Deutoronomy 30:6

Ok, so this is one lonnnggg post but I've been wanting to post on my recent trip to Africa because it is still impacting my daily life so much. I was asked to write this out for the monthly newsletter for Genesis so I figured I would post it here as well.

This trip to Africa was my forth missions trip although the first completely on my own, without family or friends with me. It was a medical mission’s team so including myself there were eight nurses and two doctors traveling. We had a rough start to the trip which included one of our planes between Paris and Benin losing an engine one hour into the flight. I smile thinking about it now because there was never any fear or doubt God was in control, holding all of us in the palm of his hand during those tentative hours. To anyone reading this that has been to a third world country you know I will not do any justice to the conditions there by writing them here. It is beyond comprehension how some people in this world live. Even while you are there you can’t get over how surreal it all is. The sights and smells are sometimes too much to take in. During our initial de-briefing one of the leaders Gary spoke to us about how we were there to do Kingdom work and the rest was just a bonus. This resonated so deeply in me and I can still feel the emotion it stirred within my heart.

During the week we worked at a couple of different locations running clinics. From a medical standpoint (and for a nurse who loves the gory side of the profession) we saw some pretty incredible things and were performing tasks completely out of our scope of practice here in the states. The most important thing was that of the 1000 people we saw we prayed for nearly all of them (with the exception of those who would not let us). I cannot explain the great joy in the people eyes when we asked them if we could pray and placed our hands on them. We worked as witnesses to God, his glory, and his mercy. We were pushed to our limit physically, mentally, and emotionally. In the middle of the week one night I was praying and feeling discouraged because I wished my heart was in a different place. Sure I was serving, but personal hurt and my past had caused a wall to be built around my heart. I was mad at myself for not letting the trip affect me on an emotional level in that I was not outraged at the way some of these people were living, and this bothered me tremendously. I just prayed for God to break open my heart and let me serve whole-heartedly and to the best of my ability. The next morning during devotions another girl on my team started out by reading Deuteronomy 30:6 which reads “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendents, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.” At that moment God opened my heart and I was overwhelmed by his timing to the point of tears.

God used this trip to circumcise my heart and teach me about how to live as a true servant to his kingdom. It makes me happy to think that our team helped save lives, and not with our medicine or by the work of our own hands, but through prayer and being a witness to God’s mercy. I know Mercy Ships was put in my life as a very direct way to serve God. It has also helped me look back and realize how God has prepared the way by giving me talents as a nurse, something I hold so dear. For me it took going to a foreign country and being stripped of all comforts to allow God to circumcise my heart. I urge you to let God do the same; he will meet you wherever you are. Do it so you may live!