Being at El Shaddai this month (October – WR month 2) with all of X Squad wasn’t what I expected it would be like. I’m truly grateful for month two being the time when we were all together instead of month one. I would have been lost in the crowd, but God had the plan of BBH being with Ahava only in Cape Town, South Africa so I could find my voice amongst a smaller group of people. He started small, and then gave big. He is beyond good.
This month’s personal spiritual growth for me came in an unexpected way. My expectations for Swaziland weren’t about our ministry. I’ve been on board with whatever God is going to have us do for his Kingdom from the beginning. This means that I don’t try to expect or speculate what ministry will look like. I’d rather it just be what it is when it happens. Back to expectations for October…it still counts as ministry, I suppose, because my team and my squad are a ministry as well. We have to live in the unity God created for us to be successful for his kingdom. I didn’t know what it would look like being with so many people. My thoughts initially were anxious, but God threw people from my X Squad at me that I never thought I’d have conversations with. It was amazing to have friendships develop that I didn’t imagine would happen. There were chains within me that I didn’t know were there that God either loosened and then removed them or violently cut them off. I got to see my life changed, but even more was witnessing God move in the lives of my teammates and squad mates.
God gave a word to me for our squad out of Isaiah 61. He has raised us up to go out to the nations and anointed us to “proclaim the good news to the poor”, “bind up the brokenhearted”, “proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners”, “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God”, and “provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair”.
