This month, I am learning that all the interior work that God did with me over the summer had a higher purpose. In September, I was bolstered even more. With David gone most of the month, I was dependent on my Jesus and we made great strides together. I was given $300 for keeping a 12 yr. old for 10 days. I made huge progress on the house. I didn’t have any migraines. I was able to keep up with Olivia’s new school and music lesson schedule and all the transportation involved (usually David’s job). I hosted weekly inner healing group meetings, prayer times with Olivia’s home room teacher, and invited a British student over every Sunday for internet/phone time. My Pilates class started back up and I signed up 2 more friends to attend with me. In other words, every day was busy, and I was able to keep up!
For those of you who do not know me personally, this is a big deal. I think it may have something to do with dropping all my roles at school. As much as I wanted to use my teaching degree and help lighten the endless janitorial load, it was sucking the life out of me. I see now that this is not the battlefield where I am going to advance. So for our spiritual, physical, and emotional sanity, David and I are narrowing our focus.
This month the focus for me was advancing in inner healing training in order to strengthen our church body, so that we can move into greater kingdom works. Because I had to cross the Channel to do it, I thought it could be recounted more efficiently if I wrote in the abbreviated style of a diary of a soldier heading to Normandy:
D -8: No deposit from our supporting church for 3 weeks while they change their accounting processes. My inner healing team gathers to encourage each other and pray for our 2 trips to attend seminars for further training. Everyone has a mountain in front of them to keep them from going, but we know it is God’s desire for us to go and it is key to continue moving forward in establishing this ministry introduced over the summer.
D -7: David catches a bad cold. Hosting our friend Alana for 5 days – Her presence helps us keep our chins up. (She is here 3 months to find her place before moving over for good next year.)
D -6: Two on our team overcome (severe physical pain and getting time off as a teacher) to leave for the seminar in Germany.
I book our rooms at a local B&B in England by faith, since no advanced deposits are necessary.D -5: Still no money; David still weak. We cancel plans to attend a wedding over the weekend.
D -3: I catch David’s illness. (Thanks to Columbus Day Stateside) still no deposit.
D -2: I am in bed all day with a fever. 4 weeks without a deposit. David still recovering.The elders come to anoint me with oil.
D -1: Fever has broken, I pack my bag for the 4-day trip in the evening. Got the laundry done, but asked friends to help feed David and Olivia. Both still certain that I should go. Thanks to the support of the Body, we are learning to walk through closed doors.
D-Day: Got in my teammate’s car at 6am for the 8 hr drive to the coast. Called David before boarding the ferry, and the deposit has arrived, and other money owed him for his IT work came in. Friends in England even wiring money. While looking off the ferry at the white cliffs of Dover, I am amazed at my recovery. We are all light-hearted as we “walk across the water.”
D +1: Fought a migraine and didn’t sleep well. Meds weren’t helping. Not permitted by the B&B owners to stay in my room to recover. Teammates praying over me day and night – a real training time to strengthen me in coming against physical attack without David to lean on/replace me. Refreshed by worshiping with new songs in English.
D +2: The fight continues. Tried different meds to no avail. Someone brought me a duvet to lay on during the day. Enjoying the freedom to talk to strangers in my own language without fear of reproach and be a translator for the team. Despite nausea, tried to enjoy the fish and chips we had for dinner.
D +3: Slept better, but woke up with my head still hurting. Cried out to God for mercy during the worship time. Yes, I’d been a good “soldier” and not backed down, but emotionally, needed to be His little girl, to enjoy my last evening and the last day before the long drive home through the night. The film “Up” was playing in a small theatre in town – been trying for months to find it playing in English somewhere in our region. Begged Him for a breakthrough so that I could see it before we left. Throbbing slowly stopped at end of day. Teammates could not endure anymore English, so dropped me off to see “Up” alone. So happy… shared my joy with cashier, and afterwards, my ride home showed up like an angel at the right place and the right time, even without a phone call.
D +4: Attended the last session with a smile on my face. Received a prayer of impartation from leadership to plant ministry in Alsace. Ferry ride very rough and nausea returned, this time for all 3 of us. Back on the road, the fatigue and muscle aches hit at about 3 am with a couple of hours to go. Back in my bed at last, the illness that I had left behind came back and spent the next 27 hours sleeping off and on.
D +5: Received a perky e-mail (from the teammate that did most of the driving and who is 13 years older) reporting that he was already back in the saddle! Still shuffling around in my pajamas feeling miserable while the neighbors a few feet away chose this day to jack-hammer all the plaster off of the front of their house. Gumdrop spends the day yowling in anxiety.
In 2 Sam. 24:24 David refused to make a sacrifice to the Lord that cost him nothing. That costly sacrifice stopped a plague on his people. I believe that my sacrifice is one of the beginnings of ending the plague of lies that prey on the minds of on French Christians. At the same time, we are being prepared to walk head-on into future challenges while covering our brothers, confident that the more intense the battle, the greater the glory!
So who’s with us?
Love, Angela