Well, a month and a half is a long time and there is a lot to talk about. It’s not really worthwhile to go into the day-to-day stuff but I’ll try to share a few updates and some things God is teaching me.
Summer was super great. We had about a hundred people come through to stay at the Blue House in teams of 10-20. We had a lot of fun seeing the diversity of the body in these groups and seeing how God equipped each of them to be used in different ways for his mission. He really is creative not only in building the earth but building his kingdom. It’s exciting to see this kingdom and celebrate him with the community of the redeemed.
Ministry was awesome. A lot of people heard the Gospel at Temple Square, in the LDS wards, at dinners, Bible studies (go Galatians!), bonfires, door-to-door things, and wherever else people were to be found. The good news of the grace of God incarnate is being shared in Ogden and Salt Lake City, and the culture is changing in Utah. There are a greater number of Evangelicals in Utah, though most of this is because people are beginning to move here more. Pray for a shift in culture. I love Utah but not merely as much as God does. He is at work here.
I have grown in a number of relationships with LDS friends out here. My friend Becky is a ward missionary so she has been pursuing having a relationship with me to a greater extent this summer. I love Becky a lot. She, Aubrey and I met a few times to discuss our different beliefs and to try to understand truth. Those were the most honest conversations I have had in Utah which has been very refreshing. Our conversations have shifted now to being more about who we are and what God is doing in our lives. Please pray for Becky. She means a lot to me. I have also grown in relationships with Sisters Rodriguez and Bravard at Temple Square. Sister Rodriguez is a ton of fun and I really enjoy catching up with her about her life. She wants me to visit her in Mexico City one day which would be really cool. Sister Bravard had a conversation about what God has done in our lives a few weeks ago and I believe that she has submitted her life to God. I know there are things she believes that go against God’s word, but I do believe that she is in his grace and is indeed our adopted sister. Please pray for her to be filled with the Holy Spirit in a new way every day and come to be convicted more strongly of truth. She will be a mighty weapon for God’s Kingdom when she stops getting it confused with the Latter-day kingdom. I love her a lot. It’s been really cool getting to know Kyle better. He is fun to be around and we are having some more gospel conversations. I don’t think that he is close to accepting God’s message but God is pursuing him with outstretched arms and that is cool to see. I’m getting more established at my ward and in the community. Pretty much they know what I’m doing here and are getting more accustomed to having me around and more friendly. It’s pretty cool. J
I got to see a miracle this summer! It wasn’t like a physical healing, and it wasn’t the rebirth of a dead person, but I got to see God step in and do his thing J. Aubrey and I spend the last couple weeks as the only remaining interns and spent the last week and a half as the only inhabitants of the Blue House. She had expressed earlier something blocking her from loving God and others freely. She had frustration and felt a great deal of bondage. We talked and prayed about it for hours every day in the last month she was here, because she decided she wanted it done for good. Two nights before she left, God delivered her. He showed her that the things that hurt to think and talk about were what she needed to understand better, and that she was more deceived than anything else. It was so cool to get to see up close what God was doing in her life. She is a different person now, freed to love and have joy. It got us both really excited to see God do that in the lives of everyone. I urge you to consider whether you are freed to love God and others. If you do not enjoy God and you do not delight in people, heaven should not sound that god to you. Begin to work through the things stopping you from having life to the full. If you are not enjoying that, you are submitting to what Satan (the thief, John 10:10) wants for you, not what God does. Don’t accept less than freedom, because Christ died to bring that. It’s not an issue of salvation but of truly living what God has for you.
I’ve grown a lot this summer in how I view God’s relationship with humanity. Genesis should be the most shocking book in the world. GOD created all these things and one of those types of things (the thing he gave a special place to) decided to REBEL against him! Against their Creator, the Great God of the universe! That’s nuts! And then he decided to keep working with them?! He chose to get in the way of these things rebelling against him! And not only that, he became one! And they killed him!!! What rebellion! But he did that for his glory and their good. He wanted to make them his. When it comes down to it, ministry is sorta silly. God doesn’t need us. In Aubrey’s last week at ward, Relief Society began with an overtly Christian hymn. God himself decided to share his message with them. He did not need us to be there. He’ll do a better job without us, because he cannot sin and muddle things up. Think like a dad painting the house and his three-year-old son asks to help. He smiles patiently and says, “Sure, I’d love that!” The kid makes a few messy marks and eventually the man will go back and go over what he has done. At the end, the son will look at the completed house and think, “What a great job I’ve done!” And his dad smiles, not correcting him. God is very patient with us. He gives us work to do for his kingdom because he loves us. He loves the process of redeeming humanity (Genesis 12-he showed up to one guy and said he was going to bless the world) and he really loves redeeming humanity to the extent that he uses humans to carry the message of redemption to others. It’s insanely cool. There are only two kinds of people in this world: living ones and dead ones. We really don’t need to worry too much if we are talking to an atheist, a Latter-day Saint, a Muslim person, a nominal Christian, a Jew, a Buddhist or an agnostic. The message is the same. Endless debates are silly because the message is clear: God sent his only Son to die to make his enemies into his children. We who are guilty have only to rely on God’s mercy and Christ’s worthiness to stand before God as righteous. What is cool is that as we share that message with people, we are part of God’s plan to recreate them, but we will probably not see the finished project. And that is cool! It’s not really our business anyways, it’s God’s! He lets us get a taste sometimes, but if not, that is great. I love that it’s all about God and his glory. I love him and love being able to be used and seeing his pleasure in using one he has redeemed to be an instrument of redemption.
All the interns have left me L I miss Colleen, Casey, Aubrey and Allie a great deal but God’s ministry is carrying on. Jeryan is coming tomorrow and he’ll be here presumably for the remainder of my time out here. I have made the decision to move home around Christmas time. I love Utah and the ministry out here (a lot), but I think God is going to move me out of the way and do extraordinary things himself in the lives of those I love. I am excited to see it! For the next few months, I’ll be working primarily on the church plant. Bible study is really cool. We are beginning Deuteronomy which so far is a blast (not even kidding, I haven’t been this excited about anything in a while). We want to talk with the homeless of Ogden, declaring the good news to the poor (Luke 4:18, my original mission verse for the year) and to students at Weber State. I’m excited to see what God has for us. Please be praying for God to do more miracles!
Much love,
Kelly
