How is Christ Living Vicariously Through Us?

Dear Precious Handfuls:

Last Monday I did my devotions before heading in to work. My reading begun with an email from Crossway titled “Do you pray for your enemies?” that lead to a piece written by John Piper on prayer.
“NO, SIR! I SURE HAVE NOT!” before I could catch myself, I immediately snapped back at God.

Not that I intended to show God disrespect, the present situation in life tried my patience and made it easy for me to cling on to the negativities and less on showing gratitude. The enemies in mind aren’t horrible criminals or immoral monsters, but individuals I’m grumbling in my head who might have prevented my work or life schedule from happening smoothly in my preferred timing.
But people aren’t vending machines, totally predictable and expected to pop out a soymilk if I swipe the credit card and press the soymilk button. People are free-willed individuals who made personal, conscious choices including how they interact with me, sometimes affected by the type of mood they are in at the moment or what atrocities happened to them before meeting me.
It sure was easy to dwell on the inconveniences of the circumstances, from my own perspective.

If we ever lived vicariously through a friend doing something totally different from us.. To abide in Christ means we must allow Christ to have His way with us. The way He worked and lived among people will be the way He works and lives in me. There is only one reality, and that is God’s reality. What does it look like for Christ to live vicariously through you and me?

I remembered why I’m doing my devotional before work in the first place. So the next second I added, “Sorry, Lord. I’m lifting up right now those who caused me grief these past few weeks.. Help me forgive them and live up to what You called me to be in their lives…”

• Cambodia eVisa — done.

• Support letter — sent.
  (Thank you to my original precious handful of prayer warriors: Uncle Paul, Rev. Elizabeth, Amanda, Nathan, Jojo, Alison, Josephine, Matt, Amber, Laney, Windsor & Yvonne, Jin, and Ben. Please continue to pray weekly for me!). Starting this update, I will start adding supporters who signed up from the support letter as the trip becomes near. 🙂 

• New team member — Tim Brown! We will now be a team of 6. Looks like I’ll have to take an updated team picture again next time.

• Cambodia STM Breakfast and Bake Sale at HCC: Sunday 8/27 and 9/10 10:30-11:30 & 12:15-1:00. Come right after the services to support the ministries of Cambodia. The proceeds will go to support a college ministry in Phnom Penh and 3 Kuy villages, the poorest in Cambodia. There will be breakfast tacos, curry puffs, congee, mango pudding, boba tea, and more!

  • In case any of you is free to help, we need a couple of volunteers to help (a few extra pairs of hands manning the booths to sell)… let me know if interested!

Personal Prayer requests:

• These past two weeks was: training and equipping. Pray that all the trainings help me show God’s love to every learner I’m walking alongside with to learn together.
  
  July is time of the year when all the new residents of assorted fields start their residencies in the hospital. We as preceptors want to be the best bridge for the gap between theoretical learning and clinical practice.

I also did the “Mentor Me: Mobilizing a New Generation of Mentors” training with Revive Our Hearts ministry, it’s the women’s Bible-teaching ministry of Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth (promoted by our HCC Women’s ministry).

• Another friend of mine has recently launched into the field, praise God. Now, pray also that God help me identify another future worker to walk alongside with as they navigate difficult waters of discovering God’s calling for them to the unreached people of the world. Missionaries are dedicated men, women, and families who sacrifice their comfort, security, and personal aspirations to bring the hope and transformative message of salvation to those who never heard it before in the ends of the earth. It’s not the easiest in fulfilling requirements to get sent by an organization and/or partnering a church, and even the strongest of the committed can sometimes grow weary and feel discouraged. May I be a friend who can walk with someone as they figure things out.

• Pray I continue to learn how to be culturally sensitive and learn from others’ experiences, but also see those I’m connecting (in ways not formulaically) and love my every friend as individuals (not to be stereotyped).
  I told a few friends about this latest article from The Gospel Coalition that mentioned a few points I think augments our learning and advices regarding reaching Muslims. Similar to health tips, advices like “Doing This Activity Can Cause Cancer” can also follow up with another article a couple years laters of “Doing This Activity is Now Proven to Lower Risk of Cancer”. If we only read and follow one article but not come across the updates, sometimes we don’t know there’s other sides to things as times evolve. But most of all, let’s look at each individual as a person, then it will become apparent how God want to use us to love and respect that individual.

• Lastly, I pray that support raising helps creating awareness for places people haven’t yet worshipped God! I’m happy if one more person start pondering where God determines the hard places He wants each of us to engage in.

A Blurb about translations:

In the summer of 2012, I had just begun my studies at Dallas Seminary. I was super excited to finally be able to go on my first short term mission trip to Panama to serve in an English camp. I’ve always dreamed of being a teacher (I play-lectured to stuffed animals as a child), so getting a degree in Education was me crossing a regret off my bucket list.

I was pumped up about teaching a spiritual gifts and personality types workshop to help young adults become aware of how to work/serve together with others, and I spent a tremendous amount of time putting together a worksheet and the manuscript. In fact, I went above and beyond by translating every word into the most accurate Spanish equivalent on my own since I had studied Spanish for 5 years.

During my workshop, I sensed this thick tension in the air. For a worksheet that should only take 5 minutes to fill out, the local helpers ran from one student to the next like busy bees and this steady mumbling in the background intrigued me. After 15 minutes, I had to ask the local helpers what’s happening.
The local helpers replied: “The students don’t understand your worksheet.” Shockingly, I asked, “How could this be? I translated every word on the worksheet to make sure the Spanish is accurate!”

You know what the local helpers told me?

“Lily, your worksheet is written in sophisticated college level vocabulary, even I don’t recognize some of the words when the students asked!”

Years since then, I had to do the assignment of how to explain God’s holiness so a 6 year old can understand. Instead of aiming only for language translation accuracy, I learned to look beyond the teaching materials to see who is my learner. And if my learner is a grown adult, even though I’m using simple language to communicate, I must treat him with dignity and not speak as if to a child.

It’s hard work loving people. I want learners to experience God’s best.
I’m still learning. So help me God. 😊