Movie from Missions Conference

MBI hosted their annual missions conference this last week. One of the keynote speakers was from India...his work was in freeing the Dalits (lowest social class in India) from the stigma of their situation. On Thursday night, they showed this film, a secular project, to the attendees and had a discussion afterwards. I didn't get to hear the discussion, but would highly recommend that you take time to watch this documentary. It's a small look into the red light district in Calcutta and what one woman was trying to do. It's 90 minutes long and, I would suggest, is not appropriate for children. Please take time to watch it. There is a 2.20 minute trailer if you'd like to see that first and the link for the actual documentary is below that. Born Into Brothels

Blessings,
Emily

Summer 2009

Blessings to you all.

Since I've put this link on my missions support letters, I think it's about time I gave a MISSIONS UPDATE (or perhaps just any sort of update). :)

Last summer, I attempted to piece together a trip to fulfill the requirements for my school internship. I tried to go with Every Child Ministries to Ghana to do slave liberation, however, God made it (and continues to make it) abundantly clear to me that it was not His will for that trip to take place.

I'm now a senior at Moody (graduating December 2009) and this is my last summer to do an internship. In truth, I was dreading the process of looking, applying, training, support-raising, and doing an internship again. I felt so embarrassed and upset with the Lord for not doings things MY WAY that I did not begin with an attitude of openness and gratefulness. Both qualities are tremendously important for missions and the Christian life in general.

Let me tell you how God gave constant mercy and grace to me, a sinner with a horridly selfish attitude...

**Without me realizing it, God had used last year's process to train me and show me the responsibilities that needed to be met. I have been more knowledgeable and prepared to step into this experienced because of having tried and failed once already.

**When I had hardly began to look for a new possibility, the doors of ONE agency flew open. The Lord knows how much I love options, but hate decisions. He gave me few options, but only one that obviously fit.

**God is expanding my interests. Though I've always been passionate about ending injustice in terms of slavery and abuse, the last few years of study have intrigued me regarding Muslim culture, religion, and their need for Christ. This opportunity was completely geered toward this aspect in such a way that I can learn by observing and participating in a safe and supervised context.

**One of my greatest fears was that the agency I went with would expect me to do all the inter-cultural work (i.e. visas, plane tickets, contextualizing, understanding the culture and the ministry, etc). SEND International REQUIRES each missionary (short or long term) to go through very detailed training and debriefing for their trips. They desire to provide their members with proper care as their people are experiencing completely different situations that weigh heavily on faith and heart. My time at SEND's training in March was one of the best experiences of my life--studying the Scriptures with other missionaries, receiving help in the media aspects and planning, learning how to support raise and keep donors well-aware of what was going on, and building tremendous friendships.

**I have a very difficult time raising support. I dislike asking others for money. It requires vulnerability and admittance that there is no possible way I can go without the involvement of the church. During training, God impressed on me that I couldn't ask for help because of pride (wanting to do this on my own), and fear (that no one would actually support). After much prayer and convincing by close advisers, I chose to ask for help in my two needs: prayer and finances.

THUS FAR, GOD HAS PROVIDED THROUGH DEAR PEOPLE 5 OF 15 REGULAR PRAYER PARTNERS AND OVER $1,000 OUT OF $4,600!!! WOW. (Keep in mind, letters only went out 2 weeks ago!)

I can't deny His goodness.

For those that have not heard, here are the details of what God has provided for my internship this summer:

Where: Maharlika Village, Metro Manila, Philippines
When: June 8-July 20, 2009
With Whom: SEND International (www.send.org)

More to come later. Thank you for your prayers and your influence on my life.

Peace, blessings, and God's truth be always with you.
Emily

How to formulate a blog topic.

I go through moments of inspiration. Maybe that's what I should title this blog instead. :) I think it necessary to write about topics that are semi-worthwhile. BUT...when the great discussions of all time do not pop into my head, what other ideas shall I consider? I could...

* Tell you what I had for breakfast.
* Write out my grocery list.
* Elaborate on my very unpractical new year's resolutions.
* Gawk at my nieces and nephews (more than I already do).
* Tell you about my bad habits, like not writing my thank-you notes within a week of Christmas.
* Quote famous people.
* Give you a list of favorites.
* Or write out a fantastic story.

See, I prefer the random and spontaneous over the expected.

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On another note, I think I have finally decided on a trade, of sorts. I have often toyed with the idea of pursuing nursing, never being extremely all for it, but it has begun to grow on me as of late. My friend, CJ, will claim I'm copying her, which is fine. My mother always said, "Copying is the highest form of flattery." Somehow I stilled never liked being copied...oh well. So yes, the plan as of now is to finish at Moody December 09, take some training the semester prior, then hopefully apply for nursing school through a hospital program. In certain cases, a hospital will pay for your training and you are then committed to work for them for a number of years after you finish, much like the military. We shall see :)

The excellent part about Nursing is it's a guaranteed job anywhere in the world. My interests in international work can be much easily to facilitate with certification in a field like that. So...please pray for direction while I look into schools and programs and don't hesitate to suggest anything you think of.

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Lastly, a music recommendation for anyone that needs to update their cds or itunes....look for the Friday Night Lights soundtrack. It's mostly wordless and very relaxing. BEAUTIFUL music. (Compliments to my brother and sister-in-law who bought that for my Christmas gift).

Happy January 3rd!

Into a different place...

This semester, I took a class called Contemporary Islam. It's taught by a Pakistani man whose father was a converted Muslim. He and a staff of devoted Christians run a ministry called SouthAsian Friendship Center on Devon Street in Chicago. He took us on a field trip to Devon a few weeks ago and I can't tell you how interesting it was.

• We walked into a small building on one of the side roads. They ushered us into a small, windowless room that smelled of fresh paint. We carried in folding chairs and they pulled a table cloth over the plastic fold up table. One of the staff, Sam was his name, sat behind the table. He prayed, while looking at the floor, that he would be worthy of carrying the name of Jesus Christ in his speech and that he would bring glory to the Lord. For 15 minutes, this man did nothing but explain the importance of understanding TRUE Islam when preaching a message of Christ Jesus. His work is primarily research and debate of Islam and Christian religions. The venue for this is mostly on the internet at www.answering-islam.org.
  
• We walked the street for a while. Every other shop was a clothing and jewelry boutique. Our professor talked about how gold and the quantity worn is very much a status symbol. A husband dotes on his wife by covering her in gold.
  
• My eyes were drawn to the sidewalks...every few steps, you could see dried blood stains left from the meat being dragged in and out of the shops as well as human blood from the fights.
• The most interesting part of our trip:
• After walking down the main street, we turned onto another side road and headed for what looked like a parking garage with a cast iron gate and a bright green wall. We walked through the propped open gate and the light/Light dimmed. There were heavy metal doors with a prayer schedule on the front:
• Fajr Dawn (5:15)
  
• Shurooq Sunrise (?)
  
• Zhuhr Noon (1:30)
  
• Asr Afternoon (6:00)
  
• Maghrib Sunset (?)
  
• Eshaa Evening (?)
  

We walked through the doors and up into the Mosque. We removed our shoes and placed the on the shelf, stepping softly onto the carpeted floor. The carpet was diagonal to the building--facing East, toward Mecca. There were Arabic phrases written on the walls, posters telling people how much money to give, and verses from the Qur'an. In the back was a small door leading to a room where women were to congregate in prayer. To our left was a man reclining, posterior to the floor. His eyes were shut and he was quiet. In the far corner of the several hundred foot long building was a man reclining on his side. He chanted/mono-tone sang prayers to Allah in Arabic. We were silent as we stood taking in the simplicity, yet the presence of such a place. Prof turned and mouthed, "We'll spend a few moments in prayer and then leave." Without speaking, we took a few steps apart from one another and tried our best to pray. The chanting stopped. Prof quickly turned around and ushered us out, grabbing our shoes as we made our way out the door.

Once outside, the students were fairly quiet, but our prof asked us our thoughts. Most everyone agreed that it was difficult to pray. Apart from the distraction of such a place, there was a heavy spiritual presence that left little to no room for Christ. The only prayer I could bring was asking, "Christ, please penetrate this place."

We walked through two Islamic book stores and read through some of the literature. Much of it was in Arabic so we looked at pictures :) I had a hard time understanding their books discussing converting Christians to Muslims so I walked over to the children's section. I read through the Muslim version of the story about Noah's Ark. How different it was! Enough similarity to make the connection in the story, but drastically different to attribute that miracle to someone other than Yahweh.

No agenda with this post. Observations about a different culture(s) and about my own ignorance to the world.