As many of you know, when I applied for this trip, I did not think I would get accepted. I thought, well, that would be a cool thing, but I won't get accepted–they wont pick me. So I told God that, IF I did get accepted I would go. And so he made me look like an idiot.
But here is something you may not know: The reason I even was crazy enough to apply for this wacked out trip to begin with was that I have some specific callings on my life. I know I am called to be a missionary, and I have a fairly good idea of what that will look like. And no, I do not believe that it is full time foreign missions. However, I do have a calling to the nations.
For a long time now it has been in my spirit that the Lord wanted me to go to China. Everything about it screams my name and pulls my spirit towards it. I know, without a doubt, that there is something for me in China. I do not know if God just wants to bring me there to teach me something, or if he has a divine appointment set up for me there, or what, but I can tell you that he wants me there. I can promise you that there will be life change when I am in China. I just know it. God's Spirit has told me. I can promise you that whatever happens there, I will blog, too. That way you guys get in on it, and see the fruits of your prayers and your financial investments in me and in the people to whom I will minister.
Besides China, Thailand is the second place I know I am called. The Spirit put it on my heart at a missions conference roughly a year ago. I was at World Mandate in Waco, TX, and the speaker was asking us to pray. He encouraged us to really plead with God for a country to be placed on our hearts. What we were to do with that country was simple: Pray. Give. Go. In that order, but not necessarily every step. What I mean is, whatever country was placed on our hearts was supposed to become our prayer focus. Then we were to begin giving to support local, in-country missionaries. After that we were to search God to see if he wanted us to go, and if so–do it.
Well, Thailand was placed on my heart and now I will be going.
But the country that has been on my heart for the longest is India. When I was in high school, I took a Foundations of Literature class that studied religious texts as the basis of modern literature. For our final project in the class, we were split into groups. Each group was assigned a country to research and present and I got India. All I can tell you is that through studying their religions, religious texts, and culture, I became burdened for the people of this nation. It has been on my heart and mind for about 3.5 years now. It has been a topic of study, prayer and meditation. Obviously, this country is important to me.
It is the second to last country on our schedule, so I will not make it without the financial support of Christ's Bride. I need faithful givers to make a monthly contribution to my World Race account so that I will meet the people of India. So that is a real prayer need. Pray that I WILL make it to India. Pray that His people will be mobilized to give in support of this Mission, and that they would see their gift not as an act of sideline support, but an absolutely necessary and crucial act of ministry. Pray that they see it as a gift to give–We get to give.
Pray for the people with whom I will be traveling. My squad, my teammates, and I need as much prayer as you could possible lay over us. Speak life over our time there. Ask God to move now and ordain our meetings, relationships, and conversations. Ask the Holy Spirit to move in the hearts of the people to whom we will be ministering. Ask God to raise up the remnant of His church that is present in India right now so that we may come alongside them and aid in their ministry to such a dark and hurting country. Ask God to move in this place like He never has before. Claim India as domain of the King. Speak the harvest into existence. Expect God's Spirit to be there now doing the gardening so that when we are in country, we will reap a harvest of which we did not sow! We are ready to be the workers in India, and God is faithful to have the harvest waiting on us! Thank Him for that Church!
