STRETCHING ME OUT

It’s so good to be ‘home’. The past nine days have been a whirlwind as I traveled to Columbia, South Carolina and went through an intensive missions/evangelism training.

The natural question is ‘Well what did you learn?’.  Hmm. I would have to answer that I learned many things from two major trainings…the official one I signed up for, and the unexpected one the Lord  had planned for me.

The official training was called “Simply The Story” (simplythestory.org), and was centered on sharing the word of God to people groups that cannot read or write, or prefer to learn orally.

The first 2/3 of the five-day training, my small class (composed of five pastors and three missionaries) was poured into by four skilled facilitators who have used the process internationally. Over and over again they taught, reviewed and drilled us on how to:

-Learn a 5-10 verse Bible passage in a relatively short amount of time (in a noisy and distracting setting; like if you have to learn it in an orphanage with chickens running past you. It’s the truth!)

- Create a 30 second to 1 minute introduction to the passage (to bring everyone in the group up to a more level knowledge base, give context, and clear up difficult terms). 

- Accurately present the passage as a story-teller with voice inflection and animated hand gestures that help the audience remember the text and engage with it.

- Systematically dig into the passage for your own spiritual observations and personal applications.

-Formulate questions to help an individual or group discuss your initial observations, leading them to dig deeply and find their own spiritual observations. (Not necessarily ‘teaching’ the passage..but guiding them into systematically dialoguing about the text and letting the Holy Spirit reveal things to them personally).

- Facilitate the group to make and share their own personal applications from the passage. (How will they approach the Lord and all of life differently because of what God’s word is saying here?)

-Work through the entire process through a translator.

WHEW. Thank You, Jesus!

The last 1/3 of the training, forty people from the community joined us and each one of us in the core group were then assigned five people to pour into. We were each responsible for teaching our small group all that we were taught about the process. We then coached them through preparing and giving their own live ‘story’ presentations at the training and leading their own small groups in discussion about it. (Let me tell you, I have never appreciated teachers more!)

So what was the unexpected training the Lord signed me up for? The systematic removal of fear from my heart.

Long hours traveling on desolate stretches of road with my aged car groaning, staying in three different hotels by myself, leading five total strangers (with varied learning styles and temperaments) in a technique I still felt shaky in, and in all of this fighting a mild flu. Carefully crafted circumstances designed to press me into clinging, abiding, and depending on the Holy Spirit of God every hour.

To give you a glimpse of what was happening and would continue to happen in my heart, an excerpt from my journal is below. I wrote this the first night of my journey up to South Carolina, after wearily checking into my first hotel. My words to the Lord are in plain font, His personal words to me (heard in my heart as I listened to Him) are in italics.

“..and the Word was with God..”  John 1:1

Just like I’m with you. Don’t be afraid, Joy. I am Emmanuel; God with you. I am beside you and inside you now and forever.

Lord, thank You for stretching me in this way. The last hour of driving I was fighting a spirit of fear but You kept pulling it out and killing it. Now here I am, in my hotel room in tiny Waldo Florida, and You are still killing it inside me.

I’m stretching you out. As I do that, deep fear is dislodged and brought to the surface. I want to deal with it in the ‘land of peace’ so you can be fearless ‘in the thicket of the Jordan’.* Let Me completely remove it from you moment-by-moment. Don’t be afraid of tomorrow; I’m already in it and I’ll carry you all the way through like I did today. Fear cannot live in My presence. Let Me replace it with My love and quiet confidence. I am your courage! As I stretch you out and lead you out, you’ll find only My presence going behind you, before you, and hovering over you constantly. **


*“If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out,
Then how can you compete with horses?
If you fall down in a land of peace,
How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5

**”You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.”  Psalm 139:5

Thank You, Lord! Thank You for driving out my fear and the fear the evil one wants to put inside me. Thank You for holding me together today as I was feverish and tired. Thank You for a sense of releasing my life and all my ambitions back to You.

I love you, Child. Rest now.

“But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” Romans 8:37

Be blessed!

Joy