I told myself I wasn’t gonna write anything this week but for some reason, this has kinda become an outlet for my heart. My prayer still is that something of Christ could flow & I’ll look back on these updates in the future with much appreciation and thanksgiving… so here goes nothing:
And I will meditate on all that You have done / And muse on Your doings. Psalm 77:12
This week was ROUGH. Idk, some say it’s normal that mid term things are the hardest (also how WILD is it that we are literally already half way done with the term). But I have never wanted to dodge people & hide myself more… Funny coming from a person who was called “the token extrovert” today haha. But alas, this extrovert has run out of juice. So logically, I did the only thing I thought might help
I literally physically hid myself behind a bunch of curtains in a corner by a heater, praying that no one would find me and read my Bible for an hour. Then I dodged my duties in the name of “children’s service” and spent a few hours with the sweetest girly.
Anyways, I’m not proud of it, but I’m grateful that sometimes the Lord does allow a little way out. I didn’t necessarily “deny my soul life” and “overcome by exercising my spirit”… but I still felt the Lord was with me the whole time, saying It’s ok. Just be where and how you are for now. Also, it might be encouraging for some of y’all to realize that even the seemingly most extroverted ones also have a limit, none of us are super humans lol.
But praise the Lord it wasn’t all pits this week!
I realized I haven’t actually reported much about the gospel times in Kingston, yet they truly have been one of my highlight experiences here in the training…
So my team has been driving to Kingston 2-3 times a week to be on the university campus, passing out free Bibles, meeting new students, have one on one appointments with them, going to the bigger Solid Ground meeting, home meetings, and also blending with the local saints there.
I think my biggest takeaway lesson so far is that we really don’t need to rely on gimmicks. We just need:
Prayer
The Spirit
The Word of God
His Blessing
Actually, in this context of begetting and bearing remaining fruit (John 15), everything depends on the Lord’s blessing. Even our faithfulness, diligence, faith, and prayers without this will be to no avail. Methods, considerations, human wisdom, and clever words are all useless. In God’s work, we should believe in and expect His blessing.
What is blessing?
Blessing is God’s working without any cause.
Logically speaking, 1$/€/£ should only be able to buy us 1 $/€/£ worth of stuff (lol aka nothing) but sometimes, even without spending a single cent, the Lord gives us 1000 $/€/£ worth! Meaning, we receive that which is beyond reckoning… The Lord feeding 5000 people with only 5 loaves & 2 fish (Mark 6), that is His blessing.
We should never measure God by our capacity. If we only look for results based on what we are, or if we only look for a little fruit, and if we do not hope for great results, we actually run the risk of losing God’s blessing… Since we only pay attention to the fact that we are laboring day and night, God cannot do anything BEYOND our expectation!
I just appreciated this prayer I heard: “Based on what we are, we should not obtain any results, but Lord, for the sake of You name, Your church, and Your way, we hope You will give something to us.”
I feel like this has just been my experience so far this term… based on what I am and the mistakes that I make, there shouldn’t be the results that we as a team are seeing! But thank the Lord, we do have His smiling face! And He is doing beyond all that we could ask or think.
Week by week, there are students getting saved, entering into the homes, asking questions, opening up, reading the Bible with us, entering into the joy of the Lord— really growing normally and flourishing in Him! Even to the point we struggle now with having the man power and capacity to care for all of them! It really is such a joy to witness. And the local saints are such an amazing pattern… We had 15 brand new students come to our Welcome Dinner and for them, 40 saints came to support!
Our team is also endeavoring and I believe slowly entering into a real coordination and oneness with one another. We pray A LOT. Actually, we realize right before (or after lol) we might offend one another, it is better to just stop and pray. Pray ourselves out of ourselves. Open to one another and bear one another in love in whatever situation we are in. Learning to go along with each other, dropping our own preferences and ways but caring for the one accord and not losing God’s blessing that comes out of our living touch of Christ.
It’s kinda funny I feel like half my heart is actually in Kingston throughout the week and the other half is at Bower in the training (and of course a part is always with y’all 🤗)… so I ended up struggling being able to juggle both and was quite frustrated that I am so limited and restricted and not able to function to the fullest in Kingston because of being in the training…
But I was just encouraged after having a fellowship appointment with one of our trainers. He told me
You really just have to pray, “Lord, make the time that I have today count to the MAX. Be in every text, every word, every meeting. Every second I’m in Kingston would count.”
Im’ still learning, but I’m encouraged to go on (:
I hope you are too.
Love,
Dasha
Ps: We had to memorize all the subjects of the Bible and just for the lols, this is how sisters study
PPS: 🧀 !!
