One Month, A Remote Village, and the Sovereignty of God

Well, Saturday was one month that I've been here in Madagascar. It really is crazy to think I've been here a month. There are times I feel as new to this city as the first day. There are other times I feel like I've been here or years. This month has been filled with unexpected moments, joy beyond measure, and grace....lots of God's grace. I started this journey with a mental image of what the next 4 months of my life would look like. While some of those images proved to be true...others were far from what the reality is.  God has shown me time and time again that He is in complete control. I have learned so many times just to trust HIM! There have been times where the culture was more than I could bear. When I literally wanted to stay in my house all day and not go anywhere. We can now look back and get a good laugh at those moments. For a while it seemed every time we left our house...something happened to us. We have had moments of uncontrollable laughter mixed with those "why am I here" moments. In every second of those days I knew one thing was for certain. God was with me...and He had a purpose for me in Madagascar. It has been so sweet to full rely on Him and no one else. I have been reading through the Old Testament and am just struck with how many times it says "I am the Lord your God" He wants us to ALWAYS know and reflect on who He is. Not only is He THE Lord...the rest says He is MY God!! What a precious thought!! 

We had the amazing opportunity to leave the city and travel around 3 hours to a remote village. It was the most beautiful ride. Such a contrast to the city we live in. There were wide open fields, mountains, creeks, and Cows...lol. It was just so pretty. We arrived to the village with a huge greeting party. 

There were so many precious kids waiting anxiously for our arrival!! I was elated to see their sweet faces. If you know me...you know how much I love lil ones!! We didn't get to spend much time with the smaller ones because we only had a limited of time there. We got right to teaching our lessons to the older kids. They seem to receive it well. It was a bit different than teaching in the city, but I think they understood everything. There is an organization called  The Grain of Wheat. They sponsor this village and have equipped ladies to teach there. Because of what they have done...the kids are able to go to school. It was very humbling to see how they live. They have no plumbing, no electricity. They are very poor...yet they are so happy and so full of joy. They blessed my heart!!

I was reminded of a very important truth this week. I learned that what I have planned...is not always what God has planned. On Monday Ashley and I were so excited that we were going to visit with some children. We had heard about this organization I mentioned earlier, called the Grain of Wheat. We thought it was a "children's home" type place. (A lot of details can get lost in the language barrier) We asked if we could visit the place and they graciously said yes! Well....as we began our way to the place we find out it isn't quite what we expected. We were just going to visit the headquarters. Which means...the office...which also means no children. :( So we were a little sad but thought it would still be cool to see how they run things. We found out that they have weekly meetings for the kids in the area. They come and hear Bible stories and have snacks and play games and such. While we were there the secretary went to talk to the school next to the office. Before we knew it...we were sitting in the principals office scheduling TLW for their school. We totally didn't plan to meet with anyone to plan anything. It just happened. He ended up booking 3 fridays!! Then we walk back over to another man waiting to speak with us. He had heard that we taught the True Love Waits and felt that God had brought him there for a purpose. He went on to say he had an organization of young people who had a desire to change Mada! He wanted us to come speak to them. So right there in the director's office we had a meeting with him. He booked us for this Saturday!! God just showed me loud and clear....He is in control. Not me!! So thankful!! If we would have known it was just the offices...we may not would have asked to go. God is in every detail!!!

Well, I guess this is long enough!! :) 

Love Loves!! 

A Pure Heart!

A Pure Heart

That's what we desire the youth of Madagascar to pursue!! We want so strongly for them to seek to honor God with their lives. We want them to be a generation that rises up and makes an impact on Madagascar!! We want them to live a life of purity!!

One thing that God has reminded me of is that He has a people! He is always at work and He is making Himself known! He doesn't need me to do His work....He just chooses to use me!! I am not coming here to start a work. He is always at work. I am just here to be used in the work He is already doing!!We have the privilege to work as a team of 4. Ashley and I, and 2 Malagasy people. The two Malagasy people not only translate for us, but they also teach with us. It has been such a joy to get to know them and serve with them! They are so godly and have such a passion to make Christ known here. They have lived out the example of what they teach. They encourage us and sharpen us every time we are with them!! We are blessed to be able to serve with them!!

Sunday was our first teaching sessions at a CEIM church here in Tana. CEIM is a Malagasy denomination that is pretty much Baptist. We had such a great time at that church. The people were so welcoming and friendly. We we unsure of what to expect from the youth and prepared for whatever God had in store. We gave our presentation, which took a couple hours. They were so attentive and respectful. They were bold and genuine. We had a time for Q&A at the end, and they asked heartfelt questions. I could tell they were very sincere. We had a time where we asked them if they wanted to commit to a life of purity. Out of the 60 or 70 that were there...just about all of them committed! It was such a blessing to see them desire to follow God in purity. We encouraged them and prayed over them!! We are going back for a follow-up session in a few weeks to see how they are doing!! 

I am so excited at what God is doing here in Madagascar!! We have been asked to speak in a village and at a Children's Home called Grain of Wheat! I am so excited about these opportunities. We will also be going to the Rainforest in March for 5 days to share with the remote villages there. How exciting to know that God's Word is going forth!! 

Please pray for us as we continue to seek God for wisdom and guidance!! We want to be used in any way He wants to use us!! We want to be humble and give Him all they glory! Please pray for these young people who made this commitment and the ones who will in the future meetings!! Pray that we continue to have many opportunities to share Christ among the Malagasy people!!

I am going to introduce our team!! :) 

Meet the team:

Mirana is a woman from Antsirabe, Madagascar which is about 3 south of Tana (where I am). She also was our language teacher for our first two weeks here. She has a heart for God and is a Missionary here  in Madagascar. She has worked all over the country and is just a great example to me!! I have loved getting to know her!! Please pray for her and she obeys what God calls her to do! She fully rely's on Him for all her support and trust Him completely!! 

Mandimby is a man from here in Tana and He is just great! His dad is the Pastor of a local church that we love to attend!! He often preaches at his dads church and loves to work with the youth! He is such an encouragement to me and such a light here!! He also is very involved in Missions and is passionate about Christ being exalted here!! He has plans to attend Northwestern Seminary in TX Next semester! Please pray for him as he prepares to further his studies!!

Ashley is from North Carolina and attends Southeastern Seminary! She is passionate about missions and has a huge heart! She loves youth and has a desire to reach them for Christ!! She is such a sweet person and is my closest teammate!! After all...we are buddies. :) It has been a joy to serve with her so far, and I know it will continue to be! I am so thankful for the kindred heart we share and our common desire to see Christ exalted!! God has been so good to us!! Please pray for her as she is away from her family! Pray that we would continue to work well together! Pray that we will be a team for His glory!!

Of course you know who I am!! :) Please pray for me as I figure out what God wants me to do when I get back from Mada! Pray that He will open doors and shut doors! Pray that while I am here I can focus on my task at hand! Pray that Christ would continue to humble me and use me!!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!! I am so blessed and thankful for all of you!! If you have any specific questions or anything feel free to ask in comment below or on facebook. :)

Love Loves!! <3 p="">

Culture shock or God's way of bringing us to the end of ourself??

Deuteronomy 31:6 - "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."

How very true those words are! This week I have clung to them. I have reminded myself over and over that my God is there...He is always there! This week has been a time of learning and growing. It's been a week of dependence and trust. It's been a time of weakness and strength.

As I sat on my bed a few nights ago...I began to feel that sense of inadequacy. I began to feel useless and to be honest...I was longing for home. I wanted my comforts back. I wanted my security back. During that time of loneliness and longing, I realized my security was in the wrong place. I realized that I had began to trust in myself and my own strength. I let a guard down and became "confident" in my own abilities instead of totally depending on God. You see...when I came to Madagascar, I set out to learn a lesson of independence and dependence. I wanted to really learn to be independent from people and things and to be fully dependent on God, and all He is for me!! I knew it was going to be hard. I knew it was going to be challenging, but I knew that I desperately needed it. 

In our week of orientation we were "warned" about culture shock. We were told that we would go through these phases where we would feel great and excited about all the new things. We would love the culture and feel so peaceful and great! Then we would probably go through a time where we had culture shock. We would be ready to go home...we would feel overwhelmed with everything. The  newness would fade away and we would face reality. We would realize that 4.5 months is a lot longer than it seems. But we also learned that we would come back up and get settled back in and remember why we were there. 

Like I said...I realized I was right in the middle of the culture shock cycle. However, as I began to pray and seek God, I realized something. It is so much more than a culture shock that we go through during that time. I think it's more Gods way of bring us to the place of total dependence on Him. You see I had become comfortable. I felt somewhat confident in my abilities to get around the city. I felt good about being here. I felt good about what we were going to be doing here. I felt too good...too confident. So God began breaking me down and taking "me" out of the equation. It was all for His purpose...for my good. I was reminded by my sweet friend and mentor that God had a purpose for me here. She reminded me that In my weakness...I am strong...because His strength is made perfect in my weakness!! What a blessing it is to have good..honest people to speak into your life!!

So I sit here tonight...amazed at His grace! I am totally amazed that He cares so much about me. That He wants to use me. That He wants to mold me into who He wants me to be.

Today was our first day speaking about True Love Waits to the youth at a church here in Tana. It went so good and was so encouraging! I plan to blog about it in the next few days. I have been working on this post for a couple days and haven't been able to finish it. :)


Sorry it's so long :) More on the TLW later!!

Love Loves!!

Weekend fun! :)

Just thought I would post a quick update sharing how our weekend went. :) 

We had a great weekend!!

We began by sleeping in...I love sleep!! :) So it was great! We also decided we were going to fast for the day to spend time praying for our mission that we have here and the opportunities that are before us. It was just a sweet time of prayer and reflection on who God is!!

We then took our friend at the dumpster food...we also gave him a tract! We are praying God speaks to him through the truth he now has!! Please pray God stirs his heart!!

I think I mentioned before that we have a family that lives in a house across from ours...it really just a square mud shack. It has been so humbling to see how they live. How joyful they are when they have hardly anything. We decided we were going to try and play and talk with the kids. So I got some crackers we had and some water (the water here is non drinkable...so clean water is hard to get or expensive for them) so we just sat with them. 

There was a 12 year old girl named Rosa

A 3 year old girl named Majon (May for short :) )

And this 6 month old lil guy name Fola (Fula)

They were so precious!!!   I am so excited at the relationships we are going to be able to build with this precious family!! While we were sitting with them the mom came home from the store. She invited us into her home! The small building we thought was their home was even smaller than we knew. There are two families that live in it. It is two houses in one building. So half of the small building was their house. It was about the size of my bedroom in the house I am staying here. 

Their house

 

It was so humbling to see how they live. They were so happy and full of joy and have so little! Material possessions didn't matter to them. I learned so much that day. Things I already knew...but needed to be reminded of. Even here...in Africa...in Madagascar...I am still faced with the human desires for more and better. I am so human. I can be so selfish at times. I am thankful God placed a great reminder right outside the gate to my house that the things of this world are rubbish. One day they will all pass away and all I will have is Jesus...He is enough!! 

He will always be enough.

Even on the days I feel I need more...on the days I lose sight of what my existence is for. 

He will be enough.

I am so thankful for this time God is changing me and growing me. He is so amazing that He would chose to not only use me here in Mada...but change me...to be more like Him! I am humbled!!

I saw trash....he saw food

We have all heard the phrase... "One man's trash is another man's treasure." but what if that were true about you? What if what someone else considered to be garbage...you longed for?? 

I crossed paths with a man who did just that. He longed for my garbage. He treasured it. 

As I turned the corner around a dumpster to put my garbage in it, I noticed something strange. There was a man sitting in the middle of the dumpster. Right in the middle of all the trash. As we put our bags of trash in the dumpster....I saw it....His face! I looked in his eyes. I saw the look of desperation across his face. I saw the remnants of garbage caked on his face. I saw the pile of garbage he was picking through in front of him. I saw him hurry to get our bags after we set them down. I saw him in the dumpster. He was real. He wasn't a statistic...he was a man. 

What we considered garbage....he longed for. 

As I walked away from him the tears flowed from my eyes. I couldn't believe what I just saw. I couldn't forget about him. I sat and thought...what if my next meal depended on the next person to bring their garbage by. What if my bed was the ground under the edge of it. What if the dumpster was my home. What if I smelled so bad that I was covered in flies because I had no where to bathe. What if no one wanted me because I wasn't normal. I thought about this man for days. Ashley (my partner) decided to bring him food and place a tract in it. We did take him food but he was asleep and I'm pretty sure someone else took it from him. We plan to continue to minister to him and share the gospel with him in any way we can. Please pray for him along with us!! 

Also pray that God will awaken your heart to the need for Him all over the world. There is such a great need. Not only physical needs..but more importantly...Spiritual needs! Also I want to challenge you to pray that God would show you just how much He has blessed you with all you have!! 

We met with about 20 pastors and leaders today and scheduled most of our events. God blessed us to be pretty booked up! I am humbled at the fact He would chose me to be used in this place. He is so good! Our first meeting is February 17th. I will try and update more about that later. We finished our language studies this week and we are so grateful for the opportunity to learn some Malagasy. :) 

Thank you so much for your prayers and support for me here in Madagascar!! I feel them everyday!!

More later! Love Loves!!