When I was filling out the application for Iris's Harvest School a couple of years ago, there was a section that asked what country was on your heart to be a missionary to. This question frustrated me because in my heart, at that time, my answer was none. I hadn't traveled much and no one country was calling me. I don't believe I put any country but before the school started, I felt the answer to that question was South America. When I got to Mozambique, about the second week in the school, I overheard a 18 year old girl say that she knew since she was 4 years old that she was to come to Africa. I remember shaking my head and walking away and saying to God that she knew at 4 years old that she was to come to Africa and that I'm almost 40, at the time, and have no clue to where you have called me. I heard God say ask me for a country, and Brazil was the first country to come to my heart.
When Jesse and Tanya Gellatly got up in front of the school, about the 4th week, to announce that God had called them to lead a team to preach and evangelize throughout South America. I knew right away why I heard South America before the school. It was the first of a couple of confirmations to go on the missionary journey. It's also one of the reasons that kept me from leaving the team/family in Central America when there was hardships for me. This missionary journey has had some interesting turns for me, one of which, was when I could barely walk for 10 weeks. I kept on looking to Brazil to keep me going. I knew there was something here for me.
In Uruguay, there was a lot of spiritual attack against me. One day I had had enough and was going to get an answer from Him no matter what. It was like I was holding onto His leg, spiritually, and not going to let go until I got my answer. I missed a meeting doing this and finally heard Him say, "you are on this team still to learn how to persevere and endure. You need to know how this feels and what it looks like. It will benefit you in the future." Not the easiest answer to digest but I understood what He was telling me. The attacks didn't stop but actually increased after this and I did not get much sleep during this time.
Before we divided our team to go into Brazil, I had heard God tell me to stay back. The team I was on stayed an extra week to wait for some people to get there visa's. In the Spirit one day during that week, I saw a slingshot in the Spirit. I was in the slingshot. He told me," I'm holding you back because I want you to go in to Brazil with momentum." I really don't know what it's going to look like for me here. I'm believing to hear Him with such a clarity that it launches me into my next part of my life, whether it's to continue on this trip through South America and the Caribbean Islands or go elsewhere I look forward to the journey. Blessings.
