Praise Jesus we are outside in the MOUNTAINS doing some manual labor this month! It’s amazingly beautiful. We did so much today, and God was just pouring into me the whole time I was pouring out.
(You can see the mountains a little in the background, but that really doesn’t do them justice.)
In my blog “Confession to my supporters,” I apparently spoke some prophetic scenarios over myself. The first thing we did today? Pulled weeds out of our ministry contact’s garden! How cool that God spoke comfort to me over worrying about my ministry right before it actually happened? I absolutely loved every second of it. My hands were covered in dirt, sweat was dripping down my face and I was hopping around trying to avoid the stupid biting ants but I promise it felt fantastic.
Im learninf there is so much you can do to serve God. Last month was completely evangelism. This month is completely different so far. But any way you serve, if your serving with a joyful heart, it’s pleasing to The Lord.
So anyway, I’m pulling weeds, and just start thinking about how much better the garden is going to look, and how much more the plants can grow when they are freed from the weeds holding them back, and how much more fruit they can bear when the garden is pruned, and how I will be so delighted with my finished work when God just basically speaks to me and says, “Duh! That’s exactly what I’m doing in you!” This whole year is about Him slowly pulling up all the “weeds” in my life. The stuff that is choking out my growth, keeping me from bearing fruit for His kingdom. It’s a long process, but when it’s finished it looks so much better! And He will be delighted to look at where I was and how far I have come when He is finished.
After we gardened for a while, they needed a few more of us to shovel some gravel. One of the things were doing this month is helping to build a boys home for Remember Nhu. They have been doing an awesome job preventing the trafficking of girls in the villages they are working with here. In fact! In those villages, there hasn’t been a girl sold into the sex trade for two years! Praise Jesus! Sadly, now there is a growing demand for the boys as well, so we are helping to build them a new home for 35-40 boys. Anyway, right now they have the foundation all dug out, and they are putting down the first layers of gravel before… I don’t really know the process… But it’s different than America, and I know it involves gravel! Our contact said these houses are built to last forever, so through earthquakes or storms, they’re going to stand and protect the kids. So we shoveled gravel into wheelbarrows, and then wheeled them to a giant pit, poured them in (about 3 inches deep), and smoothed them out. During this time, God kept speaking into me about how He was building a firm foundation in me. One that could withhold any storm or disaster. He wasn’t going to cut any corners, and He was starting from the bottom and working His way up.
I came on this trip to serve. Serve people through preaching the gospel, serve them through building, through digging, through gardening… Whatever it takes. The crazy thing is, that God has committed to do the same, only through me. He’s committed to stir up the gospel in me, to build my faith and my relationship with Him, to dig out whatever needs gotten rid of… Whatever it takes. And the more I give, the more He pours right back into me.
