It’s official.
I love it here in the Philippines.
The people, the climate, the food, the ministry KIM, our ministry hosts.
It feels like we’ve been here for months already, but it’s only been 11 days!
On Wednesday morning the 17th, I woke up earlier than usual. Jet lag is real, and for the first few days I woke up at 2 am or 3 am. Other days, I wake up at 5:30 with just enough time to go outside and see the sun rise. Wednesday, I woke up to see the sun rising and I headed outside to sit with Lord and journal. I was led to Romans 12:1-2 –
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Renewing my mind is a daily on-going process through prayer, Bible reading, and listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit. Culture and 21st century thinking creeps into our psyche and is often contrary to how a believer is supposed to think and live. As Jesus said, “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth.” (Matthew 15:11) As believers, Jesus wants us focused on building God’s kingdom. The only way we can participate in building this kingdom is if our minds are renewed. God’s kingdom is not a physical kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom on this earth, that involves winning over the hearts of men and women and children with His love.
But back to Romans 12!
After a great quiet time and then breakfast, my team and I left for a feeding. A feeding is what it sounds like. We drive to a town where the people are beautiful, but they live in not so great conditions. We park, get out, and yell “Feeding” up and down the dirt roads. Then, children come running with bowls, cups, and plastic containers. We fill the bowls with a rice mixture made by the beautiful and skilled cooks at our ministry site.
Sometimes after feeding the children, we are blessed with the opportunity to sit down and have a Bible study with mothers in the community and our driver (who is also a Pastor) as a translator. So, Wednesday morning when we sat down and began the Bible Study, Pastor called on my teammate Krista to share her testimony. She ended her testimony with sharing Romans 12:1-2 and there was more discussion on that scripture and what it means to her. It was a beautiful moment and a beautiful confirmation on what the Lord spoke to me earlier that morning. As I began this World Race journey with a step of faith, not knowing fully what it would entail, I love these moments when the Lord confirms His word!
Later that day, we had the opportunity to help at the ministry’s construction site. They are building a retaining wall first, then will level the ground for a soccer field, and eventually another school! It was awesome to mix cement and know that some day the children of the community will be blessed at that school. My muscles are sore from lifting buckets of cement, but my heart is full doing the Lord’s work.
On the World Race, there are so many opportunities to serve, and if we are not careful we can become burnt out even in month 1. Renewing my mind and filling up is how I can have the endurance to finish this Race well and serve those around me. I’m glad I’m learning this early because even now there are times when we are tired, emotionally and physically, but the Lord renews my strength daily and keeps His promise that His mercies are new every morning.
Updates:
Thanks so much for the response from my last post! Thank you to whoever donated $25 anonymously on 10/16/18. Thank you!
I am now only $7,379.00 away from the total needed and $13,000 is needed by November 30th.
If you have not donated already, please consider a one-time or monthly donation by clicking the Donate button above.
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In courageous faith and for His glory alone,
Sharon
My next blog post will be about 2 amazing experiences I had this week:
Number 1 – being in the delivery room and helping to deliver 2 babies at the KIM Hope Alive Clinic!
Number 2 – we went to Smokey Mountain aka Trash Mountain located in Tonda to do a feeding. It was life-changing!
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