Impact Your World Conference

Three of us on the team were able to go to the International Learning Center last week for an Impact Your World Conference. It was an unbelievable time of training and encouragement. We were also able to spend time with some of the missionaries that are being commissioned today before they head abroad to begin their overseas service. It was a special treat to spend time with some friends from church, who will be heading to South Asia later this month for a two year term. I was also able to meet in person someone I've been praying for because she's joining the team we've worked with in Kharkov, Ukraine (the link to her blog is included in the link section of this blog) . It was exciting to see so many families and individuals responding to the call to take the gospel "to the ends of the earth."

The dates for all of our team training sessions are set, and various projects are underway to help us be ready to depart in October. The team has also had some opportunities to share about ministry in India to other churches in the area. Hopefully more churches will commit to praying for and going to India. The needs there are huge. In northern India alone, there are 44 million people who currently have little or no access to the gospel...that means no Bibles, no churches, and no people there to tell them. "How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in ? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" Romans 10:14

The statistics that we saw and heard about lostness at the conference were overwhelming and heartbreaking. However, we serve a BIG God that longs to be known and worshipped, and He gave us a peek into the future in Rev. 7:9 "a great multitude....from EVERY nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb!" Let's all remember that we are "blessed to be a blessing." Gen. 12:2-3

Getting Ready

Check out this picture of the Holi Festival, which is a popular Hindu festival known as the "Festival of Colors." Here's what my friend who lives in India said about it, "... each year as the festival nears, families buy packets of colored powders and water cannons, then spend the "Holi" day throwing these colors and spraying water on one another. Oftentimes, the wild event degenerates into a crazy free-for-all where everyone is trying to completely saturate their neighbor beyond recognition." I bet you wouldn't mind celebrating that festival!

Although the trip isn't until fall, preparations are already underway! Most of the group is doing the Bible study Gospel Transformation ( a 36 week Bible study) and reading The Heavenly Man, about Brother Yun, who is one of China's house church leaders.

The family and I also hit the trails in a park behind our house to have an adventure and help break in my boots and backpack.

Part of the team also ate at a local Indian restraunt after church. You can click on the picture to see the smaller pictures better. Personally, I plan to keep doing the Bible study and reading the book, and I plan to keep breaking in the boots and back-pack and build my endurance....but I DON'T plan to sample more of the cuisine until I get there and have to!!!

Getting Started

Hello! Thank you for joining me in my adventure to India! This fall, I will be one of 16 from Living Hope to take a mission trip to Northern India where we will hike in the Himalayan Mountains to take the gospel of Jesus to villages scattered through the Himalayan Mountains.

Through this blog, I hope you will be able to experience a bit of the wonder and privilege of spreading to gospel to the ends of the Earth!