Hello My Wonderful Friends,
I hope all is well with you and your families.
I just wanted to give you all a little update on my life as of December. God has been so good in so many ways and has shown me things beyond my imagination. I am so excited for what God has in store for the future.
Hurricane Sandy relief has been going good. In November we did a lot of outreaches helping families who were effected by Sandy. Things such as racking up leaves for the elderly, cutting down trees that had fallen, packing Bags of Hope full of food and a warm blanket for those who had lost their house. We also spent time making goodies and cards for our neighbors in this time of distress. New York is just barely getting back on its feet again and I have to say its doing well at it. When the hurricane hit my team and I happened to be in Ohio at the time but we were eager to go back to our home base and get working to help in the recovery process. By the grace of God we were one of the few homesteads that were not as effected as the others and we praised God for that.
The past couple of weeks we have learned alot in our lecture classes. We had Jeff Pratt come and speak on the Father Heart of God. Then Dan Snead came and spoke on The Holy Spirit. Then the following week we had our directer Nick Savoca come and speak on Evangelism. It was just one great week after another. Our hearts were broken before the Lord and then quickly filled back up with God and the work He has planned for us to do. Many tears were shed and many smiles came as a result. I got a word from one of our speakers that I would be going to an “out of the box” mission field. A place where most missionaries don’t go. He said that I will show up and people will be effected by my smile and kind spirit in the midst of those dark places. He said that I have a light, like a candle, over my head that just keeps getting brighter the more I dig into the word and the heart of God. So given what he told me. I have been praying about where exactly I am called to go. Where exactly is this “unreached” place I have been called to. I thought at first I would be scared of the fact of going somewhere “unknown” but actually I am quite excited.. to know that God would choose me to do this kinda work to further His kingdom.
We finished up our last couple of weeks of Lecture with an outreach called a “Prayer Station” where we went into the city (The Bronx and Brooklyn) set up a table and a sign and prayed with people as they were walking to and from work, here and there, last minute christmas shopping etc.. I absolutely LOVE Prayer Stations. It is probably one of my favorite outreaches. I got a chance to pray with a woman who just wanted God. She was diagnosed with cancer and she was desperate for a relationship with someone who could give her comfort in her time of need. So.. she came straight to me and begged for prayer and asked how she could know this God. I prayed with her right there that day on the street, and that moment she gave her life to the Lord. I was so filled with joy that yet another one of God’s people came to know Him. I had another incident of a woman who was walking and her and I actually walked right past each other on the sidewalk. Right when I passed her I had a stirring in me that I needed to go back and pray with her. So I turned myself right around and ran after this woman. I approached her and said, “Ma’am I have a feeling that you need some prayer and I was wondering if I could pray with you today?” she turned and looked at me. With tears in her eyes she said “I am actually on my way right now to go into surgery to get a partial hysterectomy and I walked by you thinking to myself I should stop for prayer but I didn’t and just kept walking. But now you are here, you chased after me and I think God was trying to tell me something.” My heart felt for her and with tears in both of our eyes, we stop and prayed. I do not know to this day any information about her walk with the Lord, but what I do know, is that God is revealing Himself to her in a way she has never known. And in that, I pray that God will blossom her.
Our Lecture Phase portion of the DTS is over now. I am on my way home this very moment for Christmas Break. Which I am more than thankful for. God is soo good. When we return, we will begin our portion of the Outreach Phase. We will have a week of outreach prep, then we will be heading to Washington DC in January for a silent protest called Walk for Life, standing against abortion right there in the heart of the city. We will be there for close to 2 weeks and then return to New York for a day to repack and do laundry, before we fly out for our over seas experience. I am so excited about outreach because I feel like I have taken the past 3 months to learn about God and who He is in my life and now I can take it out into the world to people who need Him most. We will be heading back to America in March 2013.
I am in desperate need however for finances to pay for outreach. I need close to $1,900.00 before January to help pay for airfare, housing, transportation, food, and other expenses. I do not know where exactly this money will be coming from or how I will get it. But would you help me pray for this area of my ministry? This is probably the biggest place I am in need at the moment, at I am trusting in God that He will provide somehow, someway.
God is doing great work here in New York and I am so beyond happy that I get to be apart of it.
Thank you all for keeping in touch and walking with me along this path of ministry. I will keep you all updated very soon.
Blesings,
<>< Shelby ><>
