An Intimate Time with God!

What an Awesome God we Serve!
I have been back from India for about a week, what an INCREDIABLE experience!! I am still taking in everything that I saw. All I know is that Devanhallai has a very special place in my heart and would love to serve there full-time in the future if God opens that door. When I went overseas, I think I was always telling God that was willing to go anywhere, but was I really? I am not so sure that I was, after God called me away from Korea and to Indonesia, it was a huge step because they are very different. I went from a country that has many churches and very vocal Christians to a country that is mostly Muslim and not very many churches. He was also calling me away from a group of people that I had developed relationships with and considered family to a place where I knew no one again. I was willing to go to Indonesia because I knew that God was calling me there, and I really do want to be where God wants me, but what if God would have said go to India? I know that ultimately I would have gone, but would I have gone without the reservations that I went to other places. I think sometimes God lets us see a place before he calls us there and sometimes he doesn’t that why we have to have the ultimate faith that God does have a plan for our life and his plan is always what is best for us.
I had known for a while about this trip to India, but I was like I will go one time, no big deal. It made it easier because my best friend/Sister Lara was going. I knew that something on this trip was going to happen because of everything that Satan was doing to prevent me from going on the trip and everything he was doing to discourage me. When I stepped off the plane in Bangalore, India, I knew that something was different and it wasn’t just the lack of sleep over the last 36 hours. When Pastor JD and Ruth picked me up at the airport, I knew that this was going to be something that was going to change my life, and change it, it did. I never thought about India as being a place that God might call me too or did I ever have a desire to go there other than on a visit. After spending 11 very intense days with God, I will be going back in March for 8 days for Spring Break and who knows, maybe God is calling me their permanently, and if he does I will be ready. JD and Ruth and the people in India will always play such a special role in my life because of the ministry they have in the villages. They were such a huge blessing to me, and God used them to show me that even though they have so little their lives will always be richer because of the relationship they have with God. How many people can say, that my life is Rich with God, but have nothing. The people that they work with have nothing, but have so much because they have God and people are coming into the Kingdom of God all the time. God has an awesome way of changing your heart to come into HIS will for your life. My prayer is that if this is where God wants me that the doors will open in HIS time and HIS time alone, not my time. My time is never right. If I have learned anything from living abroad is that I never want to be the driver in my relationship with God, when HE is driving and in control of my life it is always much simpler than when I try to take control. When I wake up every morning, I ask that God take control of that day because in the end all we need is JESUS.
Well, I managed to go to India for 11 days and not get sick which is a very big accomplishment, but Tuesday night after I returned I cooked chicken at my house for my roommate and two of the other teachers. The chicken didn’t smell bad or look bad, but it was very bad. The other teachers ended up in the hospital on Wednesday morning with food poisoning. Wednesday morning I wasn’t feeling so good, but I was like, I will get over it, everything will be fine. As the day continued, I started getting sicker, but I continued to say that I will go home and sleep it off, but Thursday morning their was no more lets be positive. I can say that I have never felt so sick in my life. It was the stomach flu times a 100. I sent a text message to the school asking if someone can take me to the doctor, but since the other two girls where in the hospital, they took me straight to the ER, the door was said you will be staying. I new that I was dehydrated at the very least because I wasn’t able to eat or drink anything since Tuesday night and now it was Thursday morning and I was still unable to eat or drink. They quickly hooked up an IV to start pumping me full of fluids, antibiotics, and giving me medicine so that I would stop vomiting. The doctor then proceeded to tell me that I needed to eat, sounds good to me, if I could! Even with the medicine, I was still unable to hold down water most of Thursday and it always got worse during meal time. I would smell them handing out food in the hallway and I would start getting sick. This still didn’t stop them from bringing me food and telling me to eat. Honestly I would have eaten in a heart beat if I could get past the smells. I slept most of the day on Thursday which was good. Thursday evening brought visitors starting with some girls from one of the Indonesian churches; apparently our Doctor is a very strong Christian man who gives them a list of people he believes are Christians so that they can go pray with them and then they go pray with anyone else who wants prayer. They were such a great gift from God that day. After they had left that night one of the teachers came to visit us along with some of the Grade 12 students who brought fruit(bananas, oranges, apples), and one of the Grade 9 students. So when the doctor did rounds on Friday morning, he asked if I had eaten, I was like no, if you can find something that doesn’t have a smell then maybe. He decided it was time to change my nauseas medicine to something they were putting in my IV because on Friday morning it was really bad again. After several doses in my IV, I was able to eat ½ a banana on Friday evening. I was so excited about it; I sent a text message to my roommate, who was like Good job. This was huge, because it was the first thing I had been able to eat since Tuesday. It was also nice because the Head of our School came for a visit, which was encouraging. Then Saturday morning came, and I was able to eat a banana again, after the nurse had given me medicine twice in my IV to help me from getting sick that morning. When the doctor came around, he said that I could go home. I was so excited, but I also knew that I was going to have to take it easy or I would end back up in the hospital, but after 3 days, I was more than ready to go home!
When you are in the hospital you can’t really do anything, so I decided that this would be time that I would spend with God, I had brought a book about a Missionary family to Mozambique, and on Friday someone brought my Bible and IPod to me. So when I was awake, I was reading and praying as I knew that the next week I would be going on a Spiritual Retreat with my students and it needed to be surrounded in prayer and what better time to do it when you have to stay in bed. I also new that I needed to pray for strength as it was going to take a lot out of me and at that point I knew I didn’t have it. On Sunday morning, I decided that I was going to go to church, so I got up and went. I was so exhausted that I passed out in the van on the drive back to my house after church and slept for 3 hours and could have slept longer, but knew that I needed to get some things done so that I could sleep that night. I was still only able to eat toast and banana’s because every time I tried to eat meat, I felt awful. I know that it is going to take time to get my strength back, so I will be taking it one day at a time and one meal at a time.
During my time in the hospital God brought this verse to me:
And we know that in all things God works for the good
of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
God cares about every aspect of our lives and I knew that even though I was sitting in a hospital that HE would use that time for his good, he did, it was time that I could spend with him in preparation for the spiritual retreat this week. It was good quality time that could be spent with him because what else was I going to do. God has unique ways of using things that happen in our lives to draw us closer to him and remind us of his presence.
I am thankful that I serve a God that cares about not just my spiritual growth, but EVERY aspect of my life. Nothing is too big or small for God to handle. I pray that God brings those moments in your life that draw you closer to him and it doesn’t take going to India or being sick, it could just simply be by having a God day; a day where you spend a very intimate day with God. We need God days from time to time to help us reflect on him outside of our quiet time and going to Church.


In Prayer,
Melissia