Long time no see!

My \"weekly updates\" have been anything but weekly. With finals coming up at school and hosting a lot of big events at the BCM (my college ministry at Georgia State), it has been hard to find time to sit down, reflect, and write about all that God has been doing in my life. But now I am here, sending out my second update, and it\'s a good one!

We have raised 50 percent of our goal so far! Praise the Lord! Thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting me not only financially, but prayerfully as well! I am so very thankful for the amount of support I have recieved and the kind words of encouragement. Please continue praying for me and my team as we continue to raise money and trust in God in equiping us well in mind and heart. 

A lot of exciting things have been happening with me recently as this school semester is coming to an end. And through it all, God has been teaching me and encouraging me through it all. It has been a joy to see God work in my life and I am honored to share the joy that I have in the Lord with you guys!

Two weeks ago, I went on a mens retreat with a group of godly men from my church, Ponce Presbyterian Church, and we spend the wekend in Elijay, Georgia. We stayed at a beautiful cabin, ate good food, and had great fellowship with each other! I definitley wish the trip was longer and I hope that we have another one soon! The theme over the weekend was about \"Balance,\" and we had a couple of sessions and small groups where we discussed some of the questions below:

Where are your relationships out of balance?

What do you worship other than God?

What image-bearing roles are you prone to neglect?

We also read a lot of scripture that had to do with balance and this was one of the ones that really stuck out to me:

Colossians 1:15-23

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

²¹ And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

I think that this scripture says a lot! When we discussed balance with our small groups, we talked about how crazy our lives can get. So many things are happening in our day to day lives and when something changes or is added on, whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, it throws off everything else, making things unbalanced. What can happen is that we can be so focused on making things balanced and making things perfect, that we can actually make balance an idol. I am not saying that we shouldn\'t pursue a balanced life, it is a good thing, but it is how we pursue balance. If we put God at the top of our priorities of each day, everything will eventually fall into place, and even if things get unbalanced again, God will be along side you in the unbalance of life. If we pursue God first, we will see how everything will start to become balanced. Let me say this too, God should always be a priority for all of us everyday because he is worthy of praise! All things were created through and for Jesus and Jesus holds all things together. And once being separated from God, He has called us to himself and have been made holy and blameless through Jesus. 

I hope that all of that makes sense. Pursue God and gp about things in your life that keeps Him at the center, glorifying and giving thanks to Him in everything that you do! And stay strong in faith in him, stable and steadfast, not forgetting the gospel even when things become unbalanced!

I encourage you guys to ask yourselves the questions listed above and ask yourselves if Jesus is at the center of your life? Because as much as our live can be balanced, they will never be perfect and nothing will ever stay the same. Except for Jesus. We live in a broken and unbalanced world, and the hope that I have in Jesus being the solid rock and foundation within it when everything is crazy brings me a great sense of peace. If you don\'t know who Jesus is I pray that you can one day know him and have relationship with him! 

I was going to write more in this update about more things going on in my life, but with this one turning out longer than I though, I will send out another update later today or tomorrow! Be praying for me as I am in finals week. Pray that I may finish strong and study hard! Pray that God can be the center of my life!

Thank you for taking the time to read my update!

~Alexander Byman :)

(Here is a picture of the cabin that we stayed at and the group of men that were on the trip!)

Long time no see!

My \"weekly updates\" have been anything but weekly. With finals coming up at school and hosting a lot of big events at the BCM (my college ministry at Georgia State), it has been hard to find time to sit down, reflect, and write about all that God has been doing in my life. But now I am here, sending out my second update, and it\'s a good one!

We have raised 50 percent of our goal so far! Praise the Lord! Thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting me not only financially, but prayerfully as well! I am so very thankful for the amount of support I have recieved and the kind words of encouragement. Please continue praying for me and my team as we continue to raise money and trust in God in equiping us well in mind and heart. 

A lot of exciting things have been happening with me recently as this school semester is coming to an end. And through it all, God has been teaching me and encouraging me through it all. It has been a joy to see God work in my life and I am honored to share the joy that I have in the Lord with you guys!

Two weeks ago, I went on a mens retreat with a group of godly men from my church, Ponce Presbyterian Church, and we spend the wekend in Elijay, Georgia. We stayed at a beautiful cabin, ate good food, and had great fellowship with each other! I definitley wish the trip was longer and I hope that we have another one soon! The theme over the weekend was about \"Balance,\" and we had a couple of sessions and small groups where we discussed some of the questions below:

Where are your relationships out of balance?

What do you worship other than God?

What image-bearing roles are you prone to neglect?

We also read a lot of scripture that had to do with balance and this was one of the ones that really stuck out to me:

Colossians 1:15-23

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

²¹ And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

I think that this scripture says a lot! When we discussed balance with our small groups, we talked about how crazy our lives can get. So many things are happening in our day to day lives and when something changes or is added on, whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, it throws off everything else, making things unbalanced. What can happen is that we can be so focused on making things balanced and making things perfect, that we can actually make balance an idol. I am not saying that we shouldn\'t pursue a balanced life, it is a good thing, but it is how we pursue balance. If we put God at the top of our priorities of each day, everything will eventually fall into place, and even if things get unbalanced again, God will be along side you in the unbalance of life. If we pursue God first, we will see how everything will start to become balanced. Let me say this too, God should always be a priority for all of us everyday because he is worthy of praise! All things were created through and for Jesus and Jesus holds all things together. And once being separated from God, He has called us to himself and have been made holy and blameless through Jesus. 

I hope that all of that makes sense. Pursue God and gp about things in your life that keeps Him at the center, glorifying and giving thanks to Him in everything that you do! And stay strong in faith in him, stable and steadfast, not forgetting the gospel even when things become unbalanced!

I encourage you guys to ask yourselves the questions listed above and ask yourselves if Jesus is at the center of your life? Because as much as our live can be balanced, they will never be perfect and nothing will ever stay the same. Except for Jesus. We live in a broken and unbalanced world, and the hope that I have in Jesus being the solid rock and foundation within it when everything is crazy brings me a great sense of peace. If you don\'t know who Jesus is I pray that you can one day know him and have relationship with him! 

I was going to write more in this update about more things going on in my life, but with this one turning out longer than I though, I will send out another update later today or tomorrow! Be praying for me as I am in finals week. Pray that I may finish strong and study hard! Pray that God can be the center of my life!

Thank you for taking the time to read my update!

~Alexander Byman :)

(Here is a picture of the cabin that we stayed at and the group of men that were on the trip!)

Hello!

This is my first update for this journey and boy oh boy, its a good one. 

I have already raised 40% of my goal! God is truly incredible! Thank you so much to those who have given so far and for those who have been alongside me in prayer! 

Whenever people think of missiontrips, I think that there is the thought that the fundraising part is burdensome and the trip itself is all to look forward to. This is not true! I would say that the fundraising process is just as important as the missiontrip and can just as much grow you in your faith! Fundraising has always been a fun and challenging thing for me to do because it gives me the opportinuty to share my faith in Jesus with new friends and old friends and trust in God in the process of it all. It is such a unique opportinuty to travel over seas and share the Gospel with strangers, but man, it is an amazing opportunity to share the same Gospel with people that you are familiar with! God is being glorified in both! Prayer is also a huge thing that comes with the fundraising process as well: praying that God will provide financially, praying that God will equip you spiritually, and praying for poeple to pray alongside you as well (aka you guys!). I encourage eveyone reading this and keeping up with my journey to pray along side me!

Back when I was a junior in High School, the first update that I made was during Easter, and I thought it would be very much appropriate to write about Easter in this update as well! During my time in college I have been attending Ponce Presbyterian Church in Atlanta and I have recently become a member of the church as well! Last Friday, Ponce had a Good Friday service and it was really amazing! There was a lot of worship and reading from scripture, but during the time of worship, we were encouraged to sit and ponder on the lyrics, thinking and praying on the power and impact of Christ\'s death on the cross. Jesus, who is 100% man and 100% God, came to Earth and lived a perfect sinless life, and died on the cross for broken and sinful people who put their faith in him. But Jesus did not stay dead, he rose from the grave three days later in glory! Defeating death! Allowing for us to have eternal life with Him. This is the good news we will be sharing in South Africa! 

It doesn\'t even end there! The following Sunday Easter service for Ponce, we worshiped together, praising God for the work that was done on the cross and for Christ\'s ressurection! But what does this mean for the Christian? We know that we will have eternal life with Jesus, but what about the time that we still have on Earth? Our pastor encouraged us to live out our lives for the glory of God. There is still darkness in our own lifes and in the lives of others, and what a time it is to grow in our faith and lean on Christ in times of trouble, in times where things don\'t quite make sense. As Christians we can even point people to the light (Jesus) by walking along side them in their darkness and sharing them the good news of Jesus\' life, death, and ressurection! The fact that we can have an intimate relationship with the one true God because of Jesus is something to not be forgotten! Amen! 

I will be posting another update next week (or maybe sooner) so please be on the lookout to stay updated and hear what God has been doing throughout my life. Please be praying for my, my team, and the other leaders on this trip! I have about a month left of school so please be praying that I finish strong and continue to stay disciplined in my studies! If you would like to reach out to me to ask a question, see how I am doing, or if you even have a question about who Jesus is, please do! If alot of what I talked about with Jesus is new to you and you have questions, I\'d love to answer! You can email me at alexanderbyman01@gmail.com!

Thank you again!

Your friend,

Alexander Byman

P.S. 

I was reminded of Isaiah 53 on Good Friday! Give it a read!

Isaiah 53