Praise the Lord for the fellowship of his body! (Psalm 16:3) It was a delight to spend Day 3 with the believers from Arlington and Plano. Our morning time of worship and evangelism was particularly sweet. We all congregated at 9:00 for a time of morning revival to seek the Lord’s blessing on our day and particularly on our gospel ministry at UT Arlington and Collin College. I was truly blessed by the singing this morning! What a joy it is to sing aloud with grace in our hearts to God.
After we split into groups of two or three, some of our brothers and sisters from Arlington led the way in showing us around the UTA campus. Then we set to work handing out tracts at one of the busier thoroughfares on campus. I had not gone flyering before and was a little intimidated at first, but I found encouragement in some of the ministry reading we have been doing, on the subject of ministering life to others. Every day we speak many words to many people on many topics. Most of these words will be quickly forgotten and few of them will have a lasting impact. But no words we can speak are as powerful as the divine word. As we sang at morning revival, “Your words are spirit, your words are life.” The ministry book explains, “We are interested only in life!” Although our human words may be feeble and broken, tainted like our own human life with its ill-formed affections and motivations and dispositions, God uses them as a vehicle to spread his own efficacious words, the very words of life, in which the Word of Life himself is pleased to display himself in a saving way for the further extension of his universal Body.
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ and manifests the savor of the knowledge of Him through us in every place.” 2 Corinthians 2:14
—Josh B.
Today was a wonderful day of blending and building! For me, the highlight would have to be our time in the morning when some of us were able to go out to Collin College in Plano to table and preach the gospel. Initially, because the majority of the campus is indoors, we were hesitant to play our ukulele and sing songs. So we started by just playing and singing softly as we alternated tabling and going out on the gospel. By the end of the time, there were a number of people brought to the table after being contacted. And even more were drawn to us because, by then, we were all singing loudly with joy! A line from a song we enjoyed before we went out was “Since Christ my soul from sin set free, this life has been a joy me.” I think I can testify that through our singing and our going out, our joy in Christ was expressed! After lunch we played whirly ball (I was terrible), then for dinner all of us in Plano had a recording session mixed with singing and playing board games. It was just a fun time to get further connected both humanly and spiritually to these believers. Lord bless the rest of this trip!
–Matt C.
Today was insane. From posting free Bible fliers on front doors in nearby neighborhoods, to trying TexMex from a tortilla factory
to defending Berkeley’s honor against locals in whirlyball (a crazy cross between lacrosse, bumper cars, and basketball),
to watching Ruiyu tear up the dance floor in DDR,
finishing off the day enjoying some hospitality, blending, and board games with the saints in Plano and McKinney,
we felt that we somehow squeezed three days worth of activities into one.
My favorite memory of the day has to be when all the brothers felt compelled to prove their manliness by taking huge bites out of jalapeños and shedding literal tears, only to get shown up by Allie who took four chomps of her jalapeño without batting an eyelash.
As exhausted as we were getting back to our hospitality tonight, and with the dread of waking up at 6:30 am the next day, Bell and I couldn’t help but want to spend as much time with our host Josh before we had to say goodbye. We haven’t been able to spend too much time together, but the little talks we had late at night enjoying Bluebell Ice Cream and hearing each other’s experiences in Christ have been one of the highlights of this trip.
I am reminded of 1 John 3:14, “We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.” This trip so far as reminded me how wonderful the members of the Body of Christ are. No matter where we go, what we do, or how much fun we have, the most important and enjoyable thing is to be blent together with the saints into one Body!
–Alex N.