I Am Helped!

The Lord is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.
Psalm 28:7

The experience I had this morning, from beginning to end, is so worth writing about.

• You know that horrible sinking feeling you have when you wake up and overslept? That rested panic?That was me this morning, except when I checked the time… 7:55 am…. alarm set for 8:00…. I woke up 5 minutes early!!! Completely rested 🙂 I was so thankful the Lord had given me such good rest!
   
• I sang worship songs (Phil Wickham!) and prayed for the 5 wonderful ladies I met yesterday at the women's ministry brunch. Added them on facebook (the ones that had it), and started drafts to email them this afternoon. Then proceeded to get ready for church…. so far this is a good morning.
   
• Drove to church, singing some more 🙂 Arrived there and saw the friendly faces of my friend/mentor Aamber and her husband hanging back at back of the church.
   
• Approached the lead pastor and talked to him some more about the World Race, and he is bringing up my trip at the missions budget meeting this week!!! My amazing church, The Vista, is really going to help me some financially and pray over me, send me, keep in touch with me! We also talked about when to get my video aired (October) and then proceed with more fundraisers.
   
• THEN I ran into the youth pastor and got t-shirt info, because the youth group sold t-shirts to fundraise! Turns out our media guy has a connection with a t-shirt business, and I am going to contact him about getting shirts designed and made to help fundraise!!

  all this took place within 2 hours here, from 7:55 til about 9:45……. CONTINUING ON
   

• Worshipped the Lord alongside my friends (guess what the band played? PHIL WICKHAM!), then took a seat after worship… beside one of my other mentors! This is rare…… I have had a long history of sitting by myself at church because I either didn't see people I knew, or I'd come in after the lights dimmed, or I'd go to the 11 service and everyone went to the 9:30…. this I say to clarify that I am very much noticing and thankful for having company during church!!
   
• AFTER CHURCH…. I see more friends, and by now I'm thinking "whoa everybody I know is here this morning!!" and I'm getting hugs left and right, and getting asked about the trip, etc!!
   
• SUDDENLY I get pulled away, and it's one of the ladies I met yesterday, pulling me to meet her husband. She says "This is Helena!!!! This is the girl who is going on the WORLD RACE!!" and his eyes lit up, and said "That's a wonderful thing you're doing, if you get to meet Seth tell him we said hi!" (oh by the way, they know Seth Barnes personally, and already monthly support AIM).

  She says to me "we are going to designate our monthly support to your name, starting this month!! Now we have a missionary in the World Race from our church!!"

  So at this point…… I am fighting back tears. I am so humbled and so overwhelmed by the series of events! But it doesn't stop there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• I feel a hand on my back, and it's another one of the 5 ladies I met yesterday! She says "it is SO good to see you!" and she gave me one of the tightest, most heartfelt hugs I've ever gotten in my whole life. Okay so now I'm crying!
   
• Then I get approached by another mentor's husband, confirming I'm having lunch with them. Yes!
   
• So I head to lunch, and I'm crying the whole way to their home. I get there and see this family, these faces. They care about me, they love me. We eat a meal together. Their kids hug me and say "hold me!!"

  funny sidenote….. I was getting super tired but was still at it playing with the kids. They kept asking to play hide and seek, but they are really good at hiding and my seeking skills aren't as good as they once were. This is the conversation that took place:

  little ethan: let's play hide and seeeeek!
  me: but you hide too well and I can't find you!
  ethan: I'll hide easy
  me: where are you going to hide?
  ethan: under the table!
  me: LOL okay! go ahead, I'll count.

  Hilarious!! After that *short* round we played again… that time he told me he would hide in the bathroom haha
   

• I left, and praised God the whole time. I got a text from a dear friend who is still a somewhat new believer, so I decided to call her. She said to me "Helena, for reasons a, b, and c, I didn't get to go to church this morning, and I felt bad about it. But now talking to you on the phone I feel like I'm making up for it, it's like going to church" …… *speechless* she said that God put me in her life to help her to have faith. ……………. I… have….. NO…. words.

I am humbled beyond humbled and I can still barely keep from tears. I don't understand why God gave me so many beautiful moments and conversations today.
    All I know is that I am helped.
               He's providing.
                         He's surrounding me with
                                  love and support and encouragement.

God really wants me to be a missionary!

MY HEART LEAPS FOR JOY AND I WILL GIVE THANKS TO HIM IN SONG!!! 🙂