Stepping Out In Faith:
I am currently in the process of raising support and getting things ready to go to Czech as a summer intern with Josiah Venture. Raising support and trusting God to provide in this way is something I haven't done in so long it has seemed a bit foreign. It seems tho, each time that doubt and fear try to sneak in God keeps opening the doors and asking me to trust Him. He has put a friend in my life that has said he will give just about half of the amount I need to raise. Another good friend who is a pastor in town invited me to come to their missions Sunday April 26th. The money has to be in by May 1st but at this rate its looking like it just may happen.
Life and Death and the Hope of Christ:
This past week a few of my friends died. Two of them, Tony and Laura died in a rock climbing accident. Tony was on the police force here in Gresham and Laura's dad is a fire fighter. Laura and her husband (who is Tony's brother) Bobby used to be in my home group a couple years ago and when I was in college I used to hang out a lot with Bobby and his twin sister at their parents home. It was a really powerful funeral. 1500 people were there. And both Tony's and Laura's story spoke to a life of passion of Christ. Afterward there was a small copy of Heaven by Randy Alcorn for everyone to have. FIFTEEN HUNDRED PEOPLE. Many of them who did not know the Lord. May they not be able to escape the reality of Christ now that they have known Tony and Laura and have seen their life and death. On my way to their funeral I read my email and found out my friend Pavel from Czech died of lung cancer. Pavel also lived a life passionately for the Lord. I met Pavel the last time I was in Czech. He was the translator for class and he was also asked to translate my testimony. We had good talks that week about faith and trusting God and believing in His grace. We've kept in touch some through the years. When I bought my one-way ticket to Prague, that as you know, I didn't end up using Pavel was really excited to think of me coming back to serve for a longer time in Czech. I will miss Tony, Laura and Pavel. There are a couple things tho that really stood out to me at Tony and Laura's funeral and thinking about Pavel too, one is that it is so worth it to live passionately for Christ, to live fully and to live lives that are drenched in Christ's love. I'd way rather live a life of passion for Christ than to buy into the American Dream. Another thing is that with these friends of mine, with our friends that know and trust Christ, when they die then death does NOT have the final say. Death does not get the last victory. My brothers Tony and Pavel and my sister Laura are now with Christ! So when our friends, when our Christian brothers and sister die we do grieve, we cry, we hurt, but we also celebrate the lives and the examples that they showed us, we celebrate the passion that they showed us and we hope. We have HOPE. That, is amazing.
Prayer opportunities:
Please pray for me to be able to raise the support I need for this summer. Please pray for the Czech youth group leaders and the Josiah Venture staff who are right now getting ready for this summer. Pray for all the students that are going to come to camps this summer who don't yet know the Lord. And will you also please pray for the Silva family, for Bobby Silva who lost his brother and wife in the same day. Will you pray for the Gresham Police Department who lost one of their fellow officers. Pray that Tony's life/death would speak to the officers that don't yet know the Lord. And please pray for Pavel's family and for his friends in Czech and those who were close to him. Thank you so much!
More coming soon,
Emily
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing about the funeral. I was wondering how it was.
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