It’s about to get real vulnerable in here, so just be warned.
Today is my first day back from training camp and there is honestly so much to process. My squad is incredible. My team is incredible. The Adventures in Missions staff is incredible. Most importantly, the God who ordained it all is truly INCREDIBLE. He did such deep and powerful works this past week and somehow I am going to attempt to give you just the smallest glimpse.
Over the course of the week, we received many teachings. We learned about forgiveness, grace, evangelism, choosing each other, and so much more. One of the recurring topics was the Holy Spirit. We dove in deep to that one. Our third Holy Spirit teaching was specifically about the power that the Spirit gives us to heal others. Like truly, physically heal people. We were reminded that this isn’t just something that happened in old Bible stories, but that it is REAL and HAPPENING now too.
Our speaker gave us testimony after testimony of moments that the Holy Spirit worked in him to heal others, but he didn’t just stop with his words. He challenged us to put it into action. We prayed to receive the Holy Spirit and then we prayed healing over each other and things got WILD.
At this point, you’re probably thinking exactly what I thought as we were told to heal others… “These things don’t happen anymore. Who on earth are these crazy Christians?” Well, let me just tell you IT WORKED. One girl on my team was healed of her migraines. Another was healed of her jaw pain. Another had her leg GROW 3/4 OF AN INCH (legit.) The Lord was and is alive and well.
As you can probably imagine, the room was full to the brim with rejoicing. I mean, the Lord showed up and physically healed people. I don’t know about you, but I think that is kind of a big deal. However, while everyone else was rejoicing I was feeling more intensely broken than I have ever felt in my entire life. I was full body sobbing through the entire thing. You ask why? We were reminded that the Holy Spirit not only physically heals people through those that believe, but He spiritually heals people through those that believe too.
Some of you may know a bit about my family. You probably know that my sisters and my father are not Christians. When the speaker spoke about spiritual healing something within me broke beyond feeling. The Lord was showing me just how deeply HIS heart aches for my sisters. For my father. I felt every bit of that hurt and the only way that I knew to express it was to fall onto my face and sob. I desperately want my family to know the love that the Father has to offer them. I want to know that they experience the acceptance and freedom that I experience. I want to be able to fully share my life with them because I am NOTHING apart from Jesus.
Some of you also know that my family has never really been too big on openly communicating when it comes to the deep subjects. We love each other fiercely and I have no doubts about that, but rarely do we really sit down and share our hearts with each other. I’m sure you can imagine how terrifying this post is for me because I’m assuming that both my sisters and my father will probably read it and I really hope that they do, but I also have no idea what I’ll even say or do when they respond. I have always wanted to see my whole family come to Christ, but the Spirit gave me that desire in a much more deep and painful way this time.
So what now? I’m not sure and I’m praying for the guidance of the Lord in it. This mission year is all about bringing the gospel to those who have never heard it. This year is all about showing the love of the Father to others, but this trip didn’t come with a warning label that it may mean boldly showing that same love to my family too. I am praying and hoping that this mission year will be an opportunity for my family to come to Christ with or without me. I pray that by living into my calling I can inspire them to know Him. The Lord is mighty and powerful and He has shown that to me over and over again so who am I to deny Him this possibility?
Cheers to a new chapter of living boldly. Six weeks until India, but clearly the journey has already begun.
