Until this school semester at Cornell University, I have never acknowledged that I was not truly living my life for God. Instead, I was living for the expectations I set upon myself to achieve the career, salary, and future life that I assumed to be an automatic given for any graduate from an Ivy League University. Broken by my weakness and the guilt from my sins, I realized that God would not be pleased by any offering I made because I was not seeking Him first. In studying Romans with the small group that I lead in Campus Crusade for Christ, I have been learning what it means to be set free from sin, to not be condemned by guilt, and to love Him. I no longer desire to be satisfied by anything in this world except His will for my life and my desire to give Him my everything has been a process of freeing me from the burdens that I once carried. Not only this, but God has also filled my heart with His joy so that I cannot help but want to share with others the ways He has opened my eyes. For this reason, I pray for myself Paul’s prayer in Philemon 6: “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.”

This summer, I will be going on a six-week trip from June 25^th to August 6^th through OMF (Overseas Missionary Fellowship) to serve in NE China at Yanbian University of Science & Technology (YUST). As a short-term volunteer, I will be reaching out to students through teaching English and assisting the long-term workers with a partnership team of five other members from the local church I attend in Ithaca.

During the time before and during the trip, I would appreciate prayer support in these areas:

• That I would not rely on my own strength but on God’s provision (for my spiritual, emotional, physical, and financial needs)
• That my heart would learn to care for the people that I will be serving
• That I would draw close to God and seek Him daily
• For God to unify our team and to challenge us to grow in faith

-Jeanne Lee

This summer, from mid-July to mid-August, I’ll be going to Northeast China to teach English at a university for a month.  Hopefully through my interactions with my students and the people in the town, I will be able to share the word of God with them or help the newer Christians develop their faith more.  The team I’m going with is composed of 7 other people from all over the U.S, none of whom know each other already.  We’re going to a pretty rural place, and apparently there’s a church already there, but the students at the university don’t really go because they speak a different dialect and there’s a lot of cultural barriers between ethnic groups.  There is a couple that has been there for about 6 years now, who both teach English at the university.  We’ll be working very closely with them in trying to build a Christian presence on campus.  So yeah, I guess now you know basically everything I know about my trip.  Please pray for me whenever you get the chance, because this trip is going to challenge me a lot!  Seriously though…

Pray that…

• I would desire to glorify God above everything else.  If this happens, everything else will fall into place.
• The language barrier would not be too much of an issue.  I cannot say a single word of Mandarin, so pray that I have the motivation to try to communicate with people anyways and not just give up.
• I get along well with my teammates, and not judge them or rank myself against them.
• God would prepare the hearts of the people I’m going to talk to, because no matter how hard I try, it is not in my power to “convert” people.
• I will eagerly and joyfully seek out ways in which I can serve my team, the long term missionaries, and the people of China and put their needs before my own desires.

-Kellie Kress