Manipur India Missions: Who saved the human population and was the original artist of "I'm on a Boat"? My favorite superhero...

IMPORTANT STUFF FIRST, than an update on how life in Manipur has been.

This is a tad long and wordy, but I promise it’s worth the read.

I’ve been reading before bed, a Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, I highly recommend it! And God has been showing me a lot lately. But specifically that He wants my life to be like “Noah and His Ark”.

You see, Noah lived in a time when the world was morally corrupt and the world displeased God. Before the flood there was only one person that was worth saving, only one man who God was pleased with. That was Noah. Noah was a Godly man that followed the will of God and enjoyed having a close relationship with God says Genesis 6:9. Noah was a man that strived to make his life a life that made God pleased.

But God telling Noah to build a huge ship in the middle of the desert for 120 years without even every seeing rain before! That had to throw Noah off his game a little right? He couldn't possibly do everything God wanted than right? Nope Noah did it. Without asking when the rain would come, or how he would get the animals together, or without making excuses to God, Noah built it. I’m almost positive everyone was taking about the “crazy dude building the boat”, but Noah always trusted in God and ignored the people around him. Noah took the exact specifications that God gave him and perfectly did it. And thank goodness Noah did because… well none of us would be here if He did.
God chose one man for the job, a man that made God smile, a man that would save the world. That sounds like the definition of a superhero to me. That is why NOAH IS MY FAVORITE SUPEROHERO.

Noah, the best superhero ever, has some qualities I think we all should strive for:
1. He followed God’s will and enjoyed being close to God.
2. He trusted in God completely even when things seemed crazy impossible, without doubting.
3. He did everything God commanded him. (Even when it meant building for 120 years)
4. He didn’t conform to the pattern of the world around him.

For some of us the story of Noah’s Ark is a Bible story and we’ve heard it many times, but for some of you it’s new. The story of Noah should be compelling to all of us none the less. Its about a common man that God called to do amazing things to say the least.
Sometimes we have to do these God calls us to do even when they look weird to some people. God may call some people to give extra money to the church…. God may call some people to give their time to help the homeless… God may call some people to stop college to go to a poor country for a semester! Some people question why I’d give up the comforts of my college life to come here. It’s because this is a piece of my Noah’s Ark (Mark’s Ark, sounds catchy). God has called me to do it and I couldn’t resist. I am nooooooooooooooooooooooowhere close to Noah’s status here which is exactly why I said a “piece” of my Ark. I day by day struggle with answering God’s call when He says “talk to this person” Or “Give them that” or “speak in front of them”. Every time I trust in God and do what is uncomfortable at times I, like Noah, built my Ark day by day by day. Doing what God calls us to do is not a short and easy thing, it’s a 120 year thing, it’s a lifetime thing!

SO I CHALLENGE YOU… stop doing the comfortable thing all the time. Do the crazy thing that no one else will understand! Do it because God has asked you to, not because it makes any sense to us. Newsflash God is a lot smarter than we will ever be as humans, so when He tells you to do something put all your little worldy, human desires and worries aside and DO IT. Build your Ark. Be the person that makes God smile! Because when it’s all said and done we want to hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

I challenge you with a couple questions that I have been asking myself…
1. What is the Ark God has asked you to build?
2. Do you see yourself displaying the qualities of Noah?
3. How can you make God smile today?
4. Are you fully trusting and obeying God or just doing some of the stuff he asks? (Half obedience is not obeying at all.)
5. Am I willing to risking everything to be exactly who God wants me to be? (Even if it’s a ship builder in the middle of a desert.)

Some of yall may be wondering where the posts have been?! Sorry for the couple of weeks without one. Everything has been totally normal here, and by “normal” I mean crazy busy and a slightly tiring. But it has been a great couple weeks.
I have been TEACHING, getting to teach my students idioms (which are basically American sayings) and their meanings. That is a lot of fun and I’m enjoying that. I am now taking grades, giving homework, and giving my own tests just like any other teacher!
I have been playing in the Manipur FOOTBALL (soccer) Tournament for the past three weeks. I am on the Rayburn High team and we are up against 66 more teams from the area. We aren’t the best team out there but we sure do have fun! Apparentely the Tombings also saw me playing on the TV thanks to the local news station. Which means about 200,000 people could see it on their TV! They said they knew it was me because well I was “the only white guy in the tournament”. Also I’m told I’m the first American to every play in the tournament which is exciting as well. Rayburn keeps telling people they recruited me from an international team. Haha.
Other than those two fun things, everything else is fantastic as well. Drums and the Hostel is blast every day. I love the boys and girls that I get to make music with and worship with daily.

God has blessed me here in India beyond my wildest beliefs. The people, my job, the worship, the football, the cold weather, the drums, the village, the mountain view, it reminds me every day that I am blessed. 5 years ago I never would’ve guessed I’d be here experiencing this but God knows what I want better than me. And for that and all these blessing I praise God and am thankful!

In humble appreciation of the amazing things God can do that we don’t understand…. I’ll keep building my Ark day by day. Even though I’m uncomfortable and may look crazy to people, my God knows what He is doing, and that’s enough for me.
I’m gonna keep building my Ark, will you?