During this journey I’ve been blessed with many gifts. People are the greatest of those. Today, I want to celebrate one of the greatest gifts God has given me in the last five months.
Her name is Kelsey.
Our friendship started when the Lord asked me to leave my tent back in America and told me to ask Kelsey to share hers. Kind of an awkward way to start a friendship if you ask me, but the Big Man upstairs knew what He was doing.
As we’ve lived the last four months, Kels and I have grown into sisters. Not just “sisters in Christ” as we call fellow Christians, but real sisters. I could truly imagine growing up with her, going to college with her, cheering her on during soccer games, applying for the Race with her — though we had no idea the other existed during those times.
I love her with the same love I love my own siblings with. An intimate, nurturing, protective, caring, unconditional love that never stops growing.
It’s funny because when we first got our teams at Training Camp, I felt God put Kels and I together to give me pieces of my sisters — she shares a name with my sister Kelsie and acts incredibly similar to my sister Faith. I knew living with her was a blessing from the beginning. The difference is, I’m not reminded of my other sisters every time I look at her anymore, because she is my sister.
When I look at Kelsey now, I see Jesus in every ounce of her being. She is full of Him — full of His passion, His grace, His forgiveness, His understanding, His strength, His courage, His discipline, His love. And each time I look at her, she’s shining with something new of the Lord. As each day passes, Kelsey reflects the way Jesus lived more and more.
I’ve watched her lay hands on the sick, pray for people who don’t know Jesus, lead worship in a Hindu marketplace, share her testimony with many different people groups, sleep on the floor so someone else can sleep in a bed, teach a class of middle schoolers, give devotions to hundreds of students, play soccer with orphans and locals in four countries, love on her teammates and surrender her life to Christ.
Seeing her grow and being part of her growth the last few months has brought me so much joy. She is on fire for the Lord and how He desires to use her. We’ve spent countless hours talking about how God doesn’t have limits on how He wants to use us and we both believe it. She wants all His gifts and is opening her heart to receive them.
This journey has been wonderful in itself, but living it alongside such an incredible woman, friend and sister has been all the more greater. We’ve gone deep together — we have the talks some people are scared of having: how we feel about how we’re living life, whether or not we’d be content with they way we’ve been living if Jesus were to come back right now, what it means to accept and use the authority Christ has given us. We’re walking through the spiritual realm together and have began to sense spirits in people or places at the same time and know the other understands what we’re feeling.
We’ve experienced freedom together in things we didn’t even know had us chained down. She isn’t afraid to ask questions to challenge me and encourages me in areas she sees potential growth in.
We keep one another accountable in our walks with Christ, our prayers and fasting for our family and friends and in something as simple as working out.
One of the things I love the most about Kels is how intentional she is with our friendship. She has gotten to know me in ways that you would get to know a new friend back home — she knows what kind of car I drive, my favorite things to do on the weekends, what I miss the most about college.
We’ve dug deep into one another’s personal lives and know things even our diaries don’t [yes, we still have diaries — they’re called journals now.] We know the other’s friends by name, we know the other’s prayer requests, we know the other’s struggles and we know the other’s dreams.
Her intentionality with me has helped me grow in being more intentional with how I love Jesus and His children.
I can honestly say I wouldn’t be where I am today in my boldness, my confidence, my growing love for myself or my relationship with Jesus if Kels wasn’t such a huge part of my life. And even though recent team changes has separated us, I know without a doubt we will never grow apart.
Cheers to my little sister — Happy twenty-third birthday Kels.
I love you more than you love Daisy the Cow.
