Hello friends and family!!
Welcome back to a peek at my life on the race! We have hit the 6 month mark and I’m so grateful for the Lord’s protection and provision at this point in the journey. It’s been so crazy to see the time fly by as fast as it has. We are halfway through our 3rd country, my dad get to visit for our parent vision trip in 3 weeks, and we only have 20 more days in Africa!! What?! Yea, the time is FLYING!! it has been about a month and some change since my last blog so let me update you on what the Lord is doing in AFRICA!!!
Coming from Asia to Africa was a pretty big culture shock. The difference in cultures are pretty drastic. In Asia, people were very honoring of elders, honoring of themselves and many, many gods. People on the street didn’t see foreigners a lot so we would always get stares that would end with a smile when we looked. Here in Africa, it’s a little different. Everyone minds their business and there is not much visible joy on people’s faces. The spiritual atmosphere is very heavy in both places in VERY different ways. In Asia it was very much self sufficiency centered and that included having gods to suit their needs. In Africa, the enemy is very sneaky. He creeps in through witchcraft in the culture and convincing the people that God doesn’t see them or that he doesn’t care about them. Those are lies from the pits of hell!! Even before we got here, you can see God’s hand in everything! In the creation, in the people, and in the ministries.
Team Alabaster has gotten the privilege to work at multiple ministries since we have been here. Our first week consisted of working with teachers at the Global Leadership Academy, helping them set up for the new school year! It’s such a blessing to be apart of planting seeds for the next generation! The second week we got to work on some houses for some retired missionaries that come to spend their retirements in South Africa! We got to see the fruit of our labor as we have moved back into the Mission house this past week! After that week we moved to a campsite that was a 3 minute walk from the beach! Praise God! Our whole squad was there and my heart was full!! It’s the first time being all together since October!! While being there we got to explore the town and learn about the people there. While being so close to the beach is a blessing, it can also cause lots of distraction. We realized this as a squad and we’re able to fight through prayer and fasting. We were able to pray for 24 hours after a squad communion one night and the Lord was so gracious in our repentance and was so close to us. He still is.
Testimony time!!
When we were praying and giving God the praise that He is worthy of, I was doing all the right things in my own mind. I was on my knees, singing loud, and taking communion just like everyone else. But for some reason, my mind was blank. Not one thought in my head the whole night. I felt like I couldn’t pray one word to the Father. This lead to a lot of frustration with God and within myself. I had thoughts like “God, why aren’t you giving me the words?” “Am I not good enough, or holy enough, or smart enough to be here right now?” All lies!!! I begin to pray and ask God if there is any lies that need to be broken or any thing that needs to be revealed in myself. What I’ve noticed throughout this journey is that most of my accusatory thought come from a deeper rooted sin that hasn’t been healed yet. The Lord had revealed that I had come into agreement with fear, confusion, and anxiety.
By saying that I’ve just dealt with it “all my life”, or “it’s just who I am”. I was then reminded of 2 Corinthians 5:17, that in Christ , we come new creation! That our old selves have passed away, and the new has come. This means that our portion is a spirit of love, peace and sound mind. The Lord brought this up and I was so ready to break free. We then had a moment of prayer for those who had been fighting in the warfare more than others and so we started praying.
We started all praying at the same time but,
My (at the time) leader, Ethan began praying and rebuking those spirits that I had been oppressed by and my begin twitching uncontrollably. It stood out to me because that only happens when I am scared to pray out loud in a big group!! After this prayer I felt like a heavy weight was lifted off my shoulders. That moment proved that deliverance is not a scary thing. It’s actually necessary for some. It’s interesting because The American church is either an absolute no towards the topic or very very showy and extreme about it. So it’s so hard to discern how deliverance actually works. But as long as the body stays in the word and derives their knowledge from what the word of God says, we can rest assured that there will be freedom!! We let pride get the best of us when we as believers believe the lie that spiritual warfare isn’t real. We also have not been called to cast judgement on those who do things differently than you do! Praise God, that deliverance, speaking in tongues and prophecy doesn’t save us! On by the blood of the Lamb have we been reconciled with the Father. We can rest in the assurance of the cross. That once and for all, Christ died while we were still sinners. What a gracious and mighty God we serve. He is so kind and He is love!!
Life in South Africa has been slow and sweet. We got to move back to the mission house this week! These past 3 weeks my team and I have worked with a preschool with over 150 3-6 year olds! We are teachers assistants and help out in the kitchen. At the beginning, I was hard hearted against it because of how much children’s ministry we had done on the race. My mind was clouded and not looking at what was right in front of me. The teachers! The Lord has opened my heart towards them and we have been able to minister to them in so many ways. My favorite part of the day is when my teacher comes in at 8 am and gives me the biggest hug and tells me about her day. It’s been such a blessing to minister to her and her to me as well. I’m filled with gratitude and wouldn’t change a thing.
Prayer requests!
- the guys on our squad are currently 8 hrs away in Lesotho doing ministry until we leave for Guatemala (March 1st)!! Pray for open hearts, effective ministry, willing spirits and that the Lord would open their mouths in boldness for the Kingdom of the LIVING GOD!!
- Pray for our school (Ithemba is the name) and that every child and teacher would be changed by the presence of God!
- Pray for the women of our squad to be impacted heavily by The Lords goodness in this time at the mission house.
- Pray for our gracious host mom Wendy!She runs the house, cooks for us and is a strong woman of God. Pray that the Lord would bless her as she’s been such a blessing to us.
- Pray for the churches and ministries around the world to deeply experience the truth of the gospel on another level.
- Pray for me as I discern next steps for after the race! (EXCITING NEWS COMING SOON!!)
Love you all!
”May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.“
2 Peter 1:2 ESV
enjoy some pictures of a sick safari I went on and some fun adventures here in JBAY.
