Volunteerism- Please Help Sponsor This Mission

Dear friends and family,

As many of you know or have read, I have recently left my job as a teacher as I believe that God is calling me to serve Him in a different way. I applied for a Volunteer Missionary position at in LA and have been offered a place! 

How soon I am able to go depends entirely on how quickly I am able to raise the funds to go. Please go to my online fundraiser and donate as you feel led.  For those of you who know me outside of the blogosphere, you can also donate to me in person if you would rather not do so online. 

Whether you are able to donate financially or not, I would very much appreciate your support in prayer in the lead up to and throughout my time in mission.

Thank you! 

Blessings!

Ronell x

Mission, Testimony and Other Musings...

Recently, I have been doing a lot of research about mission work, as I believe that this is what God is calling me to in whatever capacity, in the immediate future. I have found some interesting articles about short term mission placements and things to be aware of that have made me think and I decided to share them here, along with my testimony in this area. 

Here are a couple of interesting articles for you to read:

Things No One Tells You About Going on Short-Term Mission Trip: A few ways to make sure your mission trip is effective 

The Good Missionary: An African orphan on what he loves (and doesn't) about short-term mission teams

So here goes with my testimony about being called to mission! As it stands, I have 3 weeks left in my current teaching post, and then I will be moving on to where God sends me!

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I have known that God has a calling on my life since I was a teenager and a few years back, He began to really stir that in me again. I remember standing in the big top at Soul Survivor in tears as God showed me images of the children that He wanted me to rescue and care for, and there and then, I just surrendered and prayed: “God, here I am, use me…”. 

Last summer, I spent several weeks developing and changing the indoor and outdoor areas for my class at school. It was a huge process and when I finally got to the end of it, I was so relieved and excited! Literally in that moment as I looked around at the finished areas, God asked me: “If I asked, would you be willing to give it up?”.  After the initial shock and horror passed, I replied’ “You know I will” and He responded, “good, I’m asking…”. I didn’t know when, where or how, but I knew it was finally happening.

In September 2013, God began to make my calling clearer. I had prayed for my ‘Schindler’s List moment’ of seeing the need He wanted me to tend to and He did. He also reminded me of the prayer I had prayed at Soul Survivor and the promise I had made in that garden a month before. 

At that point, I had not shared this calling with any of my friends yet, but that night, God used 3 of them to speak to me about it independently: My friend Hannah stood at the front in the middle of worship and said, “I believe God is calling someone to leave their job… you’re thinking ‘I can’t afford to do that!’, but God is saying, ‘can you really afford not to…?’”. I knew it was me and I went up for prayer. 

My friend Cassie prayed for me and after she said, “I don’t know if this is right, but I got the words ‘children’ and ‘abused’ for you” – another confirmation as this lined up with what God had stirred in my heart. 

I wanted to know if God had shown Hannah anything else with the original word, so I went to speak to her. She said He had not shared any more, but she asked if she could pray for me. As she prayed, she named my worries spot on and at the end, she said, “I don’t know if this goes with what God has been saying to you, but I got that you are supposed to work with children”. So I’m thinking ‘I DO work with children’ and God says to both of us at the same time (I was thinking it and she said it out loud), “Yes, you work with children, but they’re the wrong children”.

After church, I told my friend (and accountability partner) Anne-Marie, and she just smiled and said that she knew in that moment that Hannah’s word was for me, but she knew she had to be the confirmation, not the catalyst. 

By February of this year, God confirmed to me that it was time and I knew I had to tell my Head Teacher. I also began to have California impressed on my heart. When I went to my Head Teacher, she told me that God had prepared her heart that weekend for the news and she knew that I was coming to speak to her that week– what a blessing!

In praying for direction, God has brought the a specific organisation, based in Los Angeles, into my life through my friend who is currently their summer mission program. Everything that I have heard and read about it over the past month has worked together to confirm that I believe that this is in fact where God wants me in this next season and so I have applied!

I would very much appreciate your prayers that God will help to clarify whether I am on the right track with this and for favour for the placement that I have applied to already.

Blessings!

Ronell x

{photo credit: http://www.bradruggles.com/images/I-Am-Only-One-1900x1200.jpg}

Standing in Big Shoes

Recently I have been worried about whether I am able to actually accomplish what it is that God is setting before me. The more I read, pray and have discussions, I realise the answer is NO! I am not able to achieve the path God has put out for me to do in my own strength, BUT this is not a cop-out! It is pointing directly to the fact that we are unable to accomplish our purpose in our own strength, but we are able to do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13) and we should not be daunted by the tasks He sets before us.

I read the following post on Joyce Meyer’s daily online devotional, which really helped me to process this point:

Standing in Big Shoes

by Joyce Meyer - posted February 12, 2013

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. —Joshua 1:5

Imagine how Joshua must have felt when God told him he was to take Moses’ place and lead the Israelites into the promised land. Moses was an amazing leader. Who would want to try to fill his shoes?

God told Joshua he would succeed not because of anything he had in the natural but because He was with him. Moses was successful only because God was with him. God told Joshua the same thing would hold true for him if he believed. God kept encouraging Joshua to be strong and confident, to take courage and not be afraid. In other words, He told him to believe!

Put your faith and trust in God. He will give you the strength to stand and accomplish whatever He asks you to do.

{From the book Ending Your Day Right by Joyce Meyer.}

So be diligent in working towards the purpose that God has set before you! This may not be becoming a missionary, or spearheading a major human rights campaign, but it may be something simple like being an amazing parent, or visiting your lonely, poorly or elderly neighbours, or teaching where God has put you. Whatever it is that you feel on your heart as your calling (short term or  long term), be diligent in pursuing it, knowing God has you covered!

Blessings!

Ronell x

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” {Philippians 4:13}

Eric Delve at re:gen

Tonight Eric Delve came and spoke at re:generation church. It was really encouraging, as he really focused on the fact that Christianity should not be viewed as a ‘religion’; and we shouldn’t describe ourselves as ‘religious’.

I know that might sound strange, but he was talking about the fact that Christianity should not be seen as a tick list of dos and don’ts, but that the focus should be on relationship. Saying you are a Christian should be a reference to the relationship that you have with God, rather than being some sort of balance sheet of doing ‘good’ things vs doing ‘bad’ things.

Eric spoke about the many men and women of God who have died for their faith and died while fulfilling the calling that God placed on their lives. He also discussed the fact that we are members of the same church as the apostle Paul, or John Wesly, or missionaries such as Amy Carmichael. It was a serious challenge to me about how I am living out God’s call on my life. Am I doing it justice? Am I making a difference?

Even if you don’t know what God’s specific call or purpose is for your life, He has given us clear guidelines of what living a sold-out Christian life should look like in Isaiah 61v1-3:

1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,

3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning,
 and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
 They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.

And also in Isaiah 58v 6-7, 10-11:

6 “Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
 To loose the bonds of wickedness,
 To undo the heavy burdens,
 To let the oppressed go free, 
And that you break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, 
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
 And not hide yourself from your own flesh?

10 If you extend your soul to the hungry 
And satisfy the afflicted soul, 
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, 
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.

11 The Lord will guide you continually,
 And satisfy your soul in drought, 
And strengthen your bones; 
You shall be like a watered garden, 
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

So if you would describe yourself as a Christian, I hope that these passages are as challenging to you as they have been to me. There are all kinds of ministries and calls that are encompassed by these verses (e.g. prison ministry, fighting against human trafficking, or visiting the elderly), so find the charity or calling that weighs heavily on your heart and support that in whatever way that you are able to!

Blessings!

Ronell x