Global Project: China

Hi Friends. How are you? This is Lisa here. I apologize for the lack of posts as of late. No excuses are available, but reasons abound...sickness, class for work that occurred on Thursday are the two I can give you.  Well, this post was supposed to come out a few days before the deadline for the Global Project (GP) to China.  Since the deadline has past for this years GP, I would like you to read it as if you were considering going to China...or somewhere else.  It is Steven Russel's testimony on going to China last year.

Hello friends! I hope you’re having a great start of the semester. I am writing this little note to you because I feel God has put it on my heart to share with you that Saturday is going to be an epic day. Saturday is the deadline for applications to go on a GP with IV. Well at least the deadline to apply to go to China. I was blessed with the opportunity to go last year and I hope you go. I really want to encourage you though that God is with you no matter what decision you make. But oh how going on a GP will rock your world in all the right ways. If you are unsure if whether or not God wants you to go keep in mind that He gives us freedom to live this life as we decide. Plus I will throw in there that Jesus did kind of send us all out into the world as His people to make disciples of all nations. So read this over and pray about it. I really hope God sends you out to His people somewhere. Take a leap of faith with the knowledge that Jesus is on your side no matter what and make a decision that could change your life as well as the lives of the countless other people God will send your way. A really cool analogy is that life is a journey. I think that it shows how each of us starts somewhere and we end up somewhere else or perhaps in the same place but changed. One thing that really sticks out to me in this life is how none of us have the same experience in life. Everyone has their own individual journey that they have to navigate. But gradually however through lots of discovery we get our feet under us and become able to survive and manage everyday life. Not only that but it is what we overcome and have victory over and sometimes defeat that shape who we are. There is a really effective tool however that the enemy uses and that is fear. It shows its face in different places but its effects are always the same: inaction, hesitation, isolation, and a loss of confidence. Jesus took away our fears. Death has certainly lost its sting. Something however about the nature of a journey is that it is filled with choices. I think that fear is a choice even though it may not seem like it to you right now. It seems to me that people living in today are living in a bubble of comfort created by fear. Everything is as it has been and that is how it should always be because it is safe. For me this is very interesting because it describes my life as well as Mr. Bilbo Baggins (clever Mr. Tolkien). Adventure is something that terrifies and exhilarates. Change is a close relative of adventure. Change is just a fact of life. Did you ever think that we can not help but experience change at every moment in life? We each can get in routines but nothing ever happens quite the same twice. Something is different. A little change is enjoyable to tolerable for most of us. A lot of change can be stressful and difficult as well. We can get set in our ways. But have you ever thought that it was interesting how God created such a large and diverse world? I mean it really speaks to me about who God is. Didn’t He know that we would feel uncomfortable experiencing new things? I wonder. Change can scare some of us or it can unleash some of us. I think that we were meant to be blank slates at the start and through our experiences here on Earth become transformed into something completely new and awesome. We all start as something and end up as something else. You are uniquely intentionally made by God crafted through the sometimes bitter forges of life. There is so much to experience and do its crazy! You can do anything that you want. I know that it can be scary and uncomfortable but that’s okay! The first step is always the hardest in my opinion. I like to think of myself as the main character in my story with God with me the whole time. I hope for you that you don’t let that fear keep you from seeing all there is in life to experience. If I told you that peaches were evil and that you should never eat one how totally wrong and sad it would be if you never bit into a big fat peach and felt the juices running down your face and tasted the good natural sweet flavor that it has to offer. Praise God for peaches! Praise God for life and the experiences waiting for us to be had. I think that it is totally true that there is no place like home but what if your home keeps changing? Where does God call home and what does that look like? What if you don’t have a home? Where would you go? We are at a stage in our life where we may be getting our first taste of being away from home. It is fun and different and at the same time scary. Pretty soon though you’re living life swimming with the current. I think that there is nothing wrong with going with the flow but I don’t think that we were supposed to stay there. I think that adventure is one way that God can teach us and show us who He is as well as who we are and how He has a heart for those who feel out of place and lost even. By going and putting yourself in a position to feel just that, you will better understand how people feel when they come to this country for the first time or how that child feels when they meet their new foster family. So I guess if you boil it down there is a lot to gain such a friend or an experience, or a revelation about God or yourself and what that means for you. What is there to lose? In my opinion nothing that matters, but we often hold onto so tightly those things which really have little actual value. But you have to weigh those things and see if it is worth going, I did in my own way. As you may or may not know I went to China last summer on IV’s Global Project. It was an amazing experience that I would love to tell you all about sometime but what I want to share with you is my experience around making the decision to go. So the story begins at the annual IV Christmas party. I was blessed with an amazing assortment of gifts in the white elephant gift exchange. One of those gifts was a pin that said Taiwan. I took this as a sign to go to China because I prayed that God would give me a sign so that I would know He wanted me to go in response to Rachel asking me if I wanted to go minutes earlier. So at this point the details kind of get a little foggy because in my mind I had already decided to go but I think I told her I would think about it and get back to her. So I came back to school in the spring after break and Urbana and I let Rachel know that I wanted to join her and the other people going on this awesome adventure. That’s pretty much it for me. For the duration of the trip however I was paralyzed by the fear that I was not actually supposed to be going. I landed in China and one of the thoughts in my head was that I was not meant to be here. But you know what was going through my head that was even more apparent? It was something like this, “Holy crap!!! I’m in China!!!! This is Chinese candy!!! These are probably Chinese people!!!! Aaaah!!!!”. The excitement of seeing all these different people and different things and different smells was like someone screaming at me, “Does is matter??? You are here!!! Live it up!!!”. I don’t know how people picture Jesus in their minds but I like to think of Him as the coolest hippy in the world. He is that guy that is just content and happy with where He is and is going to live it up. I thank you for reading this. I really hope that you choose to go serve the Lord. China was a stepping-stone for me but the awesome thing about that is there were people who were impacted in a really awesome way because I chose to make them a part of my journey. I love you and want to let you know Jesus loves you either way. But there are wonders out there that would change your life. Grace and Peace! Sincerely, Steven