Three months down with eight more to go.
At the end of this month, we will be going through team changes.
During the first month, I rejected Caleb as leadership. I told myself there was nothing he could teach me. Man was I wrong! I have through the second month and into this month, learned how to follow better. I have been in leadership for forever but I haven't really been mature enough until years recent to actually be a good follower. Or even have the desire to be a follower at all. I wanted to be free to be me and do things my way. I didn't care what input people had for me. All I cared about was being right…even if I knew I wasn't right. I always wanted to make it seem that my way was the right way. When I arrived in Ukraine for month two, I began to recognize my pride a little more. I asked Pastor John Shades of the Lakes Vineyard Church to pray for my pride. I had asked countless people all during month one in Ireland for prayer regarding my pride, but I hadn't actually desired to let it go until God began speaking to me in odd ways in L'Viv, Ukraine. I had entered into the city of lions. Literally.
So here is how God spoke to me about my pride while in Ukraine.
I had no clue the city we would be entering into would be L'Viv aka the City of Lions when I had asked for prayer towards the end of our month in Northern Ireland. So when we got to the Blessing's home aka Beth-El, we were split into groups to accomplish different tasks. I was put on the Vacation Bible School group, because I LOVE children and have former experience working with VBS in the States. We were coming up with various Bible stories for the lessons for each day and we came up with the three P's. Promise. Protection. And Provider.
Promise was about Noah and the ark and how God promised with a rainbow to never flood the earth again. Provider was about Jesus speaking to the crowd of 5,000 men plus women and children and how He fed them all with just two fish and five loaves of bread, and still had baskets and baskets of food leftover afterwards. But then protection was about Daniel in the lions' den. About how God protected him in the midst of such terrible danger. Daniel was fearless, because he knew God protection was covering him better than any weapon or armor formed by human hands. God shut the mouths of the lions and protected Daniel from what surely could have been his death. For VBS that week, I was asked to play the part of Daniel. I was in fact, the only male helping with VBS, so it made perfect sense. But there's more.
During our time in Northern Ireland, I had picked up a little stuffed animal small enough to fit it the little mesh pocket of my backpack to be my little travel buddy/mascot during the World Race. It just so happened to be a lion.
The Sunday after I played Daniel, Pastor Mark approached me and said he heard God say to him that I am a Daniel. He was clueless to the fact that I had just played Daniel a couple of days earlier. He said I already had confirmation then and laughed. So cool!
Also during our time in Northern Ireland, I had been letting my sweet tooth get the best of me. I tried countless amounts of the candies and sweets, but had avoided a candy bar called the Lion. I finally caved and got one at the airport in Turkey, but I didn't eat it until we arrived in Ukraine. It is now one of my favorites! So good! It's like a wafer cookie surrounded by rice krispies, caramel, and chocolate. I probably ate around 10 or 12 Lions while in Ukraine.
And what was it I had asked for Pastor John to pray for about me in Northern Ireland? It was my pride.
And what is a group of lions called?
…A Pride. Go figure.
So there I was being called out as Daniel, devouring Lions, in the City of Lions, with a lion travel buddy, trying to conquer my pride. God is so cool. Piecing so many things together to help me stay focused on what it was He called me to do in order to serve Him better.
And lo' and behold, when I stepped foot into our travel contact Andrei Luca's van, a little toy lion sat there on the dashboard. He eventually ended up giving me the little toy lion and told me it was a gift for me. Wow! More confirmation.
Pride is a daily struggle. Giving God the credit for the things we do is sometimes really challenging. When someone recognizes the tasks you have accomplished or the giftings you possess, it's really hard to not take credit. So the things I'm doing here are being done by my hands and my abilities, but my hands and my abilities come from my Creator…Abba Father! PTL!!! To God be the Glory, forever and EVER!!! AMEN!!!!
So in usual Chuck Morris World Race blog fashion…Here are 3 questions for you all.
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What are some things you've done that you have yet to give God credit for?
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What are some abilities you possess that God deserves all the credit?
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In what ways has God given you radical confirmation of something spectacular?
I'm so blessed to have the abilities and health and family and friends that God has given me. It's nothing to do with my own efforts. It's all to do with what God grants me. Thank you Lord for all you have done for me and through me. You're the best!
Thanks to everyone for reading this blog and following my journey. My prayer for you all is that through this adventure God draws you closer to Himself. Love you all! God bless…And have an AWESOME day…EVERY DAY!!!! 😀
