First of all, I have to give a shout out to my friends at
Brightwood Christian Church in Gibsonville, NC!
Bethsaida and I are back at the kids’ camp today and are staying
until Thursday to help out with a few day camps. It’s such a blessing to be back at Ovoca
Manor camp and with the amazing people we met last weekend and it’s such an
encouragement for God to send us back to a place where we both feel very called
to serve.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Graystones, the other five
men from the three teams working with Jim and Kathy are going to a plowing
festival while the women are getting a few days to relax a little bit and
bond. Bethsaida and I both had the
option to spend the next few days with our teammates but we felt led to come
back and be camp counselors again instead.
Considering our teams are being switched up at the end of
this month, being away from everyone for part of our last week together is a
big personal sacrifice… for me at least.
I’ve loved being a part of team CRASH but it’s pretty customary for
World Race teams to be rearranged after month three. Spending time with them right now is really
important to me but that’s just not what God wants me to do right now.
The lesson here is hard to swallow because sometimes
following God’s plan for us involves walking away or saying, “No� to
something. Like my amazing team leader, Lia,
often says, “For every Yes we say to God, there are 1,000 No’s.� It may mean not letting your emotions explode
like they normally do or maybe it means refusing something you have a habit in
(like sweets for me, recently, thanks to European pastries).
There have been a couple people on our squad who have made
the agonizing decision to walk away from the World Race already because they
felt like they were being led somewhere else.
That meant walking away from people who had come to be like family to
them all for the sake of obedience to God’s will. They had to say, “No more,� so that they
could say, “Yes� to God and what He was doing.
Some of us may never understand how or why but what’s important is that
they know in their hearts that they are where God wants them and that they are
doing very little to keep His plans from becoming reality.
Others in our squad family are trying to raise support
still and are actually in danger of being sent home if they don’t the money
they need. They have to say, “No� to
ministry opportunities in order to pray for more support back home so that they
can continue to say, “Yes� to God and remain on the World Race.
Kameron and Lauren, who are both on my team, are in this
situation right now. It’s in God’s
hands, obviously, that they remain in the field, but He would be working
through YOU in order to make it happen so I am praying that you only listen to
what God is telling you to do so that His will can be done.
Support Kameron: http://kameronkissinger.theworldrace.org
Support Lauren: http://laurennewborn.theworldrace.org
When you’re done with that, please feel free to browse my pictures so far of this month: www.photobucket.com/kjwrireland.
