Ok, get ready this one may be a longer blog post because I’ve realized y’all deserve more detailed updates than I’ve been giving you haha!
This last week we were in Black Mountain, NC doing domestic ministry. We were working with Adventures Relief, which is a disaster relief program under Adventures in Missions. For those of you who may not recall, almost exactly a year ago Hurricane Helene swept through Black Mountain absolutely wrecking the community and taking many by surprise. This storm left countless people in a state of devastation, many without homes and no place to go. A year after this storm and many people have forgotten about what happened there but many are still hurting and in need of help. I have to admit I’ve been to Black Mountain since the storm like to visit and I was completely unaware of the devastation that so many people were still in.
Before this week, I honestly was not looking forward to this domestic ministry. I thought “it’s just black mountain”, and “how is disaster relief ministry”. Im not super proud to admit that’s where my heart was, but it was there. However the Lord changed my heart – thank you Jesus. The morning we were heading to NC we heard testimony of a leader who was there last year with a squad when the hurricane hit, they almost died but the Lord truly covered and protected them- and just a few months later this group returned to serve in the very place they almost lost their lives. This testimony stirred my heart and made me so excited to go serve. Praise Jesus for shifting my heart before we even left. From passive and doubtful, to expectant and ready to serve.
This continued when the first night my team and I went out to grab ice cream for Ellie’s birthday! We got to a local shop but it had closed early – we hung out there for a few minutes (just because). Then suddenly a car pulled up and a lady got out. This was kinda odd but as she approached us and just began opening up to us. We didn’t even get the chance to ask for her name before she began to unpack her life. She told us how the hurricane completely turned her life upside down and how to affected her and her kids. She went on just opening up to us about many others things. Her relationships, work, kids, finances, life now. She told us that the only thing that got her through this last year was the Lord. As we listened we got to encourage her, pray over her, and lift her up. She was excited and surprised to hear that we were there all week to serve. We ended up meeting her kids – she has this 2 year old named Elliot and he was ecstatic to tell me “God made rainbows!!!!” And that his favorite color was red! What a sweet interaction. This encounter was just was like the Lord reminding me that ministry really isn’t complicated or on me. It’s simply walking with Him and being obedient to love those He places around me. Yea wow just praise God!! What a good way to kick off the week.
The next morning my team and I went to our job site to put up cabinets and restore a bathroom. Yes it was in fact a group of 6 girls with no experience however we had a job site leader (shout out Paul and the Holy Spirit!) who was great! So we were sent and willing to jump in and give the Lord our yes even in this.
However, when we arrived at the site there was nothing we could do. The previous steps of our job were done incorrectly and had to be fixed, as a result we couldn’t do anything there in the moment due to our minimal experience. However, I still got to talk with the home owner and it was sweet hearing her story. I really enjoyed hearing all about her life. At the end of this day my team and I felt kinda like useless. But the Lord really used that day to challenge me. Like Ministry has nothing to do with me. It’s all from Him and for Him. Whether or not I feel useful or not has absolutely nothing to do with the “success of a ministry day” Nor should there even be a scale. I say yes to Jesus and the gospel and trust Him with my yes. And just because ministry didn’t look how I expected that day, doesn’t mean it wasn’t ministry. It’s only ever been about Jesus and I have to trust that my obedience is ministry too. My conversations with the homeowner were ministry too. My heart said yes Lord and that’s where He had me that day. I could keep going on this topic because how often do I slip into the mindset determining whether something is good or not, But the Lord in His kindness continued to unpack and renew my view on this and ministry in general over the rest of this week.
As the week went on we got assigned a new project and this was all constriction! Ripping out walls, putting up installation, and dry wall; like full on HGTV type stuff. This was way outside my comfort zone lol. But I said ok Lord this is ministry too, this is where you have me today, so show me how to do this well and honor you in it. And of course He answered me. As I ripped out dry wall my team and I praised the Lord, as I sanded walls I prayed. When my hands got tired after hours and hours of sawing through wood we found behind the dry wall I watched the Lord give strength, joy and just minister to my heart on who I am in Him, ministering to others and just being found low at His feet. I’ll unpack this more in a moment but yea this week was hard but amazing. The Lord came in as my strength, joy, patience and rest. He is so so kind. I never expected relief ministry to be such a beautiful time to commune with Jesus. Thank you Lord for rewriting my view of ministry, challenging me and showing up for me in many tangible ways. Im in awe of you Jesus.
I want to encourage you guys to ask for more of Him. I want to challenge you guys walking with me in this to go after Him. Take Him the ugly, take Him the mess, be honest with Jesus. Pray the crazy Prayers because Jesus desires His people in every way. He desires to know the depth of your heart! When you feel like your good and completely surrendered ask for Him to show you what else there is to lay down. Watch Jesus come and meet you and restore your heart. It is such a lie of the enemy to think that we have received all we can from Jesus. There is always deeper to go into the heart of Jesus, invite Him in and discover them.
Iv been really sitting in 1 John 2 and the begging of 3. It talks all about seeing Jesus and becoming like Him. It’s about being transformed into His likeness. 1 John 2:28 tells us that His desire is for us to stand before Him as confident and unashamed at His coming. This means that here and now there is a way we can know Jesus, a depth that produces in us the likeness of Christ so when He comes – because He is coming for His bride who is pure and ready – we can not just be before Him, but Confidently stand knowing Jesus. 1 John 3:2 goes onto say that when we see Jesus we will be made like Him! Pure!! This goes so beautifully into 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 – which talks all about the Veil being taken away in Jesus that we may see Him with an unveiled face. WE GET TO SEE JESUS WITH AN UNVEILED FACE. You guys Moses had to veil His face because He shined so bright after the Lord passed by him. And we get to see Jesus in a greater way than Moses did. I have read and reread this many times and each time I’m hit afresh. How much more glory is there for us that we pass by because we don’t simply sit and ask Jesus to show us Himself. I don’t know this has just been a little glimpse into what Jesus has really been showing me. I don’t want to miss the depth of glory that is found in the face of Jesus. Psalm 27 has been my prayer over my life over this last year and now even more so I desire to only be found at Jesus feet, low in His glory. The beauty and wonder of the gospel amazes me. I did not a thing – in fact before Jesus I did everything wrong – but Jesus created every aspect of me and how He loves and desires me and He died to have me back in relationship with Him. Yea I love Him, He is beautiful!
Thanks for listening to my rant about how good the Lord is! In other news I’m now back in GA for the week for a debrief, then October 4th we start traveling to Eswatini!! Im so so excited to be there! Please be in prayer over this next week. Please pray for our hearts, pray for deeper love for the father, pray for zeal and excitement as we get ready to go, pray for safety and peace as we start traveling, pray that Jesus would be honored and glorified in every aspect of this next week. He is the only one found worthy!
Also, I am still fundraising for this trip! I have about $1,020 left for the cost of this trip. I know Jesus is going to give me all that I need. If you want to partner with me in this way there are links in my instagram bio or feel free to reach out to me personally!
Thank you for all of your prayers they truly are shifting things. Love you guys so dearly. Enjoy some pictures from domestic ministry below!
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