I am currently on month 5 of the World Race. I have been in India in January, Nepal in February, South Africa in March, Swaziland in April, and now I am in Mozambique. Each country has had its own little treasures. I have learned things about me in each country that will benefit me greatly in the future. I am wanting to share them with you country by country.
In India I learned that when I prayed for healing, I didn’t listen to Holy Spirit and find out what He was doing in each situation. I would do the natural thing of simply laying on hands and asking Jesus to heal them. After looking through scripture, I realized God healed in many different ways than that. He was always doing what He saw the Father do and acted accordingly. This looked different each time. I am beginning to figure this out this month. I’m starting to listen to Holy Spirit and open my spiritual eyes to see what God is doing first before I pray.
In Nepal I had a hard time connecting with Jesus. There were a lot of distractions around and it was easy to lose my focus on Him. I learned to fight through those hard times. I had to be really intentional about pursuing Jesus. When time didn’t permit for me to go off by myself and sit and listen to Him, I had to find time. Whether it was 5 min here or 15 min there, I had to seek it out. I also had to learn to spend time with Him on the go. So sometimes as I was walking, I would look into the clouds and talk with Him. It wasn’t easy, and I am still working on it. But I learned that I need to fight for relationships. They don’t always “Just happen”.
In South Africa we learned about the Romans 12 gifts. These gifts are prophecy, teaching, exhorting, giving, mercy, and servant. I knew I had the gift of giving and exhorting. I learned that month that I also am gifted in teaching. This one caught me off guard. I would often tell people that I was not a teacher. I had friends in Bible College who were teachers and I was nothing like them. So I figured that it wasn’t my gifting. I was clearly wrong. I have this gifting, it just looks different from them in how it is used. Since this new discovery, I have grown in my passion for teaching and have been taking things I have learned and studied and have been putting them onto a power point in my iPad. I want to use this gift God has given me and use it to bring Him glory and advance His Kingdom.
Swaziland was an interesting month. A lot of times people want to know what they are going to do after the race and make plans of what they will do when they get back. For me, I am very spontaneous and don’t really care to know until month 9 or 10 of the Race. However, in Swaziland, the city of Calgary kept coming to my attention. I have only been there a few times. This summer I was there with a friend and someone prophesied over me saying that I was going to be a part of the revival going on in Calgary. It has been on my mind since August and I can’t shake this “feeling” that I will be moving there. I’m going to continue talking with Jesus about it and figure out more details. For now, I am focusing on being present where I am and not letting the future consume my thoughts.
Here in Mozambique I have learned some new things, but it has mostly been a month of putting into practice things I have learned the past few months. At the beginning of the month my team and I made some goals for what we wanted to do this month. I suggested praying for 30 sick people. One of my teammates then said (jokingly I think) “Let’s go for 300!” So I said, “Okay, 300 it is”. Some laughed, but I was serious. We have about 5 days left here and our number is at about 120 people. We far exceeded my first suggestion on 30 and are over 1/3 of our way to 300. All that to say, what I learned in India, I wanted to put into practice finally. I did a teaching on it with my teammates (using what I learned in South Africa) and the next day we went to a hospital to try it out. We listened to Holy Spirit before we prayed and everyone was getting pictures or words for the patients. We had a poor translator who couldn’t tell the people what words we were getting for them, but that didn’t stop us. We prayed those things over them anyways. We didn’t see any immediate healings that day, but we were obedient to God and we’re learning. I know God was proud of us for stepping out and trying something new. One of the times we went out and prayed all morning, I encouraged the team to take time, go by theirselves and spend time with Jesus with the purpose of getting filled up. It was cool to see everyone do that. I myself had an awesome time and God was speaking to me. The lesson I learned in Nepal was coming out here by taking the free time given to me and using it for good.
Next month I will be flying to Europe and going to Latvia. And in July I will be in Estonia. I am excited for what God is going to teach me there and how I am going to grow. I am also excited for how God will use me to advance His Kingdom. Thank you to everyone who has supported me thus far. I have received encouragement, financial support, prayers and more from you guys. I am so full of joy thinking of my friends and family God has blessed me with. I am still $4000 away from being fully funded. I need to have the full amount of $16,250 in my account by July 1st. If you would like to support me in that, click the link that says “Support Me” and follow the instructions from there. If you would like a Canadian Tax Receipt, message me at [email protected] or on FaceBook and I will explain how that could be done.
