Alumni Pictured above
Attending a breakfast gathering
Prior to Christmas Break
Attending a breakfast gathering
Prior to Christmas Break
Don had the opportunity to share with the alumni. The following text is the body of his message. We trust the message encourages you as you travel to the places and through the experiences God is taking you.
I would like to sit with you for a few minutes and share some thoughts about what the Lord's been teaching me and the leaders of the school. I think they could have some relevance to your lives as GIS alumni. I trust you'll be encouraged as we have been discovering the truth found in this passage of God's Word.
Luke 10:1-4 encourages us to go where He is ...Go where He's working... verse one says go... "where He was about to go."
God is working big time in SE Asia. More and more missionaries are moving into the region. As a result GIS is seeing 6% growth every year in the number of students.
God's working to make possible our new campus....we have been able to buy 86 rai of land and have enough funds to raise 1/3 of the property with dirt 1 - 1 1/2 meters.
God's working in our court case and made possible our appeal to be heard in the court in Bangkok.
God's working to provide 25-30 new faculty and staff every year. This year is no different.
Through all of this, God's making it possible for missionaries to stay on the field because GIS exists.
Where do you see God at work around you? Where do you sense He is at work that you could be called to go or join Him? We encourage you to consider going where He is...where He is working.
Go praying... verse two says, "therefore ask him."
GIS has a great deal to pray about as we go... our new campus, our court case, faculty and staff needs, our students well being, the support the faculty and staff need, and the list goes on...
What's God calling you to be praying about as you go? What are your God-sized challenges that keep you on your knees before the Lord? As your Grace family we'd love to be praying with you if you wanted and chose to share those prayer requests.
Go knowing it's going to be dangerous... verse three says, "I'm sending you out like lambs surrounded by wolves."
Our school's dangers are our court case, our move to the new campus, and the tremendous need for faculty and staff in a climate of economic challenges worldwide.
What are your dangers? Are you aware of what could swallow up and devour the work God's calling you to? There are dangers in following His plan. What are your wolves? Your dangerous places?
Go needy... Go watching and expecting what He is going to do for you. All this talk about money isn't necessary because he says leave it behind anyway. Verse four talks about leaving your resources at home.
Not too difficult for GIS. In fact it's as though God has built this neediness right into every circumstance we find ourselves in.
The subtle objective in life... or in higher education - can be the goal of being self-reliant, independent, self-sufficient... not needing help or resource from anyone for anything. Yet here the challenge is to go into your calling - your vocation needy - dependent upon God. Can we encourage you to hold in tension the idea of going out prepared AND totally reliant and dependent upon God?
The last go statement is to...go without distraction - keeping first priorities first. Verse four says, "Do not greet anyone on the road". For me, my distractions were my doctoral studies, my consulting work and a business plan of starting private school franchises across America. The big distractions are what captures our first love.
For GIS our distractions can be both our dangers and our needs. If we're not careful they can actually derail us and keep us from fulfilling God's call if we allow them. We can think the struggle is about the people who brought the lawsuit against the school. That's a distraction if we allow it to occupy more energy and time than it should. Instead we should spend time in prayer for those people.
In the culture of the day when this passage was written, the tendency was that if you hadn't seen someone for a long time, your greetings could take a long time. You'd be invited over to their home, you might end up spending a couple nights. The call here is to go and make up for lost time. We're being reminded we are on His mission, instructed to not get distracted otherwise we may never get to the mission let alone accomplish it.
What distracts you from keeping the important things important? We would encourage you to keep to the path that the Lord has set before you and not let anything or anyone deter you.
I would like to sit with you for a few minutes and share some thoughts about what the Lord's been teaching me and the leaders of the school. I think they could have some relevance to your lives as GIS alumni. I trust you'll be encouraged as we have been discovering the truth found in this passage of God's Word.
Luke 10:1-4 encourages us to go where He is ...Go where He's working... verse one says go... "where He was about to go."
God is working big time in SE Asia. More and more missionaries are moving into the region. As a result GIS is seeing 6% growth every year in the number of students.
God's working to make possible our new campus....we have been able to buy 86 rai of land and have enough funds to raise 1/3 of the property with dirt 1 - 1 1/2 meters.
God's working in our court case and made possible our appeal to be heard in the court in Bangkok.
God's working to provide 25-30 new faculty and staff every year. This year is no different.
Through all of this, God's making it possible for missionaries to stay on the field because GIS exists.
Where do you see God at work around you? Where do you sense He is at work that you could be called to go or join Him? We encourage you to consider going where He is...where He is working.
Go praying... verse two says, "therefore ask him."
GIS has a great deal to pray about as we go... our new campus, our court case, faculty and staff needs, our students well being, the support the faculty and staff need, and the list goes on...
What's God calling you to be praying about as you go? What are your God-sized challenges that keep you on your knees before the Lord? As your Grace family we'd love to be praying with you if you wanted and chose to share those prayer requests.
Go knowing it's going to be dangerous... verse three says, "I'm sending you out like lambs surrounded by wolves."
Our school's dangers are our court case, our move to the new campus, and the tremendous need for faculty and staff in a climate of economic challenges worldwide.
What are your dangers? Are you aware of what could swallow up and devour the work God's calling you to? There are dangers in following His plan. What are your wolves? Your dangerous places?
Go needy... Go watching and expecting what He is going to do for you. All this talk about money isn't necessary because he says leave it behind anyway. Verse four talks about leaving your resources at home.
Not too difficult for GIS. In fact it's as though God has built this neediness right into every circumstance we find ourselves in.
The subtle objective in life... or in higher education - can be the goal of being self-reliant, independent, self-sufficient... not needing help or resource from anyone for anything. Yet here the challenge is to go into your calling - your vocation needy - dependent upon God. Can we encourage you to hold in tension the idea of going out prepared AND totally reliant and dependent upon God?
The last go statement is to...go without distraction - keeping first priorities first. Verse four says, "Do not greet anyone on the road". For me, my distractions were my doctoral studies, my consulting work and a business plan of starting private school franchises across America. The big distractions are what captures our first love.
For GIS our distractions can be both our dangers and our needs. If we're not careful they can actually derail us and keep us from fulfilling God's call if we allow them. We can think the struggle is about the people who brought the lawsuit against the school. That's a distraction if we allow it to occupy more energy and time than it should. Instead we should spend time in prayer for those people.
In the culture of the day when this passage was written, the tendency was that if you hadn't seen someone for a long time, your greetings could take a long time. You'd be invited over to their home, you might end up spending a couple nights. The call here is to go and make up for lost time. We're being reminded we are on His mission, instructed to not get distracted otherwise we may never get to the mission let alone accomplish it.
What distracts you from keeping the important things important? We would encourage you to keep to the path that the Lord has set before you and not let anything or anyone deter you.
Here's all the alumni who attended the Alumni Chapel the first week back from Christmas Break. They did a fantastic job of challenging the students by sharing their stories of the journey's they've been on since leaving Grace.
posted by Don and Kathy Williams at 1:18 AM
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