Prepare yourself because there is quite a lot to unpack in this blog post, and I’ve only been on the field for about a week.
Have you ever asked God to move in your life? Have you ever told him to lead you wherever he would take you? If not I encourage you to do so, but be warned it comes at a price. It’s a dangerous prayer to pray because thats exactly what God wants from us. So when you come asking for him to do that, expect him to do exactly that. And sometimes that can lead you way out of your comfort zone. Sometimes it sets you on a path unlike anything that you would have ever dreamed of for yourself. But even if thats true. Even if it doesn’t always align with what you see for your own life, I promise you, his way is the way that leads to more joy. Sometimes that path may not lead you far away from where you are currently, but sometimes it may lead you to writing a blog half way across the world in a country that is not your own. Sometimes it may lead you to beautiful places and sometimes it may not. But wherever you end up the Lord will be there shepherding you.
Since deciding to go on the race I had felt nothing but peace in the decision to leave everything behind and do ministry for the next year, and I still feel that way. But I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have my worries. About a month and a half ago, my health began to fail me. I’ve never had any issues, I’ve never been one to get sick, and one morning before work I woke up took a deep breath in and hit the ground from pain. Shortly thereafter I began to cough up blood. Of course this has never happened to me before and blood is not something that I should be coughing up so I of course freaked out, thought of every bad scenario, and then went to the doctor. They found nothing. According to them I was absolutely healthy. So I went home without any answers as to what was happening. I wish I could say that I didn’t have any problems after that, but I did. I continued to cough up more and more blood every morning. And each morning the quantity grew. But I was “perfectly healthy.” Fear began to grow within me though. The race was quickly approaching and here I was coughing up blood. Was this something that I could do? What if I got over into these other countries and started having significant health problems? I couldn’t shake it. But I still felt that this is what I needed to do. Finally I went to see my old family doctor a few weeks before coming on the race to find out I had a fractured rib and pneumonia. Pneumonia that I had left untreated for almost a month. Breathing was difficult, I felt pain every time I took in a breath, and still I felt the call to go. And so I chose to be obedient.
And here I am in Australia! I’m still healing. My lungs still hurt from time to time, but an amazing thing happened. The morning of launch I woke up and my entire right lung was swollen again. I didn’t tell anybody about this of course because I didn’t want to be benched, but later that night when we had worship and I outstretched my arms to the Lord, all my pain began to disappear. The swelling began to go down, breathing was easier, and I just sang praises from the top of my lungs. And each day since then it has gotten better. There have been some minor flare ups mainly due to my own recklessness. Such as jumping off a jetty (sorry mom and dad) . . . . . I don’t recommend doing that if you are injured or have trouble breathing. Bad combination….. But overall it has been getting better with each day, and the Lord has began to teach me in this season to give everything to him and trust him with it. My favorite verse has always been Isaiah 53:5 which contains a promise of healing. I have focused on this every single day.
Now as to my time here in the beautiful country of Australia. One week, and it feels like I’ve already earned a lifetime of memories. It’s been a very fast paced environment since arriving and it feels like I have been flying by the seat of my pants the entire time. But it has been so good. So so good. We are staying at Lifehouse Church this month, and they have been so incredibly good to us. We have a nice air conditioned room to sleep in. A kitchen to cook in. And showers! So happy I can still shower lol. And its so nice. And the beach is a 10 minute walk down the street. Not so bad right?
Honestly it feels like a dream. For so long I have wanted to travel to Australia, and here I am. But now, in this context I have so much more joy than I would have just by traveling. Because each day I get to serve people. Every day has been different than the last, and we haven’t had a solid schedule but that is perfectly fine. Honestly its helped me so much. Living in the rat race of America, I found myself consumed by work, events, gym, relationships, and not having enough time to actually spend time with God. The time was there, I just couldn’t find it. But since arriving here every morning I spend quiet time with the Lord. And then every day I talk with my squad mates and we build each other up in our faith. Every day I get the opportunity to serve people and put myself out there in whatever way people need it and thats amazing. To me thats the heart of life, serving others with a heart full of Jesus.
Now I wont give you every detail of our ministry here in Australia, as I have to have content for future blogs, but I will tell you that we have had the awesome opportunity to partner with two YWAM (youth with a mission) teams. And with that we have been serving different churches in the area, which has involved taking part in their services as well as passing out 6000 invitations throughout the surrounding neighborhoods. (I’m just a little sunburnt). We have also had the opportunity to serve a Christian drug rehabilitation community, as well as ministering to the elderly at a nearby retirement home, and so much more. I know that these may not sound like grand acts of mission work. They may seem like simple things that all of us can do. And you are exactly right, they are exactly things that you could be doing right now. While we will be doing our fair share of street evangelism and preaching along the way, ministry doesn’t have to be grand acts. It doesn’t have to be scary. It doesn’t have to be intimidating. All it is, is loving people and meeting them where they are.
And to show you this, I want to tell you what a new friend of mine had to say when visiting with her at the retirement home. When talking with a few of us she became overjoyed. She was smiling from ear to ear at the fact that there were young individuals that had a passion and a love for Jesus. She was overjoyed that we were listening to her stories. A gentle breeze blowing through, is how she described our presence there (exact phrasing may be slightly different). It was refreshing. And hearing her story, and just being there for her, showed me that ministry is in the small moments. That God uses the small moments just as much as he does the large ones. That he uses random conversations to let his love shine through. And honestly I feel like that encounter impacted me more than it did her.
I’ve been on the race for 16 days and its been wild. I’ve had wild encounters with God and revelations about his will for me. Every day I have experienced love, laughter, friendship, connections, and joy. And I’m back to experiencing authentic worship. And when I say that I’m not talking about people who are all jumping up and down to song. What people do when they worship is irrelevant to me. But what’s amazing is being around people who pour their hearts out to the Lord. Who give him everything they have and it encourages me to do the same. And guys, my squad mates are some fierce prayer warriors. They are exactly the people I want in my corner when fighting spiritual battles.
My heart is so full of joy right now. God has filled me with love, with hope, with compassion, and a burning desire to minister to his children. When you focus on Jesus amazing things begin to happen. Just by walking around I’ve had people walk up to me and we’ve slipped into conversations about Jesus. They sought me out, not the other way around. Guys we are the lightbringers. The Holy Spirit is a light within us that cannot be extinguished, lets use it.
I think I’ll stop here for the time being, but I will be writing again shortly about my encounter on what I’ll call Agape lookout. Its a pretty neat story that set my heart on fire. I love you guys and I hope you guys will continue to keep me in your prayers as I continue on this journey! Also!!!!!!! Donations are lovingly accepted as I still have about 7k to go before I’m fully funded. I know you want to! Just hit that nice little donate button and it’ll walk you through the rest. Do you have a savings account that is just sitting there collecting dust? Have a burning desire to spend it on something? I can definitely help you with that!
