Hello Everyone
This country was the last 2 months of my race
Life Update
We are all squad for this country but we still have teams. When we switched teams for the last official time at the beginning, my team picked the name “The Most” for us and we prayed that it was a profectic name. It was profectic in a way that none of us realized. We thought it would mean we would be used by God to do healings, miracles, sharing the gospel and seeing people decide to follow Christ. Basically that He would use us to do the most for others. We were wrong. We instead have been going through the most work with what God is doing in us, for us, than ever before, and no one saw it coming. The Lord has helped me to grow, overcome lies, see truth, fight unhealthy patterns, and feel safe to hope for the first time I can remember and I can’t thank Him enough. This country in outreach had been hard because no one is really open to talking about Jesus and that is not my favorite situation to find, but in spite of this, we have still had the opportunity to work with a handful of ministries, while we were here, and that was nice. I am very excited to go home, as this place is not my favorite overall, and I am looking forward to the final debrief in Georgia. Until then, I am trying to enjoy my last few months with everyone, before we all part ways.
Whats it like in South Asia?
People: The people here were from a very different culture than the USA and I found it the most jarring of all the countries up to this point. It was normal to stare, and get in your personal space for pictures without asking, and ask for pictures a from strangers, for people to take videos and pics of me and my squadmates whenever the felt like it, for people to video call significant others and show them ✨️us✨️ from very close up with no permission, for bathrooms to sometimes have an attendant to give you toilet paper, and for men to pee on the side of the road whenever and wherever (I saw probably 100 men peeing in my time there).
Transport: We took tuk tuks everywhere for pretty cheap. Cars would honk to signal anything, so the road was never quiet. I almost never saw a car without scrapes of some kind and crossing the road followed no markings or lights, you quite literally put a hand out and walk into a space in traffic and people generally stop.
Clothing: Peoples clothes were generally Kuras for women and normal western jeans and shirt for men
Weather: It was sooooo hot. It was a high of 126°F while we were there, but I am pretty sure 115°F was the normal during the day.
Other: Street dogs there were thin and not to be touched but pets were fat and with asking, you could touch them
What’s God doing in South Asia?
He is doing a lot here, but it is slow moving and full of persecution. The Lord blessed our team with being able to encourage our host after the school he helped build was burned and taken over. We have been able to encourage him and he us! He was very kind and worked out what ministry and how to get to them.
The ministries we worked with/visited a Blind school, Bible college, multiple Rehab Centers, and a school in the mountains
Day 1
Day 2
We did a foot wash, on a worship night, with my new team
Ice cream run with some of my squad
Bug 🥰
We went with our host to get Sarees and Kurtis so we would have clothes to do ministry in, then also used them when we welcomed the parents to India. Everyone was so excited!
We visited the local Bible college, did a tour and worshiped the Lord together with them.
We witnessed a Hindu festival, on the Ganges, to their god of destruction, Shiva, and it was so stressful.
My nicest Kurti
Adventure day to the zoo and a waterfall with some of the swad
My hair tie for the last 10 months prior, that I finally let die
Making Alfredo for the squad
The moon
The hosts dog, Boozoh
My art of how India went
Team time at the ice cream shop
A giant fruit bat
Camel on the side of the road
Meeting Mc Donald
A Tuk Tuk we rode to Church
We went to see the Golden Temple
We went to see the Border preformance
Treats!
Sir Fungus Toadstool
The T shirts 🤣 read them
Meeeeee being cute
The rolls
Our movie day with the interesting bathroom sign
Art for a teammate
Roadside dog
Mountain ministry location
Our last week
Fundraising Update
I applied for a Leadership training course with AIM in January and I will need to raise about $6500 for the training school. I also want to raise about $1000 to help me pay for food on the side. I would be working part time with them, but I have no savings to fall back on, for the start. I won’t start raising anything until they accept me and I commit to going. I just wanted to put it on everyone’s radar in the meantime.
Spiritual Update
Soooo much has happened.
We stared with debriefing Nepal and that went over alright, but I knew I was all stirred up inside and once PVT (The parent vision trip) ended I came to the end of myself as well. In a worship time I asked God to give me a picture to draw for me and He gave me this:
Family, future plans, and past events all pointed to something. I climbed to the roof of the housing and I talked to the Lord. I looked at the world and my life and asked where the good and the redemption was. I asked where was the end to the struggle. I told God how I believe that He is good and does redeem and has rest for me but I was at a loss to see it. I rationalized my way through it and decided I was the problem. I met up with a coach to talk about family and stressors and she directed me to go to the “Tree of Life” and surrender to God and to take authority over the demons that plague my family. The drawing i made was me in my emotions swiming to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and I could not save myself there and in the backround the Lord and me draw a tree, close to my heart and it was the tree of life. I had been deciding I was the judge of everything in my life (good and evil). I decided that I wanted to do what was said but didnt know how. And I was given some notes on both of the trees in the garden and their symbolism:
I had no idea how to go to the Tree of Life. Then a little while later during a listening prayer God walked me through a vision:
I walked through a curtain that was sheer with cyan blue and magenta purple embroidered, moving and glowing on the edges and fibers. It was a circle and I passed through both sides where it was parted. Think a circle area netted in with sheer fabric with an opening on both sides as you walk through. And I saw it from the other side but now I was standing in a feild of soft dull blue green grass with the dull white fluffy tops in front of a stream trailing off in both directions. All movment was slight. The air was cool as if it would rain and it smelled like fresh rain on the waterfront. It was dim and darker like late evening so everything was washed in that dark pallate. Their was a giant storm cloud in frond of me lined with constant, electric moving cyan blue and a magenta like purple. I felt peace as I just stood and looked around. I asked God where He was and he said He was in everything. I asked what he had for me and I just stood and waited. In in little bit I saw a giant stream of water dump and flow from the sky in front of me across the stream. I had I my mind all the ways I though walking through it would go but they all felt wrong, so I surrendered to God and let Him show me what walking into the water would be. He had me step in and I had my face pointed up to where the water poured from. It felt different in a way I would have never known. At first I was thinking it should be uncomfortable and I wanted to focus on whether I could breathe or not but that was not the focus. My mind let go of what I wanted to know and just stood. It was thicker and softer than water, it was not water as I knew it. It curled around behind me to embrace me. It felt like it wrapped around me and held me and I felt dafe and loved, and I stayed there.
Then all of a sudden the view zoomed out and I saw the trunk of water going up into the cloud and it looked like a giant beautiful tree. And it hit me so much so that I opened my eyes. It was the tree of life.
This was a Canva art I made of the vision. It was so cool.
I told my coach and she told me the symbolism of the blue was peace and the purple was joy and the cloud was the way I viewed the world.
I was content for a while but as I went on I realized there was something going on inside me. All the things I knew were fighting inside me. I went on that week so stressed and sad that I was spiraling out of emotional contol. I invited people in but there was a part of me that thought “there is something wrong with me” and it ended up coloring everything and made everything people were doing to help, only be frustrating instead of helpful. I removed myself from people one night to find a room alone and I sobbed on the floor as I cried out to the Lord. I told Him I needed to hear him but that my head was too full. I told Him that the struggle was too much, that I have gone through struggle for Him before and I would do it again if He really wanted. I asked Him to take the struggle away but if not, then His will be done, but that I was heartbroken thinking He might not. He used a mentor of mine to speak into that moment. I called her up and she spoke truth into the situation. I was believing the lie that I was fighting against me, but we “are not fighting flesh and blood” (Eps 6:12). That, among other things, helped me center myself enough to stable out. I talked with my coach again and sorted even more out:
It was so true and freeing. My coach had me imagine myself untethering myself (a boat in the vision) from the person affecting me (a dock in the vision) and I was scared of were I would go in the sea, then saw Jesus and was okay moving forward towards him.
And as a cherry on top my teammate came to talk to me and it was so cool and confirming:
My teammate had a song that she shared that applied perfectly to me and a vision of me from the eyes of Jesus: She was praying for me when she started to cry and feel Gods love and compassion and saw me crying in the room (literally exactly as I was in my breakdown). And in Nepal, if you remember, He said that He meets me in the hardest moments and crys with me😭🥰 she also said God gave her a word for me: “Anahbelle, I have collected every tear that you have ever shed. I promise you , those tears were not shead in vain. Anointing is found in the olive press.” Then she spoke of a podcast on anointing she had listed to about Jesus in the garden of gesemeny. Jesus asked the cup to be taken from Him, but God will be done. It was so weird because I said that I was heartbroken and to take the struggle away, but if not, then His will be done. She shared how Gesemeny means press. The anointing is found in the olive press, the affliction, and you can’t get it any other way. The last peice of this strange puzzle was that God reminded me of how He anointed my face, in a vision, in Guatemala.
He is with me in the struggle and has greater things for me on the other side. He is strong enough to carry me through. With this and the truth from before, so much of my fear and stress have dissipated, but i remain in the same situation.
I asked God to show how He has redeemed things before and I asked for His eyes to see the world how He does. (Spoiler alert, He always comes through)
Prayers
Pray for India and all the people here.
Persecution of Christians in India.
For my host, who I will not be naming, and his family and ministry connections.
Pray for the squads health
Pray God continues to lead and guide me in all truth ❤️ and the same for you all as well
Answered Prayers
I have remained well up to this point!
Thank you
Thank you all so much for following along so far. I only have two more blogs to add to tell you of my travels before I cover it all. God has used me to reach others and changed me from the inside out and I am so excited to continue with Him on the journey of whatever path He puts before me! I hope you all have been growing with the Lord from the USA and loving the people who come into your path. I can’t wait to see you all soon!
