So Much Grace

One of the biggest things about talking with Mormons is realizing how much I am covered in God's amazing grace, that He loved me so very much that He saved me, ME, gathered me into His fold and drew me close and called me His own. There is nothing that I can do as a fallen, sinful and depraved human being to earn God's grace, but it is only through the blood of Jesus on the cross that I can gain my salvation. while I was still a sinner, God chose to give up His one and only precious Son to die for me. What could ever surpass this? How can anyone ignore this grace? Why me, why did I get to receive this love?

"But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

Galatians 2:17-21

Back Tracking!

Wow! What a whirlwind experience these past 13 days have been!

We have stayed in a total of 5 different towns; slept on beds, floors, couches, vans, and tables; visited countless other towns; gone to 6 different college campuses; served with 6 ministries & churches; had to bathe the entire team in lice shampoo, procurred some minor injuries and ailments, got lost several times; met tons of amazing people and really saw God's love and movement here in Utah.

We are now preparing to wind down the trip and head back home to California while surely leaving some part of ourselves here in Utah. This morning we are worshiping with Grace Bible Church in Springville and then loading up into our van train to drive about 4-5 hours south the St. George. There we will be doing our last campus visit to Dixie State College and will then spend the rest of our time reflecting and debriefing as a team.

I cannot say thank you enough for all of the support and prayer, our trip to Utah would have been completely different without it!

I'd like to share a passage that we've really been coming back to during our time. I encourage you to read the whole thing, I will just share a part.

Romans 10:1-15
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."

It goes on to talk about the need for Christ followers to go out and speak the truth to those living in darkness. This was our call to Utah and it has been so encourraging to see God flowing through us!

It's about time for church to begin and then our long drive, but more updates on what we have been doing to come!

A Little Nugget..

This is just another thing I stumbled upon from our day at Temple Square, which I will have to give deets ('details' for those un-hip readers out there) on that day soon!

We have been crazy busy lately, going non stop but ever more experiencing the amazing love and grace of God!

I meant to add a little explanation for that photo...

So this is a statue in one of the buildings at Temple Square. The two sister missionaries that were leading our tour explained it as Jesus being at the center of our universe. What you can't really see in the picture is the painted mural of the universe everywhere around this room.

Over the years, our team has come to refer to this guy as 'space Jesus' which is not intended to be offensive to anyone, I promise. it's just that when you see the room as a whole, that's kind of the impression one gets.

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Quick Prayer Request...

Of course, as it goes with many missions trips, our team has been facing minor injuries and sicknesses. One of our wise leaders, Kate, made a great decission to force us all to to take 1 chewable vitamin C a day.

Great idea- this is what happened.

Here is a rightside up view

Salt Lake Temple! This may be sideways but I had to get moroni on the top there..

Pizza @ The Temple

Today is Temple Square day!
Our team waved goodbye to our lovely host families and the congregation at The Adventure church to head north to Salt Lake City to walk the grounds of the Salt Lake Temple in hopes of engaging in conversations with LDS (Latter Day Saints) members.

On the way, we stopped off at Sandra Tanner's bookstore where she shared her story of coming out of the LDS church and finding hope in Christ alone. She provided us with plenty of knowledge and resources for the journey!

Tonight we will be staying at Sandy Ridge church and finally getting in some wholesome team debrief time and partaking in some general shennanagins.

Hopefully I will be able to back track a little to tell some of the amazing stories of what God has been doing through our team for the past few days!

Please keep us in your prayers, we are definitely experiencing the effects!

Day 2: Ephraim, Tri-Grace Ministries & Snow College

We are in Ephraim, Utah!

Fun notes from the day: our 4 vehicle caravan spent about 4 hours on the snow swept highway, passing breathtaking scenery and exchanging hilarious walkie talkie babble. At one point, we even got stuck behind a GIANT herd of sheep on the highway! Luckily, their shepherd (El Shepheardo) was nearby to usher them off to the side.. although two of the four vans were stuck for quite some time.

When we finally made it to our destination, Tri Grace Ministries headquarters, the Solid Rock Cafe, we were greated by an enthusiastic bunch of college students and our lovely hosts, Chip, Jaime, Shane & Kim, who run the ministry.

We settled in, got to know some of the students involved with Tri Grace, ate some delicious home made diner and prepared to hear the testimonies of former members of the LDS (Latter Day Saints, Mormons). These are individuals who have decided to leave the Mormon church, and in this case, have found the true Jesus and the free gift of grace offered to those who call on his name. It was an amazing and convicting experience to get to hear thes stories (possibly, when i am near my computer again, I will add more detailed stories).

Tomorrow we will be doing some event advertising across the street at Snow College for an event tomorrow night called 'Scarf Your S'mores'. Looking forward to another day of opportunity!

(oh, yes, and we closed out the night with some line dancing at the Ephraim social hall!)

'Abide in me, and I in you.' Romans 12:15

First Stop- St. George Utah

After 7 hours on the road, 3 pit stops and some sweet scenery changes, our team has arrived in St. George, Utah where the lovely members of Calvary Bible church will be hosting us for the night. Tomorrow, after some maintenence and cleaning projects around the church building, we will continue our journey north to Ephraim to pair up with Tri Grace Ministries.
Tonight on the agenda: plenty of fellowship, getting to know each other better, loads of tomfoolery and eventually (maybe) sleep in our snuggly sleeping bags.
God is good!

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Our fearless leaders are with us, even if they aren't in the same van.. on the road to Utah!

T-Minus... 2 days of growing anxiety??

Two days from now I will be loading into a multi-passenger van, fully equipped with pillows, snacks and a plethora of iPod playlists and embarking on the first leg of the journey to Utah in order to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Mormon populations there. Our team of about 20 students will be serving alongside Evangelical churches already stationed in Utah and also will be starting conversations with Mormons we meet on the streets, on college campuses, in institutes and at religious centers, such as Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

My heart has been breaking for the Mormon church ever since I built strong relationships with Mormons during my high school years and I've always wondered whether or not those individuals saw the light of Jesus in me. So as we are preparing to leave for this amazing adventure that God has put in front of us, I feel a mix of the excitement of the possibilities and also the weight of the reality that these people are living.

The training that I've received from my education at Biola has prepared me well and I know that God is going to use me in great ways, yet I there is a faint whisper rattling around in my head telling me to be nervous because I'm not really as prepared as I think. In the support letters that I sent out, I emphasized how extremely crucial it is that people pray for our team. We are about to engage with a religion that is based on lies and one that is widely accepted as 'morally' good by many and therefore deceptively being passed off as glorifying to God. Please, please, please continue in pray for our team, we can not do this alone! Thank you so much to those who have been giving support in many ways, I can't wait to return with stories of God's amazing love!

"For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your sevants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body."

2 Corinthians 4:5-11