Posted in General Posts by Emily Watkins on 4/12/2012
Thankfulness.
Thankfulness is a big part of my relationship with God.
He does so much for me. He shows me so many things
He speaks to me so beautifully
He tells me things about other people that I don’t even know
He gives me His mercy
His grace
His love
His patience
EVERY SINGLE DAY
Being thankful is so important to me. I have been saved. I have been freed from all doubts and fears. I have been made new. I have been recognized as a co-heir to the throne of the Most High God.
I am thankful for all the things God taught me throughout Africa.
I went to many villages in Uganda, where we did crusades nearly everyday. I believed that God could heal the sick, raise the dead, make the lame walk and the blind see and that He could cast out demons. I believed it, but I had never seen it. I had never personally been a part of it.
So there I was in Northern Uganda, my first crusade EVER, and all of a sudden people are slain in the Spirit! The Holy Spirit showed up because we asked Him to. I saw a total of 6 people stand up and walk, who had been paralyzed for years. I witnessed the blind regain sight and read words from the bible. I witnessed demons manifest and hurt people and I layed my hands on them and prayed and Jesus came and used me, He chose me…. He found me and saved me, and used me to cast demons from 7 people in just one night. Let me tell you, I didn’t even really believe in demons until this year, I didn’t know what I was doing or saying, I was just letting the Spirit move. Afterwards I was covered in dirt, sweat, tears, and my voice was hoarse but God used me. I finally know what it feels like to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth!
And for that I shout out my praises and my thankfulness.
(side note: our month in Uganda was part of bringing over 300 people to Christ!!)
I was still mad that my daddy had cancer, but this was no reason to be mad at God. So I turned my anger into thankfulness. Thankful that God blessed me and used me to heal complete strangers. He worked. I prayed and He worked.
I’m told that my prayers are like sweet incense to the Lord. A sweet aroma flowing into heaven and bringing a smile to the Lord’s face. When I started to focus on seeking the Lord’s face and not just His hands my head and my heart started aligning with the Kingdom.
I told daddy to read Joel and focus on the verse that says “and I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten.”
And while I was doing all of these crusades and praying and seeing miracle after miracle my daddy was trying to get in contact with me, because they found out that same week that God had healed him completely of cancer!
What a reason to rejoice, what a reason to be thankful, what miracle has happened! And this reminds me that YES God is big, YES God is everywhere, and YES God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
He does miracles every single day. Because He loves us… Because He wants to give us the desires of our heart. We must be thankful, have faith, and know that He will heal.
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Watkins on 4/10/2012
How much?
How much is she worth?
How much money would you be willing to pay to hang out with your waitress for the night? Five dollars? Ten dollars? More? Less?
What if she was your best friend? What if she was your little sister? What if she was your daughter? What if she was your wife?
How much then?
Take a walk with me. We're in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It's nearly midnight, but you wouldn't know it by the looks of it -- the lights flicker and glow enticingly, the music blares, the streets pulse with all of the people on them. We walk into a bar, slide into a booth and a young woman comes to take our order. To call her a young woman might be a little bit generous -- she can't be much older than eighteen. She's pretty, the way that all of the women here are pretty with their fine bone structure and round cheeks and sweet smiles. Can you see her? Who does she look like?
To me, she looks like my little sister Shelby. She looks like my best friend Jess. She looks like my younger cousins, Allie and Ginny and especially Paige. Could this have been Paige? What if she hadn't have been adopted from South Korea when she was a baby -- would she be standing at a table like this somewhere, taking drink orders and preparing for whatever would be happening later that night?
If you read this blog, chances are that you know me. You've probably talked with me or spent time with me at some point… After reading these posts for the past seven months, you surely know what I've been experiencing and learning lately. So what if it was me? What if I was the girl “waiting tables” at these bars and I was tired? What if I was tired of my life, but I had no other options? Would you help me?
If you read this blog, chances are that I know you. And after being blessed by your generosity and support thus far, I know that you would help me. To many of you, I am your friend, your sister, your daughter -- or at least, I could be. You wouldn't pass by me when I was desperate. I know that you wouldn't.
So let's not pass by these women when they are desperate. Let's not pass by the young girls stuck in these bars. Let's not walk past them, most of whom are not here by their own design. Close your eyes and see your little girl, your best friend, your only sister, exploited and alone. What are you going to do about it?
My team and I are partnering with Lighthouse in Action ministries this month. We're walking those streets, sitting in those bars, talking with those girls and our goal is to be Jesus. We're not walking in with Bibles, preaching a message of condemnation or anger. We're walking in to be girlfriends. We're trying to get to know these girls, to build relationships. The program director made it very clear: we're not a SWAT team running in to grab the women. We're farmers -- we're planting seeds, watering them, and maybe even harvesting a couple if the season is right.
How do we do that specifically? Our ministry this month centers around two of my favorite things -- praying and dating. Every day and every night, some part of our team will be in the prayer room, interceding for this country and the women that we meet. Then we spend two days and two nights a week in bars, getting to know the girls and inviting them out on dates. We want to take them to lunch, to the movies, to get our nails done -- the regular things girlfriends do with one another. Ministry this month is deeply relational. Success is not counted in how many women we personally pull out of the bar scene; it's about the depth and quality of friendships made.
But I need your help. My team needs your help. We have to pay to buy ourselves [non-alcoholic] drinks in every bar we go -- even the ones we go in just to pray. We have to pay to buy the women drinks and the price doubles. I'm hoping to get to the point where I can offer to pay a girl's bar fee, pay to take her out of there for the night. Then on any of the dates we have, we're paying for the women. But all of this requires cash, something that runs pretty short after seven months around the world. My team and I are trying to raise some money so that we can treat these women. We want to make some real, quality friendships -- friendships where we aren't trying to get anything out of them, but just showing them the love of Jesus through our lives.
If you would be willing to partner with us on this, you can deposit money into my teammate Brittany Gray's checking account [account number: 748597630 at Chase bank]. Any money that we have left over after the end of the month will be given to this ministry; a prominent bar is closing at the end of April and the director has a vision for a rehabilitation program, where the women can come to learn about Jesus, but also to learn practical job skills. The four-month program costs about $1,000 dollars per woman, so any money that we do not use “dating” the girls will go directly towards that project.
So there we are, sitting in the booth. The pretty girl's name is Nam and she's ready to take our order. What will you have? Coca-cola? A cocktail? Maybe the girl herself?
How much?
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
This blog was written by my lovely new teammate, Carly Crookston
www.carlycrookston.theworldrace.org
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Watkins on 2/23/2012
Well friends, you know what this is about...
Support deadline is in 6 days!!!
I am literally $4,455.00 away (ouch i know) but here is the deal
I have become a Jesus freak this past 6 months, yeah i said it... I am really overly obsessed with the fact that Jesus saved my life. He will be saving yours and hundreds of people here in Africa and Asia and already in Eastern Europe. There is no easy way to ask for money, plea, beg, bargain... whatever you want to call it..
I NEED YOUR HELP
I don't want to go home, God wants me here on the World Race. He wants to see me finish something I started. He wants to grow me, stretch me, teach me, and use me.
I want God to use me here!
If you can donate any amount, I would be forever grateful! God will provide and I know this is where I am supposed to be, so help keep me here!!
Love yall :]
Emily
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Watkins on 2/18/2012
My name is Josephine. I was 17 and there were 8 in my family. I am the only one to survive the war. I did not know how I survived at the time, but now I give all the glory to God for protecting me and giving me discernment on what to do in every situation…Here is the story of how I escaped the Rwandan Genocide…
They were coming for us, at this time there were 15 of us hiding in my house, when we heard the soldiers coming we ran. They caught a few that were too slow and started beating them and began shooting at the rest of us. I had been shot on the top of my shoulder; I thought I was dead for sure…They told the soldiers to finish us all off and then bury us in a pit, and cover us with dirt. This was only because people were coming around and photographing and the soldiers didn’t want anyone to know what they were really doing. I think I was just in complete shock because something inside of me was sure I was dead, but something else was telling me that I should act as if I were dead, in order to survive. I did not know which was real. I could not move my body, I had no control over anything and before I knew it I was being thrown into a pit on top of other dead bodies and covered with a small layer of dirt. I stayed there, unable to move for around 5 hours until it was around 1 in the morning. I regained strength, not much, but just enough to get up and see what was going on…
I looked around and there were tons of dead bodies, some of them covered with dirt so they couldn’t be seen, there were also dogs that began feeding off of their flesh and would not eat them if the dirt covered them. There was a 3 year old still alive in the pile of bodies and I found him and carried him with me as I tried to cover more bodies with dirt. Then something inside of me told me I needed to leave the area quickly, so I fled with the child to the coffee plantation. I stayed there for a few days, surviving on only the dew from the leaves in the early morning, and trying to find a way to nurse the baby.
While hiding at the coffee plantation the soldiers came back and found the refugees there…they took the baby and killed it on the spot. Then they were called away by their commanding officers and I was safe again, but I had lost the child. I remember the next time they came back for us, they started beating us all with sticks…They treated us as though we were not human, but referred to us as ‘cockroaches’and wanted to kill us all.
During this time we started to hear shooting, and I was very scared again, I thought for sure this time would be my last. I was weak and had barely any energy to survive…I had lost a lot of blood and had almost given up. My family had all been murdered and even the baby I tried to save was gone. But this time the soldiers shooting were firing at the people beating us…The new government had come in and I was saved. Not many people escaped compared to how many people were tragically killed, but God rescued me. He kept me just strong enough to survive. And now, even though I am sometimes haunted by my nightmares, I have found happiness and joy in my life because the Lord has placed it upon my heart. I now have a family of my own, my husband and my 3 children. I married at 21 and have a good life. If you want to pray for me, I would like to have enough money to go back to school and finish my education, I pray that my night terrors are gone for good, and that my husband, who is catholic, will find Jesus and become a Christian like me.
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Watkins on 2/15/2012
Just as I mentioned in my previous blog, God does not promise us that life will be full of rainbows and butterflies. He promises to us everlasting life and that He will always carry us through the hard times. The Lord says that He will never give us anything that we cannot handle, and that when one door closes another one will open. We just have to have faith that if He brings us to it, He will bring us through it.
In December my team and I were working very hard to take care of orphans in India, to make a long-lasting impression on their lives, and to help change things in the facility for the better.
Let’s talk about a bad day…I was getting super excited about Christmas, even though I was away from home and I get a message from Ruth telling me I need to get on Skype because my parents need to talk to me. That’s totally normal and I was pretty excited to talk to them, because they are my parents and I love them so much :]
This was not the type of conversation that I had been anticipating though…At first it was really awkward and it was like they didn’t know how to talk to me, because usually if I’m not crying my eyes out about how much I miss them, we are cracking jokes and having good convo…this time was so weird though, I could literally feel bad news coming my way.
Daddy proceeded to tell me that He had Cancer…Esophageal Cancer. I was dumb-struck. I first of all couldn’t believe that I was in on Skype hearing bad news, but second I couldn’t believe that MY daddy, my sweet angel daddy, my most precious best friend, my ‘world’s greatest dad’, the person where all of my best jokes come from, the man I look up to most…has been attacked with Cancer. The ‘C ’word is never fun to hear about, but I never in a million years expected it to affect my family.
Of course I had an emotional breakdown and ran to my nearest bff Lori, who was not on my team but living in the same house as us (God thing for sure) and just cried on her shoulder, and then everyone soon found out what was wrong and just started praying and surrounding me claiming peace over me, and healing over my daddy. My World Race family is so strong, and so amazing. I love every single one of my squad-mates.
But then I went to bed, woke up, and went to work at the orphanage, just as if nothing were wrong in the world even though everything was wrong in my world. I was thinking about packing my bags and being home just in time for Christmas. I was done with the race completely. I was annoyed that I was still doing ministry…Those poor little orphans were the very LAST people in the whole world I wanted to even look at. They wanted my love and attention and all I wanted was to give love and attention to my daddy.
So for 4 days I sat in self-pity. I went to work but didn’t really do anything there…yeah everyone understood why, but I knew it was almost pointless for me to be there. I had nothing to offer these children.
Then I was pouring my heart out to a former racer one night and he told me exactly what I needed to hear. He spoke into my situation unlike anyone else had. He reminded me that God called me to the World Race. God called ME. God made me to love His children. God called me to leave my home and comfort and literally pour out every ounce of love I have onto His children around the world. I had completely forgotten that I was in India for a reason, and that I gave up everything for a reason. He reminded me that LOVE is the most powerful weapon that we have against the enemy and that if the enemy has allowed for my ability to love to be hindered then what does that say about my spiritual life.
So with this amazing revelation, the next day I woke up, dropped any idea about going home until further notice from my parents about daddy’s condition and the seriousness of it all, and learned how to love as a choice. Because sometimes we forget, love is not an emotion…it is a choice. I had to choose to love the babies that I worked with. I poured out everything I had for the rest of the month. I worked harder, I was more patient, and I gained more out of my month in India than I ever would have being at home.
God showed me a lot in India.
I love you daddy!!
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Watkins on 2/13/2012
I hear all the time about the devil attacking people spiritually and physically because we are doing great things for the Kingdom. I have teammates and friends who have casted out demons from people in India, Nepal, and Tanzania. I have read about and learned more about spiritual warfare and the power of God here on Earth. I have seen people healed, in small ways such as headaches being released, and in big ways too; my squad has seen the lame walk and the blind see.
Because I was skeptical about the REAL and tangible power of God, when the Lord opened my eyes to witnessing healings and hearing about demons being casted out so frequently, I got super overwhelmed and compared it to being in a ‘magicland’ … take that as you will but its great to be like, “omg you will never believe what happened in magicland today"…. And then go on to tell about what God did here on Earth. (some people will take that the wrong way, but no, I do not compare Harry Potter and Jesus, I am well aware of fiction and reality.)
I can honestly say that my mind has been blown. Things that I used to make fun of… have become my reality. Example: when people pray in public for anything and everything, laying hands on people, hearing people pray in tongues, watching people be slain in the Spirit, and actually using the term “God told me this” or “God wants you to know ________” have become sentences that I use daily.
Although this may sound a bit weird to some of you reading this… that’s what I thought too, and occasionally I am surprised by the reality of it all. It’s crazy to think that just 6 months ago, I was a completely different person. I was filled with depression, anger, anxiety, lust, jealousy, and idolatry…. And now I walk in freedom. I desire the fruits of the Spirit (especially self-control) and people who want to help me become the best version of myself constantly surround me.
At home, I was on a downward spiraling path of self-destruction and unbelief. And the greatest miracle is that God woke me up, He chose me… and I chose Him back. My eyes see things differently; I am in tune with bringing the Kingdom of heaven to Earth.
And yea, life can suck. God does not promise us that all things will be easy. But at least now, I have Jesus walking with me and holding my hand through all the hard times. I used to claim that I was a Christian before the World Race, but now I know that I had barely scratched the surface of what it means to be a Christian. I had no idea what it meant to have a real relationship with God… Because now that I do know what it means, I look back and roll my eyes at how ignorant I was.
God used the World Race to turn my life around and I am forever grateful for this experience, so thank you to all of my supporters and for every word of encouragement. I am officially half-way through the race and I would love to finish strong, if it’s what the Lord wants so please consider supporting me, praying for me, and encouraging me.
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Watkins on 2/13/2012
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS Emily: Kigali, Rwanda
Currency: Franc’s |$1 USD = about 600 RWF
Weather: High of 80 | Low of 55
Sunburn from Zanzibar = still peeling…
Good news: my lice is gone…. Bad news: people on my team still have it from India! Yuckky
WHAT IS GOD DOING HERE? In Rwanda’s history there has been a series of massacres leading up to 1994 (only 18 years ago) to a genocide killing millions of people. We got the privilege of visiting the genocide museum where we read memoirs, saw pictures, watched videos, and saw artifacts of those who were massacred in the civil war. To think that everyone we meet over the age of 18 years old probably has some sort of memory from the war is heartbreaking.
One day in ministry, I had the honor to meet a woman who shared her story about how 4 out of 5 of her children were murdered during the war. Then we met with her only daughter alive who is now 20 years old. The pain of this war is fresh and brings tears to everyone’s eyes when remembered. But it is amazing… these people are SO JOYFUL. Entering into Rwanda, there certainly is a “joyful noise.” People attend church many times a week, some every night, to bring praise and worship of thanksgiving to God. They have found hope, joy, and comfort in the only One who can truly give it. Despite all their pain, they are so thankful and loving. God is here. His presence is felt.
UPDATE ON ME: I’m on a new team! Entering into Rwanda I had 2 new members added to my team, who are amazing women of God! Stay tuned for my blog on my teammates and our team name!
Finances: I am currently at $10,100 and need to be at $14,800 by March 1st 2012. This means that I am still in need of about $4700 by March 1st in order to stay on the race with my team and squad.
Please pray with me and my teammates that the necessary money will come in so that we can stay out here on the Race.
If you, or any one you know would like to give a financial donation, please follow this dynapay link (www.adventures.org/dynapay/) and fill out as followed, indicating in the “individual to support” box my full name “Emily Watkins”.
Thank you so much for all your continual prayers, encouragement, and support. I absolutely adore hearing from you, so please feel free to send a message at any time :)
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Watkins on 1/25/2012
Tanzania is an amazing country; the people and the scenery are absolutely beautiful! The people that attend the church that we minister at this month are prime examples of Christian men and women and I am just going to brag about them for a little bit.
To start off our month our contact/preacher was only here for 1 day before he left for a village ministry that he already had planned, so we were left in the hands of the members of the church. We have become very familiar with Tanzanian hospitality and it is incredible, the women are always bringing us food and the men are always asking us if we are in need of anything. We have been very lucky to be so spoiled this month and blessed by every single member of the church.
Oh and they can cook rice and beans (which we all know is my favorite) like nobody’s business, I may never look at a bowl of rice and beans the same way… lol but maybe it’s just because they are made with such love.
The women in every country so far have been completely different, but always the same in their smiles, their hugs, and their laughter. The women of Mzimbu (mah-zim-boo) have the best senses of humor, even through the language barrier. One day while Ruth and I were walking to the church, it had rained and left the ground super muddy, and there are these three ditches that we have to jump over to get there… anyways, Ruth jumped over one and I was too scared to fall into the muddy ditch to jump over and so Ruth held out her hand and obviously that made me brave. So I took off jumping and of course I barely moved because I was sunk in the mud by the time I got brave and I landed right in the ditch. Bringing Ruth with me because the mud that she was standing in was not any less slippery than the mud that I jumped from… So there we were on our way to church and covered in mud… it was hilarious!
But here is when the sweetest little lady comes in, we cannot understand what she is saying but she is obviously pointing at us and buckled over laughing, barely able to catch her breath… saying something along the lines of “oh those white girls, hahahaha, oh well that’s Tanzania for you, hahahahaha…” we are all covered in mud and getting laughed at but we both couldn’t help but laugh at ourselves and each other, which made life much more enjoyable. Then the woman finally caught her breath and came over to me and pulled me down into the creek and started washing everything… she washed my hands, arms, feet, shoes, shirt…. All with her bare hands, worrying more for me and the mud then herself and her clothes… It was a humbling experience that I am forever grateful for.
The main point of the story is that each of the women in the church have the greatest way of showing love and hospitality and being super cheerful while doing everything…. I want to be like them, they have shown and outdone Proverbs 31 and I cannot wait to use some of the skills they taught me this month when I am a good little wifey :]
more to come soon! miss yall and love yall all dearly!
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Watkins on 12/12/2011
I asked you to break my heart for what breaks yours… but I didn’t really want it to be like this. I didn’t want it to be hands on. I usually just get email updates about children who are ignored/hurting/trafficked/etc. and I can pray for them accordingly. I didn’t know you were going to put me right in the middle of it all. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into… the quote “be careful what you wish for” keeps coming into my mind, and I obviously didn’t wish for children so covered in lice you couldn’t see their actual hair… I didn’t ask to walk into a place where a baby had been laying in a puddle of her own pee for hours because her caretaker can’t grasp the importance of changing her diaper… I dunno what I was thinking when I asked you to break my heart for what breaks yours… God I am on my knees begging for you to show me the goodness that you have in all of this. I am pleading with you to show me why these children must suffer while I can return to my healthy little American bubble any minute I choose. I really am sick at my stomach when I think about how poorly these children have been treated because they have special needs. They are orphaned because the Indian culture thinks they are curses from something they did in their previous life and they are basically left for dead… Where is the goodness in that? I know that the orphanage I am working at is a major blessing compared to the government housing but I still need help understanding your plan and since you are such a faithful God I want to see your promises and miracles in my presence.
In mark 10 Jesus says that he watched the desciples rebuke the children and he stopped them saying let the little children come to me, because of such is the Kingdom of God, and anyone who does not receive it as a little child will not enter it… and then he layed hands on the children and blessed them.
This is where we find the goodness… I know that you have never left these children for 1 second and that you sent me, and the rest of the World Racer’s, here to love on people who have never been loved… But God it is so hard. I am so heart broken over these babies… I love you and I keep asking you to pull the film from my eyes so that I may see these children with your eyes and with a supernatural love. I see these babies with you inside them and I cannot help but just grab them up and kiss them and sing to them and love them and I know that they inherit YOUR KINGDOM because they are the blessed little children that Jesus died for. So Father I do thank you for breaking my heart for what breaks yours and I thank you for the responsibility that you have given me to love. I thank you for teaching me how to love unconditionally. I thank you for showing me how to have a heart like Jesus’ and I just ask that you continue to grow it. And even though I know what it looks and feels like to be supernaturally loved, I cannot always carry it out because of the desires and fears of my flesh. So God please carry my heart this month as I bless these children in your son’s name.
We desire miracles this month, we expect miracles this month, we pray Lord that this orphanage becomes a place where your spirit dwells, we pray that people from every nation will support this orphanage financially and that people from every nation will come to volunteer and love on a baby that has never known love.
I dunno if I am gonna make these kids have the best Christmas ever, or if they will be blessing me with my best Christmas ever.. either way I am so blessed to be exactly where God wants me.
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