Hello Beloved Friends!
It's been awhile since our last post and we write this now only A WEEK away from our departure! I wish we could give a full detailed account of all the amazing ways we've seen the glory, providence, generosity, and absolute love of God revealed to us through this trip already.
With that being said there's a lot to catch you guys up on. The last two weeks have been kind of crazy and we want to be honest with you in the reality of this trip and everything that we've been facing in the midst of it, challenges and all. About two weeks ago Katie began to have some trouble breathing. The problem persisted over the course of a few days and escalated one night when she began to experience chest pain as well. Katie ended up going to the ER that night. We had no idea what was causing the shortness of breath or chest pain and were hoping to get some answers, but none of the doctors were able to come to any official conclusions, even after being given steroid shots, an inhaler, and getting blood work done. Nothing was really working and there weren't any real answers and we couldn't help but think that perhaps it might be of a more spiritual matter that was taking place.
About this same time I (Karen) had been experiencing a lot of spiritual turmoil- feeling defeated, being stuck on past failures that when concentrated on left me feeling unwanted by God and unfit for a trip with ministry as its purpose. I felt like I had lost my joy.
Both Katie's health concerns and my spiritual "heaviness" were threatening to take our focus off this trip. One day Katie got an e-mail from Corine, the missionary we are meeting over in Swaziland. It read:
Hi Katie,
Just wanted 2 let u know that u and john and karen hav been on my mind
and in my prayers. As u continue w/prep 4 trip and get closer 2
departure u will face increasing resistance from the enemy; hold fast
and do not be discouraged! The team here is praying for ur health and
for safe travels. Keep up the good work and we'll c u soon.
Love,
Corine
The e-mail served as an affirmation that we weren't completely off-base in thinking that we were facing spiritual opposition in this trip and so we decided to combat it with prayer by committing to praying for the trip every day at 6PM. Some of you have committed to praying with us and we are so thankful for your faithful payers. Katie has since been feeling much better and the next day I received a check in the mail that had a sticker with John 15:11 printed on the back: "These things I have spoken to you so that my JOY may be complete in you and that your JOY may be made full." Such a perfect word from the Lord after having specifically written in an e-mail the day before that I had felt like I had lost my joy. A fact that makes this even more amazing- this check was from a stranger! Someone who I have never met, but who had heard about the trip through someone else. If I were Beth Moore, I'd be shouting "Glory!" right now.
Along with that we had begun getting a little nervous about finances for the trip coming together, but that same week we began to receive an renewed and abundant outpouring of donations towards the trip. God is so faithful! He is not just Provider at one moment in our lives, but continues to be because it is his very essence! He has and will continue to be all that He says He is!
We are so thankful that God has brought us out of those difficult few weeks and has restored to us health, joy, and hope, but we are not so naive to think that the spiritual battle does not persist. We would greatly appreciate your continued prayers. Pray for God's glory to shine through the entirety of this trip. Pray that we would have the strength, endurance, and focus to get everything done that needs to before we leave. Pray that our hearts and our minds would be pleasing to God, and that He would continue to prepare us to be able to authentically share the love of Christ with the people in Swaziland and prepare the people that we will encounter along our travels to receive us and God's Word with open hearts.
We have so many more amazing stories of how the Lord has prompted people's hearts to partner with us in this trip and of how He has encouraged us and hopefully we get a chance to share more of those stories with you! It has been absolutely incredible to see the reality of the spiritual realm be revealed so tangibly.
We have been learning a lot about the power of prayer through this trip and I want to leave you guys with a few scriptural reminders of what God says about and has done through prayer.
The power of prayer is not the result of the person praying. The power resides in the God who is being prayed to. God's response is not dependent upon the eloquence of our words. (Thank goodness, because I always stumble over my words and never seem to be able to convey what's truly in my heart!) One of my favorite verses is Romans 8:26-27, which says " In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God."
James 5:16-18 declares, "…The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops."
"…I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you" (Matthew 17:20).
"The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." -2 Corinthians 10:4-5
The power of prayer has overcome enemies (Psalm 6:9-10), conquered death (2 Kings 4:3-36), brought healing (James 5:14-15), and defeated demons (Mark 9:29). God, through prayer, opens eyes, changes hearts, heals wounds, and grants wisdom (James 1:5). Do not underestimate the power of prayer because it draws on the glory and might of the infinitely powerful God of the universe! Daniel 4:35 proclaims, "All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: 'What have you done?'"
"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints" -Ephesians 6:18
P.S. We are also very excited for our volleyball tournament on Saturday (our final fundraiser before we head out)! Visit the event page at Support Missions: Play Volleyball
and sign up here Sign-Up Sheet. Looking forward to spending the day with all of you!
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