...we are grateful to say that we successfully moved out of our apartment this past weekend and are one step closer to moving to Hungary in less than a month! A special shoutout to our loved ones who helped us with the move — we couldn’t have done it without you. Jessica also officially finished her job, so now we are bouncing around staying with family and friends, spending time with folks and continuing to get ready for August.
Now, as we mentioned in our last post, here are some more details about the training conference we attended in Georgia at the beginning of June. The conference is called The Quarry and is for U.S. mission workers going overseas this year for the first time with OM. There were nine participants in our group, and we were thankful to have a group that was easygoing and willing to share thoughts and experiences throughout the week.
Each day we had a devotional with our suitemates, Chris and Samantha, an awesome couple from California. (Read about their heart for Ecuador and see their adorable family here.) We worked our way through the book of Jonah in the Bible each day and focused on the story from a different perspective each time, e.g. from God’s perspective, Jonah’s, the Ninevites’. It was a helpful study on mission work that we will probably use in our own ministry at some point.
Another day saw us spending time outdoors in what can be summed up as a global village or mission simulation. We don’t want to spoil the experience for future OMers who might come across this post, so we will just say it was a well-executed simulation that was beneficial because we were thrust into situations we might experience in the field: unfamiliar cultures, physical conditions we weren’t used to, and working in a team of near-strangers. We were reminded that even when we might have the head knowledge of what to do, we don’t know how we will react until we are actually experiencing something.
We were also able to visit an Islamic mosque. The Muslims we spoke with indicated they were happy we wanted to learn about their religion firsthand rather than make assumptions. It was a delicate situation and not one where we were trying to share our faith, but simply trying to learn about theirs. From this experience, we learned that humbly showing an interest and respect for another person’s beliefs can open doors for God to work through. What we might think of as a good way to do missions might be offensive to the recipient. The key is to find out what speaks to his or her own heart and personal experiences.
We also attended some good lectures and discussions throughout the conference on themes that will probably come up in future posts. Here were a few of the sessions: Theology of Risk and Suffering, Spiritual Resiliency, and Seven Myths That Can Sabotage Your Mission Service. We talked a lot about the challenges we might face ahead, and we were also reminded that God doesn’t promise things will be easy; He just promises it’ll all count in His Kingdom.
Finally, we spent quite a bit of time discussing practical things such as sharing our testimony and faith and going into the details of our S.H.A.P.E.: Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences. This self-awareness we discussed can help us when working with a team, coping in a new environment, and sharing the Gospel effectively.
Overall, we enjoyed the conference and were grateful for the lessons learned, relationships built, and prayers lifted up.
Here are some prayer requests from us for this week:
- Continued excitement and positivity on our end
- We have experienced a sense of peace about the whole process of going to Hungary during the last month or so. But as we start to say goodbyes, we pray for continued peace as Satan attempts to use anxiety, sadness, and fear to discourage us.
- Sanity
- As we are now without a home of our own for the next month, our schedule is totally different than it was. We have tremendous people around us who are providing us with loving homes to stay in while we are in this transition period, but it is still a major adjustment living out of a suitcase, and, especially for Jessica, not working or having a set schedule.
As always, please let us know how we can be in prayer for you!
Love,
The Alyeas
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