I went on a friend date with our squad mentor, Grace— she is super bomb, wise and easy to talk to you.
Our talk got real; I told her about how I’ve been struggling to hear God’s voice.
There have been a few times on the race when we were asked to pray about something and share what we heard from God. Immediately, I would go into panic mode; I was super disappointed when there was silence— no word from God.
Why wasn’t I hearing from him?
Something I have struggled with is discipline, one of those areas in my life being quality time with Jesus.
I told Grace this, and then she asked, “do you know God like a friend?”
I thought about it and realized that often I would chose people and things over Him. I was inconsistent and selfish with my time. I would get caught up in doing things for Him instead of just resting in His presence.
I would attend and volunteer at church, go to bible study, etc., but I would forget to invite Him into my day. Our relationship was very much one sided. I would talk to Him, but I wouldn’t wait for Him to respond.
Relationships are supposed to be reciprocal. The two people in the relationship are to invest, talk and listen to one another. It requires sacrifice, and truly believing that the other person is worth it all.
So here i am.
Jesus chased after me, now its my turn to chase after Him.
Y’all listening prayer is hard. Being still and waiting on the Lord to speak to you takes practice and patience, and awkward silences. (Side note: I’ve heard Him speak to me it’s just not consistently.)
Grace told me to go on dates with God. Do things with Him that I used to with my dad.
So your girl will be getting tons of food, going on long walks/ bike rides (if that’s ever a thing on the race), and jamming out and dancing to music with Him.
I cannot wait for God to speak to me in new and exciting ways. I’m praying big and bold prayers knowing He will provide.
God is so much bigger than the box that I’ve been putting Him in.
Ways you can be praying:
Pray that the Haitians would find a personal relationship with God.
Pray for the church- they are behind the American church culture. A common hinderance for people going to church is they don’t have enough money to afford nice enough clothes to go (unlike in America where it’s more of a come as you are mentality).
Pray for our ministry-“Mission of Hope.” You should check them out and see the impact they have made on this country. There is an orphanage, school, farming program, warehouse full of food and shoes, a clinic for locals to receive care, including a prosthetic lab. They have been able to heal, clothe, feed, and share Jesus with thousands of people in the community, so cool we have the chance to serve here.
Pray for our new ministry, BHM (Baptist Haiti Mission), we got here on Wednesday and might be here until October 3rd, or we will be going back to Mission of Hope on the 29th. It’s beautiful here, unreal how beautiful it is. The founders of the organization are in their 90s and they merged their ministry with Mission of Hope. We are the first team that has gotten to stay here and work with their organization which is pretty cool.
Our ministry here at BHM has been cleaning out workspace for them to expand their ministry, so that they can better serve Haiti. It’s pretty cool knowing French and being able to talk with the locals even though creole is vastly different at times. I love it here.
At Mission of Hope we got to go out into different villages and build relationships with locals, hear their stories, and serve them. Serving them looked like many different things: holding their babies, washing their dishes, praying for healing, sweeping their houses etc. I love it so much!!
