On Fire :)

It has been an intense week! Awesome, but intense! While making firebreaks to stop accidental fires, ironically an out of control fire got started. We were running around trying to put it out-grabbing water, beating flames with flames with branches and blankets...it was CRAZY! Everyone was freaking out but it all turned out okay! Charmain, the head lady here, was so chill about it. She said it's happened before. She is such an amazing woman of God who just completely trusts him with everything. There have been so many tough things for her to handle but she never gets upset, she just takes it all in stride and keeps her focus on Jesus and the kids. It is so inspiring to see her and just really reminds me that God is completely sovereign, so obviously worrying or freaking out is just pointless. He's got it under control!
I also got sort of sick for about a day, but it wasn't too bad. Everyone was sweet and willing to help. I seriously love these people! I have had some awesome talks with them and God has already used them SO much in my life and I've gotten to help them out as well! I got to feel like God was really speaking through me when I was having a conversation with Kristen. I was just saying things that came to my mind from passages of scripture I'd been reading and it ended up being exactly what she needed to hear! How awesome is God?! Everyone is always speaking encouragement to each other and pointing out the things others are doing well. There is so much love and acceptance! And they're all insanely fun as well :) It's so different here, I love it!
Lauren has also been such a blessing! We are so similar in so many ways and have had ridiculously similar experiences. It has been awesome to talk with her and learn from her. She is such a woman of God who just does what He tells her and knows what she believes. I am so thankful God put her on my team; it was definitely no accident! :)
Another really cool thing has been Justin & Tiffany, the married couple here. They are just amazing and it has been so cool to see a Godly marriage being loved out between people near my age (26 & 27). Justin is always serving Tiffany whenever she needs anything and she is such a hard worker who is always looking out for him. It's been awesome to watch a Godly couple, and I do definitely love couples :)

I'm learning to really expect things from God and believe He's going to come through for me. I even get disappointed if it doesn't happen, but I'm not upset or angry at God obviously because He is still God and He's already done WAY more for me than I deserve. I'm just learning a huge part of having actual faith-being SURE of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Obviously that is in reference to the Gospel itself but I believe it can be applied to other things as well. I used to think that faith was just having no real expectations and just going with whatever happened. I do think that you need to accept God's will, whatever it is, but that does not mean that I can't ask God for things, hope for them, and believe that He is going to answer my prayers. Because He has answered them! Time and time again! Whenever Jesus healed people He told them that they were healed because of their faith. If they had come at it with the mindset of "oh well, if He heals me that's great, if not that's cool too" then would they really have had faith? Instead they completely believed that He was able to heal them at that moment and that He would! I want that mindset, that faith.
I really want to continue to learn more and more from everyone here, from God and His word, from this ministry, from these kids...just this whole experience! God is showing me SO much! It's awesome! I'm not ready for it to be over but I'm excited to get to take back all that I've learned.

Prayer requests: Lauren, Kristen and I are preaching Sunday! The kids here and their faith, Charmain and all the things she's going through, my team and the other team here as they head to Mozambique next month, the World Race as a whole, safe travel, and we're going to be having 30 hours of prayer and fasting from Saturday at 9pm until Sunday at 3am! :) Love you all! Thanks for your prayers!