R.

(Due to the nature of the job my personal information is sensitive and unable to be published on-line.)

Culture I hail from:
Texas....enough said.

Books/Musicians/Movies that have shaped me:
Romans, Radical Reformation, When I Don't Desire God: A Fight for Joy. // Shane & Shane, Red, Shawn McDonald. // Man on Fire, Anne of Green Gables, We Were Soldiers.

One of the biggest things I have learned by living missionally/hanging out with internationals:
First, I learned that I would be introduced to tons of...interesting foods. And...I have found that I must encounter what the gospel means to me, what Jesus has done to change me every time I share Him with my international friends that haven't heard of  Him before. The gospel, I realized, was something I had taken for granted because I knew the key players, scriptures and punch lines since I was...four or something. Hanging out with my friends here, I can't take Jesus' life for granted...He is a stranger to so many that when I take Him for just that guy I "want to tell you about", I forget to introduce Him as that guy who happens to be my way, my truth, and my life and that he can be that personal for them as well.

Where I'm going? What I'm doing.
I'll be spending at least a year in East Asia, spending time on college campuses, discipling young believers, and being able to share Jesus with fellow students.

How is God is at work in East Asia. How I am part of this:
East Asian college students who have accepted Christ are infamous, very bold witnesses to other nations through out Central Asia and the Middle East where Americans and Europeans are just not welcomed. I believe the building up and helping send these students out is something huge God is using us for.

One thing people should know about East Asians:
Believers in East Asia truly believe they are specially commissioned at this time in history to bring the truth of the life of Jesus into other nations pretty much up to the footstep of Jerusalem. Believers in East Asian have received intense persecution within their own obsessive government but have grown more bold and faithful in their desire to spread the gospel. There is no stopping them! They expect God to do miracles in and through them...it makes sense that God would use East Asians to make a huge spiritual front into countries where Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism is prevalent and Christianity is received with hostility and confusion. East Asia shares borders with the largest number of other countries and one of every five people on the plant live in East Asia.

What I'm doing is part of the global Church body and my American church body because:
Journey and the American Church Body are members of the Global body...the means by which the Lord enables his beloved to be equipped and sent to the ends of the world. The Church is not a building but nations of people who are all on mission...seeking God and saving those who don't know him. If all I do this year is pray for my fellow believers and perhaps be able to encourage them a bit, I thank the Lord for that opportunity to spend a brief time with my Asian brothers and sisters helping build-up, equip and see them off to new nations.