juntos no more

Juntos!
If you are a Moody student or attended any of the general sessions of the missions conference here at Moody last year then you will recognize this very over-used Spanish word meaning "together." That was the theme of the conference last year, and the keynote speaker felt the need to use the word "Juntos" literally about every 2-3 minutes, and if that wasn't enough he used it in about every part of speech that exists. Needless to say last years main sessions were not the greatest, we found ourselves sitting in the auditorium for 2 hours counting how many times the guy said "Juntos." So honestly I wasn't expecting much from this year's main sessions, and to be even more honest I fell asleep last night during Al Guerra's session, which was probably worth listening to but I just couldn't keep my eyes open after a very draining (both physically and emotionally) soccer game (another post for another day). But I did enjoy today's sessions very much.

Al Guerra spoke again this morning and thankfully I was able to stay awake, because he talked about how to minister to people that we don't want to minister to. He spoke out of Matthew 28. ...And brace yourself...I also took notes, yes thats right. So a couple points that he made were to 1. Lead by theology. He talked about learning what we have from our Systematic Theology classes, which I am taking right now, and work hard to apply this to real-life leadership situations. Another point he made was to 2. Study the culture. This was very stressed that we should go into a culture as learners. Don't go into a culture ignorant of their rituals and practices. I think many people do this, especially when it comes to short-term missions trips and they lose their effectiveness because of it. So the morning session was very beneficial, and I was glad that I got the extra sleep in order to stay awake.

We are also required to go to some seminar sessions. One of these that I chose to go to was called "Movies and Media: What does that have to do with Missions?" So of course, if any of you know me you know that this immediately caught my eye, and it didn't take me very long to decide which one I was going to attend. The woman leading this session graduated from Ashland College in Ohio with a videography degree and now works for a missions agency doing 50% video work, and 50% missions work. It was very interesting to hear how this worked. Half of the year she will spend traveling around the world filming and producing content for different missions agencies, and then the other half of the year she will spend building relationships with people in the area where she is living, whether it be London, England, or somewhere else, and then try to influence these people for Christ. I think this is a very interesting concept. And I just kept getting more and more interested because she has her own company which is something that I've always thought would be awesome to do, and I've done some freelance work before under the name of JSquared Productions, but it hasn't gone too far. But this session just evoked some very interesting thoughts in my mind on some cool opportunities that are out there.

Tonight we had another main session, and you'll never guess who the speaker was...Steve Saint. Steve Saint for those of you who don't know is the son of Nate Saint, one of the 5 missionaries who was speared by the Auqa Indians while trying to share Christ with them. Some of you might have seen or heard of the movie "The End of the Spear." This movie was made about this man, Nate Saint and the other missionaries. I remember seeing this movie, I believe it was my Sr. year in highschool, and after coming out of the theater just sitting in my friends car and just crying because by the time I had already felt God's call on my life into full-time missions and I didn't know if I was willing to give up my life like that for the cause of Christ. And so that movie really had an impact on my life, and evoked alot of thoughts in my mind. So it was amazing to hear Steve Saint speak and just give first hand accounts of how he felt, and how his mother felt, throughout all of this. While interviewing a wife of one of the missionary men who died, she was asked, "When this happened to your husband how did you not ask God, Why?" And she responded, "I guess I just never thought about that." ("that" being questioning God). That just amazes me. And Steve's challenge to us was to be heroes of the faith, and be willing to give my life for Christ. So tonight's session was very impactful, and exceeded far beyond my expectations, even though my expectations were very low coming into it.

With all that said, I'm tired and need to get some other stuff done, but I am genuinely looking forward to what tomorrow has to bring. Sorry for such the long post, they won't be this long all the time.

We're all in this together, juntos no more.