Prayer and Scripture are Essential Training Tools!

“For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”
Philippians 4:13 NLT

A couple of surprising aspects of being on a short term mission is there is no lag time in team preparation and unexpected lessons are learned!  For example, once the team is formed, the calendar is set for meetings and deadlines are set for topics, study preparations, personal preparations, team building, support letters and travel.  The next four months are packed with responsibilities, studies, writing, team building and prayer, prayer, prayer!

After our second meeting, I calendared my commitments for blogging, teaching on One World Two Minds, the Cultural Revolution and my talk for the Chinese Women.  The next morning I woke up at 4am with great anxiety about not being adequate for the tasks ahead and desperate feelings of being overwhelmed.  God revealed to me that this was not from Him and I was under attack by Satan to slow me down and prevent me from doing effective work for Him.  He then reminded me of Philippians 4:13 and my true responsibility was to rely on Him for the infilling of all that I am committed to teach and write about!  Whew! This was an intense lesson which God turned into a rich blessing.  Now, when a whisper of inadequacy comes, I turn in prayer to Philippians 4:13 as my truth and am able to dismiss the lie.  Praise God!

Another lesson I am learning is about the blessings involved in asking and receiving support for our mission.  I am gaining a deeper understanding that there are many of you who care about the Chinese women and since you can’t go in person, you truly want to support us in prayer and when possible with financial support.  You want to be a blessing by being our team “on the ground” here at home.  You are important in making this mission a reality that glorifies God!  Thank you and it is my joy and the team’s joy to be able to share our mission with you.

God bless you richly,

Linda for the team