The main lesson the Lord has been teaching me is to be Deeply Rooted in Him. It’s funny because I am not artistic at all and growing up the only thing I would doodle was a huge tree with deep roots. I secretly took pride in my work; even though it honestly still wasn’t that great.
The night that we left for Côte d’Ivoire, the whole squad was handed a letter of encouragement for the journey ahead. One of the departments at Adventures in Missions called CGA, prayed over each and everyone of us. They asked the Lord for a word of encouragement for each of us even though they have never met us before. Side note, Adventures in Missions has been teaching and encouraging everyone to grow intimately with the Lord this year. One of the areas I have been growing in this past month and a half is listening prayer. Listening prayer is just another name for spending quiet time or prayer with God and asking Him to reveal things to you.
For example, this month we are in Ghana partnering with a local church in the city of Sunyani. Team Beloved Daughters is assigned an area and we go out almost every day to evangelize and bring people to church so they can be discipled. Before we start ministry for the day we always take a few minutes and ask God who He wants us to speak to and encourage. Most of the time we will either get a picture, word or a nudging from the Holy Spirit to go into a specific direction. (1 Corinthians 2:6-14) By starting our day off with spending quiet time with the Lord and being still listening for His voice; we have been able to meet and encourage so many people in the Lord. It has been so awesome to see people’s face light up when we tell them that God told us to come and speak to them!
Now back to the story…! When I first was handed the note I was in the process of packing up all my stuff and leaving the hotel so I was unaware of what the letter actually contained. Since we were all rushing to get to the bus and then the airport I just quickly stuffed the letter in my daypack. Fast forward two weeks and I was sitting at the kitchen table in Côte d’Ivoire with my teammate Jess. She happened to mention her listening prayer letter she got from CGA. At first, I was very confused and shocked that we were given notes of encouragement. I immediately said a little prayer to God hoping that I didn’t lose mine. Thankfully I located my listening prayer letter and the first thing it said was, “Deeply Rooted; Loved and Accepted.” *mic drop* The first phrase resonated with me and I just knew I would finish reading the letter SO encouraged.
The rest of the letter said: “Let your roots grow down deep into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and will overflow with thankfulness.” – Colossians 2:6-7
Since then the Lord has been growing and stretching me. He has been teaching me to depend and find my strength in Him; as well as growing my roots down deep into Him. The last 4 years I have been on a journey finding my worth and identity in Christ. I wish I could say that I have mastered the art of self-confidence, but I definitely have grown a lot over the past year! God has been showing me that He wants me to continue to walk in that confidence that He has given me and to stay deeply rooted in Him when I feel the lies of the enemy come on me. My desire is to be so deeply rooted in Him that no one nor any hard trial or situation will shake me because my roots are deeply planted in Him and His Word!
God has been so faithful throughout the journey so far. It’s been so cool to see Him working and He even gave two people encouraging words for me that directly tied in with my listening prayer of being “Deeply Rooted.” My teammate Jess was worshipping during debrief and God gave her a picture of a huge tree that was blossoming and then had big deep roots. How cool is that?! I love how God works! I pray that this post was encouraging and I want to just say another huge THANK
YOU to everyone who is praying for my team and I! I will try to post another blog soon!
Xoxo,
Hannah
