He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. Deuteronomy 32:4
I am back home. Dublin has been by far the best summer of my life. My experiences there are bound in me and I will be able to talk about them for the rest of my life; I will never forget any of the people I met whilst being there. What an amazing God we have, what a creative God we have and a purposeful God we have. Even as amazing as God is I struggle with trus
t, we all do. After this summer I know those issues are all within myself, something I must battle everyday, something I want to battle everyday because I love God so much and I don't want anything to come between our relationship.
t, we all do. After this summer I know those issues are all within myself, something I must battle everyday, something I want to battle everyday because I love God so much and I don't want anything to come between our relationship. This summer I met so many people from different places, going through different struggles and in different walks in their faith but we all still struggle on the same plane in our relationship with God. We struggle for forgiveness and trusting if God has forgiven us for our Sin. He knows w
e are going to Sin before we even Sin and he has forgiven us, he just wants us to recognize that we have sinned. As I have grown in my faith I often have found that God reveals other sins to me that I never realized were wrong before, but as I have grown I realize yes they are wrong and I do need to pray about them and make changes. This is God changing my heart, which is a beautiful thing. I now know how much I need the word of God everyday and how I must take everything to God, entrust everything to him. Before I wasn't doing this in my life. I was entrusting what I wanted and thought I could deal with everything else myself, often this turned out to be quite messy. I dealt with it until I had to give it over to God, often feeling quite foolish. God is my rock and I will entr
ust everything.
e are going to Sin before we even Sin and he has forgiven us, he just wants us to recognize that we have sinned. As I have grown in my faith I often have found that God reveals other sins to me that I never realized were wrong before, but as I have grown I realize yes they are wrong and I do need to pray about them and make changes. This is God changing my heart, which is a beautiful thing. I now know how much I need the word of God everyday and how I must take everything to God, entrust everything to him. Before I wasn't doing this in my life. I was entrusting what I wanted and thought I could deal with everything else myself, often this turned out to be quite messy. I dealt with it until I had to give it over to God, often feeling quite foolish. God is my rock and I will entrust everything. A couple of the last talks I had with people were with three women Sekai, Nita and Connie. Let me just say these women inspire me! Sekai is from Zimbabwe and invited Steph and I over to her flat for a meal Zimbabwe style, which was amazing by the way. We had amazing conversation about forgiveness of sin. Sekai is an inspiring woman who is living in Ireland without her family and will eventually re-unite with them. Nita is from Mauritius and was brought to Christ this summer through Steph, amazing. I know Christ uses our struggles to share the gospel and this summer was a true testament of that for me. I shared about my childhood with Nita and the
pain I went through with my father because she had asked me. She asked me how I still believed in God after all of this pain, and I responded, "Nita God was the only one there when I was in this valley, he was the only one who picked me back up." She responded, "You believe." I said, "Yes." I asked her, "Do you believe that I believe." She said, "Yes." When we parted that night she told me that one day things would be good again with my father. I later found out that she had a similar situation. I know that for all the pain that has ever occurred in my life that I would go through it over and over again if it was going to be used as it was this summer. The situation with my father was used with every person I met, which is absolutely amazing.
pain I went through with my father because she had asked me. She asked me how I still believed in God after all of this pain, and I responded, "Nita God was the only one there when I was in this valley, he was the only one who picked me back up." She responded, "You believe." I said, "Yes." I asked her, "Do you believe that I believe." She said, "Yes." When we parted that night she told me that one day things would be good again with my father. I later found out that she had a similar situation. I know that for all the pain that has ever occurred in my life that I would go through it over and over again if it was going to be used as it was this summer. The situation with my father was used with every person I met, which is absolutely amazing.God was devout and faithful this summer and I saw him work through every team member. I am going to miss Abbey Presbyterian very much and I hope I can return one day if that's what I am supposed to do. I love the congregation and I can see great things to come for the church and the city of Dublin.
I just ask for prayer for a few specific things:
-Growth and community within Abbey Presbyterian
-Youth Pastor for Abbey Presbyterian
-Pastor Alan Boal and Ruth Boal and family
-Future missionaries to come to Abbey: Kate Kelley (1 year intern), Scott and Lindsay Nimmons
-Returning year interns: Christy Rodriguez and Katherine Manning
-Mentors: David and Kathy Fidati
-Team Members: Jacqueline Lamb, Luke Whipple, Wes Lyle, Katie Manley, Lizi Guthmann, Steph White
Thank You to everyone who supported me through this ministry. I am going to continue this blog for the time being so pleaaaase keep reading if you would like!
