After this past month, I have gained a deeper respect for my parents and how they manage to plan vacations for six to eight people. I'm overwhelmed just trying to figure out travel plans for one person! But God is so gracious, and despite my inexperience, He's opened doors to such amazing opportunities.This summer, I will be traveling on my first ever mission trip, to Indonesia. With a team from my church, Indonesian Presbyterian Church, and partnered with Women's Enterprises International, we will be sharing the gospel in a village and town as we serve by helping to build a library and teach English. I am so excited to become part of what God is doing among the people we will be serving!
God has also given me the chance to job shadow a biomedical doctor who studies malaria on the field in Indonesia. I am so grateful for the experience I will gain, and I pray that God would show me how He intends to use this experience for His glory.
Here's my itinerary:
June 24-25 - Seattle to Singapore
June 25-27 - Visiting relatives and friends in Singapore
June 28-July 2 - Visiting relatives and friends in Jakarta
July 3-4 - Medan and 7-hour drive to town of Siborongborong
July 5-7 - Sunday worship in Siborongborong, hike to Aek Matio village and build library
July 8-10 - Bible and English Language Retreat
July 11-12 - Visiting women's groups, Sunday worship, mission team debriefing
July 13-14 - Lake Toba to rest, return to Jakarta
July 15-23 - Malaria research in Lampung
July 24-29 - Jakarta to Singapore to Seattle
Please be praying for me, the mission team, and the people we will be sharing the gospel and working with! May our lives be changed by Christ's love and grace.
"Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." - Romans 10:4
Mom and I are praying for you... I want to share a reflection I read from Piper as a way to commission you to this mission field.
ReplyDeleteLet us celebrate that God is sovereign over Satan’s mind-blinding power.
The worst suffering of all is the everlasting suffering of hell. Satan is doomed to experience that suffering. Revelation 20:10 says, “The devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Satan’s aim is to take as many there with him as he can. To do that he must keep people blind to the gospel of Jesus Christ, because the gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). No one goes to hell who is justified by the blood of Christ. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:9). Only those who fail to embrace the wrath-absorbing substitutionary work of Christ will suffer the wrath of God.
Therefore, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “In their case the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” This blinding is the most deadly weapon in the arsenal of Satan. If he succeeds with a person, their suffering will be endless.
But at this most critical point Satan is not sovereign, God is. And Oh, how thankful we should be! Two verses later in 2 Corinthians 4:6 Paul describes God’s blindness-removing power over against Satan’s blinding power. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The comparison is between God’s creating light at the beginning of the world and God’s creating light in the darkened human heart. With total sovereignty God said at the beginning and at your new birth, “Let there be light.” And there is light.
We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but in great mercy God made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5). We were blind and spiritually dead. We saw nothing compelling or beautiful in the gospel. It was foolishness to us (1 Corinthians 1:18, 23). But God spoke with sovereign Creator authority, and his word created life and spiritual sight, and we saw the glory of Christ in the gospel and believed. Satan is a terrible enemy of the gospel. But he is not sovereign. God is. This is the reason that any of us is saved.