Location: Richardson, TX
Today was quite a taxing day at NPO. I worked out like every morning, ate breakfast and headed to the training center. After that we had an eye-opening time of worship. Instead of singing praise music like the other mornings we spent time reading God's Word out loud, without commentary, without preaching. It was a time of reading, listening and meditating. There are many times I've heard Christians say that worship is supposed to be more than just music and today we lived that out. It was so refreshing. I hope I will be able to practice this form of worship again soon.
After a profound devotion on suffering we spent about an hour getting to know the lovely people who work in the US office. Most people don't realize how much work goes into supporting workers on the field. These are accounts, lawyers, communication specialists and caregivers who have chosen to help workers be successful.
The second session began the hard work. It was our language learning session, this included an overview on the language learning policy and a language learning aptitude test. This test was about 30 min and forced us to demonstrate our ability to learn another language both orally and visually. I am so grateful for my linguistics training, otherwise this test would have been impossible. I'm actually finding myself excited to learn the results to help me become a better language learner.
After the test I was completely exhausted and I still had my doctrinal interview after lunch. I had a great lunch with some fellow trainees and staff members. I spent the time between lunch and my interview praying and surrendering the interview to the Lord. He blessed me in the interview allowing me to speak clearly and efficiently to my interviewer. I also had time to ask questions and get some more resources for the future.
Then many of the trainees were finished for the afternoon and we were invited to a session at a different orientation. We talked about the positive and negative aspects of coming back from overseas. It was encouraging to hear other people's experiences. It was during this session when one of the staff members spoke about something incredibly profound: Holy Discontentment.
This may seem like an oxymoron to people who understand the command to count our blessings and be content. However, this staff member commented on how many of the trainees said the most difficult part of reentering the US was the discontentment with the US culture. She said it was this discontentment with the US culture God was using to call us overseas. God put this passion for a different culture than our own in us in order to give us a sense of urgency to serve cross-culturally.
This reminded me of Philippians 1:20-26 when Paul talks about being torn between heaven and earth. His desire was to be with Christ but he knew he had a responsibility to serve on earth. Paul submitted to God's calling in His life. While many of us trainees are as torn as Paul, there are still aspects of living in the US that we will miss. It is ultimately about submitting to a calling from God to work where He has yet to be preached.
It also reminded me of many of the Psalms where David poured out his emotions, good or bad. There were times when he was angry with God and didn't understand God's plan. That didn't stop him from walking with God, rather it spurred him on to have a deeper walk with God.
I want to study this topic further and learn what the Bible has to say about it. However, I have the weekend off :) I'll be relaxing, recharging and probably not blogging.
'Til Monday,
Today was quite a taxing day at NPO. I worked out like every morning, ate breakfast and headed to the training center. After that we had an eye-opening time of worship. Instead of singing praise music like the other mornings we spent time reading God's Word out loud, without commentary, without preaching. It was a time of reading, listening and meditating. There are many times I've heard Christians say that worship is supposed to be more than just music and today we lived that out. It was so refreshing. I hope I will be able to practice this form of worship again soon.
After a profound devotion on suffering we spent about an hour getting to know the lovely people who work in the US office. Most people don't realize how much work goes into supporting workers on the field. These are accounts, lawyers, communication specialists and caregivers who have chosen to help workers be successful.
The second session began the hard work. It was our language learning session, this included an overview on the language learning policy and a language learning aptitude test. This test was about 30 min and forced us to demonstrate our ability to learn another language both orally and visually. I am so grateful for my linguistics training, otherwise this test would have been impossible. I'm actually finding myself excited to learn the results to help me become a better language learner.
After the test I was completely exhausted and I still had my doctrinal interview after lunch. I had a great lunch with some fellow trainees and staff members. I spent the time between lunch and my interview praying and surrendering the interview to the Lord. He blessed me in the interview allowing me to speak clearly and efficiently to my interviewer. I also had time to ask questions and get some more resources for the future.
Then many of the trainees were finished for the afternoon and we were invited to a session at a different orientation. We talked about the positive and negative aspects of coming back from overseas. It was encouraging to hear other people's experiences. It was during this session when one of the staff members spoke about something incredibly profound: Holy Discontentment.
This may seem like an oxymoron to people who understand the command to count our blessings and be content. However, this staff member commented on how many of the trainees said the most difficult part of reentering the US was the discontentment with the US culture. She said it was this discontentment with the US culture God was using to call us overseas. God put this passion for a different culture than our own in us in order to give us a sense of urgency to serve cross-culturally.
This reminded me of Philippians 1:20-26 when Paul talks about being torn between heaven and earth. His desire was to be with Christ but he knew he had a responsibility to serve on earth. Paul submitted to God's calling in His life. While many of us trainees are as torn as Paul, there are still aspects of living in the US that we will miss. It is ultimately about submitting to a calling from God to work where He has yet to be preached.
It also reminded me of many of the Psalms where David poured out his emotions, good or bad. There were times when he was angry with God and didn't understand God's plan. That didn't stop him from walking with God, rather it spurred him on to have a deeper walk with God.
I want to study this topic further and learn what the Bible has to say about it. However, I have the weekend off :) I'll be relaxing, recharging and probably not blogging.
'Til Monday,
you're adorable. loved reading your blog today. i may or may not have read for about an hour :P
ReplyDeleteoh, i agree. i see discontent as God's way of telling us to move. whether that means we move physically or move spiritually or move financially - it doesn't matter; however He directs. but i've always seen that as His way of saying, "something needs to change here. I've given you the eyes to see this situation the way I do; now I'm going to direct you to do something about it, in My strength."
ReplyDelete