Shalom in the Home,
Razmatazz, Flippity Floppity, Fleeble Flabble, Loopdie-Doo, Ladi-Dah,
AntsinmyPants and all that other fancy talk you kids use these days! I hope
that all of you are living first-rate spirit-filled lives all over this
glorious earth and that you love every minute of all that you are and all that
you do. It is I, your friend and semi-frequent blogger, Chelsea Angel, here to
tell you all how things are going in the Dominican Republic and with the
wonderful J-Squad!
It is our first
month out on the field and it is rounding down… but God’s craziness is on the
up and up in our squad! With evidence popping up in all of the various team
ministries, in all of the team dynamics and through individual growth, I am
floored at how many ways God can be glorified in 60 people. The best way to
describe how I feel is a bit like a proud parent that is continually humbled
into realizing I’m not really the one who is up to bringing about freedom and
life in J-Squad. Mind you, God finds lots of ways to use our leadership team as
mouthpieces or as living examples of something He wants for these wonderful
J-Squaders, but He is really the one that is doing everything. I keep thinking
that I might possibly have a clue as to what to do in any given situation but I
am continually swept up by grace and cluelessness. He takes the reigns and I am
glad to be there for all that He wants to do in and through my life. I wanted
to be humbled into complete dependence and God is making that desire very
tangible. Hallelujah! I have no idea what I am doing!
Amidst the variety
of ways I am baffled by the hand of grace, I am also brought to a place of complete
thanks for how I am chosen to be a blessing to other people and how much of a
blessing this wonderful squad is to Erin, Phillip and me. It’s crazy to be
trusted with this much authority and to actually see the umbrella of our actions
affect the world around us. In our positions, we are set as the living examples
of what God wants to happen in the hearts of J-Squad. We pray into what we
believe God wants, we speak to God about His desires for these people and He
walks us through it together for the sake of a group of 60 people. If we want
to see a family that pushes each other into the greatness of His love for us,
we have to be the ones who go there first. If we want to see the raw passions
of our Father alive in these people, if we want to see the culture of the World
Race moving and grooving, if we want to see them grow a pair of hooyah’s for
the sake of the Kingdom of God, we are the ones who must fight for it to happen
between the three of us. Mind you, it is in no way easy to make all of these
things happen, but I am so grateful to be able to be pushed and to push my
co-leaders so that others can have the willingness to grow for Glory.
As we choose to
follow the difficulties of these challenges, we have been able to watch people
become vulnerable with their teams about wounds they have never exposed to
anyone else, to see teams realize the raw power of their words over one
another, to watch the fear of the Lord drop on a team and reveal truths that
have never been spoken, to see people share their hearts and create safe
environments for their teammates, to witness team leaders setting the pace for
teams that travels beyond our wildest expectations, to see tears shed for the
sake of freedom, to see people radically love another through all of their junk
and to get to see people walk into new places of love with the Lord… and we
have only been on the field for 2 ½ weeks! Truth be told, these people are
starting their race with hearts that are willing to tap into things I never
even dreamed of in 11 months on the field! It is safe to say that God is a
little nutty and that He is setting people up for something incredible! I am so
stoked to be a part of it! Thank you Jesus!
Having said all of
these things, I want to ask that you would pray for Erin, Phillip and I to
really head into great places of vulnerability with one another. We want to be
a living example of what it means to do anything for the sake of His love for
us and to be challenged by His desires for our lives. The three of us want
great things for these people and we want them to see what it really means to
fight for loving one another. We want their hearts to go to places that aren’t
even fathomable for us right now. We want a Righteous love to burst forth from
them that has never been seen in the world. We want them not just to bring love
to the nations, but to help other people see how Jesus has always been loving
them. We want them to boldly reveal His love in places where it has never been
made known. We want this squad to triumph in loving one another and loving the
world with the same passion that Christ has for all of us. Pray for them to
catch even a breath of the fire that burns in His heart and for our leadership
team to live out what it means to love like lunatics! We love them so much and
we want the best for them. Please pray that this radical passion breaks loose
and God goes bonkers on these people!
Thank Jesus for
all that He is up to! I love Him and I thank Him for loving us and covering us
when we don’t know what to do. Praise God from whom all of these blessings are
flowing! Thanks be to all of you who are willing to pray for us and walk
through the madness with me! I love you guys!
