Selamat Sore All!

Last night David and I made the trek (ok, so it’s only a 5 minute walk…) to the BRR office to use their (awesome) internet connection. I decided it was the opportune time to post a blog entry. “It’s been a few days,” I thought, “and I’ve got so much I could share!”

But as I sat staring at the blank entry and blinking cursor…I just couldn’t write.

This experience has been incredible. Challenging on so many fronts and I am learning a love for God that only two short months ago I was begging for. And it’s down right perplexing how to share every essential input that has shaped, refined, and directed me these past few weeks.

I could tell you about the people here…my love and respect for the two gentlemen that I spent last week with in LG; the amazing camaraderie God has established between David and me (a serious blessing); the time I've spent trudging through communication breakdowns, team dynamic issues and other struggles that come from this type of work environment...being stretched further than ever; and in the midst of the frustrations the hours spent with FH staff laughing over a game of Mexican train, worshiping God in song on a Saturday evening (the warm tone of a classical guitar and Tio’s inspiring voice… “It Is Well” indeed!), praying over His work here in our morning devotional time (ibadah is the Indo word for ‘devotion’); the simple joy in the face of a child as he watches his homemade kite soar over the cool green ocean; the foretaste of Glory I see in the eyes of passing acquaintances in the fields, the market, the mechanic’s shop, the engagement parties…

Or I could take some time and walk you through all the things I have been processing…about the Gospel (seriously, read Ephesians through in one sitting…amazing), about missions (haha I can’t summarize that one in parenthesis), about the Church (oh, how I love the church!), about development (you gotta see the forest in the seed my friends…the mustard seed that overcame the mountain…small is beautiful), about discipleship (*hums* “Where He Leads Me I Will Follow”), about Creation (both His creation and the desire to create that was given us as we were crafted in His image. If you have some good poetry or song lyrics, please send them!)…

Or I could post more pictures and share with you the sheer beauty of this place. You could see how it has been so easy to meditate on the Glory, the Sovereignty, the Beauty, the Grace, the Majesty of our heavenly Father here. And even how living amongst the raw splendor of Aceh Jaya has helped me to seek out the beauty in even the simplest, most mundane, and even the straight up ugly corners of this world. God is everywhere! And where He is His love and glory abide.

But instead I decided to humbly admit my inability to effectively communicate the work of God’s hands without being able to use my smile, my hand gestures, words like ‘awesome’, ‘soooo good’, and ‘I don’t even understand…’ with proper inflection, and some hot Acehnese coffee and fried bananas.

So I hope that this snippet will suffice for now. I hope that you will be encouraged by the way God is being glorified here in my heart and through me. And I hope that this sneak peak will wet your appetite for more about His renown!

Ephesians 1:16-23

“I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”