“I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper or ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete”. 2 John vs 12
God is doing so much. And for these couple months, I am serving with my Squad in the Middle East. It has truly been a blessing to be able to press into the Lord and be part of what He is doing here. It’s been a wild ride- filled with adventure, seeing new lands, and building amazing connections out on the field. The vibrant culture and Biblical lands have also collided to produce something that will not easily be forgotten. And it’s just getting started. We will continue to go after it in the Middle East through February, where we then plan to fly to Georgia (the country) and begin serving there on mission.
Near the beginning of this adventure and after Ukraine ended, I debated on how I would share these stories. In Ukraine, I felt led by the Lord to reduce my screen time; and as a result my blog output was also reduced as well. Furthermore, the Middle East is a very sensitive area, and doing Kingdom work here requires one to be careful and discerning. It is amid this backdrop that I ran into a crossroads: “How much do I choose to share about the Middle East (or any other sensitive access countries that we end up working in on the Race?)”. I continued to think about it and to pray into my time here.
The scripture at the top really came to my mind as this unfolded. This passage has similar wording to end the short letters of 2 John and 3 John. In today’s day and age, it’s a powerful piece of scripture! John tells his recipients that even though he has ink and a pen (letter writing) at his disposal, he would rather see them face to face- and that “our joy may be complete”. He realizes the value of communicating face to face- and being able to be with his brothers and sisters in the Kingdom as he discusses important matters. In this writing, he chooses to not include things to make the letter longer so that he can instead tell them to them when he sees them.
I love this verse in today’s age of social media. It is super easy to want to share stuff and get a lot of “likes” and “comments”. Who has the best Instagram stories or the coolest FB posts or the most captivating blogs? And the World Race creates a big platform to indeed share. What were my motivations behind sharing stuff? When I first launched on the Race, I wanted to blog as much as possible to keep supporters informed as to what was going on. Besides, many of them are far away from me, and there are a lot of them to keep track of! But as time went on, I started to feel burned out- and began to see the value of sharing things in person with the coworkers of the faith.
The purpose of the World Race is to glorify God and to partner with Him throughout the Nations. As I entered the Middle East, there was an important decision to make. Yet for me, what I felt called to do was very straightforward. As a result, I am not going to be blogging or posting anything about ministry updates, stories from the field, adventures, etc. from the Middle East. This will help protect people that we serve with, and it will also allow me to focus on stories from other countries towards the end of the Race. Furthermore, I plan to write a few “Throwback” blogs to shed some light on ways the Lord moved prior to launching overseas.
To the reader: As I write this, I really look forward to seeing you. I look forward to getting to cross paths with you when I am back in the States. The Lord has done so much on the Race so far- and there are tons of stories to share from being out on the field. I can’t wait to catch up face to face and talk about what God is doing. When this happens, I will be glad to share and talk about my time in the Middle East. In addition, if you are part of one of the churches or groups that supported me financially and prayerfully as I prepared for the Race, I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for partnering with me and helping make serving in the Middle East possible for my squad and I. I would love to speak about these experiences when I return.
It is my hope that what is going on out here inspires you to continue to invest and play an active role in the Great Commission. The stories that are both shared on this blog and what I will talk about in person are to point out what God is doing out here and what He is doing with me. If this inspires you to pursue missions, get out of your comfort zone, and/or live out a sold-out life to the Lord, I am very happy for you and also praising God! I would love to talk to you more about this as well. Again, I look forward to seeing you face to face and allowing the stories to encourage and edify you.
Please pray over this: for our Squad to be united with reconciliation and trust- with each other, the leadership, and the people that we are serving with. Also, if you would like to join my prayer group (where I do post regular updates), please message me and download the Signal app. Excited to see what the Lord will continue to do in 2022 and beyond!
