Hey y’all,
If you could be praying for me right now that would be rad. Spiritual warfare leading up to trips like this can be pretty intense, so I’ve been warned from other people and honestly have experienced personally ever since I started this whole process. It’s a roller coaster of spiritual attacks and spiritual highs. Definitely needing prayer because the enemy really doesn’t want this to happen.
When we’re out there we are on the front lines of the spiritual war.
Our pastor last night at the Village Church, Matt Chandler gave a sermon on world missions. I’m not sure what source he used, an sociologist, where he said that third world countries that are specifically focused on by missionaries, as oppose to relief efforts or humanitarian aid, are better socio-economically in the long run. It’s the idea of give a man a fish, he is fed for a day, teach a man to fish, he is fed for a lifetime. But, in this it would be if we helped a people group once with food, we help them that one time, but if we teach them the gospel and show them love and people’s lives and hearts are changed, then they are changed for a lifetime to selfless acts and service within their own borders.
By no means is this trip a vacation. Someone questioned the other day, asking whether or not this trip was self-serving.
We are working 6 days a week in local missions in third world countries. My friends team in South Africa the other day was robbed and attacked in an orphanage in the middle of the night. They had trouble sleeping for days afterwards because of fear. One of my co-racers in the same route as me went on a mission trip a few years ago to Uganda (not the world race, or AIM that I know of) where someone on her team died for Malaria while in Uganda. One of my friends that manages a Chic Fila was in Asia a few years ago, and a month after he left the people he made friends with died of starvation in their own country.
This is war. The enemy hates that people are trying to shine light in the darkness and reveal the gospel.
This is by no means a self-serving mission, but this is war. And the enemy is doing whatever he can right now to stop us from even going. Other people on my route are either super pumped or discouraged throughout this, and it varies.
But that isn’t stopping us! We’re going to press forward, because we have heart and God who has called us to this and who is so much bigger than this.
Let’s make a difference, ya’ll.
-J
