It's been a long weekend, with 4 days of this acupuncture course....another needle and I might just throw up. But it's been absolutely fascinating.....imagine going throught heart surgery wide awake, with just acupuncture to anaesthetize you.....no drugs....just needles!! Freaky heh?
Aside from acupuncture, this weekend has been on the reflective side...mostly because I'm zoned out from all the needles, but also because of God's unfailing timely convictions. EEeeeek. Ever have those days or weeks or months where you're just feeling blah? n' wondering why the heck you can't pull yourself out of this rut? I went to this youth conference about missions on Friday n' yeah...I can say that God spoke to me personally.
The speaker made one comment. He said:
"Missionaries are givers. Are you a giver or a taker?"
Even with the Christian faith, we tend to take from God all the time. We want to be saved. We want to be fed. We want to grow. We want this, we want that. And why aren't things going right in our lives anyway?
It was humbling listening to him speak, to hear about all those baby Christians in Ethiopia, Vietnam, and China who lived out their faith so simply, influencing those around them. Would you believe that their churches are filled with hundreds of thousands of people who hunger for the word of God?
The speaker shared with us a story which took place n Vietnam. There was a prisoner there who was a believer in Christ. He had 18 other inmates. And each night the men were offered an extra portion of rice for giving 20 beatings to anyone who was a believer. Since this man was the only believer he recieved recieved 360 beatings every night. And all he could do was praise God for this opportunity to witness to these 18 other people. One night, in his prison cell...while being bitten by rats and mosquitoes, this man began to sing a hymn. His inmates encouraged him to continue singing hymn after hymn after hymn. By the time this man was released from prison, all 18 inmates were believers in Christ. Even though this man, walked with a limp from all those beatings, in his mind this was insignificant. He had given all that he had and all that he cared was that they knew the love of God.
It's so easy to get wrapped up with the "challenges" and bumps along the road in our lives. It's easy to forget that we are God's witnesses. It's easy to miss out on those divine opportunities and forget that God intends to use us in every situation that He has put us in. This weekend challenged me to reflect on just how much I was really giving to Him and how I'm influencing those around me. Is it even costing me anything?
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So, it's been nearly 2 months I think, that my bro Derek has been coming out to Fraserlands. yay! Praise God! I'm not sure how much he gets out of service, cuz half the time his eyes are closed. Well...maybe less than half. BUT, at least he's there. That's what I'm going with. God has begun His work in him, I'm sure, I'm just waiting very impatiently for Him to finish! 
I'm praying that the bible will be put to good use!!