Sunday Sweetness

During the past month, I've come to realize that there is never a dull moment when living next door to two eleven year old Iraqi boys. This week alone I've played endless rounds of UNO, refereed impromptu relay races, engaged in a water gun massacre, laughed until my sides hurt, & felt more love than my heart ever thought possible. {I've also come to realize that as long as I live in Houston, I'll never have to do my laundry alone, because one of them is always with me; walking, talking, & helping me fold my socks.}

These boys are best friends; wherever one of them is, the other one isn't far behind. They're both incredibly full of life & mischief, & I've actually started writing down the things they say because they're just too funny. 

This morning the boys showed up on our porch {which happens more often than not} to ask Amanda & I to hang out with them {which also happens more often than not}. They wanted to read Colossians together, so we grabbed our Bibles, sat on the steps outside our apartment & had the sweetest church service I've ever been part of. One of the boys, A., is Muslim, & it's so amazing to watch him soak up God's word as he discovers its truth in such a fresh way. The other boy, F., is a follower of Jesus {you may remember him from this post} & the definition of childlike faith. He's crazy about Jesus; he reads his Bible every chance he gets, whether it's out loud to us or quietly to himself. He loves talking to Jesus & prays the sweetest, most heartfelt prayers I've ever heard. And his heart is set on leading A. to Jesus if it's the last thing he does. It's the most precious thing I've ever experienced in my life.

Both of these boys inspire me in my own life; A. inspires me to open my heart & enjoy God's word like I'm hearing it for the first time, & F. inspires me to love God more & view every day as an opportunity to celebrate His grace. These boys have stolen more pieces of my heart than they realize, & I wouldn't have it any other way.

"This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard it & understood the truth about  God's wonderful grace." Colossians 1:6

Transformation.

I realized something this morning. 

Exactly one year ago yesterday, my feet hit Houston soil for the first time, & my heart began to change forever. And exactly one year later, I'm back in the place so many pieces of my heart belong to.

I realized a few other things today as well. 

A year ago I had no idea what refugees or unreached people groups were; today they're something I think of a lot. A year ago I was ignorant & stereotypical; today some of my closest friends are Iraqis {No, they're actually NOT terrorists.} My life is so different because of Houston & the millions of things God taught me through it. 

Among the many chaotic moments of this weekend, my eyes were opened to just how beautiful grace really is. My Ethiopian roommate & I were sitting on the stairs outside our apartment having an incredible conversation with our Iraqi neighbor & a young African woman. Both of them are followers of Jesus; our neighbor & her family came to America after being exiled from their own country because of their faith, & my new African friend accepted Jesus last week. While I was sitting with them, it hit me: the four of us are completely different. We each have different backgrounds, different stories. But one thing binds us together like nothing else can: Jesus. I think I tasted a small piece of heaven that night as I sat next to these girls, listening to them share how much God's love has turned their lives upside down in the most beautiful way & I realized, these girls are my sisters. We laughed, we cried, we listened, we shared, we spoke encouragement & poured out all the love we had to give. There's truly nothing sweeter...other than watching our little Iraqi neighbor {who loves Jesus more than any eleven year old I've ever met} study the Bible this morning with one of my fellow team members. This boy sits outside & reads his Arabic-English Bible everyday. {Several times a day on some days.} It's been so overwhelmingly amazing to watch him grow as Jesus' love literally spills out of him & floods every single conversation he engages in. {Quite literally the most precious thing, ever.}

Life in Houston is a grand adventure, & I'm loving every single minute of it.

Heartstrings {part 2}

It's been an awesome week, y'all. It has been such a privilege {& lots of fun} to lead this week's short term team & watch them interact with the people in this community. To watch the ways they've literally poured themselves out & poured Jesus into whoever they come in contact with has touched my heart in the deepest way. Teaching the kids at Kids Club stories from the Bible that they're still talking about days later, using their personal stories to tell Muslims about the love Jesus, befriending an Iraqi man who desperately wants friends & helping him improve his English, having an incredible worship session with a family from central Africa & leading four of them to Jesus...and we thought our hearts were full before.

This week we were able to meet two Jesus-believing Congolese families through in-home ESL. One of the fathers read his favorite Scripture to us {Eph. 6:10-19}, & the other family prayed over us in Swahili after we prayed for them one day. Such a blessing.

While my heart is full, it is also torn. The spiritual darkness of my Iraqi friend has been weighing pretty heavily on it the past few days. Please keep praying. I've realized this week {through reading Hosea 11 & realizing just how much it relates to me & my own relationship with God at times} that the love & compassion I have for my friend is a mere fraction of the fierce way my God loves her. And that not only encourages me, but also gives me hope. I stumbled across a quote today that put it in perspective: "Your small & steady acts of faithfulness are being used in big ways in the Kingdom of God." All I can do is be consistent; pray, trust, obey, wait. I'm merely sowing the seeds; He's the one doing the watering & working behind the scenes. 

Now all glory to God who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. {Eph. 3:20}

Heartstrings

This afternoon I was able to spend some time with my Iraqi friend & her father. My friend is still talking about the Jesus film we watched together & how much she is enjoying reading the Bible I gave her. During my visit today we talked a lot about faith & the similarities/differences between Christianity & Islam. My friend understands so much about Jesus & I love watching her take it all in. However, she is also deeply rooted in earning salvation through good works, which is a huge part of the Muslim faith. 

Today my friend was asked how she could know her good deeds were "good enough," & she responded with "Because of Muhammad, of course." My heart broke. But how can it not? She is absorbing so much of who Jesus is, yet Islam is such a large part of her life. Please pray for her heart to be open to Christ's love for her & His absolute redemption, & for me as I continue to reach out to her & her family. 

There is a purpose here. He has a plan & He will work it out for our good & His glory. It may seem like confusion to me, but to Him, it's anything but that. Here's to praying through the waiting, resting in the knowledge that He is good & He is in control. "Greater things have yet to come & greater things are still to be done in this city."

Week Three!

Long time no blog, right? It's been an insanely busy week here in Houston.

During the past week I've assisted with teaching ESL to refugee women from Africa &  the Middle East, tried some Arabic egg rolls & kabobs, & had dinner with an Egyptian family. Needless to say, it's been quite the cross-cultural experience.

Also, our second short term team arrived this weekend, & they're already making an impact in this community. I love it.

Today some of my team & I met a wonderful family from the Congo who we'll be helping with ESL, & tonight we were able to spend time at the complex's soccer field & interact with tons of the refugees living here. From the spontaneous soccer games, to running around the playground with the kids, to listening as a Muslim woman shares her beliefs & traditions because for the first time someone cares enough to listen- my heart is so full it just might break.

Please pray for this woman, along with the other families Amanda & I are connecting with. Pray for their hearts to be open & that we'll pour into them all the love we possibly can. Also pray for this week's short term team as they shine their light into the darkness of this place.

The days are getting longer & the nights are getting shorter, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm amazed by the progress being made, the dozens of relationships being built, the hearts being opened & the lives being transformed forever. It's such a beautiful thing.

Sowing Seeds

The past couple days have been packed with loads of busy-ness & such.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to help teach an ESL class for refugee women, & later that evening my team helped at a kid's ESL club {mostly composed of Nepalese children} in another apartment complex. And it has been proven that kids do, in fact, say the darnedest things.

Today I was able to visit with my Iraqi friend for a few hours. {Read about her here.}
I gave her the Arabic Bible I promised her, & I've honestly never seen anyone more excited in my life. When she learned that it was hers to keep, she exclaimed between thank-you's, "Oh my goodness, this is the best gift ever!" We also had a chance to watch an Arabic copy of the Jesus film together. She was so eager to watch it & was completely captivated by the entire film. She was already familiar with some of the scenes because of the Creation to Christ story I told her the other day, & I was overjoyed that she remembered them. Her father came in for part of the film & wanted to watch it too; he knew the story of Jesus healing a blind man, among a few others. He glanced through the Bible I'd brought & was so excited that he knew the story of Noah. {Noah is also in the Qur'an.} At the end of the film, my friend expressed how beautiful the life of Jesus was to her & how much better she was able to grasp it by watching the film. She also planned to watch it again later with her mother. {Y'all, I can't even contain my joy right now.} Please pray for their minds & hearts to remain open & receptive. I can't wait to see what God is going to do in their lives.


The light shines in the darkness, & the darkness can never extinguish it. {John 1:5}

Growing through the chaos

Today started out with a rather interesting twist. Our short term team came in yesterday but had to leave unexpectedly during the night, changing up the vast majority of our gameplan for the week. It seems like anything discouraging that could possibly happen has happened during the past week. Van breakdown & repairs, getting lost on the way to a prayer service at our boss's church due to our GPS going haywire {& leading us forty minutes in the other direction}, Satan's {multiple} attempts to cause strife & division among my team. You name it, we've faced it. Yet we've come out stronger in our faith & as a team, & we're moving forward confident in the fact that God is working every single bit of this chaos out for our good. He knows what He's doing; keep trusting. {Thanks for the text, Dad. Love you.}

So today my team & I were able to go to our boss's church instead of taking the short term team on a tour of a Hindu temple as originally planned. After the chaos-filled week we've had, it was so refreshing to worship God for being in control & ultimately victorious over anything the enemy tries to throw at us.

I feel so incredibly blessed to be part of such a fabulous intern team. I've been blown away by the way they've encouraged me this week & can't thank God enough for placing these particular people in my life. Here's to growing through the chaos, together.

"That is why we never give up.... For our present troubles are small & won't last very long, yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them & will last forever. So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." {2 Corinthians 4:16-18}

Fabulous Friday

Today I had the opportunity to visit with one of the Iraqi families I met during my short term trip last summer. The daughter of the family is my age & we've stayed in touch throughout the past year. This is a Muslim family, yet they are very open-minded toward Christianity.

The way we met them last year makes me laugh, because it was obviously such a God thing. As we were walking through the apartment complex one day we came across this particular family trying to move a couch out of a U-Haul & into an apartment. We helped them & they invited us inside, where they welcomed us with the most incredible hospitality. We had some great conversation that day & a few more days after that, & we continued to keep in contact through social media & snail mail.

Today during our visit we talked a lot about each other's faiths, asking questions about different traditions & beliefs. The daughter explained Ramadan, & I explained Easter. The conversation turned toward Jesus, & I learned that they do believe in the miracle of Jesus' birth, & His death & resurrection. However, the imams {Muslim pastors} had never told them why Jesus died, & the daughter asked me to tell her.

So I shared the Gospel with her from creation to Christ, using this particular story we've learned as a team: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBmEkBfQK4Y. {Muslims are very interested in stories & love to hear them, which is why we share the Gospel in this way.}

After sharing with her, she expressed such an eagerness to learn more & wants a Bible in her original language, which I'll be taking to her within the next few days along with a DVD on the Gospel & Jesus' life called the Jesus Film. I honestly feel so blown away that this is happening & that God has allowed me to be part of it. Be praying that Light will flood their hearts, that they will continue to be open, & that seeds will be planted.

Also pray for our first short term team arriving tomorrow afternoon & for our own team as we train & lead them while they're here. :)

Day Three!

Day three in Houston has proven itself to be absolutely FULL of happenings & adventures & organized chaos…& I’m lovin’ every minute of it.

For lunch today, we ate at a Middle Eastern restaurant-store duo; we had shawarmas  {a yummy sandwich wrap with either chicken, beef, or lamb, & sautéed veggies} & baklava {a rich/sweet pastry  filled with chopped nuts, such as pistachio, & sweetened with syrup or honey}. 

After that we walked around at a beautiful Hindu temple.

We've done a significant amount of training the past couple of days, along with getting to try new things & meet new people...most of whom think I'm British due to my pale skin & blue eyes. Haha. I also got a chance yesterday evening to visit with one of the families I met during my short term trip to Houston last summer. It was so fun to reconnect & practice some {limited} foreign language skills. :)

Please be in prayer for the people we're meeting & reaching; many of them are followers of either Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism & desperately need some Light in their lives. Also, the power steering belt {among other things} on the van we're using broke on the freeway this afternoon, so PLEASE pray that it can be fixed quickly & easily. Thanks so much, y'all! Xoxo

Hello, Houston!

After running off of {roughly} three hours of sleep & an enormous amount of caffeine, Amanda & I finally arrived in Houston around 4:30 yesterday afternoon! We are exhausted & still struggling to put the jumbled mess of our thoughts into coherent words, but our hearts are so full. 

To our fabulous family, friends, & support system- we love & miss you, & we're beyond grateful to have people like you in our lives. Thanks for everything. 

And that's all for now, due to the fact that breakfast is cooking & coffee is brewing. Stay tuned for lengthier, adventure-filled posts as time permits. :)