Our whole group on "fun day." We went to the Dodgers Stadium 50th Anniversary Game! :)

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've update you all with what's been going on. It has been insanely busy, and continues to be, but I am learning so much. I think I will be processing for the rest of my life what I have learned here. This past month days here have largely consisted of class and homework during the week and then evangelism and more homework on weekends as well as various speakers throughtout the week speaking on topics outside of class. The class - Perspectives on the world Christian movement -  is a college level class that is normally taken over a period of fifteen weeks, but we took it in fifteen days! I'm pretty sure I learned more taking this class than I have in all my years of academic schooling and church combined, I didn't just learn information or stories but I learned the purpose of our world and how God is working and wants to work and will work in the future.

Speakers talked about the Bible, history and missions in a way I have never heard. They made connections throughout the Bible, revealing God's global purpose and the whole theme of the Bible I had never seen before and now that I am aware of I cannot stop seeing everywhere I turn and everywhere I read in the Bible. I feel as if I am reading the Bible for the first time and it is opening up a whole new world and purpose I never knew existed.

The speakers made connections in history and showed how God has been working through the ages to accomplish his glory among the nations. I can no longer look at the world the same way or the purpose of my life the same way after taking this class. The Biblical basis for missions and what God's plan for the world is his plan revealed in history as well as the great need in the world today has turned my world upside down. I can't explain everything I've learned on here because it would take far too long but I'm so excited to talk to you all about it when I get back.

Beyond just an awareness for God's purposes, the class also went over modern missions and what that looks like - the basics of modern missions training and cross-cultural furthering of the gospel. Let's just say that there are so many wrong assumptions I previously had, and the western church in general has. We had some incredible speakers come in. There are some amazing people who have devoted their lives to God's glory among the nations and God has ignited my own heart through them as they have taught about God's purpose for every believer and all nations and how God is working. The World Center for Missions - where we are staying and studying at this summer is so incredible - it is the hub of world missions and the men and women that are here and the amount of purposeful and intentional missions and the logistics behind it is so incredible and encouraging. I never even heard of the term misseology till this summer! Like people study missions and how to accomplish God's glory among the nations as their job! How incredible is that? God has opened my eyes to so much!

Also, through mentoring and accountability here, as well as some incredible sermons we've heard here, God is dealing with  a lot of personal sin issues in my life as well as healing me from a lot of things from my past. He is healing me from my past and challenging me presently so that I can be whole and complete in him and in this new purpose and passion for the future that he is revealing to me through the classes and training I am getting here. He is so good. I would be lying if I said it was easy, because it is not. It has been full of long days, spiritual warfare, incredible spiritual battles as God grows me and overall a constant battle to not be overwhelmed by so much information and challenge as God turns my world up-side-down. But, I believe that God will "not give me more than I can bear" and  I am so incredibly grateful  to Him for his grace in allowing me to be here and to all of you who have been willing to be used by him to support me spiritually and financially. I know I have probably said this before, but you all really will never know the full extent of how much you have blessed me or what God is accomplishing because of you guys in my life and will accomplish through me in the life of others, Lord willing. I can't thank you all enough.

So, to get back to what I'm doing now that the class is over... We've been doing a lot of cross-cultural and religion training. We have specialists in different religions come in and speak on various religions and then we go the next morning to the corresponding temple or mosque. Please pray for me and all the students here. The spiritual warfare surrounding these temples are intense and especially as for most of us this is our first exposure to idol worship and cultic religions. So far we have been to a Mormon temple, a Hare Krishna temple, and a Hindu temple, tomorrow we will go to a Buddhist temple and in the coming weeks many others and have more cross-cultural and religion training. I can't emphasis enough how much I cherish your prayers. God is doing incredible things here in all our hearts but obviously Satan isn't excited that God is raising up a group of people passionate for God's glory and spiritual warfare is coming on all fronts. Pray for me and everyone else here that God would protect our hearts and minds and that we would live in his strength. Beyond the spiritual aspect, Satan has definitely been attacking everyone physically; the past couple weeks a lot of us here have been sick with various things as well - I am now with a really bad head cold - and one girl had to go to the hospital for a couple days. Satan is attacking on fronts. PLEASE PRAY! James 5:16 says "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." Pastor John Piper said in one of his sermons on prayer that "prayer causes things to happen that would not happen if you didn't pray." We need you fighting for us! I wish I could write more but it is almost lights out. I'm sorry it's been so long between posts on here. I love you all and think of you often.


Blessings,
Jessalynn



p.s. If the "perspectives" class ever comes anywhere near you (you can search for locations it's held at at perspectives.org) PLEASE TAKE IT! It will be the most life changing and worthwhile class you will ever take!