I’ve learned from experience that whenever the Lord tells us to do something, we never really know what we’re getting ourselves into. I’d have to say HSE is no exception. The beautiful thing about stepping out in faith, though, is that if we hadn’t, we’d have never seen the blessings waiting on the other side. For me, HSE has been a battle in every sense of the word. But God is always greater than what comes against us, and He knows not only just how much we can handle, but also how much we’re capable of.

This season has been all about confronting my weaknesses, but God amazes me because His strength is made perfect in weakness. Just as myrrh must be crushed to give off its fragrance, so must we be emptied of ourselves to really lay hold of all that God has intended for us. The last ten months compose a saga of crushing and building and more crushing, but I thank God for it all. I thank Him for allowing me to be shattered so that the life of Jesus could be manifested in my body. I thank Him for the many times I was so tired I could hardly stand, yet by His grace He gave me words of hope for a girl who’s never known anything but despair in this world. I thank Him for the time He parted the heavens at the eleventh hour so forgotten teenagers could receive love from strangers. I thank Him for the testimony of a man enslaved by drugs and poverty, who encountered God one day and was finally set free. I thank Yahweh for becoming everything I’ve ever needed—my healer in sickness, my light in darkness, my peace in chaos, my refuge in the storm, my hope in tribulation, my all in all.

I deserve nothing, but God has freely given us all things. We must only go up and take possession of them. I decided in Scotland that I’d pray like Moses did, for he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” And you know what’s crazy? I’ve seen it.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

//2 Corinthians 3:18//

No words could possibly convey how incredibly blessed I am to have spent the last ten months in HSE, watching God transform ordinary people into beautiful, godly servants for the Kingdom. We bring Him filthy rags and He gives us crowns. Why? All I know is that God sure loves us a whole lot. Someday, we’ll see Him face to face and we’ll know all things fully, just as we are known. What a glorious day that will be. Until then, we wait with perseverance and trust in His unending, unchanging, unmerited and undeserved, amazing grace.

Ad majorem Dei glorium. (for the greater glory of God.)

My name is Russell L. Dyer and God being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in me will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6. When I finish the race that I call my life and can stand before the One who laid Himself down for me and if He is well pleased with the way that I followed Him, than I will have finished strong. My season in San Diego has been one of lessons, trials, victories and defeats. No matter what I walk through remaining faithful to present my body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God is my priority. Let your love be genuine, hate what is evil. Cling to what is good. Romans 12:9 I need my life to reflect Christ, even though I’m nowhere complete and He is not finished shaping me, I am on His course walking in His direction. My teachers have taught me to follow. “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” Mark 8:34. These are the words that I will cling to as I leave this city, heading in the direction my Savior takes me.

On July 1, 2010, I told the Lord that I no longer was physically able to work and so I was going to retire. I heard the Lord respond by saying, “so now what will you do with the rest of your life?” I felt as if my life was pretty much over, but God said it was just the beginning.

I was starting a new chapter and I told the Lord I would do whatever He wanted me to do because I was retired and so had plenty of time. The Lord told me to go to the Horizon School of Evangelism. I thought to myself, how ridiculous is this! I hate school, nor do I like to read or write.  All sorts of reasons arose in my mind of why I shouldn’t go to the school, the first being that being retired, I had no money. However, a man approached at Sunday service and said that God had told him to pay my way to school. Still, secondly, I had just injured my knee and was barely able to walk. But when I started school, they said I could stay behind with another man and ride into town daily to get fresh water for everyone; this would bring refreshment and replenish my class. And so every obstacle I put before the Lord, he took care of and nothing I ever worried about came true.

No words can describe how wonderful our classroom time was. We had the most inspiring, encouraging, and loving teachers you could have. They were such a blessing to all of us. My first semester, we were sent to Portland, Oregon for practicum where we saw God do amazing things in the hearts of the people. More importantly, He worked in our hearts, changing us, bonding us together as a close family. Towards the end of the semester, I felt that God was not calling me back for the 2^nd semester. I once more had asked God to make it clear by paying my way. The Sunday before school started as I spent time with my son watching the Super Bowl, he introduced me to a friend of his of whom I shared my testimony regarding HSE. I told him as it was 6pm the day before school started and God had yet to pay my way, I was not planning on returning. At that moment, this man told me that he has just heard God ask him to pay for my school!

The 2^nd semester was much harder than the first, but the personal growth was also much greater. It was great to see the new students and to watch the Lord grow them, as well as seeing the growth in my fellow classmates as they had grown even during the break. Our practicum this time was spent in Scotland. Every day was a surprise. For me, I had some health issues that kept me behind most days, but I was able to work side by side with the minister and staff of the church, including 3 retired men, as we fixed doors, cleaned out rain gutters, and emptied trash. There was plenty of time for tea and biscuits and just simple loving conversations on how good God is.

I feel that God is calling me to a ministry with senior citizens, as well as the sick and dying. God has shown me that if I have a willing heart to be used by Him, that He would bring me people of all ages. So as you’re reading this testimony, a chapter of my life is coming to a close or it already has and I am looking forward to what God has for me for the rest of my life.

To my classmates, my friends, my family, my brothers, and sisters: You are all these things to me. I cannot help but love you all. Thank you so much for loving me and always being there for me. I will always remember the smiles, the hugs, and the prayers that you gave me each morning. To all that went to Portland, thank you for always carrying my backpack and those that walked with me as I wasn’t able to keep up at times. You made me feel so special. Thanks to all who were in Scotland for all the good times we had talking, laughing, and praying together. It has been wonderful to see how you have grown in the Lord and to see some of the plans God has for you after graduation. I will think of you often and I will miss all of you. Thanks again for being who you are. — Rich

I know now that glory has not a place near my hands or any mans.

I am just an earthen vessel saved by grace, a clump of dirt with a face.

I have blood stained hands and a wicked heart, I am but dried clay falling apart.

If I make it to heaven by the good things that I’ve done, my pride would follow me there and would be raised up like the sun, only to fall into the cold and lonely waters of the ocean.

Can I stand in righteousness in the body I still walk in?

Can I even hope to love, when I’ve fallen to lust?

I’ve wondered off like a lost sheep, but He still came for me.

“Son, I loved you at your darkest.”

He parted my ribs like He did the sea, and made my heart of stone beat.

“I will love you even when you won’t let me. I will hang my life in the space between the noose and your neck. I won’t let you die just yet. This is divine romance.”

I will sprinkle you with pure water and you will be clean from all of your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols. I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you; I will take the initiative and you will obey my statues and carefully observe my regulations. Then you will live in the land I gave to your fathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. – Ezekiel 36:25-28

God has shown me this semester that I have the gift of teaching. He has shown me this semester, just as he showed me during the last one that he is able to provide for all my needs.  I did not have the finances required for the Nehemiah Challenge and for the Practicum in Scotland, but he nonetheless arranged for me to go on these trips.

On the Practicum, I had some struggles.  For example, I could not see how having the gift of teaching was useful for a missions’ trip.  Then God brought a woman one day to the lunch that we were serving in the church in Motherwell that we were staying at, and three other sisters and I got to share with her about Jesus’ love and the gospel.  I shared with her some of the beginning of the gospel of John and taught her a little.  So God started to show me how to use the gift that he had given me in evangelism.

God has revealed to me His love like never before, and continues to do so where I can’t deny His infinite nature.  I have seen it grow in my love toward His Word, my leaders and classmates, and those whom I would have never thought I was called to love.  Most importantly, He, the great I AM is deeply and madly in love with me.  His holiness is the purest thing in or out of existence and I have been given grace to be witness to and bearer of it these last nine months.  It has taught me that while I am still nothing in comparison to His splendor, He sees me as everything.

God has also left an incredible trail of footprints for our class to look back upon.  Seeing you all grow from the beginning of your walks at HSE to now has been a testament to His excellent workmanship of 45 VERY different parts of the body (Ephesians 2:10 & 1 Corinthians 12:4-7).  The result of our class abiding in God was the dynamic movement of His Spirit that so often eluded our reasoning until it reached hindsight.  In Scotland, I had no idea that a gesture such as face painting with the town’s football team colors would create such fervent buzz.  It’s because indirectly we were proclaiming that we and the King whom we worship love them!

During HSE, the most impacting moment for me was actually a culmination of events that took place over both semesters; the Lord gave me the brokenness to truly forgive a dear friend and to ask and receive the forgiveness from another.  This is so significant to me because for the first time, it has sealed the power of Jesus’ redemption of mankind within my heart.  Even though there was stinging and stitches involved, I am so thankful that God used them to build upon my foundation of His love.

I am glad that this chapter at HSE will serve as part of my testimony which I can begin to share, but am even more excited at how HSE will prepare me to run the Christian race from now on.  It can be scary to think that the “real world” is next, but I’m realizing more and more that that’s the field we’re being called to serve.  If we keep our minds focused so much on this beautiful season of growth, we will lose sight of the harvest that God intends for us to plant with what we have already been sown (Mark 2:17).