Kingdom lessons..

It's a quiet tuesday evening and I am sitting alone in the Doner restaurant nearby to the apartments. Thoughts about the future have been constant these past couple days and it's nice to get away from all the chaos sometimes.

Nurnburg was an experience for sure.  We were often pushed to go out on the streets and find creative ways to share our love for jesus with people. Whether it was by talking to the barista at the local starbucks, or striking conversation with the woman in the marketplace, or meeting people while worshipping outside of the big church in the city center we found ways to build relationships and serve others.  No, nobody accepted jesus right there on the spot, but we learned to share Jesus heart with others, and saw him working in the little things we did in simple obedience.  He really does love each one of us so much and knowing that he cares more about every person than I can is so reassuring sometimes.  He is patient with each person wanting them all to come to know him, and I can rest in knowing that I am only a planter of his truth- he provides the growth.

I met this one elderly man named france after doing our epic flashmob in the city center (pictured above) . He was so excited that I came to talk to him and wanted to give me and the girl I pulled over to translate a tour of Lorenz Kirsch, the historic church we stood in front of. Turns out he met a few more of us Ywamer's later on in the day where they invited him out to our event night the next day. I didn't know about it till I arrived at the event and Evelyn came up to me and said "Tess! France is here!" After some warm greetings with him despite the language barrier he gave us some homemade cake from Nurnburg and told us how encouraged and blessed he was to meet us. Just being able to see the joy on his face made the whole trip worth it.

There were other countless stories similar to that one, a couple girls met a woman from Paraguay who had turned away from the Lord and were able to encourage her. Later that evening after praying for her they witnessed her broken foot get healed. 

Despite the discouragement I felt sometimes in not being able to see the "huge" things I anticipated according to my human standard- signs, wonders, miracles etc. I understood the kingdom so much more. There is so much value in the things that may seem little to me, because they are in no way little to God. God is with us each day, he never runs out of time, and he works with us in a pace we can handle, he never forces himself on us. He wants us to develop faith and patience and perseverance as we trust him. Faith is hope in the unseen, and if he were to do huge things all the time we would take it for granted and never learn to be dependent on him even when we find it hard to see him working. He is more concerned about the process of us learning to be in relationship with him, than the results.

Oftentimes we try to achieve for him rather than just be with him. But he doesn't need our achievement, he didn't create us for what he could "use us to do". He could easily do everything we could do in a second. What he created us for was relationship with him- and it is out of our communion with him- that we bear his fruit. John 15:4-5 "Abide in me, and I in you, As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

Learning just to rest in God and who he is has been a challenge.  My life for the year before consisted of lots of achieving for him (Prayer Team, Youth Ministry, Worship Team, Saving for Ywam etc) while neglecting to spend a lot of real genuine time with him in prayer, solitude, and worship.

My thinking is getting turned upside down here. It's been so challenging but oh so good. There are so many other things I have been learning but I will save those for another blog post cause this one is getting quite long.

I miss you all terribly!

Tess