On April 29th, my squad and I said goodbye to Nicaragua and traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica where we had debrief. We stayed there 5 days in a beautiful hostel that our logistics team found. We spent that time debriefing the month, resting, getting filled up, worshiping the Lord, and preparing our hearts for the last 4 months of the Race. We also received our final team switches.
One night before I went to bed I had prayed and asked the Lord to speak to me through my dreams. I knew that He had done it for other people so I believed He could do it for me as well. The next morning, I wake up at 3:45 am crying, feeling terrified of the dream that I had just had. I didn’t want to go back to bed because I thought if I went back to bed the dream would continue. So, I grabbed my Bible and note book and walked down stairs and spent the next 2 hours with the Lord. Never in my life have I ever felt abandoned by God but in that moment, it was the first time I had felt like He had abandoned me. My thoughts were, “Where were you Lord? Why did you leave me?” And then it hit me I had never prayed for good dreams. I had just prayed that the Lord would speak to me through my dreams. Maybe He had allowed this dream to awaken something inside of me. This was not the first time I had woken up from a terrible dream. About a week prior I had a similar dream. Without going into all the details of the dream basically I was being attacked continuously by people who were demon possessed. At one point it felt like everyone was coming at me and all I knew to do was to call out to Jesus. So over and over again I kept yelling out Jesus. At first nothing was happening. I told myself I needed to completely just focus on Jesus. So, I continued to call out Jesus, Jesus, Jesus and all of the sudden the whole atmosphere changed and everyone in my dream turned into angles and started bowing down and worshiping God. As I sat with the Lord I started thinking about both of these dreams and comparing them to each other and talking to the Lord about them. The more I thought about it the more I realized He was using these dreams to speak to me.
I very strongly believe that the Lord has been wanting to take me deeper in my walk with Him and use me in ways I never really would have imagined. As the Lord takes me deeper I believe that the enemy is going to try to attack me; but as I stay focused on Jesus and rooted in Him I will be able to fight against those attacks. Also, when we choose to follow Christ sometimes it may seem like the whole world is against you and I believe we have the choice in those moments to choose what we are going to do. Allow the world to get to us or stand up for Christ and continue believing and trusting in Him.
This debrief was by far one of my favorites so far. The Lord really spoke to me through the different topics that were shared. I was empowered to make the most of these last 4 months on the race, to live out ministry is life and life is ministry, and to leave with no regrets. I was really challenged to step out and to not let any opportunity to bring Kingdom slip through my fingers. It’s really up to me how I want these next 4 months to look like and I have the opportunity to really make it count for Jesus. I am excited to grow and go deeper with the Lord and continue to step out in boldness.
This is my new team- Team Aloha!
Ris Runnals
What has the Lord been teaching you? The Lord has been teaching me that it’s okay to rest. Most of the Race has been very outpouring. So He has been teaching me about the importance of resting in Him and how it necessary to be able to do ministry effectively.
What do you want out of these last four months? Rest with the Lord and to be where he’s placed me. I want to soak up everything He has for me and become confident in the things He’s taught me so I can bring them home with me to my community.
Malysa Napoli
What has the Lord been teaching you? Right now I’m walking with God on what it looks like to truly abide with him.
What do you want out of these last four months? In these next four months I want to L I V E like I haven’t before and pick up good habits to take home with me. 🙂
Amanda Gillespie
What has the Lord been teaching you? I’ve been learning about how to be interruptible for God. And I mean that in a million different ways. I never thought I had a hard time handing over control in my life to God, but lately He has been showing my all these little ways to give more over to Him. Like what time I wake up in the morning, or putting people on my heart to go and talk to when I really don’t want to, or even huge things like asking me to dive into unknowns without security. That’s a huge thing too. I’ve been learning a lot about how when I make decisions, I always make sure to have some worldly form of security that isn’t found in God. But He’s been teaching me that actually trusting fully in Him is the best form of security I could possibly have.
What do you want out of these last four months? I want these next four months to really challenge me in new ways. I don’t want to just coast to the end, but to soak in this time of being completely open to God’s voice. We are in the last quarter of the race now (which is so crazy!) and I can reflect on all the ways He has already spoken into my life. My eyes have been opened to more parts of the world, my ears have heard His voice clearer than before, my mouth has spoken more boldly in boast of the Kingdom, and my feet have literally taken me around the globe. I want these last four months to be a time that really solidifies all the ways I’ve grown in a way that sets me up to carry this way of living back into my day to day and into my future community.
Caitlin Casey
What has the Lord been teaching you? The Lord is teaching me how to live in deeper relationship with Him while fully surrendering my will.
What do you want out of these last four months? These next four months I want to be fully present and continue to take full advantage of personal growth opportunities.
Paige Holness
What has the Lord been teaching you? Jesus has been teaching me a lot about dependence on Him and that it’s also okay to need people because it’s the reason He’s created community.
What do you want out of these last four months? For the next four months I really want to create good habits to take back with me when I get home so I can continue to have a healthy relationship with the Lord and do things that I think are important to me.
Abby Hutchinson
What is the Lord teaching you? I’m learning so much about surrendering control!
What do you want out of these last four months? I’m praying and hoping to continue to learn and grow these next four months
Me
What is the Lord teaching you? The Lord is teaching me how to use my voice and how to live in deeper relationship with Him.
What do you want out of these last four months? I want to go deeper in my walk with God. I want to live with the mindset that life is ministry and ministry is life. I want to make the most of these last four months and start making healthy habits that I can take home with me. I want to continually grow more and more in love with Jesus each day.
We are so excited that God chose each of us to be on this team together. We are looking forward to finishing out strong together and making a difference for His Kingdom.
