Welcome to Km 17 in the jungle of Ecuador. This month has been alot of personal growth, growth as a group, and some good ministry time. Some of the ministries we did in the jungle consisted of doing some work at the church, farming, sharing testimonies at church, leading worship at church and doing sunday school with 30 children on Sundays. We also prayed over people in the community.
Some of my favourite moments were
1) Holding children and having them fall asleep in my arms. It reminded me of God`s peace and times of resting in the Lord.
2) Hearing the rain outside (after all we are in the jungle)
3) Spending real time with God.
If asked to describe my time in the jungle I would say, a time of abandoning my comforts and learning how to be a follower of Jesus. This month has been an intense time of personal growth and a time of tuning into what God is showing me.
I have been learning to let go of alot of the stuff I left behind. I am now learning that in order to truly follow Christ, you have to abandon your old life and be ready to go where he is leading you. I have left my family, friends, church community, job and comforts of home. I knew that God was calling me to more and something better in my life. As hard as this is to leave everything that is comfortable behind me, I know that this is what I needed to do. In turn I have taken up my cross and followed Christ.
This month has been one of much emotions. I have had many queit times with God where I just cried out to him. I have realized that now that I have abandoned so much in my life that leaves more room for God. I will often look back and grieve over all that I left behind, but in reality I am learning to look forward to the better things that God has in store for me.
Some of the things that I abandoned this month was internet which is a big one. We did have internet close by but I chose to not put that between me and God. Not having internet meant no communication with family and friends, no checking my bank accounts back home, and not checking my support account. These alone are big things for me. I learned to give that over to God and fully rest that everything was being taken care of. Our God is bigger then we can ever imagine and he will supply all we need.
I also gave up a lot of my personal reading time for reading the word and having time to press into what God wants to tell me. That ended up being very positive for me as I am learning a lot from God`s word and getting more engaged in that. I have spent a lot of time with God instead of doing other things that would normally distract me. I am now commiting to reading the New Testement and memorizing scripture. A huge step for me.
Matthew 4:19-20 says “ Come follow me“ Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men“ I feel like I am learning to be fishers of men by leaving and following Jesus. It takes much faith to step out of the boat and follow what God is calling you to do.
In turn I feel that God is rewarding me and teaching me so much already. We have gone to pray over people and those people reflect so much of the old me. I saw myself in them by how they have clung onto idols in their life instead of God, and the unforgiveness towards themself. I have done so much of that and now have seen freedom in so those areas of my life. I could pray that freedom over them and proclaim God’s love to them. What a great feeling.
So as hard as this month has been with true abandonment I have felt that God put us in the jungle for a reason. I hope to continue this journey with God and keep pressing on during this season of brokenness and abandonment. This season too will pass and bring me to bigger and better times in my journey.
