So What Have we been doing:
First of all I just want to apologize that I have not wrote a blog explaining what we have been doing. Many times I attempt to explain the logistical info but my heart much rather loves to write about what God is doing with me and in me. But I realize that many of you want to know what we are exactly doing and what I need prayer for so this blog is totally dedicated for that purpose alone! When we first arrived in Ireland we were under the impression that we would be working with the Gypsy community. Well with the World Race it is very important to be flexible and not have expectations because many things can constantly change.
We arrived in Greystones Ireland into a house with two others team from the world race. So there are 21 of us all staying together this month which has brought some challenges, but way, way more blessings! We wake up every day at 8 am where we have breakfast all together and then have a devotional. We then leave to go to ministry at 10 am where we then come back usually anytime from 4 to 6pm.
This month has been a challenge and has been very growing because of different circumstances and conditions. But yet God is growing us, stretching us, and amazing us with His blessings in the midst of us submitting to others. The ministry that our contact is having us do is called “Track ministry.” Its where we go door to door with flyers about Jesus. This has been really hard for many of us because we do not want to be people who force the message of Jesus down anyone’s throats. We also do not want to bother or annoy people at their homes. To be quite honest many of us really, really struggled with this and at first would not agree to do this. We believe that spreading the love and message of Jesus Christ is about building relationships and getting to know someone. But yet doing the track ministry I personally felt like a salesman where I was trying to sell something to someone. It has been hard, growing, and difficult. I have had many doors shut in my face and many, many people not interested.
Yet through the growing, stretching, and uncomfortable situation that we have been put in, I have seen God move and work in ways that ONLY HE CAN! I have been blessed to be invited in people’s homes for a cup of tea, where I get to share not just a message about Jesus to them but I actually get to share WHO Jesus is with them. I have been blessed to get to pray with people and share the love of Christ with kids and people on the streets. God has given me a courage to talk to people that I don’t even know and has given me the grace to trust that He can work in and through anything that He wants to work in and through!
God keeps reminding me on the hard days when we walk up and down the streets feeling like a salesman or even a slave at times, that I just never know who God can use me to touch and speak to. He reminds me that the real importance is not even what I am doing for others, but yet what He is doing in me. God is reminding me that this trip is about others, but it’s mostly about me. It’s about God forming me, shaping me, and molding me more into His image and who HE created ME to be!
I have also been blessed to go into some very poor neighborhoods of cities that people normally wouldn’t go to. I have been blessed to go and talk to kids in a real and authentic way. I have learned that I can walk door to door, but I am not gonna act like a salesman. I am gonna be real, authentic, true, and I am gonna love the person the best I can for as long as I can. I am going to try to get to know them and I am going to try to share the true Hope and true Love of Jesus Christ with them that has truly changed my heart and my life forever!
I have been so blessed to meet kids, teenagers, and adults who have never heard of Jesus and who for some were never even open to even consider Jesus as being real and true. I have been blessed to pray with people to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior for the first time in their lives. I have been blessed to be the hands and feet of Christ by loving people. I haven’t been perfect, but my biggest hope is that I have been real, real and true in Christ in a way where they know it's not me, but Him!
I have seen God surprise bless me so many times and amaze me with not only how he has used me, but how He has worked within me to speak, grow, and ignite my own heart and soul to be closer to Him, more alive in Him, and more in love with Him!
Here is one of my most favorite verses in all of the Bible. My hope is that I can truly live this verse out! It says this:
“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they were regonzied as men who had been with Jesus.” – Acts 4:13
I love this verse because I pray that I can have the courage and boldness like Peter and John to talk to anyone about who Christ is. I don’t want to talk to people to try to persuade, sell them, or convince them of anything. I want to talk to people with a love in my heart for them and a love and fire in my heart that Jesus has given me. I want to talk to them not to convert them, but to love them and to share the most amazing love and gift of the whole world with them – My true Hope, Light, and Love that never fails and never gives up
– Jesus Christ!
I also love this verse because I want to always realize that God can work through anything and ANYONE! I want to believe, hope, and trust that God can work through me and through anyone! He can work through a little piece or paper, a smile, a hug, or a simple “how are you today.” I believe that God can work through anything and I want to always remember that I am just an ordinary person, but there is a very unordinary God that lives within me that has the power, love, and grace to change and save anyone!
I finally love this verse because I want to live a life like Peter and John did. They lived lives with Jesus! I hope and pray that I can be a person who lives my life with Christ! I pray that when people see me, they see Christ. I pray that people see His light, His love, and His life within me in such a real way that they KNOW He is real!
Wherever you at, know that God can use you, work through you, and most of all…live through you! God doesn’t call the qualified, but HE QUALIFIES THE CALLED!
You were created with a special purpose and God can use you in amazing ways. You just never know whose life you might touch, inspire, and change forever! If you have Jesus in your heart, His Light, His Life, and His Love lives within you and shines to others!
“With God All Things Are Possible” – Luke 1:37
Here are some pictures of the amazing people that I have met here in Ireland while going out and ministering on the streets and in neighborhoods. Then once again at the end of the e-mail is a song that I feel like describes a life that I truly hope to live like!
God Bless you all and thank you so so much!
Ryan Otto
God Bless you all and thanks for reading, praying, and support me!
