guy was speaking love into the person's life.

The last guy who doing both.

All of it was necessary.

There were so many emotions today. But only through the tenseness and seriousness was everyone able to see the heart that all of them had for the guy who was struggling.

Another interesting thing I noticed today was that the past month, each small group focused on one particular person each week. It wasn't intentional, everything just happened naturally, but there was always a topic that came up that focused on one person's issues and dealing with them and praying over them. All of them led to very serious talks that required us to give it up to Christ and draw us closer to Christ.

God is amazing. He meets all of us in such personal and unique ways.

Lastly, this small group has been going on for exactly a year (and two weeks to be exact). This small group has went a long way. I shared with them what our first prayer requests were when we first started this small group and every single prayer request has been answered since last year. It's amazing to see where God can bring a small group in a year for as long as we just make ourselves available to meet.

In so many ways, this is church for so many of them. This is a place where people are able to be themselves, speak openly and still be God centered. It's edifying, encouraging and most of all, God moves, it's crazy. We have shared so many emotions with one another, we have shared ups and downs together during small group time together, we've witnessed prayer, laughter, tears, anger, care, appreciation, friendship, all different types of food, everything!

I look forward to how God is going to work this group. I'm exciting to see how everything will look like years from now. When I look at the small group, I have so much hope. I can so see all of them work together in the ministry in the long run to build the body of Christ and reach out to more people.

One Month

Whoah, I've been officially married for exactly one month already, that's crazy. Time flew by so quickly.

In the beginning, we weren't ecstatic about the place we are living in because everything's just really old, but the more we're in it, the more we're appreciating it and glad that we have that place. We're still working on a lot of stuff in the home, the other has been such a blessing because he's been doing ALL the handiwork.

Ever since we've been married, the other seems to be so much more patient, loving, caring, and all. Most of all, he seems to be at a lot of peace, so it's nice to be around him. Maybe now he has more of an opportunity to show his love. Thus far, I've been doing all the cleaning and he's being doing all the handiwork and cooking. I've been helping him cut things and doing the preparation in whatever capacity I can.

Coming home everyday and grocery shopping and cooking is so time consuming. By the time I come home from work and the by the time we finish eating dinner, it's already the end of the night and we're too tired to do anything other than be unproductive. We have to find a more efficient way of living, lol.

So far, he's been the house husband and I'm the working wife.

Recently, I've also been in no mood to focus in school. I have one more paper due for the summer tomorrow and I can't get myself to focus and do it. After a long work day, I'm having a hard time gathering my mind to study and focus on academics. These are the times when I wish I wasn't in school. Sometimes, I just want to relax and be unproductive. I've been doing that very often during the weekends.

Other than that, this month has been a blessing. I'm blessed to be with him and I'm looking forward to the rest of our life together.

Work

When I walk into a room fill with people that are praying, many times, I feel such a strong presence of the Holy Spirit in the room, it's overwhelming.

It's such a privilege to do that with staff and faculty at the workplace. I'm so blessed to be part of a community that sets time apart out of their workday to seek God and put Him first as a community.

It's encouraging and it no longer makes work feel like work. Work is a ministry, we care for our students and pour into them because we know that God put them here for a purpose.

Send Us Out

I'm always ready to say to God, "Here I am, send me!" Wherever he wants to put me, I'm willing to go. I know that's a risky statement because it can literally be anywhere, but I trust the plans he has for me..

As I was reflecting on embarking in my new journey at a new church, in a new home, with a new family, it's a bittersweet moment. I miss my home church of course, but at the same time, I'm glad that God is opening up a new chapter in my life. I see it as God sending me out on a mission. I've been trained, I've grown so much in my home church and now I'm ready to be sent out to make an impact in the new community I'm in. Now I look at my new church as a mission field. It's a place where I'm totally not accustomed to, the place needs growth, I'm definitely not as comfortable as I was in my old church. It's JUST like the mission field.

Since attending the new church, the other has started splitting up the group to make it single gender groups. I took the girls and he took the guys. The group of girls I'm working with grew up in church, have not really found their purpose in God and are just going to church just because their parents said so. It's only a couple of them for now, but it'll be exciting to see how God uses them and brings others to Christ. It reminds me of the old days when I used to lead the girls at my old church. Brings back good and joyful memories.

Cuba Trip

Many mission trips: first one where I've been on a religious visa. It was a privilege to know that we had a right in a communist country to share the gospel. 

They don't have McDonald's, coco cola nor any American products, including cheese. The pastor even had to go out of the way to hunt for cheese. But none the less they are ordinary people just like you and me.

This was the first mission trip which we did not have to be so much trained but just prayed up before we were sent out to meet people. I felt privileged that the leaders of the mission team trusted God and trusted the students to go out and share Jesus in whatever way God was leading me too.

I LOVE how our team had such a culture of unity. There was a culture shock for me even in the team, because all of us come from different ages and cultures. We all come from different upbringings and denominations, different styles of worship, but we were all able to work together in unity for one sole purpose, Jesus Christ. It was amazing to see how great we were able to work together. Not only that, it was great to get to know my classmates outside a classroom context and hearing all their personal narratives and story.  I'm so glad that god chooses to use us as part of his story.

One example is: in one of the home visits we went out to, I went with a latasha, Christian, some of the locals from Cuba and two men from the states, one from Oklahoma and one from Wisconsin. There are different ways to present the gospel. One shared through the gospel through healing and another through relationship. It opened my eyes to see that even in the states, there are so many differences but the gospel is still shared nonetheless.

One thing that amazed me was how active the home church base was so active. They receive mission teams many times a year and so there are always people actively serving the people here in Cuba.  I spoke to many of the missionaries there who were from the states and heard many of their testimonies. I'm just so amazed at how God is using people who have been changed, transformed and renewed in Christ and passionately going out to different countries to share the love of Christ.

One of the main reasons why I was so excited to go to Cuba was to see their house church movement. Recently in my church,  our pastor has been trying to promote the house church movement to strip away from the traditional church and go back to the basics. One thing I learned was that there is such a need for house churches In Cuba and house churches are birthed so naturally there because people are desperate to come together corporately to worship god.  It made my perspective change because we as Americans are so privileged to have real physical church buildings. Ten years ago, there were four house churches, today they have 72.  They had a great system in place not just to preach the gospel, but follow up where their workers can be trained to continue to serve him until older.  One of the house church members we worked very closely was a young lady who was 24 years old and grew up in the church. She didn't grow up in the faith but through children ministry outreach events, she came to be saved and so did her mother. 

I was most blessed by some of the seminary students who took their time to stay with us the three days we were in the seminary. They are typically busy studying and involved in their own ministry but they took the time to spend with us. We shared many nights staying up late, shared testimonies with each other.  One conclusion nichole realized after debriefing with each other is that God chose each and everyone us, not because of our own works, but he hand picked us and used us exactly where we were in our own personal lives for his own glory.

Today, Carlos had said that he was so grateful because he really did not want to take the time out but he did out of obedience to his professor. Yosneis said that he really appreciated how we went out of our way to interact with everyone here, not just the students but the workers and kitchen ladies as well. It's all about different perspectives. Some will say there are no more Christians in Cuba but Cuba says "Christ never left"

To wrap it up, one mission team member whose name is LeRon said a quote: I don't know why I'm so amazed but everyone God does something, I'm so amazed!!!