Under His wings you will learn trust.: October 2013

Think about the excitement before a woman's first baby is about to come. The mother is so ready and so excited. She is ready to meet the baby, but then she starts thinking about once the baby gets here. What does that mean? Lack of sleep, change of schedule. She is no longer the most important person in her life, but she is now focused on making sure this baby grows up right and learns the things that it needs. Then though she is still excited she realizes once the baby comes... there is no sending it back - and ready or not here it is.

And once that beautiful baby is here she falls in love, and she is overwhelmed with the weight of the responsibility that is now on her shoulders and she has no choice but to humbly say, "Jesus I can't do this without you."

That is the way I felt in the few days leading up to all of the students coming, and the first few days they were here. Day one we prayed for all of them, and as happens when you are praying for people the Lord started showing me different things about different ones. After those first few hours were over I went out for a ride on my moped and just started praying. In my head I've known, 'I can't do this without Jesus.' But in that moment I was hit with , 'these kids have issues and I'm the one that gets to help lead them into freedom.' and that was a little bit overwhelming. After some prayer, first I just really felt the fear of the Lord over this new responsibility, and second I had a heart revelation of this is all Jesus. No matter how equipped I am, no matter how many years I do this... there will always be something I don't know how to handle, and even if I think I know how to handle it- every person is different and needs to be walked through things differently. Ministry and leadership is not a 'one-size fits all' its a 'Jesus how do you want to heal this person, how do you want to show this person you care.'

So, here we are. Week two, to the day. And I am amazed, already, at the freedom I have seen so many of these students walk into. The first week was so hard and we were just repeatedly hitting a wall with them, but something broke on Monday. And they are all so excited about hearing the voice of the Lord, some for the first time.

Yesterday and today we have been sorting out our outreach teams. It has been a long process, but so wonderful!

We have seven different locations we will be sending teams to:

India
Philippines/Indonesia
Brazil
Togo, Africa
Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
Big Island, Hawaii
Nepal

Tomorrow night we will be telling all of the students where they will be going, as well as who their leaders will be. We are so excited to tell them after spending the last couple of days praying and placing them in the country we really feel the Lord calling them to.

Unfortunately I can't YET tell you where I will be leading a team. But I will in my next post. Just know, the Lord is doing great things, and I am so excited for where He is leading me, who He placed with me as a leader and the students we will be taking.