Hola! Long time no share! (but not really..)
Be on the lookout for blogs coming out more frequently as we are really pushing to share 2 blogs a week! We want to be proactive about sharing these stories and letting you in on as much as we can so that G0d gets glory and you are hopefully so encouraged by them!
[*have fun with the decoding of my blogs for a while as we are in nam this month! 🙂 ]
I have a beautiful story to share with you all about one of the last few days being in Nepal for all-sqaud month!
Despite it being all-squad month, our last week in Nepal we were split into 2 groups of 4 teams so we wouldn’t overwhelm any one village with the number of people that comprise our squad…
We visited a total of 3 villages during that week. The second village was SO beautiful as it sat atop of some foothills of the Himalayas we roamed around that week. In this village we were planning to meet a p@stor, do some prayer walking, and spend some time in the small cafes and pretty streets of this more touristy town.
When we made it to the ch*urch to encourage the p@stor, we came into a larger rectangular room and filed in along the walls. We all said a pr@yer to start off our time together as our translator and leader for the week, Phil, asked us to do some w0rship for a while together.
We began to w0rship, and even in my own mind, I sensed the tiredness in the room from my teammates. We were excited to be there, but you probably couldn’t guess that from our faces at the time. The more we w0rshiped, the more our energies picked up, and we were able to fight through tiredness to w0rship our worthy G0d.
Toward the end of our time, my teammate Klancy spoke up and shared that she felt we needed to create some space for the H0ly Sp1rit to move. She said she felt like the L0rd was saying he had something to say to the p@stor or in general to us. So we pr@yed for a few moments to listen, and immediately I felt a familiar quickening of my heartbeat, which I’ve come to know as the H0ly Sp1rit’s nudge to me to specifically listen. A few moments later I got a picture in my mind’s eye of rain. There were people standing around in the dirt street in this picture, and some became delighted at the rain that started to come down. Others were upset that it started to rain and their faces were visually downcast. I asked the L0rd to speak into this picture he was giving me, and he began to elaborate. He brought to mind part of r0mans 5 when it says:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with G0d through our L0rd J3sus Chr1st. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of G0d. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because G0d’s love has been poured into our hearts through the H0ly Sp1rit who has been given to us. -rom 5:1-5
And also 1saiah 55 was brought to my mind:
For as the rain and the snow come down from h3aven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
“For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the L0R.D,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” -isa 55:10-13
In asking the L0r.d how this applied, I felt him say this was a picture for the past0r and his chu.rch. The people, some rejoicing, some upset, by the rain was symbolic of the pers3cution and trial they had been facing. Some of the people were persevering and rejoicing in the trial, and others were discouraged. I felt the L0rd saying the rain also represented the pouring out of his love and his Sp1rit into the hearts of the beli3vers there, as rom@ns 5 mentions. With the excerpt from 1saiah, I felt the L0rd was saying that as they persevered and rejoiced in sufferings that they could have hope because his word to them would fulfill the purpose for which it came. He would water the seeds that he had sown in this town and so many lives because of their laboring for his k1ngdom.
I spoke up to the group that I felt the L0rd gave me some encouragement for the past0r, AJ, and his wife and chu.rch. I began to explain the picture, verses, and elaborate on what I felt the L0rd wanted to say. As I was speaking my last few words, we all heard an unmistakable thunder clap outside! We were AMAZED! And as quickly as the thunder came, it began to rain. We were overjoyed! We jumped up to see for ourselves, and sure enough, outside it was raining. Little did we know that as this encouragement was shared with AJ that we ourselves would become some of those dancing in the rain and rejoicing in the SURE and ETERNAL word of the L0rd toward us and toward his people. The L0rd was very clearly confirming this word that he wanted to speak to AJ and his wife. He thanked G0d and our teams for simply coming to spend time with him and for making space for the H0ly Sp1rt to move.
(see those rain sprinkles on the ground?!)
We moved into a time of pr@yer for him, and AJ shared some very difficult times for their family and chu.rch family were walking through recently–that they had been fought for having a chu.rch in the area. They were roped into some legal and financial issues that were very biased and unfair to them, and they and been hit with landslides that damaged the chu.rch building itself around the same time. He shared that a lot of his chu.rch family had been discouraged and and were very weary. We thanked him for his vulnerability, still in awe that the L0rd continued to confirm his words for them, and lifted up prayers to our dad for them. We thanked him for the beautiful things he was doing and would continue to do in and through them. They were doing such great work in establishing a beacon for the light of J3sus to shine out from that very hilltop! And we are sure that they will be encouraged by the Sp1rit of G0d to continue in that work steadfastly for the sake of his k1ngdom being built and his worship increasing in the earth.
(our teams on the top of AJ’s house that was being renovated below the HUGE hillside above)
Thank you, L0r.d, for your global body and the ways we can be one. Thank you that you spoke so boldly and clearly, and in your sovereignty planned for our team to visit this man and his wife from the beginning of time! We trust your plans for them moving forward, and we thank you for growing a deeper trust in us of you, that your plans for us are good and so foreknown.
Please pr@y, all, that my team and I remain bold in sharing these beautiful stories of G0d’s faithfulness with you! I pray you are encouraged yourselves. Stay tuned for my next blog about our time in nam!
ALSO, I am LESS THAN 1,000 dollars away from my total to be FULLY FUNDED!! This is MINDBLOWING!! Thank you to all who have supported me financially and prayerfully and in every other way. I am amazed at your graciousness!
Joyfully,
Abby 🙂
