Seek Me and Find Me

Well, I will be leaving for Ireland in 4 days! AHHHHHHH!!! I have to tell you, God is doing such a good work and I am so excited about all that He has in store. To begin with, “Team Ireland” (our group of ten individuals who have been called to Ireland for the next three months of outreach), had an interesting discussion in our team meeting about two weeks ago. Our two staff members told us that out of the three months of outreach, only three weeks were actually scheduled. Meaning, only two contacts have actually responded to inquiries about ministry opportunities in Ireland. So right now this is what our calendar looks like for the next three months:

· April (has 30 days) – There will be two weeks at the end of April in which half of our team is scheduled to work with the YWAM base, for reconciliation, in Northern Ireland. The other half still has no commitment at this point.  This leaves the first two weeks of April without any scheduled ministry opportunities (this also means that we have no idea where we will be staying during this time).

· May (31 days) – nothings scheduled (including housing or any other arrangements)

· June (we will be in the country for 28 of the 30 days) – One week is scheduled, in which half of our team will be going back to Northern Ireland to volunteer at a Christian concert. The concert will be raising funds for a clean water project in Africa.

So In the 89 days of our being in the country, we only know what we will be doing for about 21 of those days. All of this means that God is preparing us to be lead by Him, and Him ALONE. This is such an exciting realization! It is reminiscent of the time that Jesus sent out His disciples, as seen in Luke 9:1-6, “Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And He said to them, ‘Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them’. So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.”

In the same way, we will be entering the mission field in obedience to God’s call to go and make disciples and to teach them all which God has commanded us. We are going in faith; we are trusting God will provide both the housing and the ministry opportunities. This is so exciting! We will not be entering the mission field with a specific destination, nor will we be bound by assigned tasks that are of our own making. We will enter Ireland expectant, waiting for God to speak and to lead; we will wait for Him to provide housing and to open doors for ministry in accordance with His will rather than our own wants or desires.

Because of this turn of events all our team members have been encouraged to get involved and make contacts; finding ways we can serve in ministry while we are in Ireland. So I sent an e-mail to a ministry called “Tirzah”. It is a ministry in Dublin that works in the area of awareness, advocacy, and prevention of human trafficking in Ireland. They e-mailed back, were very excited about our desire to get involved in the work they are doing and hopefully we will be able to get involved with the ministry sometime in June. Two other girls on our team have also been looking into different opportunities to work in ministries of justice in Ireland; have sent a few e-mails and received some replies. So we are very excited about the doors God will continue to open for us in ministry.

We met again, as a team, earlier this week and had a time of intercession. The staff felt that God was telling them that He did not want them planning the outreach; He wanted the entire team to be involved. So we just spent some time in prayer, asking God to reveal His will to us.  And God spoke. To me He simply said, “seek me”. Along with this He gave me two verses. One was, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13).  The second verse was, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). Other people on our team received such words as trust, submit, veil, and open eyes. One girl said God is telling us to trust Him. Another said He is asking us to submit to Him; to surrender and He will lead us.  Another girl said that she just kept seeing a veil and that God wants us to look deeper; to see beyond the veil.  Lastly there was a word we are to enter Ireland and walk with our eyes wide open; let God reveal our mission in accordance with His will. This was such a sweet, encouraging, and exciting time as we all realized that God has a very specific purpose in mind for our team.

On Tuesday the entire base met together, prayed for each outreach team, and then had an opportunity to voice what people thought God wanted to say to our team. As people laid hands on us and prayed for our team in one accord, again God spoke.  People began voicing what God was laying on their hearts; God confirmed the things He had told us as a team. The two main words that were repeated were “surprise” and, “fire”. Multiple times people spoke out about how they believed that God has a plan but that we should be ready for surprises. These surprises were spoken of as good, in that God is going to guide and direct us, but that we should be flexible. We need to be willing to say yes to whatever it is that God leads us to do at any given moment. There were also multiple people who either received the word fire or saw an image. This fire was spoken of as being a visible passion; that our passion for the things of God would be visible and that this fire would spread as we are obedient in ministry. There was also a word spoken about the doors of Ireland; it was just a picture. It was not known exactly what the picture meant, but it will be interesting to see how the picture fits in with the work that God will do with our team in Ireland.

Well this is it… the lecture portion of the DTS is officially over and all three outreach teams will part and head out for three months of ministry. On Wednesday we had our last local outreach.  So I went, along with three other people from my DTS, to Passpartout for the last time (the youth ministry where a fellow YWAMer and I tutor three kids in English while the other two play with younger kids). After we had our tutoring session, we went to another part of the building and we all made Mexican food for a group of six kids. They had nachos, quesadillas, and fried ice cream. This was definitely a cultural experience for the French speaking Swiss children, who have lived their whole lives without ever tasting guacamole. So it was a lot of fun to be with them as they had this new experience. But the very best part was that I was able to go play soccer with three of the boys (they were about 10 years old). We played on and off for almost two hours. We spoke different verbal languages but soccer is a universal language; I experienced this first hand on Wednesday. We laughed, did tricks, played two on two, communicated through hand signals and other nonverbal means. We talked too, even though we may not have known the exact translation, we were able to figure out what was going on. By the time the boys had to leave I was so disappointed to see them go. I haven’t enjoyed myself so much in quite a while. I have missed playing soccer with kids, and playing with these little boys was so life giving. It was such an incredible and exciting experience; I was able to build a relationship and invest in their lives in spite of the language barrier. We could communicate with each other in our common love for a sport. It was such a joy. It also brought a whole new element of enjoyment to the beautiful game of soccer; a universal language and a tool for ministry that opens doors and creates community.

So God is good. I am so excited about all that he has done, and for all that He has in store for our team in Ireland. So I will continue to keep you updated on how God continues to move. To God be the glory, honor, and power forever. Amen.