thailand : year later

It's been a year since I left a rainy Sydney Airport for a foggy Hong Kong and ended up in a dark humid Bangkok Thailand. with just a hiking backpack, a carry on and a pillow -- no hair dryers, no extra comforts, just a week or so worth of clothes a pair of tennis shoes and flip flips -- for three months!? [sometimes I miss living life that simply...!]

It's crazy what you remember a year later, I remember the customs guy at the Sydney airport guessing that we were with YWAM because his sister had been involved with YWAM, the nasty dessert we had for dinner on the plane, I remember taking Thai money out at the airport, I remember getting picked up in a Sung-tow for the first time, racing down the busy high way thinking to myself, is this really my life?! I remember being scared/anxious/excited all at the same time... not knowing what to expect. fast forward to June 2011, three months later, I couldn't believe it was already over, that short amount of time... was so life-changing.

the people I met, the stories we heard, the lives we saw change, the long sweaty church services, the language barriers, the food, the opportunities, the tears, the laughs, the tension, and the joy of knowing we were all exactly where God wanted us for that moment in time. I'm SO thankful for that opportunity and really will never forget Thailand.

customs lines. smoggy sun rises. meeting missionary families. passing out Thai Bibles. an elephant ride. shady internet cafes. laundromats. fitting 18 people in the bed of a pick up truck. skype calls. running around the Chaing Mai moat, early enough to see the monks collecting the offering from the shrines. eating rice for all three meals. grocery shopping at 7-11 and Tesco. the colors and smells of the markets. language barriers. bad coffee, but good enough. baht. church services on the cement floor of an four wall church. Karen grandma's. being offered fanta in a dirty plastic cup. battery powered house electricity. nick names. cold showers, even if hot was an option. mountains. hand motions. song-tow adventure rides. learning. growing. sleeping in a bamboo hut. hospitality. sights and sound of the Burma & Thai border. alive churches. worship in Thai. lights & sights of Bangla Road. putting Satan in his place, before going into the bars. seeing the look on a refugee/orphan's face when she was told she was beautiful. living simply. being the minority/sticking out. roof top worship. sweaty bus rides. crowded streets. torrential rain. smoothies. long church services. the kids. trying to teach English in a creative way. walks to the corner hut for mystery snacks. speaking in church services with translators. bug bites. playing UNO with sponsored kids. MANGO. bucket showers with chickens and pigs. Starbucks for bar ministry intercessions. being faithful in the little. the sight of Phuket from a plane window. live monkey's. secret beaches. hill tribes. motor bikes. street vendors. fashion. uni students. the lady at the cafeteria bakery. wild dogs. won gen. hiking backpacks. seeing so many white tourist men. plastic chairs. Sa-wat-dee Ka / kob-khun Ka. culture sensitivity. trying and trying again to use chop sticks. avoiding spice. seems crackers. bumpy bus rides. seeing God move in Thailand.

that. was. Thailand.

kop-khun-ka

Friends & family... here is an over due piece of gratitude... For the past three months since returning home, I've had no idea how to really show thanks in a genuine way. The reality is that words won't ever do justice to the type of thanks my church, friends, and family deserve for supporting me the way they have! So here goes an attempt to fill you in on what you supported...and I really can't say THANK YOU enough for the support I received this past year. God has blessed me above & beyond with each of you!

With YOUR prayer/thoughts and financial support, I was able to know God better in the land-down-under and make Him known in the nation of Thailand with the organization, Youth With A Mission. The following is a follow-up-report of what I was able to do with YOUR help.

I completed a six-month program called Discipleship Training School, based in Newcastle, New South Wales. The program consisted of lectures, reports, and hands on mission experience. The first half of my DTS, referred to as the “lecture phase” was spent in Newcastle Australia. During this phase I had twelve weeks of classroom setting lectures, where I heard from various speakers on topics such as; Bible Study, Character of God, Missions, and Lordship, just to name a few.

During this twelve-week period of time, our school was also involved in running a local youth group called Youth Street. Youth Street is a group that meets every Saturday and outreaches to the local youth. Every weekend was spent with the same group of kids, that way we could build relationships with them and ultimately lead them towards Christ. Each weekend we ran age appropriate activities, worship, messages, and small groups.

After the lecture phase was “outreach”, another twelve weeks of cross-cultural missions experience. During our lecture phase we were given two options for possible outreach locations, Brazil and Thailand were the choices. From there we were asked to not discuss our intentions with friends, instead take our ideas to God and wait to get His word on which location we should choose. Before I left for my DTS, God had put Thailand on my heart. Ever since hearing Aka John and his wife talk about Thailand in church, I have had Thailand on my heart. When I heard the options I automatically assumed I should go! I took it to God and He clearly confirmed my decision.

After forming our team, we spent time getting to know the culture of Thailand. We did various reports on the different people groups, cultures, and studied the language to prepare for our journey. Finally April came and eight others, along with myself headed to Thailand.

Our team was able to spend three months serving in three different locations. The first location we served at was with a YWAM base, outside of Mae Sot. There we held a mini version of what experienced on our Discipleship Training School for Burmese refugees did open-air outreach and led church services to the surrounding hill tribes. This was the most rural of locations, we got to live in bamboo huts, eat rice three times a day, and take showers with a bucket of cold water. Living like this not only made me feel super blessed and spoiled, it also opened my eyes to see that we are not as blessed as we think. Those in need are more blessed in having nothing, they literally live off of love and putting others first, it was quite an eye and heart opening experience.

Next we spent time in the western city of Chaing Mai. There we taught English with a ministry called The Centre, held various outreaches at the local universities, and taught in surrounding churches. During our days working with The Centre, we would go into the local universities and talk to students about the ministry. Through the afternoon we would teach various levels of English as a Second Language classes. After class we would spend time getting to know our students through sitting down for coffee or having them show us what they enjoy doing on their time off. We were able to make some pretty meaningful and deep relationships with the students.

Finally we spent the last leg of our trip in Phuket (pu-ket), working with a ministry called SHE (Self Help Empowerment). This ministry works to rescue local girls from the tourist filled bars and a life of prostitution. We spent our days doing practical work around the city and our nights going into bars to talk to the girls working. We built relationships with the girls who worked there, letting them know that there were other options for work and that they were valued and loved. Depending on which bar you were in, the girls could have been trafficked or prostituted. While ministering there, we saw two girls potentially walk away from their jobs in the bar. We were also able to hand out Thai Bibles to the girls we had spent time getting to know. For me personally, working with this ministry wrecked me in the best way! I had never experienced more spiritual warfare or the continual presence of the Holy Spirit in a more tangible way before.

I feel very blessed to have had the chance to experience both domestic and cross-culture missions and ministries; it has given me a huge perspective of the Church. I am very humbled by the opportunities God has blessed me. Again, I really cannot thank you enough for the words of encouragement, thoughts, prayers and financial support during this season of my life!

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ

Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Ephesians 2:10

photos

Thailand Outreach Photo Slide from clf815 on Vimeo.

aching for Thailand

After calling Thailand home for three months, when I start to think about it
I can't help but REALLY miss it! Today I was missing things like...



customs lines. smoggy sun rises. meeting missionary families. passing out Thai Bibles. an elephant ride. shady internet cafes. laundromats. fitting 18 people in the bed of a pick up truck. skype calls. running around the Chaing Mai moat, early enough to see the monks collecting the offering from the shrines. eating rice for all three meals. grocery shopping at 7-11 and Tesco. the colors and smells of the markets. language barriers. bad coffee, but good enough. baht. church services on the cement floor of an four wall church. Karen grandma's. being offered fanta in a dirty plastic cup. battery powered house electricity. nick names. cold showers, even if hot was an option. mountains. hand motions. song-tow adventure rides. learning. growing. sleeping in a bamboo hut. hospitality. sights and sound of the Burma & Thai border. alive churches. worship in Thai. lights & sights of Bangla Road. putting Satan in his place, before going into the bars. seeing the look on a refugee/orphan's face when she was told she was beautiful. living simply. being the minority/sticking out. roof top worship. sweaty bus rides. crowded streets. torrential rain. smoothies. long church services. the kids. trying to teach English in a creative way. walks to the corner hut for mystery snacks. speaking in church services with translators. bug bites. playing UNO with sponsored kids. MANGO. bucket showers with chickens and pigs. Starbucks for bar ministry intercessions. being faithful in the little. the sight of Phuket from a plane window. live monkey's. secret beaches. hill tribes. motor bikes. street vendors. fashion. uni students. the lady at the cafeteria bakery. wild dogs. won gen. hiking backpacks. seeing so many white tourist men. plastic chairs. Sa-wat-dee Ka / kob-khun Ka. culture sensitivity. trying and trying again to use chop sticks. avoiding spice. seems crackers. bumpy bus rides. seeing God move in Thailand.

that. is. Thailand.

Chaing Mai

I wrote this update for the YWAM Newie website, while we were in Chaing Mai...

The past four weeks our team has been in Chiang Mai working with a unique ministry called the Centre. The Centre teaches English to university students, their focus is to bring students to Christ through building solid relationships. Thailand is a predominately Buddhist nation, therefore most of our students are not believers. We have been able to spend time getting to know our students in and out of the classroom setting, giving them a sense of value and belonging. Through the relationships we have built, we have had chances to share who Jesus is with our students. Here we have been responsible for getting our students plugged in with the Centre so they can come to know Jesus as their personal Savior, be mentored and discipled.

This type of ministry has taught us how to be faithful in the little. It would be easy for us to get discouraged because we aren’t seeing salvation’s every night. We are constantly reminding ourselves that it is okay to simply be building relationships with the students; by getting dinner with them after class, meeting them for coffee, or doing touristy things with them on the weekends. God commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves and that’s what we are doing.

Being faithful in the little for our team has been things like teaching English enthusiastically, not being shy about telling our students why we are in Thailand, being intentional about praying before meals or just by talking about our God like a Friend. In Luke 16:10 it says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.” Our team knows that God has huge things ahead for each of us because we have been faithful in the little things here in Chiang Mai. Whether it is in our next phase down in Phucket, or when we get home from our DTS, we are choosing to be faithful in little, until God decides to give us more!

Besides teaching English in Chiang Mai, we have had various other ministry opportunities including teaching Sunday school, leading worship, practical work and prayer walks. Our prayer walks are not your average prayer walks, we pray before we walk, while we walk, and after we walk. We take time to hear from God before going out into the westernized-tourist-filled markets. After some time of hearing God, we share back and go do/say whatever God tells us. It is like a “spiritual scavenger hunt”! We seek out people or areas we feel God is leading us to and pray over them or encourage. The other night we were out and a group of us talked to a man for two hours who was selling suits about his life, God and praying in his own language. Another group was able to encourage a nearly full term pregnant vendor, who sits at the market all day trying to sell extravagant-hand-made soap to support herself and her family. The people of Chiang Mai are thirsty for something more out of life and we are stoked to have the opportunity to share some Living Water with them!

Video update from Chaing Mai...

final Thailand video update

Thailand team Finishes and is commissioned from YWAM Newcastle Media on Vimeo.

thailand video update 2

Thailand team- week 3+4 from YWAM Newcastle Media on Vimeo.

Thailand Update

Here are two quick videos that my team leader created...highlighting what our team has been doing over the past six weeks...Enjoy!

Video One
Video Two

thailand video update 1

Team Thailand Week 1 from YWAM Newcastle Media on Vimeo.

Thailand

No big deal, I'm in Thailand... it doesn't seem/feel real. But yes, this is my life right now!? We're wrapping up a mini-DTS this weekend. We've been helping a Karen YWAM base lead their mini-DTS. It's been so amazing. The students are amazing and eager to learn and know God. Each team member has had a chance to teach lectures, lead intercession, worship, and drama. This weekend we're being split into three teams and each going on a weekend long Outreach with the students to a village up the mountain, near the Karen YWAM base.

Pray that the students are open to the Holy Spirit leading them while they are on their Outreach. Some of the people in the villages we'll be going to may or may not have ever hear that Jesus loves them... pray for soft hearts and open ears.

1 Corinthians 2
And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

"Do you trust me?" - God.

(Isaiah 53-54) 53¹ Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
⁴ Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. ⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.















54 ¹ “Sing, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,”
says the LORD.
² “Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide,
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
³ For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations
and settle in their desolate cities.

⁴ “Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame.
Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated.
You will forget the shame of your youth
and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
⁵ For your Maker is your husband—
the LORD Almighty is his name—
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
he is called the God of all the earth.
⁶ The LORD will call you back
as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—
a wife who married young,
only to be rejected,” says your God.
⁷ “For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with deep compassion I will bring you back.
⁸ In a surge of anger
I hid my face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness
I will have compassion on you,”
says the LORD your Redeemer.

Jeremiah 17:7-8

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

home stretch

We're almost done with our Lecture phase! Three more weeks until OUTREACH ... to Thailand!!

pray for the provision of the rest of my Outreach money...$1,800

my God is the God who provides.

faithful

“[Praise to the LORD] LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.”

_ Isaiah 25:1

trust Me.

"If you want to walk on water, get out of the boat."

Trust Him. He wants you to walk on the water.

Playing Catch Up!

G’day Family & Friends!
Greetings from the Land Down Under! It has now been four weeks since I’ve made my home in sunny Newcastle Australia, therefore I thought it would be appropriate update you all! I’m going to let you know on what I am doing, how you can get involved and what the future holds.

Getting There.
After a teary farewell, I said bye to everyone, everything, and everywhere I know. I remember sitting at the gate waiting to board my connector flight literally thinking, “is this really happening? Am I seriously going to a different country by myself right now?” It was a very surreal experience to say the least. I remember getting a tingle in my nose as I saw Detroit fade below as the plane ascended. First flight I had a row to myself, second flight I slept, third flight I met up with a girl that I’m now in class with. God proved Himself faithful over and over again, through out my travel time.

My flight from Los Angeles to Sydney only had two empty seats on the entire flight. Somehow my new friend Kathryn and I managed to get seats right next to each other. It was a major blessing being able to have a companion on an eighteen-hour flight. We got to know each other quickly. We exchanged testimonies and life stories until we got our first of FIVE meals. As we ate our bland airplane food, we became friends with the passenger next to us. He was on his way to Hillsong College in Sydney, to study Worship Art, I love when God orchestrates situations like that! When we finally made it to Sydney, the airport was filled with friendly Aussie accents and bare feet!

After a two-hour drive North, we made it to the Newcaslte YWAM base! The base is located in an economically suffering suburb. The building itself was once a hostel that was built around a 1800’s style house, forming a massive compound of YWAMer’s. The YWAM base averages about eighty staff and students regularly. After getting “the tour” and settling in a bit, it literally felt like home. Everyone feels like long lost friends and family! The community makes you feel very welcome and comfortable.

Daily Grind.
After a week of orientations and get-to-know-you games, we were able to get into our daily schedule of the three-month lecture phase of DTS [Discipleship Training School]. We get up early in the morning head down to the warehouse [a giant warehouse a few blocks from our house of classrooms, meeting rooms and offices] for lectures, after a morning of lectures, we head back up to the house for lunch, after lunch everyone has a work duty to keep the house in order, after getting our jobs we eat family style dinner and go to more lectures.

Depending on the day of the week, we go out at night to practice what we’re learning in lecture. We either go into shopping malls to evangelize or serve homeless people sausage and talk to them about how much Jesus loves them. On Sunday’s a group of us lead an international church service at a local Baptist church, for local university students. After the service we eat lunch with the students and spend the afternoon getting to know them better. God has been teaching me to tear down the wall of timidity when it comes to talking to strangers and opening my eyes to the fact that no one should live with out not-knowing the Truth.

Lectures.
The lectures have been super challenging and compelling! I feel like I’ve been able to see and experience God in a whole new way. He has opened my eyes to the importance and urgency of reaching people for Him, what it really means to fulfill the great commission, and what quality quiet time with Him looks like. As a follow up to the lectures, we have questions that make us really examine God’s Word and our heart. We’re then assessed my one of the leaders on what we have learned or gained from the lectures.

Youth Street.
On the weekends the entire base works together to run Youth Street. Youth Street is a program that YWAM runs for local teenagers. The kids come to the warehouse every Saturday to rego [Aussie slang for registration], after rego, the youth is split into teams for various activities such as; surfing, music, dance, sports, and skating. The teams are designed to let the kids develop hobbies in a positive Christ centered atmosphere. After a few hours with their team, everyone comes back to the house for a picnic styled dinner, and Youth Street Live. Youth Street Live is a time of worship and preaching based towards the youth. A lot of the kids come from hurt backgrounds and tough family situation. Youth Street is an awesome way to reach out to the youth of Newcaslte for Christ!

How YOU Can Help.
As many of you know, after three months of Lecture and working with Youth Street, our team is going on Outreach for three months. For our Outreach, half of our group will be going to minister along the Australian coast for three week, before traveling to Brazil. The other team will be going to the Thailand and Burma boarder to minister to refugees. Our team will have the chance to reach people that may have never heard the powerful life-changing message of Jesus Christ.

Before I came on my DTS, I felt a strong calling towards Thailand; therefore I’ve told my staff that is where I feel God is calling me. We will not know our official teams until early next week, but be praying as the teams begin to prepare for each Outreach.

Coming here and not knowing where our Outreach would be has been a HUGE lesson in patience and trusting that God goes before me and knows where I’ll be going. As of right now, I still need $4,000 for the actual Outreach phase. God has certainly been faithful in providing the money I needed to get to Australia and I know that He will continue to provide what I need to leave Australia and ‘go into all nations’.

It is hard to express how THANKFUL I am for each of you and all of your support, whether prayerfully or financially. God has been so faithful during this season of my life, I know He is the Provider and will bless me with what I need.

If you’re interested in helping me financially, you can donate two ways:
1. Via www.ywamnow.com, check "Student Donation/Support" as payment type.
2. My PayPal account, donate to cfillmore@comcast.net

THANK YOU!

G'day!

I'm here ... I finally made it! It's been about a week...so I thought I would update or TRY to update.

random thoughts::
1. I underestimated how long I thought the flight was.
2. Australia is really hot.
3. YWAM is an amazing WORLDWIDE missions organization.
4. God is SO BIG.
5. Community is powerful.
6. New faces & places are good for the soul.
7. Expanding the Kingdom needs be our passion.
8. Skype makes me happy.
9. God has a purpose & plan for each of us.
10. We have to be intentional about relationships.

more to come.

"For we are God’s masterpiece. HE has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."
Ephesians 2:10

peace out America.

Tomorrow my family is leaving me at the airport and I'm starting my 26+ hour trek to the land down under! God has been too good to me, to have blessed me with this opportunity. There are lots of mixed emotions; but I'm as ready as I think I can be :) pray for quick adjustment.

+ stay tuned for updates.

matthew 28:19 _ Therefore go and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

uh.

Uh, it's kind of funny how when you FINALLY have what you think you wanted [love/adventure/achievement], but you don't feel the way you thought you were supposed to feel...once you get to that point. what a let down, right?

...a calling starts to feel like a punishment and what was once a day-dream begins to feel like an obligation.

Uh, there's absolutely nothing in this entire world that will ever truly satisfy the human soul/being.

this world obviously has nothing for me. give me Jesus, that's all I need.

of course, I'm excited to travel to new places, meet new faces and follow/encounter God in CRAZY ways, I'm just realizing that even fulfilling dreams God set/blessed aside for me won't satisfy...only HE can truly satisfy.

here's to a bitter & sweet future.
I'm glad God's in control of it.
now I just have to simply
continue on, no turning back.

"You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth [will/path/call on your life]. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter."

way-to-go

Tonight was my very last lighthouse...until I come home from Australia in JUNE!! How weird is that!? It felt funny to think that I'm not going to be amongst that group of people for six whole months! This situation I find myself in of literally preparing to leave everything I know and love behind is very... sad, exciting, nerve racking and rejuvenating -- all at the same time.

Of course Cliff's message was exactly what I needed to hear & the worship was exactly what my heart needed. The message was on b e i n g the Church, through discipleship & fellowship. Um, HELLO!! That's EXACTLY what I am going to do!? God is so cool in working things out, eh?!

As followers of Christ we're called to be disciples and to disciple others. Discipleship and fellowship go hang in hand, it involves investing and wanting to pour into anothers life.

Then he spoke about how as the body of Christ we're to do our part to expand the kingdom...in turn, creating disciples and a need for fellowship. We're to go to go the ends of the earth, making disciples, baptizing them in the Holy Spirit! It doesn't matter what our vocation is, if we're a follower of Christ, we're supposed to go the ends of where ever we're at...and that's exactly what I will be doing in three very short weeks. Actually going to the ends of the earth, as a disciple and to disciple...creating fellowship to expand the Kingdom :)

It was crazy how Cliff's message was just confirming that what I'm about take on this January is "from him and through him and to him ". I love how God uses others to speak directly to us! Tonight was such a great way-to-go.