First off, an apology for this prolonged period of silence; time always seems to escape me here at Covecrest! I can’t believe I’ve already been here for 3 weeks; time seems to have fast-forwarded from when I left California. At the same time, there seems to have been so much packed into this small space of time that I’m just now starting to catch my breath. God (as is His way) is still showing me just how crazy and adventurous a life of following Him can be!
This year has already looked so different from last year, and it is so good! It’s been really amazing to see how God is moving within Life Teen Missions and forming it into something that is good and holy and faithful to His Spirit of mission. Having all the mission teams start out in one place and spend the month together is a decision that was infinitely wise; there is such a sense of unity and community among everyone, I think it’s just going to make all of us that much stronger and well-rooted. I feel like God is establishing us for great things this year.
Formation has also been completely different but so good (I feel like I keep saying this, but it’s true!); God knows His stuff about timing! I feel like I was really prepared last year so that I’m in a better place to dive deeper into formation this year, which is really all about diving deeper into God’s heart. We’ve spent a lot of time on different forms of prayer, but especially intercessory and discernment prayer, which we’ll use quite often in Germany! I’m hearing a lot of things for the second time, but everything has taken on a new meaning in conjunction with my experiences from last year.
So, in short, formation and training are going fabulously; keep praying for all of us on the mission teams from Covecrest, Mesa, and Germany!
God, of course, has also been working more specifically on my heart as well. Prayer is so much “easier” this year, and by that I mean that I’ve already done all the hard work of establishing a schedule of prayer, so I’m in a much better place to listen. Something I’ve really been praying about lately is waiting, and just what God means when He asks me to wait. At some point, I had this misconception that God is holding out on me when He asks me to wait for something; and underlying that was (I think) a fear that whatever He would give me “instead” of whatever it is that I wanted wouldn’t fulfill me as much.
God has spoken a lot of truth into that lie lately. In fact, God is a God of promises, and He keeps them. He promises to give us life to the fullest (John 10:10); we just have to realize that His definition of fullness is often a little different than ours. The revelation that I’ve had is that when God asks me to wait, it’s not because He’s holding out on me, but because He wants me to have the fullness of whatever it is that I’m asking from Him. His asking me to wait is, in fact, an invitation to draw closer to Him:
Come, so that I can give all these things to you, come without fear, come to receive, come because I love you, come with your whole heart, come so I can fill you.
Always come...come back...come again...keep on coming...come no matter what.
The beauty of this is that God is filling me, in ways that I never expected. Hm. There is truth to that old adage, “Good things come to those who wait,” after all...
Stay tuned for more on what God has been revealing specifically to the Germany team about our mission there! As always, send me your prayer requests, and know that I am so excited to journey through this year with each of you.
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