Dear family, friends, and
supporters,
I would like to let you all know
how I am doing and what my plans are and what God has been doing in my life.
This semester is going quite well! I am in my fifth semester here and that
means I am now a junior. My classes are challenging but I am loving them.
Flying is going really well this semester and in a couple of weeks I should be
the proud owner of a brand new instrument rating to complement my Private
Pilot’s license. God has blessed me so much to allow me to do something that I
absolutely love! Next semester I get to start my Commercial Multi-Engine
Certificate in the DA-42 Twinstar. It is an exciting plane although it costs
twice as much as any other to fly because of its two engines.
Missions
is still definitely my heart and passion. I feel really blessed to be able to
do something so amazing as flying to further God’s kingdom. I used to always to
always say that I was going to go to South America. I think that God used that
desire as a spur for his calling in my life. I have learned here that a calling
is a direction much more than it is a destination. I really am drawn to JAARS
as an organization for continuing on after school. They operate all over the
world but especially in Indonesia and Africa with a new expansion emphasis in
Africa. The school has given me lots of contacts with lots of organizations and
although I am still praying and seeking the Lord’s will, JAARS is where I am
planning on going at the moment. Things can always change though. The important
thing and biggest obstacle after school will be getting rid of debt from
school. My outlook on that at the moment is that God has gotten me to the
school and thus far he is keeping me in this school, so I know He has a plan to
get me on to the mission field after I graduate.
Lately
in my daily devotions I have been studying Jeremiah. Something that I am
learning from him and from a Leadership class that I am in is how to continue
to be a leader through failure. This is especially close to my heart because I
stumble and fall often and I am faced with a question of how I can lead or how
I can even continue a calling through or after failure. Jeremiah was called by
God to tell Israel to repent of their ways lest God destroy them. God also told
him that the people of Israel wouldn’t listen. Essentially, God called Jeremiah
to fail. I don’t know about you but following that kind of call would be very
difficult. In following the call he was successful in God’s eyes because he was
glorifying God, but in the world’s eyes and I think sometimes in his own, he
was a failure. The important thing was that he continued to follow God’s
calling for him. We have 52 chapters of Jeremiah and much of it is God speaking
to the people through Jeremiah. We see this as a lot of information, but
Jeremiah said these things to the people over and over for decades without a
single person listening to him. The book of Lamentations is Jeremiah weeping
over Israel because they won’t listen. Another thing that I see out of this and
it is one of the overarching themes of scripture, is that the glory of God is
and must be paramount in our lives. I have been challenged to hold the glory of
God as a measuring rod for my decisions and actions to see if I am really doing
things for God or if I am just doing it for my own gain. When thinking about
leadership or following God’s will in this way, it becomes very easy to see how
we can continue to lead through failure. It isn’t about us. It is about the
glory of God. The glory of God should be shown in our lives through us
continuing on in His grace after a failure. It should be shown through our
obeying is call on our lives. It should be shown in our actions and what we
say. I am not the greatest at this but through God’s grace I am trying to let
His glory shine through.
I
want to thank you all so much for supporting me in prayer and financially. I am
really blessed by the people that God has put up around me here at school and
back at home. Below are some prayer requests that I have and ways to contact
me. If you want to continue receiving updates please let me know and if you
know of anyone else that would like to receive updates please let me know and
give me contact information. God bless you all and let His glory be made known!
Prayer Requests
·
Continued success in flying
·
Strength to finish the semester strong
·
Financial provision for next semester’s flying
·
Consistency in daily devotions and prayer life
·
Continued blessing of the unity among my
brothers on my floor
Address:
Joshua-Luke O’Connor
2100 S. Mobberly Ave.
CPO# 1171
Longview, TX 75607
Email:
Cell:
903-431-1283
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