Whew, what a summer! As I reflect, I am overwhelmed with the LORD’s goodness! He showed his provisions time and time again!
Let me go back to just under a year ago when I was encouraged to begin choosing a more specific way in which I was going to focus my service for our ministry and more particularly the South East Asia team. What occupation was I going to pursue? I began thinking through which occupations would be most beneficial for the community development work I am doing. There are multiple occupations that are quite necessary when developing a community whether it be education, agriculture, healthcare, social work, etc. Thankfully I am always relieved to be reminded that I am working with many other people who have also committed their lives to serving the LORD and our friends in the Philippines, therefore I don't have to know the ins and outs of gardening, be a degreed doctor and teach at the nearby school, I just have to do what it is that the LORD has given me as a skill to do.
For many years I have wanted to participate in social work with a focus on youth. Youth are the hope for our next generation and this stage in life can easily get looked over even though it is an incredibly vulnerable stage. Alongside my desire to serve youth I have been consistently encouraged in my skill of organizing and being the administrative point person for multiple different projects. While this isn't a skill that I had previously seen in myself, I had to trust those around me who are able to see me better than I am able to see myself. If the LORD has given me this skill, I want to use it well for Him. I turned to the LORD in prayer as I asked for his guidance in this decision.
As I went to him in prayer, I felt the LORD was leading me towards organizational management through social work. At the time I wasn't exactly sure what that looked like but I trusted that the LORD was going to meet me as I continued focusing my education on serving in this way.
The LORD was ever so faithful to answer too! By the next semester opportunities had opened up for me to work and serve youth through organizing and leading different aspects of our ministry. First, the LORD led me to becoming the Service Projects Coordinator for Students Living A Mission (SLAM) all summer. This was a need I had heard and been in prayer about. At first I wasn't 100% sold on serving in this position but as I continued to feel the LORD place it on my heart, I sent an email to the SLAM management letting them know what I felt the LORD was calling me to. The response I got, was one that motivated me throughout the whole summer as I knew the LORD had been the one to call me. My direct manager, Derek, responded saying “Rosemary (his manager) and I have been praying for someone to fill this position.” While this wasn't how I had originally seen my summer, I opened it up to the LORD and trusted that he was going to use me. I had been in prayer, they had been in prayer, and the LORD responded to both of us.
I got to use my administrative and organizational skills in a very real way. I was able to connect different families and organizations who needed assistance with youth pastors and their youth groups who wanted to serve in Nashville each week. Getting to share God’s heart for the poor and vulnerable with youth through the organization of different service projects was incredibly special.
The LORD was faithful to lead me and teach me throughout the summer. Whether there were tasks that were new to me or more projects than we seemingly had volunteers for, the LORD always provided. He surrounded me with friends who loved him and were supportive in the things that the LORD was doing. He reminded me of the different ways that His Word shows us who and how to serve. Giving my gifts and talents over to the LORD was the best decision I could have made! As I move into this semester I am continually reminded of how the LORD is near to me. He is continuing to humble me and teach me, as I reflect on the LORD’s goodness, I am confident in his character and the way that he will continue to meet me in those ways.
Deuteronomy 8:2-7
“Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord your God disciplines you. Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God, by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land”
