Week 1-The Challenge Begins.

                                                                                                                               

I left London at 8pm on Monday 25th March and arrived in Fiji on Wednesday at 8am, it took me 24 hours to get here and I am 12 hours ahead of the UK. 

The base leader and a staff member came to pick me up from the airport in Nadi. The base is about 30 minutes  drive or so from the airport. The base is in the middle of a village and is approximately 1 hour walk from town. 

Reality Check!

On my first night in Fiji, I was sleeping and at around 9pm I was spiritually attacked. My body became paralysed. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t do anything; I felt a tingly sensation in my body. I tried to reach out and get the closest thing to me so that I could alert someone but my hands wouldn’t even allow me to do that. Finally I was able to find the strength to scream out loud and one of the staff members came in and prayed with me. (This reminded me of how important it is that we surround ourselves with godly people. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 speaks about how two are better than one because if one falls, the other will lift up the other. But woe to the person who falls and has no one to help them up!)

It’s funny because a couple of days prior to this happening to me, the thought of me being paralysed crossed my mind.  Whilst all this was happening I questioned whether I was having a stroke and whether I would be paralysed for the rest of my life. It was a terrifying experience at the time but God is faithful as stated in 1 Corinthians 10:13, He will NEVER put more on us than we can bear. It was also a wake up call for me as it reminded me that there is a spiritual warfare going on and I need to stay alert at all times. I’ve experienced visions of things happening before they happen, and have realized that  some of the ways God speaks to me and warns me about things to come are through visions and dreams.

New Surroundings! 

Did I mention I’m surrounded by dogs, cats, birds, insects and most challenging of all, frogs!!! Now I’m not talking about one or two frogs, no I talking 100’s of frogs at night. I feel so overwhelmed and alarmed to the point where if I need to go to the loo in the middle of the night I need to ask someone to escort me. I’m being so serious! This is one of the ways God is molding and changing me. I know that He is trying to change my mindset it’s just soooo hard! 

By Friday I felt like I was ready to pack up all my things and go back to London. This is a completely different world for me. Everything is so different. Water for example I can’t drink the tap water yet and I haven’t been able to go to the city either to buy some bottled water.  One of the staff member’s family have come for the Easter weekend, they brought food and drink, they brought a bottle of coke, Hallelujah I don’t even like coke but I refuse to complain. ‘Thank You Jesus” was my initial reaction because “to a hungry man, every bitter thing is sweet”. With regards to the food…hmmm my taste buds have not quite adapted yet.

Convictions & Revelations!

There's poor internet connection here and normally when I withdraw from my phone it's because I have made the decision to do so, for example when I’m fasting. But now it's completely out of my control and I feel so isolated and alone.  God spoke to me the about how I have been feeling, well He kind of put me in my place actually. He led me to Psalm 23:1 which says "the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need". He said that if I love Him like I say I do then He should be more than enough for me, I shouldn't need to speak to others in order to be content.  This is one of the things I'm working on at the moment. 

It would be wrong to assume that because I have been sent by God to go to the other side of the world that I’m on a spiritual high because I’m not. Honestly speaking I feel drained, I feel far and distant from God and that’s my fault. I feel like I am being challenged and stretched on another level and feel like I can't handle it. It all feels like too much. Hopefully next week will be better. 

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and thank you for your support. 

My email address is: josieagyeman@gmail.com, I would love to hear from you. 

Miss Josie Jo 

Xxx