The need for pondering

Faithful.
Loving.
Sovereign.
Father.
Healer.
Creator.
Everlasting.
Refuge.
King.
Savior.
Holy.

The list goes on and on. All of these terms are used to describe God.

At church last night we sang song after song that listed one characteristic of God after another. All of a sudden I was consumed by each and every quality mentioned. I would sit there and focus on one quality so I could better understand how truly amazing He is. The song would say “faithful” and then move to the next quality without giving an appropriate amount of time to really understand the vastness of His faithfulness (not that we can really fully understand the extend of His faithfulness, but more time should be allotted to centering our minds on this fact). If we don’t revel in how faithful He really is, then we are singing for nothing. We fail to realize in that single moment that He will never leave us or forsake us (nobody else is unconditional in that way). He sent His Son to die for me. How can He be more faithful than that?

In all, there were about 30 attributes listed in about 2 songs. Instead of saying “faithful” over and over until it struck us exactly how faithful He is, we moved on. We sing a word such as this and get a 1 second glimpse of the characteristic, but that’s simply not enough.

I’ve been on this hardcore journey the last 7 or so months in which I have started to really see how sovereign He really is. It’s been a challenging few months because my views on so many things have changed; but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I feel like I’m really starting to discover His great love for us (which is another word we kept referring to. We sang, “How He loves us so.” Even though we did repeat this verse a lot, we still miss the vastness of His love for us; it is incomprehensible. Words do not even come close to encompassing what His love really is).

I’m not saying that I dislike these songs; I’m just saying that often times we sing these words and somehow forget to be so enamored by what these characteristics really show about the God we serve. When we solely sing through a list, we miss the point.

I know this is not in any way tied to Egypt, but I was so overwhelmed by this that I needed to write it down. To make a stretch though, this can be tied to Egypt because by discovering what these characteristics mean, I am more able to worship Him and serve Him in a manner more pleasing to Him. When I start to discover His faithfulness, love, and sovereignty, I am better able to express it to others.


~For His Glory~
Felicia

Fundraising

Well, it is official. I am at 148% of the money I need for Egypt. I am so grateful for His provision and for those who donated to this cause. The 48% will rollover to others on my team. If there is any left over, I'm pretty sure it can be used for our VBS supplies and sports therapy materials (soccer balls). Thank you all so much for your prayers and donations. More to come...

~For His Glory~
Felicia

koinonia

Purely as a blessing from God, we were able to get all 13 members of our team in one place at one time last night. We got to enjoy a wonderful spaghetti dinner, a ton of laughs, worship, and a talk by Grant's mentor, Mike.

Mike is very interested in the Islam religion and will soon be on his way to Turkey to continue ministering to the Muslim people.

During this "lecture" (it was far too captivating to consider a lecture), we learned a few things that will be helpful to know for our trip:
1. Muslims think Christians are arrogant for assuming they will go to Heaven because they don't really understand the concept of grace.
2. Though their religion is based on the Koran, they rarely read it. Instead, they read the writings of Muhammad and try to follow it to the t.
3. They believe Jesus was born a virgin, sinless, and performed miracles, but they do not believe he was the Son of God or crucified.
4. They have such a bad views of Christians because they think that all Americans are
Christians and our pop stars don't paint a very good example of "Christianity."

This "lecture" was amazingly helpful and made us all even more excited to hop on over to Egypt and get the show on the road. :)

We decided one of the best ways to talk to them is to be full of grace. It will be then that they will see our Father's love for us and through us.
"Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." Colossians 4:6

~For His Glory~
Felicia

Here, for your pleasure, is my amazing team:



Bottom (L to R): Chelsea, Lisa, Robyn
Couch (L to R): ME!, Addy, Kendyll, Hillary, Brooke
Da boys: (L to R): Isaac, Ben, Grant, Mikel, Matt

A fine team I must admit :)

Details....a must read!

Well, the details are in! We have such a crazy awesome agenda packed full of opportunities to tell of God’s great love.

We leave from DIA the evening of May 29th and land in Frankfurt, Germany on May 30th at about noon. We have a 10-hour layover in Germany (which is going to be a great time to focus our hearts and minds on Him while also getting to take in the culture of Germany). We will officially arrive in Cairo, Egypt on may 31st at 3:40 am and will get to rest for the day.

Starting the 1st of June, we will be meeting up with our first contact that is about an hour outside of Cairo. This is a complete work of God because, as of right now, our team is one of the only teams that have not had anyone drop out. Because our team is the largest team out of all Mill missions, they almost decided to keep us in Cairo so they didn’t have to transport 13 people around. God had other plans in store though. For the next 7 days we will be in the “slums” doing Vacation Bible School, sports ministry (most likely an emphasis on soccer), construction work, and VISITING AN ORPHANAGE (one of my passions in life. I would totally move overseas to work at an orphanage). This is a very poor part of the world and will probably be complete culture shock, but my team is like a family already and we will be there to keep each other centered and focused on His work.

After that week, we will be headed to meet up with our second contact. This contact will be taking us to a place known for their absolute poverty (known as the pennyless). This is probably going to be the hardest part of the trip because we will have to see the awful living conditions that they families are living in. While there we will be doing VBS and possibly visiting another orphanage. We will be here for about three days, and then head back to Cairo to meet up with all the other Egypt teams.

After a day or so of debriefing, we will board the plane back to America on June 11th super early in the morning. Some of us, however, might stay a few extra days in Germany! It isn’t often that an opportunity like that arises.

So, that’s the update. I am super excited for all God has in store for our amazing team. We are already so much like a family. Plus, I am super excited for the orphanage part of the trip. Honestly, I might not want to come home. This is really a time for me to determine whether or not God is calling me to do long-term overseas missions in an orphanage. I am excited to hear what He has to say.

Oh! Today my team and I got together and did a fundraiser. After doing a bake sale and going door to door doing community service projects, our team managed to raise $252! We are rockstars, we know ;)

Thanks for reading. Continue being in prayer for my team as all of this comes together. Only 7 more weeks!

~For His Glory~

Fundraising status= 57%

Fellowship

Yesterday I got to enjoy an early morning breakfast with a few of the amazing women on my team. It is so amazing to be in the company of women who are seeking God and who delight in praying for each other :)


Fundraising status= 50%

To catch you up...

Hey all!

Thanks for visiting my blog. Because I have so much to say about the last few months, this will probably be my longest entry….so bare with me.

As most of you already know, I have an amazing opportunity this Summer to go to Egypt with my church’s college ministry, TheMill. TheMill is sending about 18 teams to four different counties: Germany, India, Peru, and Egypt (which is obviously the best choice ;- ) just messin). At the end of May we get to put our crazy lives aside and instead focus on doing God’s work by bringing His Message to four different counties.

As of right now about 88% of Egypt’s population is Muslim. To dim some of the fears that are running through some of your heads, I want to note that a very small proportion of these Muslims are radicals; most of the population are caring and do not want to bring any harm to Americans.

A few months ago we got assigned to the teams we will be on for our trip. Not long after that I got to meet a great group of people who are beginning to become my family. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about teams not liking each other, but our team is the exact opposite of that. I may be a tad biased, but my team is by far the most cohesive and awesome team there ever was. We love our time together and enjoy meeting up for coffee just to say hi and to catch up. Our team meetings last between 3 and 5 hours (or until we get kicked out) simply because we love being together. My team has 5 amazing Godly men and 8 beautiful women of God.

About a month and a half ago we got the opportunity to meet a Christian missionary woman from Egypt who converted from Islam. Samia gave us background information on the Muslim faith and helped us to better understand the atmosphere. Because Muslims completely deny the Bible, our biggest struggle will be defending our faith without referencing the Bible. Samia said that the people of Egypt are welcoming to Americans and Christians, but the second you mention the Bible they tune you out. It is quite discouraging, but God is so much bigger and He will prevail.

We just had another team meeting yesterday and we had the opportunity to share our testimonies. The whole week I kept thinking, “oh, no big deal because I don’t really have much to share.” While listening to the testimonies of others, my whole life came flooding back into my head and I felt I would talk for an hour about my journey with Christ. Funny thing is, I got super duper nervous and said it all in 5 minutes. It probably didn’t make any sense, but oh well. It was interesting to hear the testimonies of my fellow teammates. As Isaac so perfectly put it, we are all pieces of a puzzle that God has put together to form an amazing puzzle to let His light shine in a dark nation.

On one last note, we are fairly certain our team name is: Amal (أمل )- which means “hope” in Arabic.

Please continue to be in prayer for our team as we embark on the amazing journey God has in store for us. P.S. if you would like a sponsorship letter and haven’t received one, please let me know and I will gladly send you a letter even if you are unable to support our team financially.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19)

Remember: Bless the Lord in all you do!

Felicia Rineck