As I was reading my bible, I came across the verse Romans 8:35-37 that says: “Who shall seperate us from the love of Jesus Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.”
It made me think of everyone who was a part of the typhoon in Tacloban. In more than one instance when I was talking to a survivor I told them that they were strong, and they I was honored to know them, and most of the time their response was that it’s just what they do. They expect natural disasters to happen, it is something they are used to, so surviving is just something they do. They are conquerors for the Lord. No matter what happens they look to Him for guidance, and thank Him for being their savior in every way.
After that I started to reflect on my own life. I thought about all the things I had gone through. All the trials and tribulations, distress, and hurt I went through when I was younger. Along with that, I thought about all the time I failed to turn to the Lord in those times. I had been submerged in such self pity and let the enemy take control of my emotions and lead me down some pretty dark paths. I continued to shove God further out, and pull Satan further in until I had lost all control over my life. I was in deep.
It wasn’t until I met one man, Brandon Quail, that my life would start to change. I started going to church at his church to be come a part of his youth group and I quickly began to love him and his wife like family. From the very beginning I was honest with Brandon about what had happened and what was happening in my life. Despite all the events that had taken place, and all the sin my life revolved around, they still loved me as well! It felt good to know that I could be 100% honest with someone without them being judgmental, or biased of anything and still love me. It was then I knew that I could trust him with anything.
I began going to Brandon’s church more and more, and even visiting him at his house and having dinner with the family. I was there so much I started to think of them as family, and they did me as well. He became my father figure while my other father was unable too. He didn’t take the place of my dad, just filled in for him. I let Brandon become my mentor, and slowly but surely he was used to disciple me back to Christ. The process was slow, and had to be painful for him, but he never gave up on me.
On September 18, 2012 I rededicated my life to the Lord, and got sanctified right there on his couch in his living room! We both cried. They were both tears of happiness. I had conquered my past, conquered the negative thoughts keeping me from accepting the Lord’s love, and most of all I had conquered the sin I was living in. While being in Tacloban, I met so many people who I gave pieces of my heart too. So many people who looked to God, even when their city, their homes, their life had been submerged with dark, deep, dirty water they turned to God. When my life had been submerged, I did just the opposite; ran from God.
I began thinking about baptism. Quite a few others on my squad had gotten baptized on the race. My prayer partner had actually just gotten baptized in the ocean during our last debrief. I had never gotten baptized before in my life. It’s not that I didn’t want to, I just always knew that I wanted it to mean something and I wanted God to tell me when to do it. As I was reading my bible, in John it was talking about baptizing and be washed by the holy spirit. That’s when I came across the verse I opened this blog with, and that’s when I knew.
My heart started beating like crazy, my hands got sweaty as I read, and in my heart I knew that God was calling me to get baptized in the Philippines. Of course! This was the first country I had absolutely fallen in love with. For some reason, I just felt a strange connection with the people here. Not that I was in any way as amazing as they were, but in a weird way I felt like a survivor too. Better yet, a conqueror.
I thought about it, and knew that if I had to be submerged another time in my life, I would want it to be here, in this beautiful country, with all these beautiful people, with strong hearts and minds. I knew that God was telling me it was time. On the last night in the country, my team and I gathered around the pool in at the K.I.M. ministry site we were staying at, and that’s when it happened.
The only people around were my six wonderful sisters on Team Xuberant Joy, who have become more like family than anyone, and other members of my X-Squad family! My team leader read the passages of the bible, I read the verse that God used to tell me it was time, and everyone held onto me and dunked me. The moment I came back up I felt brand new, and so happy. I wouldn’t change it for the world. It was perfect. The perfect place; where I fell in love with. The perfect people; the team that made us into sisters. And most importantly, a perfect God; who made me new, submerged me with love and washed my sin away!
(Pictures and Video coming soon!) Stay tuned! 🙂
I also wanted to make this short little paragraph about why funding my world race is important. As you can see, the world race is changing my life day by day. I am not only hear in these countries to change these people’s lives and work in them, but they are doing the same for me. I can’t imagine where I would be or what I would be doing if God had not called me onto the mission field. And it’s still the beginning! In 7 months I will return home a completely transformed woman. I am now $11,381 funded! That is 70%!! Praise the Lord! I would like to thank everyone who has partnered with me, and supported this far and is continuing to support me! You rock my world, and I couldn’t have gotten where I am without you! I also would like to ask that you take a minute and pray about supporting me further on my race! I am $4,840 short of being fully funded and I know that God is going to keep providing that! Thanks so much! Love<3
