Having been away from home for 42 weeks now and thinking about what the LORD has done in my life in this last 10 months. I am constantly amazed at how much he has taught me. What parts of my previous life he has ripped out of me and crafted me into a picture of His son and though I am far from perfect. I have a much greater desire to pursue his purpose for my life and not my own. I find myself diving deeper in prayer because I am around a God who is so real I fill his embrace when I close my eyes and ask for it. He is always there and he is the one that has gotten me through this period of my life. Having all my comforts taken from me and all my family and friends that I had surrounded myself with my whole life having to live and create a Godly community with others who are making the same choice. This community has become my family with God as our father, Jesus as our brother, and the Holy Spirit our guide. Don't get me wrong I have for many years strived to live this life of community with the trinity but there is something about abandoning everything you have known and having to trust solely on our heavenly father who loves us and has been desiring nothing less than giving Him our everything.
This month has been one of reflection I have been thinking a lot about what home will be like when I arrive. For one thing we on the World Race have learned to rely on. Is our clear ministry objectives each month that we receive. For the most part each month we have a schedule that we stick too and plan our days around. While this current month has been one that much like home is not planned out for us. We are constantly encouraged and filled with the spirit everyday because of the people we are around but as far as outreaches go we struggle to find a place to fit in everyday. Don't get me wrong the church we are working with this month is built and encouraged by a Godly staff of people who truly seek after the Lord. We are find ourselves having to seek ministry out and find ways to stay busy in this community. What I have come to realize is this is a perfect preparation for what it will be like to return home in 5 weeks I am not going to come back to clear definitions of what ministry looks like. Or have my ministry scheduled for me I am going to have to find the people who God wants me to minister too through constant prayer and an open heart to his will. One thought that I read recently was that the reason that we don't see God at work clearly when we are at home is because we have lost the dependency that we are forced to take when we leave everything behind. So true!!! I am constantly praying Lord never allow me to be content wherever I am in life. Let me continue to rely on you so that I can praise you all the more. So let this become a testimony of how important it is to throw out our independence and to become completely dependent on Him.
We are headed for Ireland in 6 days for the start of my last month of ministry on the World Race. Please pray for us as we struggle with focusing on our last month because of thoughts of almost being home.
Pray for this ministry as we reach the community of Northern Ireland. We have three weeks of ministry as a whole squad then we will be in Dublin for our final debrief that will last about a week leading to me being home on July 31st I will post the flight information on Facebook so that hopefully I can see you when I get home. Love you all as my brothers and sisters in Christ. See you soon.
