Kylee
French
Philly Bridge
Philly Mission Trip #1
Spring Break of 2018 was like no other. I got to spend it in Philadelphia, PA and Absecon, NJ with some of my favorite people. But if anything, I learned some of the biggest life lessons while on this mission trip, and I would like to share those things, so bear with me- but this story is like no other.
One, Our God is not a flexible God. Our timing is way different than God's time (most of the time). We have these certain to-do lists or schedules, but they do not always go as planned. In Philly we spent many hours having to sit and wait on people, and our plans got changed very much. But if you know me, I am a very last minute person and kind of just go with the flow, so I was down for anything. Many days got switched due to the huge snowstorm that came through. But the cool thing was seeing God work for better ways. On the day our group was supposed to work at the children’s school, we ended up going under the bridge. We went under many bridges to hand out items to homeless people. As we went by, there were many who were thankful and many who were not. After handing out items, a couple of us girls were standing by the truck and a woman walked up to us while we were praying. We stopped praying as she started apologizing. She apologized for shooting up heroin while we were giving her items. We tried telling her countless times that it seriously was okay, but she just kept apologizing. We kept the conversation going, and eventually, she began to share her story with us. I remember seeing the tears forming in her eyes, and then feeling the tears coming into mine. To sum up her story, she has been a heroin addict for many, many years and she only has custody of one child out of three. For 7 years, her boyfriend knew he had aids. But, he did not come out to tell her until there third child together. She recently had surgery on her foot due to having extreme frostbite. After all that she has gone through, she had the humility to come up to us and apologize. We were able to speak the Gospel into her life even though she did believe in Jesus, but had ran from Him as she felt empty.
From Christ alone, He stirred something up in her heart. She identified the sin in her life and wanted to stop it. Something I heard from my youth pastor (shoutout Casey lol) was two, Identify the Sin in Our Lives and Attack It. Once you can identify the sin in your life, you can attack the enemy. Before we left, we gave this sweet woman our phone number and were able to stay in contact with her. She texted me, always checking up on me and keeping me updated on everything in her life. She was able to go home and see her children, and seek help for her drug addiction. After Easter, I kept texting her, and have not gotten a response. To be honest, I have been quite worried about her since she usually always responded very quickly.
The last text I received was on April 1st, exactly one month from today. Over time I have learned three, the importance that goes into Long Suffering Prayer (shoutout Bradley on this). Something I really struggle with is accepting the fact that we are here to plant the seed and not make it grow. The growth of a person is between God and the person. But, the long-suffering is where most Christians struggle. We cannot assume that someone is going to change in the snap of a finger. Instead of worrying/judging/whatever is it that you or I may do- pray. Whether that be for 6 months or 6 years, never give up on someone and never doubt God's miracles. Pray that God will reveal something so much greater in their life so that they may turn to His Gracious Power instead of this destructive world. So I ask that you please, please pray with me for this sweet lady that I met in Philly. She has changed my life in many ways that she does not even know, but I hope to share the change she has made in my life, one day.
What a God we serve! Bless the Lord for this amazing journey of life and the growth I and many others are going through during this season of life. I cannot wait to go back here this summer! Stay tuned for the ways God is going to move in Philly this summer.