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Learning About a Perfect Creator

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see. (Colossians 1:15-16)

How sweet is to be reminded that God is the creator of all things. Everything that exists finds purpose in Him. These verses are a great inspiration and encouragement, and also a source of peace knowing I can rest in the presence of my Creator, that made me and made all the things.

Life here on Earth can often be really unstable and feel senseless. And in one of these kind of moments the Holy Spirit guided me through the Scriptures to remind me of this powerful and gracious truth: God is the creator of all things. All the things were created by Him and for Him.

As a teacher, sometimes I feel overwhelmed and pressured by the responsabilities of teaching my young students the bases for the subjects they will be using for the rest of their lives. I think over and over, subject after subject: “I should go deeper in this concept, they will need it a lot when [insert a hypothetical situation that can happen but I can’t know for sure now]”.

This fear is more present in my lesson plannings than I’d like to confess to you all. But when I put some thinking into how to weave the gospel in the topics I’m teaching… That’s usually the moment that God reminds me: all the things I have to teach my students were created by Him, and all the things I have to teach my students find purpose in Him, ultimately.

One of my favorite things about weaving the gospel in my classes is the a great oportunity to share this truth with the kids. All the things we study in school, God has created in this world: the nature, the relation between nature and humans, how people communicate and behave, and the variations of these areas. All things were created by God and find purpose in Him.

Whether in the relations among geometric shapes making sense because of each detail of their characteristic sides and angles; or studying the water cycle and how many times water changes its state of matter… In all things we can see God’s great and thoughtful character. What an amazing thing it is to use the learning of school subjects to contemplate how great our Creator is.

God is so gracious for allowing us to enjoy the world He created. And more than that, there’s so much of His grace when we take more steps toward understanding His perfect thoughts as the creator of all things. I’ve been finding so much grace in teaching Science, Math, Social Studies, different languages… And as a consequence learning more of the perfect God that made all things. God is so good and gracious for letting us find the evidences of His greatness as we learn more about this amazing world He created. What a sweet gift is to be a part my students journeys while they learn different subjects, and even more than that: be part of their process of discovering a God who loves them so perfectly and created all things so wonderfully.

– Jady Vaneli, GEM Missionary

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A Missional Lifestyle

When I was young, I wanted to become a missionary and move to China. I learned in church about Christians in China and about their struggle against persecution. As I grew older, I doubled down on the idea that Christians had an obligation to share the gospel message with other nations. I thought it was about bringing the “good news” to people groups who had little exposure to Christianity. I thought missions was primarily taking the gospel from my “Christian nation” to the world and involved on-the-spot evangelism and rapid church movements. 

I was wrong. 

As I have learned from scripture and my personal experience, Missions is about a lot more than handing out bibles, and that Missions is bigger than building projects. I realized that there was a great need for missions and evangelism not just all over the United States, but also in my friend circles and local community. I heard about how the church was growing exponentially in other countries. “The US needs missionaries from China”, I remember thinking during college. I wondered then, why I was convinced that God was calling me to Mexico.  

I became interested in serving with GEM during college. After graduation and some time working full-time, I rediscovered GEM and applied. I loved teaching science, and they were looking for another science teacher. It seemed clear to me that God was leading me to teach science at Manantial. I finally understood why God was leading me to Mexico. I thought God was bringing me to Mexico just to teach in a classroom. 

He wasn’t. 

God was calling me to serve at GEM and to teach at Manantial. But ultimately, God was calling me to learn and use me in ways I never expected. Serving in the classroom is one of the incredible ways that God is using me. But serving here extends beyond the classroom. A missional lifestyle involves living out and reflecting the gospel in all areas of our lives and all over the Earth. Wherever we are and wherever God calls us. God uses us to serve and teaches us a lot along the way. I am learning so many lessons from those who have a different culture and life experience than I do. The kingdom of God is a multinational, multicultural, and incredibly diverse group of people. Only in the Church is a group of people so diverse. There are so many languages worshipping the same name. Christ. Think about that for a second. Diverse perspectives, experiences, cultures, nations, and statuses all united under one name. 

Christ. 

We as teachers and missionaries are the feet of Christ that fill the boots on the ground, but we are not alone in the call to missions. The GEM staff in the US are just as responsible for living out the “Great Commission”. So are those who donate to GEM. So are those who sponsor students. And so are all who belong to the kingdom of God. The testimonies of Christians all over the world demonstrate God’s heart for diversity, community, and unity in Christ. In light of this, we should again consider the words of Christ after he resurrected. Matthew’s gospel account begins with a promise of a ‘God with us’ (Emmanuel). It ends with Christ assuring that he is forever with his disciples as he calls them all to a life of missions. 

“When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came up and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

– Tanner Whetzel, GEM Missionary

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A Letter to Teachers Everywhere

dsThis year has been a year full of “things are hard for everyone” but it’s been an especially hard time for teachers this year. This March makes one year since schools shut down and went totally remote and I just wanted to offer some encouragement in light of that.

I know that this year has been incredibly hard.

It’s been hard to find a balance between your work life and your home life when suddenly work can come home with you easier.

It’s been difficult to connect with your students when you’ve never met them in person.

It’s hard to know which students are confused and which ones are just not turning in work.

It’s been difficult when parents, other teachers and coworkers assume that because you don’t have students physically in the class this means that you have more time and can take on new things to do.

I know it’s been a hard time, because this year no matter how long you’ve been a teacher, you’re suddenly an overwhelmed first year teacher again.

In this year of hardship and a lot of new “firsts” it’s easy to feel tired and overworked. It’s easy to feel like no one sees the work you do and that no one cares about it. But the work teachers do is so important! If you’re like me, the reason you’re a teacher is because God put a special calling in your heart for the students you work with. To love them, to encourage them and most of all to be there for them! This year we’ve been able to be there for students in a way we never have before and we can continue doing it. When the rest of the world is responding with “Yeah well everyone is having a tough time right now, you’ll just have to adjust to the new normal,” teachers have been saying:

“Yes you can have more time,”

“How can I help you do better?”

“What do you need from me?”

“I know this is hard but you’ve got this!”

As teachers we have the unique opportunity to show our students what love and compassion looks like. Even if you aren’t able to share Christ in your classroom this is an amazing time to give our students a look at what Christ-like love is like. Because we have the ability to check in on our students in different ways, to give them grace when they haven’t done things like they should and to teach them about how we should love and treat other people.

This year has been so hard because everything we love about our job as a teacher has been taken out of our classrooms and out of our school buildings, while all those things we don’t love have been amplified. I know it can be hard to keep a positive attitude… I’ve struggled with motivation, positivity and feeling like I’m making a difference so many times. But my students have quietly reminded me of why I’m here and why I love what I do! When a student comes to school for some reason or another and makes the time to come visit and ask how you’re doing. When a student trusts you enough that when you ask “How are you?” they respond truthfully and give you the chance to talk to them about the things going on in their lives.

Recently, I had a student message me to ask permission for their work to be late and at first I was annoyed because it would mean more work for me but then he went on to explain that with the free time they’ve had he’s been able to participate in tennis tournaments and has gotten the opportunity to go to a championship match. When he sent me photos to show me what he’d been up to I felt so proud and excited for him.

These are the reasons we’re here. We are here to celebrate their tennis wins, to cheer them on when they write their journal about how they’re learning to skateboard and are doing their best, to encourage their creativity when they ask “Can I make a tik tok for my project?” We aren’t just here to teach them because that’s not all teachers are. We’re here to love them because no teacher would do this job if they didn’t love their students more than anything else on this Earth.

God has given us a unique heart and a unique opportunity that He wants us to use! He wants us to love our students the same way He loves us and to show them that. Even if we aren’t in a workplace that allows us to discuss it with them, our actions speak louder than our words. In 30 years when these kids are telling their kids about the pandemic, they’re going to remember those teachers who were patient, kind, loving, not rude or self seeking. The ones who didn’t become irritated with them and kept a record of all the things they did wrong. But they were happy and excited with their students in their successes and there to be a listening ear when they failed. I pray that as we continue on from here, no matter what school looks like for you, that we would remember who we are, what we are about and who we belong to. That that would be how we carried on through the rest of this weird time and that we were encouraged by God’s word and knowing that no matter what we were doing what God called us to do.

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

“Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” James 1:2-3

– Heather Wrench, GEM Missionary

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Humble Faith

In a world where circumstances constantly shift and life is fragile, there is an everlasting hope that will never waver. God has been teaching me that in order to experience this hope, we cannot allow pride to gain a foothold in our heart. 

The other day I was reading a devotional based on the story of the bleeding woman and Jairus’ daughter who both were healed by Jesus. At the end of the devotion, it asked the question, “What was it that the bleeding woman and Jairus had that allowed them to be a testimony of the power of God?”… Then it asked, “in what situation do I need to have more patience and wait in faith?” 

These questions hit me like a ton of bricks. I had been walking through a season in which I felt like my prayers were not being answered in the way I wanted. In my pride, I began hesitating to trust in God’s faithfulness and goodness. I began living as though Christ wasn’t enough simply because I wasn’t content with His plans or timing. This kept me from experiencing the transformative work of God in my life. Not only that, but my heart became filled with ungratefulness, selfishness, fear, and lack of joy.

In contrast, the bleeding woman in Matthew 9 displayed genuine humility and faith in Jesus. She waited 12 years without answers for her suffering, and even after enduring for so long, she chose to trust in the capability of Jesus, “for she said to herself, ‘if I only touch his garment, I will be made well’” (Matthew 9:21). Because of her humble faith, the suffering woman was changed forever by God’s miracle-working power, and she was used as a living testimony to show God’s great power to others.

When we humble ourselves before the Lord, He promises to pour out His grace: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:8). As we submit ourselves to Him, He can use us in powerful ways to demonstrate His glory to those around us. It all comes down to remembering who God is: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8). “The LORD is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works” (Psalm 145:13). Whether we want to believe it or not, God is trustworthy and He promises us that He works for our good. He isn’t just in control, he also loves us more than anyone else can.

Even through painful circumstances or seasons when we don’t see our prayers answered the way we expect, we must lay aside our pride and trust in God’s all-sufficient, loving goodness. Abiding in Jesus produces gratitude in us, thankfulness, and contentment because His way is truly better. “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

Unlike humility, pride leads us away from Jesus and puts us at odds with our Heavenly Father. It distances us from the source of life and only fills our lives with destruction.

Although pride is something that we will inevitably wrestle with, we have the ability to reject it. Be encouraged that even in the worst of circumstances, making the decision to humbly trust in Jesus like the bleeding woman will always lead to experiencing His blessing. Instead of running from Him in doubt, draw near and reach for His robe. Remember that He promises us life in abundance, He will never let you down. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” John 10:10-11.

– Natalia Saint Clair, GEM Missionary

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But God Meant it For Good

It has almost been a year since the global pandemic closed everything down. What a year it has been. Every part of our world has been impacted in some way to this and it has continued to this day.There have been many challenges, difficulties, and struggles all over the world. Many families have lost loved ones and have experienced loss. It can be easy to look at 2020 as a waste and be ready to move on to normality as we know it. Yet, as Christians we must remember that God uses all things to grow us in character. He was not, has not, and will never be surprised by what is going on in our world.

During this time, God has been teaching me about difficulty, struggle, and challenges through the story of Joseph in Genesis. You know this story well, but just let me recap a couple of significant challenges that occurred in his life. Joseph was loved by his father deeply and his brothers hated him because of that (Genesis 37:3-4). His brothers plotted to kill Joseph, but instead threw him into a pit and later sold him to a group of people that took him into Egypt (37:20,28). Joseph was falsely accused of attempted rape of an officer’s wife (39:11-19) and he was placed in prison (37:20). He helped the chief cupbearer be restored to the king, yet the cupbearer did not remember Joseph and he was left in prison for two more years (40:23-41:1). Joseph was 17 when he was sold to Egypt and had only 17 more years with his father once he was in Egypt.

Now Joseph was also blessed abundantly by God throughout these difficulties and challenges. He was put in charge of the household of Potiphar before he was accused of attempted rape (39:4). After he was put in prison, The Lord gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison and he was put in charge of all the prisoners who were in prison (39:21-22). Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh’s dreams and was put in charge of everything right under Pharaoh. Now what we don’t see in this story is in between. What was Joseph’s character during the challenges when he was a slave in Potiphar’s house? What about when He was sent to prison? He was in prison for 12 years. What is most significant in this story is not all that Joseph did that we can see, but what day to day life was like.

Over and over we can see that the Lord was with him (Genesis 39:2, 21, 23; 41:38). During all of his difficulties, he didn’t try to get out of where he was at. The Lord was with him and he was with the Lord. Potiphar, the prison keeper, and Pharaoh all noticed that the Lord was with Joseph. God used all of these challenges and difficulties in the life of Joseph to show how great and magnificent God is. Joseph had come to know God in a deeper way and God used all these things in his life to be a blessing to Egypt and all the nations around them (Genesis 12:1-3).

In the midst of the many difficulties and challenges that all of us are facing right now, I want to share three takeaways from the story of Joseph for us. First, be where you are. Joseph was enslaved and imprisoned. Instead of doing whatever it took to get out, he served the Lord faithfully and many saw that God was with him. Where you are right now may be difficult, however, it is exactly where God has you. Be there and serve faithfully. You are exactly where God has placed you.

Secondly, Be with Jesus.  In every challenge and difficulty, the scripture says that God was with Joseph and was teaching him (39:21). In this story, it never talked about how great Joseph was; rather, the scriptures show that God was with Joseph. It was because of the Lord that Joseph was able to do all that he did. God reveals his greatness through our challenges as we depend and trust in Him completely. This is very difficult for us and the American culture. Everything that we seek is to be faster or better. God’s way for Joseph and for us is to trust Him completely. He is our source of life. He is the way, the truth and the life and He alone is where our soul belongs.

Lastly, His plans are perfect and bring about His Glory. In Genesis 12, God made a covenant with Abraham and promised that through him and his descendants, all the nations would be blessed. In a situation that seemed like a tragedy, God used all of this for his glory and the blessing of many nations. As the end of Genesis says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today (Genesis 50:20).” Joseph was part of that promise from God’s covenant to Abraham and we are too. We have been blessed with the richness of the grace of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection in order that we can bless others.

In light of all that is happening in our world and in our lives, embrace the difficulties and challenges and cling to Jesus, our only hope and true joy in this life!

-Daniel McDonald, GEM Director of Global Engagement

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All Followers of Jesus are Teachers

Many of us can talk about one teacher that changed our life. For me, it was a High School teacher that lived out the Great Commission in his job by sharing the truths of Jesus in his class. It changed my life as I saw a picture of someone carrying out the Great Commission in a secular environment. Teaching is life-changing.

Over the past six months, my entire view of teaching has been transformed. While my only teaching experience has come amid COVID, I can say without a doubt that teaching is difficult but it is also life-changing. There is a weight that all teachers feel, as one thinks about the future impact that the students before them could have. Despite not feeling particularly gifted in school teaching, I am encouraged by Jesus’ call to make disciples or to make students of Jesus.

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples [students of Jesus] of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” ”
Matthew 28:18-20

As followers of Jesus, whether a professional educator or not, we are all teachers and we are all students. The Great Commission is primarily spoken of in the context of missions and ministry, I believe that it also carries the message to be a student of Jesus and a teacher for Jesus. It doesn’t matter your profession or your giftings, as a follower of Jesus, this is our mission.

Before one can be a teacher of any area, they must first be a student. In the same way, one must be a disciple or student of Jesus before they can teach others about Jesus. As students, we are spending time in His word and His presence. We desire to learn from Jesus our teacher.

The Great Commission is a call for all disciples or students of Jesus to make students of Jesus of all nations. Jesus is our teacher. He taught his students/disciples during His ministry and He was preparing them for when they would carry forth His ministry and teach others. We are all carrying forth His ministry of discipleship and teaching.

Jesus cared about teaching the truth and teaching it in a way His listeners would understand. He didn’t just teach to pass along more information. Many of His listeners had lots of knowledge but they had not truly meditated on it. Rather, Jesus sought for his listeners to discover. He did so by asking really good questions that prompted His listeners to reflect. Someone doesn’t become a follower of Jesus just by head knowledge. Someone becomes a follower of Jesus through discovery and through the work of the Holy Spirit in opening one’s eyes to their need for a savior. It is through the life-changing work of teaching that God is using followers of Jesus to transform the lives of others for eternity.

All Followers of Jesus are Teachers.

– James Shank, GEM Missionary

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Gospel Threads

Weave It Wednesday is here! We’re so excited to share ideas and resources for you to weave the gospel into every aspect of your classroom instruction.

Our desire over the course of a school year is to show our students a beautiful picture of Jesus formed through constant Gospel Woven Instruction. This happens most effectively and naturally by breaking the gospel into parts, or threads, and weaving a particular thread of the gospel into a class lesson. These threads are each part of God’s story of redemption: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration.

Creation

Key themes: Origin and Identity

God’s story begins with him miraculously bringing everything into existence, including the first humans, Adam and Eve, who were created as image-bearers to reflect his character. This defines them and gives them their worth and value. They enjoy a unique relationship with God and were made to worship him, obey him, and love him.

All things find their worth and value in Creator God, and yet all of us have looked to someone or something other than God to define us. We all have a fundamental belief about our origin and identity—who or what made us who we are, and what defines us.

Fall

Key themes: Brokeness and Blame

Adam and Eve rebel against God, choosing to believe lies about themselves and their Creator. This rebellion, called sin, brings about relational brokeness, hiding, shame, blame, separation from God, sickness and death.

The world we live in is not as it should be. Brokeness is all around us. Everyone has a fundamental belief about why things are broken and tend to place blame on others. However, God’s Story shows us that our own sin is the primary thing that wreaks havoc on our lives and reveals our deep need for redemption through a Savior.

Redemption

Key themes: Rescue and Deliverance

God enters a covenant relationship with his chosen people, Israel, and throughout their history, rescues and redeems them in countless ways. His final act of redemption comes when he becomes a man in the person of Jesus Christ, who through his life, death, and resurrection, brings redemption from sin and reconciliation to the Father.

All of us look to created things to save us, rescue us, give us significance, and make us right with God. Money, possessions, acceptance, approval, relationships and achievements all seem to offer some hope for repairing the brokeness in our lives, but the gospel tells us that Jesus is our only hope. He is the only one who can rescue us from our brokeness and restore our relationship with God.

Restoration

Key Themes: Hope and Transformation

After the resurrection, Jesus ascends into heaven and sends his Holy Spirit to live in his followers, giving them new desires and the power they need to walk in his ways to become more like him. Jesus began his reign as the King of his people while on Earth, and he will one day return to make all things new —establishing his full reign and ushering in his kingdom where God’s people will worship him perfectly for all of eternity!

There’s a deep longing within each of us for change… for things to be made right and good. For some, this means finding a job or spouse, world peace, a perfect world without poverty, disease, or evil. What we’re all craving is a mending of the brokeness. We want restoration, and the restoration that Jesus brings starts right now in the life of the believer, making us free to live in his ways even in the midst of a broken world as we eagerly await Christ’s return and the future hope his kingdom in all its fullness!

Huge shoutout to Saturate for their incredible resources that really helped GEM create our foundation of gospel-woven instruction!

Which gospel thread do you think is the easiest to weave into a lesson plan? What about the most difficult? We want to hear from you in the comments!

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The Better Choice

One of my favorite short stories in the Bible is when Jesus and His disciples are going from town to town and they arrive at the house of Mary and Martha. Martha, in her hospitable way, opens the door to Jesus and invites Him and His friends in. But soon, worries of tidying up for her guests, preparing food, and  other obligations of hosting a crowd get in the way of her actually spending time with Jesus. It’s Mary, her sister, we see that sits at Jesus’s feet listening and soaking up the words of a man she doesn’t realize will one day be her Savior. Only when Martha cries out for Mary to help her, do we get the chance to hear Jesus’ perspective of the situation. “Mary has chosen what is better,” He says.

How easily I can relate to Martha but how earnestly I desire to be Mary. Thanks to Martha’s hospitality, Jesus came into her home. But that was only the beginning of a deep, loving relationship that Jesus desired to have with these women that from birth both bore His image. Mary might have understood it but Martha had it all backwards. Before spending time with Jesus, she wanted to plan, prepare, fix, etc. But in doing so, she was easily worried and upset. Mary chose what was better. Instead of worrying about things that in a few hours would have no eternal significance, Mary went straight to a Man she would later call Lord, and sat at His feet as she listened to His heart. We don’t know if Mary was worried like Martha was when Jesus stepped in the house and began to teach. She was probably tempted to rush around like Martha, but after sitting at His feet and hearing His first few words, it seems like even if Mary had been preoccupied with other things, the words of Jesus drew her in enough to forget them and rest at His feet.

How often do we let the cares of today and tomorrow take away from our time with the Lord today? How often does our time in God’s Word and in prayer – listening to His heart and really getting to know His character – come second to our daily worries and obligations? In the past few years of working in ministry, I have noticed that it can tend to happen even more frequently in this area of work than anywhere else – the constant need to be serving, evangelizing, spending time with people, hosting, teaching, etc. These are all great things, but before I even have a chance to realize it, my time is so focused on doing that I barely have time for what my heart truly needs, to sit at the feet of my Savior and listen to His heart. If I’m going to truly live out the Great Commission, I have to stay plugged into my Source and daily choose what is better.

Like Paul says in Philippians 3:10, I want to know Christ. I want to be in awe of His beauty. I want His Word to penetrate to the depths of my heart. I want to say no to the secondary things and yes to the one and only thing that my heart truly needs. No, it won’t be easy and yes, it requires a daily sacrifice of time. But it stops becoming a sacrifice when we realize that knowing Christ is exactly what we were made for and gives our souls the rest that we can’t find in anything else. So I invite you just as I invite myself, let’s know Jesus. Let’s really seek Him out in His Word and in prayer because our souls will quickly find out that Jesus has been right all along – it will always be the better choice.

-Maggie Addison, GEM Missionary

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Make Us Worshippers

Why is our enjoyment of something beautiful magnified when the experience of that beauty is shared? Why do we gasp at stunning views, point out rainbows, and hold our breath as the sun slips below the horizon?

I believe we respond to beauty in these ways because we are made to wonder and to worship, and made to do so collectively. When we wonder at something, we are exalting it as beyond our comprehension, acknowledging that we cannot fully grasp it. Looking more closely at the word ‘wonder’, the definition according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is as follows: “rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one’s experience.” Sharing the experience of wonder in the company of others magnifies our delight and enjoyment of beheld glory because it is confirmed in a joint response. Wonder leads to worship. 

Throughout the Psalms, we see David, a man after God’s own heart, beckoning the people, beckoning the reader, to join with him in wonder and worship of the Most High God. “Oh magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together.” -Psalm 34:3  and “Let all the earth fear the Lord;

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”- Psalm 33:8-9 

When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well in Samaria he said, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” -John 4:23-24.

God seeks worshipers, He desires for us to wonder, to marvel at who He is. This is His grand design! In worship, we take our eyes off of the world of our experience and center our souls around the truest reality, around the One who is worthy of all praise. In worship, we, for once, take the focus off ourselves and we remember: “…For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.” -Ecclesiastes 5:2

Wonder and worship go hand in hand. “In short, wonder is captured in one word—worship. When we have learned what worship is, we have experienced what wonder is. Worship is a personal thing before it goes public. It is an individual thing before it is part of a community. It is a disciplined thing before it is natural.” -Ravi Zacharias

We are made to wonder, made to worship. The prayer that has been weighing on me is that God would make me ‘one who worships’. That He would craft in me such a posture of worship that if all else in life fell away, worship would remain; worship would be my occupation and saturate my identity. May God open our eyes to see Him as He is, that our hearts may be captivated by His glory and we would ever and always worship Him alone. 

Like Moses returning from Mount Sinai, may our faces be radiant, markedly different to sight because of the time spent gazing fixedly at the glory of God. May we bask in and reflect the light of His countenance to the world. Like David, may we call out for fellow-worshipers and may our petition be “Come, wonder with me.”

– Mallory Knight, GEM Sponsorship Coordinator

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A New Way to Look Back

Having the opportunity to serve with GEM has been an amazing experience of faith in my personal walk with God. I saw God moving and acting supernaturally in every area that I needed support before moving. As I started working in the school, His Spirit kept giving the help and encouragement I needed to best serve my students.

But as the weeks passed by, I started to focus more on the to-do’s and eventually I found myself frustrated and tired. I felt this way because I was not meeting my personal expectations as a teacher. When we finished the first quarter, I was tired and disappointed at myself for not achieving the professional goals I set. And disappointment is an exhausting feeling.

One day, the Spirit guided me through the scriptures and spoke to my heart through this piece of Solomon’s prayer once they had finished the Temple:

“Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us. May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors. And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need” (1 Kings 8:56-59).

We know that the path in the desert to the promised land was filled with challenges, idolatry, murmuring, and even doubting God’s provision. The thing that the Spirit made me realize is that even with all these hard events, Solomon looked at the path of the Israelites in the desert and prayed to God, thanking his faithfulness. Even with all the difficulties and the sinful nature of his people, God kept his promise. He sustained them even in their rebellion. Solomon looked to God and remembered how good He is. I realized that I have an unconscious tendency to look at the challenges, the failures, and the wrongs. The Spirit showed me that I needed to change my perspective from the fallen human and imperfect nature to the unchanging, all-powerful, and faithful God we have. God sustained me even in my failures.

It’s important to look back and see how we can improve and make things better. But the real improvement does not come from our independent desire and effort to fix mistakes. As Christians, the only way to improve ourselves is to walk the path of dependence on the Lord – through prayer, listening to His voice in the scriptures, and taking the leaps of faith that He guides us to. Leaving Brazil to come to Mexico was a huge leap of faith for me, depending completely on His grace and support. Now He’s asking me to trust Him in a way that’s not as visual or tactile as it was in the beginning. He didn’t stop sustaining me when I arrived in Puerto Escondido; He is still interested in sustaining me in all areas of my life. 

My goal for this next semester is to fully understand and practice Paul’s testimony about depending on God: 

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (2 Corinthians 12:9-11).

– Jady Vaneli, GEM Missionary Teacher