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For the Sake of the Gospel

When thinking about my journey to GEM it’s hard to find the best starting point. While there was a momentary decision to step into partnership with GEM, the Lord has so intentionally and intricately worked in my life to lead me to this point. I find it hard to discern what to say because I couldn’t simply state what I’m stepping into without sharing a testament of the goodness and faithfulness of God, and for that, I could write a book.

The past couple of years of my life has been nothing short of amazing. Throughout my time in college, the Lord has used so much to draw me near to Him, grow my faith, and sanctify me. Never have I understood the Gospel more, nor have I known the love and grace of God in such a real way. Time and time again He has revealed to me His faithfulness (2 Corinthians 1:20) and steadfast love (1 John 4:7-21). Time and time again I’ve been reminded of my own brokenness and need for forgiveness, and I’ve been brought to my knees in awe of how He has delivered and redeemed me (Isaiah 53, Romans 5). And time and time again I’ve been reminded of the gift it is to share such a great truth with others, as well as the blessing it is to have received this mission from the Lord (Isaiah 52:7, Acts 1:8)! Through homeless ministry, church outreach, youth groups, and classroom teaching, the Lord has broken my heart for the lost and grown in me a deep love for the Gospel. I have been blessed to see His beauty and wonder through knowing His sons and daughters, and I have had the opportunity to know His character and love more by doing life with them. It was through this time of growth that the Lord introduced me to and called me to serve with GEM after graduating college and to teach in one of their gospel-saturated schools. In all the uncertainty of life and the constant discovery and discerning that takes place in all seasons, the Lord has made one thing abundantly clear:  all my days will be spent building the Kingdom and sharing the truth of His love (Acts 20:24). Of course, this is the call of all Christ-followers, but sometimes it takes time for this truth to really penetrate the heart. Overall I have learned more and more that we are to live our lives on mission to love others as Christ has loved us. Every day we wake up we are stepping onto the mission field, that’s 365 opportunities a year to be a light and share the Gospel. My heart has been heavy with the burden to reach the unreached and follow His will to any and every nation He leads me to. And for the next two years, He has led me to Puerto Escondido. I couldn’t be more excited and expectant for all He will do!! He has never let me down, and in everything He has far exceeded and totally crumbled my expectations, so I know He’ll be faithful to do it again!!

The overall mission of the GEM is to share the gospel around the world through education that is quality, affordable, and accessible. My role within this, most straightforwardly, is to be one of those missionaries providing education. The Lord had equipped me through my time at school to step into this role of educator. However, I believe my role goes beyond that of the classroom because I believe the ministry and mission the Lord calls us into is an all-encompassing one. One thing He has really taught me is that effective evangelism is rooted in relationships and consistency. Yes, the Gospel can be shared in a moment with words and a seed is planted (which is great because His word never returns void), but growth and roots are seen in longevity, in discipleship. The Gospel we share is one of love, yet we live in a world where love is a lost concept, an unknown idea, or a twisted mutation of what it should be. Therefore, it takes relationship and consistency to display the love that we are speaking of. And relationship and consistency will often go beyond the classroom walls. So my role with GEM, in Mexico, and everywhere the Lord has called me is to continue to let Him saturate every area of my life with His love, so that in every season and all moments His love can be found. Whether in the school building, on the beach, or at the market, my job is to share the Gospel.

To share our God.

To be His light.

And while I know I have much growing and sanctifying to do, this is my prayer for how He may work in me and through me, as well as all my fellow missionaries!

This is an INCREDIBLY condensed summary of how the Lord led me to and prepared my heart to serve with GEM, there’s plenty more to be said of His goodness through that journey. I hope you can join us in prayer as we move to our new homes and begin to live and serve here all for the sake of the Gospel!

– Hunter Benson, GEM Missionary–Kindergarten Teacher

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Ms. Kaitlyn’s Class Update

Since being here in Puerto, I have seen many of my students change in behavior–spiritually and academically. When I first started teaching my class of 6th graders in January, I had one student that was very closed-off and unwilling to listen at times. Over time, I really had it on my heart to start a relationship with her and show her Christ’s love in simple ways. I did not know exactly how this was going to work based on her not wanting to be around me all that much as well as not being able to get her to say anything to me even when asking her questions. Later on however,  I learned there were really big things going on in her home that would make anyone seem closed-off or sad at times. After praying many days over the situation myself and with other teachers, I knew that I needed to keep pursuing a relationship to share the Lord with her. I know I needed to simply check in on her everyday, no matter if I received a response or not.
After many months of asking simple questions like, “How are you today?How are you feeling? What did you do this weekend?”, I was able to finally get her to open up little by little. She has now started speaking up in class, coming to speak to us teachers at lunch, and even has started to let me just sit and talk to her about everyday life. Sometimes the things the Lord is working on in your classroom seem small and unnoticeable at times, but when it is something you have seen people pray over for months and you began to see the fruit of those prayers, it is absolutely amazing.

-GEM Missionary, Kaitlyn Summitt

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Teacher Testimony – Bailey + Derrick

Bailey and Derrick are missionaries who serve with GEM in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. Right before they left their traditional lives to move to Mexico, they got married. They both serve at our Manantial school–Bailey serves as a 3rd grade teacher and Derrick teaches Bible at the secondary.

Bailey and Derrick saw serving with GEM as missionaries more as an opportunity to practice and live out the great commission rather than living back home. Not that they couldn’t have used teaching in the States as a mission field, but they saw the Lord calling them to something more and wanted them to surrender their comforts, their family, and to start a life living on mission together…that looked like Mexico. Bailey and Derrick knew that this was the calling that God had placed in front of them. They knew that either way, whether it was living and working as teachers in the States or in Mexico, they would have been obedient. However, because of the position they were in as a young couple with no kids, and no true ties that said they couldn’t move, they thought, “why shouldn’t we move to a different country for at least two years to experience what ministry is like outside of the United States?” They wanted an all encompassing view of the gospel.

Both Bailey and Derrick have a passion for discipleship and they longed to be a part of a school that not only wants to build relationships with the students in the classroom, but a school that also invested in them outside the classroom. Moving to Mexico and serving with GEM was more of an opportunity that their hearts wanted to be a part of rather than just teaching anywhere. They wanted to make an investment in the community and learn the culture of Mexico.

Picking up your lives and moving to teach in a foreign country doesn’t come without its struggles. Bailey shared that one of the biggest and most apparent challenges was the language barrier. Any school that they could’ve been a part of would have most likely had ELLs (English Language Learners), but now teaching ELLs is her full-time job. She has been navigating learning how to teach the students and communicate in a way where both her and the students can understand. Through the language barrier, the Lord has taught her patience and love. As she is learning Spanish and the students are learning English, they are able to empathize with each other and support each other through it. One of the most difficult things that Derrick say he has come to learn is the difference in gospel fluency in the culture. In the United States, people at least know some of the books of the Bible. You can reference a story and they have some familiarity with it. In Mexico, it’s different. There are kids who have never heard the commonly known Bible studies before, nor do most of them know where the books of the Bible are. Derrick came in with much higher assumptions with how much of the Gospel they actually knew. He has even had students ask him what the Gospel is and what that word even means. This has restructured the way he has had to teach and share the stories of the Bible. He has to go into class teaching from the ground up, knowing that some of them have no knowledge of God and the Bible whatsoever. It has trained Derrick to slow down, break down the timeline, and dig into the context of each part of the Bible that he is teaching. This helps paint a much broader picture for the students who have never once heard the stories of the Bible.

In the midst of struggles and adapting to a new culture, the Lord does not hesitate to bestow His blessing upon those who step out in faith to serve Him. Bailey and Derrick share that they have been blessed in some of the most unexpected ways. One of the biggest blessings for the both of them has been the life change in each of their hearts. GEM gave them an opportunity to work and serve with the Lord in a way that they otherwise would not have had if they were just teaching in the States. The main thing that they have taken away from GEM is the fruit of their labor that they have seen and getting to see the impact that the Lord has on these kids through the work that the Lord has given Global Education Ministries to do. God has done a work in both of their hearts, and they feel like they have been challenged and pushed in new ways that they wouldn’t have apart from GEM. It has helped them grow a heart of gratitude and thankfulness in a whole new way as they have been living in a new culture. They express that they have realized all of the blessings that they have, even just in comparison to teaching in the States versus in Mexico. Bailey and Derrick also say they have benefited from all of the practical things they have learned through working within a ministry. They have learned how to steward God’s money well and how to function well with others who also serve within the ministry. They have had so many different life experiences that they never would have gotten without being a part of GEM. Getting to learn a different culture and at the same time growing significantly with the Lord has been one of the biggest blessings.

If you are inspired by this story and want to know how you might be able to serve with GEM, click the link below:

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Stopping to Seek the Lord

The end of the year is always a busy time! With the holidays approaching and end of the year campaigns in full swing, it is easy to feel like things needs to get done, decisions need to be made, and that there isn’t enough time to stop doing.

That’s at least how I’ve been tempted to feel these last few weeks.
But one thing I’ve learned over my few years of working with GEM is that when you’re moving into uncharted territory, taking breaks from doing to make time for thinking, praying, planning, and preparing is just as, if not, even more important.

One of the passages in the Bible God has called repeatedly to mind through my devotions and others, is in Joshua 9 when several members of the nation of Gibeon dress themselves up in rags and lie to the Israelites about where they come from.

In the book of Joshua, Joshua is the brave leader that leads Israel into battle after battle against the pagan people groups living in the Promised Land. Previously, in the book of Deuteronomy, God told the Israelites through Moses that when fighting against their enemies they should first offer peace offerings. However, he makes a clear distinction between general enemies and the nations they would fight against in the land God has promised them.
“However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes… Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 20:16,18 NIV)
When the Gibeonites hear that Israel has defeated several of the neighboring nations, they fear for their lives and decide that instead of trying to go up against Israel and their God, they would be better off deceiving the Israelites in order to become their servants. So, they dress themselves in old clothes, worn sandals and cracked wineskins. They even go so far as to carry moldy bread with them so that they can convince the Israelites that they come from far away and aren’t inhabitants of the Promised Land.

When they approach the Israelites at their camp and ask them to make at treaty with them, the leaders of Israel sample their provisions and use their own reasoning skills to decide whether or not they should make the treaty. But they forget one important thing – to inquire of the Lord. Because of this, they believe the Gibeonites and swear an oath by the God of Israel that they will not harm them.

The Gibeonites then leave to go back to their city and three days later, Israel, as they are conquering more nations, arrive at what they find out to be Gibeon. To their surprise, it is indeed in the Promised Land! They can’t believe that they were deceived, but they keep the oath they had sworn to Gibeonites and do not harm them. However, in Joshua chapter 10 they are forced to go into war to protect themselves and the Gibeonites from other nations.
This story is full lessons, but one lesson in particular caught my attention.
“The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord.” (Joshua 9:14 NIV)

The Israelites used their own reasoning skills and senses to see whether or not the Gibeonites were telling them the truth instead of stopping to see what the Lord had to say. This might sound logical and completely normal to us, but we can see in this story that the Israelites senses failed them. They weren’t a reliable tool to navigate through deception and truth. And, fortunately for the Gibeonites, the Israelites didn’t take time to stop and inquire of the Lord. They made a judgment based on what they thought would be best, while the Lord would have opened their eyes to see the truth.

As I’ve been applying this to my own life, I’ve been asking myself – How many times have I made decisions based on my own judgment instead of quieting myself and going first to the Lord.

The Gibeonites would play a significant role in Israel’s future history, even causing God to bring famine on Israel because Saul forsake the oath that Joshua had made with them.

How many times have we made decisions based on our own judgment whose consequences won’t just affect us in the present, but also in the future. Consequences that could and probably will affect our children and our children’s children.

But there’s also another side to this story.

Although the Israelites disobeyed God’s original command to destroy everything and everyone in the land that they would inherit, God eventually raises up the Gibeonites to take care of the temple and at least one to be a prophet – God’s own mouthpiece – for the nation. Even one of King David’s most honored and respected strong men was a Gibeonite!

Just as God does, He uses even the disobedience of Israel to bring about good for the nation and glory for Himself.

So, for those of us who have disobeyed Him and feel without hope, let this be a reminder. Yes, our God expects obedience. Our disobedience will always bring about consequences, whether exterior or interior.

But where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.

“God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.” (Romans 5:20 NLT)

– Maggie Addison, GEM Mexico Field Office Director

 

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Are You a Missionary?

Are you a missionary? If you follow Jesus, the answer is yes! Jesus lived His life on a mission to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus reads a prophecy from Isaiah and declares it fulfilled. He says, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” God the Father anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit, to announce the coming of God’s Kingdom. In God’s Kingdom, all people can know God and enter His presence, where they find freedom and healing. However, this is only possible through Jesus. Because of Jesus’s sacrifice, we are made holy and able to enter God’s presence, and because of His resurrection, we are set free and no longer live as slaves of sin and evil! All we have to do is come to Him. Have you been set free from sin and evil in your life? What do you need to bring to the Lord today?  

Right before Jesus ascended into Heaven, His disciples asked Him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight” (Acts 1:6b-8). The disciples were thinking as we humans do. They wanted to see the physical Kingdom of Israel restored. They wanted Jesus to stay on earth and live as the King of Israel. But the Father had much bigger plans for Jesus. Jesus is the King of all and His reign will last forever. And yet, God called Jesus back to be with Him and chose to use His human disciples to submit to His rule and share the Good News of the Kingdom with people of all nations! And that’s where we come in. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to live within us— leading us and empowering us to be effective witnesses! We are all called “to proclaim good news to the poor…, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, and to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18).

God has a purpose for each of us while we are here on Earth. Do you know your purpose? What is God calling you to do now? How can you share the Gospel of salvation, healing, and freedom with your family, friends, neighbors, and enemies? The Holy Spirit led me to teach as a missionary in Mexico. I am so blessed to be a part of the team at “La Luz,” where the teachers live out the Gospel daily through prayer, service, study, and worship together as One Body. We pray together for God’s will to be done in our school and the lives of our students before and after school and in the evenings. We share the Gospel with students in classes, visit with their families, and share with other people we meet as God leads us. You can be a missionary too! Even if you are not called to move overseas, God has still given you His Holy Spirit to lead you and empower you to serve those around you. If you follow Jesus, you are a missionary. Let’s pray that God will give us His eyes to see those who are in need and give us wisdom, discernment, and power to share the Gospel effectively and to usher in God’s healing and freedom into this broken world.

– Heather Hall, GEM Missionary

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What Makes a Missionary

When most people think of a missionary, they immediately think of a certain type of person. 

Maybe someone who lives in a third-world country, in a little hut with a dirt floor and thatched roof, whose days are spent caring for the sick or homeless, or building homes and churches, someone who does all of these radical and moral works in Jesus’ name. Someone like Amy Carmichael, Adoniram Judson, or Elisabeth and Jim Elliot. We set aside these types of people in a certain group and label them as, “missionaries.”

I moved to Mexico almost two months ago to serve with GEM and be a missionary. 

Most missionaries here are teachers who are in their classrooms with their students all day, pouring into their lives and speaking the truth of the Gospel to them.

My job? It looks a little different. 

I work in the GEM Mexico field office where the majority of my job is done in front of a computer all day, capturing and creating content, and sharing what is happening at GEM schools with the world. 

It doesn’t fit the typical missionary stereotype.

…but not many things do. 

We are trained to make whatever our job title is our identity. 

I think as Christians it is important to realize that whatever we do, wherever we go, whatever we say, should all be done for the glory of the Lord. We should not save a select group of people to earn the title or responsibility of a missionary. If you associate yourself with Christ and serve Him with your life, you are an ambassador of Him (2 Corin. 5:20), therefore a missionary. This is a position to be taken seriously. 

It is so easy and natural for us to get so stuck in our routines that we forget the most important reason why we are doing all of it… why we are living this life, why we are put on this earth. The purpose and priority should always be Christ, bringing glory to His name, and making every effort to make His name known among all people, no matter what your title or position might be. 

“Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” – Jim Elliot

The Lord has divinely placed each one of us right where He wants us to be. We need to trust that our Father can use our five loaves and our two fish to feed a multitude. Whether you are a college student going from class to class, a stay-at-home mom feeding and entertaining kids all day, the CEO of a major corporation, or anything in between…you are a missionary. Christ has called you to be His hands and feet right where you are.

There is no prerequisite to being a missionary other than a heart that longs to serve the Lord as well as simple and faithful obedience in all things unto Him.

– Sarah Beth Moore, GEM Missionary

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Simple Truths

Every morning, I teach Kinder 1, 2 and 3 Bible class and it is often a highlight of my day. For some of my kids, it is the first time that they have ever heard about Jesus or heard the Bible read to them so it is a really unique opportunity for me. For others, it is a time for them to connect what the Bible teaches and understand how the stories are real and true in our lives today.  I love teaching these kids Bible because they look at the world with wonder, curiosity and often have a zest for life. They tell me stories about what is happening in their lives and their adventures in Spanish, even if I don’t fully understand them. They often ask questions about little details in the stories because they are so curious. They have their minds open to believing in God, most of them have not experienced doubt or the lies of the devil yet. They want to believe in Jesus and want to know more about Him and pray to Him. It is so encouraging to my heart to witness them growing in faith. 

It has also been a blessing to me to teach these stories again, as I am learning so many simple but profound truths about God and the gospel in each one. In the last quarter, we talked about the Creation story, Adam and Eve in the garden, Cain and Abel, Noah’s ark and the Tower of Babel. I grew up hearing these stories so they are very familiar to me, but teaching them in a simple way that the kids will understand has been challenging and so encouraging. For example, when we talked about Noah’s ark, we weren’t only talking about how God had a plan to save Noah in the flood, but we also talked about Noah’s obedience to God when others were unfaithful and doubted. We talked about why God flooded the earth – because he needed to wash the sin. I related that truth to the previous lesson when we talked about confessing our sin with Adam and Eve in the garden. We did an exercise where we drew a heart on a whiteboard, and then wrote down sins in the heart. I asked the kids if there is enough room for Jesus in this heart with all the bad words in it and the answer was no. I told them that the solution was to go to God and say, “I am sorry. Please forgive me” and that God wipes away the sin, as we wiped away the words of sin in the heart. The kids understood the concept of asking for forgiveness and being forgiven and then we saw a clean fresh heart again. The following week, we talked about Cain and Abel and how we need to obey God with a joyful heart. After that, we learned about Noah’s ark and how Noah obeyed God with a joyful and trusting heart, even when others did not. We talked about why God needed to flood the earth – to wash away all the sin in the world. And we finished talking about how God always keeps his promises – He promised to keep Noah and his family safe in the ark, and he promised to never flood the earth again with the rainbow. God promised that instead of flooding the earth to wash away sin, he would send a Saviour to earth to wash away sin once and for all. The following week we talked about the Tower of Babel, and how the people could not get to heaven by their own work. The people didn’t need a tower to get to Heaven, they needed a Saviour – Jesus. 

All of these lessons are so profound but also simple enough that a child can understand them. Praise God for the magnificence of his Word! Teaching these gospel truths has been a blessing to me and to the kids and I am so grateful for these opportunities. I pray that God will use these lessons as they grow older, that they will treasure these simple truths in their hearts and continue to yearn for Christ.

– Lorissa Van Gurp, GEM Missionary

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Remember God’s Faithfulness

GEM is 10 years old!!! Last month, we celebrated our 10 year anniversary as a ministry, and I just completed my 7th year serving with GEM. Our staff all around the world had a blast celebrating all that God has done over the past 10 years, and we specifically spent some time here in our office in Wilmington remembering the highs and the lows of ministry over the past decade. I can’t speak much of the first three years of GEM, but since I joined in 2014… you cannot even begin to count all the ways the Lord has worked.

I don’t know how your brain operates, but personally, I am really good at remembering the hard times and the difficult seasons. While it is good to remember these times and recall how God faithfully came through as He always does… What about the good things… the tiny blessings that He gave us time and time again? Even the times when we didn’t even ask for them?!

It is so important to remember and record all the Lord does. Through the storm, when we are asking for Him to deliver us, and also when we aren’t. God shows His steadfast love through countless blessings, even in ways we least expect it. It is good to remember at all times, but it is especially helpful to remember in the midst of uncertainty or when we are lacking faith. When I am doubting, I can remember how God has worked in the past, remembering His promises in scripture and never forgetting the faithfulness of His character.

I think back to 2014 when I was fresh out of college, a brand new Kindergarten teacher. I had so many days when it felt impossible to accomplish everything on my plate. Some days I would feel so nervous and overwhelmed. God was faithful to equip me in the work He had called me to do. By His grace, we had an incredible school year. I learned more and more every day how to be the best teacher I could be, and how to serve and love the families of my students in ways I could never do on my own. I remember after that year in Mexico, I truly felt like I could do anything (with God, of course).

Going back to that mindset, remembering how I felt each day… lost and unsure…then remembering how God came through and led the way– these are moments I should remember regularly when the same feelings of inadequacy and faithlessness come creeping back in. I watched God work in miraculous ways in 2014, but you better believe that in 2021, I still struggle with the same things.

This year, now I live back in the US and serve with GEM in a completely different capacity. I am the Director of Communications, in charge of donor relations, marketing, and a handful of other things as well. Some days, new problems arise and I feel the same way I did as a kid fresh out of college. I wonder how I will make it through a given problem, and I even sometimes wonder if God picked the right person to serve in this capacity.

But then I remember. God is faithful. It is impossible for Him to be anything other than faithful. He has come through again and again – not always how I thought He would. And many times He does let me wrestle with certain situations, but it is always for my good and His glory. I’d like us all to walk into today’s problems and uncertainties and REMEMBER who God is and what He has done for us. Remember He has chosen you for a specific purpose. He is the one who selected you to be at the job you’re at, or to be the friend to a specific person, or the parent of a specific family. By clinging to Him and remembering His faithfulness, we can walk in faith, knowing that God will equip us to the work He has called us to!

2 Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

– Rachel Ellezy, Director of Communications

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God’s Way Over Mine

I recently had my students watch a movie on the famous book Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. The movie is a cartoon version of the book from 1678, that has been simplified for children. For those that are not familiar with the story, a man named Christian Pilgrim finds a book embarking him on a journey to Celestial City. The story follows Christian’s endeavor to Celestial City where he faces trials, hardship, ridicule, and poor advice along the way. The journey that Christian endures is similar to what happens to the believer in preparation for Christ’s return to the New Heaven and New Earth. The cartoon version helps students comprehend concepts that many adults scarcely understand about their own faith. 

In Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian comes across a place called Legality Hill. On this hill, Christian is tempted to remove his load and heavy burden, freeing him up  from having to make the long journey ahead. When Christian arrives at the mountain he is faced by many rules that are all in contradiction to one another. The man on the mountain tells Christian that in order to climb up he must keep and adhere to all of the rules. As he climbs further and further up,  the rules become more challenging to keep and Christian becomes so overwhelmed and falls to the ground. 

The message behind this story is so powerful. Just like Christian Pilgrim, and the hardship he endured on Legality Hill, there is so much that can be learned from his example. Commandments that come from man will never save, no matter how many rules or regulations are placed on your life.  Only the teachings of Jesus will truly set you free from man’s form of commandments aka legality. 

John 8:31-32 tells us that when we continue in His word, we are truly disciples of Christ. By staying in the Word of God we will know the truth and that truth will set us free. Take a look at the Great Commission passage in Matthew 28:18-20. While many know the lines, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” few know why we do that. Verse 18 is the reason behind why we go and make disciples of Christ, that is because through his death he has been given ALL authority over heaven and earth. That means that everything we do and all things that happen are under the authority of Christ. That is why we go and make because our King has power over all things! The passion and resurrection of Jesus end with a commission to his disciples to carry on that same ministry, in the light of the cross, the empty tomb, and the triumphant vindication and exaltation of the risen Lord. 

The challenge behind being a missionary is seeing the grand narrative of the gospel from the trials of life. After just the time that I have been in Mexico there have been hardships that took my eyes away from the Great Commission. Like Christian, I found myself distracted by the world. I was reminded that while the journey is difficult the reward will always be Christ. My encouragement to you is to continue throughout the trials by doing things God’s way,  never settling for the things of this world. 

– Derrick Wood, GEM Missionary

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Science and the Bible

A question I like to present each class with at the beginning of the year is, “What is science?” I then have students copy our class definition which says that science “is a way for us to observe, study, and understand our world, the living things on Earth, space, and the matter and energy that make up our incredible universe.” While our class definition for science includes some helpful terms, I explain that it doesn’t really explain the whole picture.

Science, simply put, is one way to truth. It is an investigative and methodological way to. We discuss in class that there are other ways to truth as well. Using an example by UC Davis Chemistry professor, Bryan Enderle, I explain that there are at least two ways to explain liquid water turning into gas when heated up. One involves the mechanism of molecular thermal energy. Liquid molecules, when heated up, continue gaining energy until they stop increasing in temperature and the properties change. It is also true to say that the water boils because I want coffee and am boiling the water for that purpose.

Science helps us understand the mechanisms of nature (the how). But science cannot answer questions about purpose or “why” something happens. The way to truth that does not compete with science is the Holy Bible.

As Christians, we take scripture as more than just another way to truth. It is God’s infallible word. Professor Adrian, the other science teacher at Manantial reminded us in devotionals this week that science is a fallible discipline. It is subject to change and constantly includes errors. In the scientific method, we even negate the concept of something as proven true. We either prove our hypothesis wrong or we fail to prove our hypotheses wrong. Scripture, on the other hand, is not subject to change or error. As Christians who love to study science, Adrian and I both affirm that God created the world, designed our complex genetic code, expanded the universe beyond comprehension, and ordered all matter and energy. God also gave us the scripture narrative that is the gospel. Science invokes wonder and curiosity in students, but the scriptures tell them the true story of God’s work in humanity and the name of the author of both creation and the gospel: God our creator and savior.

Psalm 19 Reclaims the idea that the creation points to our creator God:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

– Tanner Whetzel, GEM Missionary