Once again, thank you to everyone who supported me in my mission trip to Jamaica over spring break. It would not have been possible without you, and I was very blessed to be able to go because of you. So thank you!
If you read my previous post about Jamaica, congratulations on surviving the whole thing. Even if you didn't make it through the whole thing, you know that God worked in some amazing ways over the course of the week in Port Maria and even up to this point. He's taught me so much since that Saturday when we boarded the plane headed to Jamaica, so I'm going to try my best to keep this as organized as possible. I'm sorry if it gets scattered. And I apologize to anyone who managed to get through my last Jamaica post because there's still much more to read. This post will probably be longer than the last one.
Up until this trip, I had never really had any visions to speak of. Instead, God typically spoke to me through what I like to call "visuals": scenarios or pictures of things I have seen before, or sometimes even something I am seeing right at that moment, into which the Lord speaks meaning. He then interprets those scenarios or pictures to me and applies them to real-life situations. (Maybe that's the same thing as a vision, or at least along those lines, but I have a certain idea of what visions are, and I hadn't had very many of them up to this point.) That's how the trip started out: with a particularly detailed visual. As I sat on the plane looking out the window at the wing below me, I saw heat being emitted from the engine beneath the wing. I saw this as the plane pulled onto the runway and seemingly went in circles. The anticipation of takeoff was almost suffocating. We were finally on our way to Jamaica! At least, we would be once the plane got in the air. The plane seemed to drift slowly around the runway. This whole time, the heat waves coming from the engine were wildly rushing toward the tail of the plane. Finally, the plane started rumble as it picked up speed, but it turned out that we were just moving from the waiting area to the actual runway. When the runway was finally clear and we were good to go, the plane lurched forward, speeding down the runway, and in seconds we were in the air. This whole time, God was speaking to me through all that I was seeing and experiencing. That night I shared the visual and its interpretation to my small group. As the plane rolled slowly toward the runway, I felt slightly impatient, anxious to get in the air, to hurry up and get to Jamaica, but we seemed to be going nowhere. Yet below us, the heat waves were moving just as quickly as ever all the time. At that point in time, I felt like there were people on the trip who may have been feeling like they were not growing in Christ at the same pace as everyone else around them. I didn't know who those people would be; I was just interpreting the visual—or more accurately, God was interpreting it for me. To those people, it seemed like everyone around them was always on fire, always walking closely with the Lord and always ready to act when they hear His voice. But they felt like they kept picking up momentum only to lose it moments later. In response to this interpretation, God gave me some encouragement for anyone feeling that way (if this is you, listen up): You may feel like you're moving slowly and getting nowhere compared to everyone around you, but in reality, you are moving toward the runway for takeoff. Everything you are doing serves as another step toward the ultimate goal the Lord has set before you. Be happy for the people around you who are on fire for Christ! Be happy that they are growing, because they are the ones who will help you grow. Then when the plane finally gets in the air, it is by no effort of the passengers, but by the skill of the pilot and the physics of the plane and the air around it. When you finally reach a point of noticeable growth, be humble. You have no right to take pride in getting yourself to that place of growth because it is only by the capable hand of the Lord, our Pilot, that you were able to get there. And He is the One who is keeping you there. And when you touch back down on land, be ready to exit the plane and do what you came to do. Don't forget that you would not be at your destination if it hadn't been for the plane and its pilot. God teaches us in our spiritual highs and times of growth, and He uses these times to draw us closer to Him. But as the spiritual high fades, we must not forgot what we have learned. We are coming off of the spiritual high for a reason: to share and put into action what we learned in that time of growth. Don't be disappointed to get off of the plane, but don't be too excited to stay in your destination for too long. Temptation and trials often come with spiritual lows, so be on your guard. But don't forget to serve others with what you learned in your spiritual highs.
So... yeah. That's the wisdom God shared with us to start off the week. After small group/family time, Daniel, one of the Wesley directors, gave a message on service. He presented three main qualities of good, God-pleasing service: authenticity, consideracy, and excellence. True, humble, loving service must be authentic, coming from a heartfelt desire to serve. It has to be considerate, putting others before oneself in every way possible, considering not just others' outward needs but also their thoughts. (Some people may not want assistance with some things because it might make them feel inferior or useless.) And we must strive for excellence in all that we do, never doing things halfway. After the message, along with a time for prayer and worship, Josh pulled a few people aside to have a Bible study, which was awesome! He was hungry for more of what God had for us, so he put himself, and several others, in a position to be ready to receive it. While Daniel was speaking, God reminded me of an image someone had shared with me before: humility is not just the act of putting others above oneself but also the act of lowering oneself below others, like several people on a ladder, each trying to get lower to lift the others higher. The lower we make ourselves, the higher the Lord appears to us. So during our group discussion, God made this challenge to us: Compete with one another to be the lowest of all slaves—humble yourselves below those around you, and if everyone does the same, John 3:30 ("He must increase, but I must decrease") will become a reality. This challenge came from Romans 12:10: "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor." (I just remembered that I heard this challenge at one of the meetings for the Montenegro mission trip that I will not be going on anymore. So even though I'm not able to go, there was a reason I was part of the team, even if only temporarily.) The topic of service brought up the matter of our weaknesses that hinder us from serving to our fullest potential, which eventually turned into our general weaknesses, doubts, and fears. It was a very productive conversation because exposing these weaknesses allowed the whole group to pray against those things. And we were all encouraged too, either by knowing that we are not the only ones who suffer from our weaknesses, or by shedding light on how to deal with those weaknesses, or simply by knowing that our brothers and sisters in Christ were praying for us.
All of that was day one, and not even the first full day. The first full day came with all new surprises from God. As expected, seeing the Jamaicans dance at church and getting to dance with them filled everyone with a lot of joy. But not only did I get to see the joy that the Jamaicans so obviously demonstrated, but I also got to experience some of their hospitality that morning when one of the women saw that I didn't have a program and shared hers with me throughout the service as needed. They made all of us feel very welcome, as if we were regular attenders at the church. Toward the beginning of the service, they recognized everyone who had birthdays or anniversaries coming up that week and prayed for families that were in need or experiencing difficult times. They even sang for one of the girls on our team whose birthday was that day. They made the church body feel like a real family, sharing simple everyday blessings and hardships, showing themselves to be a community that genuinely cares about its members.
Later we had our first night of identity prayer, a lot more people were interested in it than I expected. The idea behind identity prayer is that God will give us new names in heaven based on who He has made us to be and His plans for us. This name is grounded in our identity in Christ. Some biblical background for identity prayer can be found in Isaiah 62:2:
"The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give."So what identity prayer is is asking God to reveal to us the name that He plans to give us in heaven. This can be an actual name, like Michael or Hanani (I'll explain my name in a little bit), which will have a specific meaning behind it, or it can be a title or a spiritual "occupation" like Peacemaker or Giver of Life. These names are meant to be encouraging, because they show us how the Lord sees us, and they are to lead us to strive to live up to the name, because they show us God's plan for our lives. We had some really cool and inspiring names come up throughout the week. In addition to actual names, we also talked a little bit about why we choose to make our names known or to keep it private. Spiritual names are meant to be between God and the person He gives the name to. It's a personal thing. But at the same time, I know that sharing my name helps me believe the name belongs to me, which enables me to live it out better.
I had actually heard about spiritual names and identity prayer before the Jamaica trip, but I decided to sit in on the meeting and maybe get some confirmation from God that the name I believed I had received really was my name. I'm still looking into it because my name situation is a little weird. Senior year of high school, I was reading the Bible, just jumping around to different passages, and I came across an interesting name. I completely forgot about it until last year. Last spring I was talking with some friends about spiritual names, but I didn't really consider asking God for my own name. Maybe I did ask, but I don't remember. Either way, I didn't receive my name then. But then over the summer, for some reason I was thinking about names. Not spiritual names. Just names. I don't remember why. I was either thinking about names for kids or, for whatever reason, names that I would like to have if I ever decided to change mine. As I was thinking of these names, a set of syllables formed themselves in my mind: Hanani. It sounded like a name I had heard before, so I looked it up, and it was then that I remembered seeing the name senior year. I looked up the definition, and Hanani means "God is gracious." But God wasn't done yet. He told me that He hears me and that that would be part of my name. I knew there was a name that meant "the Lord hears," so I thought about it for a minute and remembered the story of Hagar and Ishmael: Hagar named her son Ishmael because God heard her request for a child, and Ishmael means "the Lord hears." So together, Hanani Ishmael means "by His grace, the Lord hears and responds." That definitely stood out to me because of the way that God called me to follow Him when my grandpa died. (If you haven't heard the story, this is it in a nutshell: My grandpa was a pastor, so when he passed away I prayed 2 Kings 2:9, asking God for a double portion of the Spirit He had given my grandpa; just a few months later, He answered my prayer by changing my life at my youth group's winter retreat and making me realize that I had been missing something my whole life even though I had always gone to church. I didn't deserve to be heard because I had been calling myself a Christian even though I wasn't actively living it out, but He answered me anyway.) But He still wasn't done yet. He was done for the time being, but He added more this year in Jamaica. The first night of identity prayer, I asked God if the name I thought I had received was the right one for me. Then out of nowhere the name Lemuel popped into my head. I was a little hesitant to accept it as my name, or even a part of it, and I still kind of am because Lemuel doesn't sound like that great of a name. Besides, I didn't have a computer with me, so I couldn't look up the definition of the name. But I decided to look into it anyway. I went to Proverbs 31 to see if I could figure out some meaning for the name by looking at it in context. Then I became a lot more willing to accept it as part of my name. Lemuel was a king, a son who listens to authority, one who abstains from earthly pleasures in favor of righteousness, and one who speaks for those who have no voice. I pieced all that information together and came to the conclusion that Lemuel was an intercessor, someone who effectively prays on someone else's behalf. I didn't realize it until just the other day, but this was confirmed last year when Michael, my Freshley small group leader, called me a prayer warrior, and again this year in Jamaica when Josh prayed for me Thursday night and shared a vision of an army with me on the frontlines. Then shortly after arriving back in Athens, I read a devotion out of Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest that said that God doesn't make promises just to show us that He keeps them but also to show us that He has ownership of us. In other words, if you hear and receive a promise from the Lord, He is saying, "You are Mine, and because you are Mine I will keep my promise, and you will know that you are Mine." A few days later, I remembered that I still had no idea what Lemuel actually means, so I looked it up, and it means "belonging to God." I don't know if that means anything to anyone, but for reasons I can't seem to put into words, it meant something to me. So anyway, now my name is Lemuel Hanani Ishmael: an intercessor belonging to God whose voice is heard and graciously answered on behalf of myself and on the behalf of those I pray for. So that's how the first night of identity prayer went for me. And throughout the week, I became more and more aware of the reality of my identity, and I am still coming to fully understand who God has called me to be and how to live in that identity. I have been learning a lot about my identity these last few weeks. For example, God has been giving me a lot of advice and encouragement for other people, and I realized that because my identity is in Christ and Ishmael means "the Lord hears," I also hear the Lord because His Spirit is in me, and the Spirit hears; so I have been hearing from God on behalf of those who needed to hear from Him. I have the characteristics of Jesus because Christ lives in me. I've been seeing Lemuel in me a lot too, as God has been answering a lot of my prayers in very noticeable ways. I'm still relatively new to the idea of fervent, ceaseless, effective prayer, so it's been cool to see the Lord answer my prayers in very specific ways that I can actually see and know that God answered me. He also confirmed to me that Lemuel is the right name for me when He led me to Proverbs 21:1 ("The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He will") after we had some prophetic encouragement time a few weeks after Jamaica, and my friend Tenaya said that she saw me as a river going wherever the path of the river turned, showing that I go wherever the Lord directs me without trying to rebel and keep going in the direction I was already headed. Anyway, I hope all that I learned that night puts into perspective just how much the rest of the team received throughout the week.
The next day was the first workday. My small group was assigned to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for all the groups to take to their work sites for lunch, so we got up early that morning and got to work. After breakfast, we packed up our lunches and gear and boarded the buses to go to our work sites. I was on the farm that day, and what a first workday it was! We spent the day getting rid of the weeds on the side of a mountain where McGuiver, the man who owns the farm, grows a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. The girls pulled up the smaller weeds while the guys chopped down the bigger weeds with machetes. After our lunch break, we got back to work, but the breeze caught my attention, causing me to stop and listen. I felt like God was very present at that moment, not in the way people like to say a lot at worship services when everyone is feeling emotional and drawn into the music, but in a way that it actually felt like God was about to speak audibly. He didn't, but it was close enough. As I listened, I asked God to speak, and I started praying. As I prayed, words flowed through my mind, and at some point my thoughts seemed to transform from my own thoughts into the Lord's voice. He said, "I will show you My glory." Just to make sure we're clear, I didn't hear Him say this audibly. The words ran through my mind as a thought and seemed to be coming from God. When I "heard" this, I excitedly asked Him how He would show me His glory and where to look. He answered, "Seek My face in the trees," so I looked around at the trees surrounding us in the jungle we were working in. I saw bright red flowers on the treetops all around us. His glory and His presence was surrounding us, uniting us as one body of Christ by closing us in together. When I saw that, I doubted that I had seen the Lord's glory in the way He wanted to show it to me yet, because I felt like there was an interpretation for what I saw that I hadn't received yet, but then He said in the process of saying something else, "I have shown you My glory." It turned out that He was showing me the way He was going to show His glory throughout the week: through the unity of the team and the way He speaks to individuals in the body of Christ in order for whole communities to hear Him, and how things that one individual hears may be connected to what another person hears.
Then He told me to wander. We were back to chopping and pulling weeds, and McGuiver was clearing a pathway off to the side, so I was led to go in the direction he had gone. I didn't go very far, though, so God made this convicting, piercing comment: "Show Me your glory." I have been placing my glory in my reputation, not in Jesus Christ, which was why I couldn't find the boldness and humility to follow McGuiver. I didn't want to do something that might put my reputation at risk, whatever it may be.
As we finished hacking away at the bigger weeds and proceeded to pull the smaller weeds out by hand, God revealed a reflection to me of Jamaican versus American faith. We don't have weeds in America like the giant ones we had to cut down in Jamaica, but we have more of the smaller weeds everywhere. The Jamaican church focuses a lot on "being good," as one of the small group leaders mentioned during our leadership meeting Sunday night, while the focus of the growing American church is a lot more on prayer and visions and encouragement, etc. The Jamaican church has a lot of surface issues to deal with in their society—and of course America does too—but the American church looks at the inner spiritual needs that are harder to handle. The larger weeds we hacked at with machetes, easily cutting them down, while we had to get down on our knees to pull out the smaller weeds by hand. Too often we leave those smaller weeds untended, and they grow to become those larger weeds. We in America look at pride, anger, and envy, and we don't do anything about it, but those are the most dangerous weeds: the ones we ignore. We need to get down on our knees in prayer to uproot even the tiniest of weeds before they can grow into bigger weeds that suffocate the crops we want to grow. I found out later that the whole metaphor about pulling up weeds by the roots applied to the life of a fellow small group leader, but not necessarily with weeds representing sin. Her "weeds" were the things in her life that she was holding on to that she needed to let go of. As she began uprooting her weeds, God took her to Isaiah 61:3, calling her an oak of righteousness, "the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." This image of weeds and oaks of righteousness has been coming up over and over again in the last two months. Ironically, the mural we were painting at the infirmary was of a tree, and Isaiah 61:3 was painted next to the tree as a caption when the mural was finished. A few weeks ago I had a vision (an actual vision this time, not a visual) of a tree being uprooted from a garden full of weeds and replanted in a rock—the Rock. Before the Jamaica trip, I went to the "Prophetic Rooms" at Wesley, where the interns give prophetic encouragement, and one of the things they said to encourage me was that they saw a large rock representing stability, and they saw that I was firmly rooted in Christ. I don't think it's coincidence that the words "rock" and "rooted" went together both in the Prophetic Rooms and in my vision. Anyway, God showed me a lot of unity in His work through this one revelation about roots, trees, and weeds.
What God taught me Wednesday and Thursday kind of blended together. Wednesday at the work site I saw a lot of unity, both within the team and between the team and some of the students at the school we were working at. Some of the kids helped us clean up when were done working for the day, and some of us got to play soccer, dance, and sing with them. As we finished laying the last of the cinderblocks to complete the wall, I got to talk with a student named Douwarne. He reminded me a lot of myself. He was quiet and reserved, but he seemed curious and wanted to make conversation, so he found things to ask me about America. We talked about school, my lack of a girlfriend (haha), and my abstinence from alcohol, which he seemed surprised about. After only being exposed to American college students who come to Jamaica to party and drink, seeing a group of Americans who don't drink seemed to be new to him. It's sad that that has become the image we Americans have made for ourselves in the world. Anyway, it was cool getting to talk to Douwarne and hopefully being a positive influence and a light for Christ to him.
As God spoke to us more and more about identity throughout the week, it all seemed to reach a culminating point around this time in the week. I've realized that I have a lot of expectations of myself, and I project a lot of my expectations on other people—not that I expect the same things of other people that I expect of myself, but I believe that they have the same expectations of me that I have of myself. And that often defines who I am and what I do. I don't want to do anything that would draw unnecessary attention to myself by doing something that nobody would expect of me, something that might change their perception of who I am. And as the Lord revealed this to me, I realized the reason for spiritual names, at least in my case: God defines us and shows us where He wants to lead us by giving us names with a calling. It's easier for me to do something if I know that it's expected of me, so having a name with a calling helps me to know what I'm expected to do. For example, to me Lemuel means intercessor, so because God and most of the Port Maria team, as well as the Montenegro team and a few other people, expect me to pray, it makes it easier to pray. Knowing that there are people depending on me to pray serves as a reminder to me that I need to pray. I found this to be true when I was talking to my friend Alex on the Montenegro team and I said that I'd be praying for the team, and she said, "You know, I actually believe you. A lot of people just say that, but I really believe you will pray for us." That was really encouraging to me, and I hope she knows just how encouraging it was. A couple days later, I found myself thinking about what she said, and I immediately started praying for the Montenegro team and their trip, which starts tomorrow, May 15th. Speaking of which, please pray for them as they finish getting everything together for the trip, and pray that God would go with them and protect them and establish their work in His name, and that He would be glorified in everything they do.
Okay, now back to Jamaica. I would say that Thursday was my favorite day, but there was so much awesome stuff that happened throughout the week that it's hard to say if I actually had a single favorite day at all. But I'll go ahead and say that Thursday was my favorite day. Why? Well, after our extra half hour of sleep and after eating breakfast, we headed to Trevor's church to spend time praying and worshiping the God who allowed us to spend such an amazing week in Jamaica. It was incredible seeing so many people gathered in one room passionately praying, especially the freshmen. Andrew led worship as we prayed, and Bob, the director of Wesley, interjected prayer topics to direct our focus, because united prayer has a special place in God's eyes, as Jesus said in Matthew 18:19-20: "Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heave. For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them." Toward the end of our time there (I always forget how long we were there; it felt like an hour or less, but I'm pretty sure it was longer than that, I'm just not sure how much longer), Bob opened the floor to anyone who wanted to pray for anything specific. The idea was not to give any explanation, but to just take stage and pray out loud so that everyone else could agree with the prayers. Seeing so many of the freshmen and leaders go up front and pray for the Jamaicans and for Athens and for our team with such complete surrender, giving everything to God, was amazing.
But the blessings of the day didn't stop there. After that we went to Galina Primary to play with the kids, who were having field day. I didn't really know what to do for most of the time we were there because I'm not very outgoing, and I'm not great at playing with kids. But when Ashley, who was carrying a little girl in her arms, said that the girl wanted to get on someone's shoulders, that was something I could do. I don't even know the little girl's name, but she seemed to enjoy it, and I loved it. I never really thought about it until now, but that's how God wants us to come to Him: He wants us to seek Him, and He wants to carry us on His shoulders—He wants us to be completely dependent on Him, unable and unwilling to do anything apart from Him—and He wants us to take joy in knowing that He is completely in control, because He loves it when we depend on Him and ask Him to serve us in the ways He wants to serve us.
We didn't stay at Galina Primary for long. We left in two groups at different times because we only had one bus. The other two were either at Kermit's church or at the infirmary, where the groups were finishing up the roofing of the church and the mural at the infirmary, in addition to whatever was left to paint on the overhang at the infirmary. Back at the Casa Maria, we just hung out until dinner, then we went to our team meeting. It still gives me chills to think about that night. All week I had been wanting to pray for each person in my small group family individually, and I had already gotten the opportunity to pray for Josh and Jack, so when Jasmine, one of the interns, said what we would be doing that night, I got really excited because God was showing me even more unity in the desires He had given us. Each of the leaders went to the interns and directors to receive prayer for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and then we went to our freshmen and prayed for them. I have to admit, even though God has called me Lemuel, an intercessor, I feel like I don't know what to pray a lot of times, so praying for the freshmen was really revealing to me because I felt like I was just praying what I knew to pray instead of letting the Spirit pray for me. But I know the Lord answered anyway and will continue to answer. And it was cool praying for each of the freshmen with Rebekah because one of the jokes about Wesley style/Korean style prayer/the "holy roar" (although it's not really a joke) is that if you don't know what to pray for, you can just listen to the person next to you and steal their ideas, and it seemed like Rebekah definitely knew what to pray for because the Spirit was praying for her. And it was awesome getting to pour out into the freshmen individually, with specific prayers for each one of them. It made it feel like we really are a family, every single one of us.
After we prayed for the freshmen and Josh prayed for me and Rebekah, we went to our small groups, where we basically debriefed on the entire week, since we didn't have much time left there. Josh and I walked in late, so they caught us up, and then I shared a vision I had had the day before. I saw a map of Jamaica, like on an iPhone GPS, with the blue dot marking where we were in Port Maria, and circles radiating out from the dot. Then I saw the dot move back to Athens, GA, as were returned to the States. But as the dot moved, a copy of the dot was left in Port Maria, with waves still radiating from the city. And as we arrived back in Athens, the dot start giving off waves in Athens while the other dot continued to emit waves from Jamaica. This was meant to show that the impact we had in Jamaica would have a lasting effect, even after we were gone. The Holy Spirit would still remain in Jamaica, working with what we did and working in the places we were unable to reach in our short time there. And at the same time, the Spirit would also go with us back to Athens to work in us and through us at home. What came next blew us all away: Jack said that he had heard pretty much that exact same vision last summer at a conference in Chicago. The speaker had a map up on the wall, and she put a pin on Chicago and drew circles out from the city, and she did the same thing with Atlanta. Eventually the circles overlapped each other, symbolizing the way that the Spirit's work becomes known all over the world, and His work in one place serves as encouragement to His disciples in another place, which spurs them on to even greater things in Jesus' name, which then encourages more people until the whole world is one big dot emanating waves of the Holy Spirit. And this is being proven even now. While I was in Athens, I heard about a lot of stuff that was going on at home in Woodstock and Kennesaw, GA, there's been revival among a lot of my friends in State College, Pennsylvania, and I've been hearing about all that's been going on at Bethel Church in California for a while now. In fact, this past semester, Bethel chose to target Athens as a center for ministry because they believe that God is going to move powerfully in and through this city. So as Bethel sent teams on mission trips throughout the world, they sent a team to Athens to encourage the body of believers here. They went to Africa, eastern Europe, southeast Asia, South America, and of all places, Athens, Georgia. In addition to these "dots" on the map, Wesley also sent teams to Peru and New York over spring break, and they are sending teams to Brazil, Cambodia, and Montenegro in the next few weeks. Again, if you could be praying for the Brazil and Cambodia teams along with Montenegro, I'd really appreciate it. I also have friends going to Israel and back to Peru, another friend who is going to North Africa with Café 1040 (he actually left today), a friend from Puerto Rico, and a friend from Japan who came to UGA as an exchange student who came to know Jesus Christ while he was here and will now be taking Him back to Japan with him! And there's so much more going on in the Kingdom, as we head out to work at camps this summer. My friend Meg is working with Lifeworks in Colorado; Bryan is working at a camp in Montana; Taylor, John, Katie, and Anna are working at a camp in Maine; Amanda is working at Snowbird in North Carolina; and I'm working with Lauren and Devin at Camp Highland in Elijay, GA, starting next Monday. I can't wait to see all that the Lord has planned for this summer!
Anyway, back on track with Jamaica, Friday came around all too soon. But we got to enjoy some time together and with the other Jamaica teams, which was a lot of fun. And that evening all of the small groups sat together at dinner, which surprisingly hadn't happened until then. And then we had the talent show, Jessica and Jasmine gave the leaders encouraging notes, and I think we had the last night of identity prayer that night. The last one might have been Thursday night. I don't remember. Either way, identity had become a huge part of the trip, and I later found out that identity was a big part of all of the Jamaica trips, which showed even more unity, which is really cool. God was staying true to His word in my visual at the beginning of the week, when He showed me the "fire in the forest" flowers and told me that He would show me unity.
Even though the trip was just about over, God wasn't done speaking to me about the trip. As the plane took off the next day, I looked out the window back at Jamaica, and I saw clouds covering the whole island. There were no clouds over the water. Just over the island. The iPhone GPS vision came back to me, and the Lord connected that vision to what I was seeing at that moment: the Spirit of God was hovering over the entire island of Jamaica, ready to rain down and fall upon the Jamaicans and bring revival throughout the island. Our work was done there for the time being, but the Lord promised that He will never stop working there. He will always be working to bring the Jamaicans to know Him fully, and He is preparing the land, even now, for next year's Freshley team so that we can know Him more.
Remember that airplane visual I mentioned all the way at the beginning of this post? Well, I originally thought that it was about our work that we would be doing in Jamaica, but it turned out that it was actually about our return to the States. Obviously, the whole Jamaica trip was a huge spiritual high, but for a lot of us it was a gradual high, if that makes sense. Instead of being a kind of spiritual high that can never be reached outside of a mission trip or some intense spiritual experience, the kind that of spiritual high feeling that can easily be lost in an instant after returning from the trip, this was a lasting kind of spiritual high, the kind that leaves an impact on our way of life. The Lord brought us to Jamaica for a reason, and we were only able to be there by His grace. He brought us to the point of take-off, and Jamaica was that point where the plane was stable in the air in a constant state of growth and forward motion. But the plane has to land eventually, and so did our spring break mission trip, so we had to come back to America. Now we have to remember all that the Lord taught us while we were Jamaica and use it to glorify Him in all that we do.
One of the things that Josh emphasized throughout the week was one of the main themes of Freshley this entire semester: the time is now. We also seem to look ahead to the future, looking forward to what's next, or look back at the past, dwelling on things that could have or should have been, and we never focus on the here and now. Now that the plane has landed and we are back in our true mission field, we have to focus on the task at hand. We can remember all that God did in Jamaica and thank Him for it, but we are here now, not in Jamaica. Even if you didn't go to Jamaica, whether you supported me or prayed for me and the team, or if you're just reading this because you were curious about what happened while we were there, ask yourself this: What is the task at hand? What does God have planned for you right now? Who has He called you to be, and what does He want you to do right now? Whatever your task may be, do it well. All for the glory of God.
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http://www.facebook.com/v/10150763695974880
If you read my last Jamaica post, this is the same video I posted before. Even if you've already seen it, it's worth watching again.
This is a video my friend Andrew made to sum up the whole trip and the mark it left on us. Even if all that I wrote doesn't give you a clear idea of just how much the Lord did for us, in us, and through us while we were there, I hope this video does it justice for you.
