“Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go.”

“Evri ples we mi go, mi no save fraet, Jisas I stap lidim mi ottaem nomo.”

(In bislama)

“Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go.”

Our first full day here we got the chance to go to a few local churches and experience their services and share a meal with them. It was such a sweet time of fellowship and cultural exchange. During the service my heart felt so full so I decided to write it down into a prayer:

            As crickets buzz outside and the children move restlessly in the pews, I search my heart and find gladness. Miles and miles I’ve traveled to find myself here, surrounded by strangers who feel like friends. I know not the cries of their hearts or the struggles in which they’ve trudged, nor the language in which they speak or the sermons that they preach. But I know them by the common thread which is stringing our hearts into family, drenched in the blood our Savior gave to save, “child of weakness watch and pray, find in me thine all in all.” All I give to find all in You. Give me the strength to stretch beyond this skin, to know these people beyond their names. Give me the gumption to climb down into the depths of their beings, all the way learning the pattern of their lives and the rhythm to which their hearts beat. We are all vessels, once filled with this or that, being emptied and filled with You. I long to know their ‘this or that’ and walk with them as they leave it behind, to pray with, to hope with, to laugh with. Let none of us give you shallow souls, let none of us give each other shallow hearts but to live in this, eyes open, hands stretched, open to this all.

After reading over this today, I realized that this is my prayer not only for this week in Vanuatu but for the rest of our time in Fiji. The Lord has beautifully brought us all together, from 10 different counties, to seek Him and it would be such a waste not leaving here with 26 more family members.  I can see each one of my teammates running strongly towards Jesus. It’s so wonderful to think that we all came here with different baggage, from different backgrounds, with different stories, but all with the same purpose of center our lives around our King. Christ is our common denominator.

Today, we celebrated America’s birthday in Vanuatu, which in and of itself is pretty remarkable.  We went to training this morning and came back and some of us were able to bask in the sleepiness of the rainy day. At about 6:30 we got the pleasure of watching Langdon on “Deal or No Deal” where he won a large sum of dollars. He’ll be shouting dinner tomorrow. We enjoyed a wonderful meal together and gave thanks for the fellowship we have had the blessing to share this past week with the group of Aussies from Fig Tree church in Australia. They have been SUCH a blessing to all of us as we have watched them passionately chase after and serve their King. We ended the evening with a bang, lighting fireworks to celebrate America’s birthday. We, of course, were asked to stop. Classic Americans. I’m so thankful for the bed in which I sit and the murmurs which are warming my ears. I miss my family but my Father is wrapping me in His faithful arms and there is no place I would rather be.  Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go.

- Olivia Kimmel