I know I need to write a blog, but I
feel like so much has happened that I don’t even know where to begin.
As you may know we are in Berlin, Germany and have been for a little
while. We were originally scheduled to leave here on July 12th.
I was having a horrendous time finding transport on those days to
Moldova. I must have spent at least five hours searching for buses,
trains, or planes. I had NO luck. I was too dense to think that
maybe God was saying something. I was fighting, relying on my
strengths to accomplish the task at hand. One day I asked Chuck (our
contact) to take me to the bus station. He obliged and we went on
our merry way. The van ride was mostly silent. I had a crazy
experience in the van ride. The longer we were out the more
disturbed I became. I had an agitation in my chest that words can
not describe. I just knew that we were not supposed to leave on the
12th. As I thought about it and prayed about it I knew
what I needed to do. It was my job to ask our teams to pray about it
together. When we got home the troops gathered together and we hit
the prayer carpet! I asked everyone to take ten minutes to listen to
God and ask Him what He wanted us to do. Durring the ten minutes we
all had an encounter with Heaven. God revealed his love to us, and
His desire for us for the next few days. He made it clear that we
were not supposed to leave just yet. There was more that He wanted
us to do here, and that He wanted to do with us.
Since we have been here our contact has
asked us to only do a few things. Our ministry this month has been:
-
Prayer
-
Worship
-
Listening to God
We have been pouring every ounce of our
heart and soul out into Berlin and the people working in the harvest
here. The more we pour out the more God is pouring Himself in us. I
am so honored and lucky to be here! There is something amazing about
how God is blessing our efforts to restore this great Nation! The
spiritual history in this place is incredible! This nation has a
history of glorifying God and it was tainted for a long time! It is
still tarnished and beaten, but God the King of Glory, the
Restoration of Worlds is HERE! God inhabits the people in Berlin!
He honors those who are laboring in the harvest here! He is offering
Himself to us in fresh new ways here. I have seen each person on my
team increase in who they are in dramatic ways! God is shaking us!
We are watching each other be transformed into the very image of
Jesus daily! We are learning to love more, care more, give more, and
be more! We are becoming the very people Jesus created us to be. I
am in a continual state of awe! God, my creator is refining all of
us in such unique ways! It is His very nature to be perfect, and I
am watching Him perfecting each of the women on my team. They have
always been incredible women! They have massive hearts that break
when God’s heart breaks. They have gifts from God that are scary!
They have the ability to change a room just by walking into it! The
same Holy Spirit that lives in Jesus lives in each of them. Just
being around my girls watching what God is doing them renders me
speechless. I feel like I am watching them jump into the deep end of
the pool. I wish I had words to tell you how magnificent the beauty
of God is in them! They are reflecting His image to me daily in
their smiles, laughter, worship, prayer, concern, service,
compassion… I am just in awe of Him and how He can use us.
I think of this often. How is it that
the Great and Mighty God of the Universe can find a way to use me,
delight in me, love me, and spend time with me? Seriously, how does
He stop what He is doing to laugh at Jordan with me? I know He does
not stop what He is doing! He actually brushes Justine’s hair out of
her face while, showing Jamie how creative she is, while breaking
Jordan’s heart for injustice, while twirling Erika around on the
dance floor, while laughing with me at how Great each of them are.
God created time, therefore; He is not within the confounds of time!
He is outside of time. God has the ability to spend all of eternity
in one moment…….. Maybe the moment where you gave your life with
Him. Maybe the moment where you were wounded, where you forgave,
where you danced, where you sang. Maybe His is living in each of
those moments with you. I am realizing that God is a lunatic for the
way He loves us. It is reckless. He has abandoned logical thought,
thrown all caution to the wind and leaped into our arms. I can
tangibly feel God’s love for me in Berlin. He is speaking to me and
helping me realize so much! He is such a gentleman and His timing in
impeccable.
While we have
been in Berlin, Jamie Neumann has received a creative bug that is
contagious. Jamie asked all of us to pick a few words to describe
who we are in Berlin. I was thinking about it and decided that I
AM WHO I AM. This phrase is so
intense for me that I hardly know what it means. I am is who God
revealed Himself as to Moses in Exodus
3:14-God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is
what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ “
God is telling Moses I AM. Not I was or will be, but I AM! The
deal with God is He just IS, he will not be or was. He straight up
just IS!
