For six months, I prayed more diligently than ever before. I knew that the Holy Spirit was working in my heart and in my life and I was desperate to listen to and be obedient to his voice.
God promises that "you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart"...
This verse became a real to me in the past 6 months. I truly sought God more than ever before... I didn't seek his wisdom or his blessings... I sought HIM. Through prayer and devoting time to God, I found Him.
I joined a women's mission team from Lakewood Baptist Church that was planning a trip to Guatemala City in June. I had been on a mission trip to Guatemala with Lakewood's youth group; a trip which had transformed my life. I knew that I had to return. The women's mission team began to meet weekly to prepare for the trip and fellowship together. We studied the book "Experiencing the Spirit" by Henry & Melvin Blackaby.
This book transformed my life!
God revealed Himself to me in such a radical and obvious way. It turns out that He has always been trying to reveal Himself to me... perhaps the only thing that changed was I finally began to truly seek Him.
I prayed each day, sometimes for hours (often while on runs at the park.... great excuse to stop and breath for a few minutes... or hours!) This may not sound like an accomplishment to most people, but the fact that I could sit still for more than 30 minutes is a huge deal for those people who know me and my "hyperactive" ways. I begged God to reveal His will for my life and promised that I would be obedient. For the first time, I didn't want to have any "input" about my life but solely desired to be in God's will and to follow Him.
The women on the mission team prayed for me and allowed God to use them to speak directly to me.
The Spirit was revealing to me that God wanted me to spend the summer in Guatemala. He made it very clear to me. When I shared this with my women's team, Phyllis began to cry. Through a million crazy, linked events God had revealed to Phyllis (and other women on my team) that this was what he wanted of me as well.
I talked with a friend from church about spending the summer in service in Guatemala. I had the entire experience built up in my head! I would love to tell you the thousands of tiny ways (and big ways) that God made it evident to me that He was calling me to Guatemala. Just when I thought I had found the opportunity to spend the summer serving Him in Guatemala, that opportunity fell through.
I was heart broken to think that what I thought God had so clearly spoken to me wasn't actually going to happen.... I wondered if I had misunderstood what God said... but I knew that He was working... and I decided to put my faith in Him. Sometimes God require obedience before He assigns....
Even though the plans to stay in Guatemala had fallen through... I decided to show God that I wanted to be obedient and turned down a wonderful job opportunity for the summer (leaving me with no summer plans).
Immediately after I decided to do this... another opportunity presented itself!!! (The coolest thing is... this opportunity would have never been presented if the first Guatemala summer plans had not fallen through and the connections made through that had not been made!)
I interviewed for an internship at Iglesia Del Camino in Antigua, Guatemala and got it!
God had only given me step one: Don't take the summer job. I'm calling you to go to Guatemala.
What I thought was God's plan turned out not to be so... but He did have a plan! And because I know that God's will is ALWAYS what's best for me, I know that this second opportunity must have been what was best.
I will be spending the first week in June serving God with the AMAZING women from Lakewood Baptist Church in Guatemala City, Guatemala. There women are phenomenal and I can't wait to experience God's power with them!
After that, I will travel to Antigua where I will spend the rest of the summer interning at Iglesia Del Camino! I have 2 weeks to raise $3,800! Ah!
But... God has a plan before I have a problem! God will provide!
I would love all of your prayers and support!
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