Messed Up!

Often when teams come they get what we call "wrecked". It is not necessarily about Africa, although Africa will definitely leave an imprint that few can ever forget. It is rather about God moving in some significant way in their life. It messes them up and turns their normal upside down. It is cool to see and as I said in previous blogs it is renewing and refreshing for me to see the ministry and to see God work through a team's eyes.

The team I just helped host in Swaziland last week, was different; they ended up messing ME up! More precisely, they were the instrument that God used to wreck me and knock me off any pedestal I have set myself on. Missionary or not, I am just like everyone else who seeks God's face and wants to be more Christ like. But this team challenged me to take it up a notch; to go ALL IN! To find the grey areas that keep me from that. Not sinful things but distracting things that keep my focus off what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable and worthy of praise. And it was not by merely their words but by their heart and their actions!

This was a team that who was from two different churches, strangers before the trip, who were so prayed up for this trip and for unity among the team that I could not tell who was from which church without looking at the list. A team that got in the trouble because they kept trying to serve the servers and almost got staff in trouble because they were not doing their job of serving the guests. A team that an emergency stop for sick team members on the side of a mountain road became a ministry opportunity to share about God to kids who were there. A team who one member's highlight for the day was meeting a seller in the market and not about buying but seeing she was hurting and getting to pray with her and then staying and praising God with her right there in her booth rather than shop. A team that had men who so exemplified how husbands should treat their wife's that it was over the top impactful without them ever saying a word. The team of mostly men were an example of how men can be strong, hard working and sold out to God. In a land where the community does not have many men who go to church or who stand firm on biblical principals, they were a bright light to the women, children and men in Hhelehhele "Hay-lay-hay-lay" and everywhere else they passed through. Whether it was ministering to each other, strangers or missionaries, they were there to follow God's heart. I've never seen a team so generous and so selfless on multiple levels. It wasn't about the things, although they did bless generously all whom they came in contact with their time, their resources, their  fervent prayers and their flexible spirits. It was about God! But not God in a box but in being open and obedient to whatever God had in store.... And then rejoicing over the detour!  Don't let me put them up on a pedestal. They are everyday people with everyday struggles but they were here to be used of God and He used them to mess me up!

Let me back up a bit to tell you that I have been struggling the last few months with a sense of the enemy attacking strongly. Not me directly, but around me. I have been praying against it but feeling I am coming up short, that something was missing but that it is vital that I continue to come against it. This team unknowingly gave me the push I needed to get real with God and stop rationalizing things, that aren't sin, but things He was and is telling me the enemy is using to distract me from a more powerful, impactful path with Him. I'm ready to be ALL IN! So thank you David, Kevin, Jerri, Buddy, Kim, Eugene, Eric, Jacob, Bobby, Brant, Alita, Alyssa, Lynden and Jewelia! Thank you for being so willing to be used of God that in a year from now (yes, I am hoping you will all return) you will be able to see the impact you had on me and all you came in contact with!

Continue to pray with me for the community of Hhelehhele, for me and my journey, for Children's Cup, for Swaziland and for South Africa. God has some mighty plans ahead and I am praying that He expose the lies of the "world" and is able to use me to see His miracles unfold! May He, not the team or I, be the focus!