Iceland-Part I

Last summer (‘07) I travelled with a friend from high school to Ghana in West Africa. For three weeks we lived in the Lighthouse Children’s Home mission compound, got to know the children that live at the Lighthouse, and explored Cape Coast and Abra Inside. I fell in love with the children there and when I got back to the States, I decided to pursue returning to Ghana to teach in the school Lighthouse was starting. It soon became evident that that was not going to happen. In a way, I was grateful because that would mean putting of college yet another year and I was already losing my motivation to continue my education. I did not, however want to spend another summer working at a mundane job. I wanted to do something fabulous before starting college.

So one particularly slow day at work, I googled “summer mission trips.” The very first link was summermissions.com. I clicked on it and found that it seemed to be a perfect way to spend my summer. Over the last year, I have discovered that children are my heart. It seemed that God was affirming this love as I read over the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) website and found that I could spend an entire summer ministering to kids. I read over the application and when I got home from work, I talked to my parents about the idea of a summer mission trip. They gave me their blessing so I started filling out the application.

When I first went on summermissions.com, I had looked over the list of destinations and decided on Iceland as my first choice, Ireland as my second. They had a whole list of African countries but it is my dream to return to Africa for an extended period of time in the future. Not to mention the fact that I had just been there. I’m not a huge fan of South America so I checked out the European destinations. There was Iceland. When I researched Iceland, I read that it was settled by the Vikings, has a huge waterfall (I think it’s the biggest in the world), volcanoes and glaciers. With CEF, I would be teaching Bible school at a summer camp in the mountains of Iceland. It sounded fun to me!

I have since been accepted to go on a summer mission trip with CEF. I have begun to raise funds and thanks to the many people who gave financially, I reached the April 10th goal deadline of 25% of funds raised. On June 6th, I leave for two weeks of child evangelism training in Missouri. From Missouri, my teammate and I leave for four weeks of ministry in Iceland.

I am very excited about this summer. Already, I have seen God working and providing for my needs. I can hardly wait to see what He will do next.  

By Faith

When I was a junior in high school, my history teacher (the one that taught way more than history) suggested that one is not “saved” by praying the prayer, but by faith. until I heard this theory, I was really torn (and a bit worried by) between the two parties that suggest that one may or may not lose their salvation. I was pondering this question today and I came up with the following progression.

Jesus calls us to a life of faith. By faith we believe in a larger than life God who holds the universe in His hands. We believe this by faith because there is absolutely no scientific evidence for His existence. The only evidence we have is the work of the Spirit in the lives of believers. 

This life of faith does not allow us to stop at merely believing in His existence. It asks us to rise to a higher standard, to live by rules of conduct that point others to Christ. There are many that look at these rules of conduct as simply that, rules, because they have been used as bondage by the institution on the church. But they are so much more than that. They are guidelines for behavior that protect us from emotional and spiritual, and in many cases, physical harm. They are there for our good because God adores us and longs for our happiness.

So as to losing salvation, I believe it is only possible when one decides that they no longer want God to hold them in the palm of His hand. It happens when they intentionally turn away and choose to live against faith, to succomb to the world, and to join the frenzy of nonbelievers who are driving themselves insane trying to discount the existence of a Creator who longs for their faith, obedience and above all, worship.

There are very few Jesus People who will tell you that living a life of faith is easy. For some, this means leaving a life of ease to care for the people who have never heard the name of Christ. For others, complete trust in Christ means going against even a family’s expectations and laying down all burdens at the foot of the cross. Because even for those who have been raised in godly homes, most have been taught that God will only do so much and that “God helps those who helps themselves.” With this philosiphy, it is easy to get caught up in doing everything without the help of God then mistaking prosperity for blessing.

True blessing is placing everything into the hands of the Friend of Moses, the God of Abraham, the Creator of the Universe and then watching Him work. By this, faith increases.