Life hasn't been easy for me growing up and living in the US. But when God took over my life, life has turned around beautifully and wonderfully!
For a year now, I have been wondering where God wants me to be. I wanted to God out into the world and serve God in the midst of suffering, hunger and pain. I really desire to be a missionary one day. Then so I have asked to show me where He wanted me to be so I can prepare myself. But you know what God did? He responded this way: "
Be faithful in little things. Come closer to Me. Spend time with Me. Study My Word." I was like, ok, Lord?... It didn't really hit me the first time. But as patient as He is, He kept on telling me the same thing. Then He added, "
Discipline. Discipline yourself. Take every thought captive in obedience. Obey. Be faithful. Rejoice always. PRAY without ceasing. Trust Me." But as time goes by and by His guidance and grace, I began to understand what He trully meant. I began to see Him hand and yield. He is right! Every ministry is founded in one thing: Our relationship with Jesus Christ. To be an effective servant of God, we need to have a surrendered life and a growing intimacy with the One we want to serve, Jesus Christ. He is absolutely right. We need to be grounded in the Rock because in that Rock is where we find everything we need. In that Rock, the Rock Himself moves and lives through us. In that Rock, we are taught what we need, we are changed, we are formed, we are trained, and most of all we are made like Him. Yes, being in a seminary may taught us many things about the Word but there is nothing that will compare to a time spent with Him and His word. There is nothing compared to the joys experienced in obeying and trusting Him. There is nothing compared to the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a journey and as we walk with Him, He leads us to places where He wants us to be to do the things He wants us to do. And what are these? Only He knows and only in following His will can we ever discover the mystery of His plans for our lives! Amazing!
Guess what I did? By His grace, I did just the same. It was such a delight to follow Him. I forgot all about my so-called plans. I yielded to Him instead and nourished this precious relationship with Him. As I prayed for Him to guide me, He has lead me to different places. He has shown me different things. He has led me to something outside of my comfort zone. I started teaching and tutoring. He has also 2 organizations: Voice of the Martyrs and Child Evangelism Fellowship. There is such a great need but I only wanted to be where God wants me to be. Both ministries are really great and I believe God has a purpose as to why I was led there. And I can say they are still in a seed right now. However, while that seed is being watered, God has something different in mind. Are you ready to hear this?
This is the story...
My friend Rose and I have been friends for 3 years now but we never really been very close. I felt that I can't relate to her and I never felt comfortable. However, God has lovingly put us together by the painful situations that we were facing. That brought us to commit to pray and study the word of God together with her dear friend (who because of this became very dear and close to me). We have been praying together for 4 months now. Although times may call us to miss a day, we get back and encourage each not to give up. And God? GOD IS FAITHFUL! God is true to His promises.
Rose has a talent in making crochets. She does a wonderful job in it and is very creative with it. People love it a lot and she was able to give and sell a few in the past year. However, she never thought of making it serious. One day, as we talked, we said, "let us do this to bring glory to the Lord!" Then we asked HOW? We had no clue. We also said that we wanted this to be different from the others in the market. That night we prayed for wisdom and we surrendered ourselves to the Lord. We prayed for God to remove us from anything that glorifies self. We asked Him to strip us of any selfishness and worldliness and to use our talents for His Kingdom and for His glory. Then one Sunday, God answered our first question! It was a light bulb moment. I was so overwhelmed with happiness as He showed it to me. And you know what? It is in line with the passion, gifts and desire that He has given me too! Isn't that amazing? In every package, we will include a a note with a word of encouragement from the word of God. After that, we will pray for the person who is going to receive it. Then the package will be uniquely painted! I love letters. I love writing. I love arts. God has given me the gift of creativity. So... This is it. Rose is going to make the crochets and I will be in charge of the letters, the packaging, the website and the administration. Then we will be both praying together! Who said God isn't creative? He is! We have never seen this idea before and God truly is amazing. (No matter how many times I say God is amazing, I know it will still be not enough to really describe Him but I hope you get the picture!) So there it is!!! It won't just be a regular scarf or a regular hat. With every product, we will spread God's word, love and hope. We hope that this will reach thousands and millions of people one day. We hope as well that through this, we get to share the story God has lovingly written in each of our lives and the miracles He is about to do!
We started last week and in everything, we lift to the Lord. He is our First Love and we want it that way. We want His way ONLY.
For two weeks, God has blessed us with a name, ideas, a slogan, resources and a website! The website was pretty difficult to make but after prayers, God moved mightily and it is now ready. Check it out at
http://www.entwinedhope.com/. (Pictures in the site too.)
The recent thing God has done is this: Last Wednesday, I came across an email from our Church. There will be a Ladies Christmas Party on Sunday, the 4th. It is also Rose's birthday so I didn't even think about going because we already have plans. At the bottom of the email, it says that there that there will be a marketplace for entrepreneurs. As I read, I was stirred by it. And so I informed Rose about it and she was also very excited about it. That day, I finished the website. That night, I sent an email to the contact. Well, I thought we are not entrepreneurs and there are so many businesswoman in Church. Do we stand a chance? Plus, we don't have a lot of products yet. But I thought it would be great opportunity to introduce the ministry through this. But anyway, we sent an email and we prayed. After a few minutes, I got a reply!!!! The lady LOVED the concept and has forwarded us right away to the one in charge. The next day we got an approval from the one in charge. The space is limited (only 10 vendors) and we are the 10TH! We were sooo overwhelmed by how God did it! We were humbled that our hearts were filled with joy as we gaze upon His hand and all that He is doing! It is MORE than we could ever ask of think of!
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor entered the heart of men, what God has prepared for those who love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9
Surely, we really don't know what we want. We really don't know what we need. We really don't know who we are. We really don't know what is best for us. We really don't know how to live for God. But unless we enter into His Sanctuary, all of these are answered and
FULFILLED.
We are humbled.
This is our story.
For.
His.
Glory.
