a week in the life of ME!

What an incredible week I have had!! The Lord is just so so so faithful. It’s just been so amazing. Praise the Lord! Sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve been able to update… things are crazy busy around here! But, here’s my journey…
MONDAY was a hard day. I was completely exhausted and I just really missed my family. I just really wanted hugs from everyone. That’s one of the things I miss the MOST!!! I cried a lot Monday but in that Jesus just became my strength. In every area He is becoming my all in all. I was discouraged, homesick, lonely, and tired. I just told the Lord I needed more and MORE of Him and I needed HIM to fill those areas!!! I asked Him what He wanted to say to me and He said, “I delight in you. I’m holding you. Remember, I am your Sustainer. I am with you mighty warrior. Lay things at my feet. I love you. I will give you your daily bread. Rest in my peace.” Isn’t He just so sweet??
We had an incredible speaker come in! She seriously BLESSED my week! She is very prophetic and just taught us to practice the prophetic. On Monday we couldn’t leave class until we told at least one person something the Lord said about them. Alex said Esther over me… so I studied Esther on Tuesday. It was really neat because I can totally see how that applied and I will totally take her! Esther was a beautiful girl with a lot of favor on her life. She was bold, obedient, protective, submissive to her husband(the king), caring, and she trusted the Lord. (wow, what a compliment… I’ll take her!) She had to go through a year of “treatments” as she prepared to meet her husband. She was set alone to prepare in every way for really her destiny. She had a big destiny and calling on her life that took preparation for. And for now that’s what I feel like I’m doing. I am all alone with the Lord without any distractions and He is just pouring into my life. I am having wells of revelation and wisdom that will play out for the rest of my life. I feel like this time was set aside just for Jesus and I to grow closer and this time is preparation for the things Jesus has planned for me. After all, Jesus did tell my mom, “Thank you for letting me have your daughter this summer.” Wow!
A highlight of my day was a little village girl that I had held during church Sunday saw me and RAN and JUMPED into my arms! It was the sweetest thing. Thank you Jesus!!
Monday night we had another session with the same lady and she talked about angels. It was so neat because during worship before she spoke I was just feeling angels and kept getting the word angel and I didn’t know why! Ha then when she spoke on it I knew why! Pretty neat. After she spoke she put us in circles and we had to prophecy over 5 people. We couldn’t see who we were about to prophecy over. All we were able to do was turn around, ask Jesus for a word for the person, turn around and give it. A TOTALLY stretching and trusting the Lord exercise! It was so awesome though. And I got prophesied over by 5 people! The Lord gave me back my JOY that night. Oh praise HIM!!
On TUESDAY I can’t remember what happened… hahaha. I obviously didn’t journal that day. Oops. Sorry!
On WEDNESDAY I had a VERY intimate time with the Lord. I WEPT and WEPT on the floor during worship for about an hour. I was SO overwhelmed by Jesus’ LOVE for me… I was completely undone. I’ve never felt Him so intimately. It was AMAZING. He did some major forgiveness and healing in my heart. Now my heart feels completely whole. After I forgave people and asked Him to heal my heart I saw Him sewing my heart back up and putting His hand on it to make it new… intimate, beautiful stuff. And He kept telling me He LOVED me. He just said it over and OVER again. I have confidence because He LOVES me. I never have to compare myself to anyone because He loves ME. I am HIS daughter. I am HIS creation. I am HIS! My identity is in HIM! I felt His loving arms around me. I pictured myself sitting in His lap and letting Him hold me tight! I was at perfect peace there. He just kept saying, “you are mine. I love you. Nothing you can do can take away my love. I love you.”
Wednesday night the speaker we had for the week spoke again. She talked a lot about our future marriages and we just prayed for our future spouses. She declared amazing things over our future marriages. It was so encouraging and just awesome!
On THURSDAY morning we set out for our village. We were supposed to leave at 7 am... but didn’t until 9 am. Oh Africa! I was really nervous and apprehensive. The Lord again had to become everything to me. I just had to lean on Him for strength! It took 6 hours to get there and was just quite interesting. All of the other groups that have gone on outreach were only 5 minutes off “paved” road. Well, we were 2 hours from paved road, 3 hours from phone signal, and just completely out in the middle of NOWHERE. I have NO idea how people find these villages. So we arrived covered in dirt with back and butts sore from the ride! We got there and set up our tents then prayed as a team. Then we showed the Jesus film to the village. During the movie we did intercessory prayer for the people for 2 hours. After the movie we got up, introduced ourselves, and spoke to the people whatever we wanted. Then the pastors got up and preached. Ok, there were over 1000 people there we were told. I got up on the truck and there were people in every direction as far as I could see. They were never ending. It was CRAZY! MANY people got saved that night and wanted prayer. So we were called to go into the crowds and pray for people. So like 40 people are touching you because everyone wants prayer for something and you just have to place your hand on their head and say be healed in Jesus name. I have never had 40 people touching me all wanting prayer. I mean, I was lost in a crowd of over 1000 people! Crazy, but awesome!
After the Jesus film we went back to our “camp”(the pastor’s yard) and had supper. I didn’t eat because I was so extremely exhausted I couldn’t think about food. But, for supper we were having spaghetti and tuna. Yummy! Hahaha. I slept in a tent for the first time all by myself… and I LOVED it. It was my first “private” time in a month. I LOVE sleeping in a tent! I want to go camping when I get home. During the night a pig came into our camp, right by my tent and made noise most of the night. Oh the joys of Africa!
The next morning we got up, had our breakfast roll, and then went to pray door-to-door for people in the village. Here we go…
1. A man found us while we were walking and asked us to come to his house to pray for someone because they were sick but his house was VERY far away so the pastors said we couldn’t go. We told him we’d pray for him and then he can go lay hands on his friend and by faith his friend would be healed. So, he stood in the gap. After we prayed he said he wanted Jesus. It was so awesome to watch his countenance changed COMPLETELY after we prayed for him. Wow, God is so good!
2. Then , his wife came to us and said she had pain in her head(not sure if it was a headache or what). We prayed, she said it went away some. We prayed again and it was completely gone. She was amazed and said she wanted Jesus. Now before this, even after she got healed, she hadn’t smile but when she got saved she couldn’t quit smiling and hugging me. It was precious!
3. Of course as we were praying for people we attracted a crowd. I honestly felt like Jesus… we had a crowd following us wherever we went and we were laying our hands on people and they were getting healed because God was moving through us. So cool. Anyway, this man was watching us while we prayed and I felt like we needed to pray for him. One of his eye lids was shut completely and the other eye he said he couldn’t see unless you held something RIGHT up to his eye. So, we prayed for him and now he sees perfectly out of one eye and in the closed lid eye it started to open! Woo hoo! After that, he wanted Jesus too!
4. We kept walking and found a family who had a very sick daughter. She had a fever and usually that indicates malaria. So we prayed for her and her fever went down dramatically. Then, that whole family got saved! C’mon Jesus!!!
5. We went to another family’s house and their house was full of JOY! We prayed for them and just loved on them. They were great! The grandmother made us some kind of “root” so we had to eat it. It was actually pretty good! It tasted like a potato just starchier.
6. Next, the head pastor and our translator told me I needed to be led by the Spirit about where to stop next. There were some people outside one house and I just knew we were supposed to stop there so we kept going. We came to another house and the pastor and I both felt this was the house. After he talked to the family we found out there was a sick person inside and they wanted us to pray for her. We went inside and I sat on the bed with this woman. She had been laying in bed for a year and couldn’t move. She hadn’t eaten in a very long time because when she did she’d have diarrhea or vomit. And she hadn’t drank anything in days because the same thing happened. Also her skin was ice cold like someone’s is right before they die or when they are dead. She wasn’t moving when we talked to her, she wasn’t moving at all, she wasn’t opening her eyes. Nothing. I tried to feel her heartbeat but I couldn’t. I wasn’t going to pronounce her dead because I knew she was going to be healed. We prayed and prayed. She opened her eyes. Prayed more. She starting moving slightly. We prayed more. She started mumbling to us. We prayed more. She SAT UP!! The relative was in there and was AMAZED. But, the woman got weak and went back down. I had a vision of Jesus pouring his love and healing in her and her walking outside by herself. I was like ok Jesus DO THIS because it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen but I have faith! Someone got a word of knowledge that we needed to pray for her blood. We did, she mumbled more. We broke word curses and witchcraft. She mumbled that she wanted Jesus. After she prayed to receive Jesus we prayed for her again. THEN, THEN, THEN she GOT UP!!!!! We helped her out of bed and outside but she didn’t want our help. She started walking ON HER OWN!!! The neighbors and relatives were amazed!!! She hadn’t been outside in a year. She was UP and HEALED!! She starting drinking water and was completely FINE! It was AMAZING!!! So, to me… that was raising the dead because if she wasn’t already dead when we got there she was going to die any minute but JESUS HEALED HER!!! C’mon!! My faith has risen SO much. I am just SO amazed by Jesus!
7. The other group(our group split up into 2 groups) prayed for a woman with leprosy and her skin was healing right before their eyes! WOAH!!!
8. The other group said HELLO to a woman and passed her and she started manifesting demons. Guess that’s how you know you are carrying the Holy Spirit! She didn’t want to be free though… long story that I can’t share online.
It was such an AWESOME time. That afternoon we packed up and went to another village even deeper into the middle of nowhere(an hour further) and showed the Jesus film then prayed over people. I was asked to pray for this one baby whose mom died. This baby was SO skinny because no one was feeding it. It BROKE my heart. Most of these women, because they are malnourished, don’t even produce enough milk for their own babies so no one will volunteer to breastfeed someone else’s baby. So, what hope does this child have? Does the baby just die if it’s mom dies? That’s not fair or right. I didn’t know how to pray for this child. It was so tiny. It was so hungry. All I could pray was Lord PLEASE provide someone to feed this baby. And I believe He will because no baby deserves to have a death sentence because his mom died.
On Saturday we woke up and had church in the village and then packed our stuff up and headed back “home”. Everyone here said we were the dirtiest group that came back. We just had layers of dirt on us. Even though I used wet wipes twice and day it didn’t get the dirt off. I scrubbed and scrubbed in the shower when I got home. It felt WONDERFUL to be CLEAN(well, as clean as I can for Africa!).
Some sidenotes to this weekend were…
1. I had deep fried bread in the village. It was SO good. That will definitely be my treat here now! And they aren’t even 1 cent!
2. The driver would stop for a “potty” break on the way to the village and back… and imagine my face when I see that we are just in an open field, middle of NOWHERE. There is just tall grass. The boys go on one side of the street and we are on the other. Yeah, so you just trample through the grass, find your “hidden” spot, and go. The first time I went I was eaten up by ants. Joy. And the ants here aren’t like the ones at home. When one bites you it STINGS and BURNS. It feels like a scorpion bite. Love it…
3. Our latrine for the weekend was smelly, had flies everywhere but it could’ve been worse.
It was a great weekend. The Lord REALLY stretched me but so incredible. It was so neat to think that if we didn’t go to that village and share the gospel those people might’ve never heard of Jesus and how MUCH He loves them!!! I am so thankful I could’ve been a part of that.
I spoke to 2 of my brothers and my mom Saturday night. Oh how I LOVE hearing their voices and talking to them. They said the conference is awesome!! The Lord is really starting to answer a lot of prayers that I’ve been praying for my family. One of my favorite things to do now is intercede for my family. I love it! Praise the Lord for just how GOOD He is! My family is busy, busy but good! I miss them so much. 6 more weeks(in Jesus name…please still be praying about our flights!!!) and I will be home in their arms!! I have been gone over a month now which is the longest I’ve ever been away from them. After the end of this week I will have made it halfway through. Praise the Lord! Jesus IS my sustainer! My mom said the conference is going great at church!! I can’t wait to hear the sermons when I get home!
SUNDAY- I slept until 630… that’s late for me now.. So insane! I did my laundry then watched it dry. We can’t leave our laundry anymore because a lot of people have gotten their laundry stolen. So, I sat and journaled while I watched my clothes. Then I just spent a lot of time with the Lord. So good!
This week our school started 24/7 prayer so someone is ALWAYS praying or worshipping here this week. SO neat! Tonight we had a corporate worship and the Lord showed me SO much. The Lord is showing me so many amazing, intimate, personal things. ALSO, I GOT TO DANCE(ballet style!!!). I found a little spot… and it was so wonderful. I danced outside under the stars before my King. It was PERFECT.
Also, the night sky here is PERFECT. The stars are PERFECT… there are SO many of them and it is always so clear. And it always feels amazing here at night. Ahh… one of my favorite things.
I wish I could share more but for the time of being on the internet I can’t…
I can’t wait to get home and teach the youth girls again. I feel like the Lord has given me so much teaching material!
I am so thankful that my God never leaves or forsakes me. I am so thankful that I am never really alone because in 2 Timothy 4:17 it says, “But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be proclaimed.” I’m thankful that through HIM I can have inexpressible and glorious JOY(1 peter 1:8). I’m so thankful for the LOVE that He lavishes on me daily(1 John 3:1).
Let me encourage you in this… 1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”