Hey everyone! I want to give a great big thank you as always to all of my supporters as I continue on here at Word of Life. Please know that God is doing great things here and there are a number of exciting opportunities that I will get a chance to be a part of in the near future. Keep reading to find out what they involve!
I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the blessing of today.
“This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.” – Psalm 118:24
Something I’ve come to understand and learn is that every single day holds in it a reason to rejoice. The circumstances that come my way are irrelevant. They may be good, bad, or anywhere in between. I often can’t control them. However, every day that I live and breathe is a gift from God and has a lot of potential in it. I can be joyful and glad no matter the circumstances because God is good! In fact, and I won’t delve deep into this right now, but I have come to believe that a great sense of joy can be experienced in suffering. It is often through difficult times that we can be growing, learning and experiencing God’s presence in a very comforting way. The key is drawing close to God in these times. I just want to encourage you to have joy and rejoice today no matter your circumstances. Focus on God and realize that He can use you greatly in your life if your focus is on Him and not on yourself. Today has a lot of potential in it. What will you do today that will make a difference and show your faith and love for God?
“This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.” – Psalm 118:24
Ministry Update:
Recharge:
It’s Friday, January 25th! That means here at Word of Life it is the opening weekend of Recharge! Over 100 campers and counselors are scheduled to descend on the Word of Life property today! It is going to be a fantastic time filled with fun activities such as sports tournaments, tubing down a hill, making snow sculptures, jumping into the ice cube (Basically, the ice cube is a tank filled with water that campers can jump into and get points for their youth group. It’s frosty to say the least! It’s also usually a big hit!), and our famous cardboard sled race! (Youth groups make sleds out of cardboard and then one of the campers races down a hill in the sled to the finish line. They go one at a time and the winner is the person with the fastest time.) It is going to be a lot of fun! There will also be lots of wonderful food at meals as well as that can be bought at places such as the Snack Shack! Speaking of the Snack Shack, I am helping out with Recharge this year by serving in Customer Service as well as with the Snack Shack. I expect it to be a blast! Everything that I mentioned so far makes Recharge great, but my favourite part is the spiritual aspect. As I said, over 100 campers and staff come on property today and this will occur every Friday over the next six weeks. Every Saturday morning, there is a gospel presentation. Think about it. This is a fabulous opportunity for kids to hear about the saving news of Christ. As a student last year, I remember some of the wonderful things that God did through this meeting each week. Praise God for this amazing opportunity! In addition, every Sunday morning, campers will have the chance in another session to dedicate their lives to Christ. Again, it was incredible to see what God did through this time last year and I’m excited to see how He will work again in 2019! Recharge is such a blessing for everyone involved from campers, to counselors, to staff. It’s going to be awesome and it all starts today!
Academics:
After Christmas break, the students had the privilege of studying the book of Joshua. I actually also had the same privilege as Joshua was a book that wasn’t studied last year. Therefore, I was able to audit the class. There are some great reminders in Joshua including the famous passage about being strong and courageous. This can apply to so many areas of life and it was a great reminder that God is in control and He is with us. This past week as well as next week, the students are learning about end time prophecy in the book of Revelation. This Bible book will close out the first semester. As a whole, my job has continued to go smoothly. It is going to get quite busy with the end of the semester coming up next week. Sometimes, I think to myself that it’s sad that there’s not a lot of new things to share in this area, but I am enjoying my work and it is a definite necessity and has been a great blessing as I get the privilege of serving students in an academic setting.
Missions Conference:
I was at a Word of Life Missions Conference last week. It was great! The speaker gave a lot of convicting and challenging messages to everyone who attended. One of the main points was about the number of unreached people groups in the world and the need for missionaries to go forth and proclaim the gospel message in these difficult parts of the world. Another important point was about how every Christian can be and needs to be a global Christian and involved in some way in missions. This could be going to different areas and sharing the gospel, helping to send people out, praying for missionaries, mission fields, and unreached people, welcoming international people in our country, and mobilizing Christians all around wherever you are situated. It was a true blessing to attend this conference, and I look to apply what I learned to my life.
Discipleship Training:
Yet another cool opportunity that has arisen is discipleship training with my local church here in Owen Sound. The training will occur once a week for most of this year and revolves around learning how to be effective in sharing the gospel, walking with new believers and helping them along the way, and helping these people become disciples who can make disciples. I am looking forward to it because I want to learn to be a good discipler. Also, the training is about application of what is learned. It requires time and commitment, but it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for in my life and I’m excited to get started! I believe that this is a big part of what life is all about. It is about glorifying God through sharing the gospel and then helping others grow to become more like Christ. I’m sure there will be great challenges and blessing along the way, but I’m up for it!
Facebook Ministry Page:
I just want to quickly say that I have started up a Facebook ministry page for the purpose of hopefully reaching people even more effectively with the happenings here at Word of Life. I am also going to put these blog posts on my ministry page. I invite you to like and follow the page as I post updates!
Prayer:
If you’ve read the entire post up to this point, you know that quite a lot is happening in my life right now and in the lives of everyone involved with Word of Life. Please pray, if you would, for the following items below:
- Students: Please pray for all the students as they have a lot going on in the next several weeks with Recharge and the end of the semester occurring next week. As well, I’m sure they have a lot on their minds involving the messages spoken at Missions Conference.
- Recharge: Please pray for all of the campers and counselors coming to Recharge that God would prepare their hearts for the gospel message they will hear. Also, please pray that everyone would be kept safe and have a lot of fun!
- Personally, please pray that God would work through me to bless other people, that I would have the strength for all of the busyness coming up, that I would continue to grow and serve for His glory, and that I would experience healing as I am battling a cold right now that is draining me physically.
- I have been in contact with an individual that I believe is unsaved and has gone through a lot of hurt in his life. If you would, please pray that God would open his heart by His Spirit and that he would come to trust Christ as his Saviour.
- Finally, once again, please pray that this entire ministry here at Word of Life as well as any other ministries including your own would all be done for the glory of God which is the most important thing.
Bible Verse:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. – 1 Corinthians 10:31
There are a lot of things going on in my life right now. Perhaps, the same is the case for you. In all of this busyness, I think the important thing to remember is why we do what we do. It is all for the glory of God! We may be busy, but may we never forget this crucial point!
Have a great day everybody!
“This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.” – Psalm 118:24