This past month in Vietnam has been a huge time of God showing me how BIG and how FAITHFUL he is. This month my team was placed in unsung hero month on the race. This month is when your team enters a country without a contact and is fully reliant on God and one another to see what the month looks like. This is a month to find people living a kingdom building life and coming along side them to encourage and love them. I wasn’t quite sure how this was going to pan out; especially with being in a closed country where sharing the gospel or praying for people publicly wasn’t aloud. I knew that I needed to let go of the expectation of meeting many people but God soon showed me I had more to release. God quickly showed me that my expectation of not meeting many people was hindering my thoughts of how BIG my God is. I wasn’t believing fully in my heart, that even in a closed country, God had people doing kingdom work and that our team would meet them. I shared with my team this expectation and prayed that God would release it and only allow the expectation of expecting him to show up, how ever he would like, to remain.
As a team we found a church to attend our first week in Vietnam. This church had yet had a World Race team visit before. The church was amazing to say the least. The pastor spoke that Sunday on dissecting the Lord’s Prayer and how it is a template for how our prayers should be. One point he made was to be bold in prayer. Ask for things that are BIG. Don’t be afraid to bring big things to God. “Go BIG or go home” This point tied into exactly where I was at, this month and where God was leading me. Prayer had been something I have been growing in during this journey and here God is taking me deeper. He was showing me how the size of my prayer uncovers the size I think he is. I reflected on why my prayers weren’t big. Was I scared for God not to show up? Was I scared with what he would choose for me instead? The answer is yes. I have tailored my prayers due to the fact I wasn’t sure if God would show up or if he would even answer.
All I know was in that service I was ready for it to change. I was and am ready to give BIG things to God because I believe he is capable, faithful, and all knowing.
During our time in Vietnam God answered the BIG prayers I had for him. One being the prayers to meet people who are living for him in Vietnam. After our first week in Vietnam God allowed us to contact with multiple people doing kingdom work from orphanages, story telling, bible studies, preaching and building relationships. Each one of these people were an encouragement to me on what living a life for Christ looks like and how God answered their BIG prayers. Another BIG prayer I had to deal with was funding. I knew my next deadline was coming up and I was $2,600 short. I started off asking God to help me reach the next deadline but then I thought, shoot my God is big so why not ask to be fully funded for he is more then capable of doing so. God is BIG and I better go BIG or legitimately go home.
In Vietnam my team and I were able to meet a girl who we were able to pour into, love and in return be encouraged by. She is in love with The Lord and eagerly ready to see where he takes her next. The last night before we left she handed me an envelope with money in it. The amount in the envelope was what I needed to get right at the December deadline. I was blown away by her generosity and that she was willing to donate to me. She began to explain how she was saving her tithe money for a day where The Lord would call her to give it to someone and she felt that someone was me. Her faithfulness to God and also God’s faithfulness is getting me to my deadline blew my mind. It also blew my mind the encouragement my team gave me during this time and also the amounts of obedient people who donated to me; due to the desire God placed on their hearts.
Ahhhh!! God is BIG y’all!! Believe it. Trust it.
It can be hard but I want to challenge you to ask God BIG things and trust him with the things you see as impossible. All things are possible through Christ. Join me in this journey of changing the way you pray to God because I know he has greater things planned for us then we know.
“God will either give us what we ask for in prayer or give us what we would have asked for if we knew everything He knows.” -Tim Keller.
P.S. God is stilling answering my prayer of being fully funded for I am now way over the December deadline!! FULLY FUNDED HERE I COME!!!
