SEAsia Update #1

7 July 2011

Hello from an air-conditioned condo in Singapore! It's 2:30AM here and I'm enjoying the AC while I can and the jetlag while it lasts.
Tomorrow morning I'll join up with teammates from EPC, and in the afternoon we'll be flying to Malaysian Borneo with _____ and with ____'s group of fifteen or so. Please be praying for us for wisdom to perceive the potential, power to do the Father's will, freedom to enjoy His promised provision, joy in the work Christ has done through His body, safety, unity, and preparedness. 

After everyone else leaves, I will be staying on in Sabah, then traveling to Dumaguete City, Negros (a province of the Philippines) to participate in Student Movement for Christ International's evangelistic campaign there. Including the two segments that bore me safely to S'pore Tuesday/Wednesday, I'll be on 11 different flights before returning stateside! Transportation and accommodations have been arranged but please do pray for me especially for my alone times in transit around Southeast Asia with my papers, cash, electronics... And for lonely times in general, that I would find and feel the Lord hiding me in His word when I crave comfort and company. I'll remember and be grateful for your thoughts and prayers! Feel free to write me.

I'm excited that God has prepared me for and led me to this point. I spent the last month in Chicago with my parents and with the church community that I was raised in. I also did a lot of Bikram to prepare for this saran wrap + blowdryer weather. For all the different ways I have been readying myself for this trip, I'm finding--and they are my witnesses--that God has used the last month to empty me. And that this is the preparation He has chosen. I hope to run faithfully before you as we watch and wait to see how He fills me and moves me toward greater freedom to choose Him! Pray that all my encounters with people will be a spilling over of His life in me and that I would not shrink from these opportunities despite knowing I may never meet the people I'll be meeting again after I leave Southeast Asia. I am grateful for the ways NYC in particular has stretched me in this area of welcoming people in and then letting them go.

I'll try to keep these letters short but will be blogging and reflecting more personally at http://estherogen.blogspot.com.

Thankful for you!