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| Hello!! It has been quite a while since I’ve written a letter to all of you. In fact, the last time I wrote was in January. At that time, I had just arrived back from Trujillo, Peru. Just to catch everyone up, I’d like to highlight all that God has done through me this past year.
INDIA
I began writing most of you support and update letters in regards to time that I was planning to spend in Kolkata, India. And I did!! I spent four months in India working with Word Made Flesh (WMF) and ministering to women and children in the red-light districts as well as working in the Missionary of Charity (Mother Teresa’s) Homes. I have written pages and pages and pages about my experiences there and I, even now, do not feel as if I have even begun to capture that time!! God proved so consistently faithful. Time and time again God revealed more of Himself in ways that I did not think were possible!!! Truly, on that trip I began to find Jesus in my brothers and sisters in the world, especially in the brokenhearted and the lowly.
PERU
Next, I wrote a letter or two about a trip around the New Year. I spent 10 days working with Twin Lakes Summer Camp in Trujillo, Peru!! Twin Lakes is a ministry that is about 30 miles outside of Jackson, MS that I have worked at for the past six summers. The trip to Peru was the first of many that will eventually establish a full-time camp center in Trujillo that does not require foreign staff to help run it. This trip, however, was very different than planned. I ended up staying an additional eleven days because of extremely providential flight mishaps. So, instead of coming home I was allowed to stay in Trujillo and work with SALI (Saint Augustine Language Institute) and teach English to Peruvian students. Again, an incredible experience! In that time, I began to feel dependence on Christ in a new way and I began to see what it really means to serve others and saving none for yourself. My ‘extra’ time in Peru also proved again and again how God will use us. I remember very specifically asking God to use me while I was in Peru: Two days later, I was “still” in Peru when I “should” have been on a plane back to the States. We serve a God that grants our prayer in amazing ways!!
CURRENTLY
Since I returned from Peru, I have been living and working in Jackson. I have definitely had my ups and downs as far as figuring out life back in the US. At the same time, I have been able to experience God’s grace in still newer and more profound ways!
JAPAN
I wanted to let you know about an opportunity that God has opened for this summer. Very soon I will be leaving the US again and going to Shizuoka, Japan. I will be working with missionaries, Ricky and Sarah Gordon who have been in Japan for 23 years. They have planted a successful and thriving church that seeks not only to reach the Japanese people but also the large population of internationals who find themselves in Japan. They also run a full time adoption agency out of their home. With seven of their own children still living at home and many others coming in for summer ministry, they have a very busy household indeed! I will be assisting them in any way that I can to ease the burden of caring for so many and sustaining so many ministries.
I’m hoping to fly out from Jackson on June 19. I want to invite all of you to be a part of this next chapter of what God is doing in a few different ways. First, I would ask each of you to pray, pray, pray!!!
PLEASE PRAY
Regardless of what else, I need prayer!! I ask that you would pray for:
• Me as I seek God in all I do.
• The church in Shizuoka.
• Japan to see adoption as an alternative to abortion.
• Japanese men and women to see their need that can only be met by Christ and that they will take a stand in accepting Him.
• Against government and other fortresses and spiritual forces that stand in the way of the preaching and acceptance of the Gospel!
FINANCES
Secondly, I am going to need financial support to make this trip possible. I will need $3,000 to pay for airfare, accommodations, travel to and from the airport and food and other expenses. I am absolutely sure that God is going to fully meet this and any other needs that will arise. If you are willing to help support me in this regard, please email me and/or write me and send a check to me @:
Sonny Sweatt
265 Shady Grove Church Road Foxworth, MS 39483
lizinko@gmail.com
UPDATES
As in the past, I want to keep all of you involved! I count each of your prayers as very important and, as such, I want you to know how to pray. If you are receiving this letter, I will continue to send you updates as to the status of my trip and what I am doing. If you have any questions or comments at all, please email me (or if you know of anyone else that you think should receive these updates). Opening our eyes to see that there is more, both in the way of need and in the way of fulfillment, is always a scary thing. I consider each of you to be very brave because you have opened your eyes and your ears to more. You have read my letters, listened to my rants and looked at my pictures. You have opened yourself to realizing that there is more than just your church in your city in your state. I thank you for that bravery!! I thank you that you are willing to see the pain and the beauty that comes with opening our eyes. The bravest thing we can do is to open our eyes, see the darkness and keep on hoping. Thank you all so much!!!
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| sometimes, it ain't what you expect... ...maybe, scratch the sometimes "do you believe in fulfillment?" life is irony | |
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| BRIGHT...
light...ugh...why? no...sleep...groggy...work? not yet...my phone...is it the alarm? or is someone calling...uuuhhh...it doesn't matter...sleep, no...no...NO i'm NOT GETTING UP YET...
hunger...
anger...
tired...
pain...
all of these things have at least one thing in common...whenever they are experienced to such a degree, they demand to be met, regardless of how ridiculous, unrational or unreasonable they are...hmmm...it's true...when you're first waking up it doesn't matter at ALL what is on the other end...almost, but you would give ANYTHING for five more minutes...or a cup of soup, just ask Esau...
it may be a fatal flaw in man, at least these days, but we have a REALLY hard time seeing through the fog of our own desires...whenever we do it, we tend to become obsessed with the idea of our own pragmatism and go to far, throwing out all emotion and destroying any balance...hmm....maybe i'm exaggerating, or maybe not...either way...
that feeling? like you're just waking up? or starving? or whatever...that's how i feel...i can't see past my own desires to see that there is something better...if i just get out of bed and keep going a little bit i'll get into that shower and wake up...i won't miss class...i won't miss work, i'll make it and i'll keep making it...and i'll get it done...it just takes a little bit of trust and a little bit of try on my part...i take one step and he takes 10,000...
BRIGHT...thank you, dear light, though i hate you now, that's just me, being...well, something that i hope isn't really me...;)
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| so...it's been a little while...i've become one of THOSE xanga bloggers...*sigh*...
anyway, maybe this post will mark a new wave of creativity and/or motivation...hmm, maybe just motivation...;) more likely it won't...but, you never know, right?
When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be,
we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy.
Love is a harsh and dreadful thing to ask of us, but it is the only answer.
what to do? where to go? how to do it? when to ask? will it look like i want it? can i ask about this one? does she still think so? but, will it be like i want? y'know, like i wan...
when you have conflicting dreams and a God that is big enough to answer any and all of them and wants to answer all of them, what do you do?
"Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you."
it's scary because seeking that kingdom so often looks so very little like helping yourself...
"do you trust me?"
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| it seems change is inescapable...and, it seems that, even when we do nothing (and often times it happens most commonly during such times) the entire world will change around us...even xanga has changed... the people that post on xanga...the people that read xanga...the way you post on xanga...the way xanga looks...what times of day i post on xanga...yet, some things remain the same...such as my continuing lack of understanding of the term xanga...and, it just so happens that, for the sake of continuity, i am not going to try and find out the meaning or story behind such a terrific term... so, i do hope that this post will mark the beginning of a new zeal for posting and enjoying xanga and writing all over again...i do desperately wish to tell you such a thing...but, we'll see...in the meantime, i leave you with this...to celebrate my lack of communication and to mark the occasion of a debut of such a lackluster degree as this... "Of all the ridiculous expressions people use--and people use a great many ridiculous expressions--one of the most ridiculous is "No news is good news." "No news is good news," simply means that if you don't hear from someone, everything is probably fine, and you can see at once why this expression makes such little sense, because everything being fine is only one of many, many reasons why someone may not contact you. Perhaps they are tied up. Maybe they are surrounded by fierce weasels, or perhaps they are wedged tightly between two refrigerators and cannot get themselves out. The expression might well be changed to " No news is bad news," except that people may not be able to contact you because they have just been crowned king or are competing in a gymnastics tournament. The point is that there is no way to know why someone has not contacted you, until they contact you and explain themselves. For this reason, the sensible expresssion would be, "No news is no news," except that it is so obvious it is hardly an expression at all." | |
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