Hi sweet friends!
Thank you for keeping up with my journey! It is seriously so encouraging when I see emails and messages from friends and family back home. But don’t worry, I’m not home sick or anything.
I am very excited to share this story with you guys! I’ve grown to expect the unexpected from the Lord. This trip has already been full of surprises and blessings directly from God, but this past weekend was one for the books (or blog).
It was a few weeks ago that a few of my teammates and I had traveled about two and a half hours away to provide rice to a church so that they could then provide for their community. While we were there, we got to meet the pastor of the church, Pastor June. He suggested that we come back and bring our WHOLE team to help lead church on a Sunday morning. Automatically, with a shove from the Holy Spirit, I agreed on behalf of my team. No team meetings, no questions asked, just said ‘Yes!’. In my head, I was thinking, “Wait…what did I just agree to??”, but this agreement turned into something I could have never imagined.
This past Saturday, we crammed into our van and made the trip of two and a half hours. Once we arrived, we were able to help with a feeding in the community, something that I absolutely love to do. We sang songs, told stories from the Bible, scooped food, and just hung out with new friends. After that, we got the opportunity to travel to a waterfall. After a treacherous hike through the jungle, we made it to the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen. I swam in the waterfall, I rock climbed under the waterfall. It was seriously such a treat to be able to adventure in the Philippines.
On Sunday morning, we got to the church around 8:00 AM. Right away we started singing hymns and songs with the congregation. Then, the church split up by age group (children, young adults, and adults) and my team was able to lead different bible studies. I got to help with the adult bible study which was so cool because since we have been here, we have mainly worked with just children, so the chance to minister to people older than me was a learning opportunity for sure. After that, we shared testimonies, led the church in worship, and just shared in glorifying our God.
One simple ‘YES!’ was all it took to receive such a blessing from the Lord. The church was blessed, my team was blessed, and all glory was given to God through the process. He seriously does work all things together for our good and His glory. This past weekend has been the best few days of my whole trip and it never would have happened had I not been obedient when the Lord told me to say ‘yes’.
Where in your life can you take another step towards something the Lord is calling you to? If you are waiting for sign, well this is it. There is always room to grow, there are always new places the Lord is calling us to, there is always something that requires a little bit – or a lot – of faith in the Lord. But if you take the risk, you will realize there really wasn’t any risk at all. It is a constant fight with me to rid myself of stagnancy. There isn’t enough room for that, only room to bring glory to God.
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Mahal kita,
Sam
