The last time I blogged I spoke of when I was at Starbucks and essentially missed an opportunity to at least love on a guy whose dad recently had a stroke. I again went to Starbucks the week before Thanksgiving again to do some quiet time. This time I ran into two old high school friends. One I learned had turned to the Lord and was attending the same church that my aunt goes to. The other was still a Buddhist though a different type of Buddhism than we were raised with.
I immediately knew that the Lord was giving me a second chance to share the gospel with someone. And this time, I didn't flinch at the opportunity. I told my friend that I loved him enough to disagree with what he believed in and went on to tell him about the love of Christ for him regardless of anything in his life. Thank you Lord for second chances.
Showing posts with label darren yui missionary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label darren yui missionary. Show all posts
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Not Bold Enough
So I really tried to focus on having a Sabbath day yesterday because of all the time I have to help out with my dad at home every day. I went to church...did some window shopping then decided that instead of going home to read the Word, I would go to Starbucks because 1) I might have an opportunity to talk to someone there and maybe share my faith and 2) so I would actually do my reading. The first option was based on a lot of what God is teaching me and how I need to be bold for my Lord.
So I grabbed my grande soy Chai latte and went outside to find a table. There weren't a lot of people there so it was easy to find a place to sit. However, I sat facing away from the Starbucks because in all honesty I didn't want to be distracted by people watching. While I was sitting there reading through the book of Hebrews, I heard a conversation happening behind me. A guy was talking to two women who were sitting outside and sharing about how his dad back in Florida had a stroke recently and he was going to visit him. However, he didn't want to really go. People were encouraging him to go so that he wouldn't have any regrets. My first thought was this guy is going through the same kind of thing that I am. I stopped reading and began praying fervently for him as he continued his conversation with the Lord.
God was opening a door to share and love on this guy who I'm guessing by some of his language that he was not a believer. I told God first let me finish reading the chapter I was on then I would approach him. When I finished the chapter, he wasn't there. So began to wrap up my things and made my way to the car. I got into the car and put everything in its place. After I started the car, I looked up to see he had returned to his table. Now my dilemma. Do I shut off the car and go to talk to him or do I just drive off? I went back and forth what seemed like a hundred times in the matter of seconds, and finally decided to drive home.
The whole way home, I knew that I should have talked to the guy. I knew that I could have possibly made a huge difference in his life. But yet I was a coward...too selfish to stop where I was in reading and go love on this child of God. Too prideful to shut down the car and get out. Since then, I've been praying for boldness. I need it desperately not only for myself but for others who don't know Christ. Paul tells us in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." I hope that next time I will have the boldness to proclaim God's love to those who don't yet understand their need for a Savior. I pray also that if you get an opportunity to share God's love with others, you don't talk yourself out of it.
So I grabbed my grande soy Chai latte and went outside to find a table. There weren't a lot of people there so it was easy to find a place to sit. However, I sat facing away from the Starbucks because in all honesty I didn't want to be distracted by people watching. While I was sitting there reading through the book of Hebrews, I heard a conversation happening behind me. A guy was talking to two women who were sitting outside and sharing about how his dad back in Florida had a stroke recently and he was going to visit him. However, he didn't want to really go. People were encouraging him to go so that he wouldn't have any regrets. My first thought was this guy is going through the same kind of thing that I am. I stopped reading and began praying fervently for him as he continued his conversation with the Lord.
God was opening a door to share and love on this guy who I'm guessing by some of his language that he was not a believer. I told God first let me finish reading the chapter I was on then I would approach him. When I finished the chapter, he wasn't there. So began to wrap up my things and made my way to the car. I got into the car and put everything in its place. After I started the car, I looked up to see he had returned to his table. Now my dilemma. Do I shut off the car and go to talk to him or do I just drive off? I went back and forth what seemed like a hundred times in the matter of seconds, and finally decided to drive home.
The whole way home, I knew that I should have talked to the guy. I knew that I could have possibly made a huge difference in his life. But yet I was a coward...too selfish to stop where I was in reading and go love on this child of God. Too prideful to shut down the car and get out. Since then, I've been praying for boldness. I need it desperately not only for myself but for others who don't know Christ. Paul tells us in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." I hope that next time I will have the boldness to proclaim God's love to those who don't yet understand their need for a Savior. I pray also that if you get an opportunity to share God's love with others, you don't talk yourself out of it.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Sudan the adventures
So this past week, I was in Sudan to help Pastor Dongo as he went there to minister to some pastors and church leaders. I wasn't too excited about the trip considering that I am soon going home and have lots of work to accomplish here in Uganda before returning home for a somewhat long visit.
We left very early Monday morning and experienced just the beginning of some transportation challenges for the week. We were flying on a fairly small airplane from Africa Inland Mission that day. As we went for take off, the pilot decided to not take off. He didn't say anything to us at first, just taxied back to the terminal. Later, he told us that there was a problem with the wind speed indicator. After about an hour and a half of phone calls and working to fix the problem, he said it was fixed. We went for takeoff and had no problems the rest of the way. At this point, I had been informed on very little about our trip to Sudan. I learned that we were landing at a place called Torit. It is in the Eastern Equatoria state of Sudan which borders Northern Uganda. We landed safely on a somewhat sketchy dirt runway with some strategically placed potholes.
The next step was to get to Magwi from Torit. The drive was supposed to be about 2 hours. Not too far right? I think the distance was something like 36 km. Do you get the picture? We were lucky to have a Land Cruiser to manage the potholes and large puddles (what else can you call those things...not potholes, but small ponds?) A little more than halfway, the driver tried to make a maneuver around one of these pools only to find the mud give way and he slipped back into the pool. However, we managed not to get stuck there. A short while after, we came upon a convoy of UN vehicles as one had gotten stuck in one of those pools. We waited and watched for about 30 minutes as they tried unsuccessfully to pull the vehicle out. Finally, they let us pass their convoy, but about 10 minutes later, our car also broke down (not in a pool though). We sat and waited as the driver attempted to fix it and call for help. The pastor who was hosting us ended up walking to the next village and catching a boda boda to Magwi where he found some mechanics who arrived about an hour later with 3 bodas to take us to town. So the rest of our trip was on boda to town without our luggage as we waited for the car to make it the rest of the way.
A few days later, we got a different car to take us to a few towns in the area to visit their health care facilities. The car was a sketchy Rav4 with the tires almost completely bald in some cases. We noticed that the driver kept watching one tire specifically. Lo and behold on the way back, we got a flat tire. As if that wasn't enough, it almost immediately began to rain like cats and dogs.
Finally, today, we returned on the smallest plane possible I think. It was not a smooth ride...let's just say I'm glad my stomach wasn't full at the beginning or else it would have been trouble. So needless to say, we had a few interesting transportation adventures in our short week in Sudan. Oh yeah...we did ministry also...I'll write separately about that later.
We left very early Monday morning and experienced just the beginning of some transportation challenges for the week. We were flying on a fairly small airplane from Africa Inland Mission that day. As we went for take off, the pilot decided to not take off. He didn't say anything to us at first, just taxied back to the terminal. Later, he told us that there was a problem with the wind speed indicator. After about an hour and a half of phone calls and working to fix the problem, he said it was fixed. We went for takeoff and had no problems the rest of the way. At this point, I had been informed on very little about our trip to Sudan. I learned that we were landing at a place called Torit. It is in the Eastern Equatoria state of Sudan which borders Northern Uganda. We landed safely on a somewhat sketchy dirt runway with some strategically placed potholes.
The next step was to get to Magwi from Torit. The drive was supposed to be about 2 hours. Not too far right? I think the distance was something like 36 km. Do you get the picture? We were lucky to have a Land Cruiser to manage the potholes and large puddles (what else can you call those things...not potholes, but small ponds?) A little more than halfway, the driver tried to make a maneuver around one of these pools only to find the mud give way and he slipped back into the pool. However, we managed not to get stuck there. A short while after, we came upon a convoy of UN vehicles as one had gotten stuck in one of those pools. We waited and watched for about 30 minutes as they tried unsuccessfully to pull the vehicle out. Finally, they let us pass their convoy, but about 10 minutes later, our car also broke down (not in a pool though). We sat and waited as the driver attempted to fix it and call for help. The pastor who was hosting us ended up walking to the next village and catching a boda boda to Magwi where he found some mechanics who arrived about an hour later with 3 bodas to take us to town. So the rest of our trip was on boda to town without our luggage as we waited for the car to make it the rest of the way.
A few days later, we got a different car to take us to a few towns in the area to visit their health care facilities. The car was a sketchy Rav4 with the tires almost completely bald in some cases. We noticed that the driver kept watching one tire specifically. Lo and behold on the way back, we got a flat tire. As if that wasn't enough, it almost immediately began to rain like cats and dogs.
Finally, today, we returned on the smallest plane possible I think. It was not a smooth ride...let's just say I'm glad my stomach wasn't full at the beginning or else it would have been trouble. So needless to say, we had a few interesting transportation adventures in our short week in Sudan. Oh yeah...we did ministry also...I'll write separately about that later.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Out of the funk
Sorry that I haven't been online recently. I hit a rut there for a while. I guess it finally hit me that I was no longer a host for visiting teams, and I actually had other work to do. It just took me a few days to snap out of a funk that I was in. Thank God for the blessing of music that ministers to my heart. The following is the anthem that I have been running through my head the last few days. The bottom line is that I have to let go and allow God to have control of my life. You would think that I had already learned this lesson, but what I know about myself is that I'm stubborn and often have to learn things the hard way!
We will separate ourselves from everyone that we know (We say, we're so misunderstood,)
We can't allow a single doubt or weakness to show (But I know we don't do the things we should)
Just one more day without the shame and I can move on (So long to what I thought was)
I'll be happier, happier when I've given up
We will separate ourselves from everyone that we know (We say, we're so misunderstood,)
We can't allow a single doubt or weakness to show (But I know we don't do the things we should)
Just one more day without the shame and I can move on (So long to what I thought was)
I'll be happier, happier when I've given up
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