technology – Shay Thomason

Why A 15 Second Instagram Video Made Me Cry

I would repeat tonight in a heartbeat. I had the privilege of speaking on social media in the ministry context and I seriously had so much fun. I’ve been sharing the last few days how I’ve been in and out of Josiah Venture’s “National Orientation” where 19 men and women from 8 countries are officially joining the JV family. They will finish up tomorrow and I was able to be part of their last night together.

As I spoke tonight on what God did with our family this past year, and how He used Facebook and Instagram to connect us to many individuals who are now on our support team, I was overcome with emotion. Even as I prepared my presentation earlier today, I began to cry and think about how many people are sacrificing and generously supporting the work we’re doing in Czech Republic. I’m truly and deeply thankful for each and every one of them. What’s absolutely incredible to me is that in a round about way, our supporters are supporting these nationals who heard me speak tonight. Hopefully I was able to impart to these nationals some help and encouragement and that is definitely in thanks to our supporters who allow me and my family to be here!

Above is a photo I took while I was speaking and I told them all it would be on the blog tonight. You can pray for all of them as they now turn their efforts towards raising support. This is a significant challenge for some of them. Many of their church cultures and countries are not accustomed to supporting missionaries and could very well be confused by their efforts. My hope and prayer is that these men and women will be part of a movement in their countries that sees the church rise and up send out workers in to the harvest! Being with them tonight reminded me that the work is not always easy, and I need to continue to pray that God would shower His grace on them.

Below is a video I posted to Instagram back in June when we finally reached 100% of our support. I showed this video tonight and that’s when I was overcome with emotion. Praise God for His faithfulness and for the many people (maybe even you!) who support our work here. We are truly thankful.

Thank you to all our incredible supporters. We're done! Buying our plane tickets today and planning to leave for Czech in a couple weeks. To God be the glory…Thank you! #the100club

A video posted by Shay Thomason (@shaycam) on Jun 10, 2014 at 9:26am PDT

You do some crazy things when you’re up early because of jet lag. For us, that meant pushing our dead and dry Christmas tree out the window of our apartment at around 6am this morning. We had already eaten breakfast at that point, and we were ready for some excitement, I guess? And I went with my gut which was thinking that if we left it by the trash cans that the trash truck would take it away and I’m happy to report that my gut was right! Later today the trash truck came and hauled it away which was kind of a load of my mind.

Later today I was a part of a meeting which could lead to some incredible fruit for the Kingdom if it plays out. Basically, Josiah Venture was meeting with an organization that helps do Internet evangelism. They are committed to the Gospel and the local church and I believe the Lord is blessing their efforts. Even hearing from one of their leaders today I was just impressed with his heart for the lost and his passion for this generation. These aren’t just smart guys with computers, but genuine evangelists that know we have been given an incredible tool in the Internet to get the gospel to the lost of the entire world.

In fact, one of the big parts of this online site is a place for people to share their testimonies once they have put their trust in Christ. As we looked at the different pages of lots of people I was reminded just how important it is to hear testimonies of the work of Christ in the lives of people. And it’s those stories that this organization is leveraging in order for more people to hear the Gospel. It’s really incredible just how God is using this unique ministry and I’m looking forward to being part of how Josiah Venture can be involved in using their technology to reach young people in Central and Eastern Europe.

Lastly, back at home, we’ve made a tiny bit of progress with jet lag. The kids slept until a little after 1am which is better than the previous two nights. We’re still really off and we even enjoyed breakfast burritos today at 5:00am. It makes me laugh as I think about it, but then again I’m really tired so just about anything right now could probably make me get the tired giggles.