Before I signed on to do the Race I went on a four month mission trip to Kenya with one of AIM's programs the Passport. It was by far one of the best experiences of my whole life. Don't get me wrong, it was REALLY tough at some points, but compared to what I learned about the Lord, and how much my relationship grew with Him nothing else mattered. Over Thanksgiving I was able to travel to Portland to visit one of my greatest friends, and teammate from Kenya, JM. I'm going to steal what JM said in one of her blogs and say, neither of us really knew how much we needed this time, but He sure did. I had just signed on for the Race and JM was preparing to go lead a Passport trip leaving in 2 weeks from now. We were able to speak so much life into each other, pray over each other, and just spend some good ole' quality time with a fellow sister in Christ. One of the things we did while we were there was go on a prayer walk. We prayed for each other, for our teammates from Kenya, for our future teammates, and much more. One thing we took time to specifically do was pray for what the Lord wanted for us in this up coming season. We decided to paint what we got.
DISCLAIMER: I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be an artist lol
DISCLAIMER: I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be an artist lol
"And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness."
Something we both felt was going to be a huge theme in our upcoming trips was boldness. Boldness to proclaim His Kingdom. I had made this such a huge part of my life while living in Kenya, but some how that boldness dwindled away when I got back to the States. I had shared with JM how it frustrated me that while in Kenya, I could go to any single person I saw and ask to talk with them or pray over them and it was no big deal. Here in America on the other hand, was a whole different story. I would always be too nervous to ask a complete stranger if I could pray for them, or share Christ with them..people would think I was totally nuts! So, we sat and prayed and asked God to give us this boldness. Cut to a few weeks later
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These past few days I was able to meet some of the girls on my squad that I'll be leaving with in July. They all came into Chicago and we got to hangout, eat some delicious food, and pour into each other. Sadly, it had to come to and end though, but when it did God did some awesome things. My squadmate Brittany and I were cutting it really close to missing our trains, and when we got there, she in fact did miss hers. I skipped mine so she didn't have to wait alone, and while we were there I prayed that the Lord would give us an opportunity, since we would be sitting there for two hours with nothing to do.
About 20 minutes later, a guy our age came walking over to us asking if he could talk to us. We of course said yes, and he started telling us how his bag was stolen when he was on the bus, and in his bag was his wallet, laptop and the rest of his belongings. He showed us the police report and we both just felt like this was actually legit. To get where he needed to go though he would need 45 dollars. To be clear, this isn't my first rodeo, we both knew how many people make up lies like this just to get money from people, and we'd been asked all day long for money for some reason or other from people but never gave any out. Brittany then reaches into her bag and pulls out a 20 and hands it right over to him. We continued talking with him and shared how we're missionaries and told him about leaving for the WR. Then, I apologized to him and said how I wished I was able to give him the rest but I just didn't have it on me. That's when Brittany felt peace about the whole situation and handed him another 25 dollars.. that girl has the biggest heart, fo realzzzz. During this time I really felt like I should ask if we could pray over him but I was so so so nervous. The Lord just kept putting it on my heart to do it though, and I finally spoke up and asked him. It felt like I hadn't even gotten all the words out of my mouth when he happily said yes! We were both able to pray for him, and he even threw in a few words himself! God totally taught me a lesson that night, and I am so thankful for it! I prayed for boldness, and He gave me boldness. He is too good.
I'm still in need of a lot of funds to launch in July with my fabulous S squad..if you would like to donate towards my trip, you can do so by clicking the Support Me tab on the left side of the page 🙂 Any amount helps!!
