FISHERS OF MEN

Daniel and I went home this weekend to take our engagement pictures and see our family. Saturday we went out to mamaw and papaw's, ate hamburgers with them, and then the boys and me went out to the pond to fish. Despite the fact that we only caught 3 fish total - I caught ONE, Daniel caught ONE, and my dad caught ONE (my papaw didn't fish) - we had a great time and I felt like the Lord painted some pictures of His idea of "fishing." When Jesus called out His disciples, He called several of them from a fishing business. In Luke 5 Jesus got into Simon Peter's boat and asked him to put out a little from the land. Jesus taught the crowds who had been pressing in on Him from the boat. And after He finished speaking, He instructed Simon Peter to put out deeper and let his nets down into the water. Simon and his friends hadn't caught anything all night, but they obeyed Jesus. When they did this, they caught a great number of fish and were in awe of Jesus! Jesus responds to Simon and says, "From now on you will be catching people!"

I thought about Jesus' instruction that we are to be fishers of men that evening as we stood at the edge of the pond. I had a simple bamboo-like pole with string attatched to the end in my hands and cast out into the water. It was a bit frustrating casting out into the water time after time, only to pull my line out of the water, bait still on the hook. And occasionally I would pull it out, discovering that some sly little fish had come and nibbled the bait from the hook without my knowing it. I thought about our lives on the mission field. I thought about how frustrating it is to share the gospel, the hope of Jesus, time after time, and at the end of the day, not see many, if any, come to know Christ. At the end of our evening of fishing, we had caught three fish. THREE FISH OUT OF AN ENTIRE POND!! They just weren't biting. That's how sharing the gospel is sometimes. Sometimes, they just aren't "biting."


I was the last one to catch my fish. Just as I had said, "I haven't caught a fish yet," I cast my line into the water and within 2 seconds, out came a fish! It was at that moment that I thought to myself, "Wow! This is what it is like as fishers of men." And I was so pleasantly surprised as I cast my line into the water and saw signs of a fish nibbling on the bait under the surface of the water. I yanked the line out of the water and BATA-BING-BATA-BOOM!!! A fish! A new brother/sister in Christ had been won into the Kingdom!

Oh, the beauty of the words of scripture! The stories we read. They are not just words written on a page, but they are the record of our Risen Savior and His ministry here on this earth. Can you believe that???? Just think about it: JESUS WALKED ON THIS PLANET EARTH!!!

RESURRECTION DAY

Daniel and I stayed in Texas for Easter. Our weekend was really great!

Last night was the party with the Somalis and Liberians. Today was a great day as well! This morning, worship was amazing. Our preacher acted out the story of Lazarus. Throughout the story, he talked about different aspects of Lazarus' life and related them with our own lives. Lazarus was dead and then came alive, he was bound and then was loosed, was unafraid of death...he'd already been there, had a story to tell, and was attractive to the masses! We are much the same. As believers, we've been dead spiritually but are now alive in Christ. Even as followers of Christ, we may sometimes feel emotionally dead or mentally dead. BUT...there is good news!!! We can be given new life if we give these things to Jesus. We may be bound to a certain sin or false thinking or depression. BUT...we can be loosed from those things by the power of Christ! HALLELUIAH!

This afternoon my professor and his family invited us over for lunch. They are Arab. And we had an Arab visit. We got there at 1:30 and didn't leave until 6:30. The time flew by and our conversation was so encouraging. We shared stories - their story of how they met and fell in love. Our story. Stories about our parents. We also talked about ministry and theology. About God's heart for the nations. Oh, how beautiful is the body of Christ. I thought tonight, "In our future, we will share many holidays with our spiritual brothers and sisters and not so many with our biological families. Although we will certainly miss holidays with the people with whom we've grown up, I am so thankful that God provides for us a humongous (sp?) family through the blood of Christ! Amen?? AMEN!

Finally this evening, I hid eggs for Daniel and he searched for them in my backyard. And we dyed Easter eggs together.

It was a really nice, relaxing day to celebrate our RISEN SAVIOR!!!

Praise Him with all of your being today! He is ALIVE!!!!

JESUS FILM

Saturday night we watched the Jesus film with these precious Muslim friends. Their responses were beautiful as they watched the Master give sight to the blind, heal the crippled, make loaves of bread and fish into enough to feed the multitude. Then, their gasps as they saw the Champion of the Downcasat was amazing. Oh how Jesus loves the nations. He is our Creator. He is our Redeemer. He is the Savior! Oh Holy Spirit, visit our friends in dreams and in visions. Minister to their hearts. Make their minds busy replaying the things they saw in that movie. The things they have heard and learned about the Master! May the day of salvation come quickly to these. Thwart the plans of the enemy. Be victorious oh God!!

SIX MONTHS

Today Daniel and I went to the Botanic Gardens to celebrate our 6 months together! It was nice to go back to the place we were when we got engaged. And Daniel...mmm...he's so super sweet. As we walked back to the place where he asked me to marry him, there were flowers sitting there waiting for me. I am so very blessed to have the love of this man. God teaches me so much about His own character through the seemingly unconditional love and grace Daniel shows me. Mmmm....isn't God so good?!!?!!!!

Me and My Arab Man

Random "getting to know Daniel" fact: He is 1/2 Arab. His grandfather was Palestinian and his grandmother was Lebanese.

GOD

Several really cool things happened last week. I'll share a couple.

I have been tutoring refugee high schoolers for the past 2 months. It's been such a joy. I look forward to Mondays and Fridays when I get to sit with Somalis, Somali Bantu, Liberians, and Afghanis and help them learn this English language and our American culture!

Last Monday 2 of my students were not in class, so I had an hour and fifteen minute break. I went out to my car and got my Bible. I opened it and randomly began reading in Hebrews. I started with the scripture that says Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." I continued reading and was just really sucked in to the Word of God as He talked about Jesus being our Great High Priest. Mmmm...mmmm...good stuff!

So you may be thinking, "So what, Kim. What's the big deal?" Well, I'll tell you! That happened around 8:30 that Monday morning. I got home around 3:15 that afternoon to find an email in my inbox from Daniel. Check out what God was doing in Daniel's quiet time that morning around 8:30:
"...Have spent some good time with the Lord. I've been meditating on Hebrews 4:12-16, which is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Starts off about the Word of God and how it's sharp and active. Then it goes into a sobering section about how God sees all and we will give an account of everything to him. But then, it starts talking about how Jesus our Intercessor has gone through everything we've gone through, He's lived in our tendons and sinews, and He can sympathize with our weaknesses. So therefore, let us go to the throne freely, quickly, confidently...we don't have to wallow in our sin, psyching ourselves up, feeling like we have to do our time in the penalty box. Just an amazing five verses. So deep and rich..."

I sat on the couch, computer in my lap, with a silly, querky smile on my face - amused with God. Amazed by God. He is knitting our hearts and our lives together and this was just a really precious way to remind us of that - that He would lead us both to the same passage in our quiet times. A passage in Hebrews, a book neither of us had been reading lately.

God makes me smile.

The second thing God did that really amazed me was He gave me an opportunity to speak about Easter to a few of my refugee students. Last Friday I prayed for each of my students as I drove to school to tutor. In the middle of first block Abdi, a 14 year old Muslim Somali Bantu refugee with tons of energy and a beautiful smile, said to me, "Miss, yesterday Jesus was at my apartment." HUH???!??!?!?! I was confused, so I asked him to keep going. He said there were people outside of his apartment saying, "Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!" And they were closing their eyes. I of course didn't know what they were doing exactly, but this opened an opportunity to speak about spiritual things.

We talked about Easter. I told them about our holiday and how we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus. I drew pictures of the crucifixion. You could see pain in his eyes as I explained what crucifixion is.

My heart was leaping inside. Was this true? Did Abdi really open up a conversation about Jesus and was I really getting to tell the gospel story to him!?!?!!? Yes!!! I was!!

I was on cloud nine!

Then in second block, I began sharing the Easter story again. My students in second block have better English than Abdi, so I could explain it with more details. As I was drawing Jesus on the cross, Omar said, "Yes, and there's that thing on His head. I saw this in a movie."

Is there such a thing as cloud 100000000000000??? Or does that ruin the cliche?

The amazing thing about these two conversations is that these two boys live in the same apartment complex. Several of the students do. And I get to teach ESL to their parents in the afternoons. God has really interwoven my life into the lives of these families. Oh, how I can see that God is at work among the Somali Bantu living in Fort Worth. It is so very humbling to be reminded that God doesn't need us, yet He chooses to use us. He has already been at work among the Somali Bantu who are in my classes. They told me they watch stories about the prophets on t.v. and their parents tell them stories from the Qur'an about the prophets. Abdi told me his family has a Bible in their home.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.