A Vessel

I may have already posted this, but we are now officially part of Team Beyond and will be serving in Soroti, Uganda!  We received our official invite from the team leaders a few weeks ago and are excited to serve with this team that has a vision of transforming lives and communities through the power of Christ. We were able to share with the Hillcrest Youth Group this past Sunday eve. We loved it! The Holy Spirit was so evident in Chris as he shared his heart and passion for the work that God has called us to. We began  with sharing the verse from 1Corinthians 1:26&27 where it says; For you see your calling brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.     I love it that God loves to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things because we are so ordinary! During lecture at BSF today, Rachel said we are just the VESSEL...we need to be clean and available for Him to use us. The Holy Spirit controls the words going out and coming in. Phew...what a relief because I sure don't have much confidence in my own speaking skills! Those oral presentations in school involved sweating, shaking, and lots of butterflies. But I have also witnessed incredible peace during sharing...that is only from Him. She also talked about living with an eternal perspective....that HEAVEN is not just the designation of believers, its meant to be our motivation. We talked about living a life that dies to self so Christ can be revealed to others. This may mean giving up comforts or leisure activity...but its worth it. 2Corinthians 4:16-18 says Therefore, do not lose heart, Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

We are now beginning a new leg of our journey.....bringing together our support team. After going to training, we were able to see this as another part of our ministry and are excited to get started! We were also reminded at training that God is already working in the hearts of the people to join us on this journey of faith. We have seen this firsthand and it is so encouraging. Another reminder from a past year of BSF is that God equips the called. We have faith that He will do just that.

God encouraged me in many ways today at BSF. What is interesting is that I went to BSF today thinking it would be my last time there. I am too busy, its too far of a drive, Trayton had tears about going today, I should just spend this time with him, I have already missed a lot and I am going to be late... were the things that were all going through my head this morning. Thinking about how much I was blessed today makes me realize that Satan was trying pretty hard to discourage me. Yup...I will be there next week..Lord willing.