N O V E M B E R
We made it, y’all.
I’m rolling in to this month like that one cousin who shows up to family Thanksgiving 2 hours late, makeup half done, with no covered dish to share…
Sitting down to write my November newsletter was a bit of a chore, and as I looked back over the month of October I unintentionally got lost in a year’s worth of grief, nostalgia, and celebration.
So much has happened in 2017.
Now, here we are, ready to greet 2018 in a handful of weeks.
Although I’ve been living quite the story, I haven’t been faithful to tell it.
Many of you have followed along as I’ve transitioned from Kentucky to Georgia, and it’s admittedly been a bumpy ride! In 5 short months I’ve moved three times, worked four training camps, had back surgery, changed my last name, and flown across the pond to Europe again.
We’re here in Europe now, B Squad and me.
We set aside time in Serbia to debrief their first month on the field, rest, celebrate, and center our hearts on our next destination. We worshiped, we danced, we prayed, we asked some really hard questions, we dug around in Scripture looking for answers, and at the end of it all… we encountered the living God.
And that’s exactly what we carried into Romania: a hunger to see others encounter the living God, too.
Our Romanian host didn’t hold back, and described in detail the difficult environment we were stepping into. The spiritual influence in southern Romania comes primarily from witchcraft and apprehension that has lingered on since recent wartime. The spirit of fear remains prominent, making the Gospel seem like another piece of propaganda old enemies used to brainwash them into submission to an external (and usually untrustworthy) authority.
It’s dark here.
Admittedly, it’s been battle after battle since we got into Oltenia County where we will spend our time this month, and it has been an overwhelming blessing to have men and women at home praying and encouraging us as we come against fear, rejection, depression, and sickness!
We have courage to step out against fear because we know perfect love.
My God is Love.
And even in the presence of immeasurable fear, Perfect Love never loses his power.
Ephesians 2 says that Perfect Love tears down walls of hostility.
2 Corinthians 1 says that Perfect Love is able to comfort those who are in any affliction.
Ephesians 3 says that Perfect Love is wide and long and high and deep and surpasses all knowledge.
Luke 22 says that Perfect Love was broken and poured out for you.
That’s the good news, my friends.
If you’d like to pray for B Squad this month, that’s exactly how you can.
Pray that we’d tear down walls of hostility, comfort those who are in any affliction, love deeply, and be broken and poured out for others.
If you’d like to pray for the ministry we’re working with this month, please ask God to send more workers into the vineyard. This region cries out for freedom from spiritual oppression and heaviness that’s been passed down through generations.
If you’d like to pray for me, well, I could use an extra dose of grace. A sweet friend of mine wrote me a note before I left that said, “Stretch and God will fill in the gaps. You will not be burnt out.” Please pray that this would be the overwhelming truth! So far, I can testify that it has been.
It means the world to know you’re standing in the gap and interceding for B Squad and me.
How can I be praying for you?
How is the Gospel motivating you right now?
I’d love nothing more than to hear how the hand of God is moving in and through his people, and how I can join the fight with you by praying for his kingdom to come!
“Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Philippians 1:18b-20
I’m looking for 15 people to join my support team at $50 a month. For more information, email [email protected]
