God has given me everything I need

Ever since I first received my call to China I knew God had a plan. I knew that God wanted me to drop everything and take this summer to learn about the Chinese culture, teaching English, and sharing the gospel. Since that moment God has been slowly preparing my mind and my heart for the work he wanted me to do here. Shortly before I left Savannah I was feeling convicted to read 2 Timothy and study the four chapters. I learned so much from these chapters that my bible was filled with so many underlines, circles, and notes that you could hardly read the pages. These chapters filled my heart with peace and steadfastness when thinking about all of the unknowns that China would bring.

Fast forward about two months and Ashley and I are well into our time here and loving every moment of it. We are having spiritual conversations with non-believers daily and feeling the Holy Spirit work among this city. We have been given the opportunity to choose believers to mentor and non-believers to pursue with the reckless love of Christ. Tonight we had out first opportunity to sit down with three strong Christian young women and share our hearts for discipleship while listening to the struggles that they experience when sharing their faith. This was a time of growth for us all as we were able to encourage one other in prayer and discuss practical tools that will help share the gospel in the hardest situations. Ashley and I choose to lead this group with the verses suggested through our sending organization regarding what it means to be an active follower of God. As we read the verses and I began to hear the hearts of the young women I related so quickly to what they were saying, and looked down to realize we were reading the versus that I spent so long studying.

Though it may have seemed like something small, God gave me 2 Timothy two months ago to prepare my heart for what I would face today which enabled me to share that encouragement with this group of people who seek God daily yet struggle to speak openly about faith. God gave both Ashley and I the words to speak into their lives and to encourage them in each of there personal struggles. Just as God has fulfilled us with the tools we need to work hard for the kingdom we trust that he will fulfill them too.  Being here I have experienced so much and learned so much about the simplicity of the Gospel and the way that God uses us to fulfill his plan. We couldn’t be more excited to see what this next month has in store for us.

Andrea