“Come to me, all who labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and
learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29
Yesterday I was apart of meeting with
Pastor Moses to discuss the schedule for the next couple of weeks.
Starting today we are going to be traveling A LOT! Pastor Moses works
for Helping Hands Ministry and they have over 68 churches through out
Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. We will be traveling to many of these
churches to go and teach and share and to encourage the church and
the communities. I was at first overwhelmed with the busyness of the
schedule and with my own discomfort with standing in front of people
and teaching… but I was reminded of a couple of things on my bike
ride home. First of all, my rest comes from the Father. And that I
don’t need a ton of time or anything like that but that as I am
walking with him and as I do the things he has called me to do… I
am in communion with him and there is rest in that. Second of all…
it is becoming clear to me that God is calling us as a team to walk
as teachers and preachers. That is scary, but at the same time its
clear that Gods hand is in it and its weird for me to say this but I
am actually excited about getting up in front of people and speaking
(I don’t think ever in my life I have been able to say such a thing
before…)
This past weekend there were over a 130
pastors and church leaders here for a pastors conference lead by
Pastor Moses. It was really neat to be apart of it. Moses asked us
to sing many times and welcomed us to teach as we were lead. I
didn’t think that I wanted to share… I didn’t think that God
could use me to speak to a room full of pastors. But as I was
sitting in the back during some awesome/ lively African worship God
really showed me that he had something to say through me. Its been
pointed out to me many times since I have been on this trip that I
have a different perspective of church and of ‘pastors’ and that
sort of thing because of growing up with my dad and at Seaside (out
of the whole novas project I am the only pk here…) He really
showed me that my heart is really burdened for them and for their
families… and I was excited to stand up and share with them about
finding rest in the Lord. The more and more I think about how many
different pastors and their families we will meet as we travel the
more and more excited I get. I want them to be encouraged. I want
to be apart of praying for them. I hope and pray that God uses my
team as an instrument to lighten their burden and to bring them rest.
I know about the pressures they face… I have watched it through
out my whole life… and I am excited to meet them and to love on
them and their families. We are just passing through, but they will
remain there in their villages and will continue to be present with
the people we meet and ministering and loving on them.
So basically… I’m excited. God is
challenging me to walk boldly in speaking. I’m excited to walk in
this challenge. I’m excited to learn to let God use me in new ways
… but it is definitely a challenge! I’m excited to go. Excited to
travel and to meet different people. Excited to love on them and to
share with them. Excited to learn to find rest in Christ, even in the
midst of tiredness. God is good and I’m excited about that!
