Journal 8

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Eric, Matt and Emmy

Week 8

Their key theme was the importance of giving the Gospel to the nations.

KEY IDEAS:

Culture and worldview need to be understood in our different pursuits of bringing the Gospel to the world.

Three principle things

· A reflection on God's promises and nature

§ building our understanding of what it means to know God

· A commitment to intentionally overflow God's blessing, and influence other peoples.

§ Intention to overflow one foot in front of other

· From evangelism to world evangelism

§ effective communication depends on shared meaning. That is: agreement over interpretation.

We also received a workbook called my neighbors are weird and I have learned some practical tips to overcoming cultural differences and being sensitive to differences.

PERSONAL RESPONSE:

I found Monday's teaching really interesting and I immediately compared it to the different people I have meant over here in NZ. My friends from New Zealand do not like to stand out and lead a group and I realize that is because of their different beliefs and enculturation. I also noticed differences in my friends from Switzerland, Indonesia, India, Holland and Japan. My friend from India has different ways of respecting our leadership than my friends from the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand. He has a really hard time speaking up in lecture because his culture deems that as disrespectful to the leader.

KEY IDEAS:

Tuesday we learned more about culture and missions more from a Biblical standpoint.

Biblical Principles

· 1 John 4:8

· Romans 5:8

· John 3:16

· Genesis 12:1-3

· Psalm 72:19

· Habakkuk 2:14

· Matthew 6:10

· We prayed for our team that is heading to Africa and then we learned about culture and spent time learning about the respective places that our teams are heading too.

PERSONAL RESPONSE:

I started to study the T-urkish language and spent time studying different beliefs that most T-urkish people hold. My team watched a video about missionaries who had worked in T-urkey previously. The man from W-E-C, had lived in T-urkey for 7 ½ years. He told us many things about being respectful and polite in T-urkish Culture.

The above reflections upon the first two days showed concrete application, personal response and the ideas that I felt were confirmed, new and important to me as a missionary.

This week for my character study I focused upon God as a Father. I had revelation of my dad picking me up when I was little and “making everything better” and then I realized that God wants to hold me in His arms as well, as my dad. It blew my mind and the love that I feel poured into my heart has created a new desire to love others and grasp my inheritance as a son of God through Jesus. I am much more aware of Scripture now and I feel like the Trinity has truly come alive for me.

I think that this revelation into God’s character is the most important thing I have learned during my D-T-S and I am excited to use this to inspire a life of devotion to my Lord.

Theme Scripture Verse:

Matthew 24:14 “And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

· This Scripture verse opened my eyes to the urgency of spreading the Gospel to the “nations” or people who are different than myself. I feel a new calling on my life, as I want God to come back and want the end to come.

· I will try and understand culture and put myself in positions to learn and be open to different peoples and nations.

· Lord,

o Please help me to become a wholly devoted vessel for you. Jesus please keep in your grace. Father teach me. And Spirit please make the Son and Father known to me. That I would follow their wishes. Amen