It has been a month since I started ISEED program, time really goes fast! As I am sitting down and recalling my memory of August, August was really a very blessed time for me. I am very thankful that God has carried me through all the ups and downs, He has been teaching me how to be a better leader with a servant heart, and He has also provided me all the supports and help I need from brothers and sisters around me.

I have been involved with the August Welcome month in the past two years as a student before I started my internship with IFI, but it is the first time for me to take the leading responsibility for one of the three Welcome planning teams, and God has been teaching me a lot during the process. I was in charge of leading the Orientation/Involvement Fair team which included 6 days table booth on campus and the Involvement Fair day. I am very thankful that God gave me the chance to lead the whole team, we had very responsible members in the team that made the whole process fun and fruitful. Our team’s planning work was done very early in June, and all the table booths happened in August.

One big thing God has been teaching me this summer is to have joy and a thankful heart when I am working on projects and tasks. In the past, I always had the tendency to separate my spiritual life and projects, especially when I am responsible for some events or projects. I always tried to absorb the words, be charged and prepared, then jumped into the work with energy, then I always feel burned out after the projects were done, then took a period of time off to be recharged again. But this summer, God has been really working in my heart to let me better understand and live my life with the sense that God is with me all the time, every second and every day, no matter what am I doing. No matter I am sharing the gospel with others, or doing administrative work without direct communications with others, I can always feel His presence. And I finally realized that the feeling of pressure and stress I used to have is because I could not fully rely on God, I was trying to get things done as I planned so I can have the sense of security. But it is wrong! If I am living according to my plan, I will never find security, but when I am living each day by asking God’s guidance and have the faith that He will provide me what I need, and He will carry me through all the things, joy and relax just come so naturally.

Moreover, when I am just trying to cross what are on my planner and get things done, I could not feel relax, it always felt like work to me. But when I start embracing and enjoying my to-do-lists, I start having more appreciations of my work and people around me. After the big Involvement Fair day, I decided to just take a relaxing moment with my friend by walking along High Street and drinking some iced tea on the way home. For some reason, I felt it was so quiet on High Street that night, it might be because we had been standing near the big speaker for four hours:P Feeling the breeze, thinking about all the table booths that had been finished, I was filled with joy and thanksgiving.

I believe that God will give me a blessed ISEED year, it is a precious chance for me to have so much time and resources to let the Lord better equip me to be a disciple of the Him. So please pray for me that I will obey God’s will all the time, and I will be strengthened by the Holy Spirit.

Thanks for your reading!!