So here it goes :)
My team is THE BEST. I am so in love with our team dynamic. Every woman and man on this trip is so clearly walking and loving the Lord that it is so clearly shown in how we all interact. We have been blessed with so much unity, it's crazy! I am so encouraged by my team and leaders! The Lord has overwhelmed me lately in regards to how great my family is here. I am so grateful for my brothers and sisters in Christ!
This past week we had our first discipleship time, which was amazing! Like I touched on before, the Lord is teaching me to make Him my comfort. I have been meditating on some great verses that are creating peace within me. The Lord is blessing me with His Holy Spirit and I can feel it within me, producing unexplained joy, happiness, and peace. The Lord is making me more dependent on Him and less dependent upon myself and others. I am falling back in love with the Lord and I am LOVIN' IT! :)
As many of you know, I went on this project last summer. I actually went to the same campuses that we are on. But man, it hit me on Monday when I stepped on that LaTrobe campus. This is the campus that I had my first evangelistic experience. This is the campus where I have had my most challenging conversations. This is the campus that I have seen people come to Christ. This is the campus where I made lasting friendships. This is the campus that God has placed me at once again. AH, I can't put it into words how I felt, but I basically felt the Holy Spirit living inside of me. Stirring in me a heart for the lost once again. Breaking my heart for what breaks the Lord. Giving me a vision of missions. It feels so great to be back and to be back to do His work for the Kingdom.
So day one of evangelism on LaTrobe went so great! For the first talk, I prayed over Carly & Nina who had an amazing conversation with a girl Vee who expressed interest in meeting up again and potentially joining Student Life. After this conversation, Carly & I had a semi-difficult conversation with a girl named Monty. Her responses to the survey were short but we were still able to shed some light on Christianity. She didn't want to meet up another time, but I know that the Lord is working in her heart and I just pray that something I said resonated within her heart that night. The next conversation we had was with a girl named Maddy. She alluded to some background in Catholicism but she was still seeking for community in her faith. So then we were able to talk about Student Life and how great a community that is! She gave us her contact info and we are going to be following up with her about getting involved! :) And our final girl that we were able to talk to was the most encouraging.
The Lord clearly had this conversation divinely picked out because we randomly didn't talk to 3 other girls before her. We then approached a girl and asked to do a picture survey with her. At first, she seemed to be just plainly answering the questions, not really giving any vibes that she wanted to have a longer conversation of any sort. But then, we had her pick a picture that represented her spiritual life and she picked a picture of nature. At this time, the Holy Spirit made us all of a common ground of seeing God's glory clearly in nature. After having this in common, Kat was able to open up to us more. Towards the end of the survey she started as questions about us and her attitude and vibe completely changed. She was so joyful and happy and excited to be talking to us. She expressed great interest in meeting up again, hanging out, and potentially joining student life! This was such a great encouragement to Carly and I. We just walked away from that conversation with huge smiles that stretched across our whole face. We are hoping that we get to hangout with her soon and just show her the love of Christ!
So this leads into today! Our second day evangelizing. Again, I was placed on LaTrobe's campus but with different members of our team. I went with two people, Blake and Emily. So typically when we go in a group of three, two people talk and one person prays, so that we don't overwhelm the people we are talking to. So as Blake and Emily approached a group to do a survey, I went off and prayed for their conversation. I love praying over people's conversation, I feel like a prayer warrior, fighting off the evil spirits that are trying to enter into their interaction. During my prayers for them, I felt this tug on my heart from the Holy Spirit. He was telling me to just walk and talk to someone on my own. I was super nervous, but I follow the Spirit to guide me and to give me the courage to just talk to someone. As I walked, I sat next to a girl who was reading. After I prayed for a little, I started conversation with her, letting the Spirit take the rest, and He totally did! We got in a great conversation, just about fashion, college, life, etc. Then her friend came up and continued talking to me. It was natural and fun! I was enjoying getting to know them both so much! Then Blake and Emily came and found me and we all continued to talk for about an hour! They wanted to meet up again and hangout and I am so excited to show Christ's love and joy to them again as well!
After that great conversation, I went and visited my friends who own/work at a coffee house on campus. After that, Blake & Emily had another conversation that I prayed over. Just as we were walking to talk to more people, we were actually given the best surprise of the day. WE were outreached to! Four Muslim women were doing a survey outreach and asked if we would like to do it! Of course we said yes, and after the survey just sparked a great, respectful, fun and loving conversation. We talked about Islam and Christianity and it was not in an argumentative environment at all! Blake was asking a lot of great questions regarding their faith and it was such an amazing time being able to hear their responses. One of the girls, Nisa, was like "Blake, you think you have a lot of questions, I have so many for you guys!" They were so excited to hear that we are free every day to talk. They gave us all their contact info and are very excited to meet and talk about Islam and Christianity again. Blake, Emily & I are so excited as well to get to know them and be able to profess our passion for Christianity. Overall, today was such a spirit filled day! The Lord was so present today! I am so excited for the rest of our time here!
Evangelism Day 2
What I love about all of this is that these are just highlights of my stories. And that my stories are just highlights of my WHOLE team's stories. There were so many beautiful and amazing things that have happened on this trip, and it's only been two days of evangelizing! The Lord is doing mighty mighty works in Australia!!!!
Prayer Requests
- Pray for endurance for evangelism. It is so easy to get burnt out or tired even during the day, but pray that our team will push through those feelings and continue to see the need on the campuses that we are at. Pray that we will see the need and importance of what we are doing.
- Pray for a continued love, respect and unity amongst our team. Pray that we point one another to Christ. Pray for our individual walks with the Lord, that they would continue to seek the Lord for our comfort and strength.
- Pray for the campuses of LaTrobe Bundoora, RMIT Bundoora and RMIT Brunswick. These are the three campuses that we do evangelism on and all are in major need of prayer. Pray for those in Student Life (Cru) and those who do not know Christ.
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