Harvest Institute

Last week I was able to attend a week long student leadership school. It was meant to equip student leaders to go out on the college campus and spread the Gospel, and to make a plan on how to make your campus ministry thrive. I was happy to be there with 10 fellow student leaders from ECU. I, personally, was not ready to go when I first arrived. Like I've said in previous posts, I've really been struggling with hearing from the Lord. I figured that going to this may help... and it did. I went almost all week, pressing into what God may have to say, and I started to get discouraged because I was getting nothing. Then Thursday came along and it hit me like a ton of bricks. The Lord spoke to me clearly for the first time in what seems like weeks. "I have not forgotten about you, I've been here the whole time, I'm simply preparing something new and better for you." Okay, cool. Sounds good to me! That's all I heard that day, but I will take it! The next day I was prayed over by 4 different people and they all spoke powerful prophetic words over me. I almost had them stop because I couldn't stop crying due to being overwhelmed from all that they were saying. It was a powerful day and I have heard the Lord speaking to me everyday since. Sometimes we do not understand why we go through the things we go through until we've walked through them completely. I look back on these last few years, especially my college years, and now I completely and fully understand why I walked through every single thing that I did. Some things were intended for evil, but God made them for good. Isn't great how He does that?

I also had the honor of going out and doing prayer evangelism on Duke University's campus. I had never been there before. The campus is beautiful! They have a lot of international students there, so it's really neat to talk to them and listen to their different experiences and perspectives. One thing I did notice about Duke is that many people there are lost. Prayer evangelism simply involves you going up and asking someone if you can pray for them. It eventually leads to hopefully being able to share the Gospel with them. Our group went on two different days. My friend Lauren and I partnered up and set out to pray for people. We got the opportunity to pray and talk to many different kinds of people, but I was believing for someone to not only hear the Gospel, but to accept it. Finally, on the last day of outreach, we ran into a lady named Sashlee. At first she didn't want us to pray for her, but then Reggie (Duke's campus minister) stopped her and she eventually started talking to us. I would say that we stood there talking to her for about 10-15 minutes. She was pregnant and is going to have a little girl on October 4. We presented the Gospel to her and she prayed to accept Jesus as her Savior! Talk about a glorious day of Duke's campus! It was amazing to watch a girl I had never met before to accept Jesus. All it took was stepping out on faith and caring enough about a stranger to share the Gospel with her. I'm so grateful that Reggie stopped her and encouraged us to talk with her. I'm also extremely happy that he was there to help us walk her through it!

A verse, well a chapter really, that was prayed over me last week was Romans 12. It talks about many different things, but it starts off by talking about presenting yourself as a living sacrifice, Holy and pleasing to the Lord. I've been dwelling on this chapter all week. I can't even guess how many times I have read this chapter throughout my life, but it has new meaning to me. I feel as though my purpose has been renewed. It's funny how I can go back, read verses that I've known my entire life and get something completely new out of them! I encourage you to do that, don't push a verse or a book of the Bible aside just because you've "simply read it." Go read it again and see if there's any new meaning to you.
A lot of the time, the Lord likes to teach us through the things that we know best. :)

Another great thing that happened was I grew much closer to a dear friend of mine. I now consider her a sister. Merrin and I went to the same high school, but she was a year younger. We weren't friends then, but she ended up coming to the same college as me and we started hanging out. She embarked on the Harvest Institute journey with me and I honestly feel like God sent her to ECU for a reason. He does all things for a reason. She loves the Lord and has radically encountered God over this last year. I am so proud to call her my sister in Christ and one of my best friends! I love how God can bring things from our past that we did not think were significant (like Merrin being my acquaintance in high school) and turns it around for His glory. This is a God centered, heart to heart friendship. Many people go a lifetime without them. I am so grateful for Him putting a wonderful friend like her in my life! This year is going to be great!

This week was powerful! No, I didn't get any exercise and I didn't eat very good, but you know what... I had an encounter with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Nothing is greater than that!