Sunday morning was rough. All week I had been looking forward to getting to worship and seeing everyone who I missed the week before while I was away, but somehow things seemed to turn sour. Nothing really big happened and I had gotten at least 6 hours of sleep, so I should have been good. It was a few little things that popped up that really got me.
First of all, I woke up with a heavy feeling. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but my heart was just extremely heavy. Second, the puppy was being way more hyper and crazy than she normally is. It's all good and cute when I have time to play around, but I don't normally wake up early enough to play on Sunday mornings. She was very high maintenance and annoying. Third, I had enough time (and the humidity was low enough to not need a straightener for once) to curl my hair and do something fun with it. After spending 20 good minutes with the curling iron and hairspray, I went to style it the way I wanted and it just wouldn't work. No matter what I did! This may sound so insignificant and silly, but after spending more time than I normally would on my hair only to have it not work and the curls fall out was infuriating... on top of already having a rough morning and struggling with the dog. So my hair went up in a boring pony tail and looked terrible!! (at least that's what I was thinking at the time.)
I knew something was off, but I still couldn't put my finger on it. I headed over to the church after spending a short time in prayer. I had to be there a bit early for worship team. When I arrived we had some technical difficulties and we were missing a musician. As we ran through a couple of the songs, things still felt off to me. I knew then that satan was working really hard to tear my attention away from Jesus. I stopped what I was doing, asked the senior pastor to pray with me, and prayed.
The rest of the morning wasn't perfect and on Monday I talked with the rest of the worship team and leadership about why that could be. What really strikes me about this situation is that I've been expecting it. Since I arrived in Jersey, knowing completely that this is where God has certainly called me, I was just waiting for satan to begin trying to stop the ministry. Things have been going so well, (thank you God!!) that it was just a matter of time.
I experienced some very really and very heavy spiritual warfare while in Uganda. So much so that I was sick or injured nearly the entire year of 2011. From a cold and a torn ligament to surgery and a dislocated thumb... it was rough. But God was moving and people (specifically people of another religion) were coming to know Him in real and exciting ways. The gospel was spread through some very important relationships that were built.
Things here have been going well. People seem excited about the ministry and we've has a good turn out at each event we've had so far. God is already doing exciting things and relationships are already being built. Leadership is falling into place and LOTS of stuff is being planned. This week alone I've planned much of my calendar for the entire year. I've even scouted out mission trip locations, worked on a budget, and looked at dates. Things are moving forward quite rapidly. Satan is very threatened by by all of the good things happening and he's going to do everything he can to thwart it. Even though I've been expecting some of this, it still managed to take me by surprise.
This week has gone much better thus far and I'm back to feeling like everything is going really well. The thing is, nothing went badly. It was the way I was under attack that affected me personally. It was silly little things that I allowed under my skin and to distract me. Satan knows just which buttons to push to distract me. However, God is so good and He's bigger than all of these things. He will be glorified even when I'm distracted. People will draw nearer to Him in spite of me, thankfully! God is continuously working and moving.
I'm so excited to be where I'm at right now! I love being here. I love the relationships. I love doing this work and knowing the huge potential. I love the expectations and learning. I love standing in an empty sanctuary with my guitar, singing praises at the top of my lungs... just me and Jesus. I love the busyness. I even love the days I'm overwhelmed. Mostly I love being connected with a body of believers who desire to further their daily walks with Jesus.
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