Going into this second month of the Race, I took some time to talk to the Lord about what happened in Ukraine, what ways He moved and how He grew and challenged me, and then seek a vision for the time in Romania. Ukraine was largely characterized by resistance. I was resistant to what God was wanting to do in me and the love my teammates were trying to show me; similarly, many of the Ukrainian people seemed closed off to love. Yet, gentle, persistent pursuit in love brings life and joy. God used me to bring that to a couple of the girls I had the privilege and blessing of encountering in Ukraine, and He has also softened my heart towards the love that both He and my teammates have been trying to show me (I believe He may even be trying to love, heal, and challenge me through my teammates), bringing life and healing to me so that I can live more fully in who He created me to be. I believe this is largely my heart in ministry for the Race — to see the unloved, forgotten, overlooked, and resistant loved. And in return, I am experiencing I love far greater and deeper than I ever fathomed from every direction — those back home, those surrounding me here, those to whom God has given me the privilege to serve, and most of all, from Himself. He also gave me the opportunity and courage to take my first steps in being more vocal in evangelism, loving through both action AND word, and thereby stepping into a deeper form of love — loving others in a way that translates into eternity and experiencing an overwhelmingly beautiful and humbling love in return.
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. — Ephesians 3:14-19
