In 6 short days I will head BACK to Gainesville, GA for some more training before I fly out of the USA on the 7th to Chile, South America!!
WOW.
Just 2 days ago we had our CGA graduation with our staff, teachers, and mentors. It was such a sweet time to be with each other and to celebrate all God has done in our time together in the space that CGA was for us.
It has been a blessed space and period of time in my life I will forever be thankful for. Our leaders created for us a space of safety, of freedom, of being honestly seen in the middle of our messiness and still loved. A space to be bold, to try, and to fail in hopes that we will continue to do so the rest of our lives journeying with the Lord.
These strangers have become my family, and we share a sweet experience of being truly seen, chiseled by the Holy Spirit, and equipped to be leaders and create other Christ-following leaders wherever we find ourselves. These leaders of mine have been passionate about us KNOWING WHO WE ARE and grasping the magnificence of being sons and daughters of the Living God. They have shown us what it looks like to better know God and know ourselves to be fully alive and fully present, carrying Christ to any person or environment before us. I am thankful for the hard realities and painful processing because it has taught me the grit it takes to help walk with others through the same. These leaders have charged us to dare to BE OURSELVES fully, to RISK vulnerability and speaking out, and to FIGHT for each other on this journey to build the Kingdom of God.
[our AMAZING leaders!
From L to R.. back row: Tucker, Travis, Ben
front row: Carson, Jackie, Ana]
Our last little teaching at graduation from one of our teachers, Ben, was more of a commission than anything else. Something he said really struck me. He was speaking about the reality of this generation that seems not to have made its mark yet, seems not to have fought for or established anything of true weight as the generations before us. But our generation’s time is not finished here on this earth. He said this of me and my classmates:
“You now have no excuse and are now accountable to live the truth that you know, to wield the tools you have been given and leverage every moment for the building of the Kingdom of God. There is great darkness, but you ARE the light. It will cost you your life to build His Kingdom, but what is more worth it?”
AMEN!
So now, I pray we all boldly go forth, aware of the crowns resting on our heads and the authority over our lives as children of our God and King. I pray we never become stagnant and satisfied to sit still and be filled with things of this world instead of with the fullness and overflow of God. I pray we never shrink back from saying what God is saying, from doing what He is leading us to do moment by moment, from infusing Kingdom values and culture in every place we step so that the whole world may be reconciled to God and begin operating under HIS authority and order.
We are commissioned, and out we go! More settled in Christ, more dissatisfied with the state of our broken world than before. Aware of what we bring to the world around us, and now absolutely unable to overlook any darkness Christ has empowered us to drive out in His Name.
[our CGA class + our leaders]
The other night our CGA class went out by the lake. My roommate and AMAZING Jesus-loving friend Morgan said she felt like God wanted us to do something active and representative of what we were throwing away and leaving behind as we leave CGA and what He has given us to pick up in exchange. We each picked up a rock and hurled it to the bottom of the lake to signify this letting go and leaving behind of what God has freed us from!
I know that as I leave CGA, I have thrown away an orphan’s mindset because now I more securely know my Father has not left me and is always with me. I am aware that I have EVERYTHING I need for this life and have no lack in Him! I leave behind fear that I am not enough and lies that I am not accepted because I KNOW I am embraced in the family of God and have access through Christ to the Father forever.
I as I walk into this next chapter, I have allowed the Father Himself to crown me with the truth of who I am in Him, a daughter of the King sent out on His behalf to establish reconciliation and bring Good News to the world about Jesus. He paid the price for each of them to be welcomed in, and they simply have to receive gift of adoption and walk into family!
I have said this before, but I can’t begin to articulate all God taught me and showed me and healed me from at CGA. He drew me to this program with the hope of learning what discipleship really was, and as I myself was further discipled, God exploded the tiny box of what I expected CGA to be. It has been so much more than I could have ever fathomed. That’s just like God, isn’t it?
Wrapping up my time with CGA, I had the privilege to teach alongside my classmate Sarah Kate at the Gap Year World Race training camp (the World Race program for 18-20 year olds). We stood before about 300 young people ready to say YES to carrying the Gospel and the love of Jesus around the world for 9 months. And guess what I got to commission them into and teach them?
I was asked to teach them about DISCIPLESHIP!
(Sarah Kate and I up there on stage! It was PACKED!)
God is SUCH a full circle God! He has sealed this endeavor of mine to discover and walk out discipleship, and it is only the beginning. It is only the base and foundational understanding which I will build the ministry of my life on. I will make disciples with the rest of my life! All my days, in any moment, if I’m not doing this work, I pray the Lord will realign my heart and fix my eyes on what really matters. Sharing the hope of Jesus and making disciples who make more disciples so that the Kingdom would expand and the family of God would multiply is my LIFE’S WORK.
As I take the next 6 days to reflect on the INSANELY BEAUTIFUL WORK the Lord did through CGA, I am also preparing to launch back out with L squad as we go to Chile and Peru.
[ALSO check out these lovely ladies that I will be leading directly to the LEFT of this text! There are 6 of them, and they are TEAM BURRITO! 😀 Click on their names to see their blogs and read a little about their journeys with the Lord too!]
I am privileged to begin this journey with them, to give my LOVE to them and serve them as my little family. You better believe I will CAST THIS VISION of beholding Jesus and savoring Him, becoming fully alive in who we are as His sons and daughters, and then making disciples who make more disciples. Pray that this vision sparks a passion in them for this work, our GREAT commission!
Please be in prayer with me as God prepares our hearts to walk into all He Himself has scheduled for us to encounter and experience, all the places He has planned for us to walk into and scatter the darkness as His light breaks through.
L squad, and I myself, have NO idea how our Father is about to blow our minds and give us more of His heart for these nations, His Body, and those far from Him.
I’ll report back to you on all the ways the surprise of God captures our hearts along the way!
Stay tuned here for more prayer requests, introductions to my team, and updates as we LAUNCH out!
LOVE YOU ALL!
Thank you for making all of this transformation and equipping possible through your giving and your prayers!
-Abby.
