I am on a plane to San Francisco, officially embarking on my 9 month missions trip! In about 43 hours hopefully, I will be happily sitting at my ministry site in Battambang, Cambodia!
September 2018, Gap Year Launch:
Launch started out so crazy, I missed my flight for the first time in my life and I ended up missing some of the first session at Launch but everything happens for a reason… because, by missing my flight I got to spend time with my mom, get coffee & breakfast, and have the goodbye we both needed. Because my bag was lost for 48 hours I had the opportunity to live with less and it was very peaceful, I recommend it. Also, because I was prepared (I thank my past self for thinking of these situations and packing all my toiletries in my daypack).
Because I was late arriving to launch, I got to jump right into worship before seeing anyone, at the very back of the conference room at the Atlanta Airport Hilton hotel, it was exactly what I needed. I was able to jump around and worship my God after a very stressful day or better yet, a very stressful 3 weeks.
I was able to give it all to God that first night and be reminded of his never ending love.
Something I will never forget is standing in the very back and looking out to all the parents who had come with their racers to Launch, stand completely still as all the racers went crazy for their God. One of the alumni racers parents went up and spoke and said, “I realized at this very conference that I had died at 40 and I was just waiting to be put in the ground spiritually”. He said he was awoken by God. He said God showed him that he was not finished yet, that his life was not over.
Now, this man travels all around the world running the “Parent Vision Trips” which is where parents can come join their racers on the field for a week and do ministry together. Hundreds of adults give their lives to God on these trips. The work done there is amazing and life-changing. That is what God had in store for him in his 50s and 60s… not retirement but something much more satisfying.
No matter how old you are, God is NEVER done working through you. Don’t check out. Don’t live life through the motions. God has HUGE plans for you, me, the lady next you in line for coffee, everyone.
I understand that life can get overwhelming the older you get but when it does lean on God not yourself. Looking around at that crowd made me cry because almost every adult looked dead in that room, lifeless.
THERE IS SO MUCH MORE OUT THERE. As followers of Christ we are challenged to leave our comfort. To leave our nice houses, nice cars, comfortable jobs, artificial happiness (to some) and join the army of Christ. To prepare for battlefield and go out into our neighborhood, our cities, our country or across the world to bring the KINGDOM.
Last night (Tuesday night of Launch) a wonderful, strong, Christ Follower, Karen Dilpeck shared what that means. What does it mean to bring Kingdom to the people around us or better yet how do we define Kingdom, because
How do you seek the Kingdom if you can’t define it?
What she shared with us is, the Kingdom is split into 3 parts.
Kingdom:
God who is the king
The way he does things
And my role in that
Here are some of my notes from that session:
We will be able to meet God wherever our feet are.
It’s his goal for me to know him, It’s his number one goal in my life.
How are you meeting God right now? God is approachable – he has mercy and grace.
Number one prayer on the WR is bring the kingdom to us
We want the kingdom cultural to brush off on the other religions
We all have our own cultures, we want to ask the lord to bring the kingdom to our culture, our church, our family, wherever we are.
How to save the kingdom :
Start small -look for the least person,
Do what God puts in front of you
Dear God, Who are you going to highlight to me today?
I’m the person who gets to make the kingdom a reality to myself and the people around me. God has entrusted ME to bring the Kingdom to all the people around me.
Look for the lowest position: those who are exalted are humbled, those who are humbled are exalted
Are you willing to take the humble seat?
Are you willing to be the last one? Are you willing to be the last person on the bus?
God will give you small opportunities to start small to be humble to be the kingdom. Swallow your pride and take him up on them.
If someone asks you to do something will you take it a step further?
Take the lowest position, serve well and that is how you will serve the kingdom
God what do you want me to do today?
You are third on the list
1.God
2.Others
3.Yourself
What’s my role right here, right now
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Some of my biggest takeaways were how approachable God is. Karen shared a classic story of a little boy doing something he wasn’t supposed to do and he hid from his Dad because he didn’t want to get a “whippin”. I don’t have to hide, you don’t have to hide, no one has to hide!! We can come to God with EVERYTHING. We can come with the ugliest past of filth and sin and he will embrace us. Just take a moment right now and process that.
He will forgive you.
He will still love you.
He won’t hurt you.
He will welcome you.
Guys, God is rooting for us, he is fighting for us always. So, it’s okay if we mess up. It’s okay. It’s okay to turn to God with tears in your eyes and your arms extended out because he will reach down, pick you up and brush you off.
I felt distant from God at the end of August up until launch and that happens. Sometimes we get distracted. I was scared to let God in again. To show him my true self who isn’t perfect but the second I did, I felt instant relief because it’s HARD when you’re not following God. It’s hard when you are but it’s WAY harder when you are being disobedient to God. This doesn’t give us an excuse to not obey God but a chance to learn from our mistakes.
I learned and now I know I NEED to keep God in my daily routine always, no matter how busy I am.
The second biggest takeaway from last night was it starts small. Bringing the Kingdom could look anywhere from picking up a bag for a lady with a baby or praying over another with a broken foot. Be a total servant to others and to God and never put yourself first.
(( I’m going out of order because I first talked about day one of launch and then day three, below is day two. ))
Tuesday was great, I didn’t want to burst into tears every time I thought about me walking away from my mom and getting on the plane. I was connecting with my teammates and felt like I was where I was supposed to be!
Tuesday night a man, Jeremy talked about spiritual gifts and the incredible works God can do through you that are completely supernatural.
He talked about how we can do those acts too if we are listening and if it’s Gods will. Most of all, he wanted us to feel the POWER of the Holy Spirit. He asked if anyone wants to feel this, come to the front and get on your hands and knees, so, I did. I prayed to God to show me and he did. I had multiple people come over and pray over me. As each touched my shoulder I felt this warm zing come from their hands and into my body. Again and again this happened. Every time it happened I felt the Holy Spirit stronger and stronger. It was incredible.
Wednesday night of worship I felt the Holy Spirit so strongly all through worship, probably the strongest I’ve ever felt it.
As I sang my heart out I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing because it was so overwhelming. Every lyric came alive and God spoke out to me almost the whole time.
Then, as I was worshiping I felt this urge to sit down where I was standing and pray to God. To ask him what he wanted from me in that moment. He told me to go over to my teammate who was two down from me in the row, also on the floor praying to God and pray over her. I WAS SO SCARED. My heart was pounding a million miles a minute and I kept asking God, “Are you sure? I don’t know what to say? I don’t feel very capable to over her…”. But he kept saying go over and pray for her. So I counted to three and crawled over to her, putting both arms over her and I started praying. Pretty soon, I wasn’t talking but God was.
You see, God was using me to speak into her life. She needed to hear those affirming words just like I needed to at Training Camp. Afterwards, I had so much adrenaline running through me and I kept shouting inside my head, “I DID IT GOD, I DID IT, WOOHOOOO!!”. It honestly made me worship so much harder and become a hundred times more alive than I already was. I looked over at my teammate and she was full on dancing, yelling and praising Jesus. She then went over to another teammate and prayed over her. I truly believe what I said, what God said was exactly what she needed to hear to have a “yes” in her spirit. I started to cry when I saw that because I’ve been really struggling with having confidence while I pray, let alone praying over a person. This was not just affirming for her but for me as well. To help me see it is not about me AT ALL and to ALWAYS say YES to God.
AGAIN, I urge you to listen and obey, no matter how old you are. No matter how scared you are. No matter how unsure you are. No matter your past.
Do it because if you don’t you could risk that person to not have an enteral life. In fact, if you were to have the mindset that if you don’t go over and talk to that one person in Costco or Starbucks that they will not have eternal life. It exponentially changes your perspective on it.
Now, just because I talk the talk doesn’t mean I always walk the walk. Last night my leader Luis challenged our team to ask God who he will highlight for us at the airport. To not just go to the airport to get on a plane but to see the endless opportunities of people we can all pray over.
While we were in line to board our plane I got to know the family behind me. The whole time we talked I had that thought in the back of my mind, you should pray for her, you should pray for her, you should pray for her. but I was TO AFRIAD of what they would think of me and the people around me that I just had a polite conversation.
Dear Lord, please forgive me for not listening to you. For not having a “yes” in my personality. For being to afraid of man and for letting that hold me back. Please help me in the encounters to come to be fearless in the NAME OF JESUS. Help me bring the KINGDOM to all the people around me.
This is one of those moments. Where we get up, brush our selves up and keep going. This is a learning moment for me and I pray to my God that next time I will pray over that person and call out to my Father for the people around me.
I pray for the people I am about to encounter.
I’m listening to God of This City by Chris Tomlin and it is a total God thing because these are the lyrics:
You’re the Lord of this nation
You’re the light in the darkness
You’re the hope to the hopeless
You’re the peace to the restless
There is no one like our God
The greater things are yet to come
The greater things are still to be done in this cityyyyyyyy
Wow, let those words sink in… wherever you are this is true.
Be a light to the Kingdom of God
Bring the kingdom of God
Put yourself third.
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FUNDRAISER UPDATE:
I am doing a fundraiser called ADOPT A MONTH.
What it is?
Every month I need on the ground expenses of about $100-$150 and that adds up over 9 months. It covers anything you could think of… restocking on toiletries, off-days (where we have to pay for all of our meals on our own), new clothes, restocking on medication, any travel day expenses, gifts for ministry hosts, if anything gets lost electronically… etc.
How can you do it?
If you would like to adopt a month and pay the amount between $100-$150 or more that would be AMAZING! I realize that can be a lot for one person to cover so multiple people or whole families can team up and pay for it together!
The months you can choose from:
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
JANAURY
FEBUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE (may or may not be needed, depends what day I get home)
If you would like to adopt a box please email me and I can tell you what months are available and we can choose together what payment option works best. THANK YOU!
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Email updates:
I am sending monthly updates about my ministry and logistics on the field. Pretty much everything that happens that I don’t include in my blog. If you aren’t on the list and you want to be please comment your email!!! :)))
Ways YOU can Join me on my Journey:
1. Pray. I will need a multitude of prayers ranging from strength, wisdom, clarity, love, joy… The list goes on. Whatever your heart desires and feels right, pray.
2. Donating through this blog!!! When you donate through here it goes directly to World Race and my fund of 15,800 dollars.
UPDATE: ONLY 1,600 AWAY FROM MY 15,800!!!!! (please donate direct to me after I meet my world race goal online because I will lose the money to cover other expenses!)
3. Cash, Check, or Venmo. Donating to me personally is still much needed because I have to buy all my gear, supplies, vaccines, airfare and I will need money on the ground. (Venmo: Marguerite-SanMartino)
4. SPREAD THE WORD!! Tell everyone about my trip and show them my blog.
5. SUBSCRIBE! When you subscribe you will get all notifications when I post on my blog about my trip and any updates!
