Africa Update #2

Time has really flown by! I can't believe it's taken me two months to update my blog!! YIKES!

One of the reasons I have been so busy is that we have been meeting every Thursday night since the first of May to prepare for our mission trip. Each week we have "homework" to complete before the next meeting which usually consists of working on our "Story of Grace" (which I will post), developing the art of story-telling, and learning more about how God has specially equipped each of us for this mission (through spiritual gifts, talents and our unique personalities).

Aside from our personal testimonies ("Story of Grace"), story-telling is the best way we will have to share the Gospel with the Ethiopians. Unlike Americans where we are taught at a young age how to "build our case" and make persuasive arguments with as many facts as we can provide and support, the Ethiopian people relate better to stories. Not only that, but they believe them. There will be many instances where we will not be able to just open our Bibles as we share with them. For this reason, we are committing to memory various stories from Jesus' time on earth in order to be able to answer questions about our faith by simply retelling these stories. It's a very different way to think about sharing the Gospel. This has been a little scary for me because I don't feel like I remember details very well. I can't even retell a joke!! I've had to remind myself that God will help me with the story-telling part...I just have to do my part to know them.

As far as what I've learned about myself, based on some testing we've done, my top spiritual gifts seem to be - exhortation, shepherd, faith and teacher. And based on the Keirsey Temperment personality test, I am "ISFJ" (Introverted Feeling Sensing Judging) which means I am a "protector" or "nurturer". You can read more about personality profiles by going to http://www.personalitypage.com/. Anyway, it's been fun and also neat to think about and allow God to show me how I can use these unique gifts and abilities to serve Him best (both with regards to this trip and in my every day life).

One of the things we've been asked to think about is a scripture and a story from the Bible that is special to us. As a result of my struggles over the last couple of years, I have learned so much about God's goodness and His love...in ways that I don't think I ever understood before. So a scripture that is of great comfort to me is Romans 8:38-39 - "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." And one of my favorite stories is when Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman at the well - John 4:1-26.

So as I close today, getting ready for another mission trip meeting tonight, I pray you truly know how much God loves you!