QUALITY TIME WITH JESUS

QUALITY TIME WITH JESUS

Dear friends,
As the busy time of the welcome events has passed, the studying part of the ISEED program starts again. It has been a crazy time, with a very little personal time of reading and sharing with the group, and sitting again all together to discuss a book this morning was what I needed. New people have joined our team and hearing their insights is a way to get to know each other better. The book we started today is called “A meal with Jesus” and it focuses on the centrality of the meals in Jesus’ mission on the earth:

“In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal”
Robert Karris

It stood out to me how He gives us a model that we can copy and follow in an easy way, just opening our hearts and homes. Our openness will show acceptance and inclusion.
In a time where we rush for everything, buy microwavable food, eat with people while chatting on WhatsApp with another friend, the key word that Jesus teaches is quality time. Time spent together is effective only if we focus on the people who are with us, just a Jesus used to do. Stop a second and think of that awkward feeling you have when, while driving, see people staring at their phones and walking, not even noticing all the others around. Or think the sadness you experience when you see a nice couple at a restaurant not talking but both focused on their phones.
Jesus loved the people he was spending the last years of his life with so much, that He even put His reputation at stake, being called “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”. He was (and still is) happy to link His identity to everyone else’s, to yours and mine! He knew that the table is an important place to open up, to share life on life, to become friends, to reconcile.
As a follower of Christ, my main desire is to be like Him, so the new semester resolution will be to start again the weekly dinners, hosting friends and students. The biggest challenge for me will be to conciliate the crazy daily routine with putting all this into practice and I pray that God will give us energy and love to be salt and light!

Italian meal with homemade pasta and caprese salad (tiramisu' is not in the picture, but was yummy!)

Quick thanks to our “Just in time” God

Hello readers! This July and August are the two busiest month for all ISEEDers and Volunteers because we host three events for OSU’s students: Welcome Picnic, Welcome Party and Family hosting for new international students. We have been planning, asking for donation requests for these two welcome events since June. We all prayed that God will provide all of food donations from restaurants, prizes from many stores, and enough numbers of volunteers and He answered to our prayers. I see many positive responses and willingness to help from stores that Samanta and I visited to request for donations to both of our events.

During the Welcome Picnic event at Highbanks Metro Park, one of my duties was to pick up 100 donated pizzas from the store. It was freshly baked and right just in time, the transportation back to the picnic was good, and the weather was cleared by the dinner time. (Before that it was rain like cats and dogs) I truly believe it was God our backstage helper. Sure we all give thanks to our “Just in time” God for the Welcome Picnic and we trust that He will do the same thing for our Welcome Party next week.

I also gave thanks to God for the answered prayers for the host family who can host me until the end of this year. I was worried about that and trying to figure things out based on my ability and thinking. I shared this with of the good friend of mine who encourage me to trust God and pray. The friend was right – I prayed and I feel relieved and yes He answered my prayer “Just in time”. Also, back in Thailand at the same time, my good friend from church had concerns about her tuition fee. I encourage her to trust God and Pray about it and of course, God comes “Just in time” to help her out. The friend, during her prayer, she got a call from one American missionary who God telling her to help my friend’s tuition fee. My friend was stunned by the power of the prayers, me too! We all are not perfect as Him, Still He loves us anyway.

What I learned from the 2016 Welcome Picnic

Jesus sovereign on nature

                        “Then the wind died down and it was completely calm” Mark 4:39

“The Word of God is real”. How many times have you heard this phrase? Pastors preach it all the times and we repeat it when we share the Gospel with the unbelievers.

But what happens when you have been planning a huge event for months, all the food needed has been already provided, the location has been booked but something unexpected happens? Does your heart shake or you are able to keep the faith?
This is exactly what happened to us yesterday during the 2016 Welcome Picnic. God provided an amazing location (The Highbank Metro Park), a huge amount of food (not only brought by the volunteers, but also donated by Chipotle, Red Chili Asian Restaurant, Taste of Orient, United Dairy Farmers, and Starbucks), two buses donated by University Village to help pick up students, and a lot of activities prepared. The only problem was the rain. For almost one week the weather forecast had predicted thunder storms and on the day of the event it looked like it didn’t want to stop raining cats and dogs.  It was unfortunate, as all the main activities were supposed to be outside and we were expecting about 300 international students.

I started receiving emails and texts whether we would host the event or not due to the heavy rain.  “Rain or shine”, was my answer, but I really hoped that a back up plan would arrive.
One hour prior to the students arrival, I was walking through the park, praying. The rain was not stopping. Then a verse came to mind: “Then the wind died down and it was completely calm”. I immediately realized the most important truth: God is the same, yesterday, today, and always. If Jesus could calm the storm 2000 years ago, He can still do it today.
I knew that this event was according to God’s will and that He can use every circumstance for His glory. In fact we know that “ This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1John  5:14, 15). I kept praying with confidence that He was hearing me.

The rain stopped right before the buses arrived: our God is sovereign on nature! We all had a great time and it was such a joy to see the smiling faces of the new international students, excited to meet new friends, roast marshmallows, and play fun games.They also had the opportunity to talk to the volunteers and get to know IFI better.