Update 8: A day of rest....

Today has been a day of rest for us. We slept in until 715 and had breakfast around 8. I never thought I would have said 7 would be sleeping in! But since we have been on the go and up at 4 or 5 every morning it felt great. We then had our own mini church service in the hotel. We sang some worship songs to God and shared scriptures and whatever was on our hearts with one another. We prayed about the upcoming week and the hearts of those we will be ministering to. We also laid down our own hearts and asked God to give us each strength as we feel weary at times. We have been here 2 straight weeks so many of us have been tired or sick and need that refreshment from the Lord to help us go on and into this week's spiritual battle. I thank God for his promises in the word. " Have you never heard or understood? Don't you know that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:28-31). This is a promise that I am leaning upon and praying each person out here will lean upon. I know God is faithful and when we draw near to him he draws near to us and gives us strength when we are at our weakest. I am so glad we have a God that never gets exhausted and offers us his strength. When he lives inside of us then we can have all that he is! It is already ours and is in us. It is just a matter of tapping into those springs of life. We can remain in our weakened place or we can fall on our face before God and cry out for him. He loves a seekers heart and never fails to come through for his beloved children.


One thing on my heart has been the saying, "It is better to give than to receive". But when I think of that saying, it is actually better to receive then to give first and foremost. We must make sure we are receiving from God and being filled with his spirit and strength before we are able to "go out" into the world and give. Once we are refreshed with God we then OVERFLOW into other people's lives. When we are so filled up with God in our hearts then and only then can we truly offer ourselves to others in mighty ways. Its always difficult to be of any help to others when we ourselves are depleted of proper nutrients. If you look at someone who is physically ill, they do not have the ability to give fully of themselves because they themselves need to be well. Sometimes its harder for people to receive first because its humbling to say, Lord I need you and I can't do this without you. We are in a society that tells us we should be strong enough on our own. But the bible tells us differently and in so many places that we must lay down our pride and humble ourselves before the Lord. Nothing we do well is us or for our own individual gain but for Gods purposes and overall picture. It is so necessary to make sure we ourselves are staying nourished and looking to Jesus constantly for strength. And as we prepare to go "feed" the Filipino people the word of God, the words of LIFE we are going to need the grace of the Lord to sustain us.

After we had our service, myself and a few of the other girls prayed together and shared some intimate things of our hearts-our struggles, our desires. The time of fellowship was necessary because we were sharpening one another as "iron sharpens iron". It will surely ready us for our week. Satan attacks us when we are tired and vulnerable, so now is the time to refuel. I am so blessed to be in an environment of people who are like minded and desiring the same thing. I am used to being in places in my life where I am usually one of the only believers. Being placed on sports teams, specifically with basketball, the college environment, media, etc I have felt alone a lot. But God used it to help me stand alone and be strong in my faith so I am thankful for those times in my life. It enabled my relationship with God to grow tremendously, where I saw that all I needed was him as my intimate lover and partner. When I was worried about pleasing "the crowd", whether it were the fans screaming at my games with hoops or the crowd of peers, my coaches, teammates, I failed miserably because I was looking to myself. After letting go of those cares and just focusing on my audience of 1, the hugest burden was lifted off my shoulders and I was able to be who I was called to be, and even play better as an athlete. I know it will forever play a huge role in the rest of my life- in not caring what others think of me and not blending in with what culture says is right. This experience is different and encouraging to have others beside me. I know that God has called me to the environments in the world for the sake of bringing the gospel to the unsaved, but it is a nice change to have others surrounding me with the same understanding. The bible says there are others all over the world going through the same trials we are so to take heart and fight the good fight. We are all learning something and there is always someone that has gone through your same battle in a different way. Our hope does not lie in ourselves or in what the world offers, but in God.