Tripping over the Phone [3/5]

The testimony continues today. If you missed Part 1 and Part 2 they are also available.

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In the summer of 2001, while in college, I signed up to go on a mission trip to Russia with my college group. We taught English at a summer camp thrown by a sister church in the middle of Russia. That trip really taught me a lot about what people my own age were doing in another country. Both as Christians and Non-Christians. My amazement that God can work in any language continued to be reinforced at this point. I also learned a lot about being flexible in a place where I don’t know anything and how I lean on God in situations like that.

Two weeks after the Russia trip I boarded a plane with a staff member friend from high school and we went to Spain for 2 weeks on a short-term mission to teach some basic computer skills at a camp in Toral, Spain. Being as it was just the two of us it was really the first time I had to plan and teach someone something in a different language. (We had an interpreter) God really spoke to me about the love that all Christians have for one another no matter what language they speak or where they live during this trip. The Spanish staff at the camp were very welcoming and while we didn’t always communicate so well on the same level we had a good time and served God together.

The next experience I had with missions was in 2004 when I volunteered at OC the August before I went to Seattle Pacific University. During this time I learned a lot about what goes into making a mission run “back home”. From both the “people” side of things as well as the technical side of things. It was a good time to see what it was that God was doing through a missions organization and what I could do to help.

After that trip I went home and started school. Lisa and I got married and got involved in a Sunday school class and joined a small group and made friends. We planned events for the class and kept up with missionaries we knew, and places that we had visited on missions trips. Since OC however we haven’t been involved in missions other than financial donations.

Lisa and I were married on July 16th 2005. Marriage to my best friend in the world, and living so close to someone you didn’t grow up with, has been an amazing experience and possibly the third biggest effect on my life. God has taught me patience, peace, love and has extended what I understood of flexibility. He has also taught me a lot about myself through the reflection of myself I see through my wife. It’s easy to overlook the ugly parts of your life when no one is there to show you what they look like. I can always trust Lisa to be God’s instrument of reflection in my life to show me the things I need to fix and make better. I cannot imagine living with anyone else and in looking back from where I am now I cannot imagine making it to where I am today without my great friend who shows me God’s love on a daily basis.

To be continued...

~B.