Hey there friends!
For those who don’t know, I’m back at home (in Gainesville Georgia) after two weeks of serving with Samaritans Purse in Louisiana.
I wanted to share with you all a little bit of what the past two weeks have looked like, as well as one of my favorite God moments.
Every morning we woke up and had breakfast, devotional, prayer, and then headed out for the day. We worked until 4:00 pm (ish) with an hour break for lunch. Each day our work looked a bit different, but we usually helped with debris cleanup and tarping roofs. Every day we had opportunities to visit and pray over the homeowners. Though the work was hard and very exhausting, the sweet moments with the homeowners made this experience so so sweet. This actually leads me to my favorite God moment.
Last Wednesday we went to a couple’s house. I was immediately drawn into talking with the wife. A bunch of people from the team had to use the restroom so she invited us into her home to use her potty. My squadmate Emily and I were the last in line and ended up sitting on the couch visiting with her. What I was expecting to be a 5 minute conversation turned into an hour one. We talked about her life, her family, her marriage, and her faith. While she was sharing, she mentioned how she prayed and read her Bible but didn’t do it in front of her husband. I didn’t get a chance to talk with her more about that because the conversation led elsewhere, but her saying that kept coming to mind after we were done talking. While outside, pulling trees to the side of the road, I really felt like I needed to pray for her, her husband, and his faith. All morning I prayed for them and continued to serve them physically by pulling trees out of their yard.
While I was doing this, a team leader on my squad, Emalani, was talking with the husband. As they talked she could really discern that there was bitterness, pride, and anger built up in his heart, which was a leading factor in Him turning away from God. All morning she listened to him, visited with him, and spoke Christ’s love over him. She eventually was able to pray healing over his physical body and she prayed that the Holy Spirit would come in and remove any sort of pride that was in his heart for internal healing.
I had no idea any of this was going on until we were finished working that afternoon.
At the end of each worksite, Samaritan’s purse presents the homeowners with a Bible and prays over them. While we were all gathered around, I was informed that the husband actually gave His life to the Lord!!!!! I was completely blown away by that alone, but learned later that night that a bunch of spiritual warfare was going on in the midst of his and Emalani’s talk.
While I was pulling branches, God was calling me to intercede for what was going on just across the yard which is CRAZY.
What a testimony specifically to the power of prayer! What a testimony of the authority that the Holy Spirit carries. God has literally left me amazed at how He works.
This is only 1 story of the way that God moved this week, but there are LOTS more that my squadmates have written.
Down below you can find Gap C’s page where you can scroll through and read some of my squadmates blogs.
I made a youtube video over the past 2 weeks where there’s actually a clip of Emalani praying over the couple!! The video can be found down below as well.
What I love most about the story I shared is that it shows the simplicity of evangelism. As Christians, we can hear that word and immediately become fearful with the “what ifs”.
I want to encourage you all with something that I learned while in LA. Sharing the Gospel is not complicated. Sharing the gospel is 1% of you stepping out in boldness and 99% of God working through you. Simply starting a conversation with someone and being open to praying for them can make a space for God to do what only He can do. We’re not nearly big enough to ruin God’s plan. God just needs a yes in our hearts and He will do the rest. I encourage you to reach out to someone new this week and simply listen to their story, and then ask them if you can pray with them. Know that you could be rejected, and that’s okay. What looks like rejection to you can be the beginning steps to a foundation of them building their lives on Jesus.
Feel free to reach out and share with me how God uses you this week. I would LOVE to hear about it.
I love you all so so much! As always, thank you for reading.
Don’t forget to check out my youtube video and read my squads blogs! 🙂
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