God has been showing me just how jealous he is for my heart, your heart, and the hearts of the lost! Also, note jealousness is not like what we think of as negative emotion but probably more like zealous (here’s a cool study on God as a jealous God, http://bible.org/seriespage/jealous-god). The first revelation is in John 2:13-16. Jesus finds
The above photo is the result of our team ugly sweater photo shoot :) I should have more on Facebook sometime!
It seems like when ever you get Jeff (our DTS leader) and Jed (our brother-in-law and CommTrans alum) together crazy things happen! Its evident from the stories they came to us with from their trip in Amsterdam with the other outreach team. I think its because they just love Jesus and fire our teams up and we regain perspective on
This Friday, we partnered with the free church and handed out hot coffee, hot chocolate and cookies to people on the streets. We went out in shifts because it was so cold we could only be out for 30 minutes. The group at the church would be intercessors for the people on the streets. I have had a cold for about a month now and am trying to get rid of it by staying in the warmth so I decided not to go out into the cold. After the 3rd shift,
I was reading Galatians and came across the section on the 2 sons of Abraham (Galations 4:21-31). I had never read this or stopped enough to meditate on it at least. I love how Paul used the Old testament as an illustration to show the freedom we and the jewish people under the law have in Jesus. Here’s how the story goes, Abraham had 2 sons, one through his slave Hagar and one through Sarah. One son born as a result of sin and through a slave, Ishmael, and one son through the marriage of Abraham and Sarah free and promised by God. He was named Isaac. Jesus came along
We’ve been busy here in Helsinki! Thanks to Tata and Johanna, we’ve had many ministry opportunities opened up. We’ve also met many other great christians who want to see change in their city and we will be partnering with them in ministries. Here’s a few activities we’ve been up to while in Finland:
Youth Group Night – We went sledding with the youth group and then had a time of fellowship and a message from Aria about the Holy Spirit. We ate these things called Sledding Buns
We made it to Finland on my birthday, the fourth. It was a crazy ferry ride from Stockholm to Helsinki because of the icy waters of the Baltic Sea. We heard another boat got stuck for a whole day this winter because the ice froze so quickly. We were on the bottom floor next to where the ice chunks hit the side of the boat. Surprisingly we were able to sleep even with the constant clunking of ice passing by. It was windy too so the boat gently rocked, which might have helped us sleep! We arrived in Helsinki only 30 minutes late.
We immediately noticed a change in the look of the people. In my opinion, the Finnish look
Outreach is almost half over, which is definitely a crazy thing to think about. We have less than a week in Malmo and then we head to Helsinki, Finland for the remainder of our trip. During this time, I’ve realized that outreach is not separate from lecture phase of a DTS. I’ve felt like I am growing and learning more about God even on outreach. Outreach hasn’t just been telling the lost and broken about Jesus, but a continuation of what God is doing in me. When I think about it, it shouldn’t be a surprise because God is continually pursuing our hearts to bring us closer to Him whether it be in a DTS or in life. I’m finding that outreach is showing me how to live a lifestyle of seeking God. I’ve learned we don’t have to be on-call christians just finding people with the purpose of converting them. We are meeting new friends-on buses, at
