URGENT NEWS!!! GOD'S PLANS ARE GREATER!

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9.

Plans for my life

I want to go to college in North Carolina.

I want to have a boyfriend while in school. 

  I want to graduate in 4 years with my bachelors degree.

 I want to get married right out of college. 

I want to have a good paying job.

 I want to be financially stable.

 I want to have a house with a white picket fence. 

I want to be settled down with my family.

I want to live the American Dream.

As many of you know, this past summer I went to Africa with an organization called Adventures in Missions. The summer trip was with the section of the organization that is geared towards college students between the ages of 18-22. If you have read any of my previous posts, you know that that summer completely changed my life....literally. I won't go into everything that God has done in my life the past year because that would take an entire book but one of the biggest changes He has made in my life is my desire for overseas mission work. I know that not everyone is called to it but since January I have felt that it is something that I want to do in my life and this past summer was kind of a test to see if it was something I really would enjoy doing.  Ever since my trip to Africa, I have felt God calling me to do more and recently He has given me an amazing opportunity to do just that with Adventures in Missions.....it's called the World Race. July 2012 to June 2013. 11 Countries. 11 Months. Serving 1 God.

Plans for my life vs. God's Plans

I want to go to college in North Carolina.

I am at Mercer University in Georgia.
 I want to have a boyfriend while in school. 

Okay, so I did have a boyfriend but we all know that ended. Currently single. 

  I want to graduate in 4 years with my bachelors degree.

 I will graduate in 5 years.
 I want to get married right out of college. 

Jury is still out on this one but at this point I don't think that is what God has planned.

I want to have a good paying job.

I won't get paid any money for an entire year.

I want to be financially stable.
I will be living on the support of others.

I want to have a house with a white picket fence. 
A tent will be my house.

I want to be settled down with my family.

I will be moving from country to country for 11 months with my new "family." 

I want to live the American Dream. 

I am won't even be in America.

I know this may seem crazy. For some people, me taking off my last year of school to go travel the world and do mission work seems stupid. I want everyone to know that this is a decision that I have been praying about for a long time and God has never been more clear in his answer. He wants me to go. He is calling me and I have answered yes. I am choosing to step out in faith, knowing that this decision does not seem logical and I am asking for your support. Whether it be in prayer or financially, I am going to need support in this. Being gone for two months this summer was a big deal for me and realizing that I am going to be gone for 11 months is even scarier.

Disclaimer: God could choose to change my path again before I leave next July. I will need to raise $15,500 for this trip which seems like a lot but I believe that if this is something He wants me to do, He will provide the money. Therefore, for those of you thinking that I should wait until after I graduate, that still may happen. If God does not provide the funds then I will wait. As of right now, I am just jumping into this believing that this is what God is wanting from me. If it is not, then I believe He will show me. Also, I will be returning to school to finish my senior year August 2013. I am not dropping out of school, just deferring a year. Trust me. I would not do 3 years of engineering school just to drop out. My plan is to finish off my senior year when I get back and then to go to medical school. My long term goal would be to open up a clinic in a third world country and be a long term missionary/doctor. I know that is a huge dream but I like to dream big. :)

COUNTRIES: Ireland, Russia, Ukraine, Nepal, Cambodia, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, India, Malaysia, Challenge: Asia

FINANCIAL INFORMATION: So as I said before, the total cost of this trip is $15,500. I will be starting actual fundraising in the VERY near future and more information on how I will be doing that will be coming soon. However, if you do feel led to donate you can do so online at: https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=worldrace&desc=For%20Brittany%20Morrison 

If you would like more information regarding my trip you can contact me or go to http://www.theworldrace.org/?tab=routes&subtab=july-2012-3

Also, to keep updated on fundraising and other information you can "like" my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brittany-Morrisons-Mission-Fund/118091738290575 

  

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'" Isaiah 6:8

My Story....Part 3

Welcome back! I am glad that you have come back to read the BEST part of the story. :) So like I said, I was a mess and feeling pretty crappy. Well, one morning during team worship, the leader, Angie, began to talk about how when she was on the World Race, she one day made a decision to choose into freedom. She literally drew a line in the sand, "took off" her old self and said aloud “I am new! I am free!” I really believe the Holy Spirit was speaking through her that morning. In that moment, the wind began to blow (which does signify something to me and call me or come find me if you wanna hear the story, it’s a pretty cool one). Anyways, so the wind began blowing and I heard God say to me, “Step forward. Step out of your past. Be bold. Choose into me and choose intro freedom. Do now wait anymore.” So I did. I literally stepped forward and said out loud, “I am done with my past! I am done with who I used to be and I am set free! I believe I am beautiful! I believe I am worth being fought for! I believe I am a child of God and I deserve to be treated like one! My significance is no longer found in man but in God alone! I will not go back! I am no longer ashamed of my past and it no longer will dictate my future! “ I was seriously standing there in the middle of the circle, crying and screaming out these declarations. That moment God changed my life. I am forever changed and I will never go back. After I made that choice to step into the future that God had for me, Angie asked me to pray in that moment and ask the Holy Spirit to give me a vision that I could always remember when I began to falter. I immediately received an image of me, looking back and I saw my old self standing there. The old me was depressed and dark. With me holding my hand was my ex and behind us was darkness and emptiness and all the lies that I ever believed. Suddenly a giant metal fence appeared with no door, no end, and no way to get over. Then I turned around and looked down at myself. I was clothed in white linen and glowing with light. I was smiling and the wind began to blow through my hair (once again very significant) and in front of me was a field full of grass and beautiful flowers and birds. There was just so much life. It was as if God was saying, “I will never let you go back. From now on you are going to be filled with joy and life. You are free my child!” I will never forget that moment and I remind myself of that image every morning I wake up. I AM SET FREE! I continue to write that in bold because it is such a huge deal for me. I have no idea who I am writing this for. You may be my best friend or you may be some random person I just met. But let me just emphasize how important this moment was for me. If you know me well then you can probably understand. This moment of choosing into freedom and choosing into God’s love literally changed my deepest core. It completely changed my outlook on my life, on my faith, on the people from my past, the people in my present and what I want for my future. Honestly, it’s not something that can really be explained in this blog. That change can only be experienced through seeing my life now and how this experience impacts the way I live it. This means if you are my best friend, yay because you get to share in my experience. Honestly, sitting here remembering that moment and trying to write about it is a little overwhelming. I mean how do you really write on paper an experience like that and get someone to really understand it? How can you describe something so indescribable? I almost want to tell you just to call me up so I can talk to you about it because that seems to be easier for me to do. So if you want to talk to me, I would love to share. Not only about that particular moment but others as well. I can’t begin to write all that God did in this blog but I do hope that I can continue to share with you other things because it is worth sharing. I mean its about God so how can it not be right? 

So basically after that moment, the entire trip changed for me. Instead of having my mind constantly on my ex and home, it was on God and His wonder and love. I was constantly in prayer and constantly in worship. At one point in Nairobi, I was so overwhelmed with joy from the Spirit that I literally had to stop listening to my worship music when the team was at a coffee shop. If I didn’t I would have just busted out in some crazy worship right there. Ever since that morning in Kenya, I can’t stop smiling. I am so happy, so full of life and so ready to minister to those around me. I want to serve. I want to help others receive the same freedom that I have received. I want people to be so in love with Jesus that they don’t need anyone else. I want to challenge people to listen to the Holy Spirit. I want to speak life into people. I want to continue to be used by God and bring His kingdom to earth. Yes, I still have struggles and I am easily tempted by the devil but I know that God will continue to lead me. I believe the same for you. The same God that loves me and gave me freedom loves you as well. He loves you and wants the best for you. I once again want to ask you that you STOP and PRAY. Pray that God pour His spirit onto you. Pray that he show His love. Pray that He speak to you. Whatever He says, write it down. Ask Him to teach you what it means to follow Him and what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ask Him what He wants you to hear from Him, not what you want to hear. LISTEN. BE SILENT. Just listen for His voice. I pray that God begin to speak to you. I pray that He begin to teach you and refine you. I pray for growth.

"Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14

My Story....Part 2

Well, I hope you took what I said before to heart. Okay, so where was I? Oh yeah. Kenya. Okay so by the third night in Kenya I was all screwed up and I literally broke down. I just sat down on a rock and started crying and when I say crying, I mean balling my eyes out. I didn’t know why I was in Africa. I had no idea where God was or who I was. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with my life and I could feel myself crumbling. I felt as if everyone around me was overwhelmed by joy and by the Spirit and I was sitting there alone and unbelievably broken. I had been in Africa for 3 weeks and still had not gotten any healing or freedom. I ended up talking/crying to my leader and she began to tell me that I was right where I needed to be. It was in that place of brokenness that God was going to begin to put me back together. She told me that it was going to be hard and that it is in this place that I am going to have to deal with things about myself that I had been pushing aside. Man was that true! I began to face up to my past and God really began to work. I had to deal with the shame of crossing physical boundaries with my ex and regret I had in putting him as an idol in my life. I had to deal with my need to control that situation and other things in my life. I had to deal with my self-confidence issues. I had to deal with the fact that I felt like I was too much and not enough at the same time. I had to face up to the fact that I thought I was a failure. I had to learn what it meant to love and be loved by those around me. It was a really hard experience but before I could really be set free, I had to unlock the cage to my past and face up to it. I’m so glad I did! So once again, I ask that you STOP and PRAY. Is there anything that you need to face up to? Are there any lies that have imprisoned you that you need to face up to? Ask God to bring you to a place that you can recognize them. Before you can begin to replace them with truth, you have to know what the lies are so you can place them at the feet of the cross. So before you move on, pray about that. I promise it will be good.

So at this point in my story, I am a broken mess but so ready for growth and freedom. Also at this point in the trip, the team was in the bush with the Masaai tribe where we were going to spend 10 days with no showers, sleeping in tents and literally killing our own goat just so we could eat.  Let me tell you, this was definitely an experience. By the end, I had so much dirt caked on my skin that when I finally did take a shower, I lost a few shades of skin color and I was still wiping off dirt for the next few weeks. But I would still give anything to go back there. Okay, so we are about to get to the best part of the story. Get excited. I mean God is about to do something incredible in the story so how can you not be excited? Well at least I am excited…I pray that you get excited too because this is ridiculously awesome....but of course like all good t.v. shows, I'm going to stop for a commercial break at the best part. This means you have to come back next week if you want to read the happy ending! 

My Story....Part 1

Since I have been back from Africa, I have been able to share my story with a select number of people who have been willing to sit down with me for an hour or so and listen to it. For the past week, God has really put it on my heart though to share it with more people but because it is such a long story, I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do that. So, I have been praying that God would give me an opportunity to share my testimony with larger groups of people. I mean that is what our testimonies are for. God teaches us things not just to make us better but so that we can further His Kingdom here on earth! Don't forget...it's not about you. It's all about God! :) So anyways, as I was praying about this, I realized that a great way to share my testimony would be through my blog. Obviously, since this is somewhat of a long story, this will be a series of blog posts so as not to overwhelm you...whoever you are :) Also, I have some challenges throughout the series that I would encourage you to pray about as you read it! I have no idea what God may do in you through this but I believe He is faithful and as long as I follow His voice then I know He will continue to blow my mind!! So here is my story…..

Where do I even begin? God has done so much and shown me so much! I feel like I could sit here for hours explaining it all….But if I had to summarize it in one word…..FREEDOM!! I AM SET FREE!!! I guess that about sums it up. Of course there is a bit of a story behind it but I just want to start off by declaring that I AM SET FREE! Woop Woop! It feels good to write that and actually believe it. Now here is the cool story that God gave me….

Before deciding to go to Africa for two months, I was in a really crappy place and by crappy I mean pit of hell. I really could not have felt any worse about myself. I had been in a relationship for about a year with a great Christian guy….well started off great….then satan decided to take over and everything started to turn well….not so great. We got way to physical, started to grow jealous of each other, started lying to each other and just stopped listening to God’s voice all together. Okay, now I want you to stop reading and go read Romans 1:21-32. That is basically my story last year. By the end of it all, I was broken-hearted, depressed, alone, feeling unworthy of anyone’s love, angry and confused about how someone I loved so much could cause so much hurt to me. How could someone who claimed for an entire year to love me more than anyone and promise that he would love me for eternity, make the choice to do things that would blatantly destroy me? I didn’t know how you could claim to love someone one minute and then in the blink of an eye begin to tell that same person that they were undesirable and you never wanted to speak to them ever again. I guess that is how the devil works though. He uses those closest to you to bring you down. For a while, he was winning. He did a great job using this man to completely tear me apart and make me feel as if I was the most worthless human being on earth. Let me just say though. I don’t blame the man. Sure, he was the one saying terrible things to me and he was the one causing the pain through his actions but in the end it is Satan who is to blame. I forgive this man for what he did to me but I will not forgive Satan. Satan knew what he was doing. The guy didn’t. So basically before leaving for Africa, I was really in need of some Jesus and love. I’ll tell you what. God does not disappoint. I remember talking to my mom before I left and I told her that I really wanted to come home a brand new person. I wanted joy in my life again. I wanted healing from my past. I wanted freedom. She told me to be careful because what if none of that happened this summer? Then I would come home disappointed. But looking back now, that is a silly thing to say. I have a father in heaven that freaking created the universe!!! Of course I can expect GREAT things to happen! Actually I can expect more than great! God promises me in Ephesians 3:20 that He will go beyond my beyond! “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever! Amen” Man, God is just so awesome. By the time training camp happened, I was ready for some awesome encounters with the Lord. I was ready to be filled with the Holy Spirit and I was ready for whatever God had in store. Ps. Don’t feel like you have to read this all at one time…it’s kind of a long story and I would encourage you to pray as you read it. I firmly believe that God placed your name on my heart for a reason but it’s your job to figure out why. So please STOP and PRAY that God would speak to you, whoever you are. Basically training camp was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. God began to fill me up so much and began to teach me what it means to be BOLD in my faith. By the last night of worship, I was so overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit that I couldn’t keep it in. I was literally screaming my declarations and prayers to God and continued to do so throughout the summer. Let me encourage you reader. When you really begin to be filled with the Spirit of God, the only thing you can do is fall to your knees and scream praises to Him. It may sound weird and over the top but I don’t believe worship should be controlled or tamed because with my experience with the Holy Spirit, it is definitely not something that is tamed. It is an uncontrollable spirit. So be bold my friend. Allow the spirit of God to overtake you. Don’t worship or pray to God like He is not in the room. He is with you right now. Believe that. Think about it for a moment before you continue to read. GOD IS WITH YOU! That should overwhelm you. It sure did me. Wow, I just got way side tracked but I really felt like that was something you needed to hear. Okay back to my story…..

So after 4 days of ridiculous God encounters, I was ready for Africa. I was so filled up and I was ready to pour out. I was ready to jump into ministry. I was ready to be used by God! So off to Africa I went. After 20 hours of plane rides and a few hours of bus rides, the team finally arrived in Uganda. I was so excited! Uganda really was an awesome experience. Ministry consisted of praying in hospitals, door to door evangelism, playing with children and giving hour sermons at churches. We basically just did a lot of learning and getting used to the culture. Honestly, I didn’t grow much spiritually while in Uganda. My faith wasn’t really tested and that did frustrate me a little bit. I had so much fire at training camp and here I was only 2 weeks into the trip still waiting to really feel God’s presence in Africa. I began to get discouraged and satan really used that time to distract me. He began to put lies in my head and instead of my thoughts being on God and ministry, they were on my past, my relationship with my ex, what I was going to do about it and how I was going to bring change to the situation. Controlling my thoughts and not worrying about certain situations in my life has really been a big struggle for me this past year and satan knew that. He really used that to bring down my spirit. By the time we got to Kenya, I was broken. Now, I’m not saying that I didn’t experience God in Uganda. God definitely showed up and I really learned what it meant to let the spirit talk through you. I learned that the fun way when I was at a church and all of a sudden the pastor called me up to give an hour sermon that I was not aware of beforehand. But once again God came through. So God did teach me a lot in Uganda but I was still really struggling with truly being consumed with His love and understanding what it meant to be a child of God. My prayer for whoever is reading this is that you begin to understand that you are a child of God and you deserve to be treated like one. You are a beautiful creation and you are worthy to be fought for. You are loved by your Heavenly Father and don’t allow anyone to tell you any different. I would like to ask you right now, do you really believe that? Does your life show that?  I thought I did but come to find out I didn’t. It only took one person to make me lose my identity. If I really believed that I was loved by God, I would have cared less what that person thought of me and I would never have spent months chasing after someone who was willing to throw me around like I was nothing. I would never have been destroyed. So I want to ask you once again to STOP and PRAY. Ask God to pour His love on you. I don’t care if you have to pray about this for an entire week or month before you continue reading but I want you to really believe it in your heart that you are loved. Be confident in your identity in Christ. Please learn what that means. Say out loud right now who you are. Declare it out loud! Don’t say it quietly. Declare it over yourself who you are in Christ and be specific! Do you get it? I pray that you take this seriously. I pray that as you read this God overwhelms you with His spirit. I pray that He breaks you like He did me. Let go of your old beliefs about yourself and allow God to refine you and make you new. PRAY. FOCUS ON GOD. Do not go on today until you have begun to really declare that truth. Do not be timid. Be bold my friend!

 

Just A Little Something

So I was reading in Galatians in my quiet time this morning and wanted to share a short thought that I had.....

"So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?....Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith....Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because 'the righteous will live by faith'. The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, 'The person who does these things will live by them.'" Galatians 5,8,11-12

We are justified simply by believing what we have heard through scripture. Some Christians, I think, try to make their faith so much more complicated and stressful. We think that by doing good things, we are going to grow closer to God. Scripture teaches us the complete opposite. I can say that it wasn't when I was trying to observe the law that I felt closest to God. It was when I stopped trying to be the "good Christian" and began to simply believe with all my heart what I read in scripture that I really began to connect with the Holy Spirit on a level that I never thought possible. Yes, reading your Bible everyday is important but until you really begin to have faith like it talks about in scripture, everything you read will just be words on a page. Yes, praying is important but until you begin to have the faith that God will answer your prayers, your prayers will seem like one way conversations. Live by faith!

 "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.' He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit." Galatians 3:13-14

Christ, the Son of God, came down and became a curse so that I could be redeemed!!!!! Christ died so that I could live by faith!! As Christians, I think we take that for granted all the time. Christ died so that we could live by faith, so let's live by faith! Let's live like we believe in God! Don't just say you love God but show you love God. Why is it that when we love someone here on earth, we will spend every waking moment trying to show them that we love them but when it comes to God, we think that just saying it is enough? I don't want to live like that. I know without a doubt that God loves me. I want Him to be able to say the same thing about me. I want Him to look down from Heaven and say, "That is my daughter and I know that she loves me, not because she says she does but because through her life, she shows me she loves me."

Well that is my quiet time for today. I pray that it encourages you to live by faith. I mean that is the whole reason Christ died on a cross for us! =)

Home.....

Being back in the states is pretty weird. It is so different than living in Africa. I mean for the past 2 months  have been living in community, sleeping on the floor or in tents, taking bucket showers maybe 3 times a week, eating basically the same thing every meal, and waking up doing ministry everyday. My first day back home consisted of a hot shower, picking out which restaurant I wanted to eat at for lunch, getting a manicure and pedicure with my mom, buying some books at Barnes and Nobel and sleeping in a huge comfortable bed. I could get a glass a water from the sink, use a toilet, sit in an air conditioned house, drive my car around, use internet in the comfort in my own home, and wash my clothes by just putting them into a machine. For the first time in 2 months, I didn't really have to worry about anybody else but myself. It's strange....Honestly, I am not quite sure how I feel about the transition home yet. I really want to try and figure out the best way to bring the things I learned in Africa back to my life back at home but I can already tell this is going to be a little difficult. I have had all of these amazing, life changing experiences and God has filled me so much with the Holy Spirit. It is really hard to explain that to people and have them be able to relate to my experiences and share in my excitement.
I don't want this experience to leave me. I don't want this to just become something cool I did one summer. I don't just want to go to people and say "Look what God did!" I want to tell people "Look what God is DOING!" God giving me freedom was not a one time act. Every morning I wake up, He is freeing me. I could choose any moment to go back to my past and continue to believe the lies Satan tries to tell me. Instead God is giving me strength everyday to walk in my freedom. I can not do this alone. If at any point in my life God left my side, I would crumble in a second. I need His truth whispering in my ear every moment of everyday. Without that truth, I am nothing. Without the freedom that is brought through truth, I will only begin to be emprisoned by lies. God is my stronghold. He is my love and I want these truths to continue to be a part of who I am. I want to continue with daily worship. I want to continue to ask the Lord daily what He wants from me and follow whatever He says. I want to continue to boldly declare who God is and who I am in Christ. I want to continue to dive into God's word and learn what it really means to die to self and be a servant of the Lord. I want to search for God's will and follow whatever He has for my life. I want to continue to be a light in the darkness that surrounds me. I want to bring change to my community and challenge those around me to follow the Holy Spirit and be bold in their faith. I know life won't all be the same and I know it won't be easy but if there is one thing I learned in Africa, it is that God is faithful! He will continue to walk with me and lead me. The God that I served in Africa is the same God that I serve here in the United States. That means that although I may be home, I can encounter God each day in the same way that I did while in Africa. Ephesians 3:20 holds just as much truth here as it did this summer. "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever! Amen."

Never Going Back

Wow....so where do I even begin? The past few weeks in Kenya have been some of the hardest, most life changing weeks of my life. I have been broken and completely overwhelmed by God and His power. For the past 2 weeks, the team has been camping out in the Bush with the Masaai tribe. It was an amazing experience for me and I have learned so much. But I think what I would like to tell you about is what God has done just in the past few days while I have been in Nairobi.....

 

Well after being in the bush for 9 days with no way to shower, wash clothes, or make any contact with the outside world, I was pretty excited to have a few days of rest in a big city like Nairobi. Don't get me wrong. I LOVED LOVED LOVED ministry out in the bush! I would not trade it for anything because God did some amazing work while we were out there and I fell in love with the people so much while I was there. As much as I was ready to change my clothes and get the rediculous amount of dirt off my body, it was really hard to leave the bush. I got so comfortable with the life of simple living and even sitting here now, I would give anything to go back there. It really is just you and God out there. No cell phones. No internet. No electricity. No IPODs. Nothing but you, God, and His wonderful creation. It's just something that you cannot find in the states so I loved taking advantage of that time. Anyways...I kind of went off on a little rabbit trail there but basically I just love Ewaso and God :) So back to my story.....After about 8 hours of travel, the team finally arrived at our hostel in Nairobi, which is actually pretty nice. I mean there are actually beds, showers with shower heads, and toilets. I honestly didn't know what to do with myself when we got here. I was just so overwhelmed with the fact that I got to actually take a real shower, which I have not been able to do since I arrived in Africa, and get to use a real toilet. Can you say culture shock? lol So after getting cleaned up, I decided to get on the computer and check my facebook and the blog to see if people had commented on anything. I ended up getting a video post and a blog comment from my roomate, Becca. One of the things that she kept saying was "Look how far you have come! Look what God has done in your life this past year! Just think about where you were last year for a minute and then look at where you are today." I began to thank about that for a few minutes and I seriously just began to cry. I mean to really think about who I was last year and who I am today.....it is a rediculous transformation that could only have happened through God. Most of you reading this blog don't know about my past and the girl I was a year ago.....but I will tell you...it is a HUGE difference. Writing this I am just speechless. You don't really realize how far you have come until you turn around and look at where you have come from. I cannot wait to see what God does in my life these last three weeks of the trip. I want to be wrecked even more. I want to be blown away even more than I am right now. I am growing. I am falling more and more in love with God. Man I just LOVE JESUS!!! :) I SURRENDER ALL TO YOU GOD!! My life is no longer my own! I live for you and you alone. Lead me. I will follow you regardless of what that means for my life. I am yours. To you be the glory. Forever and Ever! Amen.

 

Before I go, I want to share a quick story of ministry that happened here in Nairobi yesterday. The team decided to spend the morning at this coffee shop near the hostel, which was very close to a coffee place in the states. Anyways so while we were there, I was having an awesome morning of worship. I mean God was just blowing my mind. I was listening to my IPOD and almost busted out in worship in the middle of the coffee shop because I was just so overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit and the work He was doing in my life. I was SO happy and could not stop smiling all morning. So basically I was having a pretty incredible morning. Well as I was sitting there, I was looking around and praying that God would give me an opportunity to do some ministry while in Nairobi. I knew we were there for rest but God is everywhere and so that means wherever I am, opportunities to minister are going to arise. Well as I was sitting there, Charlie came up to me and challenged me to go sit with these two Muslim girls who were at a booth and just witness to them. I was like awesome God! Thank you for answering my prayer so quickly. :) So without a hesitation, I got up, walked over to their table and said "Hey I know this sounds weird but would it be cool if I sat and talked with you guys." They looked at me like I was crazy but were like "Sure...." Let me remind you that this is a pretty westernized part of the country so having some random American walk up to your table and ask to sit down is just as weird here as doing it the states. Anyways, I began to ask them about their lives and what it is like to grow up in Kenya. They told me about their college and what they were studying and a little bit about their lives. So then I was just like, "So what religion do you practice?" They told me they were Muslim and began to tell me a little but about their faith. I then asked them if it was okay that I share the Gospel with them. I got a response that I wasn't really expecting. The girl just said "Why?" I just wanted to be like "Because Jesus is awesome and I want to tell you about Him" but instead I began to tell them my story and what God had done in my life since I began to follow Him and fall more and more in love with Him. For the next hour, we had a great conversation about my beliefs and they began to ask questions about why I believed what I believed. I think mostly they were just asking so they could try and prove me wrong with something that they believed but I didn't care. I just was happy to get to share with them the story of an AMAZING God who loves them and wants a relationship with them. In then end, they did not give their life to Christ but I firmly believe that a seed was planted that day. After all, it is not my job to save them. All I have to do is speak to them the truth that I believe and see God do the rest. I am continuing to pray for those girls and I would like to ask that anyone reading this do the same. I pray that God pour his spirit on them and even though I may never see them again on this earth, I pray that I will one day see them in Heaven. "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'" Romans 10:14-15 This is why I am here and this is my calling! I will continue to be used by God and follow Him wherever He takes me. I will continue to witness to people no matter what the outcome. I will be BOLD! :)