Hello, friends!
We are coming to the end of our time in the Philippines and I wanted to share with you a little of what our month has looked like.
We all came together at the beginning of the month for 4 days to debrief our previous month. Debrief is a time for the whole Squad to come together to find rest, debrief as teams, have one on ones with different people in leadership and to have nightly worship and teachings. It’s a time to be refreshed and press into what the Lord has for us as a group and as individuals. This debrief we were able to reach deeper depths of intimacy and vulnerability with God and one another. I walked away every night with my heart feeling encouraged and expectant of what God has in store for us. He is so faithful and good… and these people I’m with are running full force into what He has for them.
After debrief we travelled about an hour outside the city of Manila to Kid’s International Ministries. This month has been all squad month, so rather than separating into their individual teams and having a squad leader join them, we’ve all been together. Our ministry has been all over the board this month. We’ve had the opportunity to do construction work, hang out with the kids and infants at a children’s home, teach in schools and volunteer at a pregnancy clinic. Our main focus though, has been partnering with KIM to expand their feeding program. Every day looks a little different and it’s been fun and exciting to get to try so many different things in regards to ministry.
In working to expand the feeding program our Saturdays have consisted of doing a little ATL (Ask The Lord) and then begin searching for churches or people of peace who might be interested in partnering with KIM to put of feeding programs of their own in their communities. When we do ATL, we start the day off by doing some listening prayer and asking The Holy Spirit what it is He wants to show us. Sometimes he gives us a word or a picture, sometimes it’s simply a color. It’s really cool to see what the Lord can do when we’re willing to commit our time to following His leading. We’ve seen the Lord show up in incredible ways and I’ve found that there’s not much that boosts your faith as much as when you see a word that the Lord gave you come to fruition! It’s been really amazing to see the things the Lord is doing and we are so honored to be a part of it.
Our heavenly Father has given us so many sweet gifts this month. The glory of the Lord is shining all around us, we just have to keep our eyes open to see His hand at work. Some of my personal highlights this month have been: building relationships with different people on the Squad and hearing peoples stories, meeting different pastors through out the city, working in the pregnancy clinic and learning to find the babies heart beat (I may or may not have been a teary mess every time I heard a heartbeat the first day), time spent getting to know my co-leaders and our squad mentor, seeing people step into their giftings in ministry and in sharing with eachother, seeing people make the first step to find freedom from their pasts, witnessing the birth of sweet baby Kailee, whose mom was one of the women we got to check up with every week at the pregnancy clinic and a restful weekend get away to Hundred Islands with a few sweet women from the squad.
Tomorrow we are headed to Thailand! I will be visiting 2 different teams next month, so I will be spending time in both Bangkok and Phuket. Please be in prayer as we head into this next month that the Lord would give me His eyes to see where I need to be pouring into His beautiful people. I am feeling so blessed to be here with these people and to have the opportunity to walk this journey with them. I am expectant that God has a lot in store for all of us this coming month so please be praying that we will continue to live life with a “yes” in our Spirit for the things God has in store.
Friends, thank you for your prayers and support. I love being able to take you all along on this journey with me and I’m thankful that you said “yes” to being a part of the work God is doing.
All my love,
Rachel
I am still $2,829 away from being fully funded. While I am fully funded for my 5 months on the field, I am still raising support in order to be able to come back for 2 more debriefs with the Squad. As I shared at the beginning, debriefs are important and it’s a time to connect with the Squad and reset for the coming months of ministry. The Lord is doing amazing things in the lives of the individuals E Squad and I am so blessed to be a part of it. He is using so much of this to do great things in my life as well. I don’t want to miss out on any of it.
