It is the end of the second week in India, the second week of being on the race and there is so much I could talk about. I could talk about how standing in an assembly line today to help build a church for a congregation that is bursting out of its seams God spoke to me about the “church body” and each person’s significant role.
I could talk about how helping in building a wall the other day, God spoke to me about needing a good foundation established before any work can be done in my life and the lives of others.
I could even talk about the amazing food, the lack of Wi-Fi, and the amazing contact we are working for with a ton of ministry opportunities starting with children, teaching in a seminary, and all the way to vacation Bible schools.
But instead, I am going to talk about the love of God.
This month has been extremely hard for me the first few days…more like week and a half. I was really struggling with feeling and hearing from God, feeling like I belong, and was really feeling alienated from my team. I finally decided to talk to one of our squad leaders about everything that was internally going on inside of me.
Initially, I felt like the feelings and thoughts I was having were not warranted and were completely unjustified. But as I shared my deepest feelings, fears, and desires; I soon realized, it is a lot of what naturally happens the first week and month of the race.
I don’t have time to go into all the details, and I apologize for the blogs being short this month (my team is sitting in the lobby racing against the clock to respond to emails, update posts, write our blogs, and check in on our families). To be quite honest, I may not even have enough Wi-Fi to POST this blog.
All I really have time to say is this. God is the God who hears. He is the God who sees (me). He is the God who loves, and helps and GOES BEFORE His children. I went into a situation feeling completely hopeless, defeated, and down. Then God picked me up with words of encouragement from my squad leaders. He picked me up with strength to confront the problem head on. He picked me up with wisdom of how to deal with the situations. And he opened my eyes to why I feel the way I feel. He opened the door to great healing, and he allowed my teammates to understand the situation I was in.
While yes, the race is about ministering to the world, but it is also an intensive discipleship ministry. The race is formatted as a mission trip that disciples it’s participants. It encourages us to grow, dig deep, and heal from past hurts all the while stepping out of our comfort zones and boxes to accomplish great things for Christ not just in the lives of others around the world, but also in OUR lives. And HE is doing a good work. Not just in the lives of those we are helping (which I will share more about at a later time) but also in my heart.
God has been showing me His infinite love, mercy, and grace this last week and I am falling deeper in love with my creator.
Thank you all for supporting me with prayers, words of encouragement, and by donating! Without all of you this would not be possible. God is showing me so much through the people of North East India and the work we are doing here. I am excited to head to Nepal in a week and continue this journey! It is so hard to believe we have a week left of our first month!
Thank you ALL again, and until next Saturday, mongthra! (Goodnight)
