Hey everyone! It’s been awhile! Hope everyone is doing great and doing something for the kingdom!
My time with God and the boys team in Georgia was awesome but difficult. We were not able to make the hike across the country as I wanted to. The first day of hiking was very beautiful as we hiked out of the city of Tbilisi but it was also brutal because it was hill after steep hill with back packs. We finally got to the top of the mountain after 8 miles and camped for the night. It was one of the hardest hikes I had to endure but the views were spectacular! After hearing from some guys that the way we were trying to go was very mountainous we walked back to the city feeling defeated but not because conquoring that mountain was a victory. A week later, we headed across the country to Batumi by taking a train. Batumi was a cool city where me and the guys got to play volleyball with some Georgians and the sunset over the Black Sea was wildly beautiful!
After having fun in Batumi we traveled back to Tbilisi where God had friends waiting to hangout with us who we met at the church we were going to. They were a group from India and my team and squad leader Lindsey had a great time having lunch with them at the pastor’s Nigerian restaurant. Hanging out with other believers in a foreign country is the funnest thing ever!
Unfortunately I was sick and coughing my head off for little over a week during this time and had to take some days off. Being sick on the field is no joke and it made me feel useless because all I wanted to do is be there for my team and tell people the gospel. It also made me feel homesick too.
It was so cool the day God healed me of being sick because that day was the day we got invited by a man to go hiking thanks to Nathan who was able to a share a little of the gospel with him. It ended up being the same hike we went on a couple weeks back. Our other squad leader Allison went with us and a Mexican woman who we knew from the hostel came too. I didn’t get any bad flashbacks from the grueling hills thankfully because I was honestly thrilled to talk with people after not being able to when I was sick. It was an amazing hike not because of the beauty but because me, the team and Allison got to tell these people about Jesus who were not believers.
They were listening very closely. We did our work and I trust that the Holy Spirit will do his work in them.
The Holy Spirit is not just working on the hearts of the unbelievers but He has been working on me and O-squad in an intense way during the World Race. He’s building me up to be a confident man of God through everything that I have experienced. I know “that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28 This is what I have to keep remembering because even though I have loved being on the World Race and serving with my friends who are family to me, it has been very hard at times and bad things have happened. But God has been so faithful!
The enemy has been attacking me in an intense way which makes me all the more thankful that God’s work is greater and more intense. The enemy has especially been attacking my confidence and he has succeeded in making me feel like I have no confidence. He says,”Andrew, you have no confidence.” But this is a lie from the pit of hell and it makes me so angry.
This is his way of trying to take me out of the game and make me ineffective but God says I am confident. I wish I realized this sooner. Though I have had the courage and boldness, without confidence I feel like I could have stepped more into the amazing works that God was doing and shared the gospel more. In a way I feel like I threw away my confidence because I started to believe the stupid lie that I am not worthy of being confident, but I will NOT be doing that anymore more because God says, “therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.” (Hebrews 10:35) And in Ephesians 3:12 it says,”In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.” And lastly, in Proverbs 3:26 it says,”for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.” It’s time for me to be the man God made me to be. It starts by speaking life over myself. I choose to be confident; that’s who I am in God. I choose to be confident in God, for my team, and for those who desperatley need to hear who can and will save them if they believe.
Debrief was this week, which is with the whole squad where our mentor Brandon and coaches AJ and Mama Jenn fly out to see us. The week is meant for rest, to reflect on what God did in the past 2 months, teachings, encouragement, prayer, and worshiping God. This time we were sending off our amazing squad leaders Allison and Lindsey who have so faithfully and lovingly been leading us for 5 months. They are great friends to us all and will be missed. Megan, Travis, and Corban are the new squad leaders.
At debrief, we prayed over each other and were supposed to give each other a word. From Megan and Mak they gave me the word confidence and it was from God because I did not tell them that I was wanting more confidence. Praise God!
Praise Report: I have arrived in my 5th country Armenia this morning with my new team Eklosia! I will have a host and am supposed to be working with college students. Pray that team Eklosia will be unified and have a blast together as we make disciples in Armenia.
Prayer Request: Pray that I will continue being excited for what’s next and knowing that God will give me the strength, confidence and joy in the awesome and cool things He is doing.
