“Hot chocolate? What’s hot chocolate?”

Those words actually came out of Chloe’s mouth last night at our sleepover. I had even introduced it in her language.

What’s hot chocolate? It’s only like drinkable joy! It’s a hug in a mug. We had to have some. When Chloe put the cup to her a lips a big smile waved across her face.

“Oh, it’s good”  🙂

And that wasn’t the only good thing we’d be doing. We played a spin the nail polish bottle game that made our fingers and toes look really fabulous; we ate some banana chips; we talked. But then we got to the truly good stuff.

Grace. Ruby and I purposed this sleepover not only to have quality time with our friend, but also to talk about a special part of our identity and relationship with God. We read from The Bible, shared experiences, and prayed together non-stop for almost two hours. And I didn’t even notice the time go by.

Performance and good works is a huge part of Asian culture. It’s honestly been a huge part of own personal struggle. The idea that nothing I do can change my position before Christ is so counter-intuitive and counter-cultural, but so key to understanding His love.

When you fall and when you fly, you are loved by God. If you have received the forgiveness Jesus won for you on the cross, you are totally forgiven, made clean, and accepted. Nothing you do will change your identity as his son or daughter. He loves you. Totally. And forever.

As we finished our study, Chloe prayed out saying, “You are with us. You not only hear our prayers, you hear us right now. You are with us. And I just want to thank you. Because of you, I am made clean. Because of you, I have become righteous. It’s all because of you. Thank you, Jesus.”

It was so sweet. I wish you could have heard it yourself. 🙂

Thank you for praying for me, for my team, for our Asian friends, and for sowing financially into all of this. These new brothers and sisters wouldn’t have heard about Jesus without your support. When you give, you enable me to be here and do things like introduce hot chocolate and grace to someone who otherwise might not get that chance (I really like to use hot cocoa apparently for ministry. The above is a link to a blog I wrote in 2008).

Also, thank you specifically for praying for favor that Chloe would get time off from her employers. She just messaged me saying, “My dear Ash, I succeed! I can climb the mountain with you! God helps us!”

He really does. 🙂