Hello!
I hope you had a great Christmas and an awesome New Year! I was fortunate enough to come back to Huntington Beach for ten days to spend time with family and friends for the Holiday. I flew back into Kansas and the next morning of the 27th I took a train from Kansas City to St Louis to attend Urbana. Urbana is a massive 5 day mission conference hosted by Intervarsity. This year 16,000 people attended from around the world! I had an amazing experience living in God's love while I was there. It felt as if He was walking with me hand in hand as I learned about Him and His children who are so passionate about seeking and serving Him.
While I was at Urbana I had also discovered a ministry, language surveying, that has been stirring up a passion in my heart since. The task of a language surveyor is to go to villages with unwritten languages and through a series of surveys and tools they create an alphabet and eventually a written language for the people so a bible can be translated. They use a system of phonetics, a lot like the tool of pronunciation in the dictionary, which covers all the sounds of the human mouth, and record and write down what is spoken. The alphabet is then given to other groups of people who will translate the bible and teach the people to read. It is an amazing process that I am excited to continue to learn about. If you have any questions or stories I would love to hear them!
On the left is a picture of Urbana and its 16,000 attendees from inside Edward Jones' Dome in St Louis, Missouri. The picture on the right is the arch in St Louis behind a historic Catholic Church. The architecture of downtown St Louis was very impressive and beautiful. Upon the return to Kairos on the 5th of January, we have jump started and shifted into high gear. Last week a man named Doug Easterday came in and shared His life, passion, and revelation given to Him by God. He spoke to us of the Father heart of God and brought us, over the coarse of the week, into a time of forgiveness. It was an extremely impactful time for the class and has made a big affect on many of our lives. He helped us understand the truth of God's character and our relationship with Him, stripping the lies from us which Satan has been using to twist our view of God. Doug shared his testimony with us and a quote that was God inspired to keep his heart right with God despite difficult trials; "Do not base your understanding of God on what you dont know, base it on what you do know." All that he doesnt understand of God he says, he places on a shelf and approaches God saying, "I dont know this, but I want to live in Your Truth which you have so graciously given me." He stated the number one attack of Hell is to prevent Christians from believing or understanding the love of God. I am going to spend my time meditating on this and discovering the truth in it for myself.
This week we have practicing testimonies and dramas and coming Friday the team and I will be loading up into two vans and heading to North Carolina and Tennessee for our Speaking Blitz. The Blitz is focused on mission mobilization. I am very nervous to be getting up in front of hundreds of youth and young adults to encourage them to serve God through missions. It is a time for the team to be stretched and grown and to put our dependence on God.
Prayer Requests:
- That God keeps our team humble so that team unity can be more possible and our eyes can be off ourselves and on God ready to serve Him in ways unexpected.
- That God speaks through us and into the hearts of the students we will be encouraging.
- That I trust God that He will be faithful in using me for His glory and that He opens me up to allow Jesus to shine brightly in my life.
- That Satan doesn't use fear to prevent Kairos from serving Jesus Christ.
- That my finances come in and God gives me strength and confidence, stripping fear from my heart in the process.
With Love and Blessings in Christ Jesus,
Stephen Reynolds
