Worth It All

God is good, all the time and all the time God is good. Thank to everyone who has been praying for the work God is doing in Malawi. It was a great privilege to serve and spend time with our brothers and sisters in Christ there. I have now returned to the United States having finished my two year commitment serving in Africa. I can’t believe it has been two years! God is working all over the world and it has been an honor to see just some small places that He is working and an even greater honor to join in the work to grow the Kingdom of Heaven.

Before I returned to the USA I finished my time serving in Malawi. I was able to join in so many things going on there. Teaching Bible knowledge at Bethlehem Christian Academy is something that I got to do everyday. I enjoined getting to engage with the students and share Bible stories and discuss what it is to be made by God and what it is to follow Him. The questions the students would ask would encourage my faith as I worked to explain things to them.

Another thing that I got to do while I was serving in Malawi is teach English three times a week to adults in the refugee camp. We would meet after BCA finished school for the day and would work for two hours together on different English rules and concepts. If you would have told me as a child that I would be teaching English when I got older I would have never believed you because I am very dyslexic and despised English. Yet, God has taken something I always thought to be a weakness and used it for His kingdom glory. In college I even got to teach English as a second language and did a whole training course on it not even knowing that I get to use that knowledge in Malawi, but God knew.

Joining Bible studies is one of my favorite things to participate in. Every conversation about the scriptures and God is greater than anything else we could talk about. I will never know all there is to know about God and can always benefit and grow from Biblical discussions. Visiting The Nations Initiative church partners throughout Malawi has been a great blessing to see believers serving God faithfully through very difficult times. Even though all the people in the refugee camps have had to flee from war and conflict in their home countries, their faith and devotion to God remains. In the mist of waiting to be resettled and in the great struggles to find work, believers still praise God through it all. It is amazing to see the faith of our brothers and sisters in Christ! Please do not forget them but continue to pray for them.

The biggest event that I got to be a part of while I was in Malawi was a Bible quizzing competition with 10 of the TNI partner churches. We did three rounds of Bible quizzing over the book of Matthew. One month before the event, I wrote 75 quizzing questions and each church chose 12 students that would competed and test their knowledge. There was also a singing competition that the same competitors competed in. There were several rounds of each Bible quizzing and singing. Hundreds of people attended and it was a great day of fellowship with the TNI church partners and friendly competitions with the churches. Each group did a good job, BCA won first place in the singing competition and Canaan Baptist Church Malawi won second place in quizzing.

Romans 14:7-8

“For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

The verse above was the last thing I taught on right before I was taken to the airport. I can think of no better verses for the finishing of my two years of service. Whether I live or die I belong to the Lord. We are not simply to just start our real relationship with Jesus when we die and go to Him but we are to live now with the life we are given for Him and with Him. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and came to live and died for your sins and you surrender to Him and put you trust in Jesus you will be saved from your sin and be given new life in Christ. If you believe this then you are a Christian and we belong to the Lord in life and death because Christ died for us and rose again. He is Lord of the living and the dead. There is nothing but life and death for us and can be in no other state than one of these two. What great hope there is that in both we belong to our Lord Jesus.

Through everything I have been through during these past two years because of Jesus I can say it was all worth it. I’m still confident and I still know that God called me to the past two years of service. My service to God does not stop now that I’ve returned to America. In life and death, I belong to the Lord. Through everything I’ve been through the wonderful highs, sharing the gospel being in fellowship with other believers and the lows of sickness and loneliness, God has seen me through it all. My ministry service will look different moving forward, but I will be continuing to serve the Lord.

Since I’ve been back home, I’ve had the great privilege of getting to speak at my church and at the BCA annual gala. I’ve loved getting to share some of the stories of what God is doing and what I’ve gotten to see and join in during my time overseas. Please continue to follow along on the blog because I will continue to update where God calls me next. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me and prayed for me and encouraged me throughout these two years. It means so much to me. I cannot express how grateful I am. I hope and pray that you will see through my blog and my stories in my life, the God didn’t use anybody special. He just used me and God wants to use you and is using you. Just give him your yes, and trust him with the rest because following God is worth it all.