Oh where to begin .. this past week has been quite extraordinary.
How honored I am to be a part of such a wonderful college group that is so on fire for the Lord and strives and seeks to see the Lords face, following in His footprints all the days of their lives, trusting in His word, relying not on our own strength, but instead on a power that is so beyond human understanding.
Here I sit, sitting almost all day long. I am at work, but in those "not needed immediately" points, here I sit, staring, staring at my computer screen, my knitting, writing in my journal all day long. Quite the opposite of what the past week has been. The past week there was literally no time to sit like I've been doing. We were actually moving about so much that by Wednesday we were in desperate need of a short nap for energy to get us thru the evening (okay, perhaps I cannot speak for the team as a whole, but that is certainly what I felt like and over heard one or two other people express verbally). Back home. Home Sweet Home. But how I long to be back with the community of the Dream Center in Baton Rouge. How that week stirred my heart, moved me, changed me, opened my eyes and my heart to sometime so far beyond the life that I live.
I woke up this morning and almost had a mindset that last weeks Missions trip did not happen. Like it was just a small portion of my life that I did for a week-- that it was last week, not something that will be a change for the, my, future!
I seek to go out into my own community and serve more often. I long to take what I learned and apply it to my here and now. Last week certainly did not start out easy. There were many, many firsts. I had actually never prayed aloud for anyone that I don't know and just met for the first time. I never walked up to someone and said "Jesus love you!" "Would you like me to pray for you today?" Or anything of the like. For many months I was observing others, yet avoiding it if and/or when I may need to step up. Even on the first night of out reach in Baton Rouge. I made sure I was near the back of the line to avoid knocking on doors saying "Dream Center" and then proceeding to tell them about the night of fellowship down the road. In all honesty, I had no idea what to say. When put on the spot (which did indeed happen a time or two) I was completely speechless and just kind of motioned down the road and may have mumbled out "hotdog dinner" or something to that extent. When we had extra hotdogs and pizza after dinner that night, we went door to door offering the left overs to the surrounding families. I was handed a pizza box and asked "You wanna take this one?" I was near a panic attack on the inside, and held the pizza box but practically stood frozen in my spot. Thank God another one of my team members just marched up there, took the pizza box from me and handed it to the gentleman there and prayed for him. This was only the first day. We had many more out reaches the rest of the week.
Even by Wednesday, I was still a little hesitant to just approach someone and just flat out ask if they needed prayer. But, to make a long story short, I was approaching people by the end of the morning and two of my fondest memories are as follows:
A dear sister in Christ and I walked up to a man and asked him if He would like pray for anything specific. He had such a huge smile on his face and just said that he would like to thank God for the blessings that he had in his life! Second, we walked up to another man and just were talking about life and our college plans and where he has been and his plans that he had wished to accomplish in college but never got to them. We prayed with him and as we got up to leave, he pulled us back towards us and said that he wanted to pray for us. It honestly moved me to tears!
The majority of the week was a blur, but come Friday morning, almost the entire week had gone by and I had no idea what my purpose was for being on this trip. I had no idea what I was doing or how on earth I could even be having an impact on this team or the people. I felt as though I hardly knew how to pray seeing as it was completely foreign to me. I was totally lacking confidence in walking up to people and introducing myself and carrying on a conversation. Just overall I was in a pretty bad place. One of my nearest and dearest friends noticed and we began talking and then she prayed for me. She encouraged me to just look out at the people who were there before me and the one that I noticed, just go and walk up to him/her. I immediately noticed one woman with a cart. As I walked towards her, a man stepped out in front of me with the biggest smile and just began thanking me and telling me how glad he was to see me again. I had to be reminded that I had met him and prayed with him the previous Wednesday. I was shocked. But again, we prayed and we talked. He could not stop smiling! He is one of the biggest sweethearts I know!
After conversing with Dennis for a good while, I approached the lady with the cart. Unfortunately, she declined prayers, but I was able to talk with other people in line and spend some time with the sweet children!
As I went back inside, I was drawn towards a man sitting there eating his hotdog. I approached him and asked if I could pray with him. His name is Peter. I really wish that I could have understood the people that I talked to better. What I understood from Peter, is that he does street evangelizing. He shares the word of God with his fellow brothers and sisters he meets along the road. We talked and prayed and then I went off to play with the children and just talk to other people. As it neared the time that we were to leave, Peter pulled me aside and just complimented and encouraged me over and over again. He built me up. He kept saying that even though I could have ignored him, I did not. I went up and talked with him and that God will bless me for that. That our team is doing wonderful things and that we will be blessed for that. We have beautiful spirits and God is pleased. And the list goes on and on and on (again, from what I could understand that he was saying).
In this regard, I grew by leaps and bounds. I pray that as I venture out to serve my own community in the near future, that I can keep a free mindset and seek to go where God calls me to go! This is all just from a physical sense! My spirit has been in a constant battle. But God is so good!! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment