When it’s taken you the longest to write a blog and then your phone gets stolen and your blog is forever gone…then you find it in your iCloud. These are some old updates but still want to share! 😉 xo
3 months in and so much has happened. God has shown up in amazing ways big and small, truly showing me how mindful he is of me and how available he is to us every. second. of. the. day.
God has been continually breaking my heart for his children, showing me how desperate he is for relationship with them. Like his constant pursuit with his chosen people Israel-he continues to pursue all those who don’t know him. In Morocco I experienced this through the hopelessness I felt as we walked the streets of Casablanca prayer walking. I experienced such heaviness my heart felt like it was breaking over and over again. Our hosts challenged us as we prayed to be mindful that most of the streets we walked down would be the first time that any words of hope or Jesus’ name would be spoken. Can you imagine that? A place that Jesus’ name has never been spoken? As we walked we touched car doors, motorcycles, front doors to homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses-praying for these people to somehow encounter Jesus in a crazy supernatural way. One of my teammates (I can’t remember who) also got us thinking-as we prayed to imagine the words flowing out of our mouths..and as people walked the streets the words of hope and truth would collide with them. What an image!!
In Greece God gave me the desires of my heart and put me and my team in the middle of a refugee camp of about 1200 refugees from Afghanistan and Syria. When I left Morocco I was saddened at the thought of not being with Muslim people, and God was like just wait Lydia. 🙂 he’s mindful, so mindful.
Working at the refugee camp was filled with long, hardworking, sweaty days. The first week and a half we organized all the donated clothes, so clothing distribution could happen. These people some living there
Arriving to the camp my eyes were opened to just a little bit of what these people have and still are experiencing. Can you image having to say goodbye to everything you’ve ever known, leaving your closest friends, some of your family, and walking-sometimes running several hours to get to a safer country to get on a boat that’ll take you to another country that’s completely foreign to everything you’ve ever known, and then receiving the bare minimum there? The conditions these people are facing are crazy, and still in the midst of all of it they welcomed us into their tent homes, shared their food with us and loved on us more than we could love on them. I had the joy to play with kiddos, loving on them, tickling them and whispering sweet prayers over there lives. After spending 3 weeks in this camp, I walked away disappointed in myself knowing I could have done so much more. Despite the long hours my team and I spent there I felt unsatisfied with my attempts to share the gospel. I think it was a mixture of language barriers and operating out of fear that stopped me from sharing the truth and hope that I have, and as I walked away feel unsettled and disappointed God comforted me with this truth:
Leaving Greece we had a 17 hour bus ride to Turkey and as we were passing boarder control I woke up comforted by the sounds of the 4 am call to prayer. I was soooo excited to be surrounded by Muslims again. They’re a great, generous and loving people whom God so dearly loves, and wants to see free.
Turkey was a difficult month filled with a lot of self-realizations. A lot I’m still processing and trying to grasp, not share worthy just yet. We spent our time partnered with a local church in a beautiful beach town. The church consisted of a few Turks and a lot of Iranians who I really fell in love with! this church family welcomed us with open arms and loved us so well!
