Week 2- The Character and Nature of God

We have completed the end of our second week of classes and it has been an AMAZING week. The topic this week was the character and nature of God. It was so refreshing to be reminded of basic truths about the essence of who God is. Here are the main things that stood out to me from the teaching this week:

1- God IS love. I find it is so easy to forget this, even though it is so basic and something I do "know" in my mind but I often forget in my heart. It is so much easier to serve and love others when my picture of who God is starts with love.

2- Our brains our wired to seek and find comfort and security, but Jesus in fact calls us to lay down our lives, count the cost, and follow him. We actually have to ask Holy Spirit to reprogram our minds so that we can fight the urge to live a life of comfort. Jesus has so much more for us if we would just step out in faith and follow him wherever he would lead us. Our speaker told a story about how he was a support raising missionary for years and years and had to constantly rely on God to provide for him and his family. He saw God move in amazing ways and was never let down by him, but also had times where he really had to wait on God and trust that God would provide- up to the 11th hour. Eventually he felt God was leading him to take a position where he would make a real salary and his first thought was, "Thank goodness I don't have to trust God anymore!" Whoops, he thought- that isn't right at all! We must always be reminded that we are to trust in God- trust him for his provision, and thank HIM for all his many blessings- never taking anything for granted.

3- This is something that God has been speaking to me about ever since arriving here on the campus: God really does want to speak to his children. The bible says "my sheep hear my voice" and I have been realizing just how much I have been over complicating this simple truth. God wants to speak to us, his children! He has given us his Holy Spirit and we need to trust that he does indeed speak and that he will do so in a way that we understand. This also comes with the responsibility of asking God to speak to us and leaving space in our lives to truly listen to him. This goes hand in hand with the idea that I believe God is also asking me to become more child like. To simply trust that he is my heavenly father, that he will speak to me and my family, that he will lead us where we should go, and that he will provide for us on the journey. It really is that simple, but we, in our adult thinking complicate things so much! These are basic bible truths, but if I am really honest with myself, I haven't been living my life as if I believed these things.

Another very exciting thing happened this week. We found out where we are going on outreach and who is on our team! I am so so excited for this because God has given both me and Jody a huge heart for these nations. We also have a fantastic team and I am so excited that we will be traveling and ministering with such great people! We are going to Southeast Asia! If you would like to know the specific nations I can tell you in a PM :)

A few prayer points- this sounds silly, but we could use prayer for our stroller! Right before we left I bought a used phil and ted's double stroller off of craigslist. I knew we needed something hearty that I could take on rough terrain and I found what I thought was a good used one on craigslist. Well, it turns out it had a ton of problems that I was unaware of- mostly that all of the tires are on their last legs and completely falling apart! Considering that we don't have a car here and use our stroller to get just about anywhere it is hard to not have a reliable ride! The wheels are all currently being held together with duct tape! We are waiting for new ones to come but if you could pray that no new problems pop up in the mean time and that these new tires make the stroller usable!

All of our stroller troubles have also illuminated a lot of Jody and my own weaknesses since we have had many a tif on the side of the road with a broken down stroller and crying kids in the heat of the day! It honestly is a good thing and a blessing since this is one of the huge reasons we wanted to do this as a family- to grow in God and learn how to truly have a Christ-like attitude in all circumstances. Well, we are certainly being challenged in this area so if you could just pray that God gives us amazing grace in stressfull circumstances to be loving and patient, to one another and the kids. I'm sure this is just preparation for some of the challenging circumstances we will encounter on outreach!

On a praise note, we are all getting more adjusted to the heat and learning that being hot and sticky all day is just a part of life here! This will definitely be good preparation for the even more humid Southeast Asia!

Love to you all! Grace and Peace :)

The amazing circle of nations. The love and honour for the nations is so strong here! 

Prayers for Kiwook on his birthday! Kiwook and his lovely wife Sohee are on our outreach team :)

Trailblazers DTS students and staff on family night!

Our awesome DTS leader was so thoughtful that he bought pumpkin pie for all of us at morning snack on Canadian Thanksgiving. Here are the 4 of us Canadians in our DTS eating pumpkin pie!

One of the many beautiful Hawaiian beaches. It takes us about 30 minutes to walk here and we try to go every weekend since it is pretty much the only way to stay cool here! God's creation is so amazing!

Jonah giving you the stink eye! Our kids are all learning to be such troopers!