The Heart Behind Why I Do What I Do + Huge Announcement

In today's episode I will be making a huge announcement. I will be going over my heart behind it and how you can partner with me in this. I will be pairing this with prayer and scripture.

First, I want to say a quick prayer: "LORD, Please open up our eyes, our ears, our hearts and our minds to you, LORD. Thank you for your compassion, love, mercy, and grace. I pray for each person reading this, that their heart is open to receive Your love and to love others the way that You love us LORD. I pray that whatever it is that each person is supposed to receive from this episode, that they receive it and they implement it in their daily lives. Holy Spirit consume me, give me the words to speak, use me as a vessel for Your work, and help me to make an impact in other people's lives. LORD I can't thank You enough for every single thing that You've done. Please give me the words to speak to be able to make an impact in other people's lives. Thank You LORD for always providing and I know that You always will. I love You with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen."

First let's get into some scripture:

Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.” -Matthew 9:35-38

"The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” -Matthew 28:16-20

"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” -Luke 19:10

I'm sure a lot of you have hear at least one of the scriptures above. A lot of people use the verses from the great commission in Matthew 28, especially when it comes to missionary work. I wanted to go over these verses today, because I really want to go into the why of going on these mission trips and being at the school of missions. I don't want to just tell you guys about all of these things that are happening and not go into the heart of why.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we want to live and have a heart like Jesus. Whenever we are saved by Jesus we have the Holy Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit will move us to do the will of God the Father. Our heavenly Father is so full of compassion, love, mercy, and grace. He wants everyone to come to Him and be saved by Jesus and have eternal life in heaven. That is His heart, for all of us to be saved.

There are many lost people in this world. There are lost people in the United States, in my hometown, the town that I'm living in now; there are lost people everywhere. One thing that a lot of people will say is, "Why would you go around the world to spread the gospel whenever you can do it right where you are at?" That is true and I am not saying that we should not spread the gospel to people around us. We should always be shining our light to others, letting them know about Jesus, how incredible He is, how He has changed our lives completely, and how He can do the same for them. There are too many of us Christians that just go to church 1-2 times a week, have their Christian community that they hang out with, and not go and spread the gospel to other people. I will be the first one to say that throughout so many years of my life I have been guilty of this. The more that I walk in step with the Holy Spirit and let Him guide me, the more that He shows me the compassion that He has for the lost and the unreached.

God is a God of compassion. Jesus has compassion for the lost. The harvest is abundant but there are few laborers. We have to go out into the harvest and let other people know about Jesus. That is our main mission on this earth. The command that Jesus gave His disciples in Matthew 28 that we read, that was not just a command for His disciples back then. All of us as believers of Jesus Christ are His disciples, so He commands all of us to go out and make disciples of all nations.

Now I want to talk a little about unreached people groups. You may have never heard what I am about to say, because I hadn't hear of it before either. This is something that the church as a whole does not do a good job of educating people on. There is such a need that we have to go and spread the gospel to people that have never heard of it before. So what is an unreached people group? With an unreached people group, the vast majority of people in this group have not personally heard the gospel because there is extremely limited public access to the message.

Here are some statistics: There are 7,413 unreached people groups in this world. There are 2,993 unevangelized people groups. If you add up the unreached and unevangelized, that equals over 4 billion people in this world. That is 53% of our population. So yes, while it is so important for us to spread the gospel to people around us in our community, it is also very important for us to go out there and reach the people that have never had a chance to hear the gospel before.

Here is North America we have access to so many churches. Here in Oklahoma, pretty much any street you go down you will see a church. There are so many places around the world that don't have access to a Christian church. That don't have access to hearing the true gospel of Jesus Christ. The more and more I walk in obedience, do what the LORD tells me to do, and keep in step with the Holy Spirit, the more He has opened up my eyes and my heart to have compassion for the lost, the unreached, and every human being on this planet. Regardless of what we have done in our lives, we have all fallen short of the glory of God. We have all sinned and we all need a savior. Our Savior is Jesus Christ. It is my mission on this earth to let as many people as i possibly can to know about Jesus, how He has changed my life, and how He can change and save their lives as well.

This world is in desperate need of a Savior. The only one that can save us is Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. We can have life abundant in Jesus. We as His disciples have a duty to go out there and let other people know about the good news of Jesus, to love on them, serve them, and help them in any way that we can.

Initially when I was thinking about signing up for the next mission trips, I was praying about it and I kept feeling in my spirit that I should go to Brazil and Paraguay. I wrestled with this for days and I didn't get 100% clarity, but I kept feeling in my spirit that I should go to those places. So I went ahead and signed up for the South America combo trip (with Brazil and Paraguay,) because when you're not 100% sure on what you should do but you know it's from God, but you just step out in faith and do things for God, He's going to guide you in the right direction if you've made a misstep. Also, He will bless whatever you are stepping into for Him and His glory.

So after I signed up for the combo trip to Brazil and Paraguay, I kept hearing "Thailand" and "Albania" in my spirit. The LORD had already been putting Thailand and Albania in my spirit, but my flesh was fighting it. This is a thing that we do, our flesh fights with our spirit all the time, because the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. So I was battling with this for a couple of days and He just kept putting it so strong on my spirit. There was confirmation from people saying things. For a couple of days I was a wreck. Every time I tried to deny signing up for all 4 trips, the LORD just kept giving me more confirmation from people, scripture, it was just plain as day. Also, the more that He started opening up my eyes to the unreached, the more that it became clear that I needed to go to Thailand and Albania because those countries have a lot more unreached people groups than Brazil and Paraguay.

So after one of my classes at school I bit the bullet and decided to sign up to go to Thailand and Albania as well. So it is official, I plan on going on all of the Global Ventures mission trips in the summer and then also one in September.

Here are my next mission trips:

South America Combo: (Brazil and

 Paraguay): June 18-July 5 $4850

Thailand: July 15-26 $3600

Albania: September 5-15 $3,525

Total needed for the trips:    $11,975

So, what are we going to be doing while we are in these different countries? We will be going to markets, neighborhoods, schools, streets, and wherever we can to spread the gospel. We do a gospel presentation, a drama (play about the gospel) and then we lead into a salvation prayer and a prayer of healing. We also do projects like clean water filters while we are there and give communities clean water in the area. Certain nights we will hold festivals where all of the people in the community will come together. There will be prizes, gospel presentations, all family fun faith filled things and they also do prayers of salvation and healing those nights as well. Our main mission on this earth is to spread the gospel to others and to love, serve, care for, and help others as much as we possibly can. That is the goal with these mission trips as well. We get out there, work in the harvest, and get as many people as we can to know about Jesus, be saved by Jesus, and healed by Jesus.

Now, you may be thinking.. "this is awesome. I want to get behind this. How can I partner with you?"

There are a few different ways you can partner with me:

1. Pray

   - Pray for the lost, the unreached. Pray for us laborers as we go out into the harvest field. Pray for our safety, that the funds will come, and that everything will come together and work according to God's plan

   
   

2. Give

   - If you feel led in your heart to give to my mission trips, you can click on the name of the country of the trip that you want to donate towards and it will take you directly to my fundraising page to donate.

   
   

   - South America combo trip (Brazil and Paraguay)

   - Thailand

   - Albania

   
   

3. Share

   - Let other people know about the things that I'm doing, so if they feel led in their heart to give, they are able to do that

Giving to a missionary is not just providing funds for them to do things. It is a partnership and that is what I want to do with you guys. I want to partner with you and also pray for you and your family and know specific ways that I can do that.

I will be sending out newsletters about my adventures with the school of missions, my mission trips, and to keep you guys updated with all of the things that I will be doing on this new journey. If you want to receive those news letters, click here and put in your information and I will start sending you updates.

If you have read all of this and you're thinking "Man, I really want to go on a mission trip." You can go to www.globalventures.tv and sign up for one of their mission trips. I would love for you to go with me on these mission trips. There are so many people in this world that need to know about Jesus, and if we as Jesus' disciples don't go out there and let them know, who's going to do it? If you really sit and think about all of the lost people that don't know about Jesus, it should lead you to compassion for those people and to want to go out there and tell them about the only one who can save us (Jesus Christ.)

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 Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.