I feel as though I have learned years worth of lessons, teaching, and ministry in the last 2 weeks! It's crazy how much living with 12 people, all passionate for Northern Englands' salvation, can affect me. I'm learning how truly dependent I need to be on the Lord and no one else, especially not myself. I'm learning how wrong I am and will always be, but how good God is, eternally. I'm learning how to discern God's truths from anything this world throws at me. I'm learning how incredibly much more current, alive, and valuable the Word is than I've ever imagined. As I am growing so much and coming to grips with things I never thought possible, the country is still in need of redemption. Sometimes it feels as though there is a growing gap between my growth and the Brit's moral decline. However, then I am gently reminded that I am equally sinful, equally unable, equally dependent as the people here. The only difference is that someone once told me that I have a Savior and that He is alive and loves me as I am and always have been. He is opening and preparing hearts everyday and I have no doubt that people will fall on their knees. I've been praying for specific girls that we've met and have unintentionally shared their despair with us. The gospel is slowly coming up as they ask more and more questions about why we're here, what we like to do, and especially why we are so nice to them without knowing them.
This scripture hasn't left my conscience since I first bought my plane ticket.
"For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews to those who are under the law, as under the law; that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward Christ but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now I do this for the gospel's sake, that I may be partaker of it with you." 1 Corinthians 19-23
After being told seemingly 25 times to read Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place, I picked it up 2 days ago and am finishing now. If you have not read it, you are truly missing out. It is the story of a strong Christian, Dutch family that has used their home to help the Jews and eventually were taken to concentration camps. They never stopped spreading the gospel and praying, even for those that would beat them. Here is a favorite passage from it that makes the point I mentioned earlier (on a less severe but still as relevant level) of how current, alive, and valuable the Word will always remain.
"Sometimes I would slip the Bible from its little sack with hands that shook, so mysterious had it become to me. It was new; it had just been written. I marveled sometimes that the ink was dry. I had believed the Bible always, but reading it now had nothing to do with belief. It was simply a description of the way things were- of hell and heaven, of how men act and how God acts. I had read a thousand times the story of Jesus' arrest- how soldiers had slapped Him, laughed at Him, flogged Him. Now such happenings had faces and voices."
Thank you for reading, supporting, and especially praying for my trip here. Please pray for the hearts of these people, that we would truly be a light wherever we go, and praise Him for His faithfulness, the incredible leaders this ministry has, and the plentiful harvest that He has ordained us to work in!
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