Opportunities

...making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Ephesians 5:16-17

Team of the Day: Sports Engagement

Country of the Day: Southeast Asia

Pray for team members to understand God's will each day. Pray they would take advantage of every opportunity to share God's love.

Home sweet SEAsia Sports Engagement

Greetings from Westexas, Powda, and Dave.

Spend a day in the village with us. Take a look around.

Sit with me in the bed of our Toyota Hilux as we begin the day. I prefer the bed. I like the wind in my hair, the mountains and clouds in the distance, and the intense stares from the locals as the tall, lanky white boys fly down the gravel road.

As we leave the guesthouse, our sweet hostess sees us off. She is the sweet, gentle grandmother you wish lived on your street. I imagine she would bake us anything we liked if we asked. She does our laundry, cleans our rooms, and even sewed up my pants for free after miming out her intentions as I clutched them dearly, fearing what this small woman had in store for my wardrobe. This same woman, who has a huge heart for people, a gift for hospitality, a hardworking character, and that sweet Asian lady charm; goes every day before the spirit house outside of her home and places water, food and various offerings in front of it. She does this as an attempt to placate the spirits that reside here. She does this to appease them, and to receive good luck and wealth. She gives sacrificially of herself to these spirits. The very spirits who want nothing for her besides eternal suffering. These spirits not only steal the worship and love God deserves from this woman, they rob her of true joy, they keep her from experiencing God's love, and they fully intend on pushing her into Hell. These are the spirits she worships. These are the spirits she sacrificially gives to. How desperate her position! How important is our message! It is her only hope. I pray that she will hear the truth and be open to it.

We drive towards our workplace.

Past several dilapidated government buildings. Past a herd of water buffalo that pay no mind to the 2-ton hunk of metal barreling toward them. Past a dozen stray dogs and a couple squads of goats, just doing what they do. You'll also see groups of kids wandering the streets, kicking a water bottle as a makeshift soccer ball, or just sitting in their roadside shop with a visage of boredom. Kids don't change based on location. These are the same, overly energetic kids you'd find in America. But these children don't have the blessing of parental supervision that our children have. Their parents are often too far stretched as it is to provide for them, that they must go throughout the day on their own. You can imagine what kind of damage can be done here. Children are vicious. Children without proper discipline or structure are dangerous. We've seen it here. How one kid, who has a more demanding personality can bully his peers into submission. This happens everywhere, but without someone speaking truth and value into the victim's life, the lies they hear about their value can last well beyond these few years. Coupled with a cultural tendency to not express emotions as well as an intense fear of spirits; they enemy has a stockpile of weapons against these children for their lifetime. These kids are being fed lies day by day, and have no hope of hearing truth without someone speaking to them (Rom 10:14). We need people to be preaching here. We need people to be praying here. We need people to be coming here. We need people to send people here. These people need us.

Oh man. There is so much to write about this place. So many things to be said. I hope I can continue to update on this place and what is going on here. The government does not allow evangelism. Our ministry here is the sweaty ministry of hard manual labor and prayer. Lots of prayer. Getting a business set up here that works, and adds value to this village is how we spread His name at this point. The work He has called us to at this point is the work that allows for free evangelism later on. The work we are doing now is not glamorous work. The work we are doing is not "go home and tell your friends" kind of work. But this work is necessary. This is the work we are called to. We just want to be obedient. We just want to be obedient. God help us to be obedient. 

-Sports Engagement

What's in a name?

David, Colt & Chris

Names.
You never can force an nickname.

It just doesn't work.

Doc Holiday

I thought this was an appropriate nickname for Colt. I still stand by that. But it didn't stick. 

When referencing a time in his life when he lived in the Western side of Texas, he will conjoin the West and Texas into "westexas." Chris and I took notice. We have now parodied that phrase so much that now it sounds something along the lines of "Worcestershire." So you can now call Colt "Westexas" (pronounced Wesh-teksh-ish)

Laughtrack

I thought it was a good name for Chris. But alas, you cannot predict the fickle way of nicknames. We met a 'stralian man by the name of Nathaniel, who, not only made it difficult to not speak like an Aussie, he made it difficult to not repeat everything back at him in a terrible Aussie accent that he no doubt thought was offensive at some points. Nathaniel met Chris. Nathaniel found out that Chris had packed a lifetime supply of protein powder for this trip. I'm serious. He might as well have checked a separate bag for his protein powder. Nathaniel thought this was hilarious. After hearing an Aussie man yell "Powda" for 3 days, we couldn't help but follow suit. 

Ace

The nickname I could only dream of. Given to me one day while throwing a frisbee on the soccer field; lanky arms and legs flailing about, making weird sounds, and generally being a sight, the team decided I had a lot in common with Ace Ventura. I'm not complaining. I love the nickname. We'll see if it sticks, won't we. 

Thank you for your prayers. This is a small update on team dynamics. We haven't had much time to write. But we will be posting more blogs within the next few days to give you an idea of how to pray for us, our long term partners, and the country. 

-David
Sports Engagement

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