Monday, June 12, 2017

Meet the Team: Sports Engagement

After 48 hours of traveling in unfamiliar countries, exchanging foreign currency, gesturing to explain ourselves, and missing the entirety of June 7th, we are here. We are settling in at our guesthouse, watching game 4 of the NBA finals with our supervisor, and enjoying lots of new foods. We have no upset stomachs so far, but it's only a matter of time.

Let me introduce you to our team. There are 3 of us. Colt, Chris, and David. We will be updating this blog every week, so it should help if you have an idea of who we are:

Colt: Doc Holliday
Our team leader. He reminds me of Doc Holliday from the movie "Tombstone". Why? Because he belongs in the background of a western. Colt is the guy wearing a 5 gallon cowboy hat and boots, sitting at the table, surrounded by 9 other hardened cowboys listening to him tell a story (hint: it's a long one) as they watch his fingers dance over a deck of cards. "Is this your card?" must be high on the list of his most common sayings, right behind "westexas" and "50's movies were the best." Reserved when he needs to be, open when he needs to be, I look forward to seeing him become even more of a servant for the Lord and a servant leader for us.

Chris: Laughtrack
Our sitcom audience. We're thankful to have Chris on our team. He is excited to take the role of our blind, forgetful otter who laughs at anything we do. Yes, it is a confidence boost. Yes, I feel like a professional comedian. Chris belongs in a Pixar movie. I picture him as a small otter, bobbing around with his glass bottle glasses and voiceless laugh. Genuine and passionate, I look forward to seeing Laughtrack open his heart wide and bearing much fruit.

David:(nickname in progress)(current options: Fasciitis)
Your's truly.

If you follow the blog, you will learn more about each of us. This was just my word picture of my other two teammates. I hope you will continue to follow our journey and keep us in your prayers.

We are praying for the people here. It is full of spiritual darkness. We see spirit houses outside of many homes. These people are hoping to appease the spirits that "own" their land. It is a sad picture. Those spirits hold no love for them, these people are worshipping a god that will send them to hell for eternity. We pray that these people will be led to the God who sent his son so that we could be with Him. Not because of sacrifices that we give, or righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy (Titus 3:5).

Please pray diligently for these things as we pray alongside you.

  • Team unity: In order for the gospel to be spread, we must be of one mind. Pray that the spirit will give us Christ-like love for each other.
  • Discipline: If this trip is to be fruitful at all, we must constantly be in prayer. This is not easy, and takes discipline. Ask the Lord to help us stay in desperate prayer for this summer and these people.
  • Open hearts: Because of the country that we are in, and our proximity to government officials, we must be very cautious with sharing of the gospel. We pray that hearts will be softened to hearing the gospel either while we are here, or after we are gone. Our most important task is to assist our supervisor in his ministry here, and if that means we never get to share the gospel 1 on 1, then we are prepared to do that. Our prayer is our greatest asset. We need to be praying constantly.


Thank you for your prayers and support, stay tuned for the amazing stories that I'm sure will come.

-David