My Last Days

Here it is everyone.  I am nearing the end of my trip to Hong Kong.  I leave on Wednesday at 3:10pm Hong Kong time.  I will arrive in Indy at 9:54pm Indy time.That means it will be August 22nd for 36 hours to me.  Crazy.

I have finished up Vacation Bible School.  It went great. We all had a real fun time.  At church today the VBS kids got on stage and sang a few songs for the church.

I have been trying to see everyone one last time before I leave.  The best way to do that in Hong Kong is to have meals with the people you want to see. So basically I have spent the last few days eating great food with great people.

Hong Kong is a city of transition.  People are always coming and going.  Many of the friends I have met in Hong Kong are coming and going from Hong Kong.  It seems like all the people who are going are scheduled to leave this week and next.  It has been crazy.  Everyone has been having goodbye dinners.

I have been reflecting this week on my time here. It has been a blessing.  I am grateful that I have been able to be here in Hong Kong with the Watermark community.  I will never forget this experience.  One thing that has stuck with me and will continue to stick with me throughout my life is intentionality.  It is so important to be intentional with the people around you.  Time is short and one never knows the future.  I value my time with everyone in the States more and I value the time I have had with the people in Hong Kong more.  Being intentional does not mean just spending time with someone.  It means giving them your time to learn who they are and what they care about.  It is giving up your own selfish desires and putting others before you.

I love all the friends I have all around the world.  I am blessed to have met all the wonderful people I have.

It is sad that I am leaving Hong Kong.  It has been a great part of my life.  But God has not told me to stay here yet.  I am ready to embrace the next stage of my life that God has planned for me.  I have a beautiful soon-to-be-bride to come home to who I cannot wait to see.  I have a wonderful family and wonderful friends who are excited to have me back.  I also have an exciting future ahead of me to take on.  I am excited for Elizabeth and I's future at Francisco GB.  Our time to be with that family is coming soon.

Quick Update

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to send out a quick update about what is going on in  Hong Kong.  I have 11 days left in this amazing city.  I have had a great time and I know my last few days will be blessed, but I am excited to see my family and friends back home.

What I wanted to do real quick was ask for prayer support.  This coming week Monday-Friday is Vacation Bible School.  I am excited for it.  This last week, I have put majority of my work time into preparation for VBS.  I think everything is coming together.  There are still some things that need work but I think we are going to have a great week.  My  request is that you pray for this week, for the volunteers, and for the students coming to VBS.  Thank you everyone for the support you have given me up to this point and that I know you will continue to give.  It is greatly appreciated.

My blessings

I want to share with you the blessings I have received the past few days from God.  

God has blessed me by showing me my friends grow in Christ. Learning more about His love and how He is always there for us.

God has blessed me by being able to Skype into my awesome friends wedding on the other side of the world.  Congratulations Mat and Mal Murphy!

God has blessed me with Nepalese children who are wild but are leaning about Christ.  

(God has also blessed me with patients)

God has blessed me with friends around the world.  Some near and some far.  Every friendship is a blessing.

God has blessed me with a supportive family and church family.

God has blessed me with His Word.  I studied Philemon and Colossians a few days ago.  They are amazing letters.  

God has blessed me with His love, mercy and grace.

Philemon 1:18 says this, "If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account." 

Paul writes this to Philemon regarding the debt owed by Onesimus, Philemon's runaway slave who is being returned.  However, the reason why Paul is willing to take on this debt is because Christ took all of Paul's debt, all of Paul's sin, and charged it to Christ's own account.  Paul is following the example of Christ.  Amazing.  

God has blessed me by letting Christ be my example.  

Looking at the Scripture

So I have been told that I have to make this next blog a reflection of my thoughts on a specific Scripture passage. Here is the Scripture passage:

"Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord? "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. (Isaiah 58:5-8 NIV)"


So there is the Scripture. What do I think of it?  I was told to discuss how affected what I was doing.  I assume that meant what I was doing in Hong Kong but I do not want to limit this Scripture to a specific point in my life.  I feel that if I only talk about how this Scripture affects me in Hong Kong then I will have missed the purpose of this Scripture.

My understanding of this Scripture is that Isaiah is contemplating what it means to fast.  God calls us all to fast so how do we respond in that?  I have been guilty of fasting how Isaiah describes in the beginning of this passage.  It is a fast that lasts for a day.  It is a temporary fast with a temporary burden for the reason I am fasting.

God calls us to fast but not in a temporary since.  Our lives should be a constant act of fasting.  Now I am not saying we should give up food.  Fasting does not always mean from food.  The fasting Isaiah is talking about is a fasting from his own ambition, schedule, or purpose.

A fast from one's self, that is acceptable to the Lord, does not last for one day.  Everyday we live for God and for the glory of God.  We should have a burden for His people.  We should have a burden of the broken and discarded people of this world.  We should have a burden for those who do not have a relationship with Christ.  We should have a burden for our fellow Christians to grow more in Christ.

So how does that apply to what I am doing?  My life is not my own.  It is the Lord's and I will follow Him.  Honestly, I will fall short at times and find myself seeking my own desires.  But I am being molded in the image of Christ and I pray that my life looks more like His as I move forward.

I do not want to fast from my own selfish ambition when I am only in Hong Kong.  If I do, then my fast is temporary.  I want to fast from my own ambition for life.  I will go where the Lord leads and serve where the Lord guides me.

Colossians 1:28-29 says this, "Him (God) we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.  For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me."

Romans 14:8 reads this way, "For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.  So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's."

These verses do not say we should serve God most of the time or when we have the opportunity.  These verses say we are to put aside our own ambitions, whatever they may be, and serve the Lord.

For The Moms

I want to take some time in my blog to thank all the wonderful moms in the world.  I want to especially thank my mom.  She has always supported me and helped me through all of the trials of my life.  Also, I came to realize how great my mother is when I had to clean my own apartment yesterday.

It is true.  My mom is wonderful.  She has taken care of three kids and all of their friends AND all of their mess. Thanks mom.

Here in Hong Kong everything is going great.  This morning was the final rally for the English teachers.  They are getting ready to travel throughout Asia and see more places where God is working.  It has been amazing to have them here.  I have been very blessed to have Dylan Branson and Kyle Fischer here.  It has really been great to have them here.

I am excited for the next month to come.  I am getting ready to work on Watermark's Vacation Bible School.  This will be a great time for me to learn more about VBS.

It is almost time for Elizabeth to come home from Spain.  It is crazy to think that she has been there for a whole month.  Time is passing quickly. I am excited to see what God will do in my last month here and what God will do in my future.  It is amazing to see God working in my life.

A Moment of Silence

We live in a broken world.  Tragedy is all around us.  When I hear about days like last night my heart breaks.  If you are unaware there was a shooting last night in Colorado during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises.

My heart goes out to those who were involved and their families.  There are some articles on Time magazines website if you want to learn more about it.  Take some time tonight and pray for these families.

Normal Update

I do not have too much to report. Not because nothing is happening but because things are becoming normal.  We had our first English Cafe on Sunday and it went well.  Not a great amount of students showed up but there were a few and it was a great time to connect with some of the church members of Watermark. I think that it was overall a success.

Sometimes I find myself forgetting I am on the other side of the world from my family.  Everything is becoming a normal routine.  When I was in high school someone told me that it takes a month to form or break a habit.  I have been here for 24 days now, just shy of a month.  It has got me thinking.

What habits have I formed while I have been in Hong Kong?  1) I make my bed everyday.  Did not think that would be something I would learn here.  2) I miss Elizabeth Harlow everyday.  I am sorry if that is sappy but it is true.  I love it here but I wish she was with me.

Elizabeth is currently in Spain.  She is doing amazing things for God there.

I also have thought about what habits have I broken since I have been here.  There have been a few. Some I didn't even know I had.

So I have two questions for everyone reading.

What are some good habits you can form in these next 31 days?

What are some bad habits you can break in these next 31 days?

Please challenge yourself and think about this.  It is interesting to say the least.

Friends

This has been a great weekend.  So much has been happening and it has all been great.  The longer I am here the more I love it.  My reason for this is simple.  Relationships make everything better.  I have made so many friends past week and this weekend was simply a time for us all to hang out.

Friday night I went out with Aldrin and Sydnie.  It was a great way to come back from training.  We went out to eat and meet some new friends as well.  Saturday I went out and had amazing food with Aldrin, Sydnie, Chris Tang, and Soda.  We  had so much.  I even tried chicken feet.  They were actually really good.  I would definitely eat them again.  Then Chris showed us around some of the street markets in Mong Kok. After that we met up with a few friends from training and went to the mall.  JUDY (who loves to be mentioned in my blogs) also met up with us and we all went to see a movie.  

Sunday all of the Hong Kong teams from last weeks training was at church with us. We had a great service then had a meeting about the next coming weeks.  I talked a little about the English Cafes that we will be hosting then we all went out.  

I went with Phil's team to go see the Peak.  It is the highest viewpoint in Hong Kong and it looks out on the city's skyline.  It was incredible.  Phil's team pretty much adopted me when I went through the training with them.  They have all become really great friends and I am so glad to have met them.  The reason I connected with Phil's team is because Kyle Fischer and Dylan Branson are on this team.  For those of you who don't know these men they are guys I go to school with.  The rest of the team consists of Phil, Shannon, Kasey, Lian, and Melissa.  We also went with two girls from Taylor University who are doing research on this program.  I am so grateful for EVERYONE I have met at training last week.  They have all been a huge blessing.  I am especially grateful for Phil's team specifically because they have become my family in Hong Kong.  

I have to be honest.  I do not know if I would have survived Hong Kong with out all of my friends.  Jeremiah, Sydnie, Aldrin, Soda, JUDY, Phil's team, this group especially is the reason I love Hong Kong.

Investments

First off, I am sorry these are all under the blog of Hong Kong-Wk 1.  I didn't understand how this worked when I first set it up so now we are stuck with that.

What I want to you about now is a great investment opportunity.  As some of you may know, I am a licensed insurance agent.  I can legally sell Life & Health insurance in the state of Indiana....

This has nothing to do with an investment like that.

Today I went to go see the world's largest buddha in my free time.  As you can guess it is incredibly large.  I went with a friend named Judy.  She is university student at Hong Kong University.  We saw amazing nature and beautiful creations of God while we were there.  However, that is not what I enjoyed the most about the adventure.  In fact, sites have never been what I enjoy most when I am traveling.  It is the culture that I enjoy and specifically it is the people that I enjoy.

My trip was made worth while because I was able to invest my time in a fellow Christian, Judy.  I was able to share about my life, how I met my fiance, what I thought God wanted for my life, and more.  Now I have a close friend from Hong Kong who will always be a part of my life because we are united by God.  How amazing.

Sadly, I am selfish.  I invested my time in Judy because she was first willing to take me with her to see the big buddha.

Here is the deal.  I invested in someone because I knew there was no chance of pain or rejection for me.

God makes greater investment choices than I ever will.  God invested in me, God invested in you, and God has invested in every single human on this earth.  And He did it even though it would take SACRIFICE & SUFFERING on HIS part.

God INVESTED in us.  He has taken a risk by sending us Christ.  Allowing Christ to lower his position of power down to a servant.  Because Christ can into this world not to be served, but to serve.  And he lowered himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So that you may have life in Him and be reunited with GOD.

God has invested in us.
And it is not because of anything we have done.
It is because He LOVES us.
And wants us to be in connection with Him.

What an amazing God.

Breaking Through the Barrier

I hope this title was some what captivating because I believe the content that comes with this title deserves your attention.  I do not say that because I am a fantastic writer,  I'm not.  However,  God has shown me a great message today and I want to share that with you.

BREAKING THROUGH THE BARRIER

This is not a barrier that i have broken through.  In fact, this barrier will always be in my way.  God is the one  that has broken through the barrier and that barrier is language.  This is no new feat of God, He has conquered over language long ago. The barrier has been broken through the power of Christ and it is still torn down.  What I want to convey is that God is greater than the language barrier still today.

When I was in Honduras earlier this summer, I sang a song with the team for the students at the Faith Home Orphanage.  It was a song that many people from the U.S. know.  It is "Mighty to Save."  When we sang it for the kids in Honduras we sang the chorus in Spanish.  God is greater than the language barrier.

Today in the worship gathering at Watermark Church a man spoke to us from Japan.  He is originally from the U.S. and was in Japan as a missionary.  A while back there was a huge earthquake that turned into a tsunami in Japan that destroyed great portion towards the northern part of the country.  Many lives were lost and many homes were destroyed.  Cities were washed away.  This missionary had just planted a church in the southern part of the country.  When the disaster struck he came to Watermark, the sister church, for support.

Today he was back to give us an update.  He said the prayers of the church was greatly appreciated, as was the financial support.  They were able to buy food for the country and provide relief to those in need.  Shelter was given and now the church is helping find work for those affected by the flood.  Since the flood many churches have gathered together to help those in need.  Now, more and more church plants are being started in the northern part of Japan and more and more people are hearing the Gospel of Christ.

We closed the service with a song.  It was "Mighty to Save." This time we sang the chorus in Japanese.  Wow.  God is amazing to have chosen that song.  God is so much greater than the language barrier.

Let me tell you something.  Our God is amazing in every language.  He is holy in every language.  He is sovereign in every language.  He is forgiving, loving, and merciful in every language.  I serve a God that has conquered over all.

Tonight I am in the first day of culture training.  We ended the night in worship.  We did not sing "Mighty to Save," but we sang a favorite song of mine.  It is call "In Christ Alone."  This song is amazing.  I left a link to it. Listen to it, read it, and let God work through your own language to speak to you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWuckLEu_hg

Let's Open Our Eyes

There is currently a church plant conference going on here at Watermark.  They will be traveling to different recent plants and studying what effective church plants look like.

This is what I have just learned.  In 1950  Vancouver had 80% attendance in churches and less than 1% were proclaiming atheists...  In 2005 those numbers nearly flopped.  There was less than 5% attendance in church and 41% were proclaiming atheists.  That is an incredibly depressing statistic.

Next a quote appeared on the screen.  It said this,

"The Church is PERCEIVED as an island of irrelevance in an ocean of need." 

Whoa.  

That means the church is not irrelevant, but that is how the church is VIEWED.  What have we done,  or not done, as Christians to gain this view of the church?  The church should be the most relevant thing when people are in need.  Our churches should have doors wide open to help those in need.

So what are we doing?  How can we change this view?  When people are in a time of need will your church doors be open?  Will they even know where they are?

Starting the Job

Good night, good morning to everyone reading.  I just wanted to update everyone about what I will be doing at Watermark.

I have three main priorities.  Working with the summer youth program,  organizing events for the incoming English teachers, and working with the university students.  The youth program and university stuff is pretty low key since it is summer time but my job is to make connections with the students and try to build relationships with them. I love this part of my work because it is a great time to learn about this culture and the way other people live while trying to teach them about my  own life and how it is influenced by God.

The work with the incoming English teachers will also be exciting.  We are creating a few extra opportunities for the American teachers to meet with some of the Hong Kong students trying to learn English.  Basically, we are opening up the Community Center to have a gathering for everyone to interact.  I am organizing that.   Hopefully that goes well.

In my down time I will try to meet more new people and continue to make new connections.  I am also reading a few books to further my knowledge of missions and Christianity.  One book that has really caught my attention is "Emerging Worship" by Dan Kimball.  Check it out.  It is an easy read and it paints a great picture for where the church is headed.

6/25 Town Exploration

I want to take a moment and thank everyone who has found my blog and at least taken time to go to the link.  I hope some of you have read my blog but my "blogger stats" only show me how many pageviews I have had. I have had 48 pageviews so thank you to all those who have click on my site or may have click on my site twice.  Every click is appreciated.

My hopes for blogging is to write nearly every day.  I don't want to say I will do it everyday but I will try to add something in a few times a week.  My reasoning for this comes from a close friend named Mat Murphy. Mat at one time had a blog and he posted something new in it everyday.  I have learned a lot from Mat on how to better my Christian walk so I thought it would be smart to follow his lead in this as well.  He is also the one who first urged me to come on this trip. So thank you Mat Murphy.  You are a great friend.

Today in Hong Kong  was our day off.  Our work week will start tomorrow with my first staff meeting.  The goal I had for today was to learn more about my surroundings. I want you to know that there is a lot around me. Aldrin and I, the two interns who have only been here for two days, went exploring.  We did a great job of learning our way around our immediate area.

Our immediate area seems to be more of the residential part of Hong Kong.  I came into this trip thinking that Hong Kong would be the Asian New York City and this part of town is not that.  There is more forest that I think there should be in a large city.  But as I learned more about this area I learned that Watermark has a good foothold in Hong Kong.  However, I did not yet realize how gigantic Hong Kong is.

Aldrin, Jeremiah, and I went down to central.  This is the New York City part of town.  It is massive.  But what impressed me the most was the pier Jeremiah showed us.  This pier looked out from Hong Kong Island into the sea.  But this sea was more like a bay because as I looked around there was skyscrapers and city everywhere.  This city is big.  And I truly believe that Watermark has a great foothold here but there is so much that still needs to be done. There is ministry opportunities everywhere.  So what I want to ask for is prayer support.  There is an unending amount of ministry opportunities here and all around the world.  Pray that God will continue to lead us into more opportunities to share His Gospels.

6/24 The Beginning

Hello to everyone reading this. I have never blogged before so please bare with me.  My name is Jonathan. I assume if you are reading this you already knew that.  I am also a bad speller and spell check doesn't always help.  If something looks weird sound it out and that is probably what I meant.

I am in Hong Kong at this time in my life.  I will be here for two months and so far I have been here for two days.  The focus of this trip is to help out Watermark Community Church in any way I can.  I will be working specifically with the high school ministries and the university ministries.  Another project I will work closely with is the eli-.  Some people may have heard of this, some may have not.  I don't remember what it stands for but the basic idea is that university students from the states come here and teach English through culture (which is Christianity) to students here.  I will be helping with that group.  So those are the basic tasks I have been given.

I was given ideas to talk about for this blog and I believe my first topic was "hopes." So now I will talk about that.  I have been here for two days and that has not been enough time to meet everyone.  I have met with three other interns that are here with me.  I live with two of them and the other is a few floors above me.

The two I live with are Aldrin (from the Philippines) and Jeremiah (from the states).  Sydnie lives above us and she is from Alabama.  We all have very different lives but we also are at similar points in our lives.  We are all living our lives in a time of transition.  We are all interns and we all love missions.  One thing I think we are all searching for is placement.  We are looking to see what God has planned for us and where God has planned us to be.

My hope for this trip is to find out how I fit into God's plan. I know He has much planned for my life and I hope to gain a small insight of what that plan is.