(Photo Taken by Drew Dinsmore)
This is the prayer I have been praying for the last two months. I want to see people how Jesus sees them. I want to see the hurting. I want to see the pain. I want to see the broken. I want to see the suffering. I want to see the lost and lonely. I want to be more like Jesus. I want to heal the sick. I want to touch the hurting. I want to make the lost and lonely feel His love. I WANT more of Jesus. And I want to see Jesus in unreachable places. And I am willing to give my all for Jesus Christ. I am willing to go to the ends of the earth to bring His children back to Him.
I am now going into my third month of my eleven month journey. I have started so many blogs to post but I have to be honest, I have been feeling in a rut with my relationship with Jesus. The blogs I have written feel flat and empty. The last two months have been rough and challenging for me spiritually. July and August have been really relaxed months where we haven't had much ministry. Especially August. I had all these expectations of what I thought The World Race should look like and how I should be feeling. Last month we didn't have an actual ministry so most of our time spent was personal time and spending it doing whatever we wanted to. The month to me felt wasted. I felt almost ashamed because people have supported me to go do "ministry work" and I was doing everything but that. We went on a single prayer walk which was AMAZING. We got to visit with different Serbians and fellowship with them and do some construction work here and there. To me though it didn’t feel like enough. But going into my third month where it’s been a little more difficult in living situations and the community we are staying in has made me look back on the last month and appreciate that time that God had given me. I had time to grow and fellowship with Him. Time to make my relationship with Him more intimate. God had me there for a reason and the great lesson I learned from it, is to trust Him where He puts us because He has a reason for it all. I am grateful.
I am currently in Romania. We are doing various ministry work. Ranging from street evangelism with Gypsies and Romanians to kids ministry and administration work and even English Classes. Today I got to take part in street evangelism with another teammate and a translator. We just walk around the City of Draganesti to stop and pray for houses or people who we felt led to talk to. The other day we spent our day handing out bibles and praying for people who would accept prayer on the streets. The majority of the people here are orthodox and despise Christians. They instantly turn away when you mention you are a Christian. Before going on the streets today I spent much time in prayer. I prayed Jesus could give me a story for the night of who we got to pray for. This will sound silly but I prayed in details that I could witness an elderly woman cry and to be moved by the spirit and be emotional. While praying, I got this picture of this row of elderly women lined up down the road on their knees in sorrow and in big letters over them it said "BROKENNESS". My heart broke. I felt like crying. I was so overcome with the emotional heaviness that came with that vision it fueled my fire to get out there right then and start talking to people. Me and my fellow squad mate Brad, went up the street to where we found this very elderly gypsy woman sitting outside. When I walked up I could feel sadness. We asked if we could talk with her and she agreed and we begin conversing about her faith and her life and family. She started sharing about her children and how her son abused her. How he kicked her and hurt her. In her words through the translator was "My life has been very hard" "I am sick all over" I asked if I could pray for her and she agreed. After praying for her I opened my eyes and she was filled with tears. I wanted to bust out crying but I knew she wouldn't understand my emotions but I knew right then that God gave me what I had prayed for. He gave me a story to bring back. And He got to let my vision come true. Through her story she was broken. She was tired and she felt alone and ill. By the time we got done talking there were two other elderly ladies sitting next to us listening to us talk with this woman. They also were broken. These people need Jesus. They need a Savior.
I am so blessed to be here in Romania sharing everything I know about Jesus. I am blessed I can be put out of my comfort zone and serve His children. Because of you and my supporters I am able to do what God has called me to do. To bring the lost to the light.
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Financial update- I am currently $4,500 away from my third deadline. I have until October 1st to meet that deadline in order to stay on the race and carry out the mission God had put me on. Its only with your help that I will be able to stay here. So please consider supporting me. It is quite a bit of money in such a short time but I know God will provide. Thank you all so much for your support and prayers!
