Found out a little bit more about what I will be doing

As most of you know I will be going to Ecuador on March 8 for ten days. I am slowly learning more about Ecuador and what I will be excepting there. The airport that we are going to arrive at is Quito. We will be driving and staying at Cayambe. Cayambe is in the mountains and the altitude is going to be 9,300 feet above sea level (much higher than the Liberty mountain haha). We will be staying in a hotel the whole time when we are there. The air is going to be thinner there and the sun is going to be more intense. When we are there all of our meals are going to be provided for. But if I want to by snacks and gifts I have to buy that with my own money. Thank goodness that they accept US dollars. As I learn more about I will keep you updated about it. The more I learn about the more excited I am getting.

Team Meeting 11/28/11 Part 2

We talked about the unreached and about the lost. In the world there are five different types of religions (other than Christian) that impact the world. A helpful way to remember it is THUMB. The T stands for Tribal and they believe in spirits and animists. The H stands for Hinduism and they believe in polytheism and reincarnation. The U stands for Unreligious and they believe in their self and are atheist. The M stands for Muslim and they believe in works. The B stands for Buddhism and they believe in no soul and no God. When go to Ecuador I am going to come in contact with a lot of different people who will have different beliefs then me. Learning about THUMB has help me to learn more about the different religions. Also, they wanted to make sure that we know what kind of people we may come in contact with. I hope this has help you to learn why sending missionaries to different countries is so important.

Team Meeting 11/28/11 Part 1

I hope everyone is doing fine. I just wanted to let you know what we have been talking about in our team meetings.

This week we talked about the difference about a typical Christian and a world Christian. A typical Christian is someone who is not worldly minded and that they do not stand out in the work place and may be a Sunday goer Christian. A world Christian focusing on God's words for guidance and for strength. Someone who concern for God's world and for the lost. Someone who does God's work, like going on a mission trip. Every Christian should be a world Christian. Something that we talked about is that you do not have to go a mission trip in order do God's work. There are many ways that you can do God's work. You can be a goer who does go to another country (me). You can be sender who supports the goer (you). You can be a welcomer (people of Ecuador). You can also pray that the goer raise the money that he/she needs and pray for safety (everyone). Or you can be a mobilizer (the leaders of the trip). I never thought about it like that. Something else that they said is that when I will go to Ecuador, I will be bring you with me because you have made it possible for me to go on this journey.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers

Thanksgiving

As Americas, families gather around on Thanksgiving to show how thankful they are for each other. But sometimes I like we forget about  that. I had the opportunity to go the beach for Thanksgiving and I was on the porch looking at the ocean and it just dawned on me that I have so so much stuff to be thankful for. Some things are my family, friends, being able to enjoy God's creation (ocean), having a place to lay my head, food to eat, and clothes to wear. It is only a small list of things that I am thankful for. I also was thinking about how I can take those things for granted. Take the ocean as one, there are people who have never been to the ocean. Also, I do not know how many more times will I be able to see the ocean. So, when I do go I should be thankful that God allowed me to see the ocean one more time. (If you have not figured it out I love going to the beach, it is a place where I can get away and relieve stress.) When I was finished thinking about that I started thinking about the people I am going to meet when I go to Ecuador. Most of them are not going to have the same opportunities that I have but they still find things to be thankful for. When we think of people who do not have a lot that should help us to be more thankful for what we do have.

Today, I was in car listening to the radio and they were talking about being thankful. Thanksgiving is a time for us to be thankful but that should not be the only day when we tell God what we are thankful for. The lady on the radio said that we should always give thanks to God because it helps us to remember who God is and help us to remember that he loves us. The verse that she used was Philippians 4:6-7. Please be thankful for what you have and do not take things for granted.

Team Meeting 10/31/11

The people that are going on the mission trip are meeting together every week for we can have a friendship before the trip and that we can be prepare for the trip. I am going to try and update you on what we do at the meetings.


This week we watched a video about the missionary that we are going to help out when we get there. It was nice learning about the culture. The video is..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCWgIjYpNFw. I would recommend you reading it.


After that we played Catch Phrase. We had so much fun playing that. Sad to say the team I was on lost :( but it was a great way to get to know each other.

Support Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Hola! Most of all of you know that I am a student at Liberty University. I am a senior and will be graduating in May! My major is Family and Child Development with a minor in Psychology and Biblical Studies. After I graduate, I am planning on returning to Liberty for I can get my masters in Family Counseling. I am so thankful that God has allowed me to go to Liberty University all four years of my college life. I would not change anything about my college experience, even the ups and downs, is because I have grown so much in my education and most importantly in my spiritual growth. The best part about Liberty is that they make sure that God is the center of everything that they do.

            Liberty offers countless of opportunities for students to be part of and in these past four years, it has been an adventure. One thing that I really want to take advantage of is going on a mission trip that through Liberty. Light Ministries is an organization that sends people on short term mission trips all over the country. After going to a mission trip information meeting, I felt like God was calling me to go to Ecuador. I will be going there in March for eleven days with fourteen other Liberty students. Some of the things that we will be doing are teaching English as a second language, working with young adults, and ministering to local communities.

            I have learned that one thing I am passionate about is helping other people. However, I realized that I do not have a lot of experience working with different cultures. I chose this trip because it will expose me to a different people group, a new language, getting outside of my comfort zone, and wanting to make an impact on a team. Also it will help me in relating to people better. Being able to help people will open doors for me to be able to share Christ with them.  What I learn on the mission trip can also help me decide on what I want to do as a career. As of right now I think that God wants me to be a Christian’s counselor for adolescents or another thing that I would not mind doing as a career is working in camp ministries.

            I would like to personally invite you to join my team and me on this wonderful experience that we are going on. A couple of ways that you can help is by praying for my team daily and helping with financial support. I will need to raise $2,900 in order to go on this trip. Please pray that God will provide the funds needed for my team to go through the support of our family and friends.

            Most of you have known me for many years and I am so thankful that God has put you in my life. Your friendship with me is so important. I hope and pray that our friendship can grow and that you will be willing to join me on the path that God is leading me.

Ergun Caner-Theo 202- Chosen but Free

Chosen but Free

There is a big debate about free will. Some people think that we are completely free and some people say that we are not.

Extreme Sovereignty view says that nothing we do can change His fixed plan, which He preordained from all eternity. I do agree with that. God does have a plan and a purpose for our life. I do agree that nothing that we do can change God mind. We not get there the way that is way that God wants us to get there. But one day we will get to the place that God wants us to be. It just may take longer. They also say that God knows with certainty everything that will happen in the future. If He does not know what is going to happen then that means that God is not omniscience. In order to be fully omniscience he has to know all the choices that we are going to be making. In order to be saving or to know that there is a God, someone had to work in us and stir our hearts. God accomplish that by sending his Spirit. The Spirit will help people to see that they are fallen and they need help.

Extreme Free will view says that God gave away some of his sovereignty to his creation. God personally did not give his creations any of his powers. If he did then he will not be fully God and his creations would be more powerful and will not see that following God is important. The one thing that I do agree with is that they say that fallen humans can still hear God’s voice even though they do not know him personally. I really do think that in order to come to know God, someone or something has to speak to them first. God’s voice is not just his own. People that a person comes in contact can speak words of advice or encouragement and that is all that is needed in order for someone’s heart to ache for God. There are many stories out there about a non-believer hearing a voice that they have never heard before and that is God.

Every human has free choice; it is just base on how that person uses it. The person is in control of what choices he is going to make. He can not blame it on anyone else because he was in control.  God did create us and gave us the power of free choice. He did know that there would be consequences with that decision but he did it anyway. One of the consequences is that humans is in control of their moral behavior and can choose what to believe in and what not to believe in. God loves us so much that he gives us his gift freely. Most things in our life are not free but the best gift we can receive is free. But in order to receive it we have to do something on our part. In order to receive it we have to have true saving faith. We have to believe in God and willing to follow after him.

Ergun Caner-Theo 202-Worship in the Church

Worship is important in the church. Worship allows Christians to get away from the world and turn their focus on God.  We are able to think about the week and see where we have gone wrong. I feel close to God when I am singing to him because I just feel like it is just God and me. Also, I love how the people around me are focus on the same thing and we are sacrificing something in order to be able to worship together. I feel like if there is going to be a band, it should be simple. The reason for that is because the band should be there for the Christians can follow them. Sometimes if the band goes all out they will take the focus off of God and make people follow them. A lot of worship songs say the same things over and over again. I think the reason for that is because that gives a time to reflect on the words and by repeating them we understand what the words mean. The church I go to has an hour to just singing. My pastor said that we do not get what Jesus did for us if we just sing a couple of songs. The more songs we sing the more we are tuned in to God. If we are tuned in on God then we will be able to focus our attention on the pastor and understand what he is trying to teach us. Most churches end with worship songs until the people are dismissed. I do not think that should away be the case. When we sing a closing song, I feel like sometimes we just forget what the pastor just talked about. Sometimes if we end with a closing prayer, I think we would remember what the pastor talked about and it would gear the conversations that we have. 

Ergun Caner-Theo 202-My Testimony

Both of my parents never went to church and did not have a strong family background. When they found out that they were pregnant with me, they knew they wanted a better life for me. When I was born they decided to bring up in a church and be surrounded by people who loved and care for me. My whole family went to church but we were the ones who went to church on Sunday and Wednesday but did not truely live it out in our life. I has always excited about going to church and while I grew up, it was me making sure everyone was up and ready to leave on time. I was around 10 or 11 when I started getting serious about my walk with Christ. I read my Bible and asked questions when I did not understood something. When I was 13, I sat down with my youth minister and we talked about how I can accept God and become baptized. Even though God has been working through my whole life, life has not always been easy. My parents ended up getting a divorce when I was a freshman in high school. But through that God has just showed me how powerful he is and he proved to me that he is all I need in my life. Sometimes it is hard to say but I am the only one in my family who is living the life that God called us to live.