Guess who ??? It's your favorite rap/poem sister from French Lick! Pass out Keyly posted!! (maybe - if this gets through!)
I want to know - do you see yourself going on another mission trip? If so, same place or another calling?
Here goes . . . . hitting send now . . .
Well, first of all Miss Keyly, thank you for finally posting...Like I said, teach a man to fish.
Great Question!
I am actually scheduled to go on a trip in April to do ministry with the Navajo people in Arizona and Colorado. I chose that trip because they are a matriarchal society and my focus is women's ministry. However after a setback of a whole week, and with people really feeling the crunch of the financial crisis, I am getting nervous and so your question is really convicting. I have been hesitant to ask people for financial support because I know everyone is trying to make ends meet. So I am praying that God will make a way, but I am sure that the folks I am taking the trip with are getting nervous too. SO please pray about that.
Eventually, I really want to do some work in helping rehabilitate women who have been rescued from the sex trade. That would mean a trip to a place like India or Cambodia. I have yet to see that hemisphere so I am really interested in going and I think doing that type of relational ministry would be right up my alley.
Thanks for your question, Keyly. Raise your hand if you think Keyly needs a blog!
Oh, look. Every hand raised. WElp, it's unanimous.
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Christy said...
NO WAY... "The" Keyly Watts!! Man you gotta just LOVE that girl!
{I know, right? I had the same thought, C! So honored that she learned to comment and chose to comment on my blog.}
Ok so my question is when did you decide you wanted to go into ministry especially women's ministry. AND How many little ones do you want to adopt from over the ocean???
That's an awesome question, Christy. I really appreciate your support of my ministry over the years, by the way.
When I was young, I always enjoyed helping people. I was the person chosen on the playground to befriend a special-needs student during recess. I knew God wanted me to be nice and so did my parents. So I tried to be very helpful to my teachers and other students. Then I started listening to (wow) Point of Grace when I was about 12, and by 13 I knew every word to every song they had ever recorded and I also learned of the ministry with which they were affiliated: Mercy Ministries of America. I thought it was so fascinating that they helped young women who were pregnant and needing a place to stay as well as women who suffered from anorexia/bulimia and other obstacles. I can't tell you exactly what it did for my heart to know that there were places like that committed to helping women. I knew I wanted to help women but I also thought it wasn't very realistic to hope for a job like that someday.
As I went through high school, I decided I would probably become a kindergarten teacher. (I know some of you are like, "Are you kidding? She can barely dress herself!") I did a lot of cadet teaching in high school and I enjoy children. As I chose OCU (which is a story in itself) I had the goal of becoming a really great baby-child educator (I like calling them baby-children because I am all about keeping them cute and little as long as possible-heck, that's why I wanted to teach Kindergarten). So off to school I went. By then I was a devoted believer and so I thought...hmm. Maybe I should go ahead and study God (the word theology means the study of God) and things that I am interested in, like missions and Christian education. As Psalm 139 tells us, He hems us in on both sides so that we can walk the path He has for us when we surrender to Him. So while I may not have understood what the desire of my heart was at that time, God did.
So my first semester at OCU was a little rough (also another story) and I really pressed into my relationship with the Lord because I was pretty lonely and that is when I developed such a love for God's Word. In my times with God, I felt like He was calling me to something more, and I wish I had a better explanation except to say the more I hungered for Him, the more He showed me how I wouldn't be satisfied spending every day in a classroom. I have such respect for teachers and some folks are CALLED BY GOD to do that, but I began to have serious doubts about whether or not I was.
I also sensed Him saying, "I want more from you."
This conversation-starter from God (I think of it like a story-starter a la second grade) burned in me for months. At the time, I had signed on to work my first Journey (College version of the Walk to Emmaus) and give the first talk, which was about goals and priorities (Coincidence? Again, I refer you to Psalm 139). I gave the talk the first day of the weekend, which just HAPPENED to be New Year's Weekend of 2005, and I wrestled with God's 'story-starter' all day long and into the next evening. We had a chapel service, and all you Emmaus folk should know that for that weekend, we had the chapel where we now have the conference room. I was laying facedown on the floor, crying out to God and BEGGING Him to tell me what He wanted. Whatever it was, I would do it gladly! I had grown to absolutely adore him and His ways, and His book. I was weeping on the floor as my friend John Preston walked over to me. He was serving as a clergy that weekend, and he knelt beside me.
He said, "God wants more from you, doesn't He?"
I was in shock. I shook my head yes (and snot probably went flying because of my penchant for the Ugly Cry).
He didn't say much more, but prayed over me. At the time I didn't realize the lifelong-implications that night would have for me. Something in me changed, though.
I finally surrendered to the cal that had always been on my life. I think that sometimes we say, "I got called to ministry on January 2, 2005...." but if I am being honest and as previously stated on this blog, I was called from before I was born to do this, and I finally surrendered to the still small Voice...
the Voice that showed me how to care for that special needs child....
the Voice that drew me to Mercy Ministries of America....
the Voice that encouraged me to give those Easter Sunrise Sermons for the youth group...
the Voice that said, "I want more from you..."
Surrender is really underrated. It is powerful enough to change the whole trajectory of your life.
Tomorrow I will talk more about my specific call to women's ministry.
Thanks for all of your great questions! Keep 'em coming.
(sorry this was up after 1030, Keyly :D
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