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Day 2 SEALS 2012: Arise and Shine

It's Day 2 if SEALS 2012

It was our first full day filled with  workshops, regional breakouts, and worship, and exhibits.
Another highlight of the day was breaking into meeting other leaders of similar ministries and similar ethnicity.  It is so good to hear the hustle and bustle of discussion,  intriguing conversations, and delightful faces.

One highlight that I experienced mid day was during the regional breakout session.  (we broke out to West, East, Midwest, South regions of the U.S) to discuss 2 questions:
1) What are the issues that you are facing today in your immigrant churches and how is it affecting your ministry?
2)What do you hope for, what do you want to see happen next, and how can SEAC help?
It was good to hear the pangs of the struggles of ministry in an immigrant, but it is so encouraging to listen, see how God moves in waves, and how he is healing, redeveloping, and reconstructing Southeast Asian perspectives on leadership, honor, and respect.

In our evening session our speaker Mydur Xiong challenged and encouraged us "Arise" In other words to step up in our immigrant churches, for the glory of of the Lord is already on us!!! (Isaiah 60:1)

As I was praying in the back today, the word I received was "shield".
The first scripture that immediately came to my mind was The Full Armor of God from Ephesians 6.10-18.  "What did the shield represent again?"  I opened up the scriptures and with a glimpse I came to the word shield, it says,

IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES take up the SHIELD of FAITH., with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.  
Ephesians 6: 16

But!  As I read the context, it says:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,  against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual fores of evil in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12  

In a sum, these words really spoke to me relating to the regional breakout sessions and the message.  The way it connects is that we battle our honor of our parental immigrant churches, as we were released and blessed, redeveloping, and regenerating, we still battle not a physical blood battle, but a battle of emotional and spiritual ties. (authorities, rulers, present darkness, the world, and of course Satan's plan of action)  Mydur affirmation was for us to take up the challenge  for God's glory is upon us.  \In my prayers, it made it clear that as Southeast Asian American leaders in our immigrant churches, we need IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES to TAKE UP THE SHIELD of FAITH, so that WE MAY EXTINGUISH ALL the DARTS of the evil one.  

May this be our prayer and plan of action, build up your faith, take up your faith and use it as your shield.  

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