Following God to Music City

Hello friends!

After much delay, I’m finally taking the time to give y’all an update on trip and what God has been teaching me this semester. First of all, I am leaving on SATURDAY, 3 DAYS! And then I’m off on an adventure of faith with God. This is the first time I will be out of town for what I would consider an extended amount of time and its requiring a lot of stepping out on faith. God has already taught me a lot over this past season of my life as I’ve been getting ready to go this summer.

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. - Proverbs 19:21

God laid this verse on my heart in April one day and then it hit me. No matter what happens this summer, God will use me to accomplish HIS purposes and it means forgetting about my own. Last fall when I applied for Go Now Missions I had my heart set on this trip in Nashville. Given that it was called Media Connect and the description talked all about using my media skills to tell the stories of people that I would be connecting with I thought, “This is the trip for me! Nothing else. This is it. Done. I’m going there”! Little did I know, I was more excited for the media part, not so much the connecting part. In February the time came to find out where I was being sent. When I realized I would be spending the majority of my time just connecting with people and not making videos I began to question it a lot.

Thankfully, the Lord has humbled me over the past 3 months and now I’m excited to get to love my neighbors from all around the world this summer. Media will still be a part of it; however my focus will be on connecting with the people around me and loving them with Christ’s love. Through a lot of prayer and repentance from my selfish reasons for going, God is giving me an excitement to love people that only came from realizing that I am loved by him. When it comes down to it that’s why I’m going. I’m going because of the love that God has for me. His love is what motivates me to love other people. That’s one of my prayers for the summer. I pray that I wouldn’t try to love people in my own way, but rather God’s love would shine through me. I had my own plans for why I was going this summer, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. – Philippians 2:3-4

Every day I am learning more about how selfish I am. Yet in my selfishness, God loves, forgives, and shows me how to be selfless like Christ. Ultimately, none of this is about me. This summer and my whole life are about loving Him and loving others. I pray that God will continue to transform me as he transforms other people through me. I am not doing any of this for my own personal gain, but rather that God may be glorified and that people would know Him.

I will be living with and working with refugees from all over the world through an organization called World Relief Nashville. It’s one of many different places across the nation that helps refugees that have been forced to leave their countries for political, social and religious reasons to resettle in the United States. They offer many different resources for them including ESL classes, job training, resettlement programs, as well as mentoring programs that reach out to youth. This is a unique opportunity because the nations have come here and we have the chance to reach out to them and show them the love of Christ. If you would like to learn more about World Relief Nashville, visit their website: http://worldreliefnashville.org.

To everyone who gave so I could go, I sincerely thank you. You are a part of how God will move this summer and I’m excited to get to share with you many stories of transformed lives. I also thank everyone for your prayers and continue to ask that you would pray as I leave on Saturday. A few ways you can be specifically praying:

-        Peace in my heart and mind as I finish preparing to go this week

-        Safe travels on Saturday as I go to Alabama for training/orientation

-        Safe travels for my team and I as we drive to Nashville on June 6^th

-        Physical health for me; I have been under the weather lately

-        Pray for strength and that orientation goes well next week

-        Pray for God to continue to work in people’s hearts that we will be with this summer

-        For my parents as they let me go this summer

One more thing I might add. Throughout the summer I will be very busy and will not have all the time in the world to be on e-mail/social media. I will try to send out updates regularly at least once a week, but it might be less than that at times. So, if you want to contact me for any reason, the best way would be through e-mail so I can respond when I get time. I will also try to post a couple of blogs at some point during the summer with some stories as I get time.

Thank you all so much for your prayer and support as I journey with God to Nashville this summer! I’m off to Alabama for training on Saturday, and then on to Nashville with my team on June 6^th! I won’t have my computer from June 1^st till June 6^th so expect an update sometime after that.

Love you guys,

Chelsea