Our team had the privilege to spend the day we celebrate the birth of our savior in the place where he was born! Right away all of us were extremely humbled and blessed to have such an opportunity that millions of people would die to experience. We had an amazing time of getting to see their traditions, culture and experiencing their day to day life! Some really cool stories that we have mainly came from outside of our set up ministry time but was from our team always looking to build friendships with the locals.
Some of the scheduled things we were doing is twice a week we spent going to a refugee camp and doing kids games and activities as well as teaching them life skills that show them how to love each other more. We also taught English classed twice a week, and spent time helping at a disabled home!
Something really cool happened that totally opened my eyes to what true hope is! I had been really struggling with being able to see what God is doing in the nation but also my own life and so I was becoming really discouraged and asking questions like how am I supposed to press in and declare things of who you are over a nation when I can't even see what you're doing in my own life? I was so humbled when I walked in to this disabled home and when I saw the hope of what the children carried everyday I was blown away. One of the kids who was blind started to sing a song that went like this:
"We shall overcome,
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome someday.
Oh deep in my heart, I do believe, that we shall overcome someday."
After he finished the song he proceeded to pray for some of his friends and the nation, and I sat there thinking to myself who am I to sit in this apathy and doubts to think its okay for me not to pray and do what I can to help others with my full heart. When he was singing the song it wasn't from a place of this is what I should be doing because I know its right but it was from a place of love, passion and belief that things will change and he will overcome. I turned to my teammate and we were both just sitting there speechless and humbled to see something like this.
Something else that our team saw early on was that when God wants you to meet someone he wont waste time in introducing you. On the first week we met a Muslim man who was very friendly and asked if he could have our team over or a traditional meal. Our team was so ecstatic and said yes very quickly! When we got there he introduced us to his extended family of about 15 and took us on a hike to see "His mountains." It was so beautiful and the meal was unbelievable! After dinner we had the chance to just sit around and talk about politics, stories and faith. When we got to share about how we believe that our God heals sickness through Jesus they were a bit taken back. But after sharing testimonies of what we have seen they said it would be okay for me to pray for him and his back problems. He said it didn't feel much different after and I said that's okay. His brother said that he had a headache and asked if I could pray for it, I said for sure and after I prayed he said his headache felt completely better and that I must be very pure in order for people to be healed from my prayers. Our team proceeded to tell him that normally we aren't but because Jesus came as a sacrifice for us we are made clean so we can pray for things like this and see God move.
We continued to meet with them every week. They would make beautiful meals and each time we would share more about our faith, it was such a beautiful picture of not allowing our different views to ruin the chance of being friends. During one of the days where we spent the whole day and night with them we had the opportunity to ask if the main guy has had any dreams of a man in white. (In the Middle East Muslims have been having a lot of dreams of Jesus through a vision of a man in white) He told us that he did and it happened ten years ago and he still remembers it! It was a dream that has stayed with him this whole time. When he was explaining it he was referencing a lot to what is so biblical and we got to explain that to him. The thing that really wrecked all of us was he said I also had a dream the night before I met you guys. He saw my co-leader Laura and another guy on our team named Simon standing outside of the Mosque and he came out to them to talk but then heard his father calling him back into the Mosque so he left. The crazy thing was Laura and Simon were the ones who met him first.
These are just two stories of so many more of Gods faithfulness. Over and over again we saw a God who relentlessly pursues us. With this family he is so patient! The man had this dream 10 years ago and God's bringing us to him. We serve a God who has chosen to partner with us and is patiently waiting for us to step out and just allow Him to lead us to these people where seeds have been planted. If you want to hear more about the stories of what God did through us as well as in us then please message me and ask! I'd love to share.
To all of those who have supported me in prayer and in finances thank you! I honestly wouldn't have grown so much and seen this side of God if it weren't for you guys planting seeds in faith into my life. I love each and everyone of you so much and please don't ever hesitate to ask for anything and especially prayer.
PEACE. LOVE. ANNOINTING.
