Gulp! or Gasp! is the first reacion I still have when someone asks me how I feel about spending my semester in Portugal, I guess I have yet to fully wrap my mind around it.For those of you who do not know, I will leave August 16,2011, to serve as a HandsOn missionary in Porto ( the O makes an oooo sound), Portugal until December 2011.Boy Oh Boy does time fly...
It feels like just yesterday that I was sitting in my dorm at Faulkner,in the Spring semester, thinking to myself,"What on earth am I going to do next!?!"I sat and prayed in a state of panic,tears and worry that I would have no future after Faulkner;you see, what I was truly doing was venting to the Almighty God who all the while was whispering to me,"just Be still and know that I AM God!" I seemed to quickly forget the well known passage in Jeremiah 29:11, that promises the Savior does "knows the plans He has for you and I, plans of hope and a future." Oh how easy it is to remember that verse when all is mapped out before us... ha, little did I know the plans He had in store.
That very night,around 1AM, I began to search the internet for a University that the Lord might want me to attend in the Fall. After reading through about twenty or so university info pages, I decided to give up and finally get some rest.However, before I hit the escape key,my loco computer ( that often does what it wants) decided to take me to the International Mission Board's website.The very first thing I read on the website is," Are you a college student wanting to go?"I responded to myself, "well, yes I am and yes, I want to go and do for the Lord!" I decided to click the go button and a list of opprotunities and places that college students could serve popped up. I read about the HandsOn opprotunities and just knew that the Lord was tugging at my heart to fill out an application, so I did... I started my application at 3:00AM!When it came time to choose where I would want to be placed in the world, I looked up information on people groups and places and began to pray about where The King would have me. I had to choose five places where I would like to be placed, however there were no promises I would be placed in even one of my five choices.I listed Portugal as my first choice, after reading the description I knew I would love the people and culture there; The Lord immediately placed the people and their spiritual needs on my heart.
Three months later I had almost given up on hearing back from the IMB, I was sure that I had been denied and they chose not to tell me.Yet again, in all my sin-filled doubt, worry, and complete lack of patience, the Lord worked everything out and proved me oh so wrong. I discovered that I had been placed to serve in my first choice of field... Portugal, and not only would I be there, I would be there with a young woman named Hannah who is also from Alabama.I have learned to never doubt
and test the King of kings, He does have a plan for my life and for yours. He will do as He pleases with our lives because He created our lives for Himself. We are made to worship Him.My purpose in life (which I have often wondered) is to bring Him Glory in all I say and do,it is to surrender to His will.
He has provided in breathtaking ways and I can not believe that I will leave in eleven days to work for Him in Porto.Through many prayers and financial support of the Lottie Moon christmas offering, amazing family and friends... all the funds for the this trip are now covered.I am literally in awe of all the ways God has worked. I know that He does not need me for His service, but that He does want me;I am in desperate need of Him.Anywhere you go, as a follower of Christ, is a mission field;if you have a pulse, you are a missionary!
If you are ever doubting the Lord, please read Malachi 3:10 which says:
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house.
Test Me in this,says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."
There is an old Hymn that I love.. It says, "Trust and Obey, for there is no other way!"
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