Another week has passed and we’ve officially finished all of training camp! The Lord has been so good and been teaching me so much over this time! I can’t even express how thankful I am for this community and for the Lords goodness!
This week has been filled with so many different sessions and so much learning! We started the week with a session on the validity of the Bible and the physical evidence that supports it. Taking a good look at a what’s actually inside the Bible and the history around it. We also broke it way down to get a solid, firm foundation of how the bible was written and what’s inside it. It was really good to get a refresher and some resources to be able to defend the Bible well!
We spent the rest of the week learning about spiritual warfare and how to combat it. Learning the truth and the tools we need to be able to fight well! Up until now I always knew and believed there was a spiritual battle but because no one ever really talks about the reality of spiritual warfare I hadn’t ever fully grasped it and seen how vulnerable I’ve been to the enemy! Ephesians 6:10 says “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”As Christian’s the most dangerous thing we can do is to pretend that there is no battle, which makes us so vulnerable to the devils schemes. We’ve been recruited by the one true God and the reality is that the enemy is looking for any open doors and opportunities he can find to speak lies and distract us. If this week has taught me anything it’s to be on guard against the enemy and to hold fast to the truth of God! We’ve learned how to continually renew our minds and close any doors that might be an opening for the devil! Even though there is a battle we have no reason to fear because we already have the victory in Christ; but that doesn’t mean we can walk around in denial of the spiritual battle that’s going on!
While we had a lot of sessions and learning this week we also had some more physical training as well! On Thursday we packed up our stuff for the night and hiked a local mountain called Mt.Yonah it was two miles of pretty much straight incline. It was incredibly hard and challenging but the view we got to see when we got up there was so worth it! The Lord is so good and the beauty of his creation points to him! I’ve always loved mountains and they’ve always reminded me of the Lords greatness and majesty; getting to see his creation and the sunset from on top of a mountain was insane! Not to mention how good it felt to accomplish getting up there!
Seeing the beauty of God’s creation from on top of the mountain was amazing but God also blessed us with an amazing full double rainbow earlier in the week! The beginning of this week started off pretty rough with lots of rain, cold weather, and sickness but on Wednesday night during dinner the sun came out and we were blessed with a rainbow! It was such a good reminder of God’s goodness and faithfulness, even when things are hard he’s right there! It gave us a whole lot of joy and just such a good reminder of the Lord’s beauty!
Another thing that we did this week was come up with team names! We spent a lot of time thinking and praying about what our name should be and what the Lord was speaking over our team! Jubilee, a word that our team leader Libby felt like the Lord was really speaking over us this summer! Now you might be wondering what Jubilee means. Jubilee was a year of celebration, when people were forgiven of their debts and set free, a year filled with lots of joy. We’ve really felt like the Lord is speaking joy and freedom over our team, like we’re in our year of jubilee!
There’s so much more to share but this is already so long! I’ll wrap it up with some things we have coming up! Tomorrow we leave for our domestic missions which is so exciting! We’ll be going to North Carolina for the week to partner with a college up there and help with their ministry! Some of the things we’ll be doing there include some manual labor/landscaping, running a boys camp, and working with a children’s home/orphanage.
Prayers for the week would be for safety as we travel to North Carolina and for the ministry we’ll be doing there! Prayers that our hearts would continue to be so open to the Lord and that we’d continue to learn and grow well! Prayers that we’d continue to grow and find community in one another especially as homesickness starts to creep in! Prayers for continued strength and energy as we are starting to get tired!
I’m so thankful for all your prayers and support! Thank you for taking the time to read this and following along! If you have any thoughts or questions leave a comment or message me!
Sincerely,
Emilee
