“We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” Acts 5:32
Hola friends and family,
A week ago today our team arrived in Mexico to attend the School of Missions! Throughout the six weeks, we will be visiting different cities where we will get to serve with church plants. Pastor Trent and Pastor Aaron have been teaching us classes in the morning and evenings on surrendering to God’s will, prayer and intercession, what it means to be a missionary, how to be a missionary, and so much more. During the week, we have participated in multiple outreaches from park outreach and street witnessing to children’s ministry at the local church. But that’s not all! As busy as it may sound, every morning we are able to have an hour of quiet time with the Lord as well as devotionals taught by one of the leaders.
One of the outreaches we did this week was street witnessing with Calvary Chapel La Gloria. At first, most people didn’t want to do street witnessing because of the fact that we’re uncomfortable when it comes to talking to strangers. It’s especially difficult when they speak a different language! Which is why I love it so much. Yes, I still get that initial nervous awkward feeling and those thoughts of “what if I don’t know what to say” or “what if they don’t want to listen,” but it is what it feels like after that which makes it worth it. Because in reality those feelings are put there to distract us from the real reason we are there, for making disciples of all nations and sharing the gospel to the ends of the earth. Those exact feelings I get every time, and every time God gets rid of them. It doesn’t always go away right when you ask or expect it to, but it does happen in His timing for a certain reason.
When we were street witnessing that day with Carlos and La Gloria, I was pushed and I was stretched. After Carlos talked us through what we would be doing, we got put in our groups and left the parking lot to begin our walk through the streets. Right away we saw a guy at the exit and I thought that Aaron, who was with me and two other girl students, would go up and talk to him. But instead, being the leader, he suggested that I go up to the man while he translated for me. At first, I was shocked and hesitated, but before I could stop myself, Aaron and I were walking toward the guy. I put on a smile and acted normal and continued walking to him while on the inside I was praying to God to help me get over the fear that was inside of me because at that moment I was extremely terrified about the whole situation as thoughts were just racing through my head. As soon as he looked up and said a simple “hola”, I immediately had the overwhelming peace and joy wash over me as if a second ago I wasn’t internally freaking out. After we talked and prayed over him my mind was recalling what just went down in the past ten minutes. The more I thought about it the more I realized what it was. It was the Holy Spirit! That overwhelming peace and joy were the Holy Spirit filling me so that God could use me for His work. After that, I felt so overjoyed and bold as excitement just filled me and made me want to go up to every person and tell them the good news of Jesus Christ. It was such a once in a lifetime experience that just made me so in awe of what God can do in any of us. I don’t have to be a special person for God to use me to do His mighty work. We just have to obey. Obeying is so key to doing ministry because when we obey Him we are saying, “Here I am God, I surrender and am willing to do anything You have for me.” In Acts 5:32 (NIV) it says,“…and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.” It is said so simply and is so easy to understand, just obey. God has used this small word to do many things in my heart that help me better understand what it means to not only be a missionary but a young girl after God’s own heart. It just goes to show us that God can use such simple small things to do wonderful radical things in our lives!
Thank you for partnering with and praying for me as I serve in Mexico and learn at Calvary School of Missions. I am still raising funds for my tuition which is 1,640.00. If you’d like to partner with me financially click the link below.
Prayer Requests:
- For the nationals that accepted Christ
- For the team that we stay safe
- For me to take in all that God is teaching me
Blessings,
Sienna