Matt Short

That is the God we serve! All things are possible for God… yet we live in this world that is restricted by the impossible. Praise God He is faithfull and true to us that we may do all things through Him.

This has been the lesson I’ve learned throughout this outreach. I’ve really learned how much I need Him to do this. I can lead people perfectly fine, which is a gift He’s blessed me with, yet I am still weak. Without Him I can’t council, disciple, keep accountable, nor challenge these guys the way they need. Without HIM, I can’t do ANYTHING for these guys besides give them what they can get themselves! God is training me how to be a discipler instead of always being the disciple. To be a disciple requires self reflection, an honest and open heart to conviction, and obedience in challenges. To be a disciplER requires a real honesty in rebuke, never being judgemental yet being true to what someone needs to hear. It takes love, true love, that will mourn while others mourn yet burn with a righteous passion and intensity when necessary. I still don’t completely grasp it but I’m learning….. but God is my strength, to Him I am accountable.

Outreach has been incredible though. I reallize I haven’t done a great job of keeping this site up to date, and for that I am sorry and hope you will forgive me. My team has spent the past month in Nepal traveling around sharing the good news of Christ. We’ve seen beautiful sights, been bold and true to our faith, and been radically changed all along the way.

My team was blessed with indivuduals capable of taking care of themselves; due to this, I felt it was right to make the best of this potential. The last couple weeks of outreach were intense and full of fruit. I split the team into four-ish groups. Each paired with another, except Mark, and sent on their way to seek the Lord and serve in any way possible for 10 days. All seven of us went for treks in the Himalayas to stay at tea houses along popular routes. Some traveled with unbelieving companions while others met them along the way and shared the love of Christ. Each night was a new and amazing opportunity to share around the fire or in the dining halls. My travel buddy for these 10 days, Cody, and I did a short trek and then joined a white water kayaking training course for four days. For three days/two nights we kayaked down a remote river learning along side two Canadians and one Englishman. We camped on the beach, lived off the food brought along and enjoyed the company of our three companions. I can’t even begin to describe how much I loved sharing my testimony with these guys, hearing theirs and getting to encourage them. I believe these 10 days appart were far more impactful for everyone than any other time of the trip.

Praise God, He is good! We’re back home to the base safely and debriefing the students. Our debreif week begins this next week.

 God is SO GOOD! Outreach to this point has been an incredible challenge, not in the simple ways such as being bold or moving in the Spirit. These things have become a sort of second nature when in the write standing with God. It has been leadership that I’ve found to be my challenge. Something I always saw as having down. Little of what I’ve learned about leadership in the past has aided me in this outreach. Being a spiritual leader is a whole other story! 

  For this reason I ask for your prayers. Sadly, my memory I have found hinders me day in and out. I have struggled to keep track of all that I’m responsible. My heart is to simply be in ministry and be with the people yet my responsibilities lie first with my team. I can see now that only within the past couple weeks I’ve become the leader of this team… before I was more just the guy with the money. 

  A recent revelation that has aided me is that all I truly am is a co-leader. My role as “leader” is quite insignificant in reality… seeing how my goal as a co-leader is simply to match the will of my Co-leader, God. This is much more easily said than done, and I’m learning the outworking of this idea. It has been extremely difficult to remember all that needs to get done, who needs to be where, what’s coming next, and how that’ll be accomplished without His help. I am learning, to put it plainly. 

  Ministry, however, I have found extremely enjoyable lately. At least every other day I have enjoyed blessing travelers as well as locals. I have had philosophical conversations with a number of these individuals and gotten to bless a beggar boy with a Nepali/English bible, who I then got to go to church with. One of my favorite conversations was with a guy from the states. We spent the day together, checking out some local sights and went to lunch where I asked him about his faith. He had actually done many studies in Christian colleges but at the moment did not consider himself a “Christian” which, for his reasons, I could respect. He then asked me about my faith and what I felt was the core value of all that I believed. The words couldn’t have come from my mouth. I knew they were from my heart, yet they were said better than I’d ever known how to. I really enjoyed this friendship and hope to stay in contact with him in the future.   

Setting aside all hardships, challenges and victories alike, the team and I are all healthy and enjoying our days together. We’re now in the BEAUTIFUL hill town of Pokhara, Nepal and planning to leave on some treks soon. Be in prayer that we meet people to invite along on these treks and that conversations of faith, truth, God and such would be simple. The team will be in three different groups over the next 10+ days so that travel and ministry will be easier so pray for safety and wisdom for each individual as well.   

Thank you all for your concerns and prayers. They are greatly appreciated, as well I would love to be praying for you. Let me know if you ever have any prayer requests. God Bless 

-Matt Short 

   
     My team and I are doing well and still excited to be pursuing this ministry. Thank you all for your prayers… I doubt you know how greatly I appreciate them. We have seen some fruit of our efforts yet much of what we have done we have not seen what God is really doing. The sad thing is we’ve only gotten to spend short periods of time with the backpackers we’ve been met, but God has begun something new. Its been on all of our hearts lately to meet someone who could travel with us and who we could really disciple. Only recently has this been made possible. We met a really cool young woman in Darjeeling that we then got to ride on the same bus with to Kathmandu… well sort of. She went to Kathmandu while we jumped off half way there and now we’ve caught up. Incredibly, and I believe by the Lords guidance, we ran into her in this huge city before we had even scheduled our hotel! Now we’re continuing this friendship and speaking into her life. Be in prayer for this ministry opportunity, PLEASE! We all agree that if this were the only soul the Lord sent us here to invest in all our money, time, and efforts would be well spent… even if we don’t see the results. Her name’s Melody and she’s from France. She’s doing a 10 day Buddhist meditation course starting on the first of February, as well as she would like to join us for our prayer, worship, and bible study times. Pray that she would see the truth and life in our faith and the emptiness that is in the pursuit of all other “truths”. She has also admitted that she knows she doesn’t “know” who she really is and is searching, so pray that she would discover her true identity that can only come from our heavenly Father.
 
     Thank you all for interceding on her behalf! Just imagine, when the day comes, as you stand before the Father in His heavenly courts, beside you stands this young woman who you mourned for, standing in the gap, till she accepted the faith. Every Backpacker we come in contact with I want to think of in this way. Again, thank you.
 
     Sorry for being brief but how and where we’ve traveled I feel is far less important than the previous, however it is worth mentioning. I decided last week to split the team into two groups  for a few days so that we could travel more easily and have more ministry opportunities. We left Darjeeling one day after the other bound for the Royal Chitwan National Park. I left with the first three and Melody which was an adventure but we made it. The other three caught up with us a day later taking the same rought but with different challenges. It was a wonderful 3 days of rest at the National Park which I feel was needed before heading to Kathmandu. We arrived here yesterday which is where I began.

Thank you all again

God Bless