How beautiful are the feet of messengers.....

  A 15 hour flight, a few days of dreadful jetlag, and a week of readjusting later, I can officially call Brisbane, Australia my new home for the next 18+ months! Thank you so much for your prayers during my travel and in my readjusting. This will be the blog that I use to update my dear friends, loved ones, and supporters during this sweet season the Lord has brought me to. SO without further adieu, here's the first of many updates, friends!:

“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”  -Romans 10:14-15

       Today as I was reading my Bible and trying to get to know my Jesus better, I happened to flip to that ever so intimidating and sometimes seemingly “darker” book of the Word: Revelation. But instead of feeling intimidated about the coming times or worrying about the salvation of my soul and others’, as I’ve found myself doing at times when reading this book, I was instead reminded of my purpose for this season; why I’m sitting here at the YWAM base in Brisbane, Australia, just 3 days away from beginning staff training. As I read chapter 3:6-13 (Here’s a link to that in case you’d like to read along, but don’t feel like getting up to grab your Bible: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%203:6-13&version=NLT), about Jesus’s words of those who obey Him and don’t deny Him, and about “those who belong to Satan’s synagogue”, I actually found myself becoming not intimidated, but rather excited: SO excited that I know the Truth, and I know it in time! 

Verse 11 says plain and clear “I am coming soon.” If Jesus said this ages ago, I can’t even fathom just how soon His coming is TODAY. Not long ago, I was walking in the opposite direction of the Lord. But now I am saved, and as a result, when He returns, I will sit with my Savior, King, and Friend up in Heaven. But how close I was to not having this privilege just amazes me! What if I hadn’t found out this Truth in time? What if I had missed out on His beautiful gift of eternal life, simply because I didn’t know of the true DEPTH of this relationship with Him- because no one ever really explained it to me? 

I am so blessed to know this gift now; to know His infinite love and to have experienced it. And because I have felt so blessed in that, I really can’t even bear the thought of sitting idly by as others blindly walk the path I once did, completely oblivious to just how fulfilling this great love actually is, merely because no one ever told them about it or showed them what it was like. How blessed I feel to get to tell others about this great love, this great relationship, this great Savior before our time on this earth runs out! 

People are called to all sorts of different places in life to do all sorts of different things. There are so many different spiritual gifts and callings, but I am realizing more and more every day just how much missions is what I am called to. There is something within me that feels a responsibility to make sure people are aware of what they are missing out on, to make sure they at least hear of this potential relationship so that when that final day comes, they can’t say they didn’t know otherwise or that no one ever told them. The Lord truly does save souls, and I feel so strongly that it is my responsibility, not only as a Christian, but as a missionary, to let Him use me as a tool in that, and my heart gets so excited about this fact!

And THAT is why I am here; that is the vision- to be apart of providing others with the opportunity to experience the same great love I’ve gotten to experience, to help others know the Lord in a deeper way than they may have even thought possible, and to carry out the responsibility the Lord has given me to spread His Good News before our time runs out. As I chew on all of this, I can’t help but be reminded of the verses from Romans 10:14-15 which I shared at the top of this post. The Lord has given me the feet of a messenger as I walk out in this calling and responsibility. That is the vision the Lord has given me for my time here at YWAM, and I thank you so much for your prayers and support that help me fulfill that very calling and responsibility the Lord has placed on my life. God is good, ya’ll. Keep praising Him, keep seeking His face. Be blessed.

Paige

Reuniting with my friends from DTS who are back as well, over McDonald's (They call it "Maccas" here) 30 cent cones!

The view from my bedroom window.

 First order of business: GOLD FISH SHOPPING!

Meet my newest little missionary companion: Oliver the goldfish.

[How you can be praying:

• For physical health and restoration (living in a community environment, there are always  bugs going around, and I'm still dealing with jetlag, ugh!)

• That God would prepare my heart even more so to be a leader during this time before the MAD (Music, Art, and Dance) school that I'm staffing starts.

• Lately I have been dealing with some spiritual warfare and have had a hard time remembering God's perfect love for me- the love that I don't have to work for or have my act together for. Please pray that I would experience God's love fully and that the enemy would not have a foothold in my life.

•  Finances. (While I'm set for now, I still haven't reached my goal yet) Please pray that the Lord would open peoples' hearts to give, especially as I cannot have a job while here.

• That my readjusting to life here would continue to be a smooth and easy process.]

Thank you from the very bottom of my heart!