Greetings team!
I am thankful for all of you this morning. This month has been a blast thus far. I am located in a hostel in the capital city of Tallinn, Estonia. As a squad leader I shift from team to team each month and this month I am with an all-girl team. Being a guy this team comes with its own set of challenges, but boy have I felt the blessing of the Lord for my obedience to join this team (I had initially picked a different co-ed team). I believe that God put me on this team at this time very specifically; it is my utmost joy to be used by Him!
I believe that this month has been so rewarding because of how much we have had to rely on the Lord. When we first pulled into Tallinn we didn’t have any place to stay for the month. The first night we stayed at a hostel that was way over our budget, hoping that we would be able to negotiate a bulk price for the month. The hostel owner politely explained that this month is their peak tourist month for the whole year, and that they would be able to help us out any other time except for this time. After searching for accommodation the whole next day we had pretty much accepted a fate of illegal beach camping for a couple nights.
The owner of the hostel informed us of a Christian coffee shop nearby, and told us that we would probably be taken care of since we were “in the club.” We went to the coffee shop and found out that it was run by a group of young passionate believers who ran a church and coffee shop ministry. They didn’t have much, but they did have enough space to allow us to camp in one of their backyards. They also fed us a delicious chicken alfredo pasta lunch, prayed for us, and helped us continue to look for a place to live.
One of the girls on our team, Katie, was doing a prayer walk in the middle of the city with her buddy Becca, and got a little lost. She happened upon a Backpackers and walked in. As it turned out, the Backpackers had a storage room that they were willing to clear out for us with plenty of space for all eight of us to comfortably live in! God not only provided this option, but two other opportunities came about at the same time, so we got to pick. What a blessing it is to have a roof over your head and a place to put your 50 lb pack!
One thing that Bill Swann said before the race is that: if you let it, the race is like a “spiritual pressure cooker,” meaning you will gain years of spiritual growth in short months. I have known this to be true. One of the many things that I have been learning this month is that I have been treating my spiritual life like I treat food. As an American pretty well versed with consumerism, I consume my spiritual fill-up whenever I feel empty (or realize that I am empty because I’ve messed up in some area). This isn’t the way I want to live, so I need to treat my spirituality as less of a food/hunger relationship and more of an oxygen-to-life relationship. I think I’ve known this to be true for a long time, but this past week I have felt God calling me to live more like this.
I am feeling growth and refinement happen this month through simply living in this hostel. Each night I have had an opportunity to share part of my testimony to other travelers. For the first time in my life evangelism makes sense to me and doesn’t scare me. These people are my type of people and I care about their souls.
Josiah over and out.
