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This is Jordan's testimony of our weekend. I like the way she wrote hers better than mine so I will post mine later :)
We had quite a weekend :)
well two friends and myself went to Gatesville, TX this weekend for a prison ministry event. We left saturday morning, spent a little while in the Juvenile center and i got to meet some neat young women and minister to them some. We arrived to our prison facility around 5:15pm Saturday night super excited and ready to jump in and see our girls again. They have been given the assignment of memorizing 6 scriptures and we were showing up to test them on their memory assignment and also to worship with them and encourage them. We get to the gate in our pink camo shirts, guitars and bibles in hand and we are told by the officer in the tower that we can't go in because the prison was short-staffed. We called the chaplain there several times and could not get a hold of him, we tried everything. So, Sandy, our fearless team captain parks her butt on the lawn of the prison in front of the gate and says, "We aren't moving from this spot until 7:30." So, i get my guitar out and Sandy and Janet and myself are sitting outside the prison gates infront of the windows of the facility where we know the girls had a chance of seeing us. We sang and we prayed for 2 and a half hours out there hoping that the chaplain would show up or that somehow God would work a miracle and let us in. 7:31pm arrived and we were just devastated. Our fearless captain took it the hardest, nearly blinding herself in her own mascara crying for these girls. I admire her heart so much, just watching her heart rip in two over the thought of letting these women down made me realize how much passion i can only hope to achieve for this ministry. After huddling in the prison lawn and crying like babies and praying out loud, giving thanks to God and rejoicing even in our disappointment, we decided we had to finally leave and accept that we weren't getting in.
So janet and I took our blind leader back to the car and solemnly drove back to the hotel asking God a thousand questions that He was in no way obligated to answer. I purchased a big ol' chocolate cake and so we three heart-broken women ate cake and watched youtube and spent time with God and eventually found ourselves in somewhat higher spirits. between medication, chocolate, and God we have found that we can endure anything. ;)
Sunday morning. We have spent the night in the hotel at this point and have awoken early calling the prison chaplain trying and begging for any chance of squeezing in and meeting the girls. After much prayer and anticipation, we get the phone call saying "we're in" for the 1:00pm service. So we get up and around, we decide that we needed to praise God. So we spent ten minutes just speaking out loud our gratitude to God and apologizing for having so little faith. As Sandy and janet were praying i had been in a battle all my own that morning. satan was having a full-flown attack field day on my conscience and my mind. at that point, i quietly pulled my guitar out of my case, sat in the corner and closed my eyes. I began singing quietly to myself so i wouldn't disturb the others' prayer time. "you give and take away, you give and take away, but my heart will choose to say, blessed be your name...Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee....This is a moment made for worshipping, 'cause this is a moment i'm alive....and my heart will sing how great, is our God." just everything that was coming to my mind i began singing with tears streaming down my face and as i grew more peaceful and confident, my quivering voice grew louder and before i knew it i was just having an all out worship service in my hotel room between my savior and me.
So Janet, sandy and myself after having church in our hotel room went to prison that afternoon and had a blast. and get this: The inmates saw us the night before standing outside the unit singing! We were so blessed to hear that they had seen us and they knew we had not abandoned them. you know how they knew it was us standing out there singing? The pink camo shirts. they recognized them and they had said, "Look, the girls in pink are out there!" it was so awesome.
SO THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS:
We three girls learned how much God knows and little we know, and more importantly how little we NEED to know. our worship and our trust and faith should never be dependent on the extent of our knowledge of "why". Why does God do things the way He does? who knows. but as i sang Sunday morning in the hotel room, This is a moment made for worshipping. If there's a moment we're alive, it is a moment we are made to sing a song of living sacrifice. The moments we are heartbroken, confused, burdened, sad, lonely, rejoicing, faithful, peaceful, EVERY moment is a moment made for worshipping. We have learned how brittle our faith can be when we allow Satan to convince us that we must have answers. What is faith if we have answers? When has God ever let us walk by sight? (i don't mean that literally, although He did blind Sandy with her mascara Saturday night. Don't walk by sight!) hehe. That was the group lesson I believe. As for a personal lesson from God to me, it's a plethera of stuff. yall probably don't even care because i doubt anyone has actually made it to the end of this blog. it's really long. but just know that God has spoken, He's healed and restored. And he has put my dependence on music in check. that's for another blog and another place though. it will probably be posted tonight. God is good!
Yall keep doin' the walk.
12:45 AM
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