God's power and beauty in Niagara Fall.

Hi, Hi, Hi!!! We are back from our Niagara Fall! It was a GREAT fun trip! I already miss everyone in my gang! Our amazing adventure was from 27th, May to 30th, May in Buffalo, NY. We had 14 people in total. One of our sweetheart intern, Christina, and me led a car with two Chinese students, so our car is a Chinese car (so to speak) filled with music! On our way, we relived Titanic, Ghost, the Sound of Music... and reviewed all classic Chinese and English songs since 1950s! More than that, we shared and discussed our diversities in politics, ethnicity, linguistics,  food culture, environment, and so on. We really became very close friends through this trip. On our way back, we even did the "five love language test" to get to know each other's love expression language! I'm very grateful for each of our team people that God brought to my life!! They are so adorable!

As we arrived in Buffalo, we met our host family. They are all very sweet and joyful people. My host family are super famous!! Their granddaughter was born in a snowstorm, and God made her birth to be a miracle! So CNN came and interviewed their daughter and son-in-law, and then their quote "it's not odds, it's God" went viral. Sadly, the first day, our host parents just put their dog into sleep and they really had a tough long day. But luckily, on Sunday, we celebrated their 42th anniversary together! The host dad is an incredible carpenter. He made all the gorgeous tree house, slides, swings, clocks, musical boxes, etc. And before we went to the Huge Niagara Fall, our host parents took us to taste a mini fall with a watermill near their house and bought us the best ice cream in the town! They also took us to their church, where they held their wedding ceremony, with their grandma, who is in her nineties and still so lovely and pretty! They are all dramatically peaceful and joyful christians! We learnt all their love stories in their families and their ministry stories in Uganda. Their faithful lives really touched and impacted my spiritual life! I feel so blessed to spend such a quality time with them together!!!

Another highlight was the Buffalo International Conference called "Life's Ultimate Destiny", held by Amherst Baptist Church. They had many workshops. I really like the second one I went called "The main story of Bible." The speaker threaded the whole bible stories as one big story, which is Jesus salvation story. I really liked his clear way to express God's grace and salvation systematically in the whole Bible. 

In the afternoon, we went to the Water Fall! The Fall was so splendid and poured upon us from heaven like the Holy Spirit. We are impressed by the beauty nature of God and witnessed the powerful strength conveyed by God's creation. We saw four rainbows during our trip! It reminded me after the big flood, God told Abraham that "this is the sign of the covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth." Thanks for God's grace and His eternal faithfulness!!

At the end, the conference shared the students' testimony and we played our talent show. We had a Chinese student performed a beautiful singing solo, a drummer star, one of our leader, Geroge, played an exciting drum solo, and the whole group sang the song of "how great is our God" together in four different languages: English, Hindi, Thai and Chinese. On Monday, we took a boat ride to go into the waterfall and experienced its spectacularity again. After we drove back, we had our last dinner together. This trip is a big treasure of my life! I got fully relaxed and renewed by the precious friendships and the beautiful views!!

Hello readers!  Tony here again. Welcome to Ohio’s early summer with an unusual heatwave. It’s warm and nice out! This month I had an opportunity to go to the Niagara Falls trip with IFI on May 27^th to 30^th. It was fourteen people going together in one van and one car. This trip makes me feel joy; I got new friends from this trip and the trip also strengthening friendship with my old friends too, in both physical and spiritual way. We all played games together in the van, also talking and sharing stories together along the way to Buffalo. We stopped for taking pictures at Presque isle state park in Erie, Pennsylvania. It was a very warm day at the beaches and we walked on the sand with bare foot, roasting out feet! 

When we arrived to Buffalo, New York, the group is split to meet with the arranged host families. Fei, Ryan, and I stayed at Bill & Jamie’s house, our host family. They welcomed us with the famous domestic food of Buffalo area: The pizza and the Buffalo wings. The taste of these foods are unique and very delicious to me. Our host family provides a ride for us to the Buffalo International Conference “Life’s Ultimate Destiny”, which was held at Amherst Baptist Church. Students can choose to attend two workshops that they are interested in. I attended the workshop about believing the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and Finding God’s Purpose for your life. After the workshop the group travelled to Niagara Falls. As I mentioned, it was an unusual heatwaves so we are under a strong sunny day that the temperature is raised up to 90 degrees. We had to wait in the line under the bright sun while buying tickets & to get slippers and a poncho. It took three and a half hour to get to the waterfall, but it was worthwhile. We spent the time talking with friends and sharing the word of God.  The moment when we reach the waterfall when the splashes soaked us and cooled us down was priceless! On Sunday, our host family took us to the church they are attended and they held a lunch picnic after that. We had a great time talking with the guests. On Sunday evening, the IFI group had a talent show at church and we chose to perform as a group singing the song “How Great is Our God” in four different languages: English, Hindi, Chinese, and Thai. It was awkwardly fun to sing the song in four languages that shares the same rhythm. On Monday, we went to Niagara Falls again and ride on the boat to see the bottom of the waterfall. Of course, we get soaked again but we were overwhelmed with joy! After that we drove back to Columbus.

Besides the joyful moments at the falls. I feel happy to get to know one of the guy in the group, Jiawei, he is a generous guy who offers foods to the group and he is very friendly. He told me he is a very new Christian but I can feel that God is transforming him and using him in his mission. Someone told me that he has changed a lot after he has accepted Christ as a savior. I believe that! With my group (Fei and Ryan), I interviewed both of them about how they connected to IFI and it came from the IFI airport pickup program that build up the connections between them and IFI. They both said it’s very fortunate for them to know the IFI community!

It was a joy and privilege for me to see God’s creations, the Niagara Falls and God’s work though the people, who put him, and live their lives for God and to God’s grace such as our host family and my new friend Jiawei. Praise the Lord for all things he have done!

Filled with joy!

“The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” Psalm 126: 3

May has been so far the best month since I arrived in America. I have had so many good experiences and I have seen God’s hand working in an amazing way that all I want to do is share what has happened with all of you and I hope it might be encouraging!

The first astonishing thing is that my family came to visit. You should know that they had never traveled outside Europe, never done an oversea flight, don’t speak any English and would have never left home for one month. Isn’t it enough? If not, I will tell you something else: my parents and my in-laws did this together and stayed in my two bedroom apartment for most of the time! Can you see God’s grace in giving them a safe trip, creating a peaceful environment, and cancelling any misunderstanding? My heart rejoices thinking of their smiling faces when I came back home from work!

At the beginning of their stay, I had the chance to help my mother in-law, who had been struggling with fear and anxiety for almost all her entire life. It’s incredible to see how many lies we believe and how their common root casts doubt upon God’s love and His omnipotence. Even if we love the Lord so much, this beliefs took us far from Him, paralyze us, and do not allow us to live an abundant life (John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”). We prayed together, identified the lies and the truths. She asked for forgiveness and wrote down some bible verses to help her in the future. There is freedom in Jesus!

My husband and I had the chance to introduce them to our coworkers and to take them to church! What a great love and warm welcome they experienced! We took them around Columbus (they loved the parks!) and we had the privilege to travel to Canada, visiting Niagara Falls, New York,  Washington DC, and Chicago. God protected us during all this driving through the crazy American highways! It was not only through the people we know that God showed us His love. In Washington, in fact, a Christian family we had never met before opened their house to us, with care and hospitality. They told us that all they have belonged to God, as they are only stewards and they are called to share what has been given to them. What a great lesson! But the best is yet to come!! Their testimony was the perfect bridge that took me to share God’s love with my Father. I could tell him how my heavenly Father has been taking good care of us, giving us more that we could imagine and how all He wants is a personal relationship with us and to tell others about His salvation plan. After so many years, I could finally share the Gospel with him. To my amazement, he was not upset and reacted well, giving me a hug!!!! All I can say is that God is good!

What a joy to her my father saying: “Amazing group! I knew you were fine here in the US, but now that I have seen the amazing people you are surrounded by, I can go back home in peace!”. Italy is pretty far from here and the distance can create sorrow and sadness, but having them see our world gave us (and them) a feeling of confidence and tranquility and created a stronger bond.

Thank God for His provision, love and care!

Thankful for This Year of Growth in Christ

Two weeks ago, I gave my final presentation for my experience as an ISEEDer this year. I am very thankful for the experience I got this year, and there are several highlights:

-I have been equipping and learning a lot of how to be faithful and be a good witness in the workplace. In the past, it has always been hard for me to understand how to honor God in professional work. So my mentor and I did a Bible study on finding all the verses about "honoring God" in Bible, what surprises me a lot is there are very few verses about "honoring God", but many scriptures about "God's honor", it hits me that I finally understand God does not want me to think how to do things to gain His please, but to please Him by living as a good witness wherever I am and always be open to let God transform me in different places in life.

-I had the privilege to have 1-1 discipleship with two girls this year. In the beginning, I felt tired sometimes and always trying to think how to help them and become nervous of not "teaching" them enough. But my mentor told me something that I have been reminding myself a lot, that is "we are just happen to be available and present, and it is God who is doing the work in their hearts", yes, what a big relief and humbling experience!

-I have also personally grown a lot this year, this internship has definitely provided me the flexibility to have more time to get deeper study into the words and allow God to work through some hard parts in my heart.

-And I am very thankful for our apprentice/intern fellowship this year. We have different personalities, but together, we experienced the close fellowship in Christ. And I am also very thankful for all my good supervisors, especially my mentor.

Overall, it's just 11 months, but it feels like a lot! And I am looking forward to the next step with the Lord! God is faithful! Please keep praying for my spiritual growth and deeper intimacy with Christ for the future life!

God has Shown All People Himself

Our seminar is reading "Eternity in Their Hearts" recently, which talks about how God has shown Himself to different cultures and nations through the history. Is is so interesting to see so many testimonies and stories showing that in different cultures there were pieces showing God's revelation and people's knowledge of the God they did not fully know.

Even though the traditions or old stories in different cultures are not telling the exact gospel, it is still true that God has put the desire in people's heart to seek for the truth. As it is written in Romans 5:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” It is so true that no one can deny God from the world He created.

We had good discussions on the book, and equipped with more knowledge about different cultures. It is always a good way to open up conversations from people's cultural background. It is important to remember that we can not share the gospel in the way to just yield to people's culture, it is not the true gospel, but use the cultural connections as a good entrance to let people see how much their ancestors, nations or even themselves have been worshiping idols before knowing the true God. And it also gives us more passion to share the gospel with others.