In today's episode, I will go into how sometimes God puts people in your life to confirm what He has been saying to you or what He is calling you to do. I'll also explain why I am going to Peru in the summer of 2025.
So God may be calling you to do something right now. You may feel it heavy in your heart, you may have been hearing from Him and it's something that you really don't want to do, or He may have something in your heart that you don't even realize because you're so consumed with other things. That is why it is so important for us to take the very first step of obedience. We have to make sure that we're staying in tune with our relationship with God and with the Holy Spirit, meaning that we're praying, we're spending quiet time with God, we are allowing that conversation to flow where we're asking God to speak to us, and spending uninterrupted time to listen to what He's saying. We also just need to be obedient and surrender everything to Him. It's so important for us to do that because that will allow us to hear God's voice. Whenever we do hear God's voice and it's not really something that we want to do, if we just continue in obedience, even if we're like, "Lord, I don't know how to do this. Are you sure Lord?" He will put other people in your life to confirm it. Also, he may put people in your life to help you through whatever it is that He's calling you to do.
Now for a little story time. So one Saturday night, this was a couple of weeks ago, I was spending quiet time with God. For a few months I had been feeling like I needed to get more involved with the church community and serving and different things like that, but for specifically days before this, I had been feeling a strong feeling that I needed to do more serving and that things are going to start getting even more uncomfortable. I had already been getting out of my comfort zone, I had already been going to small group, and there had already been things that I've been doing that I normally wouldn't do as an introvert, but I've been feeling in my spirit lately to serve more. So that night I was praying, spending quiet time with God, and listening to him, and I felt it heavy in my spirit to serve. Then I was trying to think of different ways that I could serve in my community and my church, and then in my spirit, it was so strong that I felt and I heard specifically "The first thing that you see to serve at church is what I want you to do." So I just opened my heart to that. I'm like okay, "whatever the first thing is, we'll see what happens tomorrow" and after spending some quiet time with him and going about my day the next morning I didn't even think much about it until church started.
At church the next day the first thing they did after they did praise and worship and baptisms was they started playing this video. The video that they played was about mission trips. As soon as I saw the video about mission trips, I was like, "Lord, please don't tell me this is the first thing you're talking about." Serving a mission trip in essence sounds great, wonderful, and amazing, but, as someone who is an introvert, going across the country to speak to strangers and spread the gospel seems very scary to me. So I was thinking, "A mission trip sounds great, but maybe we can work our way up to that. I don't know if that's what I should do right now." The next slide was talking about reach week, which we do that in our church. Reach week is where we go and serve out in the community. There are different things that we do and so I was thinking "Oh yeah, I can do that. I can make some homemade desserts or I can serve food or do different things like that. So that is something that I can do." I was going to go home and pray about it, but I had already kind of made up my mind like, "I don't think this mission trip is the thing for me."
Well then after listening to the sermon, my pastor said for everyone to come to the altar and just surrender all to God. Tons of people went to the altar that day, more than I had seen in a long time. So I went to the altar and surrendered everything to God, and as I was going back to my seat, there was a long line. Normally I just go to the altar and go straight back to my seat, so I don't have to wait. This time I had to stand there and wait for people to go to their seats and as I was waiting, there was a lady standing there whom I had never met before. I had my tissue, I was trying to clean up my makeup and she was doing the same thing. She started talking to me and telling me all about how she went on this mission trip in 2023 and how she really wanted to do it this year, but work got in the way of things and she wasn't able to make it happen. So the lady was trying to figure out how she could go to the mission trip in the summer of 2025 and God had been putting it on her heart, but she just didn't know with work and everything. So after she went to the altar she decided that she was going to go on the mission trip. She may have told me other things but at this point, I was kind of zoning out because I was so shocked that this was happening right now. The very last thing I remember her saying is, "I cannot believe I'm going to Peru this summer." Then she's like, "I'm not sure why I felt compelled to tell you all of that stuff." I started bawling crying because I was thinking like, "Oh my goodness, the Lord literally just put this lady in my life at this moment to confirm to me that I have to go to Peru." So I told the lady that it's because the Lord had been putting it on my heart to serve and I told her the story that I'm telling you guys right now and she's like, "That is incredible." She put her hands over me, we prayed and then went over to talk to the people that were holding the mission trip, went to the table to sign up and everything and it was just incredible. She gave me her name and number. She was so sweet.
So I ended up signing up to go to Peru and then she ended up deciding to go to Chile. I still felt in my heart and my spirit that Peru is exactly where the Lord wants me to go. So I am going to Peru on a mission trip this summer 2025. I've never done anything like this before. I've only gone out of the country one time and that was for a work trip this year. Well, it was with my company because I got the trip, but it wasn't for work. I've never gone on a mission trip. It's going to be amazing but I do need a lot of prayers from you guys whenever I go, and before I go to prepare, and also pray for all the people that's going to be there. So please, my prayer warriors out there keep us in your prayers.
There are a couple of things that I want to point out with the story. So the first thing is, that whenever we spend quiet time with God, we hear from Him. The second thing is God will use people to confirm what He says. If you're not trying to be obedient now you do need to take that step of obedience and say, "Okay Lord, I surrender all to You. I'm not exactly sure what that means. I don't know what I'm signing up for, but Lord, You can have it all. I only want You." He will put people in your life to confirm what He says and also to help you through it.
There is another thing that I didn't mention with the mission trip. So while we were at the table signing up for this mission trip, my nephew, who is 15, came over to the table to talk to another lady and asked her how old you have to be to go on the mission trip. The Holy Spirit had put it on his heart to also go on the mission trip. Then my brother, who is my nephew's dad, came up and he's signing up for the mission trip too. It's so crazy and incredible because my brother is the one that goes to small group with me and he's been doing a lot of things with me involved with the church. None of us knew that we were trying to do this. I'm sure my brother and my nephew knew that they were going to sign up, but I didn't know that they were doing it until they went to the table. No one knew that the Holy Spirit had put on each of our hearts to do this mission trip. So it's just so incredible and they're hopefully going to Peru with me.
So if God is telling you to do something right now, or if you've just been feeling unsettled in your spirit, you feel like there's something that you need to do, but you're not sure, then spend some quiet time with God, some uninterrupted quiet time with him to listen, and when He tells you what it is that He wants you to do, take that first step of obedience and say, "Lord, I surrender all to you. I don't understand how I'm going to do this. I don't know why you want me to do this. I don't feel equipped to do this, but I know that you will provide everything that I need and I surrender all to you." He will give you everything that you need to do those things.
Now I want to talk a little bit about Peru. So we're going to be breaking up into small teams and going out and traveling to villages, schools, markets, and streets, and spreading the gospel. We're also going to be taking part in city-wide festivals, they are faith-based things that Global Ventures holds. Then also we are going to be doing some service projects where we're going to give water filters or essential foods for people that need it or hygiene packages, stuff like that. So even though I am very scared I'm going to stay praying to the Lord and I'm just going to stay faithful and obedient. I'm getting more and more excited as the time goes and as it's like sinking in that I'm actually going to Peru this summer, I'm getting so excited.
So there is just one issue... The cost of Peru is kind of a lot. For the mission trip, it's $3,450 to go. I'm going from July 3rd to the 13th and I'm going to have to raise as many funds as I possibly can to go on this trip in July. So if there is anything that you can do, I need all the prayers. If all you can do is pray and just send your love and vibes, that is amazing, that's exactly what I need. But if you do want to contribute in any way, if you want to donate $5, $10, $500, whatever you can do to help me go on this mission trip, there are specific things that you will want to do whenever you click on that link to make sure that they know that you're supporting me as the missionary. So I'm going to tell you exactly what to do. If you want to click on that link and donate whatever you can. So you're going to go on the website: https://globalventures.tv/give and then you want to make sure you click on where it says "support a missionary." Once you do that, you'll put in however much you want to donate. Then in the "memo" portion of it, make sure that you type in my name so they know that it is for me, my name is Lorena Espy. Whatever you can do would be so greatly appreciated. I will be praying for you guys. I love you guys so much and if you can just send love and prayers and that's all you can do, that's amazing.
Now I am going to say a prayer: "Lord, I pray that You be with every single person who is reading this right now. Lord, wrap Your arms around us. I pray that You give us peace. I pray that You help us through our tough times. If they've been feeling in their heart like there's something that You want them to do, Lord, and they just don't know what it is, please reveal it to them. I pray that they are able to steady their hearts and their minds and to just spend some quiet uninterrupted time with You to really listen to Your word and to be moved by the Holy Spirit to do whatever it is that you're calling them to do. Lord, I pray that You just help us through every aspect and send whoever it is that You need to send to help us do the calling that You've placed in our hearts. Lord please guide us and protect us every step of the way like You always do. I love You with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen."
So that's it for today's episode. I will see you guys next week so stay tuned for that.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
p.s. If you'd rather listen to Faith-based, spiritual growth, mindset, and mental health tips, then check out my podcast. There I will share my personal experiences, stories I've never told before, and bring you along with this hot mess life of mine. New episodes every week.
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights
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