Sheep Among the Wolves

This week marked the half way point of my time in Richmond. It has definately been an exciting journey thus far. The amount of knowledge that has been poured upon me has been at times overwhelming. I feel as if I am a completely different person now from when I first arrived here four weeks ago. My relationship with the Father has grown with leaps and bounds and I find myself longing for Him more and more with each passing day.

The focus of the past week has been on the persecuted church. I am finally starting to grasp an understanding of what it means to offer my life as a living sacrifice each day. We have been meeting in small groups on a daily basis and reading through Acts, which gives a detailed account of the first missionaries journeys. It is evident all through out the chapters that they are willing to sacrifice all of themselves for the sake of preaching the gospel, and they do it boldly without fear. This week was challenging in that I heard story after story of brothers and sisters in Christ who have suffered greatly as they proclaim the Truth, but the impact their faithfulness had on the Kingdom far surpassed that which can be imagined. My prayer is that I to will be filled with the same boldness that those who have gone before me have had when the enemy rises up against me.

Getting Focused

Thank you for your commitment to pray for me as I embark on my two year commitment to overseas mission work. I will be living in and ministering to the people of Debrecen, Hungary. You can read more about our teams goals and missions, as well as join the prayer group at http://www.hope4ehu.com/. I invite you to join me on my journey by following my blog.

I have been in Richmond, VA at Field Personal Orientation (FPO) for about a week and a half now. I will remain in Richmond until September 24 at which time I will fly to Budapest Hungary to begin 2 months of language training at a University there. While in Richmond, I will be developing a better understanding of Hungarian culture, as well as, preparing myself mentally and physically for the task that is before me. My day consists of hours of meetings covering a wide range of topics such as spiritual warfare, learning a new language, and sharing the gospel with others. I also have numerous assignments to complete, as well as, books to read. Needless to say I stay pretty busy, especially when I try to juggle developing friendships with others at orientation on top of everything.

One of my assignments is to develope six goals that I want to complete before I leave FPO and I ask that you will pray that I achieve these goals. Mine range from developing a stronger prayer life, memorizing scripture, and developing a boldness for evangelism. One of the sessions taught me how to make these goals measurable and achievable. God has already begun to reveal himself to me in new ways. Another session was a three hour spiritual retreat inwhich I was able to spend time in prayer and meditation. God placed on my heart the importance of prayer and how powerful it is, so I thank you again for your willingness to pray for me.