Where Has The Gospel Yet To Reach Your Heart?

Hello friends!! I pray you have had a wonderful start to your 2024 and have enjoyed this Winter season, but I also pray that Spring would come quickly, I’m ready to see green again here in Missouri! Though all the greenery around us looks very dead, our God is definitely very much alive! I have countless testimonies from this last month of His goodness and activity in my life as well as the lives of others.

TESTIMONIES:

I ended up in the ER only 7 days before I was set to move to YWAM. Blood tests that were run indicated that there was an issue and I needed to do follow up testing. I took the same tests the day I left for YWAM and everything came back great!! Praise God! Thank you to everyone that had been praying.
If you remember my original move in date for YWAM was January 12th, well it ended up getting pushed back a little bit as I was trying to find housing. The Lord ended up opening a door for me to live with Bethany and Jordan! I feel extremely blessed to get to room with these two women who love Jesus with everything and who provoke me to go so much deeper in God.
Last week I went with a few of my friends here in KC to evangelize in the mall. There was a girl who was working at Great American Cookies putting together some boxes. My friend and I went to go pray with her and share Jesus. We asked “If you died tomorrow how confident would you be that you would go to Heaven? Rate yourself 1-10; 10 being completely confident and 1 being not confident at all” She rated herself a 6 and her explanation was that she hasn’t been to church in a long time. From there I got to share about the good news being that you don’t get to Heaven based on any of your works, but through Jesus’ finished work defeating sin and death. I asked her if she believes that to be true and if she would like to choose to give her old life to Jesus and receive the life He has for her. She said YES and then allowed me to pray with her. I am praying that she does pursue a relationship with Jesus and that He continues to pursue her.
This same day I noticed a jewelry shop in the mall where there were no customers, just a girl at the counter. I went in and asked her if there was any way I could pray for her. She said she has quite a lot of anxiety and could use prayer for that. I got to share with her about how Jesus is the Prince of Peace and how all anxiety has to bow to Him. After praying for her we got to talking, I found out she was raised Mormon but wasn’t really practicing it. She asked me my story and I got to testify of how Jesus set my mind free from so much torment including anxiety and that even now when I struggle in difficult things I don’t have to go through any of it alone, but I can invite Him into every moment! She asked me which churches I would recommend her to go to in Kansas City so I gave her a list and let her know where I go. She told me she would definitely check it out. I really hope to stop by the mall again sometime and follow up with both of these girls. I will keep you all updated if I hear anymore on how they are doing!!

What Is Jesus Doing in My Heart?

“Listen then to what the parable of the Sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” -Matthew 13:18-23

You’ll hear me talk about missions and unreached people groups a lot, especially on these newsletters. I have had the gospel preached to me so many times growing up, I’m surrounded by churches and believers everywhere I turn, I’m free to shout about Jesus almost anywhere I want in this country. Us Americans would technically be considered ‘reached’ because we are very familiar with hearing the name of Jesus and how His story and ours intersect.

I know all of this but yet for the past year the Lord has continually been asking me “where has the gospel yet to reach your heart?” Over and over again He’s revealed thought patterns, lies that I’ve believed, and even what some would say are “just personality traits” just to bring me to repentance and replace that with what He actually intended to place inside of me. It’s been the most beautiful, humbling, and freeing process. It’s in the Lord’s kindness that He rebukes the lies and reveals the truth. It’s in His goodness that He can simultaneously send us to share His gospel while also working it out in our own hearts.

He cares about not only perfecting His message as it comes through our lips but also as it seeps into our heart and is revealed through our lives. Charles Hodge said, “The gospel is so simple that small children can understand it, and it is so profound that studies by the wisest theologians will never exhaust its riches.” How beautiful is it that the gospel is simple enough for us to freely share with every people group yet at the same time so profound that it transforms us daily?

I have seen that as the Lord has done this work inside of me, I have become even more confident of who He is and have felt an even weightier burden to take this message everywhere. I have become convinced that what makes the church confident in sharing the good news outside of our walls isn’t speech classes, great self-esteem, having the nicest clothes, or the best programs. What makes us confident in being a sent people that sends others is letting the gospel take deep roots in our heart, transforming and renewing us daily. So I ask you today, where has the gospel yet to reach your heart?

What Am I Doing?

In the month of January I spent time at home in Springfield with my family as I prepared to return to YWAM Kansas City. I watched as the Lord opened doors and miraculously came through to give me exactly what I needed. Do you remember back in the summer when I felt like the Lord started speaking that September (the month I stepped into leadership training) would be a time of transitioning into “promise”? I have not only seen Him as a promise keeper since then and the one who has heard so many of my very detailed prayers, but I’ve seen Him do more than I could have ever asked, thought, or imagined. After 7 years of saying “Here I am Lord, send me!” I am now being sent and even have the great honor to be a small part of sending others! I used to pray for just a couple of friends who were passionate about missions and reaching people with the gospel, now I live in a community of people who are in love with Jesus and just want to make Him known. In June the Lord put it in my heart to surround myself with a team of people who wanted to mobilize the church to missions/outreach and here I am only 7 months later getting to work with Go Team to mobilize the next generation of the body of Christ to missions in some of the hardest to reach places on earth. I have always had a heart for the Middle-East, I even attempted many trips there during the pandemic, and doors were closed. This last September I began to be burdened for the Middle-East even more than before. I felt like the Lord started sharing how He feels about this region and I started to believe that I would go soon. Now here I am, presented with the possibility of going in the next few months. (Yet I am also learning to say “yes” with an open-hand. Especially with all that we are seeing unfold in the Middle-East).

These last two weeks I have gotten involved with the January DTS, trying to spend time with the students and help out in their classes as they walk through freedom week. I also have been connecting with potential applicants for summer outreaches and giving them details on these trips. (If you or anyone you know is interested in joining, reach out to me for more information!)

BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS:

I stepped into full-time missions with YWAM and I get to mobilize this next generation to missions alongside Go Team!
I am going to the unreached this summer!
September DTS has returned with many testimonies of what Jesus did in the Philippines and South Asia!
Our January DTS is going to the Philippines and Thailand for their outreaches!

PRAYER REQUESTS:

Provision for missions
Continue praying for conversations of peace in the Middle-East. I ask that this month you’d pray specifically for the people of Lebanon and Syrian refugees that are there.
September DTS as they have just returned to Kansas City. Prayers that wherever God leads them, they would continue to live to know God and make Him known.
January DTS as they are entering their second month of lecture phase. Pray that God would continue to do a work in their hearts and begin to prepare them for their outreaches to Thailand and the Philippines.
Our Summer outreaches to unreached people groups. Pray also for the teams that are being formed: pray that God would mark those who are applying to go for His mission, pray for financial provision for them and that they would begin to be stirred up for the people they are going to share the gospel with.
I still have 1 test following up on my ER Visit in 6 months, praying and believing for a good report!
The many people my friends and I got to share Jesus with at the mall last week. There are too many stories to count, but many seeds were sown and watered! We are just praying now that Jesus brings in the increase.

FINANCIAL:

Thank you so much to everyone who has partnered financially throughout this time! I am constantly amazed at the beauty of the church throughout this process. I truly could not do this mission effectively without you. I pray that your partnership in advancing the gospel would not only be a blessing to the hearers, and to myself, but that this seed you’ve sown would also produce good fruit in your life.

So far, I have not reached my monthly goal. As of today, I have a committed $845 coming in monthly for the year of 2024. While I am still believing for this monthly goal to be met, so that I can continually do traveling ministry, I am going to need to begin project fundraising for this summer outreach to the unreached. This trip will cost me approximately $3,500. I am praying about what this looks like but currently thinking of making a big basket to raffle off. (If you have other ideas please let me know!) If you own a business or know of anyone that owns one and would be willing to donate a gift card for this basket, I would be so grateful!

For an idea of how much I’ll be needing throughout my time with YWAM, here is my monthly budget.

Tax Deductible ways to donate:

YWAM: https://giving.ywamkansascity.com/support/jessica-lawrence

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Non tax-deductible ways to donate:

Venmo: @Jessica-Lawrence23

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Sincerely, Jessica Lawrence