Whew. We have spent the last week in Dublin, Ireland participating in “The Awakening” worship conference and our first official O squad “debrief”, and i must say: I am absolutely exhausted. The last week has included worship time, teaching sessions, interaction with other WR squads and ….team changes.
Yes, that’s right- we had some pretty drastic team changes this week. While team changes aren’t easy (especially after spending the last three months investing in building a family with our first team), God is so endlessly faithful and has already used the team changes to bring a newfound freedom to our squad. While I had built some strong relationship with Team Umoja and had really begun to feel comfortable with them , I know that it is essential to remember that I am not on the World Race for my own comfort…I am here to be challenged and grow closer to the heart of God. I pray that the team changes would release something in each individual on our squad: that, as a result of this decision, we would begin to grow closer to the heart of God and increase in intimacy with Him. I pray that each of us would be challenged in new ways that would continue our transformation process. Though I will truly miss Team Umoja, I trust the heart of God and His plans to “complete the good work” that He has started in each one of us. I pray that these team changes would simply lead us to maturity.
Team Umoja (minus Nathan Salley). I will miss this family!
After such a busy and eventful week, I honestly feel like I have had very little time to process or collect my thoughts. I wanted to at least post some of my thoughts from this week, though, despite the lack of processing time. So, the following is simply a list of (completely unrelated and disorganized) thoughts and ideas from this past week…
– Here is a favorite scripture of mine that I hadn’t thought of in a while: “I am the Lords’ servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be done to me as you have said ‘”(Luke 1:38). This verse is soon followed by another favorite: “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said will be accomplished” (Luke 1:45). I love the implications of these verses: the Lord is so pleased with a heart that is simply open to whatever He has and believes that when He says something, it is true. That is the kind of attitude he asks for in our hearts. I pray that the constant attitude of my heart would be to say “May it be done to me as you have said”.
-Somebody told me over the course of this week: “There is a call of God on your life that you can’t escape”. It has struck me just how true that is. I can remember praying as a little girl and telling God that I just wanted to know Him. Even through times of trying to escape him and live for my fleshly desires, I can see how He has called me from before the time I was in my mothers’ womb. I cannot escape the call He has on my life (“But you have an anointing from the Holy One…”-1 John 2:20).
-I turned twenty-four years old this week. My first thought when I woke up on September 2 was that I am overwhelmed by God’s faithfulness to me. For twenty four full years, He has not let me go from His hand. Each year, He has called me deeper into His purpose. He just doesn’t stop.
-One of my favorite ideas that was presented during “The Awakening” this week: When you finally get to the Promised Land, you have to pick up your sword. You are no longer wandering in the wilderness. You now have to fight and claim the territory that God has declared as yours.
-I’m realizing more and more how important singing is in my life. I love to sing to the Lord. It causes my fears to flee. It focuses me on what is real. And, singing brings so much joy. I pray that I remember this as I continue to go into dark places. One of my favorite song lines ever is this : “Where there is a man who has no voice, there I shall go singing…” (Jewel).
Okay, so those are just a few of my scattered thoughts from this week. Tomorrow morning, we head to Kenya. Please pray protection (both physical and spiritual) over our entire squad. Pray that our new teams would grow in unity and be of one heart and mind. Pray for continually new revelations of God’s character and His love for us. Pray for times of rest and intimacy in the secret place with Him. Pray that we would breathe life everywhere we go.
….more to come soon!
grace and peace, angela
