<p>I was expecting God to work in big ways in me and thru me, but I wasnt expecting it at training camp. As hard as it was, I learned a great lesson about Surrender but apparently I didnt learn it well enough.</p>
<p>So after training camp I expected each day to be just as challenging and for it to be very evident to me what God was doing and His plan. i had expectations for the ministry we would be doing and I felt like we were just being good people. And then MY expectations werent being met and doubt was creeping in. And God said, "Chill out Sweetheart (because He still thinks Im sweet even when Im wrong) Ive got this under control too! " So yesterday while we were working on a building project for our Christian cook and I had nothing to do (Struggle : spending alot of time ministering to other believer instead of ppl who arent even tho im really glad we can provide a hime for her bc she does an incredible job preparing us 3 meals a day and also having a lot of sitting around time while on the job bc there just isnt always enough jobs) i pulled out my handy dandy Bible and also picked up where I had left off in Luke. Now the night before I received a message from a friend encouraging me to read Proverbs 31, which Ive read before but the Bible is one of those great things to keep reading and reread, and so thru that i was prompted to start a womens devotional and so i bought What Happens W<i>hen </i>Women S<i>ay Yes To </i>God by Lysa Terkeurst of Proverbs 31 ministries. In the first chapter I was encouraged to say "Yes, God"to start my day, even before I had any idea what the day would look like. So thats how I started off this particular morning.
Okay so I was reading in Luke and read 9 :61,62
Luke 9:61-62 NKJV
And another also said, Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house. But Jesus said to him, No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
Okay so God did let me say goodbye before I left but what He aslo told me was dont do His ministry halfheartedly. I had all these expectations and well they werent His. Them this sparked conversation with a teammate who was struggling with the same as me and she told me about a verse in Galatians.
Galatians 6:9 NKJV
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
And as I continued to read God said,
Galatians 6:10 NKJV
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
So the good we are doing is still ministry and part of Gods plan, even if it is stillme sitting around and that day Im learning from God and about His plans and expectations. And we need to ESPECIALLY serve memebrs of the faith family. God just wanted my exoectations too and wants me to say yes to His.Plans.
We arent always building though. Two days a week we go to the village of Bethel and build relationships there with the locals some who are of the faith and some who are not. We olay baseball and lose to the Nicaraguans but still have fun and build team unity thru this. Little girls teach us songs, hold our hands, paint our nails, love to be hugged. Our Spanish is improving and please pray that this desire and abilty will continue for all of us on the team so we can communicate more and More! We are loving our time here with the people, eachother, and God and look forward to the coming days and ministry God will provide for us.
Blessings,
Teani 🙂
