This is my final ministry update for this program. My training soon draws to a close, but I am still an apprentice yet, with a long way to go.
Several weeks ago, Nick and I were meandering down Titan Walk at CSUF, as is our custom, when we crossed the table of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Knowing some of the students and leaders of that club, we stopped to greet them. As we did, a charming young woman approached us and asked if she could practice sharing the gospel with us. Happily, we obliged.
Kristy extended her arm to display a bracelet with five colored beads: gold, black, red, white, and green. I immediately recognized the pattern as the Wordless Book, a short method of explaining the gospel that I learned as a little child. Nick, however, was unfamiliar but intrigued.
Using the beads to represent successive points in the salvation story, Kristy described how Jesus’ sacrificial death atones for our sins, reconciling us to God the Father and empowering us to grow in a new life in Christ. We offered our feedback and encouragement, and prayed for Kristy as she prepared for a mission trip to 
Taiwan.
Afterward, Nick turned to me. “Erik, do you think you could teach this method to my daughter?”
Affirming that I could, we set a date to meet at my house with Izzy, his four-year-old, to teach her the Wordless Book. Izzy already unapologetically and unprompted tells everyone she meets about Jesus, as sweetly and earnestly as only a little child can. While it took a little coaxing to have her sit still to listen, she attentively learned and recited what each color represented, and was very gleeful to build her own bracelet.
Teaching Izzy reminded me of when I also taught the Wordless Book to the 1st-5th grade students at Haviland Friends Church while I was in college, and gave me the idea to propose the same to Glendora Friends Church, where I am currently an intern. (My Haviland readers should ask their kids if they still remember.) Though discipling adults has proved difficult this year due to busyness and apathy, I realized that the children I had met at GFC were especially hungry to learn more about God and to share Jesus with others. Who says a four-year-old can’t learn to make disciples?
Bethany Tobey, the children’s ministry director, graciously indulged me to teach Sunday school one morning to her peanut gallery, ages 3 through 8. Surprisingly, it went very well. The next Sunday, Adele (age 8) informed me that she used her bracelet to share the gospel with her class at school during show-and-tell. One parent, Erik, informed me that his daughter, Maddie (age 6), shared about her bracelet with him and her older brother immediately after church.
Erik, his wife Maria, and their family in particular have given me cause for joy this year. Erik is a substitute teacher and extremely well-read in philosophy and classical literature (probably even more than this Erik). Naturally, we greatly enjoy each other’s company and love to discuss a broad and inexhaustible variety of topics. After his wife started attending church regularly, Erik has developed a deep fascination with Christianity and is steadily reading through the Bible together with Maria (they have just finished the Old Testament).
I have been given the rare gift of witnessing firsthand the reaction of an extremely educated man reading the Sermon on the Mount for the first time and being wholly captivated by it.
“How profound, and yet how simple!” Erik exclaimed. “He’s the fulfillment to all the great philosophers, and a child can understand it! But there is still so much he says that is mysterious to me, and I want to understand more!”
One evening, desiring to try something new, I went to a local martial arts academy for a free introductory lesson in jiu-jitsu. After an hour of learning how to choke an opponent with his own collar—a useful skill in ministry—I began developing a vague awareness of just how pathetically little I knew. When the lesson concluded, I asked the instructor how long it took for one to master the art.
“There are five belts, each with its own color. Even with constant practice, it takes several years to earn the next belt. Though one may learn many different techniques and moves, he will not understand how they all fit together cohesively except by experience, trial, and error. One might take as long as 20 years before earning a black belt, and even then, there is no limit to attaining further mastery and understanding.”
It was then that I realized, though I had practiced under my Master for twenty-three years, I was still only a white-belt: no more distinguished than Erik, Maddie, or Izzy. I, like them, am still learning the fundamentals.
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Thank you, all of you, who have prayed for me and supported me financially these last ten months during this apprenticeship. Moving forward, EFM, NCP, and I are discussing long-term ministry assignments for next year, now that I have completed field experience as a missionary through this program. As soon as there is a decisive plan, I will share it publicly and invite you to partner with me in a new ministry opportunity. Please pray that God gives us direction soon on where to send me and that I do not have to wait in indefinite uncertainty.
Also, Nick and I have been teaching the Bible dialogue method to Patrick, a pastor in Kenya who discovered North County Project on the internet. Patrick has already led two individuals to Christ using Bible Dialogues and is excitedly teaching other pastors in his denomination how to use this method. What unexpected success from an unexpected place!
Dutifully yours,
Erik
Spanish 
English (United States)