Month 5 is here. Woah.
I couldn’t believe when Ecuador ended right after Christmas. Leaving Ecuador was one of the hardest things I have experienced. The people at our ministry, Pandevida became my family. We laughed together, we ate good food together, we hungout together, we cried together, we spread the Gospel and loved people together, we just did life y’all, and it was beautiful.
I lived with two other teams at our house Casablanca and I really began to experience what community looked like. We said the hard things and didn’t ignore the elephants in the room, we poured into one another, we shared our struggles and celebrations, we had dance parties, and went on dates with each other. We experienced a 52 year old woman who had never walked a day in her life, get out of her wheelchair and walk. I saw my teammate lead a man to Christ on the bus ride home. I saw a community of sisters relentlessly pursuing Jesus individually and then together as a family pouring into each other and then pouring into the community all around us. I found my deep passion for prayer and saw that Jesus actually hears them. I found I do have a voice and it holds influence. I found Jesus has given me authority and gentleness and I can hold both. I found that when I pray for Jesus to give me compassion for his people, he will.
January came quickly and I arrived in India. After 4 flights, a 10 hour bus, and a couple more bus rides later, I finally landed in a little village known as Saiphai in the state of Mizoram in Northeast India (the chicken foot on a map). So the mountainous area we were in was evangelized around a 100 or so years ago. The Lord told me before arriving at that village that it would be a month of discipleship for all. We began serving at the English school there with the ministry Bibles for the World. I served with the 3-4 year old kiddos all month and spent time with the older kids in the afternoon, as well as playing volleyball and hanging out with the kids who lived on the compound area.
This month I began to ask myself the question of who I really was. The Lord had already showed me so manny insecurities I had allowed to plague my life and I began to realize I had been living in this false self for so long. So I began this process of just asking the Lord who I was and trying to cast vision for myself of some things that I really wanted to pursue in my life. I have found out that anything broken or hurting will always grasp my attention. I have zero love for dogs, but if it is hurt or starving my heart breaks. I have found that I love to pray for the men of this world because I just believe in them that if they actually walk in the conviction and the love of the Father, that they will completely change the dynamic of everything and the people in their lives. I have found that I am actually good with small children. I have found that my deepest heart’s desire is for the hurting and hopeless to experience the hope and freedom in Jesus. My heart aches for the forgotten, the blind, the lame, the homeless. I know that the Lord has anointed me with his oil of gladness, and I want to pour out everything I have to him like the woman with the alabaster jar who poured out everything she had because she knew Jesus was her everything. I want to be a woman who not only in her abundance does she give away everything she has but even in my times of poverty like the woman with the two coins. I want to be the women to stand when everyone else flees. I want to be the woman who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. Luke 1:45
I am walking in the fact that I may not know anything at all about myself but the thing I am sure of and NOW KNOW is that I am deeply loved, and nothing I could ever do or not do will ever change my Father’s love for me. Everything else is this crazy tornado when it comes to identity, passions, etc, but I am loved. Now I am walking into this season of knowing I am loved, and wanting to experience what it looks like to live in freedom and the joy of the Lord, and I am pumped. I am no longer going to be in a village, but rather a cityish area and I can walk knowing that He has entrusted me with the Gospel, and has called me to stand. He has confidence in me, he chose me, and he has equipped me. I am also walking into another season of team leading and just trusting the Lord in whatever he wants to do in me and through me and my team in this season!! I rejoice because my Father has complete confidence in me, and I can live from his belief in me whether people are for me or against me. And I can go out to the hurting and tell about this hope and love I have truly experienced.
Thank you for choosing to be apart of this journey I am walking through. Thank you even after a couple of months with no contact that you have continued to pray for me and pray that doors would be opened to share the Gospel with the nations. My final financial deadline was January 31st and I did not reach that deadline. Due to the lack of availability of wifi I was unable to properly fundraise so beginning now I will be using our liaison’s wifi once a week to fundraise until I am fully funded. I currently have fundraised $11,750, so I must fundraise $2,055 more to become fully funded so I am not sent home. My next deadline is February 28th and I must raise at least $12.500, so I have $700 to raise until then. I will be sent home and unable to continue on the World Race if this deadline is not met.
Thank you for your willingness to be apart of this journey with me and thank you for financially and prayerfully supporting me!! I can’t wait to continue sharing with you weekly what the Lord is doing!! I am currently traveling to a ministry location in Hmarklein, Assom, in Northeast India, so please continue to be in prayer because the area we are going has not been completely evangelized and Hinduism and Islam are the reigning religions in the area. Love you all!!
