Hello friends and family, as I write this, I am on a 24 hour long train ride traveling across the vast open country of Turkey. So far, I’ve only seen one turkey here. The country should have been called “cows” or “mountains”. Maybe there used to be a lot of turkeys back in the day and people just ate them all. Whatever the case, it is a beautiful country and my soul is filled to overflowing as I take in God’s creation.
These past couple weeks have been so good in many ways. I finished my time in Greece rested and ready to move into new things. We took a bus to Istanbul, Turkey and had 6 days of debriefing our last 2 months of the Race. We were able to rest up and have lots of one-on-ones with the squad coaches and mentor. We changed teams up and then headed out to our next ministry location. The team I am with this month is headed to a city on the other side of the country called Kars. Our objective: Love the people of Kars and plant seeds in hopes of planting a church. There are about 2 known believers in the city of 120,000 and they are in great need of the gospel. Pray for us as we do this.
As for me, I am doing super good. God is always so good to me and I constantly find myself asking, “Why do I get to live this life that I am living? Did I do something special to deserve this?” And my thoughts are “Yes and No”. Yes because I have chosen to follow Jesus and give up my life for His. And no, because I was a sinner deserving death and by His grace He saved me and gave me abundant life. I don’t deserve to travel to all the cool places I have been to, but He loves me so much and gives me the desires of my heart as I delight in Him.
Last year God was working a lot with Me on my heart and rebuilding the foundation of who I am. This year has been a bit different. He still works on my heart, but the focus has been more so on my actions. How to love, lead, serve, disciple, communicate, rebuke, encourage, die to flesh, be filled with the Spirit, teach, do logistics, etc… My foundation was built within my inner being, now I’m learning how to act upon it.
He’s been teaching me these through many different ways. Through my squad mentor Chris, squad coaches Gary and Lisa, co-squad-leader Natalie, my squad, sermons, scripture, Holy Spirit, books, people back home, and by simply experiencing life as it comes at me. I love the community I am in because it is such a safe place to fall and get back up. I am bound to fail at times, but I have a church around me to help me up, brush off the dirt and push me forward into my destiny. I couldn’t do it without them.
The more I live in tight community like the World Race, the more I see God’s desire for us to live each day in relationship with each other. We cannot do this life on our own. The whole Old and New Testament shows this. All the laws were given to those who were going to live in community.
In North America, we can be very individualistic and exclude ourselves from community 6 days of the week. Then on Sunday, we meet for 2 hours and can easily go to church without actually living “community”. This is why we have so many Christians struggling with sin and struggling to follow Jesus. We keep trying to do it on our own because it is “my walk with God”. But if we understood that walking with Christ looks like walking with others, we wouldn’t get stuck in the sin that so easily entangles us. We would be able to walk like a fierce army and take ground against the enemy in his territory. The church is weak and we need a strong united unit to take back what the enemy stole. To be in Christ is to be in Community. Even God is in community within Himself (Trinity). Christ is Community. We need Both.
I am still fundraising. I am $2775 away from being fully funded. If you would like to donate, go to the top of the page and click the “Donate” button.
In Love,
Jordan
