The thing with words is…they aren’t enough.
Words can’t explain how I have seen God show up in the little details. Words can’t convey the physical closeness that I have experienced in His Presence. Words don’t seem sufficient enough to share the amount of work and growth I have seen Him work in myself and my sweet team. I love words and the power of words…but the further the Lord calls me into His love, the more insignificant and lifeless they seem in comparison.
Nevertheless, God reminds me that if I don’t attempt to share the stories…the victories, the lessons, the breakthroughs…then His name is not glorified. It is all for naught. Pointless. These stories are gifts from the Lord for me to give away, not hoard for myself. I often hesitate to write publicly because I don’t know if my stories will make sense or if they are big enough to make an impact on anyone. But as I was reminded in our Bible study the other day, a story that might not make sense–water turned to wine, what??–God will take the seeds of my stories and plant and water them in His time. All I need to do is put them out there and share how He is working in us while we are here. So here are some words and stories from our time in India, that I pray will show you a fraction of His power and love.
- Our ministry in India was at a school of worship, and I think the expectation for ministry was more manual labor or evangelism focused. In the midst of sitting in a music theory and worship leading class, my team began to question if what they were doing was actually ministry. How can sitting in a classroom and building relationships with students be ministry?? I began to see how God had perfectly put together this team with me and my experiences from last year. One of my biggest lessons from my race last year was {MINISTRY = LIFE, LIFE = MINISTRY} and how to seek the kingdom with the person right in front of you. God was able to speak through me and my race stories to teach my team how important it is to build relationships. At the end of our month at CSOW, I was able to see my team truly grasp whatever God put in front of them…and I was able to comfort them through a tearful “see you later” to the relationships they built.
- 2/13/18 – the team is sending me their “check-in questions” and one of my girls, Kelsey, writes that her challenge for the week is: “not being able to talk about Jesus as freely as I can in the states to random people”
- 2/14/18 – some of my team stumble upon an open mic night at the nearby hospital outdoor amphitheater. Kelsey and I somehow end up on stage singing Amazing Grace, and afterward she is asked to share some words on love. God literally gave her the opportunity to preach on TRUE LOVE for 30 seconds to a crowd of 40-50 complete strangers.
- Last year when I was in India, my team and I experienced a lot of spiritual warfare and it was really my first time to really see how much of a powerful affect it can have on a group. During that time, we received the assignment to read over and study Ephesians 6 and the armor of God. It strengthened us as a team, and gave me more perspective on what spiritual attacks the enemy could look like. This month, the first Sunday that we were in Hyderabad, the preacher got up and began his sermon on…Ephesians 6. I thought in my mind “hmm…when was the last time I studied this, it doesn’t seem like that long ago…” I asked God if this was a coincidence that the last time I read this in depth was in India…His response: “well, what do you think??” Sure enough, He told me to share it with my team…that spiritual attack was coming and to get ready. We had so many different angles of spiritual attack throughout the month…individually, through lies, in nightmares, on our unity, on the spiritual leaders…but we were ready! As soon as someone recognized the attack, we battled it as a team and called things out to light.
- I began praying BOLDNESS over and speaking BOLDNESS into my team soon after our arrival in India. We knew that as a team they would be learning how to lead worship, but we had no idea how the classes would progress. We arrived on January 31, and began music theory classes on February 7. A week later, on February 15 the team is told that they will be performing a solo…singing and playing an instrument…in a couple of hours. A couple of them were ready to jump in, but the majority of them had to be pushed and there may have even been tears involved! After the solos, we gradually went on to duets and group performances…and now, at the end of the month my team has led a WR squad of 30, and their Passport peers in rooftop worship!
God has been AT. WORK. Y’all. Thank you for continuing to pray for me and my team…we had an incredible month in India, and I am so expectant for what He will do during our time in Nepal!
