Are You still there?

Sometimes, when needed, I have to demand in prayerful persistence for God to prove Himself to me. For Him to come back to me after spiritual dryness. I pray for His presence to overwhelm me again. He has been faithful time and time again! No matter how long the season of dryness is. During my back troubles, it seemed to last forever. Several months. He came back into a visible tangible presence in more and better ways that I could ever imagine. Well, in times of growth and maturity, He leaves for a time. He never leaves my side but His visible presence is not to be felt for a while. I grow to miss Him and to miss His leading. After tons of time together with Him while I was in New Zealand, I came back to the states totally dry and void. I was almost numb upon arriving home. I prayed for the "fine china to dine off of" instead of the paper plates I was getting. (Shane and Shane) He came back into my life physically bigger than ever!!

I made a prayer journal for the summer for myself. I neglected to write in it a lot however. So, I decided to start using it now to write down facts and information about the nations. I decided to do a different country each week and to pray for that country. I wanted to do it to educate me on the rest of the world as well as praying for real needs. I decided to do all countries in Africa. I randomly put my finger on the big continent and it landed on Libya. However, like so many other projects that I want to start, this one didn't seem to lift off the ground. After forgetting about this idea for a while, God brought it back to my heart in a powerful way. I had some free time and was sitting in front of the tv. I pulled out my computer and when I opened up my Internet explorer to my country of the day(my home page delivers a new country to my eyes everyday to pray for), guess what it was? Libya!! I immediately remembered and God said, turn off the tv, get on your knees and start praying for this country! I looked up fact after fact and my heart began to break for this country that I hadn't thought twice of before. I found myself crying before my computer screen. In a country of 6 over million, there are only 100,000 Christians. It is an Arab country and 97% are Sunni Muslim. I was crying for this dark place! I have been praying for this country all week as God continues to give me a heart of compassion for them! That night, I began to sense His presence once more and He began to quench my thirst with His living water. Now all I want to do is take the water to Libya and feed them!! Lord, are you calling me to Libya? Are you calling me an Arab nation in the 10/40 window?

Only time will tell...as long as my heart continues to seek after Him! And the spiritual dryness must come routinely so that my heart WILL continue to seek Him! Not just seek, but seek HARD after Him! We don't exist just in the highs but also in the lows. If there were no lows, we wouldn't know how high the highs can get!

Beautiful New Zealand...

I have to keep asking myself, "Am I really here?" It is so hard to believe that I have the opportunity and privledge to be in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. And not by my idea...it was totally God that sent me here! How cool! I only have 3 more nights here and I am still figuring out exactly why I am here. Part of why I can't write out...yet...I think. Sometimes, the Lord can be so extreme and so unbelievable that it is hard to believe that I am living in His will. I think, "I'm living an absolute dream." When I was first walking with the Lord, I used to really look forward to living the dream that God was painting in my heart. So now, that I am walking firm with Him and actually living a life created for me, it is almost overwhelms me. I think these pictures sum up the beauty of New Zealand...and I have nothing more to say as I can't compete with the pictures... :)