Day 14: The Gratitude Challenge

Involvement in a women's ministry evokes the most fulfilling and sometimes most heartbreaking emotions. When I pray for specific women at specific times, I find myself crying so much on their behalf -- praying that they may have a powerful encounter with the true and living God.

Photo Credit: http://www.faithandhealthconnection.org/

During the week of prayer and fasting, my ministry prayer points generally covered the spiritual growth of each member of the life group I am leading. My heart also ached for three specific women who I know God has been calling to come home and accept Him fully. I love these women so much! Crying out for each of them during the fast was no exception.

I recall a particular moment when discouragement took over me and asked God if I should continue on reaching out to women. I suddenly felt a spiritual attack because I started doubting my capacity to serve them.

When my husband came home in the evening, I related to him the negative thoughts I had that day. That very same moment, I decided to check my Facebook profile and saw the sweetest, most timely message from my beautiful friend Jean:

♥ Can't wait for small group on monday ♥

Robert and I couldn't help but laugh on how clear God's response was!

And then I received a text the following day from another lady:

"Sam, the prayer meeting earlier was so powerful. I just have to share it with you because nobody else in my world will get what I'm saying. Wow, it was so moving. Everybody around me, including myself, just exploded and started praying in the Spirit! It just kept on flowing. Thank you for leading the way to our great Father for me. Now I get it."

I believe God had to assure me one more time to stay passionate in helping women get closer to Him. He has a purpose for me in that area.  I do not know what the future holds for me in terms of ministry but I should just keep believing that He will lead the way. Just like He did in this story!

Thank you God that You respond so clearly!

"The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever--do not abandon the works of your hands." (Psalm 138:8)

Days 12 to 14: A Recap

Today’s Bible Verse
“Wisdom… is peace-loving and courteous. It allows discussion and is willing to yield to others.” (James 3:17)

My laptop got overwhelmed with all the applications running so it conked out more than a week ago.

I went through every program, system file and application. I finally got it back to great working condition last night.

That’s the reason I was not able to blog in the past several days. However, I used my trusty digital voice recorder to make sure my thoughts during the past days are noted.

Day 12
My first baseball game: Nashville Sounds versus Oklahoma Redhawks. Thank you to the staff of Every Nation for the tickets!


Look at this pic. Do you think we represent Every Nation?


Day 13
The Every Nation staff prepared breakfast for us right before missionary training. It was so sweet of them!


Day 14
Here is a group photo of the missionary training class in Every Nation. They did a wonderful job in teaching us how to raise financial and prayer support.



What I learned during these days:
There is power in gratitude to heal us spiritually, emotionally, and relationally. I love being surrounded with people who are always grateful for everything that they are experiencing in life -- whether good or bad.

An attitude of gratitude opens up my heart to God, enabling me to see the world the way He intended it to be.

Learning about this made me excited to say thank you to all of the people I came across with. Staying in a place where culturally, people kinda look out for themselves a lot and not really for others -- this is very refreshing to do.