72 hours in

Hey! so i've been here about three days, endured alot of training, met all the team leaders, and thankfully feel slightly more prepared to be a team leader this summer. I'm pretty excited about it, but i think it'll be realy hard. I can already see me being sacrificial for a week or so, and then inwardly becoming arrogant, selfish, or unloving. Pray against that if you would, and for Christ's power to shine through in these areas of weakness, stretching me and really blessing the men He has entrusted to me. Tomorrow my team arrives (three of them). I'm both exited and nervous.

Yesterday we took a field trip to the Glen and were priviledged to hear Mike Treneer, the intermational president of Navigators, give one of the best talks i've ever heard. He discussed the apparent weakness of the Gospel, referencing the tension between the Cosmic incarnation of God in human form, able to send legions of angels at his beckon, with John the Baptist imprisioned for years facing death and douting whether Jesus was the Christ. Essentially, why do laborers of the gospel face hardship, persecution, and death. What really stuck out to me was an analogy he used of pres. truman during WWII facing the decision of the atomic bomb. i'll try to recap it:

At the end of WWII, america clearly had defeated the japanese, and it was simply a matter of time before they surrendered. Pres. Truman had two choices, drop the nuclear bomb and beat into submission the relentless enemy, significantly reducing american casualties yet taking many innocent lives with the enemy, or sending in soldiers to go door to door and seperate the enemies from the innocent, sentencing countless american soldiers to death. Being the president and obligated to serve america, he chose the only noble choice. however, God does just the opposite. when jesus rebuked peter in the garden after cutting off the ear of the guard, jesus said he could send legions of angels to his rescue at a moments notice, but that was not the way God would have it. He would send salvation in the form of a cross to ensure an opportunity for as many as possible to be released from captivity, and would send laborers door to door into the strongholds of the enemy to face real danger for the sake of saving the masses. the apparent weakness of the gospel is no weakness at all; it is God's mercy withholding his power by sending laborers to reach the harrassed and helpless captives for the expansion of His Kingdom, wishing that none would perish.

how rad is that? Why am I laboring here this summer? because the Kingdom is expanded by one person talking to another, and watching God produce a domino effect that will reach the nations.

-Ryan