First of all, the photo is of me and some students at Rock High School, which is the school I spoke at. The two girls on either side of me are really interested in art and the girl on the left in the photo sells her own paintings. I was really excited to meet them! You also might have noticed my hair is in braids. We got some weaves!
A few days ago, while doing door to door evangelism, I met Topista. She is an older woman who has been saved but was still very eager to talk and pray with us. After we were done sharing what we had to say to the small group of women Topista was with, we got a group photo. Topista was sitting on the ground because of back problems so I sat down next to her. After the photo was taken, Topista caught a glimpse of my American Bible and asked to look at it. She flipped through the pages with a smile on her face. She quickly decided to share with me “her Psalm”. She found Psalm 69 and proudly claimed it as her own. I wrote it down so i could read through it later. she then added chapters 32 and 22 to the list of “her Psalms”. I told her I would read them and deep praying for her. She was so happy. She gave me hugs and told me I was like a granddaughter to her now! It was so sweet! A couple days later, I was able to read through those three Psalms. I started with Psalm 69. It talks a lot about deliverance from those who persecute you. I could relate to the cries for grace and the need for redemption that were talked about but reading this made me realize that I have never faced really difficult persecution or felt like I have many who hate me because of my faith. Faith has become a comfortable thing for me. And even as I am witnessing in a different country, I haven’t faced many hardships. The people here are way more inviting than Americans. People here love to hear the gospel and to be prayed for. So then I asked myself if I am in this place where people love to be ministered to, why am I still holding back? Why is it scary for me to share the good news? This is the perfect loving environment to jump in and preach about God. So I told my team all of this and that I would like them to pray for me and to feel free to volunteer me for anything. So, of course, I got volunteered to give a testimony at the next school we went to. Yesterday I stood in front of hundreds of students and talked about how God speaks to me and how He longs to talk to them and to have a relationship with each one of them. I actually didn’t know what I was going to talk about until I was in the car on the way to the school. I was racking my brain trying to figure out what to talk about and I prayed A LOT! Of course, God came through and gave me the words to speak. He also led me to Mark 11:22-25 which says, “‘Have faith in God’ Jesus answered. ‘I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, go, through yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. therefore i tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” All of this has really set the stage for the next few weeks of ministry for me. I am excited to see how god works through me an my team in the days to come!
Prayer Requests: Safety while traveling. Prevention of sickness. Keeping unity within the team. Our leader Angie- she has a stressful job! She’s awesome.
Thanks for all of your support!
