[How exiting! One of the IJM Interns we sent a Christmas card to knows about Shadow Mountain---her mom grew up here and got married by Pastor Jeremiah, and her aunt and uncle still attend our church! What a small world. If you want to read the email she sent back to us, check it out below.]
Dear Epic,
I just received the Christmas card from Sabrina and wanted to say thank you very much to her and your Young Adults group for taking the time to write to us interns and fellows. I can’t tell you how much we appreciate all of your prayers and support. I have to say, I laughed out loud when I saw what church the card came from. My mother grew up at Shadow Mountain and Dr. Jeremiah was the pastor who married my parents twenty five years ago. I know just how large a church Shadow Mountain is but if you see Debbie Harris (my aunt), Ben, or any other members of the family please say hi for me. It really is such a small world.
Thanks again,
Amy
Human Rights Intern, IJM Cebu
INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION®
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Letter from IJM Intern in India
Dear Epic,
This morning, during our daily stillness time in Bangalore, India, I received Sabrina's card, and your letter. It is such a joy and an encouragement to know that there are people all they away around the globe not only praying for the work IJM does, but even for me specifically. Please know that your prayer is effective and needed, and that while you may not always get to see the ways in which God answers your prayers for us here, He does indeed answer them.
Rob
Robert Brooks, Legal Fellow, Bangalore
INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION®
This morning, during our daily stillness time in Bangalore, India, I received Sabrina's card, and your letter. It is such a joy and an encouragement to know that there are people all they away around the globe not only praying for the work IJM does, but even for me specifically. Please know that your prayer is effective and needed, and that while you may not always get to see the ways in which God answers your prayers for us here, He does indeed answer them.
Rob
Robert Brooks, Legal Fellow, Bangalore
INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION®
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Response from IJM Intern in Manila
Last Thursday at Epic, Manny mentioned that we've been getting responses back from some of the International Justice Mission interns that we sent Christmas cards to. I thought it would be fun to post the respones as they come in. So, below is one that came last week and if you want to find out more of what she's doing in Manila, she posted her blog address at the very bottom.
LETTER FROM IJM INTERN IN MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Hi, Epic!
My name is Hope Newsome, and I am serving as an administrative intern with International Justice Mission in Manila, Philippines. Yesterday I received a Christmas card from Kristen a member of your Young Adults Ministry. It was such a blessing to receive a card of encouragement from someone in the states.
I wanted to thank you and the young adults of Shadow Mountain Community Church for your prayers and for the words of encouragement. I have been in Manila for a little over three months now, and I consider it to be a privilege to work for such a worthy cause. God is teaching me so much during my time with IJM. Thank you again for your commitment to partner with me in prayer.
Sincerely,
Hope Newsome
http://www.lhnewsome.wordpress.com/
LETTER FROM IJM INTERN IN MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Hi, Epic!
My name is Hope Newsome, and I am serving as an administrative intern with International Justice Mission in Manila, Philippines. Yesterday I received a Christmas card from Kristen a member of your Young Adults Ministry. It was such a blessing to receive a card of encouragement from someone in the states.
I wanted to thank you and the young adults of Shadow Mountain Community Church for your prayers and for the words of encouragement. I have been in Manila for a little over three months now, and I consider it to be a privilege to work for such a worthy cause. God is teaching me so much during my time with IJM. Thank you again for your commitment to partner with me in prayer.
Sincerely,
Hope Newsome
http://www.lhnewsome.wordpress.com/
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Too Much Time, Not Enough Trust
By Jenna Martin (one of our "Epic regulars")
It only took a 10-hour workweek for my trust in God to waver. That’s it. As I look at that sentence, it’s easy for me to consider deleting it because it is so sad to me. It’s so sad to me because thousands of people have lost everything they own or love in Haiti, and it only takes a cut in work hours for me to question God.
During the other 20 hours that I could have been working that week, I do nothing. And it’s not like I do nothing because it’s relaxing either. I do nothing because I’m frustrated. I’m so angered by my lack of work that it drives me to hours of feeling sorry for myself and thinking, “This is not fair.” I imagine God watching me, shaking His head and hoping I’d look up and see Him and seek His wisdom on the matter. But I don’t look up, and I don’t spend any of those 20 extra hours seeking anything to do with Him.
During the 10 hours that I actually spend working, I am unhappy. I go to work after thinking a lot and have created what I think is the real reason behind my cut in hours. It suddenly seems so obvious to me: my manager, who everyone has had recurrent issues with and who has never had a really nice thing to say to me, must have a problem with me. I spend my time at work unusually unfocused on my job at hand, and waste time complaining to the other two assistant managers. For all of this frustration and resentment I’ve now worked up, however, I don’t think to actually discuss it with the manager I’m accusing. I point the huge l finger at her but prefer not to actually say anything. It’s a difficult scenario to look at now because I so thought that I was the good guy and she was the bad one!
So, I let myself feed into my own pride. I was right in my thinking; I was the victim. She should just know that I’m unhappy with her, I must’ve been thinking. How ridiculous. I was letting these thoughts about how she’s wronged me get so far beneath my skin that it was becoming a distraction to my everyday life. It was a distraction to a healthy life. When I started to recognize this, I fed into Satan’s reasoning that I just didn’t know how to fill so much free time. Too much time off was zapping my energy, making me lazy. (I was active in the “poor-me” thought department, but I was lazy in the “Hey God” department.) Meanwhile, I was taking this superfluous frustration out on my meaningful relationships like with my mom. The relationships I was taking it out on were those that probably did try to get me to see my wrong thinking.
Then one day my little sister said something that slapped me to the very core. “You don’t like me anyway,” she mumbled to something insincere I’d probably just said. I didn’t even know what to say to her. I couldn’t believe that I’d been so negative the past few days that she could infer such things as I didn’t care about her. What a poor example I was!
After that, I was snapped out of that gross place I’d been. I returned to the Bible and had a long get-together with God. I asked Him to forgive my lack of trust in Him and for putting it in places it didn’t belong—like my own mind. I was reminded of how much Satan relies on our minds as a breeding ground for sin. Unfortunately, I had been letting my toes dance around on that soil for a few days.
The next week’s work schedule came out the next day, complete with the absence of an additional hour. A 9-hour workweek. I looked up to God, “Well, I can use these extra hours more beneficially now!” I turned to trusting Him that these hours were just what He’d intended for me. Maybe I’d need to extra time for something else. It was amazing how much my mindset had changed once I’d let God be back in charge! Then, He told me to call my district manager and ask him about my hours. I was nervous, but I called him. He didn’t answer, so I left a voicemail stating my wonder about the lack of work I was getting. He never called back. “Oh well, another vacation week,” I thought.
On the next day I went into work, I had been given another 11 hours. What had been a 9-hour week was now 20. My district manager might not of called me back, but he listened to the message God urged me to send. I was thankful for the hours, but I still needed one more thing to totally make the whole situation better. An apology.
God put it on my heart to pull my manager aside at work, so I did. I told her I was sorry for any of my ill behavior. I apologized for my pettiness and for my exhibition of immaturity. I told her about my frustrations I might’ve had (or thought I’d had) in the past with her, but promised to talk about them with her professionally. We talked for a good half hour, and at the end I could tell that we were both relieved. She claimed to have not noticed a whole lot of the behavior I was talking about, but I apologized nonetheless. I respect her, and nobody deserves the words or thoughts I might have said about her. Never did I have the right to judge her. God righted not only the situation but also my relationship with my manager also.
I don’t want that person knee-deep in uncalculated frustration to come back again.
The road is so much smoother when I retain my trust in God. Whether it was 9 hours or 20, the fact is that He’s given me plenty. I’m so thankful. And He’s given me more than enough reasons to trust.
It only took a 10-hour workweek for my trust in God to waver. That’s it. As I look at that sentence, it’s easy for me to consider deleting it because it is so sad to me. It’s so sad to me because thousands of people have lost everything they own or love in Haiti, and it only takes a cut in work hours for me to question God.
During the other 20 hours that I could have been working that week, I do nothing. And it’s not like I do nothing because it’s relaxing either. I do nothing because I’m frustrated. I’m so angered by my lack of work that it drives me to hours of feeling sorry for myself and thinking, “This is not fair.” I imagine God watching me, shaking His head and hoping I’d look up and see Him and seek His wisdom on the matter. But I don’t look up, and I don’t spend any of those 20 extra hours seeking anything to do with Him.
During the 10 hours that I actually spend working, I am unhappy. I go to work after thinking a lot and have created what I think is the real reason behind my cut in hours. It suddenly seems so obvious to me: my manager, who everyone has had recurrent issues with and who has never had a really nice thing to say to me, must have a problem with me. I spend my time at work unusually unfocused on my job at hand, and waste time complaining to the other two assistant managers. For all of this frustration and resentment I’ve now worked up, however, I don’t think to actually discuss it with the manager I’m accusing. I point the huge l finger at her but prefer not to actually say anything. It’s a difficult scenario to look at now because I so thought that I was the good guy and she was the bad one!
So, I let myself feed into my own pride. I was right in my thinking; I was the victim. She should just know that I’m unhappy with her, I must’ve been thinking. How ridiculous. I was letting these thoughts about how she’s wronged me get so far beneath my skin that it was becoming a distraction to my everyday life. It was a distraction to a healthy life. When I started to recognize this, I fed into Satan’s reasoning that I just didn’t know how to fill so much free time. Too much time off was zapping my energy, making me lazy. (I was active in the “poor-me” thought department, but I was lazy in the “Hey God” department.) Meanwhile, I was taking this superfluous frustration out on my meaningful relationships like with my mom. The relationships I was taking it out on were those that probably did try to get me to see my wrong thinking.
Then one day my little sister said something that slapped me to the very core. “You don’t like me anyway,” she mumbled to something insincere I’d probably just said. I didn’t even know what to say to her. I couldn’t believe that I’d been so negative the past few days that she could infer such things as I didn’t care about her. What a poor example I was!
After that, I was snapped out of that gross place I’d been. I returned to the Bible and had a long get-together with God. I asked Him to forgive my lack of trust in Him and for putting it in places it didn’t belong—like my own mind. I was reminded of how much Satan relies on our minds as a breeding ground for sin. Unfortunately, I had been letting my toes dance around on that soil for a few days.
The next week’s work schedule came out the next day, complete with the absence of an additional hour. A 9-hour workweek. I looked up to God, “Well, I can use these extra hours more beneficially now!” I turned to trusting Him that these hours were just what He’d intended for me. Maybe I’d need to extra time for something else. It was amazing how much my mindset had changed once I’d let God be back in charge! Then, He told me to call my district manager and ask him about my hours. I was nervous, but I called him. He didn’t answer, so I left a voicemail stating my wonder about the lack of work I was getting. He never called back. “Oh well, another vacation week,” I thought.
On the next day I went into work, I had been given another 11 hours. What had been a 9-hour week was now 20. My district manager might not of called me back, but he listened to the message God urged me to send. I was thankful for the hours, but I still needed one more thing to totally make the whole situation better. An apology.
God put it on my heart to pull my manager aside at work, so I did. I told her I was sorry for any of my ill behavior. I apologized for my pettiness and for my exhibition of immaturity. I told her about my frustrations I might’ve had (or thought I’d had) in the past with her, but promised to talk about them with her professionally. We talked for a good half hour, and at the end I could tell that we were both relieved. She claimed to have not noticed a whole lot of the behavior I was talking about, but I apologized nonetheless. I respect her, and nobody deserves the words or thoughts I might have said about her. Never did I have the right to judge her. God righted not only the situation but also my relationship with my manager also.
I don’t want that person knee-deep in uncalculated frustration to come back again.
The road is so much smoother when I retain my trust in God. Whether it was 9 hours or 20, the fact is that He’s given me plenty. I’m so thankful. And He’s given me more than enough reasons to trust.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Reading Good Books
January Epic
Guest teacher, Conor Anderson, helped us ring in the new year by challenging us to read good books: which usually means old books. "It is through the reading of books that we as Christians can hope to take back the U.S. education system, political system and popular culture- all which were founded with Christian principles at there conception."
Conor's Top 10 Recommendations for Good Books:
- How to Read a Book, Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren
- The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis
- Reason in the Balance, Phillip Johnson
- Confessions, St. Augustine
- A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
- The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton
- Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses, C.S. Lewis
- The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard
- Reasonable Faith, William Lane Craig
- Shakespeare
What books do you recommend? What books have impacted you deeply and why?
Monday, December 28, 2009
Confessions from a Small Group Leader
Only God's hand could explain how my group has come together so perfectly. I was concerned in the beginning (just this last fall) that I wouldn’t have any sign-ups since I live so far from the church (I live downtown). Then I was concerned that I’d get really annoying people or girls who were all in really different places of their lives and wouldn't be able to relate to one another.
Instead, God sent me extremely faithful women, all who live near me, and all in their mid- twenties. All are post-college, career women, looking to seek God amongst their busy schedules and away from their parents’ rules. Again, only God could have orchestrated the details!
I've loved getting to know my girls and see their hearts grow to love one another. I’ve loved seeing them connect one-on-one and seek each other outside of group. I’ve loved sitting with them at church service and just knowing that there's a group of women praying for me and trying to live like God wants them to.
The hardest thing about leading has been juggling my own life, carving time each week to pray for the ladies, and plan our discussion. It seems like whenever I serve God, suddenly my life is a juggling act. But it's no coincidence—Satan definitely wants to distract me from the work God is trying to do, but God has always been faithful to meet my needs. And not only meet my needs, but bless me too!
Instead, God sent me extremely faithful women, all who live near me, and all in their mid- twenties. All are post-college, career women, looking to seek God amongst their busy schedules and away from their parents’ rules. Again, only God could have orchestrated the details!
I've loved getting to know my girls and see their hearts grow to love one another. I’ve loved seeing them connect one-on-one and seek each other outside of group. I’ve loved sitting with them at church service and just knowing that there's a group of women praying for me and trying to live like God wants them to.
The hardest thing about leading has been juggling my own life, carving time each week to pray for the ladies, and plan our discussion. It seems like whenever I serve God, suddenly my life is a juggling act. But it's no coincidence—Satan definitely wants to distract me from the work God is trying to do, but God has always been faithful to meet my needs. And not only meet my needs, but bless me too!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
November Epic Recap
Wow! Thanks to all who made last night's Epic so GREAT! Seriously, we've heard from so many of you already saying that you really enjoyed the night. So did we!
It was sooooo cool to hear from Amber, Jeff and Mike about how God has been working through their loving, humble, giving hearts. They hang out in Ocean Beach a couple nights a week building friendships with the locals, offering a listening ear, sometimes prayer, and through a warm fire. As Manny talked about in his message, they are perfect examples of those who "redeem the time" that God presents. God's love draws us near so that we can love Him in return and then share that love with others. Woohoo! :O)
Our night ended with a very fun and practical activity. It might sound corny, but I felt like it was such a bonding time for all of us! We were able to put together 100 burritos and 100 kits to be delivered to the homeless in OB and downtown. Plus, we collected 6 large bins of clothing, blankets, and shoes. We are so blessed by your generous and caring hearts. God's love is being shown very tangibly through you.
Well, if you'd like to join us as we deliver the burritos and kits, we're going TOMORROW and THIS TUESDAY...
- Saturday, Nov 7 - meet us at the stairs next to the Lower Campus Chapel at 10:30 am.
- Tuesday, Nov 10 - meet us at the flagpole in front of SDCC at 5:30 pm.
We'll caravan and/or carpool over. Hope you can make it out!
Lots of love,
The Epic Team
It was sooooo cool to hear from Amber, Jeff and Mike about how God has been working through their loving, humble, giving hearts. They hang out in Ocean Beach a couple nights a week building friendships with the locals, offering a listening ear, sometimes prayer, and through a warm fire. As Manny talked about in his message, they are perfect examples of those who "redeem the time" that God presents. God's love draws us near so that we can love Him in return and then share that love with others. Woohoo! :O)
Our night ended with a very fun and practical activity. It might sound corny, but I felt like it was such a bonding time for all of us! We were able to put together 100 burritos and 100 kits to be delivered to the homeless in OB and downtown. Plus, we collected 6 large bins of clothing, blankets, and shoes. We are so blessed by your generous and caring hearts. God's love is being shown very tangibly through you.
Well, if you'd like to join us as we deliver the burritos and kits, we're going TOMORROW and THIS TUESDAY...
- Saturday, Nov 7 - meet us at the stairs next to the Lower Campus Chapel at 10:30 am.
- Tuesday, Nov 10 - meet us at the flagpole in front of SDCC at 5:30 pm.
We'll caravan and/or carpool over. Hope you can make it out!
Lots of love,
The Epic Team
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