Shrinking back and slothful in zeal [Josh]

I have talked to people about missions and it seems that there is a perception that when you are in missions, you are automatically doing God's work. Like in anything that involves people and the word "always", it's not true. You can be here in taiwan and not be engaged in the actual ministry. You can be physically present and not mentally or spiritually. Romans talks about being slothful in zeal. Hebrews speaks of shrinking back. Everytime we are ministering, we have a choice to be full involved or to just hang on.

Lately, we have been hanging on. The missions team is pretty tired and rightfully so, since we have been only getting 7-6 hours of sleep consistently the last week. With intense days where we are up and doing devos, ministering to kids, leading praise nights and having debriefing time, we need our sleep.

Most mission trips are 1-2 weeks. Most people can sustain that level of intensity for 1-2 weeks. when you get to trips that are month or longer, you really have to pace yourself and we have been trying to get the right intensity for this missions trip. Everyone is doing a great job. I push them hard, and they have responded well of which I am particularly proud of. I've seen them change and seen them step up. I don't have children of my own, but I am starting to understand the pride parents have in their children.

Tien Liao has been harder spiritually than last year. The parents have really hard hearts and the kids are not very responsive this year for some reason. I don't know if it is because of the program or us, but I know that we haven't been praying for Tien Liao as much as we could be. The children are not responsive as they were last year and it breaks my heart. Satan really has a stronghold on this city. We did have a praise night afterwards and we had a lot of kid come, which was suprising to me, as I expected that there wouldn't be any kids coming based upon their response. But we had a full house! praise God in this. I hope that the Lord will continue the work with the Tien Liao Church there and that next year those seeds that have been planted will have come into fruition!

There is a gradual understanding that it is the power of prayer and the role of the Holy Spirit to convict hearts. the program could be designed well and we have gifted people, but without the Spirit, it doesn't matter. It has been a sweet time of prayer and meditation this missions trip and I have found that the Lord has been faithful in sustaining us. I really can say that without the Lord, I wouldn't make it. you know those songs that say things like, "I can't live a day without you"? I always thought that was marshmellow Christianity. Really. People have lived without Christ for years and years, so com'on, really?...But now I realize what that means.

On that note, we also did a Body Worship song/dance yesterday, in which I really felt the Spirit work. I've never been too much of a artsy guy and so these body worship/art painting never really spoke to me. But when the kids did their body worship yesterday, it was truly spirit filled. Woot! It's so awesome!

We have the biggest english camp yet coming up!(80 kids). So keep us in your prayers! It's a 5 day camp and goes from 9-5. (which is a lot as we also have a prayer ministry at night we run for 2 hours) Thank the Lord that we will be going back to So San and sleeping in our "real" beds! The kids and I are really happy. :)