Merry Christmas! I hope that 2019 has been a fruitful year for everyone and you’re excited for what 2020 will bring! Recently, I announced that I will be moving to Georgia and attending a program called CGA – the Center for Global Action. This is a 5-month discipleship training school run by Adventures in Missions, who I partnered with on my 11-month trip last year. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you why I’m moving to Georgia and what I hope to learn through this experience.
In August 2017, I was accepted to a program called The World Race. This began a year of planning, preparing, fundraising and trusting God to provide anything I couldn’t fit into a backpack. In one year, I would be leaving and traveling to 11 countries and four continents, unaware of just how much God would transform my mind and my heart. With each encounter He placed in front of me came a deeper understanding of who God is and what He desires for each of us. Through the last year, I got a little taste of living with a kingdom mindset and I knew this was just the tip of the iceberg. Coming home 11 months later, my backpack was significantly lighter, but I was returning with so much more than what I left with.
I came back with a toolbelt full of new tools and was looking for a way to best use each of the tools for their kingdom purpose. That’s when I knew the Lord was leading me to CGA.
CGA is a 5-month discipleship program that will begin mid-January and finish the end of May. Some of the classroom topics we will cover are knowledge of God, spiritual gifts, knowledge of self, discipleship, leadership, communication and other Kingdom skills. Monday’s we will have a full day of class and Tuesday through Friday will have class in the mornings. I will be able to work part time because we have most afternoons and weekends off. This will be a great opportunity to get to know people in the community and to pour into coworkers and customers! I will be set up with housing through hosts and live in community with their families and other CGA participants.
KNOW YOURSELF, LEAD YOURSELF, LEAD OTHERS.
This is one of CGA’s core values. CGA will guide me through these three steps by discipleship and inner transformation to empower my ability to lead others. Through CGA, I hope to continue going deeper in my relationship with the Lord, learn how to apply all that I experienced into a daily lifestyle, tear down old habits, and then how to repour everything that’s been poured into me, into more people. I believe that is how we can revive the people around us and share the love from our Father. I believe that these five months spent at CGA will help build upon the foundation created from The World Race. It’s an opportunity for me to be discipled and an investment for future ministries. In May, I hope to have a better understanding of how to apply my giftings and where God wants me to use them to bring kingdom and share more of Him.
This time will be challenging, but I’m willing to step into the unknown to see God work through our instructors, each participant in the program and to see the fruit produced at the end of the program.
I would like to invite you to make my journey, your journey! Here’s how:
– Support me through PRAYER. This is the first and most important way you can partner with me.
– Secondly, if you feel it on your heart, support me financially to cover the costs for the program. These funds are used for my housing, the program material and instructors. If you donated to me before, the process is the same! Just click the orange “Donate!” button in the top right-hand corner or contact me personally.
– Lastly, subscribe and share. This will help to make sure you receive notifications when I post new blogs about CGA and what God is doing around me. Then feel free to share those updates with the people you know! Click the orange “Subscribe for Updates” in the top left-hand corner.
I’m still overwhelmed with the endless encouragement, interests and empowerment given to me to continue this call to building the Kingdom.
– Shelby
