I am writing this post today as my heart is so full of love and passion to serve and I want you all to know my heart and the work that the Lord is actively doing.  I am also writing this post as a way to share with my family and friends who support me, both in spirit, in prayer, financially and in love how the Lord has been crazily working in my life in the past couple months. I am also using this post as a way to record the words and thoughts that the Lord has spoken to me and write down the verses that He has shown me. Please continue to pray for both Troy and I as we seek to do the Lord’s will above all else.

God created two human beings. He created them two years apart and countries apart. He orchestrated their lives in very different ways by giving each of them different gifts and talents. He created them with different personalities and created them in His image.  He created them with the power to love and He created them with ability and passion to serve  their  Creator.  Years later, after spiritual and personal refinement, the Lord brought these two people together and what couldn’t have been better timing. God is at the center of these two people’s lives!  God created both Troy and I to serve and love the Lord. He created us so that we might glorify Him in all that we do. Both Troy and I have spent our lives serving the Lord in different places and now the Lord is calling us to serve the Lord together.  Our hearts are on fire for the Lord and our passion is to live a life that is worthy of our calling. Our calling to serve our mighty and powerful Lord.

Yesterday, I spent the day with the Lord. Alone. I went away from the business of my daily life to spend time in quiet with the Lord. In scripture it mentions Jesus going to be alone to pray several times and I wanted to withdraw to a place of solitude.

Matthew 14:22-23 “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. ²³ After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone.”  

Mark 1:35 ” ³⁵ Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” 

Luke 5:16 “¹⁶ But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”  

During my time with the Lord, I wrote out many prayers. Prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of love, prayers for other people, prayers for Troy and mine’s future, prayers of uncertainty and prayers to extinguish any earthly fear. I also read through the book of Matthew. I wasn’t sure where to start reading, however, this past Friday during Doulos’ staff Bible study we talked about Matthew 6 and the Lord’s prayer. I thought that would be a good place to start since I am wanting to spend time in prayer and because it’s the first book of the gospels. Why not! 🙂 I had never read the entire book before and was unbelievably blessed by the words of wisdom and counsel that are found in Matthew.

Matthew 6:7-15: “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:“‘Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name,¹⁰ your kingdom come,your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven.¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.¹² And forgive us our debts,as we also have forgiven our debtors.¹³ And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one.¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Matthew 6:25-27 “²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life.”

Matthew 7:7-8  “⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Matthew 7:24 “²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

Matthew 9:9 “⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.”

Matthew 10:32-42 “³² “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ³³ But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.³⁴ “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father,  a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— ³⁶ a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. ³⁷ “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.⁴⁰ “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. ⁴² And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

Matthew 12:30 ““Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

Matthew 18:19-20 ““Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

I hope these verses bless you today, on the Lord’s day as much as they have for me. My love and passion for the Lord is screaming through my fingers as I write this, and my prayers is that your faith in Christ would be ignited all the more because of these verses.

In 1 Corintians 2:11-12, it talks about who knows a person better than the spirit. “For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” I try my best to convey my love for the Lord and my passion to serve in writing. But I simply am unable to fully express my love for the Lord, other than through service. I love what I do. I love serving and teaching my little first graders. I love teaching them and showing them the love of Christ that is given to them freely. I love interacting in the Dominican culture and being surrounded my God’s beautiful nature as I serve! And now I look to the future and look forward to serving our creator with Troy! In Matthew 18 it says: “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”  I cannot wait to serve with Troy and watch the Lord work through both of us together!

The power of prayer is amazing. Please continue to join me in prayer as I work with Doulos and their ministry to young kids. Continue to pray also for Troy and I as we seek to serve the Lord humbly and fully!  I also ask that you pray about joining me financially. My salary as a teacher comes from fellow follows in Christ who want to be apart in furthering the Kingdom and are excited about my work with first graders! Information about donating money to my work in the Dominican is located at the top of the page under “support”. You can also go to http://www.doulosdiscovery.org/donation.htm.

Prayer:

• Pray for my finances that the Lord would continue to provide for me so that I may reach my financial goal for the year.
• Pray for my first graders, that their minds would continue to grow academically and their hearts to grow spiritually.
• Pray for Troy and I, that we would hear the discerning voice of God

Blessings in Christ.