مرحبًا

(Hello in Arabic)!

I am currently sitting on a train traveling from Bangkok to Chiang Mai while writing this blog! After two flights, some long layovers, two metros, one 12 hour public train ride, and a 4 hour time change, we will have arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand for our final country on this World Race journey!! Wow. Where has the time gone!!

As some of you may know, the previous country that I was in was Jordan! This is a restricted country- referring to how much liberty we had in sharing about Jesus with others. Jordan was the most private country that we have experienced thus far on the race. We also spent the least amount of time in this country out of all the others, just about 4 weeks! Thankfully, upon arrival to Jordan, we were briefed on how to properly live in a predominantly Muslim culture and were taught how we could share our hearts with others with wisdom, truth, and love. Very grateful to have come from Turkey where we got a decent exposure to the thoughts and beliefs of people who practice Islam!

How did I feel sharing about Jesus with people in Jordan?

I want to be completely transparent with you guys. I quickly realized while being in Jordan that the increase in confidentiality and restrictions factored into my hesitation to sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in this country. I found myself more timid and less likely to approach people like I had in other countries. This troubled me for the first couple of weeks. While this inner turmoil was happening and while I shared what I was walking through with Team C3, we continued doing structured work here in this country, supporting the long term workers in teaching English and doing house visits! Our work often looked like helping with English classes, participating in English cafe discussions, asking the Lord who to talk to and following up with relationships that we had initiated around the town.

Did I ever feel a shift in excitement to share about Jesus with the people in Jordan?

After a couple of weeks into work in this country, the Lord lit a flame of excitement and urgency to SHARE and be bold! He taught me how not to be afraid of the consequences but to truly be unashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of Christ to those who believe (Romans 1:16). Truly, if I have an amazing gift of HOPE to share- WHY would I keep that all to myself? I just had to find more outlets to share this good news about Jesus and encourage my soul with the reason WHY I am out here!

In my yearning for more boldness, the Lord reminded me of truth and revealed to me how I could partner with Him in this country, even if physically present for a short amount of time.

1. Reminder #1: The Lord will ask us to sometimes plant a seed of hope, water that seed, or even harvest the long-term growth that the Lord had been doing in a person’s journey of faith in Jesus! It is a gift to be a part of this process, at any point along the journey of the germination and growth of faith in someone’s life. Even though I preach this to myself often, I needed to be reminded of this truth again as I sat discouraged after not having shared as much of Jesus that I would have liked with a Muslim friend with whom Maggie and I became close. After a couple visits with our friend, a faith filled chaplain came into our meeting with our friend. He had been continuing a friendship with our friend for a long time, and was saying goodbye as he passed along the baton to another chaplain taking his place. Maggie quickly acknowledged the Lord’s grace toward us as she reminded me of how He is faithful to show us the people who will continue to plant, water, and prayerfully harvest the seed of faith in our friend’s life. The pressure wasn’t all on us! As a believer within a community of other believers, I know that the responsibilities of being the planter, waterer, and harvester in a person’s life does not fall all on my shoulders, PRAISE GOD. But what I am called to do is to obey the Lord in whatever He calls me into, to any individual, at any given moment. I may not always be a planter, waterer, or harvester but the question remains: Am I always ready and WILLING to plant, water, and harvest?
2. Reminder #2: At times in the past month, I felt ineffective for the work of the Lord. But the Lord gave me a sweet reminder of a longer lasting role that supersedes even the short-term ministry context. In the States, followers of Jesus are often praying for peace in the Middle East and for the long-term workers; for their favor among people, effectiveness in sharing the hope of Jesus, and that others would come to know Jesus through their faithful work. The truth is, even if I question my work over the past month, I can hold onto one thing- that I now have faces and names of people who have surrendered their lives for the sake of the Gospel in this region of the world, and NOW I can pray for them specifically!! This means that I have the HONOR of praying for my brothers and sisters in Christ who are sacrificing their lives for the sake of Jesus. I now have a privilege and responsibility as a follower of Jesus to support these workers in prayer and testimony when I return home. What an honor to partner with long term workers all over the world, even if my physical body was only in Jordan for a limited time.

The Lord has done some internal work in me over the past month. I have seen great strides in running to Jesus for my affirmation and consuming much of the Word of God to encourage my heart! 

I am praying for my supporters back at home! You guys are a huge part of the reason I am able to do what I am doing, and truly could not do it without each and every one of you.

Much Love!

Katherine

Prayer Requests:

• Effective ministry in Thailand and that our work would be POWERFUL for the Kingdom of God here!
• To finish this race STRONG, as my team has been out here for almost 10 months!
• Encourage each racer as they think about what is ahead for them. Some of them are going to lead future squads with the World Race, and others are going home and chasing after Jesus there, and some do not know yet what is ahead. Prayers for clarity, enrichment in their walks with the Lord and trust in His perfect plan!