A letter from Jonny

Greetings, Church, I hope that this letter finds you well, pressing on towards the prize (phil 3:14).

It's been over two months since I and the team assembled here in Truckee, CA. Our partnership with the local church, Sierra Bible, has been a tremendous blessing. They've been so good to us. We were kindly placed in the home of some hospitable members of the church and have been invited to so many meals. It's been a blast meeting with the college group on mondays, awana on tusedays, youth group on wednesdays, and snowboard outreach on thursdays.

Our group is split into two teams, one working at Soda Springs and one at Tahoe Donner, both ski resorts. We work 3/4 days a week 8am-4pm. We've got a ton of co-workers from South Africa, Argentina, and Chile. As our days go by we've been looking for chances to talk to them about Jesus, ask them questions about their lives, and invite them to an event or outreach. On our days off, we go to the big ski resort and snowboard. While there, we've met with friends and made new ones. Because of the common experiences on the mountain, we've got a ton to talk about and get excited over.

Shortly after arriving here in Truckee we met Andrea. She worked with us and didn't have much going for her. She was living in her truck and just barely getting by. One of the guys on the team gave her $100 for her personal needs and she was amazed. We had alot more to show her though. over the next 2 weeks we invited her to college group and over to our house for meals. She saw Christ in us and was called to be a daughter of God. It was a pleasant encouragement to me to remember that if people can see a decent picture of Christ (and the Spirit moves) they'll be broken and want in on this Christ following thing that we do.

Living with 5 dudes is fun. It's also really testing. Team conflict and dynamics have played a huge part in our time here. I wrestled through arguments and finances, and when I was at the end of my rope I turned to Jesse, the youth pastor and the main contact of the local church. His calm guidance pointed out that I should be careful not to look at just numbers, situations, and logistics but that I should focus on the spiritual world that we live in. He encourged me to stop brooding over event details and start with praying the event. Instead of just hanging out with people after church service, take measures to listen to their hearts and petition the Lord for their needs. In place of just yelling good bye to teammates in the morning as they head off to work, pausing to pray and commission them to serve the Lord for that specific day. I know that a lot of you don't live with a big group of random Christians, so you may not have to deal with all the animosity and hurt and miscommunicaiton that comes up like it does here, but you can look at things spiritually if you want to make a real lasting difference.

Our time here has gone so quickly. I urge you to be intentional with every day. Be clear and focused on the goal of serving others and proclaiming Christ. That means that when you meet with Christians talk about the opportunity that is going to come up after watching that movie with an unbeliever. don't just have friends over to "hang out", make sure that Jesus is the main event. When you are at theater practice with a Christian sister, make sure you compete with each other to be more excellent in hopes that someone would ask why you work so hard....and then point straight to Christ. When you're closing a business deal or teaching a snowboarding lesson, affirm the glory of God has he has made this economy possible and this wonderful natural world. Make sure that every Christian with you knows that they have to be all in on it.

Pray that our co-workers would continue to come to the Lord. Pray that we would be loving towards one another and encourage one another to bold acts of faith. Pray that we'd find a place to stay for the next month (our current house parents are moving to Hawaii). Pray that we'd remain focused on Jesus.

Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support. Thanks for the text messages that encourage. Thanks for asking about us at church. We've got another month or so to go here, and it's going to be an all-out sprint as we run this race.

for His glory,

Jonny Wong