6th travel report - 2nd year (english version)

After some time I present to you a new travelreport:
I remember I had a very good time here in Sweden before summer. Now, in the second year, the lessons are much more focused on missions and being a servant for your neighbour/to be there for the people around you.

I found out that it's somehow so much easier to not always live for yourself. When you focus more on God and others, your own life becomes less important and you're not so anxious to get things done in your own way. Of course it's important to have your needs met in a healthy way; which means that you take care of yourself and think about your future, for example. But the most important thing is not yourself, but God. And if God is the most important in your life, then you're denying yourself and you learn to live for others. You learn to live TOGETHER.. And exactly this is so important in this world and in this time. Especially in Europe, where people are quite individualistic in general. Furthermore, it makes a human being much happier to live for others, that's been proven. And that's how God created us, as social beings..

Meanwhile it's clear that I will go to Vietnam on missiontrip. We have a team of six persons and we'll go for three weeks to Vietnam in November!! I heard that people in Vietnam are very hungry for God, so I hope we can do a lot for the people there.
The first weeks in the second year of bibleschool are very good. We get teaching about, for example: spiritual warfare, the Holy Spirit in practice, Christian social work. During the lessons ''spiritual warfare'' we learn that we have to fight in prayer sometimes. The teacher explains that the spiritual world is a war. ''If we realize we're in war, we'll start fighting'', says the book about this subject. Very soon we'll have teaching about missions and culture, as a preparation for the missiontrip.
We also pray a lot for the refugees from Siria who come into Europe now. The church is really eager to help the refugees, they emphasize that right now is the time for churches to work together and let Jesus shine through them. We pray a lot for Europe, that people will open their hearts for the poor and needy. I think it's beautiful how the lessons in bibleschool and the reality go together.
I also think it's awesome to get teaching about how Jesus really was, in His daily life. In Jesus' eyes it's, in the first place, not about the number of people, to reach as many as possible. He's got a totally different attitude. His heart beats for every person, He wants to give every person the attention and time that they need. When the 5000 people came together to listen to Jesus (Joh. 6:3-5), He doens't start immediately preaching. The first thing Jesus asks is how they could feed all these people. The heart of Jesus wants to take care of the people. Jesus' heart is full of love. Jesus is very practical. That's a great example for me, I can also help others in a very practical way. God wants to change my heart and let it beat for the people around me. Jesus also went a lot to places where He could be alone with His Father. To get new strength and encouragement from God, and to just talk to God. We learned in school that we can't always give and give.. Just like breathing, we have to go back to God every time, breath in, and go on.

Another thing which I find very precious is that, every experience that a human has with God, everything someone receives from Him, is a gift of grace. And He gives it, because He wants to give. Not because we deserve it, or because God wants something from us.. No, He loves us, He gives us His grace. This is the way to learn to be thankful.