Sunday, July 20, 2008

A Heart for the Nations

Sing to the Lord a new song
sing to the Lord, all the earth
Sing to the Lord, praise his name.
proclaim his salvation day after day
Declare his glory among the nations
his marvelous deeds among all peoples
Psalm 96:1-3

As many of you know, James and I went to seminary with plans to graduate and move to West Africa. Before we got married, we felt God pressing our hearts to the Nations - to tell others about the wonderful love of Christ. Maybe someday soon I can spend some time in a blog telling you how God changed our plans to match his plans, but we still feel that constant pressing on our hearts, to tell the nations about Jesus. One of the beautiful ways that God has fulfilled that love is with the international students at UNT.

Tonight, our house was filled with the smell of spaghetti and the voices of 25-30 Japanese students. What a wonderful evening. At first, Austin was cautious about all of the new faces, but before long, he was fascinated by his new friends.

After eating dinner, the students played frisbee in the backyard, while several girls spent time with Austin. I had to take this picture because they were treating Austin like a rock star. It was so precious to hear all the students saying, "Austin! Come here! Austin come here!"

Austin loved showing them his swing and his playroom. He had such a wonderful evening and cried when I told him that he needed to get ready for bath time.

Oh, how we have been richly blessed!

"Lord, please give Austin your heart for all peoples! Help him to understand how beautiful your world is through all the cultures and people that you have created. Help him to love others - from every nation. Stir in his heart a desire from a young age to travel and help him to fall in love with the people that he meets - telling them about the glorious love of Christ. As a mother, help ease my heart about Austin ever traveling abroad and help James and I to be wise stewards of our money so we will be able to help Austin travel to tell the world about you!"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh Emily!! I hope that you and James have a place for Dale and I to help once we move to Denton. We have a heart for BSU/BCM/BSM..that's where we met in grad. school. Not only that, we love to spend time with students--it would be so much fun to invest time, food, and love in international students. I look forward to an in-person friendship once we get moved in August. Thank you already for committing to pray for us. I'll hear back on the job on the 29th--I got a promising email back from the man who would be my boss.

Let's talk soon. This blog is such a special way to catalog your prayers for Austin.

Much love,
Susan D.