Hospitality: a (cross- cultural) life on life experience

Since I have started my new adventure in the US, it is the first time I post something on this blog. That's exciting!! But before I begin, let me tell you something more about me. My name is Samanta, I moved from Italy to Columbus with Gianni, my husband almost two years ago and I joined the IFI group last January, working as intern in the event organization.

Have you ever wondered what is your most valuable resource? To me, it is time. Time is the only thing we can never get back.When we dedicate people our time, we show them they are important to us. How can you get to know someone better? Yes! Spending time with them!

That's exactly what Russ and Rebecca Sermon did with us today: they opened their home to me, Titi, Tony, Xi, Alyssa, Christina, Kaini, and Phil, prepared an amazing lunch for us and shared their testimonies and life changing experiences! What a great example of hospitality!

This helped us internationals to understand more about the American culture and to share about our own traditions. Reading "Cross-Cultural Servanthood" by Duane Elmer (you haven'r read it?? Do it, it's a great source of inspiration!!), we have been challenged to put ourselves in the shoes of others to serve them in a more effective way: 

"Serving people is not just doing what seems good in our own culture but seeking out the knowledge of the people, learning from them, knowing their cultural values and then acting in ways that support the fabric of the culture to the degree possible. After taking these steps, we will have served them".

Kaini, Xi, Tanit, Titi, Samanta, Alyssa, Christina, Phil, Rebecca and Russ

 How can we do it? How can we understand other people's background? What I learned from this book is that asking questions with a sincere heart is always a good choice. Moreover, it might be wise to find someone to learn from and learn with, in order to avoid major blunders without even knowing it. It is such a new vision to me! I am ready to start... and you?

We are Co-workers, and We are also Brothers and Sisters

All of the ISEEDers and Apprentices went to one of our staff couples' home for seminar and lunch today. During lunch time, we had the chance to hear their testimonies and know them better. The fellowship time we had today was precious and great, as we are studying "Cross-cultural Servanthood", we all find that we can't not go deeper into a culture, a community, a group, or a person until we dwell in their lives.

One thing God constantly reminds me is to love my brothers and sisters as my brothers and sisters, sometimes even start from seeing and recognizing them as my brothers and sisters in heaven. They are not my cousins, my extended relatives, but my siblings with the same Father, so how much should I love them? Many times in church, when I feel awkward standing in line for something or talking with people that I have never seen before, simply because I do not see this person as my sibling, God would speak to me and remind me that this is your brother/sister. Or when I have conflicts with others, the Bible tells us to seek reconciliations with others, just thinking one day when we meet each other again in heaven, I must regret a lot for having my flesh take over me and having all the argument and conflicts with others without being willing to apologize to others.

I think the fellowship life written in Acts is very attractive to many of us, while also seems so hard for many of us. I ask the Lord to teach me how to love my brothers and sisters. Knowing that we will be in heaven worshiping God forever in the eternal life, and I want to be well equipped on earth now and prepare for that joyful time! 

How Do We Feel about Time That Has Passed

It is funny to see that every time I write the blog, I wanted to start with "time flies", and it is actually how I feel! It is amazing to see that January has already passed for this new year.

I went to Urbana 2015 Conference after Christmas Day, the most influential moment for me at the conference was when Pastor David Platt stated that "before you go into missions, make sure yourself is not missing Jesus".

Do you have the same feeling as I have that "Oh, I could have better used my time! I could have spent more time on reading Bible, praying, meditating, growing in the Lord..." Yes, I could have. But what is more important compared with just regretting for the past is to learn from the past and improve the future. By God's grace, we are forgiven and given a new life, we need to repent for our sins and mistakes, and we also need to learn to embrace God's grace and remembering that Jesus has paid the price for us, what a marvelous gift that compels us to surrender our lives to Him.

So for this new year, I want to pray for you who is reading this blog and myself that God will give us the strength and wisdom to live a Jesus centered life. Do not let the past make you passive, instead, ask God to transform our characters and help us to aiming for the higher call.

Urbana 2015

After Christmas, a group of 14 of us came to Urbana. This is the third day of Urbana now, and I have heard some good speeches.

We started today with a group bible study on Matthew 20:1-16, "The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard", when I was reading this passage, God was asking me to reflect my heart on how much do I really understand God's grace and His authorities. Am I comparing myself with others, am I using my definition of "fairness" to justify myself or others? These are all wrong, God is the One who have full authorities on His plan and His timing, all I need to do is to ask for obedience and a submitted heart to be a real disciple of Jesus Christ. Then, the big morning session's message was on Matthew 25:1-13 "The Parable of The Ten Virgins." It was a great reminder to me to be alert and not be distracted by things in life and forgot that the Lord is coming, and I do not know the timing, but when He comes, I would not have time to get oil. Christian life is a daily journey, it's not paused or stopped after we committed ourselves to the Lord, instead, we do need daily bread to feed our spirit so when the Lord comes we can join the banquet with Him.

I Can Never Get Enough

As we are moving towards the holiday season, I am getting some holiday feeling now, wanting to spend time with people I love, being thankful for what God has been doing in my life. Tomorrow is thanksgiving, I am extremely happy that I will be celebrating this year's Thanksgiving with my mentor, what a blessing! I think one good thing about being an International during the holidays is that you have the chance to celebrate with different people/families each year, even though I really miss home, but I am still thankful for my heavenly family around the world.

What I am most thankful for is Jesus, who gives me life and walking with me everyday. This morning, when I was baking some bread and praying, one thought came to my mind is that I can never get enough of Jesus. With Jesus, it is enough, but everyday, He is giving me life and delighting my life. As I was thinking the three years since I became a believer, God has been working in so many aspects of my life, and He is still working! How amazing that I know my God is giving me living water everyday.

We may not at the spiritual peak all the time, we might feel dry and tired many times, but I know that God's word is alive. When I was studying a passage this week, I found that I have already studied the same scriptures several weeks ago, so I was thinking "Well, maybe I should keep moving on to the next passage." But after my mentor and I started our study, we had really deep discussions for about an hour on the passage that I thought I have read well, and we had several questions that we had never thought before. God was giving us new thoughts that we can apply to our life that day. I felt God was speaking to me how proud I was and even though the same scriptures can give me different delights in different time or occasions. Wow, how amazing is God's word! I truly need to confess my pride and ask for God's forgiveness, and I truly felt that I can never get enough of Him. And by God's grace that He is correcting me and teaching me which really comforts my heart, His teaching makes me feel His love for me.

May the Lord help us to grow in Him day by day. By His grace, may we be like deer pant for water pant for Him. Thank you Jesus for being the everlasting God and living water!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

EMI = Awesome

This past week I went to Cincinnati to attend two EMI training sessions with Phil and Samanta. It was an eye-opening time and I was overwhelmed by God's love and His power there. During these three days, I further experienced God's great power and His wonderful plan, and we were all set on fire for the gospel afterwards.

We attended two sessions, the first one was "Freeing Your Family", talking about how much we can be influenced by our families when we grow up, in both positive and negative ways. It gave me a chance to reflect my heart, repent, rethink and ask God what should be a godly family look like and how should it be functioned. We all have brokenness and wounds in our families, but God is an amazing healer, He is always able to heal the wounds and empower us to reconcile with our families. The second session is called "Dream Discipleship", which is to seek the dream and desire God has put in our hearts. I am very thankful to see some strong desires that have been buried in my heart for a long while, and just thinking about my dream, it brought me joy and happiness. I was also encouraged by the Holy Spirit to pray and seek my true desire after realizing how much I like it.

The night before we left Cincinnati, the whole class had a gathering party together, sitting around the fire, worshiping the Lord and praying together, I was so touched by God's peace and joy. We are people from 9 different nations, but I didn't feel any nations that night, we are truly brothers and sisters from the same nation, which is God's kingdom. Sharing with others and listening to the great stories of what the Lord has been doing in different people's life, I am amazed by God's mighty power. What can be better than praising the God who created heavens and earths, you and me in a peaceful late Autumn night.

Life is like a river, sometimes it is so ease, sometimes we are in a storm, but I know who is in control and who is in charge of tomorrow. I want to praise the Lord for being who He is, Jesus is hope, with Him there is joy and peace in life.

I am not Myself's Planner

When I was sitting in the office one day, for a while I thought it was 2016, and I thought next year would be 2017. When I finally figured out it is 2015 now, I realized it is almost the end of September, then I thought wow, it is about time to buy another planner.

I always make plans for myself, each year end I will buy a planner and then write down all the things that I know on my planner even before the new year starts. Even after I became a believer, I was still living my daily life strongly depend on "my" plan for a long while. If my day is not going according to my planner, I would feel nervous, am I behind my plan, am I out of control of my life? For a long while I was wondering, what would my life be like if I am not using planner anymore, how many times do I need to look at my planner each day to make sure I am finishing all my to-do-list? Am I relying on God to give me a sense of fulfillment and security or am I relying on my planner or in other words, myself?

I was often told that life needs to be "stable" when I grew up. My third oldest cousin got married, had a kid, her life is seen as "stable" and completed all the things she needs to do before enjoying a "stable" life; my third youngest cousin just got her job offer and would be able to stay at her home city, her life is seen as "stable" and ready to start her career and a "real life". Every time I go back home, my uncle would say "Don't chase some big dreams, when can you be stable? So we can feel secured in our hearts that you have a settled life." To be "stable", I used to make plans for myself, and then followed the plans, then hoped as long as I am following these plans, one day I would have a "stable" life. But who is in charge of my life? God is in charge of my life! Who should make plans for me, God should make plans for me! Am I using my planner as a planner or a reminder, is my planner a unchangeable schedule that is graven in my life or it is flexible that God can move the little pieces as Him thinks is the best for me.

I used to be very anxious and annoyed when my schedule needs to be changed, or some meeting times need to be changed because of some last minute calls. It gave me a sense of insecurity, because it is not how I planned it, I am not in control of my schedule anymore. But then God taught me to use my planner as a reminder, I can put plans in it, but plans are things that have not happened yet, plans can be changed. Since that summer, I started to replace my plans by God's plans. I am not that upset about people changing the schedules anymore, and for some days I don't even look at my schedule until night and see how much I have finished. My life is not bounded by my plans anymore, because I know that God has a plan and He wants me to have joy in my life.

My friends, I am not saying that planner is not good, I think it is very important to make our lives organized, but what is more important is to put faith in Christ knowing that even though life does not always go according to our plans, God is still in control. Ask God what He wants for us, what are His plans for us, put His plans in the planner, for that is where real security and stability come from.

When I was moving this summer, I found a piece of paper that I had when I first came here. It was a ten-year life plan, step by step, and I am happy to see that I barely looked at it during these years, and I am not following what is written on it. I know that God is changing my heart and teaching me how to rely on Him and put faith in Him. Now I really know it is not about "when can you be stable", for my life is stable every day in the Lord. I once was accomplishing the plans to feel secured, but now I am feeling secured and accomplishing the plans, for I know that God is in control and He is with me all the time, my heart is settled and I wish that my family can also know that so their hearts' would also be settled. When I look upon the cross, I know that I am secured in the Lord, and how amazing that He not only saved me but also gave me abundant life that is filled with hope and joy. He indeed deserves all the praise!!

PS. Thanks for reading the blog:) You are very welcome to comment below, and I am very willing to discuss with you! May the Lord bless you every day!