The month of December in Review
When our route got switched from Nepal to the Philippines last month there was a lot of excitement on our squad for the chance to be able to go and do relief work from Typhoon Yolanda.
My team was stationed in Manila and we were in charge of doing what the race calls Unsung Heroes, which involves making new ministry contacts for the World Race in the hopes of sending future teams there. This gives your team a lot of freedom to do whatever God is wanting to do and to really follow His leading. We all got excited at the thought of going down to do relief work but we knew that God would have to open up the door for us if that was His will.
At the beginning of our time in the Philippines we made a list of what all we felt was realistically possible for the month and the goals we wanted to accomplish. We all agreed that getting somewhere between 3 to 5 really solid contacts who needed a lift would be our main focus and a realistic goal for the month. Over a week in, we were still in the process of getting in contact with different ministries and our hopes for going down to do relief work looked more and more grim.
We were stationed at Kids International Ministries where a lot of missionaries who had just been doing relief work were staying. KIM had set up a relief program through a local church in Palo right outside of Tacloban and had expressed how they really needed help through the Christmas Holiday as the missionaries they had down there were in the process of coming back and they needed help. We had already expressed our wanting to go, so they asked us that if we were still willing to go they would have a place for us to stay and ministry for us to help with.
The door had opened up for us to go and there was a lot of excitement in our team except for the fact that we still hadn't made any of the contacts that we were stationed in Manila to get. As a team, we all agreed that we needed confirmation from the Father that if this really was His will than for Him to make it happen. Earlier in the day, a missionary who worked at KIM named Norm told us of a contact that he really wanted to take us to and was saying that it would be a perfect ministry for the World Race to partner with. As we were praying for direction, God laid it on all of our hearts to go with Norm that afternoon and to meet his contact.
A day where we thought we were just going to meet one contact turned into a roller coaster of a day as Norm eventually took us to four different contacts that were all exactly what we were looking for. Later that night we sat down again to pray for direction from God and we looked at what our goals had been for the month and in that one day we had accomplished every single goal we set out to achieve. Find 3-5 really solid contacts, we found 4 legit contacts in one day and even had a partner with the World Race vouch for the ministries.
The light was definitely green as God had wonderfully orchestrated for us to be able to go down and do disaster relief and we all couldn't deny that this was His will. They didn't need us to leave until the next week so this gave us time to review our contacts and even find another really solid contact.
We were able to spend 10 amazing days down in Palo serving the local communities that included feeding the hungry, fellowship with our brothers and sisters who had just lost almost everything, a forever memorable Christmas, loving on the hurting, and being able to see and be a part of the Love of God shining brightly through the local church.
Where the world looks at Yolanda and only sees a disaster, I saw Hope. The hope that is in a Cross that really saves, a Savior that really heals, and a God that really loves. Seeing Hope after they had just lost almost everything in the typhoon was such a testament to the God we serve and I was so privileged to be able to spend celebrating the birth of my King, serving in a place where the light overshadowed the darkness. I got to see that Faith and Family go hand in hand, through the good, through the bad, we need to rise up together and be the church, living our lives in community, and how that changes everything.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, don't let your circumstances define who you are or how you live, focus on the Cross and everything else just seems to fade away.
He is Faithful Forever!
Peace
This was my last month with team Zeal and it was a great way to end our first four months of the race together. I am now on a new team, Team Aslan and we are currently teaching English in Malaysia. More on this later…..
