Personal Spiritual Growth

I teach a course in our Partners in Ministry program for our first year students called Personal Spiritual Growth. This year I have 20 students from 8 countries. They come from a variety of backgrounds. I should capitalize that: VARIETY OF BACKGROUNDS. The variety is huge.

Some grew up in Christian families.
Some have been in the ministry for years.
Some are from Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist backgrounds.
Some are very young Christians.
Some have been married for many years.
Some can barely speak English.
Some have suffered severe persecution.
Some have been married just a few months.

The one thing they have in common is that their husbands are first-year students in IGSL.

This year I have incorporated much more group interaction, because I am discovering that they can learn a lot from each other, not only from me. There are some very mature ladies who have wonderful insights. At the same time, I love having new believers from non-Christian backgrounds, because their questions are honest. They don't have all the years of fitting into the mold of what is expected in the church.

Our topics include:

Displaying God's Glory
Creating an Environment for Growth
Experiencing God's Love
Enjoying the Family of God
Walking in the Spirit
Giving and Receiving Forgiveness
Using My Uniqueness for God's Glory
Living with Pain and Suffering
Studying God's Word
Praying Scripturally
Understanding God's Heart for the World

My favorite topic is the one on pain and suffering, but I find that the ladies don't like that one. It's a topic that most people would rather not talk about! But later , they often tell me that was one of the most helpful sessions. Many of the topics are just an introduction, and they will study them more in-depth in later courses.

Please pray for me. I need wisdom and creativity. We are halfway through --our last class day is December 7.

And then, on December 8, I will hop on a plane and fly to Texas to be with Michelle and Jim as they await the arrival of Baby Daniel James. I'm super excited about that!

Eating Ice Cream in the Line of Duty

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it! Sometimes I just have to go and eat ice cream with people! Last Saturday I was relaxing at home when I got a phone call from the IGSL campus , saying that one of our scholarship supporters was visiting. Some of our students are supported by a foundation in California, and for years we have been filling out applications and sending reports to this foundation. I have never met any representative from their organization, but I assumed it was a large group with many people.

Anyway, I hurried off to campus where I met Miss May, a sweet, elderly Chinese lady who was eager to spend time with the students she supports. She just happened to be in the Philippines and thought she would look us up! And she said, "Let's go out for lunch!" So we did. Miss May, our IGSL student Sithon from Laos, and I went to the mall. After we finished our lunch, she said, "Let's go somewhere for ice cream!" Sithon suggested that we introduce her to halo-halo, a special Philippine treat featuring ice cream and twelve other ingredients. So off we went to search for halo-halo.

And as we talked, I discovered that she IS the foundation. When her father died, he left her a sum of money, and her dream was to use it to help educate Asian pastors and equip them for ministry. And she has done that for a few decades now, quietly, from her own home--an unsung hero making an impact all over Asia. My job is so fun!

The Next Generation

Psalm 78 has been a favorite psalm of mine since I first became a mom. Verses 1-7 are so precious . . . encouraging us to teach the next generation about what an awesome God we have, so that "each generation should set its hope anew on God."

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I've been thinking about this more and more since I am about to become a grandma. I am so, so, so excited to watch Jim and Michelle start the process with another generation. And I am sure that when December comes I will fill my blog with grandma posts.

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But this is not a grandma post, it's an auntie post. The sweet girl in this photo is Pristine Roxas, whom I have known since the day she was born. She is the daughter of our good friends Tom and Cynthia. I watched this baby learn to walk and talk. She calls me auntie, and I know her better than I know my own nieces and nephews.

Yesterday I watched her organize and pull off a surprise birthday party for her mom. (I told you we are really into birthday parties in this country!) It was all Pristine's idea, planned and executed with her fun-loving and creative spirit. Seeing the godly young woman that Pristine has become is a great joy.

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Sometimes walking with Jesus is hard. There are tears. It has been "granted to us to suffer for his sake" and I know that very well. But sometimes, Jesus lets us enjoy the sweet fruit of our labors. I love it when that happens!

The Land of Birthdays

The Philippines is the land of birthdays. This country loves celebrating! And everyone's birthday, every year, is a special day. In some other Asian countries, birthdays are not even noticed (to the extent that some of our students can't remember their own birth date without looking it up). But in the Philippines, you can be assured of lots of warm greetings, surprises, and special celebrations. Our other Asian students are quick to pick up this Filipino tradition, and celebrate with their whole hearts. With 200 students in our school, and about 50 faculty and staff, you can imagine that we party a lot.

In spite of the fact that I have been sick, I have already had two parties and I'm told there is another one coming. These photos are from my discipleship group celebration last Monday. Yesterday, the day of my birthday, one of our students personally cooked and served lunch for everyone in my office, just to make me feel special. I felt very special!

Doctors, Nurses, X-Rays, Pills

The last two weeks have been very MEDICAL for us. I, who rarely get sick, but spend half my life taking other people to the doctor. And James, who always eats right and exercises and never gets sick. I started first with a throat infection a few weeks ago, which never really went away and eventually settled in my lower respiratory tract. James started later with several days of unexplained fever. He ended up on Monday morning in the emergency room with severe pain from a urinary tract infection.

We have both gone through lots of tests and lots of medication, and there was a while there where our doctor feared that James had leptospirosis (a flood-related disease) and I had TB (which is very common in the Philippines). James was admitted to the hospital, and while he was a patient upstairs I had to keep running off for my own tests downstairs as an outpatient. In the end, we both had manageable infections and not the exotic diseases our doctor feared.

I am thanking God for our dear colleagues and dear students who helped us through all of this. We were the ones who were helpless and weak, and it was comforting to see that we had so many people to turn to. "Community" is a big thing at IGSL, and I am so glad for that!

This morning, we are at home, worn out and tired, but recuperating and hopeful. God is gracious.

Overwhelmed

This is not a very clear photo, but it's a significant one. This is a "screen capture" of a program that we have from Power to Change/Campus Crusade for Christ to monitor our support. It's a picture of a miracle, actually.

This particular window shows a family who supports us for $25 per month. As you can see from the graph, their giving is very steady. They work hard to earn it. They live in a simple house in an older part of town. And they send us $25 every month, without fail. They've been doing it for many years. Why is this a picture of a miracle?

When I thought of joining Campus Crusade for Christ, back in 1978, I was excited about every part of that adventure EXCEPT RAISING SUPPORT. It nearly made me turn away in despair, because it seemed impossible. My family was not happy about the idea, and called it begging. I still remember sitting down and making a list of every person I knew who might consider supporting my ministry. It was a very short list.

I still can't believe that 22-year-old girl (that's me) had enough guts or faith, or both, to start making phone calls and talking to people about my dreams. I was very shy back then! But most of the people on my list said yes, and gave me the names of some of their friends, and the next thing I knew I was on my way to California for the first part of my training.

In those days we did not have computer programs to monitor our support, we just used index cards . . . and prayed a lot that the people would not forget us. And so, the years went by, we got married, had kids, made disciples, raised those kids, made more disciples, trained leaders . . . Many of those same friends from the index cards are still with us today on the high-tech computer program. James calls them our hundred-fold-family (from Mark 11:29,30).

I am blown away by how God has raised our support through all these years. Every individual or family has had adventures of their own. They have prayed earnestly for us. Some increased their support. Others have given the same amount for 30 years. Interestingly, several times people have stopped for a year or two, or ten, and then joined us again. Some of their children have now grown up and started supporting us. Every name on the computer program represents hard-working people who pray for us and willingly set aside part of their earnings to make it possible for us to do what we do. I am overwhelmed by the faithfulness, year after year after year.

In the past few days, I have been overwhelmed (again) at how privileged we are to work with the students we have at IGSL. Some of them are returning to situations of intense discouragement and persecution. I cried yesterday with a student whose parents called him and said, "Unless you forget about Jesus, you are no longer our son!" A few hours later I chatted with an alumni couple who have seen an unprecedented response to the Gospel in North India. I am amazed at their determination and creativity. We have conversations like this every day! Who are we that we have the honor of knowing these people, training them, praying with them, and encouraging them? James calls them our hundred-fold family too.

So here I sit, overwhelmed by miracles on all sides. The miracle of how God took a short list of unlikely supporters and turned it into 30 years of faithful giving. The miracle of how God has taken hundreds of unlikely students from all over Asia and enabled them to make disciples in some of the most strategic ministry sites in the world. And the miracle of how God took a very unlikely 22-year-old girl, and gave her a front-row-seat for the whole adventure.

A Quiet Morning

You can see from this morning's weather tracking photo that the typhoon just clipped the northern part of Luzon. We live in the southern part of Luzon. Manila was spared, and we are grateful, because the city is still reeling from last week's typhoon, and will take months to recover. So now, it's a quiet Sunday morning, sun shining, no rain falling, and I can hear the birds singing. It's nice to hear birds. I was getting a little tired of frogs.

Keep Praying

The typhoon is still heading toward the Philippines, but at this point it looks like it will hit the northern part of Luzon (our island), and not Manila itself. It has been raining off and on all afternoon, but not heavily. Please do keep praying that the storm would weaken and move out to sea.

Random thoughts going through my head today. . . because of the news stories. . . this has been a tough week for Asia. Floods in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Devastating earthquake in Indonesia. Disastrous church collapse in Nepal. Earthquake and tsunami in the South Pacific. These are not just random news stories to me. Because of our ministry for the last 30 years, I know and love people in each place. So many hearts are heavy. My world is groaning, longing for redemption.

In the midst of the sad news, I read an article that got me thinking.

King Solomon said, “sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.” (Ecclesiastes 7:3) Jesus said, “blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4) In what sense are we blessed? . . . Trial by fire refocuses one’s attention on breathing, eating, loving, marriage, family. On life. On eternity. Among other things, a “sad face” is good for the heart because the alternative—anxiety about the “here and now” --- is not good for the heart. Our “sad faces” have opened my eyes to the inconsequential matters in my life and focused my attention on eternity.

A good perspective. It has been a sad week, but maybe that's not a bad thing. My God is still King over it all.