I am in the last season of my race. I say season because first, it’s not May yet, and second because this season will last beyond just the end of next month. It’s the “going home” season, the time for ‘good-byes’ and ‘hello agains’. A time when I will begin processing the last eight months for the next two months. I am excited for the return as well as intimidated by this return. I wonder about how I have changed and wonder about the Lord’s work in my life and what it will look like going ‘home.’ I know this next season will be one of transition even though I plan on returning to the University of North Alabama in the fall. I am excited for that return. There is a struggle to stay present here with the impending leave for home coming so soon, and I need your prayers more than ever.
My team and I will start a new ministry next week. The Lord has decided to entrust us with a new ministry that has not been done before at the Costa Rica World Race base. We are going to be ministering to women and men in prostitution. We will be accompanied by a translator and go out on the streets of San Jose Tuesday and Friday night to minister and go on Tuesday and Thursday morning to a community center for the women to build relationships. I am praying for our team to walk equipped by the Lord, and for love to just overflow from us for his children, that they would walk in the freedom and newness that Christ died for, and they would come to know the love of the Father. I pray that our team would just ooze love from every look, action, and word.
It can be easy to be unsettled and feel inadequate for this ministry, but it’s Christ in us – and he has equipped us with Holy Spirit, and we have all we need. I pray we as a team live that out. To walk in fear is what the enemy wants, but that’s saying we have more faith in the enemy’s stronghold than in the work of Christ and the words of our Father.
I am reading a book called Supernatural Ways of Royalty by Kris Valloton and in it he is quoted saying, “We must trust God’s ability to keep us more than we trust the devil’s ability to deceive.” I believe that the Lord has something for us as a team as well as these men and women.
I want to leave you with the words from a prophet called Isaiah; these are also words Jesus said were spoken about him,
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins
And restore the places long devastated
They will repair the ancient ruins
That have been devastated for generations
Isaiah 61:1-4
