A few years ago, I met a guy named Jonathan Smyth; however, he introduced himself as “Biscuet”. Like with many of you, I met Biscuet via social media and discovered that we had many of the same friends. Biscuet had a job similar to mine at a well-established campus ministry in Auburn, so right away we found things to talk about, like PVP and where to get cool video loops.

Later, Biscuet told me that he was leaving his dream job of producing events and VJ-ing for worship to go live in China and teach English. WHAT?!

You see, for Biscuet, worship is so much more than what our little subculture cracks it up to be. He isn’t easily impressed by all the latest, greatest hype on the who’s who of the current creative church culture. He has an opinion or two on what real worship looks like, but he won’t tell you about it unless you ask him over and over again. He will also tell you that no city in America has anything on Beijing…and I’d probably have to agree with him. To follow his story, go to biscuet.com – he’d be more than happy to be your friend and tell you what’s up.

Biscuet doesn’t claim to have any answers, except that life is all about relationships. And his love for the Chinese people overtakes him whenever he gets to share with others about the amazing things happening in China. For me, I had to go to Asia to see for myself what all this craziness was about. And man, was I blown away!

Imagine 500 Biscuets filling a room for a week…getting to worship together, pray for each other’s cities, and share the indescribable things that are taking place throughout Asia. Our main purpose for going to Thailand was to serve these 500 by doing what we love…projecting on walls, VJ-ing media, painting, and encouraging those we meet along the way. And I cannot even begin to tell you the stories we heard.

These 500 new heroes of mine make up an organization called ELIC (English Language Institute/China). Their purpose is to place passionate people in contact with students across Asia through teaching English. Their story is continuing to be written, and as some of it unfolded before our eyes during their conference in Thailand, our hearts were overrun with wonder and awe at what is happening in Asia.

So what? How does this apply to us? Well, I’m glad you asked. There are three things we all can do:

GO – ELIC offers long-term and short-term opportunities to engage Asia. If you don’t have any plans this summer, you might want to think about going.\

GIVE – some of you are not in a position to drop everything and go (at least not yet), but you can actively play a role in their story NOW by supporting them financially. You can give to either individuals like Biscuet, or you can give to their overall budget which will help them build a new website, new graphics/marketing, and promo videos they hope to produce soon (which will help them to be more effective in telling their story).
LEARN MORE – a little overwhelmed and needing to get back to work? Hey, it’s cool…we’re all there with you. But if you think about this post and your role in Asia’s story later down the road and want to learn more about what ELIC is all about, then come back and click here.

I can tell you this: I meet a lot of people and organizations in my profession. I’ve just about seen it all, and sadly, very few impress me. But what ELIC is all about…wow…this blog post barely scratches the surface. I’m not trying to hype up something that’s not…I’ve seen it with my own eyes, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. This isn’t about praising man or anything some organization has done…they are human and flawed just like all of us. And I’m not implying that anyone is less of a worshiper if you don’t go to Asia. But I highly recommend going and seeing for yourself sometime…trust me, it will blow your mind and remind you of what’s truly important. It will lead you to worship in ways you’ve never imagined!

Thanks for letting me share a little about Biscuet and his organization.
I count it a huge privilege to be able to go to Thailand for a week to serve these people. For most of them, this is the one time a year they can come together as a true community of faith with more than five peers in the room. For Nate, Camron & I, it was about humbling ourselves, not making their event about us, and serving them by creating a sacred space for them to gather and guiding them through a visual worship experience.

It’s only by God’s grace and mercy that He has allowed any of us to live these stories thus far.