Well This Is Different

First of all welcome to my blog and thank you for following me and I am excited to see all the plans and teachings that God has set before me!

Introduction

I am starting this summer journey of being an intern for Advancing Native Missions located in Charlottesville, VA. I am here with 2 other interns learning what it is like to work in this non-profit missions organization. This organizations’ main goal is to help the missionaries out in the field with their ministries, and supporting them personally. In the middle of July the other interns and I will be taking off with Mindy, who works here, and a missionary named Bong and exploring/promoting the importance of  supporting the missionaries I am so excited to see what God is going to do through my life spiritually, physically, and emotionally in this experience. As I have started here I have just been welcomed by a million people (or at least it has felt like that) who are all excited to see me, which is different because I don’t know them. Everyone here is so happy and so welcoming and has already told me they are so excited for all of us to be here, as are we! All the people around clearly love God with all their heart as well as their jobs, which in this day and age is hard to come by, but I bet if I asked everyone in this office if they loved their job the would respond with 100% YES!

An Unusual Welcoming Party

My first day here was Tuesday June 5 and it was not what I expected, in a good way. We first arrived here at 9a, like a usual job, and set up everything, because Mindy has made us our own little desks in her office so this feels like a real job. Next we were taken into an open space, next door, to “pray for the nations”. As separate people everyone takes an email sent from overseas with information on it about what is going on in the world. We then pray over the news we are reading and then gather in a group and pray for the nations all together. This was really different for me to experience because most offices would not pray together corporately for those countries all over the world. The day went on with lunch and work, nothing interesting, just office work.

Something is Different About These People

Thursday June 7 was something else, in a good way again. As normal we arrived to the office at 9a and then at 10a there was a staff Bible study. Being as this organization is one, which supports the missionaries, in particular and there was a visiting missionary from Egypt. This personally, I thought was super cool and when I heard he was from Egypt I think I had a minor heart attack because I love meeting people from different parts of the world.

The missionary has visited ANM before but today was the first time he was able to bring his wife and only son, who got to speak to us. It was so cool to hear him speak because he talked about the persecution that goes on over in Egypt towards Christians. He told us how he is unable to say he is Christian or he might be persecuted and he has to go to a public school which taught Muslim teachings in religion. He went on to say how he was kicked out of school for telling the teachers he did not believe what they were teaching on Hinduism and he was offended that they spoke against his God. What makes this story even more amazing is that this is kid is 15! How cool is it that he is able to stand up to his teachers and get expelled for saying anything and he is 15?! I don’t know about you but I can’t get over that fact. He is now moving to the states because it is unsafe for him to continue to live there and is hoping to get a great education but his parents must go back, which stinks but is so awesome to see their dedication to further His Kingdom.

Next we got to hear from his mom, who couldn’t speak much English but he was able to translate. She told us how when she accepted Christ her parents rejected her but that was good compared to what they normally do in that religion. She said she knew friends who told their family and were poisoned by the husbands as well as run over by a car by their husbands. This got me thinking about how awesome it is to know we can tell anyone we want that we love God and they will accept us! I guess you don’t think about theses things until you actually hear the stories from people who have lived it.

What happened next was crazy, somebody mentioned we should pray for the family and almost everybody got up out of their chair to lay hands on this family and I’m pretty sure we prayed for 20 minutes! It was amazing to sit back and see how these people not only talked the talk but they also lived what they spoke. Not only could I see on their faces they loved God but the fact they stood up to comfort and really pray for these people really put actions into their attitudes.

Seeing these people act and smile the way they do is just so amazing. I have already been blessed so much and I can’t wait to share more awesome stories about what goes on in the office! Yes, the office, this all happens in the offices. Something else isn’t it?! In a good way!