American Missionary Fellowship

What is God doing in my ministry? Blessing it!

God’s going to great lengths to prepare me for the next stage of life, which is quickly approaching. I’ll be finished with Calvary Bible College in December (God willing!) and jumping into full-time ministry. Well, I will be if all of my support has come in by then. But I’m not too worried about that. God owns everything, and He is certainly proving Himself able to provide.

Here’s what happened this past summer: I worked at a camp in Ekalaka, Montana as a camp counselor. I needed to counsel for seven weeks to complete the last of my camping internship for Calvary Bible College. It was so neat to see how God used the summer to prepare me (in ways I didn’t even think about) for what He is asking me to do. He drew me so much closer to Him. He taught me about serving others, pressing on, leaning on Him, having pure motives, loving and then letting go, and wearing my spiritual armor. But that’s not all. He gave me a glorious week of barn staff training. This wasn’t just your normal week of riding horses and learning how to teach. This was God preparing me for the work He has planned. I had three days of learning how to teach Bible in a riding lesson, exactly what I’ll be doing as an AMF missionary! 

The story gets better! On the third week of camp, a friend from my church back home called me. She and her husband were wanting to buy a house to rent to me. Not just any house. No, this is a house with land and a barn and an indoor riding arena! It gets better! Many people from my “cowboy church” have been spending hours and hours redoing the inside of the house and have donated all kinds of stuff – everything from a couch to a table, bed, washer, and dryer . . . the list goes on. I even have a horse trailer, equipment and – get this – a new lesson horse! It gets better! A lady from a local western wear store heard about what was going on and decided to donate from her store. It was so much stuff that it would hardly fit in the car! When God says He will give you what you need to do what He wants you to do, He’s not joking!

Okay, enough of that. What’s God doing in the life of my students? Well, He is encouraging them through how He is providing for me. I’m just getting back to the riding lessons after being gone all summer at camp. I think it’s only been three or so lessons, but each one is a reminder from God that this is where He wants me. One of my students accepted Christ over the summer (Yippee!!!). I had gone over to her house to share with her parents all that God had done over the summer. My student (Olivia, age 5) and I talked and talked about being a Christian and how important it is to tell others about the Gospel. Today was the first day that I attempted my new lesson format, the way it will be when I am doing this full time: one hour of horses/Bible and a half hour of sitting down with the Word of God and an open heart. The plan is to teach inductive Bible study to the kids. They seemed to be learning. But more and more I’m realizing how much kids just need someone who is willing to listen to them and love and value them as the special people God has made them to be.