To my supporters and those following my stories, as I continue my world race journey, I want to give an update on what the last few months have looked like. A lot has happened, but I haven’t been able to share most of it yet.
I’m sure many of you know that a few months ago when my squad was in Madagascar, I posted a couple of videos on my blog about our squad being re-routed. What this meant was that we were no longer going to Mongolia and China, but that we were now going to Malaysia, Sri Lanka or Indonesia, and Thailand. And after a lot of prayer, my team decided to go to Sri Lanka.
After Madagascar when we first got to Malaysia, we learned that ministry in the next three countries would look very different from what we had been previously doing. We were told that instead of doing scheduled ministry like usual, we would be doing ATL ministry instead. ATL stands for “Ask the Lord,” and it means that we have no set ministry or contacts, but that everyday we ask the Lord, where He wants us to go, and what He has in store for us.
Each day required us to put into practice the things the Lord had been showing us up until this point in the race, especially the phrase, “life is ministry, and ministry is life.” We had to be very intentional about living out life is ministry and ministry is life, because it was way easier to do this during scheduled ministry. With scheduled ministry and set ministry hosts, they usually tell us what their vision is, and what they need us to do. With ATL, there was no one to tell us where to go and what to do, and if we weren’t very intentional about getting alone with God and finding His heart for the month, we could have easily missed what He wanted us to do.
ATL was super intense because it was almost like seeing what it will be like when we go home. When we are at home, we most likely won’t have much scheduled ministry, or ministry hosts sharing their vision with us. But God was faithful in this time of ATL and showed us that even without scheduled ministry, He will always bring us opportunities to share His word and invite people into His kingdom. Our last two and a half months in Asia was a lot of seeking God and His heart and finding people along the way that were either knowingly or unknowingly searching for His heart as well. We’ve gotten to experience a lot these last few months, and some of it was fun, some of it was hard, but all of it was a reminder that we were called to be a light in these seemingly dark countries.
These next few weeks, I’m going to be sharing what life and ministry looked like in these countries, as we followed the Lord through Asia. Also, I have some amazing friends on this squad that are still fundraising to stay on the field, and I would love it if you would prayerfully consider financially supporting them. Check out their blogs, and see how awesome they are.
This includes my squadmates Greg Hall, Dana Karpinski, Todd Brannen, Dacey Hassey, Gabby Melcher, Mariah Dunkin, Lauren Doyle, and Jessie Shenneman. You can check out their blog pages through the “Meet My Squad” link on my blog page and donate to them on their blog pages from there if you feel lead to.
Thank you all again for your prayers, encouragement, and support for me to be out here with the Lord and these amazing brothers and sisters in Christ. May the Lord bless you all abundantly where you are.
