By Jordan Pearson
It’s been a dream of mine for years now to one day hopefully to English in school overseas! On my mission trips we’ve gone to schools to do VBS but today in the village of Florida, where we’ve been visiting for the past week, we got to teach the kids English! We had different groups to teach animals, weather, colors, numbers and the story of Noah’s Ark. The kids get so excited as they sit on the benches of their little church.
While they were learning all the colors in English and had just learned the word for rainbow, my teammate Caitlin spotted a rainbow outside! Of course we all excitedly jumped up and ran out of the church to see the most beautiful sight: a bright rainbow from the clouds going into the trees of the Amazon rainforest, with about 20 little Peruvian kids and who were all so ecstatic and 12 of my new closest friends so delighted that we got to see that beautiful sight. It hadn’t rained since 5 in the morning and now is was 4 in the afternoon. Therefore there was no explanation for there to be a rainbow except for God just placing it there to delight us in how personal He is and display a small picture of his promises to while we are here for His Kingdom’s work.
The concept of the Lord’s promises is something He continues to teach me on this trip. The first day of training camp the verse was placed on my heart: “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her.” (Luke 1:45). I’m learning to have an expectant heart for all the Holy Spirit wants to do in us and through us.
Also, a couple of nights ago, as our team was deep in prayer listening to the Lord, for your listening for the ward, I felt the fear of the Lord become so real to me. I was in awe, overwhelmed and weeping at the thought of his great power and how intimate his holy spirit is with us. The spiritual warfare aspect also caused fear in me but the verse that’s been on my heart since the airport to go to training camp is how “perfect love casts out fear.” So as I’m wrestling with this and praying, I lift my head and see that my tears and runny nose had formed the shape of an arrow. And I felt this peace come over me of the Lord’s promise that His power in me and the power of His love is such a good thing.
Earlier that day at breakfast, my teammate Kris shared with the team that during her time with Jesus listening in prayer, she felt an arrow placed on her heart, but didn’t know why. Then that night that’s what the Lord used to confirm his promises and love. The Lord spoke to Kate, one of our leaders, a verse for me that says “Fulfill your promise to your servant that you may be feared.” (Psalm 119:38).
As this journey continues, I’m learning more of the character of God, deepening my desire for the Word and my thirst for Him, how to have an expectant heart, and getting to know the Holy Spirit as a friend inside of me. I’m learning how to let the Lord transform my tame, boxed-in faith into a wild and free faith!
My Identity by Kris
For most of my life I have struggles with finding out who I am. I often find my identity in certain activities I’m apart of, or how people stereotype me based on these activities. So one of my prayers for this trip was to find out who I really am, because I often felt I changed who I was depending on the group of people I was with. I wanted to know exactly who I really was. During training camp one of the forest things I prayed for was to find myself, to find out what I was made of. God gave me an answer. One of the speakers at training camps spoke on identity. The speaker first asked the question, “What have you been believing about your identity?” My answer was, I believe I am an athlete, that I had average intelligence and that I was overall just average. The next question was, ” What does God say about who you are?!” This question dwelled within me for a while as I processed through it. I know that He loves me and that I am his child. But none of my answers, answered the question. However they did not answer the question, “What is my identity?” The speak responded with this “You do not need to know who or what you just need to know that you are His.” This answer lifted a huge weight off my shoulders and I felt a huge wave of relief and peace. God had answered my question and issue of discovering who I was. I am his and that’s all I need to know at this point. Being his is more an enough, more than average! The power God that works miracles and moves mountains wants me to be His. He wants me to find myself in His power.
Throughout this trip God has continued to show and remind me that I am His and that who I am is more than enough when I find my identity in Hum. He has given me 12 new girls who motivate and push me to turn to the Lord for everything. This helps me find my identity in God and remember that I am His.
