After The Walking In Between

{About two months ago I wrote a blog post called The Walking In Between, and in it I mentioned that I was really struggling with not seeing the fruit and change that I had imagined here in Enniscorthy. This blog post is most definitely a testimony and follow up to where I was then. So before you keep reading, it may help if you go back and read that one if you haven't already.}

The Principle of Sowing & Reaping

6 months ago my parents sent me the book "The Blessed Life" by Robert Morris. Since I grew up in Gateway Church I had heard Pastor Robert preach the principles of biblical giving many times. This time reading it through the principle that stuck out the most to me was the principle of sowing and reaping. It's a principle sprinkled throughout the bible from start to finish, and one that applies to every area of our lives. As a missionary here in Enniscorthy with Alive Church it was a principle that was becoming more obvious to me than I had ever known before. I found myself pouring into the church day after day but I wasn't seeing much growth from it. I wasn't seeing people saved left and right. I wasn't seeing large numbers of people joining the church. People would come up to us and say "you know you may not see the fruit of all you're doing while your here in Ireland." While that statement is true, let me just tell you now that it is not the most encouraging thing to hear when your the one plowing the fields.

One morning in particular I was just feeling discouraged about it all and the Lord led me to this verse, a verse very clearly about the principle of sowing and reaping in Galatians 6:9,

"And do not grow weary in doing good. For in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

Youth Retreat

Here's where the story gets good. That due season for me began about 3 weeks ago when we had our first ever youth retreat with the 16-18 year old teens in our youth group. I came into that retreat with a heart full of expectancy to see God move in their lives. He showed up, big time. So many of the things that we had been discipling and teaching for the past 10 months at youth, clicked. Many of them listened and heard God speak to them personally for the first time or in a way they hadn't experienced before. They grew in community with each other. They would just start encouraging each other during small group time and free time. We had an absolute blast swimming in the Irish sea, eating s'mores, and playing cards. I left that camp knowing that the 10 kids we came with were leaving changed.

SuperKids, Teen Camp & Beltway Park Baptist Church

Then Beltway came, which if you don't know Beltway is our sending church back home in Abilene, Texas. They come each year to help put on a kid's and teen camp with our church as a community outreach. Again, I had incredible expectations for this camp. James, I, and the whole church had been praying into this camp for the past 6 months. God came through once again in HUGE ways.

Monday, 5 people, from our church were baptized in the Irish sea while it was pouring rain and the sand was blowing across the beach. It was a pretty crazy baptism scene.
Wednesday night, Sherrie Saltzgaber, came and preached on our identity in Christ and the Holy Spirit showed up and encountered people in mighty ways. That night I watched as one of my closest friends who had come with the Beltway team led a young girl to Christ. Her father had been saved a few months before. I watched as teens and kids I've been ministering to the past 10 months encountered the Holy Spirit for the first time and every day since I've been amazed at the change I see them.
Thursday, Diane Monteith, our incredible administrator began counting up the kids and students we had attending the camps for the week. We found out we had over 400 kids between all 3 camps, which happened to be the number our pastors heard from the Lord back in January when they were praying into the year.
Friday, in bible story, the kids learned about the prodigal son and heard the gospel message taught and many of them were saved.
Our Teen Camp was the biggest and best yet. There were 64 teenagers that attended and there was more spiritual breakthrough in small group discussion and the teachings than we had had ever seen before. We even had 5 new kids show up this Friday night at G-force (our youth service) that had attended Teen Camp.

On top of all of that, James and I were just ministered to and loved on by our Beltway family in ways that our hearts just needed. We had so many incredible prophetic words spoken over us, and people praying for us. We were filled to overflow by the end of it and were utterly exhausted.

It was a sweet answer to prayer. I remember just sitting down in a chair on Wednesday night, sobbing, as I watched a few dear friends being prayed over. I was talking to someone about all the emotion I was feeling at that time and they said "it's just the breakthrough you had been needing to see and you're finally seeing it." That was exactly it and my heart was exploding with the beauty of finally getting to see the harvest in due season.

For all of you who have been praying for us and prayed for camp, thank you! For every person that came with the Beltway team that reads this, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for giving of your time, energy, and finances to come and invest in our church and community. The seeds you sowed and the harvest you brought in during your time here will not be forgotten. Every little thing you did this week, every sacrifice you made to be here, was seen by Father God and the impact of it will resound for eternity.

Major Prayer Need

One more thing we could really use your prayer on. We need you to be praying that our immigration paperwork goes through and we get our stamp to stay here for another year in the next 3 weeks. It would take a miracle for that to happen seeing that we have been working on this for the past 9 months to no avail, but that's okay because miracles are what my God specializes in so we are believing it is going to happen!

Here are some pictures from our camps! Enjoy!