Weeks 5&6- Samaratin’s Purse Recap!

My friends! Sorry it’s been over two weeks since I last blogged! As many of you know we were in Jackson Kentucky for two weeks serving with Samaratin’s Purse doing flood relief there. I want to give you guys a short recap on how those two weeks went and what the Lord taught me during them. 

Every day at Samaratin’s Purse consisted of waking up at 5:30, having an 8 hour work day, eating dinner and having a share time with all of the volunteers. The work was incredibly difficult for me. I was so surprised by how much I struggled to get through the days. I’m used to having to work hard, but this work was on another level. I found myself incredibly discouraged by my exhaustion, but the Lord drew me to Himself in the midst of that exhaustion. I went days skipping my personal time with the Lord because I was so tired. I realized that that was not going well and the Lord revealed to me that I was relying on sleep for my strength rather than on Him. I started waking up earlier to spend time with Him and begin my dependence on Him from the moment I woke up. This was such a blessing, but my days were still incredibly difficult. I found myself praying continuously throughout each day. It was so sweet to find such a deep dependency on my Father and provider for my strength each day. It was eye opening to see how much I didn’t rely on Him for all of my strength before. 

I would be lying if I said that my days were easy after that. I still struggled a lot through the next week or so, but one thing remained consisted- my Jesus. The Lord revealed a lot to me about myself during these two weeks of ministry. I learned that I definitely need my alone time in order to be able to love others well. I also learned to be comfortable with confrontation when we got back from Samaratin’s Purse. After working together for 2 weeks, we learned a lot about one another and noticed what we needed to do better for one another in order to love each other better. Confronting those things was a test of our humility. I am really proud of our squad for the honesty and humility that we were able to display to one another. I trust that we will be able to handle conflict well in the future, even though it is not a fun thing to deal with at all. 

The people in Jackson Kentucky are facing a lot of poverty. We had the opportunity to work on many peoples’ homes, but there were still over 120 work orders left when we left Jackson. That is at least 120 people or entire families whose belongings are still covered in mud and don’t have a comfortable home to live in. It was really difficult to see peoples’ homes destroyed and see the pain on their faces. But it was such a privilege to be able to talk to the homeowners about Jesus and give them light and hope in the midst of their brokenness. Over the span of the two weeks that we were there, there were over 10 salvations in the homeowners that our entire group ministered to! Praise God!

Next up we leave for Nicaragua! We leave on Friday night and then we will spend 3 months there doing many different ministries. I can’t wait to share about the work there. I am so expectant for what the Lord is going to do in and through our squad while we are in Nicaragua. Please pray that we will remain unified in Christ despite our differences or opinions. Please also pray for traveling mercies and good health. My communication will be very limited while I am oversees, but I am going to try to blog as much as I can. I love keeping you all updated on how the Lord is working! I miss you all so so much.

Love you all!

Ryann