I have now been on the road full-time for the Lord & ministry for nearly a month and remain at a hotel in Virginia with the ministry’s 6 special needs & senior rescued dogs and have had amazing and endless opportunities both at the hotel and elsewhere to do the streets ministry to which I am called which includes as the Lord leads distributing the Gospel tracts and devotionals I write. The hotel with its kind and caring staff has given me a warm and gracious welcome, and I have my laptop and printing equipment set up along with my sweet dogs who are thoroughly enjoying their new adventure on the road with continual opportunities to get more attention than ever from me and numerous other people.
The past few days have been quite trying as a group of people some of whom I’ve known for decades and whom I love dearly with whom I entrusted something very dear to me before I went out on the road shocked me by breaking my trust and deceiving me with numerous lies, deceit, and betrayal and unbeknownst to me until a young courageous woman told me the truth reneging on the promise they had made to help me with something very important. The hurt and broken trust have wreaked havoc on my heart, and hurt several dear friends who have shed tears with me. My love for them remains, the Lord has given me forgiveness for them, but the consequences of their actions remain both in my heart and regarding their decision to back out of their commitment so quickly.
Most significantly, my faith in God has been tried enormously and thanks be to Him despite this great trial I am confident He will teach and strengthen me through this and hopefully reach the hearts of these people with conviction and Truth about how we must all repent from our sins and devote our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ for the promise of a forever relationship with God rather than a torturous eternity apart from Him in hell and the lake of fire. The devil has tried to use this trial to tear me to shreds, pull me apart from God, convince me to quit ministry, and to destroy me altogether – to no avail! For in the strength of the Spirit of God, I press on in passionately pursuing the Lord and His calling for my life.
On an exceedingly bright note, the ministry opportunities at the hotel and elsewhere have been endless. Whereas in South Carolina my ministry work was predominantly writing, printing, and distributing tracts and devotionals by mail, with only minimal streets ministry, so far on the road a great deal of my work has been streets ministry including the tracts and devotionals as the Lord leads whereby I have continual opportunities to help people to find and follow the Lord Jesus Christ virtually everywhere I go and right where I am. There is no greater joy for me outside of loving and worshiping the Lord forever than telling the world about Him.
To be given the honor and privilege to do this in the Washington DC metropolitan area, which has become a melting pot of people from all over the world, of people of all beliefs and cultures, of all backgrounds, of the poor and wealthy, of believers and unbelievers in Christ, of the homeless, criminals, alcoholics, addicts, the educated and successful by the world’s standards, of Muslims, Hindus, reformed Jewish loved ones, of Satanists, of practicing homosexuals, truck drivers, the young and old, and on and on, how exceedingly blessed I am that the Lord has sent me as my first stop living on the road full-time to such a place as this at such a time as this. A time in which the world is perishing more than ever due to the lack of knowledge about the Lord Jesus Christ and to the rejection of this knowledge.
On another very bright note, I confess for the first few weeks of being on the road I thought numerous times of running back to my house in South Carolina and resuming a life that was relatively easy. A place that was comfortable, familiar, and felt secure and predictable. My comfort zone. The Lord gave me the strength to stand fast and persevere, to keep walking forward as His Spirit leads me. Miraculously, only two weeks after I placed my house on the market as He had led me to do, a buyer stepped forward willing to pay the full price. To me, this was not about money, but about provision to enable me to continue to pursue my life’s calling for the Lord. The contract has been signed, the closing has not yet transpired, but I am confident the Lord’s will shall be done. Not for me. For His purpose and glory.
As far as prayer is concerned, please pray as the Lord leads you. Safety, health for me and the dogs in my care, provision, wisdom, discernment, sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, obedience in following Christ, healing for me and my friends given what has transpired with the betrayal I described above, conviction, repentance, salvation, and obedience for those who lied to me, help concerning the main consequence of that group of people’s decision to not continue with the commitment they had made, and financial support are all opportunities for prayer.
As has been the case for quite some time, the more devoted I am to following Christ and to fulfilling my life’s calling to help the world find and follow Him, the fewer people have sowed into the ministry financially. So please keep that in your prayers if you are so led.
With love & blessings,
Lara