Sharing the gospel !!

Good evening friends!

It’s been officially one week since being in Brazil and i’m so grateful that I am here. God is so good in the big things and the little things. We had our long awaited first week of ministry, which looked different each day. The first couple of days here we worked on getting settled. This looked like buying groceries, connecting with our ministry hosts & partners, learning about prophecy, kids ministry meetings and getting prepped for the ministry ahead. On Wednesday we got the opportunity to partner with YWAM and go to the local college campus to evangelize as well as outreach to the young adults on campus! We spent time in worship and prayer, split into teams and went out. I honestly thought that the language barrier would be a difficult here but there have been a decent amount of people here who understand a little bit of English. Between that and translators we talked to so many people, after the evangelism time we got ready for outreach! We made signs telling people that they were loved by God and that they weren’t alone. We had papers with different bible verses on them to hand out and just asked the spirit the be with us as we made conversation and continued to share the gospel in new ways! As a lot of you know, this is not my first missions trip nor my first time evangelizing, BUT it was the first time that I did not experience anxiety and instead felt peace. I felt truly filled with the spirit, I know that He is inside of me, interceding for me and giving me the words to speak! Not only did we get to speak to people in english but one of my teammates who is from Germany got to talk to and share the gospel in her own language. This was a beautiful example that every tribe, tongue & nation can be connected through the Lord and to see the way the Lord brings us all together despite the language barriers. Not only is God things in the lives of the people we come in contact with, He is also doing things in my life. Before we started evangelism we spent time singing and one of the songs that we sang was Goodness of God. This song is so beautiful as it talks about Gods goodness, faithfulness, and love, and how we still praise God through the good and the bad. This song is personal to me because it is a song my family often sang with my dad, after he passed away this song was painful to sing. I started checking out and not paying attention when they started playing. I felt numb. I started to journal to ask the Lord to help free me from this numbness, that I would be able to sing this song freely again. I didn’t want to stay stuck in the numbness anymore or avoid the song anymore because of the pain but rather be able to sing this song boldly! To sing about Gods goodness and praise Him from where He has brought me from. This opportunity came sooner than I thought, wednesday night I went to a life group that is connected to the church that we are partnering with and that song got played AGAIN! First they started to sing in portuguese and then all of a sudden they asked me to sing in english, not knowing that I had prayed earlier for the Lord to work in my heart. At that moment I was able to sing in freedom and believe the truth of the words of that song. The chorus says “all my life you have been faithful, all my life you have been so so good, with every breath that i am able, i will sing of the goodness of God.”

On this trip I am growing in my knowledge of the Lord and truly understanding how real He is, how much He actually sees His children and wants a relationship with them. I’m learning how His love is steady and constant, and that I am worthy of His love. I’m learning that the Holy Spirit can fill me with strength and boldness. I’m learning to lean into the pain and uncomfortable feelings so that I can grow to be the woman that God wants me to be. Growth is not easy, it’s quite painful but I want to be pruned so that I can bear good fruit for the Lord and I want to continue to trust that He knows best. I want to come with a heart that is willing and expectant for Gods will to be done.

I have two more things to share with you!

On Thursday my team went to an after school program that we will be partnering with twice a week while we’re here. We got to meet the children and  teach them a fun dance, spent time learning names, playing games and getting to know all the kids. So many of these kids were so excited that people came from the US just to see them, they gave us hugs, asked so many questions, played lots of soccer, and just spent time establishing a relationship with them. Some of these kids asked me questions like “do people in America throw away good things?”, “is everyone in America rich”, and others like that. It was hard to be asked such questions and my heart was breaking as I answered truthfully. We are too comfortable at our homes and take so many things for granted and somehow these kids know the amount of things that we have at the top of our fingertips that these kids only ever dream of having. The kids just wanted to be loved, a lot of the kids come from broken homes and often tend to themselves. My eyes were reopened to the reality of the lives of people here and of the lives of people in our very cities that need Jesus. The gospel is for everyone, it’s not only for people in other nations. It’s not only for the people we feel comfortable talking to. It’s for everyone! It’s even for all these kids. We are living out the gospel in word AND deed. The bible says in Matthew 19:14 “let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” We want to continue to pour into these kids & love them so that they may see the Lord in us!

My last story is that I got to share the gospel with someone solo for the first time ever! On Saturday my team did not have scheduled ministry but what we call “Ask the Lord”. We went out to the city and to a local beach and asked the Lord who he might have for us to share the gospel with or pray for. As I was hiking with my team to the local beach I saw a small sign hanging from a tree that said “Deus e contigo”. I told my friends I had found a sign that said something about God but I didn’t know what because I can’t read Portuguese, after I said this a man behind me told me that it said “God is with you”. I kept walking a couple feet and then felt the urge to turn around and tell that same thing. I noticed he had an english accent and asked him where he was from, it turned out he was from San Diego! One thing led to another, I asked him if he was religious and he said that over the past year he had been learning about faith, the holy spirit, and  how fear had also lead him to ask more questions about God. I was able to talk to him about how faith is about a relationship rather religion and how I have a personal relationship with God, he asked me if I prayed and how. He also asked me if I asked God for things. During this whole conversation I had so much peace and I didn’t know what I was going to say until I said it. I asked him if he had ever heard the gospel and he said no! I was so surprised that a man who lived in San Diego had NEVER heard the gospel and the Lord opened the door wide open for me to share the gospel to this man and his girlfriend. While i don’t think my delivery of the gospel was that good I know that a seed was planted and that the Lord is in control. In the end I asked if could pray for him to which he said yes and I was able to boldly pray for this man that Jesus would meet him where he was at and that he would continue to ask questions and seek the Lord! After the conversation was over I was able to share with my team and celebrate with them how God used me when I wasn’t expecting it! Im so grateful for all that i’m learning, that i’m leaning into what the Lord is calling me to and that I get to lean on Him for strength, courage, and wisdom!

Thank you for being here for supporting me, for reading all that I’m writing. It is truly so hard to choose what to share as I write about all that God is doing in a post but I will continue to share all that I can!

I would love to encourage you and ask you two questions.

1. Who can you go the extra mile for to show the love of Jesus to this week?
2. Are you willing to take a step out in boldness and share the gospel to one person this week?

With love,

mikayla