Outreach

Wow so it has been a while. :) I came back from outreach on Monday Jan 16, 2012. It was five weeks of intense ministry, and I’m thankful for every minute of it.  There were several challenges but God was faithful and watched over His word making sure it was fulfilled. For those of you who were praying, especially for my health, thank you so much! Although my health was a challenge God still moved and was glorified.

I felt the call to hold my team up in prayer.  I made a commitment to pray every time I was sick and couldn’t do anything, as well as praying with a group of two every other day or so. Needless to say I did a lot of praying. I have grown so much in prayer and I’m learning how God speaks to me and how He opens my eyes to see what is going on in the spiritual realm. I believe that because of our prayers my team and I were able to make it through five intense weeks of ministry. 

The biggest thing I learned on outreach was how to allow a huge biblical truth to become a part of who I am not just a truth in my heart.  This truth I am speaking of is the hard revelation of dying to self and continually laying down my rights. I learned how to lay down my rights not for others but for myself. I didn’t want self or my rights getting in the way of my relationship with God. I quickly learned that if I don’t lay down my rights on a continual base then frustration and bitterness will get in the way of my relationship with God.  If my heart isn’t right before God then I’m no better off than the person doing harm to me.  If I don’t lay my rights down and die to self, my heart quickly enters a state in which it is not right before God.  I have learned to keep my focus on Jesus regardless of the circumstances around me, not to say I’m a master of this. These are truths that I have known for years but they were not a part of who I was. In order for these truths, witch are worth more than gold, to become ingrained in to who I am I first had to be crucified. I had to truly die, not physically of cores. I had to go through a hard time that gave me opportunity after opportunity to lay down my rights and force me to focus on God and Him alone. I’m so glad and thankful that God was with me through this outreach and allowed me to go through a hard time, because I am a different person now.

My team went to a total of five churches. Each place had its own problems and spiritual ware fare. The one thing they all had in common were Muslims’. This made it really difficult sometimes to do ministry. I have realized the importance of learning about other religions. This would have helped me understand where the people, whom I’m loving are coming from.  If I would have done more research about their religion I feel like I would have been more equipped to answer their questions in love. I know that it is not by might nor by power but by the Spirit of the Lord that hearts are moved and changed, however I feel like I could have been more effective in my part with God if I had a little more knowledge. My prayer is that God rises up an army of people who are equipped to reach these people.  In some places there was a strong sense of religiousness. In others there was a sense of misuse of authority and power. There were times when I felt like I walked in to a place where people were racing to climb to the top of a latter. Still in other places I felt like there was a strong spirit of death hovering and controlling the people in the land. These are only a few things that I felt and observed while praying and doing ministry. 

I was given three opportunities to preach and loved each moment of it.  The last time I preached, I became sick about 15 min. before I was to speak. My chest started tightening up and my voice was nearly gone.  I was preaching about the depth of salvation. In the middle of talking about healing both my chest and voice came back to normal. God is creative and uses anything to get his loving point across. Praise the Lord! Every time I was given this privilege God was faithful to move on the hearts of people. To God be the glory! We did a lot of door to door ministry, seminars, and landscaping. We also helped in the Hospital a few times and tried to work in the community as much as possible.

My most memorable moment of this experience was when I went door to door. As we were walking down the street I saw this group of kids and went over to talk to them. I asked them their names and what their favorite color was. They then asked what my favorite color was as they giggled in a nervous manor. There was a small baby that started crying. One of the kids picked him up then looked at me, looked back at the baby and placed him in my arms.  I calmed the child down, and the next thing I knew he is looking at me with his gorgeous eyes. He got the biggest smile on his face and started laughing. This was the first baby not to cry when I came close to him. This was definitely the highlight of the trip.

Thank you again for all your prayers and support! It wouldn’t be possible for me to be here, serving the Lord in this way if it weren’t for you! Thank you for partnering with me and expanding God’s Kingdom.