Hello Everyone Back At Home!

I have been praying for you all and have appreciated hearing updates about your lives! I am excited to use this to personally reflect and share with you some highlights from ministry this week!

In my personal bible time I've been studying Acts, and each day God uses the passages I am reading as I go to do ministry! This morning I read Acts 19 which tells the story of a riot that takes place in Ephesus. A mob dragged many of Pauls companions into a theater because Paul’s successful ministry in Ephesus was causing them to lose income from selling idols of the god Artemis. However, God used a city clerk to calm and end the riot, dismissing the mob. Through this story I saw God's providence in using secular rulers for His purpose and to preserve the witness of the testimony of Jesus.

Today we had a similar experience to this as our team was doing ministry! One of the ministries that we serve with here is Impact Baby Rescue that offers Crisis Pregnancy Counseling and Parenting Counseling for moms or moms-to-be. One of the main focuses of this ministry is to prevent mothers from dumping their babies as 3-4 babies are dumped in garbage bins, fields, toilets, etc. each day in Johannesburg. It is beyond devastating! So we partner with staff in going to pregnancy and health clinics to share presentations on our services, raise awareness, hand out flyers, and pray with the people in the clinics. Most of the clinics are pretty open to our team coming, however, the second clinic we went to today was hesitant to allowing us in. While a staff member went to talk to the front desk workers, our team gathered at the front of the clinic and prayed that God would work in the hearts of the workers in the clinic to allow us to speak to the people inside. Just a few minutes later, the Impact Staff member came out with a little smile on her face and began dividing us up to where we could go to speak in the clinic! God had faithfully used the secular clinic workers to allow us to enter into that dark place and share the light of Jesus just like He had used the government clerk in Acts 18 to protect the testimony of Pauls companions! He showed our team His powerful providence and sovereignty even through people who don't know Christ!

Then, after we had given the presentation in the clinic, I got the opportunity to speak to a young woman who had a 4 day old baby! It was her first child, and she said that she needed prayer as she was struggling with depression and had been for a long time. She began to tear up as she was speaking to me, and it truly broke my heart! Before the doctor came to give her medications, I got to share some encouraging Bible verses with her and she asked me to wait as she went to get her medications. When she returned I was able to pray with her and encourage her in her faith in the Lord! It was such a moving interaction because I knew that God had placed that women in that clinic that day and allowed us to reach her all in His sovereignty and perfect plan because He knew that she needed that!

As the day went on our team continued to see Gods blessings over our efforts! Whether it was someone receiving a flyer who knew someone or who they themselves needed the services Impact offers, or if it was someone who just really needed prayer in that moment, God orchestrated those interactions. In the afternoon we began doing community canvassing (passing out flyers to people in the community about Impact Baby) and it just so happened that the specific little street we were on became extremely busy so that our team only had to look left and right to hand out flyers to dozens of people as they walked by! Through this we were reminded the truth of Deuteronomy 31:8, "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." This has been a theme in my blogs and in what God has been showing me in ministry, God goes before us in all we do and blesses us as we submit and offer ourselves up to Him!

My encouragement to all of you back home is to just continue to trust the Lord's providence in your lives! As you give yourselves faithfully to Him each day with a pure heart, He will use you for His glory and your good whether or not you see the fruit of your effort or how He is using you! As children of God we are all missionaries wherever He places us!

As a little World Race update, our team leaves Johannesburg for Eswatini on March 9th. This will be a very hard transition as we have all grown to love the ministry here and the people we are serving with, but we are also excited for what new ministry God has prepared for us there! Me and my team would love your prayers that God would help us to remain faithful and committed to the season we are in now, and that we would prepare for the next season with joy and peace in our hearts! You are all a huge blessing to me and I love you all very much!

God bless you,

Abigail