My fourth month with Tenth Hour Project has officially come to a close. In this post I will be laying out the things I’ve done this month and the ways God has been using me.
If you would like to donate to my mission you can do so here: agentsforchrist.org/noah
Destin, Florida
The first week of this month was spent in Destin, Florida. It was a sweet time with my team and growing closer to everyone I had been on tour with until that point. I specifically grew in my boldness pertaining to evangelism. I realized that when Jesus talked about the workers of the harvest in Matthew 9:38 He was actually talking about me and my team (along with all the other evangelists throughout history.) There have been people throughout all of history who prayed for people to do the exact thing that I am on a mission to accomplish. That mission is to share the gospel and give an opportunity to all who I come into contact with. There are a multitude of prayers that are protecting me and giving me strength. That truth has given me a newfound boldness.
I’d like to share a quick story about just that. Late one night the whole team was watching a movie about persecuted christians in the last century (Tortured for Christ.) I had already seen it and wasn’t interested in watching it again. So, I went outside to the front porch of our rental home to find two of the students who also decided against watching the movie. Two doors down there was a frat who had rented a home to party for that weekend. This proved to be an evangelism opportunity.
The three of us decided to approach everyone who entered or exited this house and share the gospel with them. I must admit, I was very doubtful of the effectiveness of this and didn’t think that anyone would even come by. We went out to the street and waited for about thirty seconds until a man started walking towards us. I was expecting him to just hear what we wanted to talk about (Jesus) and leave immediately. However, he stuck around for a solid 20-30 minutes asking genuine questions and receiving what we were saying with a seemingly open mind. His one hold up was miracles and disbelief of those. Hours before that I was teaching an apologetics class and posed that same question as a hypothetical, so I was prepared with an answer. The Holy Spirit helped me greatly in that conversation and grew my faith in it. His friends ended up sweeping him away but not before he prayed with us and I left him with a final word to seek the Lord with his doubts and see what happens after that. I pray that he listened and is seeking the Lord diligently like it says in Hebrews 11:6.
The Rest of Florida
We spent a total of two and a half weeks in Florida. Most of it was spent away from the beach in central Florida. There were many opportunities in many different parts of the state, sometimes all at once. We had split up the group multiple times to serve and join a couple of churches simultaneously. They were all so hospitable, kind, and encouraging. Most of my time in Florida was spent cooking and praying. I learned a lot about the idea of “Practicing the Presence of God” because we started reading the book by that title written about the life of Brother Lawrence in the 1600’s. In that book, he describes his mundane tasks of cooking and cleaning being times of communion with God and prayer. I took that to heart and started practicing that whilst chopping veggies and cooking dinner. It effected my heart into peace and joy.
My prayer life had been growing a lot in the past few months but then the continual nature of practicing His presence exponentially grew me in my time in Florida. When people started telling me about a problem back home I prompted them to pray for them and we did. When I was reminded of a friend or a relative back at home, I prayed for them. When anything at all happened, good or bad, I prayed for it. Now, this is a sustainable thing as much as your own mind or the world would want to convince you otherwise. However, you cannot achieve constant prayer without trying to do so and practicing it. That is something that I’m currently failing at as much as I try it and that’s okay. Gods grace extends mightily to me in that and I can lean on His forgiveness when I inevitably fall short.
Quick Detour: Jump out of a Plane
I was given an awesome chance to go skydiving while I was driving out of Florida. I didn’t have money for it whatsoever because I don’t have enough money to live as it stands now because absolutely no one supports me monthly (Please pray about doing that I really desperately need funds.) I decided to post on my instagram story asking for people to fund my skydiving experience to see if it would work or not. The cost of everything after tip was $230 so I had to raise that within a few hours. I didn’t think anyone would give because like I said, no one supports my mission work so why would they pay me to jump out of a plane? Well, I was both pleasantly and disappointedly surprised. I raised all the money I needed and even made a $1.50 profit. That was sweet because I actually got to go but it also upset me a little that people wanted nothing to do with supporting me as a missionary but they were totally fine shelling out as much as $50 for me to have some fun for a couple of hours. That really put into perspective the priorities of the world today. It saddens me but that’s just one more thing that we can be praying about.
Wrap Everything in a Bow and Stuff it in a Turkey
To wrap up this month, Thanksgiving. The schedule of our tour had me in Columbia, SC on Thanksgiving day. If you don’t know that’s about and hour and a half drive to Charlotte, NC which is my hometown. We had my car on tour and I had to go to NC to get it inspected and my tags renewed anyways so I decided to surprise my family and show up for Thanksgiving day. It was a sweet time of fellowship and rest with my family. I went up a day earlier to go to my bible study and it was nice seeing those brothers and sisters as well as my family. The next day I dropped my car off at the mechanic and met back up with the THP crew. I left my car in NC and will be flying home for Christmas break to save on miles with my car.
Prayer Requests
While writing this I heard from my mechanic that my car has an issue that needs fixing so I need money to pay for that ($1350 to be exact).
In the next two weeks I will be saying goodbye to term 9 and two weeks after that I will be welcoming in term 10 so pray for all of their hearts to be prepared for the goodbyes and new friendships that await both teams.
My heart aches in sadness frequently, pray that I may have joy and that the Lord would reveal to me the cause of my overwhelming and seemingly unnecessary grief.
This coming January I will be looking for a part-time job to try and raise money myself for the work that I am doing so pray that I will find a job that is able to be flexible with my missionary schedule.
Thank you all for reading and subscribing to this newsletter and for all of the prayers that are being clearly answered in my life.
If you would like to donate you can do so here: agentsforchrist.org/noah