Beauty around me

Beauty around me

“The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

Living in a city, I often forget to raise my eyes and look up. The stars, the moon and the deep blue sky offer a breathtaking view that forces me to stop and think. What an artistic creator we have! So many details  and, although He is the One who made the universe, he still cares for us, so small in comparison to all the rest. The psalmist says:“When I consider your heavens,  the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,  what is mankind that you are mindful of them,  human beings that you care for them” (Psalm 8: 3,4).

I had the opportunity to visit Arizona over the 4^th of July week end with my husband and that gave me so many opportunities to meditate on these verses. When you sit in front of the Grand Canyon, when you see for the first time the Horseshoe, how can you doubt of the Lord’s almighty hand?? My first though was “those who say there is no God have never been here!”. The same attention for details that our Father had in shaping the rocks was used to create me and you:

 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13, 16)

 Isn’t it amazing news? The  Am I desires a personal relationship with us and wants to communicate His love for us in various ways. He “even put eternity in our hearts”! He even made a dream landscape for us to enjoy! Take a moment to seat outside one night this summer, turn all the lights off and contemplate the ones that are above you and let your Creator speak to you and surround you with His love!

Some Random Thoughts About the Past Two Months

Time goes by quickly. It has been two months since I joined the ISEED Program. I feel myself grow a lot compared to when I just came here.

From the work side, TT is a great patient teacher. In two weeks, she taught me all she had learnt about the accounting job in her past one year. Her experience and techniques are invaluable to me. After she left, I start from what she taught me, and think carefully about the logic and reason behind those working processes. Then, after I get very familiar with the routine work, I start to think about the places that can be improved in the existing process. Or sometimes, just some alternate processes that fit more into my personal working style. Thanks to Don and Karen, who are my great co-workers, they are willing to patiently listen to my opinions and encourage me to keep doing so in the future. I'm so grateful to work in such a productive and innovative environment. When Karen told me that I did a very excellent job in the past two months, I'm so happy and honored.

From the spiritual growth side, I'm so blessed  to have so many mature Christians working and living around me. I really enjoy the teaching from Russ and Phil every week. The Friday night bible study also gives me a great opportunity to learn from other strong believers, and share my own thoughts with them. Besides that, I'm very happy to have Guy as our spiritual mentor. We went through the book "Purpose Driven Life" together and had lots of wonderful discussions. During the reading, I truly experience the inner changing of myself. The book keeps reminding me that I should always put the Lord in the first place in every aspects of my life, which is very important. God gives me time, energy, wisdom and talent, and I should utilize all of those to serve God. It's very encouraging when I read the idea that when we utilize our talents in our daily work, we are actually worshiping him. Because God makes us the way we are, and he enjoys watching us utilizing the talents he gives us. Therefore, when I work everyday at IFI, when I'm using the carefulness he gives me to help other staff deal with accounting issues, I'm actually worshiping him. This idea encourages me to work with more passion and happiness in my heart.

There are so many meaningful, exciting and memorable moments happening in the past two months, and I believe more are awaiting in front of me. I'm looking forward to this incoming July. Trust in the Lord and do not fear about the future, because he is already there.

Tianbang Zhu

June 2016, Columbus Ohio

Hello readers, it has been half way through my ISEEDers internship already since my first day with IFI started in February. Before program started, I had goals and expectations for the internship that I will be intimate with Christ more, building up relationships with Christians, be able to lead the small group, be able to share Gospels to non-Christians, and apply Leadership theories to use effectively in God’s kingdom. Now, through many classes, seminars, and workshops I have attended and being interact with many groups of international students, I feel that my leadership skills are improving and my thinking is shaped by God’s word. I feel like I am growing spiritually as I wish by God’s help through the surrounding people here. I have more courage to speak and share good news with people. I am being disciple on 1:1 method by my mentor Dave, we meet twice a month and sharing what we are blessed by God, or what we are struggling now. I had a good conversation with him yesterday and have received prayer from him. That was an encouraging prayer.

IFI are hosting three events in July and August for welcoming new international students. All the ISEEDers are really excited to meet with new students. The first event, the Buckeye village picnic will be in July 9^th. We ISEEDers are working on requesting donations of foods, gifts, prizes, from stores around the OSU campus. We divided into two teams of two people going to the stores. We have received positive and great interests of what IFI is doing for international students from some stores and they really would like to support us.

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!