A Season of Firsts (and the Power of Prayer)

Time is flying by.

Here is a recap of a few "firsts" that I have experienced the past two months:

-Being a missionary
-Living on my own
-Living in another country
-Riding/owning a motorbike
-Teaching in a classroom
-Organizing/Developing a curriculum
-Managing finances

There are more, but suffice it to say that this has been an trying time of learning. The more I spend time serving at the school and in the community, the more I realize the need for prayer and time studying the Word.

A ministry called "A4J" has recently started on Sundays before church. It stands for "All for Jesus," and is an outreach ministry for over 400 local village kids. I was asked by the campus pastor to help out but was not told in what capacity. I responded by saying that I would love to help (adding to my list of firsts). The first Sunday of A4J arrived and I was completely spent and exhausted from a long week at school and a busy Saturday of cleaning, grocery shopping, and grading.

I felt like I had just closed my eyes to rest Saturday night when my alarm sounded the following morning. I laid in bed for a moment, halfway between sleep and consciousness. I contemplated skipping A4J, too tired to even reason with myself. I had made up in my mind that I would stay home and sleep. "I can always come next week and help out, they won't miss me if I don't come this week," I said to myself. Then in a moment, a burst of adrenaline-like energy filled my body. I was wide awake. I couldn't fall back asleep. I arose, prepared for the day, then headed up to campus for A4J. While at A4J, the campus pastor put me in charge of running/organizing the games for all the kids to play! What if I hadn't showed up? I never would have been put in charge of anything. I never would have been as involved in the ministry, let alone put in charge of an activity. Not to mention I would have gone back on my word.

I didn't think much of it at the time.

Later that day I received a message on Facebook. It was sent by a friend and classmate from Bethel. I opened it and began to read. "Hey Luke! The Lord put it on my heart just a few days ago to pray for you... The Lord is with you, He will be working in surprising ways." Check the time stamp on the message. Factor in the time difference between America and the Philippines. The message was sent the moment I was contemplating showing up to A4J or not. Adrenaline rush, or the power of prayer?

I share this story for two main reasons. The first is to give all glory, honor, and praise to God for his continual sustenance of my life that I might serve him and his purposes. The second is to encourage my supporters to take seriously the power of prayer. Not just prayer for me (though I will never discourage anyone from praying for me!) but also prayer for their own souls, their church, and their community. My plea for prayer is the same as Paul's to the Ephesians:


"In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak." (Ephesians 6:16-20, ESV)


p.s. Cockroach kill count = 10

Mr. Boss

It has taken a while to get used to referring to yourself my your last name. When I first arrived in Manila, I met a number of students around the school campus. I kept introducing myself how I have always introduced myself. By my first name. I realized a few parents of these students had to ask me what my last name was so that their children would know what to call me. "Sorry," I'd say, "I'm Mr. Bostrom."

Sounded weird to me. The closest I've ever had to a title was when my good friend Ben Villella referred to me as Mr. Sir (an inside joke from the movie Holes). Other than that, it was always Coach Luke when I coached football. Never Mr. Bostrom.

So on the first day of school a couple weeks ago, I introduced myself to my class as Mr. Bostrom. I told the kids they could call me Mr. B if they preferred, only to find out that there was already another teacher in the Middle School who was called Mr. B. I thought the kids were going to be stuck with having to call me Mr. Bostrom until one of 8th grade Korean girl's started calling me Mr. Boss.

I have to say, I really enjoyed that one. One student of mine sometimes refers to me as Mr. Boss-me-around (jokingly, of course).  Some kids took the liberty of even leaving off the "Mr." title and just started calling me "Boss." I didn't let them go that far. We had to at least keep the title.

So here I am, 30 days into the school year, and most students and faculty now know me as Mr. Boss.


p.s. Cockroach kill count = 7

No Pressure...

Ok, here's what I know.

Yesterday a student in the elementary school fell and broke his arm. Due to the ripple-effect of this happening, the high school needed someone to come in a lead worship for the first chapel of the year. I got a knock on my classroom door during 6th period Bible class and was asked if I could take over as worship music leader for the service. The practice with the rest of the worship band was that afternoon for two hours, and then the chapel service was Wednesday morning. I agreed to help out...

I got to practice on time but didn't have my guitar with me at school because this was spur of the moment. So I sat down with the four other bands members (all high school students) and we picked the four songs we would play for chapel the next day. After that, I had to find a ride back to my condo to pick up my guitar and then get a ride back to the school. The high school Chaplain took care of my transportation. By the time we started practicing, we were only left with about an hour to run through the set of songs.

It's quite difficult to throw together a set that quickly, let alone learn how the other musicians in the band play. The practice went fine but we ended up having to spend the majority of our time on one song.

Wednesday rolls around. I rewrote the music for the songs we were going to play so that they were in the correct key. I also put notes on each copy so that we would all know the song structure and who was supposed to come in and at what time. As soon as I was done teaching my 3rd period Bible class, I rushed down to the auditorium to practice with the rest of the band before chapel started. By the time I tuned my guitar and went through sound-check, we had enough time to run through half of one song before the high school students started filing in.

The time came for us to lead the students and faculty in song and all of a sudden our entire band meshed. It was like we had been playing together for a year, when in reality I hadn't even known the band members for 24 hours. The four-song set was filled with energy, consistency, humility and joy. Our lack of opportunity to plan and rehearse did not get in the way of people worshiping through music.

As I reflect, it brings much joy to my soul to know the way God chose to use me and the students. There was nothing that was going to hinder the message God had for His children. Not unfortunate circumstances, not a lack of practice, not technical difficulties. What an amazing God I serve. He chooses to use His people as a blessing for others so that in the end, He would receive all the glory, honor, and praise!

Hello from Manila!

Today it will have been exactly 2 weeks since I arrived in the Philippines.

This being my first blog post, I figured I'd share some photos and introduce you to my life for the next couple years. Below is a picture of one of my 8th grade Bible classes. I told them to say hello to all my friends and family back in the States!

Here you can see my condo from my classroom! It's the little white building in the background.

Here are a couple pictures from inside my apartment. It's a perfect space for me, and close by to the school.

I'm excited to see what is in store for me. It has been amazing so far! I'll be updating my blog as often as possible and I'll try keep things a bit less formal than my support letters.