{"id":499,"date":"2018-11-11T23:41:27","date_gmt":"2018-11-11T23:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.honestreflections.net\/?p=499"},"modified":"2019-12-10T08:43:35","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T13:43:35","slug":"journey-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/2018\/11\/11\/journey-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The Spirit\u00a0of the Sovereign\u00a0Lord<\/span>\u00a0is on me,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span>because the\u00a0Lord<\/span>\u00a0has anointed\u00a0me\u00a0<\/span><\/span>to proclaim good news\u00a0to the poor.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>He has sent me to bind up\u00a0the brokenhearted,\u00a0<\/span>to proclaim freedom\u00a0for the captives\u00a0<\/span><\/span>and release from darkness for the prisoners,” Isaiah 61:1<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em>
\nOne of the things I love most about traveling is visiting different churches around the country.\u00a0 I truly hope and pray the good Lord above keeps me traveling, keeps me visiting, keeps me worshiping with believers all over the country, even the world.
\nToday’s experience was, what I believe a divine appointment.\u00a0 Simply because of how we found it.\u00a0 I’m not sure why yet, but I know I was meant to be there.
\nYesterday, my husband and I were driving to Harlingen, TX for the memorial of his beloved Aunt Nancy.\u00a0 A wonderful woman who we still can’t believe is gone.\u00a0 We were traveling from San Antonio along I-35 when we missed our exit.\u00a0 As a result we went one mile further and had to turn around.\u00a0 The one mile led us to Journey Church.\u00a0 As my husband was making a u-turn, I was googling service times.\u00a0 I knew\u00a0we would be passing by the next day on our way back to Houston to catch our flight home.\u00a0 That is how we ended up at Journey Church this morning.\u00a0 We woke up early, I asked my husband if he wanted to go.\u00a0 Off we went.
\nWhen we arrived, it felt very much like our home church.\u00a0 It’s located in an old bowling alley.\u00a0 They’ve been there 8 years.\u00a0 I know this because as soon as the lead pastor’s wife spotted us she immediately introduced herself and welcomed us to their church.\u00a0 The gentleman who greeted us at the door greeted us with God’s blessings.\u00a0 It was a very welcoming and warm church.
\nThe pastor’s wife told us they had a guest speaker.\u00a0 A missionary serving in Africa, originally from West Virginia.\u00a0 I have to be honest, we weren’t enthusiastic.\u00a0 We were bummed we weren’t going to hear the lead pastor.
\nGod however knew exactly what He was doing.\u00a0 As He always does.
\nThe missionary was enthralling.\u00a0 The service lasted two hours yet it seemed like only minutes.\u00a0 His passion for God, his story was unscripted and real.\u00a0 From his four years in high school when he led a “two faced” life.\u00a0 In church on Sundays and parties on Saturday.\u00a0 His eventual wife who all through those years kept steering him back to God.\u00a0 Kept challenging him and encouraging him to serve only one God, not two.
\nI found myself leaning forward on the edge of my seat as he shared how they ended up in Africa six weeks after their wedding.\u00a0 \u00a0They were put in charge of 54 orphans, one of whom still lives with them and their three kids to this day.\u00a0 He was 22 years old, fresh out of college managing a 10,000 acre farm with a new wife and 54 orphans.
\nHe talked about his six hour ride one way on a dirt bike into the bush of Africa every week.\u00a0 A backpack with water and a tent in it as his only supplies, to minister to a forgotten people.\u00a0 To introduce them to Jesus.
\nHe talked about being thrown in a Conga jail.\u00a0 Being released because of an African Emporer who had been praying for four years for someone to come and minister to these people.\u00a0 The first thing they did when he arrived was throw him in jail.\u00a0 The Emporer was not pleased.
\nHe is 36 years old as of this writing.\u00a0 He’s on a three month break, traveling the country to build support for their mission before he returns to this land he has come to love.
\nHis challenge to us was simple.\u00a0 He didn’t want money.\u00a0 He wanted us to follow God’s call on our lives.\u00a0 To say yes to whatever God has in store for us.\u00a0 He talked about how saying a simple yes to God has led him and his entire family on an adventure of a lifetime.
\nIt was a beautiful testimony to a life well lived for the Lord.\u00a0 It left us speechless as we walked out the doors today.\u00a0 The spirit of the Lord was so evident in his life.\u00a0 In the life of this church.\u00a0 It was truly breathtaking.
\nI don’t know why God wanted us there.\u00a0 I do know He did.\u00a0 I know that because of how we found it.\u00a0 What I thought would just be another encouraging opportunity to worship with people from a different community has a deeper meaning.\u00a0 I’m not to fear what lies ahead.\u00a0 I’m just to say yes and wait for the Lord’s direction.
\nEasier said than done.\u00a0 Easier said than done!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The Spirit\u00a0of the Sovereign\u00a0Lord\u00a0is on me,\u00a0because the\u00a0Lord\u00a0has anointed\u00a0me\u00a0to proclaim good news\u00a0to the poor.\u00a0\u00a0He has sent me to bind up\u00a0the brokenhearted,\u00a0to proclaim freedom\u00a0for the captives\u00a0and release from darkness for the prisoners,” Isaiah 61:1 One of the things I love most about traveling is visiting different churches around the country.\u00a0 I truly hope and pray the good… Continue reading Journey Church<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1517,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/1517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}