Boldness

"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:16

My first morning back in St. Louis, I sat in staff devotions and listened to a coworker share on this verse. Immediately after she finished sharing, we walked downstairs to find out the boat sank. The boat that carried donated supplies to sustain our programs for a few months. We had been so excited about how God had provided and now we were pretty devastated.

But God really used what we thought to be devastating news to teach us.....

Over the past month, God has been teaching us and unifying us. We decided that we wanted our theme for this year to be "boldness." In the way we love, in the way we serve, and the way we pray. 

We held a new years party with all of the Haitian staff. We explained our theme and why we felt God had called us to be bold this year.  After talking, we decided to "draw the circle." Everyone took a turn writing something in the circle. Whether it was something we wanted God to provide, something we wanted God to do, or someone we wanted to reach for Christ this year. We prayed over the circle and continue to pray over it. Knowing that God is going to do big things in us and through us.

 Watching how God has been using people from different programs to minister to each other. Or watching the staff come together to fill the gap for someone in the community. Watching the staff come and pray over the surgery patients when they are in post-op or encouraging one another. It's exciting to see how God's working in each person's heart and what he will continue to do this year.

Knowing that the supplies had been lost, many of the staff were discouraged or frustrated. But this past month, God has shown he is faithful and he will provide. As teams came in, they brought in supplies, which started to cover what was lost. God has been showing us that it's not our responsibility to have it all figured out, but instead, to hand it over to Him and let him work out the details.