At launch, which now feels like years and years ago, (it was only two weeks) we wrote letters to ourselves for nine months from now. That day, I was struggling pretty hard because we had just said goodbye to our families, and honestly, I just wanted to sleep/hide in my room even though I know that it definitely wouldn’t have been healthy, it’s just what I wanted. We had risk and safety training and then a session following right after so there was going to be no time to rejuvenate and veg. And I really just tuned out. I couldn’t process everything while sitting in our training, so I just tuned out what I was feeling and sat in silence… so not fun. It gets better though, I promise.
After our training, we had a short break, then came back and wrote the letters to ourselves. We were told to write what we wanted to see happen in the next year, how we wanted to see the Lord move, and what ways we wanted to be stretched in the next year. I’ve been asked COUNTLESS times what it is I wanted to see the Lord do this year/what I wanted to get out of the race, and I truly never had answers for people. Its similar to the, “what do you want to do with the rest of your life?” questions as an 18 year old… kinda at a loss for words. Truly going in with arms wide open, but as I wrote, the Lord started to reveal to me what His vision for me in this next nine months looks like, and I was in awe, just weeping with Him and feeling safe while having the privilege to process with Him.
That night we had worship and it was SO GOOD!! With 250 people in the room who just said bye to their parents, it all felt so real and the worship was so powerful. It was evident that the Spirit was heavy on us, and it was exhilarating with so many expectant, ecstatic, and ready hearts in the room. I felt a tap on my shoulder, when a leader from another squad named Lucie asked if she could pray for me and I said, “no way I hate prayer”. Jk. She prayed. And I cried and cried as she began to pray over me every. single. thing. the Lord gave me to write in my letter. Mind you, I hadn’t talked to anyone about it. She spoke truth over me, telling me I will grow in ways I never have and will experience more of His character than ever before. I am so pumped.
Fast forward to this week, where we did a listening prayer exercise and asked the Lord a whole list of questions, one of them being what His favorite thing about us is. He told me perseverance, naturally I then cheated with my study bible and went wild, studying scriptures that have the word perseverance in them. Where I came across this,
“Therefore since we are surrounded by such a large crowd of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1
Praying this verse over my team and squad so hard this year. That we could and WILL be a large crowd of witnesses with nothing holding us back and that we will persevere in every hard moment. Running WILD on fire for Jesus in every moment He gives us!! COME ON PEOPLE! Feeling wayyy encouraged because I’ve already gotten to see my squad do this. Being witnesses at our childrens ministry and homeless ministry here. So good. So excited.
