Susan Sebyala

Last night, Susan Sebyala joined the Sebyala clan! She is Pastor Steven and Sara's fourth child - Samuel, Sandra, Sara, and Susan. I am so excited to meet her when I return to UG! I will be sure to post pictures once I get them and any more information. I was able to talk to Sara, though she was still in the Hospital so I didn't want to keep her. Pastor Steven doesn't return to UG until the end of November, so he'll get to meet her when she's one month old.
Blessings.

The Line

Where do we draw the line between 'being in the world' and 'being of the world'? I've come to realize over the past 3 months here in college that this issue of drawing the line is a major issue in my generation. If you were to come down here to visit me, I could point out all sorts of people who take all sorts of different opinions with 'the line', some more liberal with its placement, others more conservative with it and others just "lukewarm" in their stance on the issue.

One thing I notice about much of my generation is for their desire to be real in a world of superficiality. This is good, but can often lead to problems. For example: the other week during my Mid-Term group service project, one of the team members dropped several curse words in casual conversation. We were all in the car when she used them. When she said them, it got silent for a second or two and someone piped up, 'Did you just curse?'. Everyone had heard the words that she seemed to have used with no apparent regard for their meaning. Her response to the obvious quesiton was, 'What? I'm just being real.' No one really wanted to bring up a big theological debate on our way to feed the homeless, so the answer was taken at face value and left at that.

However, upon reflection on it, was she really being "real"? What a terrible excuse for an assumed born-again believer to use. She felt she was better able to connect with the world if she spoke like they did. Now granted, the f-bomb was never dropped but that still does not grant her amnesty in my book. As it says in James 3:9-12:

"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water."

Clearly Paul is calling us to refrain from using such vocabulary. All I can do is pray for her and keep myself from falling prey to this mindset. As stated earlier, 'being real' is certainly a characteristic of my generation that is positive yet on the same hand can be our downfall. We're so into trying to be real for Christ that we can become compromised and do the Kingdom no good.

Thanks for your prayers and support as I continue to press on. The Lord has certainly kept me these past months and has seen me through time and time again. I look forward to coming home in December to visit and catch up with everyone back home. Blessings.

But God, it's just five bucks!

Several weeks ago, the professor of my Missionary Life & Work class announced amongst cheers and praises of my fellow classmates that he would not be giving a Midterm Exam. As we were murmuring amongst ourselves, he lifted his hands to quiet our excitment. "In the traditional sense..." he added. With perplexity overcoming each of us, he explained his plan to us: We would not have a Midterm Exam that consisted of questions of studied course material or reflective essays of applied missiology principles. No, our Midterm Exam was to break into groups of 10 students and plan and execute a minimum 6 hour community service project here in Lakeland. "What joy..." I thought, "Exactly what I need to add to my schedule." My group picked a project to do and set a date to meet to nail down the specifics. For the project, we would visit a local park and clean it up as well as feed the local homeless population. Our meeting was set for Wednesday (Oct 8) after chapel.

As I sat in Chapel on Wednesday (Oct 8), the speaker called the ushers forward to take an offering. For those of you who don't know, every chapel, an offering is taken (we have chapel 3 times a week). All offerings taken during Chapel services are put 100% into missions, both foreign and domestic. For the past several weeks, I have been faithful in putting $1 into offering every chapel. However that day was different. As the speaker prayed over the offering, I pulled my wallet out. I didn't have a dollar to put into the offering. The only bill I had in my wallet was a $5. As the offering plate quickly made its way to my row, I had to decide what I wanted to do. As I saw the offering plate start at the end of my row, I put my wallet away, with nothing in my hand. That $5 bill was all I had for the next week or so (I live life on a budget, thank you). I felt I had given God enough these past several weeks in the mission offerings. Besides, it was just five bucks.

After chapel ended, I went to the Cafe to meet with my Mid-Term project group. We met for roughly 45 minutes, nailing down a set schedule for the day that we would do our project, writing out job descriptions of each group member, and so on. Then, at the end of the meeting as everyone was leaving, the group leader said "Oh wait! I almost forgot! I need $5 from every member so I can go buy all the supplies we need for the day." I rolled my eyes and gave a huge sigh. "You've got to be kidding me!" I thought. I begrudgingly pulled out my wallet once again, looked at my $5 bill and reluctantly slapped it into her hands. As I walked out of the cafe, I looked up into the sky and said "I guess You were gonna get it either way, weren't You?!"

That following Saturday, the group and I met and did our outreach. We worked for several hours at a local ministry called Lighthouse Ministries and then left and drove to a park where we passed out food to the homeless and picked up all the trash in the park. As I began to reflect on that day and all we did, I think sacrificing $5 was the least I could have done for those homeless men and hurting youth we touched that day. I found myself needing to repent. And wouldn't you know it, by the end of that day I had received $25 from various sources. Here I was complaining about having to give up $5 for something that would impact the community and instead God teaches me a lesson and blesses me in the end. What an efficient and humorous God we serve.

Relationships

Next week marks my 2 month "anniversary" living the college life. Of the many lessons the Lord has been teaching me these past weeks, one of them has been about relationships. I wouldn't neceassarily call it teaching as I would 'hands-on review of what I was taught last year'. I've found myself being reminded of some difficult lessons I already learned about making and maintaining friendships. It's always nice when God helps you brush up on such basic principles as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfullness, and self-control by putting people in your life to see if those 'principles' are present and active. After spending 2 months with the same people, everyone here on campus is finally getting into a routine/schedule and opening up more. You start to get to know people better, you draw closer together or further apart and as time wears on, you need more of the fruit of the Spirit in your relationships. Fatigue and stress start to bombard the bonds and ties of friendships, like little mice slowly gnawning await at the tiny spindles of an enormous rope. It's in those times of fatigue, stress, and hurt that we must approach each other from the 'Tree of Life' (Pastor Glenn - Bethel Temple 8/3/08 sermon) and chase out the 'foxes in our gardens' in order to preserve our relations.


I've seen not just mine but so many relationships (friends, roommates, etc.) that have come under strain and pressure these past few weeks. As the realization and stress of 'long-term commitement' sets in, everyone can allow their flesh to get in the way of their friendships. If you would like a specific prayer point for me, pray that I would have the strength to die to my flesh in the context of relationships and that I would better be the hands and feet of Jesus here at Southeastern.


Anyway, for those of you who don't know, I've determined that my roommate and I are practically polar opposites in everything; from musical tastes to ideologies to life styles to our viewpoints on Christian topics. I thought I'd include some photos from SEU in this blog!


My side of the room...




My roommate's side of the room...