February Newsletter

                This morning I sat on the black futon in the girl’s house. Around me the team discussed how we could best use the money we have budgeted for retreats. I looked again at the list of things it was essential we cover in this team meeting. Fly over to Oahu for a fellowship dinner? We were talking about it because we need to buy tickets as soon as possible. Challenge students to spring break, check in on 1000 cranes to Tohoku, speaker for next week’s meeting, evaluate discipleship curriculum, hand off worship during Easter week. I sighed after reading the first half of the list. Emailing the budget information would have saved a lot of time. This looked to be another business meeting ending twenty minutes late.

                Almost every day I see that God’s good work and my failure walk hand in hand. I never expected to lose so many details, struggle in planning ahead, and leave my house so little. I didn’t expect God to use me more toward my team than toward the people we came to reach. On the other hand, stepping into leadership I didn’t expect to know my team so clearly, to hear God telling me how to challenge them forward, and to take such joy in their successes.

                The fruit I see around me confirms that God is at work. The need I see around me says that there is work still to be done. God has not told me to change my work, so I plan to continue working with CRU unless He directs otherwise. There are a few different positions open to me, and I am weighing those, but all of them involve Japan where I feel God is still challenging me to go. Your prayers over my ministry and this decision are so appreciated. Thank you for partnering with me.
                                                                                -Sarah

January Newsletter

                Another student on break asked Storme for a lighter and cigarette smoke began wafting by again. Smoking area equals not the most comfortable place to share the gospel with random people, I sighed to myself.  “All belief is good; God just hasn’t been important to me,” Storme concluded after retrieving her lighter. My inner commentary quickly chimed in, not that easy of a conversation either. I could see she did not care enough about religion to stay through a theological debate; neither did I.
                In many ways, Storme personifies local students. She believes in a higher power reachable through any belief. Religion is a help to life, giving meaning and purpose, not a law that highlights our separation from God. Spiritually, her highest goal is to achieve a checklist of what it takes to be a good person instead of truly knowing God. A checklist cannot give us life. As 1 John 5:11-12 says, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life.”
                I didn’t care to debate her statement “all belief is good”, but I realized that I cared about this girl: her broken family, her struggle to be good, and her need for life through Christ. I knew what to ask. “What do you think is the purpose of life?” Storme puzzled over the question for a bit before settling wit;  “I guess be a good person and enjoy the things around you.” I nodded when she had finished then said, “I tried being a good person and it didn’t work; that’s how I came to Jesus.” Before I left the smoking area she gave me her phone number saying she enjoyed our conversation.
                Many times this month I have found myself thanking God for moments where I see Him flow out in ministry through me, but just as often I find myself looking to the bigger picture. Where will my team be at the end of the year and what will we leave behind? Does my call to Japan still stand and is that what God has for me next year? Everyone on the team is beginning to ask similar things.
                We focused our planning day asking God to use us to begin a lasting movement of students who take the light of the true gospel from Hilo to the entire Pacific region. Our God can do that. Thanks for partnering with me in that vision. I’m praying we all come to be characterized by surrender and faith—a place where the Son will be our life.
                                                                                -Sarah

Vision for Your Prayers

Hello friends,
A newsletter will be on its way shortly, but I wanted to give you a preview because many things have happened this month. Thank you for your prayers! God's presence and blessings have shadowed our settling into homes, the first week on campus, many days of travel, and our recent planning.
Our vision here is to see a lasting movement of students who take the light of the true gospel from Hilo to the whole pacific region. The first part I focus prayer on is lasting. We're here for only another four and a half months. In order for what we begin here to last we need God to show up. Secondly is students who take. Be praying for willing and faithful students to step up beside us and ask God to change their lives and campus. We will help raise up a summer mission trip to Osaka, Japan and the students who go will set a precedent for missions from Hilo to the pacific region. Finally pray that we and those we are teaching would proclaim the true gospel in all its fullness and power. We have already seen that many churches and people who claim the name of Christ are very willing to accept all spirituality as possible paths to God.
Here are some more specific things we are asking God if He would do this year. We are asking for 20 new believers. We pray He would use us in student' lives so they will know and experience the gospel, learn how to share it, and actively share it with others. We're praying for Bible studies led by students. Finally we pray that through discipleship students would grow mature and able to lead both now and in a greater way when we need to leave.
Thanks so much for your prayers. My Aloha.

Sing to the LORD a new song,
   his praise from the ends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
   you islands, and all who live in them. Isaiah 42:10