Pitstop en Route to the MVP 🛞

Hello friend,

Since the last issue, I have moved the gospel project on to a better tech stack ✨, resumed registration for Skeûos 📝, made progress with the Upstream contract 🚀, and started learning to drive 🚘.

Let’s dive in for details. 👇🏽

Life update

Let's just say my respect for parents really spiked this past month 🚀.

Oof! Children test people.

Well, I do?? It just hits quite different when you don't interact with them much beyond Sundays. As bugging as some things were, I could see clearly how I have been that guy multiple times to my own parents 🥲.

It will be misleading of me not to talk about the fun we've had together too—it's not all doomsday 😅. I asked him for things we do together that he enjoys; though many of those things were mutually enjoyable, I was surprised he mentioned other things (like cooking). Also, watching him try to discover new scientific laws in 9th grade is just very amusing 🤠.

Something I am really excited about is that I recently shared the gospel somewhat coherently in Yoruba (my native language) for the first time! ✨ I am grateful to God for the opportunity and boldness he gave me, and for the receptiveness of the bike man I interacted with 🙏🏽. I am praying that the Lord continues to work in his heart to accept the good news he's heard about. 

My sharing in Yoruba may be one of the offshoots of being a part of GRBC, as I get to listen to the Word a lot more in the language. I am so glad to be a part of the church ✨—more on that in subsequent sections 🤞🏽.

Ministry update

I shared milestones last month and realized shortly afterwards that they were created before I took up a part-time contract 🤠. Because I'm typically very optimistic, I tried to keep to the same timelines, but the Lord so graciously diverted my attention to something else I needed to address. He simultaneously showed me how unfeasible it was to stick to the initial timeline.

I started out the project using a framework that takes relatively longer ⏳ to load up on the web, though it has other advantages. Since we don't want load time to be a hindrance to the gospel, I concluded that it would be wise to switch to a framework that allows for a much faster load time 🏎️ before building too much. Hence, I spent most of my time moving the project across those frameworks 🚚. Now, that is not what I had planned for this season, but it's quite necessary, and I am happy I got to address it this early. Beta testers should have received a Netlify invite to review the current version. 

We have resumed the registration for Skeûos 🥳, and board members have resolved to help with content in the initial phase ✨. We have also set up a cadence for prayer and Bible study as we prepare to write content for the first project 👌🏽.

Commitments at Upstream and Missional Digerati have been good, and I am really grateful to God for the opportunity to work on apps that build God's people up ✨.

Changed lives

Last month, I talked about this dichotomy between what things I know and what I find myself doing. Sadly, things got worse lately 🥲. I indulged in sin, and it got so bad that I started wrestling with questions like:

• Am I even a Christian? 🥲

• Am I fit for ministry? 😐

I had times when I answered the first question in the negative, simply based off my sins 🥲. At those points, I told myself, it was better to cry out to God to please save me, than to stress about whether I am saved or not. I am grateful for the Holy Spirit who re-assured me of my sonship through Christ's work, though I am so undeserving 🙌🏽✨.

I had studied Romans 6, and I was reminded that Paul wasn't saying it is impossible for believers to sin — he was saying it is absurd. Furthermore, I was reminded that God's grace trains us to say “no”, and I can trust that the Holy Spirit is a much better teacher than my driving tutor! 🥳

I was also reminded of how I fondly call God “Father” for even mundane things. I stumbled on paragraph 5:5 and 13:3 of our 1689 Baptist confession, and also found it really reassuring.

I praise God for the salvation of my soul through Christ 🙌🏽. However, in light of my recent indulgence, I must agree with John Owen that I am such a miserable believer, saved solely by the patient mercies and grace of our loving God. I am trusting Him to continually help me to look more like Christ 🙏🏽.

Prayer requests

Here are a few specific ways you can pray with me 🙏🏽:

• Indwelling Sin: Please ask God to teach me to master my flesh and its sinful tendencies so that I can steer it better for His glory ✨.

• Driving: Please pray that the Lord keeps us safe as I start to drive people on these busy roads 🚘.

• Skeûos Registration: Please ask for a smooth sail as we seek to finalize Skeûos registration 📃.

• Relationships: Please continue to pray that the Lord helps me to tend more intentionally to the relationships He has blessed me with in this season ✊🏽.

I praying intentionally for my partners regularly, and I'd love to know how I could be specifically praying for us. If you are interested, use the button below to share prayer requests, and I'd be happy to join you in praying for them.

Something to think about

Towards the end of my struggle with the assurance of salvation, I got to reflect on a few things that I found to be helpful ✨. I'm grateful to God for a church that regularly preaches the gospel, such that people are convicted of sin 👌🏽. I'm also thankful for one of my accountability partners who persistently checked on me. I don't know what I'd do without a community of God's people around me 🥲. 

I'll like us to consider how we think about evaluating one's salvation 🤔. 

• Do we shy away from: 

  • doing that for ourselves?

  • encouraging others to do it?

• What will be the implication of a:

  • positive result

  • negative result, if it comes to that? 

    • is there any hope for such a person? 

One of my old accountability partners back in Dubai always said,

“The first step to getting help is telling yourself the truth” 👌🏽. 

Perhaps I am butchering it 🤠, but the point is that acknowledging the truth is very beneficial 👌🏽. Per adventure, one discovers that he is not yet saved, he still has a chance (as long as He's alive) to believe the gospel and cry out to the God who saves 🤲🏽.

I pray the Lord helps us to keep our eyes on Christ, and work out that which He is working within us, for His glory and our good ✨.

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I’d love to help out in any way possible.