Uzbekistan so far goes down as my all time favorite country! Another location that I didn’t expect I would get to travel to but I sure am I did. As the rest of the squad headed to cities throughout Kazakhstan, myself and 5 others came over to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. There have been three major areas of growth for me in this time.
First, walking by faith.
I’ve heard it many times before, and I’m not just learning, but actually practicing what it looks like to not have a clue what lies ahead but have enough trust in God to take steps forward.
Typically upon arriving to a new country, one of my first priorities is getting the basic needs met, for example: housing, food, wifi, water, toilet paper, and money. When we arrived in Tashkent, God had another plan. We found out our housing had fallen through (so we didn’t have anywhere to sleep that night). On top of that, we found out that due to Uzbekistan’s only very recent push for economic and technological growth, the ATM’s do not accept credit cards without a chip…btw our team debit cards have no chip. So we couldn’t get money out and therefore could not get SIM cards, pay for food, water, taxis, etc. The first day of being here, I felt thrown into having to walk by faith because honestly there wasn’t any other choice. You might be as surprised as I was when you hear that things were not a total nightmare given the circumstances. In a nutshell, a woman we met at a nearby wifi spot allowed us to stay at her home for the afternoon to figure out money and housing. She ended up buying a SIM card for us, feeding us local food for dinner, and helping us get taxis to our next place. God then also provided housing for that night through a woman who less than a week later accepted Jesus as her Savior along with her son! Also, God sent three people (rather than the anticipated two) to be on this team who are responsible for carrying emergency USD which happened to be just enough money needed to cover costs for the whole team to live and eat for these 2.5 weeks. On top of that He also provided free food for the first 4 days straight. We didn’t go to the grocery or even worry about a single meal in those first days. I literally cannot explain any of this without giving all the praise to God. Matthew 6:25-34 and 7:7-8 summarizes this so well. Verse 6:31-33 says: “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. God knows what our needs are, I am learning that I so often try and meet them myself when God knows what you need and wants to provide for us so that we instead can seek Him.
Second, spiritual warfare is a real thing.
I’ve never experienced this amount of spiritual warfare or been as aware as I have been than in this country. But it has made total sense looking back and seeing that in this country I’ve seen more “fruit” produced than any other country and so of course there will be spiritual attack. Every event or person or situation or location we’ve been to, something wild has happened! It’s like the soil is so fertile and you barely have to put any effort in to see God do something amazing. I felt that God laid it on my heart to read the book of Job this last week and through that, I’m seeing how God allows difficulties into our lives to draw us nearer to Himself. So although we’ve come up against a lot of reluctance and difficulties, it has taught me that it enables me to be even more dependent on the Father. And He is sovereign! He uses all of the trials and challenges for His good!
Third, vision for the future.
The primary purpose of sharing this part is for asking you to join me in praying for the things I feel God wants to do in the athletic world in the next few years.
I’ve felt for several months now, a desire to go back to rowing after this trip. This year has dramatically changed my heart towards WHY I want to continue pursuing this. What’s cool is that today, I believe I saw a vision for what God is wanting to do. That being a movement among athletes going to the 2020 Olympics. I feel like I see a glorifying of God in front of the audience of all the nations through the Olympics. The opportunity that lies in the coming together of athletes from all over the world is insane. I feel that there is an opportunity to not only reach Olympic athletes from all over the world but also be seen through the media all over the world. I feel that God wants to use believers who are going to the 2020 Olympics to glorify His name and bring people to know Him in a way never seen before. And I want to be a part of this movement!! (Which is cRaZy) So I ask that you join me in praying for the 2020 Olympics, for God to send hundreds of believers to Tokyo, Japan and to have confidence and boldness in bringing glory to His name on the podium and in the city. Pray for God to unify athletes from the countries who will be present. Pray for millions of people all over the world to witness God through the Games. And pray for me, for God to prepare me, equip me, be my strength, give me vision, direction, resources, favor, and community that will do this with me. Also pray for people, like yourself, who are willing to support, encourage, intercede, and partner with me in this movement. I sense God has slowly been preparing my heart and revealing these things to me. Who knows what lies ahead but the power of prayer is real so I simply ask for you to join with me in this.
God is so good. I am beyond thankful to have been able to experience God to a degree I never have before here in Uzbekistan. And I’m ready to keep going and partnering with God to do bigger things.
