Reflection on Discipleship from Luke 9:57-62

Well it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. After being on the computer for school and work, I really don’t feel like being on it for anything else. But, I had been assigned a paper to reflect on the topic of following Jesus, discipleship, from Luke 9:57-62 and figured why not post what I wrote! Maybe I’ll take some of the other short papers I have to write anyway and post them for the world to read. Enjoy!

——————-

I read this passage two summers ago while doing a five week mission trip across Europe. It really “hit home” for me during that time. On the trip, there came a point where we were not sure where we would stay for a week while in Italy. But God provided and we had a place to lay our heads despite not knowing before heading out where that would be. During those five weeks, I stayed in eleven different “beds.” Those “beds” were everything from the floor of a Sunday school room in Germany, to a sleeping bag on a living room floor in England, to an actual bed in a private Italian villa, to a bed in a five star hotel in Zurich. I had known before that my life was different, but this trip really confirmed that.

God has called me to do some crazy things in life and to take a path less traveled. My life looks NOTHING like anyone of my family or friend’s lives. Some of the look at me in disappointment, wondering when I will settle down. Some look at my life and desire to have one like it. And a couple people look at it and say, “yes, I want to follow God even if it looks like that.” God has allowed me to serve Him in so many different and exciting ways! He has sent me to do ministry and serve Him on the side of a volcano in Hawaii, in the suburbs and townships of different parts of South Africa, on an island in the middle of Lake Erie at Camp Patmos, in my hometown through churches and my own ministry, and now with the youth and families in the great cities of Amsterdam, Amstelveen, and Badhoevedorp.

There have been moments that I have debating not following God and setting up roots somewhere and doing what I want. But I know deep down inside that is not what He wants of me. There have been somethings I think I have sacrificed to follow God. Though in comparison, it is not really a sacrifice. When God asked me to follow Him and I said yes, my life no longer is mine. Yes I miss my friends back home that God finally gave me after praying for years for good Christian friends. Yes I miss working with the youth I have known for ten years and watching them grow closer to God. Now someone else has taken my place in their life. Yes I miss having family close by. I miss spending time with my nieces and watching them grow up. And yes I miss the possibility of being able to settle down in one place, work a stable job, get married, and have a family of my own. But like Jesus said to the men wanting to follow Him, “your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God…Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:60, 62, NLT).”

God has been gracious though and has provided people in my life to help make each place He sends me feel more like home. He comforts me when I am feeling lonely and left out. He helps me get through the difficult times. I know what it is like to be out and about, not having a place to set down roots. I know what it is like to serve God. And I would not trade the experiences He has given me for anything!

New Year, New Beginnings

Well, it’s been almost eight months since leaving Greenville and heading to Amsterdam. Can’t believe it’s been that long already! The first semester of school went fairly well. There was definitely some adjustment time needed. Especially since I hadn’t been in a classroom for six years. And then there’s the added factors of moving to a foreign country, getting involved in a new ministry, and making new friends. I remember another time in my life that God called me to make similar changes. In 2002, I knew God directed me to change church, job, major, and school. Guess God was preparing me for this step in life. I’ve noticed over the past ten years how He often does that. Gradually He preps us for serving Him in greater ways. I’m glad for the gradual stretches. Even though they still hurt at times, it’s better than being broken in two under extreme growth. 

These past eight months have been amazing! God plugged me into a great church and I have the priviledge of working with some fantastic youth. It has taken time building relationships, but I feel like the major hill has been conquered and some good relationships with the youth and families in the church have been created. There really are some amazing people here that God placed in my life to help me through this adjustment. The information I’ve been able to learn in class has helped me in ministry already. There’s been several times different topics have come up or questions asked that have allowed me to pull these new “tools” out of my bag. I’ve also had the opportunity to bike more these past few months than I’ve ever biked before. Which brings all new learning experiences like how to pack everything you need for the day into a small bag, how to shop for bikes, that there’s different insurances for bikes, how to read the forecast for rain, and how to be attentive for pedestrians, trams, bikes, cars, and anything else that may get in your way while biking to your destination. Those of you who know my love for the horn in my car, well here I have a bell! Love it.

So in general I’m super excited about the move to Amsterdam. I still miss parts of home, like being able to buy anything, any time of the year at Wal-Mart. Long story there about trying to buy a box fan here in winter. I miss watching my nieces grow up. It’s not as much fun hearing the funny stories as it would be seeing them happen. And I miss some of the “traditions.” However, it’s been amazing to see growth happening in the lives of the youth at Crossroads and in my own personal life. It’s been amazing to learn a new culture. And I can’t wait to see what God has planned for the new year!

Until the next update, God bless!

Here’s links to the latest photos:

XRDS Pics

Tyndale Pics

Random Holland Pics

Happy Thanksgiving…and an update!

Can’t believe how fast these past few months in Holland have gone! So much has happened. It’s been so amazing, I’ve forgotten to blog! Just kidding. I’ve actually started three of them and never finished due to falling asleep or being interrupted by something or someone. Welcome to living in community. The plus side to getting a Masters of Divinity, you get to learn a bunch of great stuff about the Bible! The downside, you learn a ton of stuff about the Bible all at one time! Seriously though, it’s been amazing to dive into a deeper knowledge of topics like Bibliology, Cross Cultural Christianity, Old Testament Survey, Survey of Doctrine, Early Church History, and even my least favorite, Biblical Greek.

One of the issues I’ve had to deal with is time management. That’s never been my strong point and it’s been even more difficult at this point in my life. Why? Everything takes time. Not only do the requirements of school take time, but starting a new life in a new country takes time. Finding and building new friendships takes time. Building relationships with the youth and their families takes time. Learning my way around town so I don’t get lost every time I go into the center takes time. My time flies away from me faster than I can grasp at it. I’m looking forward to having a few weeks without any studies before heading home to spend time nurturing these budding friendships here.

I am so thankful God has provided the opportunity to get plugged back into working with youth again! It really was an answer to pray to be able to get on staff part time with the church. It’s only ten hours a week, but a lot can be done in ten hours! And it helps cover some of the expenses of being over here. Haven’t gone hungry yet, but sure could use a little extra support for the upcoming years.

For those of you who don’t know, Crossroads International Church has brought me on to work with the older 15+ group. My job basically consists of building relationships with the youth, plan socials and volunteer events, be the contact person for parents and students, and be the liaison between volunteer leaders and church staff. It’s been a little bit of an adjustment due to the cultural differences. But it’s been a great experience and I look forward to getting to know the youth, their families, and leaders better over the next few years.

On a personal note, I’ve been blessed to get involved with a small group that meets every week right down the street from the office. It’s made up of mostly Dutch people and one other American. The church has been a great blessing and I’ve been able to develop some good friendships there. And Amsterdam is an amazing city! Every chance I get I enjoy going into town and taking in the sights. My parents bought a museum pass for me when they were here in August and I’ve taken full advantage of that with some of the other students here. We’ve also been able to take some great trips as a school and see some other parts of Holland and Europe. The first trip was to the Palais Het Loo and just last weekend we headed to Cologne, Germany for the opening weekend of the Christmas market.

Thank you for all of your prayers and words of encouragement. I look forward to seeing some of you back home in December. If we aren’t able to meet up then, I’ll be back during the summer for a month and a half (most everyone is on holiday here during July and August, so I’m headed home to see friends and family and do a little support raising). Everyone loves pictures, so click on the photos to see the latest ones:

Autumn in Holland

Third Month In Holland

Welcome to Holland!

After 12 hours of traveling, I’ve made it to Holland! Nenad and Stef welcomed me with open arms at the airport. Open arms for a hug…and to help carry the massive amount of luggage I have. It didn’t take long for us to get to Tyndale Theological Seminary from Schipol. I had about an hour to start getting settled in before dinner. The first couple months here I’ll be without a roommate, but he’ll return from visiting his home country of Romania in August. It’s probably a good thing he wasn’t here cause everything got opened up and piled all over the place as I began settling in rather than take a desperately needed shower.

Dinner was fun as all the new people started mingling with the current, and some graduated, students. The food was good, but let’s face it, you can’t really mess up a good BBQ anywhere you go in the world. We then played a few ice breaker games before breaking off for the evening. Several of us decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and took a walk around town which then lead to drinking tea and talking for a couple hours.

And now it’s 2am Dutch time and my bed is still not 100% put together and I’ve yet to take that now very much needed shower. But, I wanted to share some pics from the first and let everyone know how the day went. Tomorrow brings a pancake breakfast at 8am and orientation at 9am. Some plans have changed for this weekend and it looks like I’ll be talking with Daniel from Crossroads before joining the youth leaders for a BBQ Saturday night and then heading to church Sunday instead of joining the younger crowd for poldersport. Will keep you posted on how things go this weekend!

Click on the link or photo below to check out the pics:

https://picasaweb.google.com/toryjalmond/FirstDayInHolland