Tag Archives: prayer

The Clock is Ticking

counting down

The clock is ticking and I am so excited that I am now counting down the days until my departure! Lord-willing, if I am able to raise all of my support in time, I will be departing for Southeast Asia this coming July 1.

Hopefully many of you received a recent letter from me in the mail. If you did not, and would like to, please send me your information so I can send one your way.

Once I reach Southeast Asia, I will be working with those already there to reach Southeast Asians through Christian Education. Education is something that is very close to my heart, so I am very excited about this new possibility!

progress & needs

I am very excited to announce that by the grace of God I am nearly 80% fundraised. My sending organization Pioneers requires I am 100% fundraised before I depart. Would you be willing to help me with this last 20%? Here are my needs:

  • 3 people to commit to $10/month
  • 2 people to commit to $20/month
  • 2 people to commit to $50/month
  • 1 person to commit to $100/month

If you are feeling led to partner with me but are unable to do so monthly, I need one-time supporters as well to help me get there. Would you prayerfully consider partnering with me?

To do so, click here (Faith Wilson, Acct #111497) to partner monthly, and click here to donate one-time.

prayer requests

My other huge need is prayer partners! Would you be willing to commit to pray for me? You can download my prayer card, or if you see me around before I leave just ask me for one. Here are some specific prayer requests:

  • endurance through final preparations
  • healthy, meaningful goodbyes
  • provision of needs
  • protection against anything that could get in the way of my departure

I cannot thank you all enough for the many ways you have supported me through this process. I look forward to my next update coming from Southeast Asia!

A Quick Update

Prayer Card

encouragements

What an amazing and CRAZY couple of months it has been! Thank you all for your prayers. I will be sending out a detailed mailed update at the end of May, but I wanted to send you all a quick update via email. If you aren’t on my (snail) mailing list, please send me your information!

Much progress has been made, and Lord willing I will be leaving first week of July!

Here are some things I have been busy with in these past months:

BRCC WorldLead

Early in March I had the privilege of attending Boca Raton Community Church‘s WorldLead conference. This was a gathering of the others my church is supporting from all over the world! This was an amazing opportunity as I got to spend a whole week getting to know and learning alongside others doing God’s work internationally. It was also an encouragement to spend time with my sending church and get to know the others they are supporting.

Pioneers Pre-Field Training

Near the end of March I had the joy of visiting my sending organization Pioneers and spending time at their Pre-field training. This was also incredibly encouraging as I got to spend some time with several others on a similar journey as I am. I received valuable training from Pioneers and came back excited for what God is doing.

EMT Certification

This month I also completed my EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) course. This is advantageous as I took the course as a resource and preliminary medical knowledge for work on the field.

coming plans

As I mentioned, Lord willing I will be leaving in the first week of July! I will be departing Southern California mid-May and will be back in South Florida for much of June as I make final preparations.

progress & prayer requests

Please continue to pray for spiritual protection and guidance, as well as my funding. Many of you came alongside of me in the month of March, and I have been blown away by God’s faithfulness.

PRAISE THE LORD I am nearly 75% on my departure costs! I am still needing to raise some funds but this percentage is getting me close to being able to purchase my plane ticket.

I am also 62% on my monthly pledges! This has been a great encouragement. Would you consider committing to partner with me regularly?

I am still in need of:

  • 5 people to commit to $10/month
  • 5 people to commit to $20/month
  • 4 people to commit to $50/month
  • and 3 people to commit to $100/month

Would you prayerfully consider this? To commit to monthly giving, fill out the Pioneers EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) application online, or mail in the Credit Card Transaction form to Pioneers.

Many of you have already partnered with me either financially or by committing to pray. Thank you so much for your support. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have you on my sending team!

I am looking forward to what God has already planned for these next couple of months. Stay tuned!

Bunny Slopes and Preparations

gun it!

I have Florida blood through and through. I recently had the opportunity to visit a friend who lives on Mammoth Mountain, and I was reminded of my inability to deal with the cold. But I suited up (in MANY layers), and hit the slopes.

Now keep in mind, I had never been skiing before (or anything of the sort). Apparently this makes for great entertainment for experienced skiers. My first trip down the bunny slope was wild! With the cold wind and a giant smile on my face, I gunned it. I cruised down that hill in what felt like seconds. I felt so free, so alive! At the bottom, however, I was (gently) informed that speeding down a slope without control or the ability to safely stop does not make for good skiing. So, I tried again, concentrating on making careful, safe turns, and controlling my speed and my direction.

That gun-it run at the beginning of the day taught me a lesson. As I graduated to more difficult slopes, it was important that I had spent time on the bunny hill learning the importance of patience and preparation.

patience & preparation

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” [1 Peter 1:13]

My journey to Asia has brought about similar lessons. Be patient and prepare. Of course I can’t possibly foresee every turn, and I certainly can’t prevent every fall. (I sure fell a lot while skiing! Watch some funny videos here.) I trust God will guide me through the unexpected turns and He will use every fall as a learning experience.

I can’t do this on my own. Like on the hill, I need to rely on my community (YOU!) to take the journey with me.

progress & prayer requests

I need your help and support as I prepare. God has provided a lot of financial support already, but I sill have quite a bit of money to raise. If you haven’t already, would you be willing to partner with me? Just click on the giving button to the right, or  print out a response card.

I’m still on the bunny slopes, but the black diamonds are quickly approaching. Would you commit to pray for me? Please pray for:

  • potential financial partners
  • continued spiritual protection

Please visit my prayer page for more prayer requests.

Finally, I will be sending out a mailed update soon. Would you allow me to send you one? If you have not already, please send me your information.

Thank you for taking the journey with me. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Happenings and Progress

it’s a new year!

I love the new year: fresh start, new beginnings, new potential. As I think about the past year, I’m amazed at how God has led me to today – preparing to go to Southeast Asia in 2011!

Wilson Family Photo, December 2010

I want to update you on what I’ll be doing there and my fund raising progress. In addition I want to share some recent happenings and prayer requests.

what i’ll be doing

I will be working with people who have already established a Christian school. Among other things, the school focuses on the power of the creativity God has placed in each of us. This lines up very well with my vision of creativity.

I will be working with those already there at the school in whatever ways I am needed most. This means I may be teaching at the school or assisting in other ways. I will be working directly with nationals, developing relationships and  living out this vision I have for creativity in the context of education. While some of the details of what I will be doing day to day are still being worked out, one thing I do know for certain is that this is exactly where God has called me to serve Him next. I’m excited to follow God on this adventure He calls life!

I’ve recently learned a lot about how God has chosen to use us (His church) in His world. Much of my growth has come through a recent read: When Helping Hurts (Corbett & Fikkert). I highly recommend it! Read more about my vision, or find answers to frequently asked questions on my website.

happenings & progress

Thank you for your prayers. The month of December has been encouraging! One of the fun things I did was put out a series of podcasts reflecting on my time in Camden. If you missed them, make sure to check them out on my website!

Another huge encouragement was a grant I received from my university (Azusa Pacific University). This puts my monthly pledges at about 50%, and my departure cost at almost 20%. I still have a long way to go, but I trust God’s provision and His timing! If you haven’t had a chance to donate and you feel led to, you can give directly through Pioneers (acct #111497), or learn more about ways you can give on my support page.

prayer requests

I have been encouraged this month through many of you. Please pray for the next few months as it will be a key period in the continuation of my fund raising progress. This month I will be starting my EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) training as I continue to prepare for departure in 2011.

Also, please continue to pray for spiritual protection as I know I am a target!

Thanks for all the prayers and support! I am blessed by each of you.

Creativity

Last night I was at a concert for the band “Ok Go”. Known for their creative yet simple music videos, Ok Go embodies some of my favorite things about creativity. Even though their lyrics aren’t always eternally focused, they strive to make incredible things out of little. The Wall Street Journal and USA Today put it as, “OK Go is the polymath band who – with only five bucks and a camcorder – did what none of the giant record labels could, inventing a new way for a band to connect with fans and changing the way people think about music and the Internet.”

This inspires me. How can we, as Christians, change the way people think about God and Christianity, with “only five bucks and a camcorder”? I think God has already equipped us–with the creative brain He’s given each of us.

Speaking of five bucks and a camcorder, with the help of my Dad I recently put together some of my thoughts about creativity on video. Check it out, and look forward to more audio and video snippets about what God is teaching me in the near future.


I have been encouraged this month through many of you. While I still have quite a ways to go on my fund raising, I have been blessed and encouraged as many have recently come to me with unique and creative ways they are able to contribute.

Please continue to pray for my support raising, that this process would be able to uplift and encourage all who participate. Also, I ask, if any of you have any connections or know of anyone who would be interested in hearing more about my vision, please let me know.

Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Teammates

Jonny was a rambunctious, high energy 5th grader on my 5th and 6th grade boys basketball team this past summer in Camden, NJ. It was a hot summer day, and I had considered practice to be mostly unsuccessful as I had broken up several fights and felt that not much had been accomplished. I finally conceded to allowing them to scrimmage for the rest of the practice. I began splitting up the teams, Tyric on team one, Jonny on team two. Immediately, Jonny reacted.

“Why you always put me on a butt team?? Man this is butt, my team is butt. You cheatin!” While this kind of response wasn’t unheard of, I was a bit taken aback.

“Jonny,” I said, “I haven’t put anyone else on your team yet. You’re calling yourself butt!”

“Whatever,” Jonny responded, “You’re gonna give me a butt team anyways.”

For a moment, I was discouraged. No matter what I did, Jonny was not going to be content. He didn’t trust me as his coach to put him on a team that would grow him and support him. I really did want to do what was best for him, but he wasn’t even open to it.

I do this to God a lot. I think I know what is best for me, and I don’t allow Him to work and put people in my life that will grow and support me. I get angry or disappointed when things don’t go the way I want them to, and I don’t even give God a chance to be faithful. I try to pawn my poor results off on God, when the reality is that many times my poor results came from my unwillingness to allow my Coach to put other able people on my team.

Sometimes I forget that this Christian life is a team effort. What God has called me to do is so far beyond my own life (a vapor), and it is just a part of what He is doing globally, amongst Christians all over the world. Am I going to trust Him as my Coach to do what is best for His kingdom, not just for myself?

Right now, God has called me to full time ministry in Southeast Asia, but I need teammates! Bringing His good news is not an individual responsibility, rather it is something that I believe the Church is called to do as a community. As I continue this journey, would you consider how you can join? Many of you have already pledged your support, whether it be financially or in prayer, and I cannot tell you how encouraged and grateful I am.

Right now, my biggest need is church connections. Would your church be open to hearing my vision for Southeast Asia? Would you be willing to send me your church’s information?

By the end of the summer, Jonny had really come around. Our team had won the championship, and had learned a lot about the value of teammates and working together. Someone would make a comment to me, and Jonny would look at them and say with a giant smile on his face, “Coach Faith? Yeeeeah. That’s my coach!” Amidst my successes and failures as a coach, Jonny had grown to trust me. I hope and pray that I continue to grow in trusting my Coach, who NEVER fails.

Changing the World

Before I began my summer in Camden, NJ, a friend of mine mentioned in passing, “The secret to changing the world is that you can’t. You can only change yourself.” As I reflect back on not only this summer but the past several years, I cannot help but admit this to be true.

The secret to changing the world is that you can’t. You can only change yourself.

People often ask me, now that I have graduated, “So what do you want to do with your life?” Deep down inside I just think to myself, I want to change the world. The truth is, I’m actually saying, I want to change myself. Being in Camden for the past two months proved this harsh reality to be true.

Coaching 5th and 6th grade boys basketball was one of my greatest challenges. Nothing in the world could have prepared me to coach a group of boys that age who grew up on the streets (click here to learn more about the city of Camden and the environment these kids grew up in). There were countless instances where a kid would snap at me with a bad attitude, stomp off the court, spew a harsh comment to one of his peers, or even throw a shove or a punch at one of his teammates. In those moments I just wanted, with every fiber within me, to change that kid. If only he knew how far treating people with respect could take him. But I had to stop for a moment. I knew I had no ability to actually change that kid, where he came from, his society, or what caused him to react the way he did. Rather, I realized that the only real change I could make was how I responded to him. Would I show frustration, or the level of respect I wanted and expected him to show to others?

This lesson is challenging, yet rewarding. As I continue to prepare for Southeast Asia I must continue to remind myself, it must be God who changes people, it cannot be me. My responsibility is to then to be an imitator of God, and to love others as He has loved me. Paul reminds us of this in the book of Ephesians: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Hope for the City

Camden, NJAs stated in my previous post, the journey has begun as I pursue God’s direction for the next phase of my life. As of right now, however, God has placed me in the city of Camden, NJ, and what a trans­formational experience it has been already. The city of Camden has suffered over the last several years as a large number of jobs have been removed. This in turn has caused extreme poverty, creating a difficult environment for children to grow up in.

This summer is an opportunity for me to minister to these children and hopefully demonstrate to them that they are indeed worth something, and that they can be the transformation in their communities. While I have been here for just a short time, I have been amazed and appalled at the conditions others are forced to live in even here within this country. I am encouraged, however, by the hearts of the children.

Personally, my time here has grown me as I have had to wrestle with the social issues presented, as well as learn to interact with and love children who come from a very different background than I have. Many of these kids come from abusive homes, and for them coming to camp may be the only food they see in a day and the only love they experience. Ultimately, it is an honor and a privilege to be here at all, and I am excited as to the ways in which God is moving.

Please pray for the children and the people of Camden.

To learn more about what the organization UrbanPromise is doing to help, visit http://www.urbanpromiseusa.org.