Thus Far

So it's been over a week and I've finally got settled into the city. I love it so much. The people here are amazing, the food is incredible, the coffee shops are insane! Coffee, coffee, coffee! No but really, this is an incredible place to get to live for two months. You might have to have an adventurous spirit and be willing to get lost for a while, but it's all a part of the journey.

We've been blessed to have already encounter many amazing people and new friends, and through that see God move in salvation and healing. This is such a place of cultural pluralism and even religious syncretism that to come here with another idea can seem hopeless, but watching people react to the Gospel of love and to Jesus Christ the way that they have even in the short week we've been here has been an incredible encouragement.

Tomorrow morning, bright and early at 4 am, we get to greet our first team at the airport. The strides five of us have made in sharing the gospel has been incredible, but we get the opportunity to watch this team of twenty two boldly engage this city for Jesus, and I'm so excited to get to watch that and try to sow into what is reaped through that with discipleship. This is the first of many teams and they are going to be a major refresher and joy to spend time with.

In the meantime, our team will continue building relationships throughout the city, and looking for what God is doing and playing a part in that.

In my own heart I'm finding a brand new since of freedom in the Lord. I think it's so easy to be on mission and see it as business. Meet people, share the Gospel. Meet people, share the Gospel. But there are so many parts that make the latter more effective. Such as waiting and the Lord and see where and how He wants to move. There is a language of the Holy Spirit and we need to get involved in following it. Also, if we wee to try to engage a city without doing so relationally we would severely hinder the work of the Lord. Take for example the work of the seventy two in Luke 10. Christ saw it more effective to initiate the message of the kingdom of heaven through relationship rather than unfamiliarity. Food for thought.

Love you family and friends and i'll talk to you very soon. Two days, I promise.

I miss beef,

Weston

P.S. I'll fill you in more on South India culturally next post.

New update within 24 hrs

Arrival in South India!

Wow, so after a long, stressful trip here, our team finally made it! this is an incredible place that God has given us. We were met by our team leaders at the airport and spent the next two days getting to know them better and getting to know the city better. Last night we had dinner at the leader of the the Long term teams house with the rest of the team and it was an incredible time of fellowship, and they made this city halfway across the world feel like home.

We have already begun casting seeds and right now were just waiting for the floodgates to fall and see the fruit that God intends for us to experience. I love this place. And I want to be very direct in this statement, we should feel at home greater at no other place than the Kingdom of God. And right now this is home. And it will be for two months. So where our feet tread and our shadows are cast the Kingdom of God will be there in the form of His Spirit. I want you to know that God has placed me here for a reason, and from birth it has been God's plan to put me here for the summer of 2010 because he has a great work for me. Family I love you soo much and can't wait to share with you even more what God is doing in me and in the city. I miss you but the time is going to fly and i'll be home and with you before we know it. Friends, you are a blessing and i can't wait to impart to you what God has done through me.

Love you so much and talk to you soon,

Weston

His Promises

This morning I had the great blessing of being able to share about my upcoming summer in India to my church family at First Baptist Duncan, OK. God has blessed me beyond belief by giving me two families that love me and share in the excitement about what He is doing. One in Duncan at First Baptist, the church I grew up in and was fostered in, and the other at Antioch in Norman where God has given me an unbelievable family to run with and see heaven on earth with.

While sharing with my congregation this morning in Duncan, casting the vision God has given me for my summer, I was immediately overcome with emotion. It was under that roof, as a thirteen and fourteen year old that God began casting His own vision for my life. One spent poured out to nations. It was there that that apostolic passion and yearning for revival began burning. And this summer I get to taste the promises He gave me years before. He is true in keeping His promises.

Thanks for listening and be blessed,

Weston