Round 2

Everyone say hello to the Africa Semesters Experience ’22 racers!!!!!

I’ve spent the past week and a half in Gainesville, GA preparing for squad leading, meeting the racers and all I have to say is, I’m so grateful that my God is THE gracious God of restoration.

To be honest, I ended my race in September with some hurt I hadn’t released to the Lord. This week, I experienced the Lord meeting me right where I am (crying on the floor in the training center) and simply loving me intentionally.

During worship on the first day of training camp with all the racers, the Lord asked me to do something really scary… I mean like on a scale of 1 to 10, this is a 10 kind of scary for me. While I’m not going to go into details of what He’s asked me to do, I want to paint a picture of what that moment looked like and paint a picture of who God is.

So there I was, on my knees, holding my hands out in front of me, wide open, singing Nothing I Hold Onto by United Pursuit. I heard the Lord ask me to trust Him in this request He made of me and all I could tell Him was how scared I was.

Then, instead of walking away from me because I didn’t jump with immediate obedience to do this scary thing, He knelt down in front of me and just held His steady hands out for me.

He didn’t push. He didn’t condemn. He didn’t abandon me on that floor. He came in closer. He met me right where I was, (crying on the floor, scared out of my mind) and patiently comforted me until I was ready to place it all in His hands because that’s the kind of man He is.

He’s gentle. He’s steady. He’s patient. He’s comforting. He restores and redeems. He willing to come off His thrown to meet His daughter on the floor to hold her steady while she cries when she’s scared.

Even though this is all fresh and still somewhat scary, I can’t help but want to share just how beautifully God meets His people right where they are. I did absolutely nothing to deserve His kindness in that moment yet, He was more than willing to cover me in it.

Just when I think I’ve maxed out with the Lord — maxed out of His goodness, His kindness, His patience, His love, there He is ready to take me deeper, further, and higher.

There He is ready to give me more.

Because He loves me.

Unconditionally.

Because that’s just the man He is.

That being said, I fully believe I’ve been called, intentionally, to partner with AIM again. The Lord is working on something I can’t really comprehend just yet but I trust His leadership and I’m expectant to see Him move in miraculous ways.

He’s faithful to redeem and He’s faithful to restore. Truthfully, I’m just grateful He’s chosen me to be apart of the of this story He’s writing.

So… Next stop, South Africa 🙂