Sunday, April 18, 2010

Meet the Voices of Micronesia #5 - Leeman Sebastian

I just got back a few hours ago (5.30 AM) from a trip to Yap, FSM (I will make a post about what is going on there later), but wanted to continue my series on the members of our Voices of Micronesia team. Today the team made a presentation at one of the Chuukese churches on the Northern end of Guam (pretty close to our house in Yigo). The church is pastored by PIU alumnus Sona Esanamau and was an enjoyable service of high volume singing, testimonies and other traditional items, all done in Chuukese style. The service was three hours long but there was so much going on it didn't feel to long to Joyce or to me. The VOM team presented several songs, a testimony and I preached with team member Keiny Aisek serving as the translator. He did well, considering that I am difficult to translate.:) We appreciated very much the generous gift given by the church to help finance the VOM project. So now I introduce you to....

Leeman Sebastian
 Home: Ngerchelong, Republic of Palau
 Age: 21  Leeman is a 3rd year student majoring in Biblical Studies with a minor in Christian Education
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  Leeman is serving this school year as the student worship leader for chapel and is one of the guitarists and ukulele players for the Team. 

Though Leeman's family home is the village of Ngerchelong on Babeldaop island in Palau, he was actually born and raised in the former capital of Palau, Koror. He grew up in a marginally Christian home and occasionally attended the Koror Evangelical Church. He went to public high school and didn't really have much to do with God even though he had made a profession of faith as a child. This changed when he was suspended from school as a high school senior. In the midst of this difficult time his father rented a house next door to them to a Filipino couple who were attending the Pacific Missionary Aviation Fellowship there. This couple ministered to Leeman and invited him to attend their church. He began going to church there and became involved in leadership of the youth group. He had planned to attend the University of Guam after high school but friends, his church and family advised him to go to school at PIU. He decided to go to PIU for one year only, but when he got to PIU he found "the atmosphere there was so good I wanted to stay." He is thankful for the "many good people" God has brought into his life through PIU. 

Leeman has learned a lot about God's faithfulness through the preparation for the VOM trip. Last week he gave his testimony at chapel about how God supplied the money for his airfare after a night of prayer the night before the deadline for having his money in. You can read more about this on Leeman's blog, Leeman Sebastian: How'd I get here?. Leeman is also looking forward to deepening relationships with other members of the VOM Team and seeing how God uses them to bless churches and individuals in the USA. He also expects God to do some life-changing work on him and prepare him for future ministry in the next few months. 

Leeman's long term goal is to become a youth pastor in Palau to disciple and minister to struggling young people just like he was helped when he was a teenager.  

2 comments:

Jen said...

Go Lee!!

meyoumarar said...

AMEN bRo I know GOd is always faithful and he is our provider. When we put our trust in Him he will always provide. Where he leads he'l provide.