Previous Update 1

As promised, here's the 3 of 3 updates.

However, I currently have not packet and am supposed to be leaving for the week in about 20min. So this will be a quick bullet point of what we're doing for spring break and how you can pray:

house where Tina Wilson and 3 of her 4 daughters live.

Mission: show love to a navajo family of 5 living in a 11x11 house (no electric or water), by turning this existing house into a kitchen and building for them a 22x22ft house with electricity and an outhouse. We have 6 half days to work on the house and though I think we'll finish, it'll definitely be close.

Pray:

• For safety. Last night the generous people at Home Depot filled a 24ft Truck with enough cement and stucco and dry wall, etc. Enough to load down the truck to a level where the mudflaps dragged on the road by a good 3-4". So after all the materials were spread around to the other cars things seem to be working a bit better. Also, one car got in a minor accident while leaving town. Thankfully no one was hurt.
• For Fellowship: It would be really neat to see God give us a sweet family spirit this trip. There's been a lot of hard work put into this trip from the staff and from many students. It would be great to see their work and prayers rewarded.
• That'd we'd be a blessing to the reservation: I think of 1 Cor 3 (i believe...?) where it talks about us giving off the aroma of Christ. We'd love to bless them any way we can. It's already been cool to see several students give extra money to help the family, or even sell some of their things in order to have money to give.

Thanks again!

Ryan

Previous Update 2

Hey again,

I mentioned in the last email I'd send two more updates before we leave for spring break to make up for the lack of updates these last few weeks...  Here's #2.

A friend I'll call "M" was introduced to me by one of the student leaders in Navs. For the last few weeks "M" and I have regularly been rock climbing at the rec center together and have gotten to know each other. "M" has been very hesitant to come out to any Nav events or Bible Studies, but said when he came to college he began to seek out a church because he felt like "there was a hole in his heart he couldn't fill." I don't think "M" is a Christian, based on our interactions, but he is interested and seemingly close. He was planning on coming to our Spring Break trip but had to cancel last minute. I just found this out tonight and am still a bit bummed actually. Praise God for how the body has accepted and loved him. But also pray "M" would come to know the Lord for himself.

Update (3/23/10) – unfortunately a few days before we left for the Spring Break trip “M” canceled. The trip would have been great for him, but I still look forward to what God can do the rest of the semester.

Previous Update 3

Ross, me, and Mike (left to right) at the Truth conference, Pine Vally, CA

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven't sent an update in a while, things have been crazy as we've returned from our annual regional conference and immediately transitioned into "go-mode" for Spring Break.

Conference was incredible. Thanks for your prayers! In the picture above is Ross and Mike. Ross is a senior entertaining the idea to work with Navs in the future, and Mike is a freshman (junior by standing) whose been a true joy having around. I was able to get to know both men much better over the weekend--we spent time together during free time taking a joy ride to the beach, met together with the director of Long Beach to talk about practical evangelism, and attended many of the workshops together.

Over the weekend it was exciting to see God work in both men's lives. Specifically for Ross, the conference came at a time of figuring out what he should be doing over the summer. He's been to Japan two years ago on a mission trip and has been seriously considering going back, and ultimately considering if God is calling him to Japan as a full time missionary after graduation. Though Japan has been on his mind these last few years, for whatever reason he's never really considered going again this summer.

Ross is not one to make rash decision by any means. His mood and character are both very steady. However through the course of this weekend God seemed to be asking Ross pretty pointedly whether he would consider again giving up his summer to go to Japan. Last venture he took there he made life-long friends and helped bring one of the more senior Japanese students to faith in Jesus. This summer Ross felt God asking him to consider "is ministering in Japan something I should be doing with the rest of my life?" There are a lot of practical reasons why this summer would not be good to spend in Japan--fund raising during a recession, giving up the opportunity to have an internship in his major, and of course, the personal comfort that accompanies staying home. Yet still, Ross felt God pointedly asking him to go.

The last day of the conference Ross asked the Japan team leaders to reserve a spot on the team for him. One week after returning home he's applied, been accepted, and sitting through orientation!!!

God seemed to give all of us a sweet taste of his Spirit this weekend, and this is one of many stories about what He did in their lives.  Thanks again for your prayers!

For the Kingdom,

Ryan and Ariel Mullarkey

P.S. I'll send out an email everyday for the next three days with updates, because there has definitely been enough happening in the ministry that I would like to catch you up on!

Wow it’s been a while…

Hey all! Sorry it’s been so long… Here’s a shotgun entry filling you in on what’s been happening.

North Korea:

Robert Park is back in the U.S. Most sites claim he said some pretty stupid stuff (like: “they treated me very nice and I was allowed to pray freely and go to church.”). Basically all N. Korea propaganda. His friend said he was beat near death a couple of times and finally released because they didn’t know what else to do with him. He’s now recovering in the states, but the effect of the torture still lingers.

2 Weeks ago was unofficially N. Korea awareness week where some friends from Robert’s church marched into the  UofA mall to stage a demonstration raising awareness for the humanitarian issues in n. korea. I attended some of it and it seemed to be one of the more successful demonstrations I’ve ever seen at the UofA.

A refuge named “Tom” spoke at our NavNite to conclude the week. It was fascinating as he told of his story of how he escaped to China, found Christ, went back to N. Korea because of his family, was captured a couple of times, escaped again and fled through China, Mongolia and Laos before making it to S. Korea, totally over 10,000 kilometers traveled. All while he was 24. My age. Wow.

Conference:

We attended our annual regional conference and it was great! Here’s an email I sent out about it.

Spring Break:

We’re leaving tomorrow for Chinle, AZ to build a house on the Navajo Reservation. 70+ students are coming and it’s one of our biggest trips (both in prep and attendance) that we’ve ever done. Several non-believers are coming. We’ll spend half the day studying the book of Hosea, and the other half building a 22x22’ house. It’ll be awesome. Picture to follow :)

Thanks for all your prayers!!!

Thank God for the Body

Last night we headed to ASU for the first bi-annual joint NavNight, involving both UofA and ASU. We figured if there was peace between the two colleges, world peace couldn 't be that far off.

Skip Gray shared from the Word and mentioned a golden nugget, "We need 4 things to make it in the Kingdom for the Long Run: 1. correct view of the sovereignty of God, 2. correct view of the Scriptures, 3. Become a Servant, and 4. authentic fellowship.

Throughout the book of Acts, fellowship is anything but Christians gathing into a holy huddle. It says through their fellowship, many came to know the Lord. How could that be possible?

This last week 2 friends of mine went to spend their Friday night with "T," playing video games in his apartment, watching movies, talking about baseball and sports. These guys have been more of a friend to "T" than I ever have. God thank you so much for the body of Christ, for fellowship with other believers, and for how we much we need each other in living out the Great Commission.

Student Prayer Request

Thanks for your prayer support!  I am continually reminded how, if the Lord’s not working than nothing I can do will change a life.

This last week me and an older student met to share the Bridge with a sophomore named “T.” T has popped up several times in the last year (usually at the most random times…) and even came on the CA Camping trip with the Nav Group. He’s had a tough background and openly describes God as “the chick from the bachelorette. Where she’ll give all these guys tests to weed out which ones she wants to keep.”

T shared with me that he thinks it’s more than coincidence that he keeps running into Christians around campus, and is generally confused about who God is.

As the older student and I had lunch with T and shared a Gospel illustration with him, you could tell gears were clicking in T’s head. He put together the dots that God isn’t malicious or spiteful, and does in fact love everyone; sin is the problem. He understood Romans 3:23, 6:23, and Ephesians 2:8-9 to mean that we can never do enough good things to get right with God, because He’s Holy and we’re not. And that that’s why we need Jesus. T also admitted that he felt like he had one foot in the boat of believing in Jesus, and one foot still on land. We concluded the time by me asking whether he wanted to spend time next week reading the Bible some more, to which he replied “I’ll think about it and get back to you.”

Please pray for T. I feel confident that a good seed has been sown in his heart. Pray that God would protect that seed and continue working in T until he can say with confidence “I’m putting both of my feet in the boat and not looking back.”

On Haiti

The catastrophe in Haiti is horrible. However, I am not praying it would be rebuilt exactly like it was. Over half of the people there practiced Voodoo in some form, while roughly 80% is some distorted form of Roman Catholicism. I pray aid comes quickly and in abundance, but also that somehow God would use this situation to cause the Gospel to spread in a society which is very far from knowing Him.