KNOWLEDGE + POWER = GODLINESS

Will you obey Him when He speaks to you? That is the question that I have been struggling with and pondering over the past couple of days. Sometimes I wonder if without even knowing it have I not opened my ears to what the Lord has called me to do and I have done my own thing without having Him be the center of my decision making. I have been given a couple of opportunities to take part in this coming summer. Last summer I got the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Calgary, Canada for 8 days last July. It it was a completely different experience because I was no longer a youth on a youth mission trip where you had the mommy's and daddy's to take care of your stuff during travel and they made sure you ate and got sleep. This trip was with 4 awesome other individuals with my church and I was responsible for myself but anyways that is beside the point. I have been on many trips across the seas and within the United States and I have always left with a heart just wanting to stay and be with them. But when I left Canada I left with a heart that was not finished. I left my heart in the country and in that city. It is the most beautiful and the most majestic place that I have been. The people there are just so full of spirit and just are extremely friendly. They live in 700,000 to 1 million dollar houses, drive nice cars, wear the lastest brand of clothing and most have both parents living in the home. The crazy thing about it, is it is such a dark place spiritually. There are 1 million people in the city of Calgary and 900,000 people do not know the Lord. It amazed me because it was not poverty that kept them from knowing the Lord. They live fine lives and some live materially better lives then I but they are just so dark. I led a soccer camp the week I was there and I became close with my 4Th and 5Th graders. Especially on little girl named Brooklyn. I pray for this little girl and her family everyday. She is an amazing little girl and has some mad skills with a soccer ball. she started out in the beginning of the week quiet but as I got to know her she would not stop talking. Brooklyn is from a Mormon family. That just broke my heart because when we would have a devotion at the end of every day's camp she would say that what "our" Bible said was different than hers and was not true. When I got back in the car to head to lunch that day I could not help myself but to cry. I specifically prayed for her all week. And on the last day she invited me to walk her home (and in Canada you don't automatically have trust you have to earn it and getting invited and welcomed into someones home is a BIG deal). I felt so honored to be able to walk her home and she invited me into her home to show me her room. I was then able to meet her mom and what her mom said to me I will never forget. She said thank you because Brooklyn came home from camp everyday talking about me and that she has seen something in me and in the other leaders she has never seen in anyone else. That blessed my heart because it showed me that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing and that is shining the light of Jesus Christ. God is so powerful and so strong and it amazes me how He shows himself. I left Canada with a feeling like I had forgotten something and when I finally returned to my home I realized that was my heart. I have fallen in love with this country and it's people. These kids left an impression on my heart that will never fade. God did not only use me to teach them something but He used them to show me how much I forget how Good He really is and His Glory is so strong. I have had spiritual highs before but they have all faded down when the returning to home but it is 5 months later and I am still excited about this ministry and of Southwinds church and I pray for the missionaries there everyday. They had there first Baptism last month and I praise God for that. But now for the meaning of this post and it is because I have been offered to spend 3 months as the summer missionary there this summer working on a youth ministry. I have been praying for a long time that the Lord would show himself in this situation and in my decision making. I also might have the opportunity to work at a summer camp. I have always wanted to work for a camp and I have heard that it is an experience of a lifetime. This morning in my quiet time with the Lord I opened my Bible to Jeremiah 6:16 and it says " This is what the Lord says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the eternal path, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls" This verse really gave me a reassurance that if I truly trust in the Lord in the decisions that I make then they will be made in His will. I have a heart for both things that I am given a chance to be a part of but I am only worried that I drain out the voice of my God and fill my head with the voice of my own wants and desires. Maybe it is not my time to return to Canada just yet and the Lord wants me to experience a new setting and work at a summer camp which is where my heart was until I was offered the opportunity to return to Canada so soon. As I read this verse as I ponder every angle of it. "Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ETERNAL path - where the good way is and you will find rest in your souls." God is showing me that when He calls me to live for Him, He will bring to places- crossroads in my life- and they may not make sense to me. They may see like a foolish choice. Yet, He wants me to look at this crossroad in terms of its ETERNAL value. Sometimes that means that He will ask me to make a decision that will not seem to be the best in regarding finances, or safety or whatever. Others may think I'm foolish to follow that path BUT when I am sure of what God is asking, we need to remember Peter in Luke 5:1-11. Jesus knows the beginning from the end. I need to trust HIM. I need to follow the path that HE is asking me to walk not the path I find more comfortable or know the best. Jeremiah ends this verse with REST with my soul. That to me is a beautiful payment. No matter what success I might have had apart from Christ, there will not be that SOUL rest. So now I wait and call on the paths of the Lord whether it is to work serving Him in Canada or work serving Him at a summer camp. If you have time today or sometime this week and if you remember please pray for His people in Canada. There are a lot of needs and I pray that Jesus will be there sunshine and they will see that they are given such blessed lives and have these talents and they will come to know there creator and the God who gave them all that they have. And also pray for SouthWinds church as it reaches out to lost people and still encourages new believers. Also pray that the Lord will keep them secure with all financial needs. Here are a few pictures that just remind me of how brilliant our Lord God is and He is good to His people even when we forsake Him. Also just pray that will seek to know His will for my life and that the decision I come to make is His choice not mine.