I am in Congo

First update from Congo.

And first things first—praise report from last time, the missionaries’ car successfully passed through customs.  Sort of.  Still waiting on some paperwork.  Thank God for Speed the Light anyway!

On Sunday I spent a layover night in Washington DC.  Got to see the monuments and stuff downtown and had a bit of missions experience there as well in trying to work with foreign shuttle drivers and talking to international people.  I was already with one of the interns then, and we met up with the other two the next morning before we got on the plane to Ethiopia.  On Tuesday, after a very short one-and-a-half days of travel, we here to Lubumbashi, DR Congo safely and without any issues. 

The Engage Congo team.  Starting from me going
clockwise is Michelle, Savannah, Bill Shaw, Rachel,
and Hannah.  Sonia's taking the picture.

 Very excited about things to come during this time.    Bill and Sonia, the resident missionaries, are    awesome.  I learn great things about interacting with  life here in Congo and how to do missions from  them.  Rachel DiTrolio, our student coordinator, also  has a lot of great insight and experience to share.

Mon ami Pascal, the one I talked with for a bit

 I still don’t feel like I’m in Africa.  Every morning I  hear the Bible school students across the path  singing in a local language for chapel.  We drive  every day through iconic pictures of dusty African towns, wave at kids running around playing soccer on the street, see women carrying fish and water on their heads… yup this is definitely Africa, but it sure hasn’t felt like it yet!!  I do feel like I’m being more integrated into life here… or at least life to the extent of right outside our house.  Had about an hour long conversation with a worker on the compound and a local student and it looks like I made a couple friends.  But everywhere else, people just kinda stare at us.  When we walk by houses with kids playing out front, they’ll all run off, gathering their friends while shouting “Mzungu!” (white people, in Swahili).  The girls have gotten a few catcalls and bridal prices too.  Two million Congolese francs seems to be where the fellas back off a bit though. 

Here’s a word on ministry plans.  Bill has a close contact with a vibrant and godly young pastor, Pasteur Ezekiel, who’s been heading up a church plant in the local neighborhood since August.  Several opportunities are available there.  The girls are all interested in children’s ministry and about 60-100 kids have been coming to the church’s children’s church.  They’re greatly considering helping to expand that.  Two of the girls are singing in the choir this Sunday.  I’m not too geared for children’s ministry… more at home talking with young people.  There’s two possibilities on my mind right now.  I could possibly do a sort of sidewalk Sunday school deal near the church as a draw for people to come and be integrated into the fellowship and discipled.  Or, I could go more downtown and just hang out with people and invite them to another church in that area.  I really want my French skills to improve this way before I commence any further, larger, more long-lasting ministry plans.

This is a chameleon.
If you can't see it...well, it is a chameleon...

Which reminds me of a big lesson I’ve realized.  Listen up all wannabe missionaries and cross-cultural workers.  If you learn the language of the people you’re working with, your effectiveness there in every aspect of life and ministry increases tremendously.  If you learn the local heart mother tongue language as well, your effectiveness increases many many times more.  Language learning is something that cannot be skipped or skimped on in ministry preparation.  How is my French doing here?  I’m surprised at how much I’m recalling.  Like I got through an hour long conversation today.  Wow.  Praise God!  Yeah whatever verb tense comes out just comes out, and I pay no attention to noun genders, but it’s coming, “petit à petit,” as my Congolese friends say.  Let’s place a goal to preach in French sometime, shall we?

Oh but about the ministry plans… I do only have 11 months here.  During this time, I want to use what I can offer and be who I can be and be where I can be in order to leave the greatest long-lasting influence.  That would include discovering what God is already doing and integrating myself into that.  Ultimately, it’s all about discovering what God wants to do and following through with the work that God is doing in us, the desires and the actions He’s forming in us, in order to complete His purpose and will.  That’s what I want to do.  And that requires some patience and carefulness with choosing opportunities and even friends.  Every opportunity is not a calling, as Bill said today.  Please pray that I am guided to the right place and use in faith what God has given me to benefit His kingdom!

One thing about that too… church dynamics are interesting here.  I’ll talk more about this once I’ve been to church, but as far as Pasteur Ezekiel’s schedule goes, they have a service on Sunday, intercessory prayer on Monday, I think a Wednesday night service, a women’s group on Thursday, and a big prayer meeting on Friday.  An interesting thing about the leadership dynamic is that leaders here have a “chief mentality” as Bill calls it—if I’m not benefitting as a leader, something is wrong.  I am serving to be served.  Which is exactly the opposite of what we Americans understand as “servant leadership.”  I’m actually really not sure how that should be approached… do the people function well underneath that kind of leadership because it’s a part of their culture?  Or do the largest churches grow because the pastors can delegate well and have a stable church structure that doesn’t depend on them?  Well the latter is a fact.  Point is that sometimes, or most times, “biblical” principles that Americans follow are just cultural applications of a certain perspective on Scripture.  We must be careful in translating what really is biblical and what is only American so as to create the least amount of baggage within the church.  And here’s another thing I noticed… within about a couple blocks of this church there’s about 3 other churches if not more, and yet Pasteur Ezekiel tells us that spiritual darkness is becoming more and more openly practiced.  Reminds me of New Orleans a bit…

About the faith life here—Bill says it’s a mile wide and an inch deep.  Everyone will claim Christianity, but not much fruit is shown.  A large part of that is due to the lack of training in the pastors.  I think in about 150 pastors, one had a solid biblical education but about 50 didn’t even have a Bible.  Talk about up the river without a paddle.  That’s what Bill’s been placed to work on recently, to revive the 60-year old Bible education (and I thought some of my textbooks for school were outdated…), to train the teachers teaching the curriculum, and facilitate access and accreditation for church-planting pastors. 

These were probably the first things you looked at, but I posted a few pictures of life around town.  As you can see, it’s a bit dusty, there’s trash on the ground, and the buildings aren’t super polished but definitely no less vibrant.  Looking at the children and people in the residential areas… yes, they do have much less than we do here and ya’ll do there, but I do not want to be the first to tell them that they’re poor.  They live and are loved.  Not that they don’t need help in some areas… ok poverty is something that I definitely do not know a lot about and haven’t experienced much.  I do know that this country and this Congolese church is very wealthy.  There’s a church nearby that’s built a quarter-million dollar church building all on with the congregants’ own money.  Granted this may be coming from a higher strata of society (there are business people and stuff here too), but the resources are certainly there.  Now our final goal, towards which our work would also go as well, is to help the Congolese church mature in to a missionary-sending church using these trained pastors and allocated resources.  May the Lord be with us and guide us in this!

Well… this just might be the making of a missionary.

MLK Memorial

Our house

Oh and biggest prayer request now falls along what I mentioned about following what God wants us to do and that we would be empowered to do that and communicate effectively through growing language skills.  Thanks ya'll!  This is it!  

10 days

Here’s for a general update, some Congo information, and a bit of insight.  I’m home now, and have been from SAGU for 6 days now… and I have 10 more to go until I finally fly out. 

A little while back, I think started to realize what it means “to number our days,” as the Scriptures tell us in so many places to have the wisdom to ask for.  I only have 10 days left, and then I won’t see anybody I’ve known in the States for a long time.  Because of that, I'm making the most of every opportunity to greet a friend, shake a hand, help someone, pray, worship God….  Like the other day, while walking in the library to find a place to finish a paper, I saw a friend off to the side.  I could have kept walking and gotten started on my paper…or I could have gone over to talk to him for a bit.  Since I wouldn't see this guy but for another few times before I left, I decided that a waiting a few minutes to finish my paper while talking to my friend was definitely worth it. It seems that when time is short, the things that really matter and last the longest become easier to prioritize and act upon. 

Center of town

 This mentality should carry over to our entire lives—statistically, I only have about 60 years, or 720 months, or 21,900 days left to fill.  Tomorrow, that will be 21,899.  Soon enough, if I’m not careful, I may find myself if the same attitude as now, with only this many days left.  There is the wisdom—making the most of every opportunity, appreciating every moment, loving every person, because there just isn’t enough time to do otherwise.

Well there’s my philosophy spiel for today.  I’ve been asked a few questions frequently about my trip and I hope I can knock out a few of them here.

When will I be leaving?  I’m driving down to DFW with the fam early on Sunday the 18^th, then from there I’m arriving in Washington DC that afternoon.  After some probable historic DC adventures and meeting up with the rest of the interns the next morning, we’re flying the next day to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and then finally down to Lubumbashi, DR Congo. 

Our house in Lubumbashi

With whom and where will I be staying?  There’s an on-site mission compound, and the missionaries, Bill and Sonia Shaw, have a house there.  I’ll be staying with them.  The other interns will be staying in the other house on the compound along with our Engage student dean, Rachel DiTrolio.  I posted some pictures they took of the surroundings on here.  And there's a cat.  This is definitely confirmation from the Lord that I'm supposed to be here... I freaking love cats.

What will we be doing there?  Our supposedly normal daily schedule will go something like online studies in the mornings, then language learning/ministry time in the afternoons, and internship discussions/ministry time in the evenings.  I can speak French, Congo’s national language, decently well after taking 4 years in high school, so instead I’ll be learning Swahili, the trade language, and the language that’s most commonly spoken in the area I’m called to—Kenya/Tanzania to the east of Congo. 

Cat

As far as specific ministry opportunities, I can’t say right now—a big principle of missions, or really any organization that wants to develop projects overseas, is that plans made at home without first consulting the people being helped in regard to their actual needs most likely will not bring much help at all  to the local people.  The foundation of missions is understanding and relating to the local people.  So on that note, I anticipate that we’ll spend the first part of our stay learning from the people and observing their culture.  But for some current ideas and possible starting points… I’m still thinking about starting that radio ministry, there’s plenty of university students, of course childrens’ and youth ministry, a couple of the interns are interested in medical stuff, there’s Engilsh as a second language too, and the local churches are into street evangelism… the list goes on but I’m looking forward to really implementing some of these and sharing about what the Lord is doing there!

 As far as funding goes… for plane tickets, living expenses and such for the entirety of the 11 months, I needed $11,895.  But as of today, I’ve received $19,631.  Yeah.  Yeah.  That’s 165% of what I needed!  If that’s not a testimony to the provision of God, I don’t know what is.  I’m very blessed to have the support of friends, family, home church Gateway Church, my away-from-home-church Waxahachie Bible Church, and even strangers.  Wow.  I’m very thankful.  The excess will be used towards those ministry projects later on. 

For contact while I’m there, I’ll still hopefully  have internet because I kinda have to do my online classes.  That means I’ll still be on Facebook, email (zachc4@att.net), Skype, and this blog.  We’ll have phones, but I don’t have the numbers for those yet or if they’ll be useful for contact overseas.

That’s about all.  I’ve been reading a couple books on Congolese history.  I’ll share more about that and the current state in Congo, or at least what I've read on the internet from here.  Thank ya’ll again for your tremendous support.  Every day I’m reminded of how much a blessing my friends are.  A couple things to be in prayer for too… not sure about the current status of this, but the missionaries were having some trouble getting their vehicle through customs.  Please pray that works out!  And that we prepare well to face whatever we face in Congo, spiritually, emotionally, and physically.  Ya’ll are the best.

Catching Up

My apologies for not posting for such a while!

Here’s an update on the trip.  The plan is to fly out of DFW towards Lubumbashi, DR Congo on May 19.  After 10 and a half months of missionary interning, I plan to leave the DRC on April 1^st.  That… is a year minus a week from today.  And I take off in less than 6 weeks.  Wow.

Three other interns have hopped on board as well.  I’m excited about the ministry and learning opportunities we’ll have together!

I recently went through an intense and life-changing experience in preparation for Congo.  Over Spring Break, Mission TEN, the SAGU initiative to send a short-term missions team to every country in the world in 10 years, conducted a training seminar/mission trip for the trip leaders in New Orleans, LA.  I’m very grateful that I was adopted into this experience.  Through running around NOLA in a mock all-day Amazing Race, passing out flyers and praying for people in lower-income areas, homeless ministry underneath an overpass, street witnessing on Bourbon Street, pulling off a huge service outreach in a local park, and even just picking up trash left over from Mardi Gras—this trip greatly affected my life and revealed many things about who I am, how I function in ministry, and how I lead others.  I’ll share one insight and story this time, but I’ll post more very soon!

There’s a few things that determine the effectiveness of an opportunity to share with someone about Jesus.  The situation, the person you’re talking to, and your personal evangelism style.  You might do better at just talking and relating with people, or by being up-front with more impersonal but pricking questions.  But regardless of what you’re best at or what the situation is, there are two definite actions that will make an impact on people for the Kingdom:  an act of service or prayer.  Here’s a couple of opportunities I had to do both of these…

I think one of the first few thing that comes to mind when one hears “New Orleans” is voodoo.  I didn’t know I would get so close to something like that so soon.  Every time a team went downtown, they saw this dude dressed in all black, a top-hat with voodoo skulls on the front, a staff with crystals at the top, and skeleton paint on his face and hands.  He was there when we were street witnessing on Bourbon Street too.  He would walk up and down the street, stopping occasionally to spin his staff and wiggle his tongue fairly creepily.  We stopped on the sidewalk looking for someone to talk to next, and he walks right in front of us… and I just could not pass up the opportunity to talk to this guy. 

I yelled “Hey dude!” at him from the sidewalk. He turned around and pointed at me, and a kind of fear instantly gripped me.  Without thinking about that too much, I yelled again, "What are you doing?!"  He responded, "I'm f***ing up, man!  What are you doing?"  "I'm talking to people about Jesus!" I said. "That's awesome!  Keep it up!" he said as he walked off.  Huh.  My team and I went on talking to people after that.  But near the end of our time, when we passed by him again I felt the Spirit leading me to give him a water bottle from my backpack.  I ran back to him with the bottle and a clementine orange. When I came up to him, I asked him if he was hungry or thirsty and he gratefully said that he would, but when I offered him the clementine, he declined with  “Oh no, I can't eat those,” and then he pulled his bottom lip down to revealed two filed-down vampire teeth.  Yeah.  He then cordially introduced himself as Lumbar, saying that he was called to save this city and bring it to Azuri...his voice trailed off so I didn’t quite get that term.  I introduced myself as Zach and said that I was called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  To this he responded in a similar way as the first time with “Yeah, keep doing your thing,” but then he pointed again back down the street from where I came. 

There were a few things running through my head at this point... I gotta get back to the group because we were about to leave, or I could just share a quick 10 second soundbite of the gospel, or... but when he pointed, it was like by whatever spiritual authority that he adhered to, he was telling me, spiritually, to leave.  That was so overpowering, and everything I learned about us being seated in the heavenly realms above all spiritual authority didn’t enter my mind… I left.  I actually obeyed this dark spiritual urge to leave and did not share the gospel with him.  I don’t know why I did that.  But I did give him some water in the name of Jesus and waved at him as I left, and I remember his name and will continue to pray that he is lifted out of spiritual darkness and into the light of Christ.

More to come next time!  Please pray that the Lord would continue to work out the travel plans and everything else that goes along with the trip!  Thank ya’ll again for your support!

Just another Saturday

Wednesday.  My long day of classes.  Time with God, Understanding the Spirit World, great chapel, Foundations of Church Ministries, Holistic Relief and Development, Volleyball, nap.  Huh.  That would have been the last day I saw my friends here for almost a year.

Thursday.  Early day of classes.  8:00 AM Spiritual Development, then a fantastic opportunity to serve at an ESL ministry at Waxahachie Bible Church, lunch with a good friend, Fitness Walking, study time.  Interesting.  I would be on a flight from London to Johannesburg that day.

Friday.  Slightly shorter day today.  Repeat of classes from Wednesday, save for Volleyball, then a quick tutor meeting that afternoon.  Immense time with God that night.  Hmm.  I would have seen the Shaws in person then.

Today.  Got up at 11.  Caf brunch at 12.  Chat with friends.  Soccer in warm and breezy late winter weather.  Party at University of Texas of Arlington sponsored by the on-campus Christian groups welcoming all the international students for the spring semester.  Carried on a long conversation en français with a Cameroonian fellow and had a lot of fun hanging out with my old and new Indian friends.  Just another Saturday at SAGU.  Wow.  I was supposed to be in Congo right now.

But I’m not. 

Sometimes we make plans that are right on with what God wants, and then out of circumstances that may or may not have arisen within our control, those plans change.  After a good bout of frustration, we realize that change was just another part of God’s plan.  That’s what happened with the Congo trip.  Due to some administrative confusion, the trip has been delayed, so instead of leaving for Congo on Wednesday, I am staying here at SAGU for the spring semester.  I’m hoping to leave for Lubumbashi in May.  Yes, at first it was frustrating—I planned for this thing since last March and now this?!  But each day I find new reasons why it’s a very good thing that I’m staying.  Now, I can receive much more training for ministries we’re planning in Congo through my missions courses and that ESL program.  I can follow through with other ministries that I started last semester but didn’t give as much time as I should have.  I can make plans and do research for a radio ministry that God has called me to start there.  And I can build closer relationships with friends and mentors here at the GU.  One semester was definitely not long enough to meet so many awesome people, and then leave for so long without some emotional pain forming from being torn away from these new and tender ties, and one semester was definitely not enough mental and spiritual preparation for living so far away in such a new setting.

So I am very glad that I still can both stay here and go there, but I am all the more excited and ready to complete the work of the Lord and face new adventures in Congo!

Congolese Culture and Missionary Musings

I don’t have many stories about becoming a missionary in the DR Congo now.  Probably because I’m still in Waxahachie and will be for the next… oh man… only two and a half months.  But what I do have are updates about how preparation for the trip is going, info about the culture of the region I’ll be staying in, and an ever-thinking mind about missions.  So for now until then, I’ll keep this blog alive with some missionary musings.

First, a quick report on fundraising for the internship:  As of Nov. 2, I’ve received tremendous gifts from the Gateway Church Lloyd Craig Ministerial Scholarship, the Gateway Church Missions Committee, the Give Back Willis Knighton Scholarship, my summer job, and many extremely generous friends and family members, which have totaled to $13,990.  The total I will need for the entire trip is $20,410.  That’s already 68%!  Praise God that He is providing through your generosity and thank you for your support!! 

In speech class, we were recently assigned to give a presentation on a different culture.  Seeing as I had yet to do detailed research on Congolese culture, I decided to knock out a couple of birds with one smashing speech about the vibes of the Congolese urban jungle.  Here’s what I learned.

The Democratic Republic of Congo.  First:  the name.  Sometimes such titles are shallower than they appear.  Ever since Belgian colonialization in the 1860’s, oppression, war, corruption, poverty, disease, and malnourishment have incessantly plagued the country.  Even today, DR Congo is ranked 164 out of 182 in Transparency International’s governmental corruption ranking.  Proper nourishment, sanitation, and education are still huge hurdles to overcome. 

How do the people react to this?  They’ve lost all reliance upon the government to take care of the country’s issues.  Instead, they use their own creativity and ability to make it work.  The Congolese are a resourceful people who struggle against struggle.

So no, the DR Congo is not a peaceful island amidst a desperate sea.  This is still Africa.

Missionaries and Congolese pastors have labored hard for decades through the power of the Holy Spirit to bring people to a knowledge of Christ.  But while many people profess Christ, syncretism and nominalism are rampant among believers.  There is a widespread fear of evil spirits, and to appease these spirits from bringing sickness or poverty on their households, people will participate in ancestor worship or witchcraft.  Children who wet the bed are sometimes considered demon possessed.  The lucky ones are sent to pastors or priests who attempt to drive out the demons using any sort of traditional technique.  The rest are kicked out of the house and onto the street.  Much Biblical teaching on spiritual matters in needed in Congo.

But regardless of the state of any country, Jesus’ encouragement to all disciple makers still rings true:  “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Which is a really encouraging thing indeed.

What else has been stirring in my mind in this wonderful academic institution?  I’ve been challenging some of the ways Americans view cross-cultural missions.  A combination of three things may have created a misconception about missions:  Testimonies from missionaries about the amazing things God is doing; the lack of such testimonies we hear regularly in our own communities; and the mysterious awe of cultural diversity around the world.  Then, we see missions as this this magical endeavor, this fantasy expedition to venture across the wild parts of the world to tell people about Jesus, a journey reserved only for the missionary heroes of the Kingdom of God. 

So is thinking that taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, across physical barriers and cultural divides, and among the quirks of learning to live in another culture is stinkin awesome a bad thing?  No!

It’s just this:  missions is essentially the same everywhere.  People are in your neighborhood, high school, college, downtown, work, Walmart, Starbucks, and work.  The same people are in the Mexican drug cartels, the red light district in Amsterdam, the remote village in Eastern Asia, the pub in London, the businesses in Dubai, the streets of Paris, and the slums of Mumbai.  Wherever you find yourself, people will be hungry, poor, addicted, hurting, abused, lost, and desperately in need of Jesus. 

So where is the best place to be make a disciple of Christ?  The easiest is where you’re at now.  You don’t have to contact missionaries, write support letters, raise funds, create prayer cards, deal with plane tickets, pack, learn a new language, get accustomed to a new culture, or go through extensive training to teach the guy who walks around the neighborhood that how he can be freed from his sin through by putting his trust in the resurrected Christ and following Him.  The hardest might be halfway around the world in a completely different social structure and cultural context.  But none of those are necessarily the best places.

The best place is wherever a lost soul may be.  The best place is wherever the Spirit leads you to go.

Will you go?

Daktar

Upon hearing about my missionary mandate, many friends and family have given me books and biographies about missionaries to further fan my future into flame.  The first, loaned to me by a dear faithful sister of Gateway Church, Mrs. Pat Widener, was rather daunting.  Titled Daktar:  Diplomat in Bangladesh, weighing in at 452 pages, boasting about size 8 font and yellowed from 30 years since publication, I was tempted to let it rest on the shelf a while.  And I did.  Until Mrs. Pat reminded me about it at the beginning of this summer, I just then picked it up and started reading, but not without my fair share of conviction. 

Those aged pages told of a man named Viggo Olsen, once a brilliant but party-friendly young agnostic in medical school, then a man who found the truth about God through failing at discovering flaws in Scripture, afterwards a successful surgeon presented with an opportunity for a highly distinguished fellowship, and finally a medical missionary who instead decided to open a hospital in East Pakistan for hurting bodies and souls.  Daktar gave an incredibly detailed description of Dr. Olsen’s early life, missionary calling, ventures to build a team and erect the hospital, strains with the East Pakistani government to secure visas and permits, relationships held with the Bengali people, medical work in the hospital, life on the field, persevering persecution, surviving two ghastly wars, the bloody independence of East Pakistan into Bangladesh, and most importantly, trusting God through it all.  Every paragraph that told of the Lord working miraculously through a situation despite his fears and shortsightedness, he never failed to follow with “Thank you, Father!” 

Near the end of the story, Dr. Olsen reflected upon an Indian war monument and related the young liberators of the Bengalis to Jesus Christ.  When India could have stayed out of the war and watched West Pakistan obliterate the feisty Bengalis, they stepped in and fought; when the Father saw our lostness in sin, He also could have chosen to stay out of our mess, but instead he sent Jesus to step in and die for us.  I then realized that this was also what Dr. Olsen and his medical missionary team did – instead of living their own comforting life, they went to a desperate nation, cared for them, loved them, served them, endured hardships for them, shared the gospel with them, and lived a passionate example of Jesus before them, even when the Bengali people could provide nothing in return.

And suddenly, I realized what missions is all about.

A Home and a Hope

Ever since I've been at SAGU, I've been struggling with unbelief.

It's hard to believe that there are so many young people with such amazing calls to ministry.  It’s out of place to see such a warm, encouraging atmosphere radiating from these students and faculty. It's difficult to fathom there exists such a place with the same nuances as Magnet (the chapel speaker two nights ago wrapped his whole sermon around Adventure Time and I lost count of how many other people brought the entire Star Wars series) and an entirely Christian fellowship.  It’s incredible to sit in a class while listening to the professor lecture about world missions.  It’s stunning to see the answer to the prayer for the Lord of the harvest to send passionate young people into His harvest field.

But this isn’t fake.  This is real.  This is SAGU.  This is home.

Yet at the same time, this doesn’t feel like home.  Back at Magnet High, I was always ministering to someone in some way on campus—making a disciple, giving encouragement, sharing the Word of God, praying for someone in need, telling someone about Jesus, teaching the Scriptures, empowering the leaders of next year.  Here at SAGU, those opportunities, at least towards the unsaved, are no more.  Yes, we Christians still have needs and issues that are sought out and met within the love of this incredible fellowship of believers.   Yet as I talk with my Christian friends, learn in my Christian classrooms, and worship in my Christian chapel, my missionary soul grows restless.  This passion for lost souls to come to know Christ and desire to be poured out into someone’s unsaved life burns uncontrollably.  It is suffocating.  In hopes of channeling this anguish into ministry, I’ve joined several outreach ministries, one to international students at UTA, another to neighborhood kids, and soon one to the juvenile detention center.  But this fire remains unquenched.  The cool thing is that God noticed that.  I may have received some direction from Him to do something extraordinary… we’ll see how that goes.  

So for now, this longing “to preach the gospel where Christ was not known” (Rom 15:20) continues to outgrow this amazement of “how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity” (Ps 133:1).  Maybe these are just freshman emotions; maybe this is just zeal without knowledge; maybe it's God.  My hope is that this turns into a good thing.