Dear Friends and Family,
Greetings of hope, joy, and peace to you. I hope this letter finds you reveling in God’s abundant love.
I have been back in Freetown for a week now, after spending three months in the U.S. I am adjusting to the slower pace, and different rhythms of life here. It has been good to spend time with the Lighthouse youth, Noah and the other Sierra Leonean servant team members, as well as WMF staff Faye and Stephanie.
Stephanie flew in with me last week and will be heading up our U.S. servant teams. For the next few months she will be focusing on learning the city and the language, before her first team comes next February.
Soon the Lighthouse apprentices will graduate in October, after four years of training. Please pray for them during this time of transition, that they would be making wise decisions, and continue to seek God first.
Pray for our leadership in Freetown as well, that we might truly be servant-leaders, making biblically-based decisions that ultimately seek to glorify God. We have some big decisions on our plate right now. Due to continued discipline issues, we may have to ask some original Lighthouse members to leave the program. We are also nearing the end of the Sierra Leone Servant Team, and will be considering which of the members we would like to partner with in the future. We need lots of discernment.
As always, know that I am so very thankful for your encouragement and support. It was so good to spend time with many of you recently.
Last month while I was in the U.S., I was deeply convicted by that well-known verse in Revelation 3 where God threatens to spew a lukewarm church out of His mouth because it was neither hot or cold. I have wasted a lot of my life going through the cultural Christianity motions instead of fervently seeking God first. Back here in Freetown, I see how zealously and faithfully my Muslim neighbors pray five times a day. I pause and wonder. Why do I find it hard to pray twice a day, when God has sacrificially, freely forgiven me through his Son?
I realized I need to fan the flame of trust and love for God again. So, I have been trying to rekindle the habit of spending my first hour each morning in prayer and Bible meditation. And, my friend Heleen and I are meeting twice a month for accountability and prayer.
So far these disciplines are going well, and I deeply sense God honoring my efforts. Just like that well-worn footprints story, God has been sustaining me, carrying me through some very trying circumstances, enabling me to be peaceful, joyful, and all-present to people.
If you have been in a lukewarm sleepy haze like me, I would encourage you to be transformed by the daily renewing of your mind in The Word. Fan your flame of faith! We truly do have much to be joyfully excited about. Daddy God is waiting to run to us, like the Father in the Prodigal Son story. He wants to draw near to us, and love us lavishly.
Love,
Cami