Week four: God listens attentively
Week four: God listens attentively
Another week has passed by, it’s crazy how fast time flies by! Before I know it I’ll be in the foreign country wherever I will be sent! God is good!
This week we’ve been continuing to go through more church documents, Acts in the Bible, and we had talks on Discerning the will of God and Discernment of Spirits, we also had a workshop on the kerygma and sharing that in a different culture’s viewpoint. All of it is keeping us very very busy! Here are a few moments from this week that I wanted to share:
Treasure Hunting:
On Tuesday we went treasure hunting (where we take time in prayer and ask the Lord who he wants us to encounter and pray with, and then we go and search for those people.) and my team ended up at Walmart. We went out in teams of two, so me and my team member compared our lists of “words of knowledge” that we had gotten during prayer and started walking around Walmart. We came across a few different people, some who wanted prayer and some who didn’t.
We were able to pray with a man who had just come from his dad’s grave and was struggling with being at his current job, we prayed with a guy whose mom had diabetes and trouble seeing, and we also ran into a lady who my team had prayed with last week and I was a able to reach out to her and ask how her hand was doing— as we had prayed for healing for it as she had been having shooting pain through it— and she said her hand had been doing better since we prayed with her. Praise God!
It was beautiful going out and praying with all of those people, my team member and I (once we got past the fears we had that came up, as there definitely were some fears ) were joyful and so glad that the Lord had sent us out to share His love with those we encountered. And it was amazing to hear the stories from the other teams of how the Lord worked through them to touch others. Prayer is powerful, and we shouldn’t be afraid to pray with whomever the Lord places in our path— even when we’re in places we wouldn’t think to pray with others. How will others see Christ if we don’t share Him? Christ is calling us to be His hands and feet! In order to be that, we need to be willing to go out!
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Volunteering at the Christian Service Center:
The past two Thursdays me and some other ladies have been volunteering at the Christian Service Center. It’s a non profit that is located in Abbeville, Louisiana. They provide assistance to families in Vermillion Parish who are in crisis situations. They provide the basic necessities to the economically disadvantaged, underprivileged and to those who may have suffered a loss through natural or man-made disasters. It’s truly a wonderful place and it’s been a joy to help out there! This week someone from FMC donated some little girl clothes, and later that day we found out that a family came in that desperately needed clothes for their girls and the clothes we brought were the exact sizes of the girls who needed them! God is so good and always provides!
At the Christian Service Center on Thursdays they have been putting on a program to help parents and caregivers to learn various things to help them grow as parents and caregivers. Last Thursday they had a talk on Mental Illness, and this week they went over some simple steps to build a brighter future. This week I helped prepare the meal for that session, we helped prepare gumbo that someone had donated and then after eating lunch I got to watch a little boy while his mom participated in the session. He definitely gave me a workout! We drew on the sidewalk with chalk for a bit, I pushed him on the swings, and then for the majority of the time I got to push him around in a push car. He was such a sweet little boy, he was four years old and definitely a light! It was such a joy to watch him. We will continue to go there on Thursdays to help out until we leave for Mexico in November.
So yeah those are some of the moments from this week and my post doesn't fully give them justice as I could go into wayyy more detail. And there have been many many more moments this week that I don't have time to share ( I've included a few photos below of some moments). It's been truly amazing seeing the ways the Lord has been at work here.
At the beginning of this week part of my prayer was, “Jesus, may I not fear what you desire me to do. And when fear comes up, may I call on You and Your help— as I can’t do anything without Your help.” And I felt like the Lord was saying in response to me that the fears will come, but for me to not be afraid and to step out past those fears. As if I don’t, and I let the fears overcome me what good will happen if I constantly fear? He was reminding me that He goes before me always, and I need not fear. And it was beautiful this week to start stepping past fears that I realized were weighing on me.
Something else that really blessed me this week was a bible verse I received: “the Lord listened attentively”- Malachi 3:16. As I reflected on that I couldn’t help but feel joy-- so much joy that the Lord listens to me, and that He does so attentively! It was something I already knew, but He wanted me to be reminded of His goodness. To know that no matter what I’m going through or feel like talking to the Lord about He’s there and He cares and listens even if I feel like none of it matters. He wants me to know that every moment matters to Him and that I can bring it all before Him: The joyful moments, the sad moments, the moments where I’m struggling.. etc— all of it! He wants me (and all of us) to be courageous and surrender it all into His hands joyfully. For all that we are is important to Him. So I will strive each and every day to remember that God is listening attentively to me, and that I can surrender whatever is weighing on me into His hands daily.
This week we’ve been continuing to go through more church documents, Acts in the Bible, and we had talks on Discerning the will of God and Discernment of Spirits, we also had a workshop on the kerygma and sharing that in a different culture’s viewpoint. All of it is keeping us very very busy! Here are a few moments from this week that I wanted to share:
Treasure Hunting:
On Tuesday we went treasure hunting (where we take time in prayer and ask the Lord who he wants us to encounter and pray with, and then we go and search for those people.) and my team ended up at Walmart. We went out in teams of two, so me and my team member compared our lists of “words of knowledge” that we had gotten during prayer and started walking around Walmart. We came across a few different people, some who wanted prayer and some who didn’t.
We were able to pray with a man who had just come from his dad’s grave and was struggling with being at his current job, we prayed with a guy whose mom had diabetes and trouble seeing, and we also ran into a lady who my team had prayed with last week and I was a able to reach out to her and ask how her hand was doing— as we had prayed for healing for it as she had been having shooting pain through it— and she said her hand had been doing better since we prayed with her. Praise God!
It was beautiful going out and praying with all of those people, my team member and I (once we got past the fears we had that came up, as there definitely were some fears ) were joyful and so glad that the Lord had sent us out to share His love with those we encountered. And it was amazing to hear the stories from the other teams of how the Lord worked through them to touch others. Prayer is powerful, and we shouldn’t be afraid to pray with whomever the Lord places in our path— even when we’re in places we wouldn’t think to pray with others. How will others see Christ if we don’t share Him? Christ is calling us to be His hands and feet! In order to be that, we need to be willing to go out!
______________________________________________________________________________
Volunteering at the Christian Service Center:
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| Volunteering at the Christian Service Center last week. |
At the Christian Service Center on Thursdays they have been putting on a program to help parents and caregivers to learn various things to help them grow as parents and caregivers. Last Thursday they had a talk on Mental Illness, and this week they went over some simple steps to build a brighter future. This week I helped prepare the meal for that session, we helped prepare gumbo that someone had donated and then after eating lunch I got to watch a little boy while his mom participated in the session. He definitely gave me a workout! We drew on the sidewalk with chalk for a bit, I pushed him on the swings, and then for the majority of the time I got to push him around in a push car. He was such a sweet little boy, he was four years old and definitely a light! It was such a joy to watch him. We will continue to go there on Thursdays to help out until we leave for Mexico in November.
At the beginning of this week part of my prayer was, “Jesus, may I not fear what you desire me to do. And when fear comes up, may I call on You and Your help— as I can’t do anything without Your help.” And I felt like the Lord was saying in response to me that the fears will come, but for me to not be afraid and to step out past those fears. As if I don’t, and I let the fears overcome me what good will happen if I constantly fear? He was reminding me that He goes before me always, and I need not fear. And it was beautiful this week to start stepping past fears that I realized were weighing on me.
Something else that really blessed me this week was a bible verse I received: “the Lord listened attentively”- Malachi 3:16. As I reflected on that I couldn’t help but feel joy-- so much joy that the Lord listens to me, and that He does so attentively! It was something I already knew, but He wanted me to be reminded of His goodness. To know that no matter what I’m going through or feel like talking to the Lord about He’s there and He cares and listens even if I feel like none of it matters. He wants me to know that every moment matters to Him and that I can bring it all before Him: The joyful moments, the sad moments, the moments where I’m struggling.. etc— all of it! He wants me (and all of us) to be courageous and surrender it all into His hands joyfully. For all that we are is important to Him. So I will strive each and every day to remember that God is listening attentively to me, and that I can surrender whatever is weighing on me into His hands daily.
Here are some photos from this week:
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| Dinner out on Saturday night with my (fabulous) roommates! From left to right: Mary Clare, Kelli, Myself, Kim. |
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| Watching fellow FMC missionaries play soccer. |
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| Soccer game! |
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Bonfire fun on Thursday night! |
Hello Anna. I am a Pastor from Mumbai, India. I am also blessed and feel privielged and honoured to get connected with you as well as know ou and about your interest in missionary work. It was encouraging to visit your blog post and how true it is that God listens attentively. I have thoroughly enjoyed the post as well as pictures on it. I love getting connected with the people of God around the globe to be encouraged, strengthened and praying for one another. I have been in the Pastoral ministry for last 40 yrs in this great city of Mumbai a city with a great contrast where richest of rich and the poorest of poor. We reach out to the poorest of poor with the love of christ to bring healing to the brokenhearted. We also encourage young and the adults from the west to come to Mumbai to work with us duing their vacation time. We would also love to have you come to Mumbai to work with us during your vacation time. I am sure you will have a life changing experience. My email id is:dhwankhede(at)gmail(dot)com and my name is Diwakar Wankhede. God's richest blessings on you, your family and friends.
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