Anna Faith Fuller: Hello, this is Anna Faith, and welcome to episode 42 of Faith Talks. Well, as Janice shared in our last Faith Talks episode, I am currently in Fiji on a missions trip. And I’ve definitely been so happy to be here. God has been so good in the past five weeks now that we have been here. I am here with Charity Schultz, who’s a friend from our church. She’s also Janice’s sister-in-law. And we just wanted to take this episode and kind of diverge from our theme and share. a little bit of what God has allowed us to partake in here. Obviously, our time isn’t up. We still have, I think, another five weeks here. So we’re in the middle of preparing for a lot of things. And so it’s kind of hard to share in the middle of things, but we’re definitely just glad to be used of God here and share what lessons we’ve been learning so far. And so we just wanted to focus here on what God’s been teaching us. So since you hear my voice so much, I’m going to ask Charity questions, let her share, and she recently graduated this past year from high school, so we are especially excited to hear for some of you listeners who are around Charity’s age to hear from a girl who is your age and is out on the mission field. And also just a little disclaimer are here. We are not in the most soundproof room currently, so if you hear random dog barks or rat races or any of that type of stuff, just know that we are in Fiji, so anything is possible. Well, Charity, thanks so much for being willing to share what God’s doing in your heart, and we’re glad to hear from you today. So we’re just going to begin by having you tell us a little bit about Fiji, just what it’s like, how it’s different from home, and maybe how you’ve adjusted or feel like you haven’t adjusted, just any of those type of things. Well, I’ve really enjoyed

Charity Shoultz: Fiji. I’ve been to a couple different countries, but this is the longest time I’ve spent in one country. And I feel like overall, I’ve adapted pretty well. The weather is, it was pretty hot when we first got here and it rains almost every day. I think it’s the rainy season technically right now. The last couple days it’s been cooler. Well, it’s kind of funny because it’s cooler, but it’s still like 80 degrees and you’re wearing a jacket and you’re like, it’s cold outside. And then you look at the temperature and it’s 80 degrees and that’s kind of confusing, but I guess we have adapted. We’ve adapted some, but yeah, that weather’s actually better than I thought it was going to be. I thought it would be too hot, but it hasn’t been terrible. The food is really good. There’s only been one thing I think that I’ve eaten that I didn’t like, but they’ve made all sorts of Fijian dishes for us. And the family that we’re staying with, they cook really well. We’re definitely not hungry. I actually got to try a fish head. So they asked me if there’s any random Fijian food I wanted. They’re trying to get us to eat all this stuff. So then one night, They’re like, we have a fish head and you need to eat it. And they were actually joking, but I was like, no, I want to do it. So they taught me how to suck out the fish eyeballs and suck out the fish brain so don’t get too grossed out. It actually wasn’t that gross. It was just a little salty.

Anna Faith Fuller: Not that bad. Don’t worry. I actually didn’t try it because, you know, I’m a salmon and tuna seafood person.

Charity Shoultz: She was actually getting more grossed out at me eating it than I was at eating it. It kind of sounded nasty. but yeah that was cool now I can say I ate a fish head it’s mainly their food like we have rice with every meal and then it’s some kind of topping to go on the rice we’ve been here five weeks by now so definitely I feel like it’s a second home for us um the pastor’s family is awesome they’ve treated us so well like I don’t really feel like I’m on the mission field they’re spoiling us every day They just try to make sure we’re comfortable and everything. So, yeah, it’s not hard.

Anna Faith Fuller: Yeah. We’re definitely living it up over here. So we really feel bad for all of you that are sitting in your homes. You’re really missing out. Yeah.

Charity Shoultz: Another weird thing about Fiji is that you drive on the opposite side of the road. So the first couple of weeks, you feel like a car is going to hit you because you’re like, no, we’re on the wrong side of the road. I feel like by now I’m pretty well adjusted. Like the other day, I saw a car in a video driving on the other side, and I was like, wait, they’re driving on the wrong side of the road. So I think we’ve adjusted. At least we’re driving in the car as a passenger. I’ve adjusted for now.

Anna Faith Fuller: If you’re the driver of the car, that’s a little bit different story. So I actually did try it the other day, and it was really interesting. Nothing bad happened, but I think the passengers might have been a little nervous as I was, you know, hitting the windshield wipers instead of the blinker because everything’s up and driving on the wrong side of the road. Yeah, in a neighborhood road where there weren’t any lines, I kind of got confused for a second. But it was very, it was later at night, so there wasn’t much traffic at all. But that was an adventure. So we’ve definitely had some exciting moments. Another thing that I wanted to share about Fiji and just this specific trip is that most of the time both of us have traveled with a team or last year I traveled with my family. So with a bigger group of people. But this trip has been really unique because it’s just Charity and I so far. And we have another friend, Abby Royalty, who’s going to be joining us in a week and a half. But just being two girls, two single girls on the mission field, and we’re both pretty young, it’s definitely a different experience than traveling with a big team and, you know, a pastor leader or something like that. So that’s been really, that’s probably been the most different thing to me about this specific trip. But it’s been such a fun time and being with the pastor’s family has just been so fun every day, just spending time with them. So that’s been an exciting thing. All right, Charity, tell us a couple Fijian words so we can learn something here today.

Charity Shoultz: So the main word they say, like their hello or good morning, whatever, is bula. And I feel like it defines like Fiji, the word bula. I love the word. So that’s what they say if you pass them in the street or anybody, they’ll say bula. Another word for yes, they all say io, io. So anything io. Or also, if you’re surprised or have to get somebody’s attention, you say oi. And all of them oi. So I like those words. Chilo is when you have to say excuse me all the time. And they repeat it a couple times. They don’t just say chilo. It’s like chilo, chilo, chilo. Mai means come and also move means goodbye.

Anna Faith Fuller: Nice. All right. Hope you wrote those down because we’re going to quiz you at the end of this podcast. All right. Maybe tell us a little bit about just what your everyday looks like, what ministry opportunities that we have here.

Charity Shoultz: The main ministry opportunity for this trip is we’re helping with their fine arts program at their school. So they have a Christian school with maybe 150 kids in it. And at the end of like a 10-week term, they perform a bunch of music and do sports competitions, a bunch of different things. So we’re helping with the music side and we teach different groups, small groups or big choirs, a lot of vocal. So we’re actually teaching over 50 songs every week. And that’s been crazy to figure all out in the schedule. but it’s also been mind-blowing for us to realize they do this every year. And it’s so much. It’s so cool to see all the kids learning all those songs. And the Fijians have awesome voices. I especially love hearing the little kids sing. We’ve taught them some short little Proverbs songs, and they love them. And we’ll sing them, like, top volume. They’re really cute. We also teach elementary chapel every day. And that’s been a really, really special opportunity. A lot of those kids, maybe 50% of them aren’t saved. And some of them are Hindu or Seventh-day Adventists. And Muslim is the other one. So we’re sharing the gospel every day. And sometimes it doesn’t look like they’re listening, but just praying that God will work in their hearts, even when they don’t appear to be listening a ton to what we’re saying. And we definitely have already sensed conviction, some of those little hearts. So they’re so cute, but they do a good job listening. We also have been teaching the ladies Sunday school a couple of times and helped out with a kid Sunday school. And that’s been a blessing. It’s been a blessing for me just to be a part of the ladies Sunday school every week. But then we’ve had a couple opportunities to teach. We did a girl’s Bible study a couple weeks ago or maybe just last week. And hopefully we’ll do that a couple more times before we leave, just meeting with a couple of the high school aged girls in the church and just looking at the Bible with them for half hour to an hour. And that’s been good to be able to spend more time with them. They’re really sweet girls. I’ve enjoyed getting to know all of them. So our schedule, we get to school by seven in the morning. We teach all morning, all those different groups, trying to fit them in throughout the week. And busy. So we just try to do whatever we can to help. And then we get to come home and spend some time with the family. And then weekends also we spend time with the family and help out in church on

Anna Faith Fuller: Sunday. Nice. Yeah, it’s definitely a full schedule for us. But we’re so excited to just be busy helping and just like learning from them. It’s so fun to be. I think by now, like we’ve finally gotten to the point where we’re not just visitors, like we’re part of their church family and the kids and it’s just really fun to just be in a longer period of time with the people here. All right so the next question I’m actually going to answer first and then Charity’s going to go but just talking about how God opened the door for us to even be able to come here and just even leading us and all these things. So I guess going back to our whole PNG journey last year we had been hoping to get the visas and we’ve talked about that but in all that whatever happened our plans changed so many times and that was definitely frustrating for me and definitely learning a lot of lessons of just trusting God in those details that can be very frustrating at times but the Lord opened the door for us to be able to go to Fiji the last three weeks of that trip. And, um, it’s just so amazing how God worked that, that whole time out. Well, as we were in Fiji, um, I’m just, my dad and I had several conversations talking about the future, even for me specifically. And, um, we, dad mentioned, well, what if you came back here and helped in the school, helped music side of things, especially the fine arts, um, term here that we’re here for. And so I just started praying about it and just asking the Lord for wisdom and if this was his will for me to come back. And just had so many sweet times with the Lord and just trusting him for the future. And he definitely started to confirm that that is what he wanted me to do. Talk to my parents more and pastor. And the Lord just kept leading. And so my dad was talking and he said, I think it’d be helpful for you to have somebody with you. And I kind of wanted that too. So then I was just praying and asking some girls if that was something that they’re burdened about. Well, in November, we were supposed to go back to P&G. And lo and behold, we have more visa problems. And that trip was, I’ll let Charity Share more too about that. But I was so excited to go back. And I thought for sure it was God’s will that we should go back. And so when that didn’t happen, when we weren’t able to get our visas, that was just devastating to me. um and charity as well and um we as we were coming to fiji um just thinking about how god worked through all of that and brought us to this moment and we’re just so thankful i so after that i asked charity after the png thing didn’t work out if she would be willing to pray about coming with me to fiji instead um and i’ll let charity take up the story now from her side of things

Charity Shoultz: so for me it kind of goes all the way back to the end of my senior year I was finishing up and of course when you’re finishing up high school you’re thinking about what next steps you’ll take and I was planning on doing college I really really love school and I was excited to go excited to go to college and then throughout the summer it just seemed like college maybe wouldn’t be the right thing for me this year and that was really hard for me because I was excited about college and so because college didn’t work out for this year, I prayed at the beginning, maybe in September, that God would open up an opportunity for me to take an extended missions trip. But I didn’t want to go looking for it. I wanted to be totally God putting that together. But I had no idea where that would come from. So I told my parents I’m praying about this. And they said, Okay, yeah, that’s good. And we’ll pray with you about that. And then I actually kind of forgot about that. But I was going to go with the Gilmore’s to Papua New Guinea for a month in November. So I was preparing for that. Several friends gave me money for it, and I really felt like it was God’s will. I prayed about it. He gave me verses, and so then I actually drove over to the Gilmore’s house a couple days before we were supposed to leave. They still didn’t have their visas, but I had mine, and so I was pretty sure that God was going to give us the visas, and so I was there at their house preparing. Me and Anna Faith went out a couple times, prayed about it. We showed each other verses. We were pretty sure that this is what God was doing, and then we got closer and closer to the time we’re supposed to leave and there’s still no visas. And I just remember standing in their living room like an hour before we were going to drive to the airport talking about are we going to go? Are we not? And like so much confusion really. And finally we decided, you know, we don’t feel like this is the right thing. We can’t go because we don’t have the visas. We talked about going to different countries, but nothing really seemed to make sense. And so I just had to go back home after being at their house for a couple of days. And that was, that was a really hard thing for me because I felt like God had given me these promises and he’d given money. And that, you know, I felt like that showed that he was in this. And then I just went home and I felt, I felt defeated. And I also felt like I had put God’s name down because I felt like he was the one that did this. And then I just gave up and went home. And that was really hard for me. It took a couple of days to pray. And actually my brother really helped me through that. He asked me, Have you grown closer to God through this time? And I said, well, of course, he’s shown me things. And he told me that’s the whole point of anything. It’s not to go to Papua New Guinea, but to go closer to God. So that was really helpful for me. But I still wanted to go on a missions trip. So then Anna Faith asked me about Fiji. And I was like, wow, that’s super interesting. So I prayed about it. And then God just did things and put it totally in place for me to come. And Papua New Guinea. I ended up using for Fiji and just every way that God worked. Looking back now, it’s so perfect. I would have never thought that I could take this kind of mission trip right outside of high school, but I’m so grateful for the opportunity and it’s so special to see God’s

Anna Faith Fuller: hand in every step. Wow, that’s really neat. Yeah, it’s definitely been, I think even just as we’ve been here, we’ve realized more and more how much God was in just the whole thing, the whole, the PNG not happening. And just this whole last couple of weeks, we’ve just been so thankful and convicted again that we need to trust God and just trust him for the future, even when we don’t understand what’s happening. All right. Well, let’s, let’s kind of transition to our time here. Can you share some lessons, any lessons that you feel like God has really taught you these last five weeks on this trip so far?

Charity Shoultz: Well, I feel especially in coming here, one of our main things we’re doing is teaching a lot of different kids in different settings. And for me, I was excited about coming and I knew God so clearly led us here, but I felt of all things the most inadequate in teaching. I mean, I just graduated from high school. Like I don’t have any training in this or anything. And I felt super weak in that, especially I’m teaching high schoolers, like kids my age are older than me, music and different things. I’ve never really taught choir or anything like that. But just being thrown into that, I felt super weak. And I don’t like feeling weak or helpless or anything like that. But I felt that plenty on this trip, or even opportunities to teach in Sunday school to the ladies. It’s a great opportunity, but it makes me really scared. I hate being in front of people in any sort of way. So I’ve felt a lot of weakness there. But I think God has really showed me through that, that as you just walk step by step in the spirit, he always will yield fruit that glorifies him. And when you feel so weak, you don’t need to try to figure out what you need to do to make it better, but you just need to rely on that step by step. Because as long as you’re walking step by step in the spirit, everything you do will bring glory to him. And he’ll put the words in your mouth when you’re in front of high school words that scare you. He’ll enable you to say what you need to say. And I think I especially realized that when I was teaching the ladies Sunday school one week, and there were just times in the teaching where God would show me things in the passage that I hadn’t even realized before. And after that, one of the ladies came up and thanked me for one specific point and I was like I had never even realized that point until I was teaching and God just put it in my mouth and that was the one point that God used in her heart so just realizing that the spirit is with us every minute of every day and he wants us to walk with him all throughout the day and when we do it’s so amazing what he does through us even in our greatest

Anna Faith Fuller: weakness. I think I’ll also share here just some lessons that God’s been teaching me and kind of going along the theme of weakness. I’ve experienced some weakness that I wasn’t hoping for, but right after, I guess before the trip, I had just been, I don’t know, getting colds just again and again. And the job that I do with the baby, she gets sick a lot. So I think I just picked up things from her and so coming here I wasn’t the strongest physically and I had a cough and but I thought like I had just been got gotten over all the major symptoms so I was thinking okay it’s almost done and jump into the ministry here I’ll be in a warmer warmer place you know when it’s warm you never get sick right it’s only when it’s cold but I think I don’t know a couple days maybe a week into the trip I got like I don’t know just really sick again with like cold symptoms and sore throat and just super super restless and tired and started having tons of just like coughing and there’s a lot of drainage and all that and um so I actually was down the whole second week like just in bed the whole week and I really really struggled with that because I love being especially on the mission love like being in where the action is and in png i barely got sick and so i it just wasn’t something that i had really struggled with um and uh anyways that sickness after the second week i was getting back up you know slowly getting back into things and thinking okay my sickness is gone well like we started teaching obviously so much we’re teaching you know 20 groups a day it seems just so many groups just back to back and I was singing the songs because Charity was playing the piano piano and I don’t know just like the sickness didn’t go away I was so exhausted felt like headache and just a lot of drainage and coughing constantly and this kind of lasted for like two weeks after that three weeks I mean even now I still have a little bit um but it just like never went away and like a month of it and I had never experienced like a longer period of just feeling so weak and just physically like I can’t do things that I normally can do and that was so frustrating for me and God has just been really teaching me lessons that I didn’t think I needed to learn I thought I had already learned but just just casting my full dependence on him and I’ve just been so humbled by how inadequate I am, how weak I am without his power and his strength. And I just wanted to share a couple verses that have been a blessing to me just in this period of a specific trial of weakness. Hebrews 11, I was reading through and just, you know, of course, this is called the Hall of Faith with so many examples and stories of men and women of faith who took stands for the Lord. But the verse 34, obviously it’s going through all these things. Through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the lands of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, all these amazing things. And then the next thing, out of weakness were made strong. And as I was reading that, it was just like, God was like, that’s a big thing. Like, we all experience weakness every single day. I mean, in so many ways, we all could go on and on and on about how weak we feel. And I don’t know, just the Holy Spirit was like, I can do that. You need to believe me. You need to have faith and not just be pessimistic about how you’re feeling and all these things. You need to believe me and believe that in your weakness, you can be made strong by my strength. And that was just such a convicting little part of that verse there. Also, obviously, the famous verse on weakness, 2 Corinthians 12, 9, just knowing that God’s grace is sufficient. His strength is made perfect in weakness. And just that word, perfect in weakness, like, wow, in my, like, brokenness, in my nastiness, man, all of this sickness is never nice. And you feel like you’re a burden on other people. You feel like you’re just like draining the life out of yourself and others. But in that, his strength is going to be made perfect in your weakness. There’s been a phrase, I think it’s just been a theme of mine for this past year, from a poem, and I should have looked it up, but it comes to my mind all the time. And the phrase is, weakness is power when leaning hard on thee. And I know so many times when I’ve been so weak, that phrase, weakness is power when leaning hard on thee. And my prayer is, Lord, teach me how to lean harder on you so that I can have your power, your strength, and I can know that any strength coming out of me is only from God alone. And another verse, John 12, 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And even on this trip, being sick, you know, we have, obviously, we have two and a half months here. But it seems like a short time as the days pass quickly. And I’ll share this more when we talk about fears. But just being afraid that I’m missing what I’m supposed to be doing here. and God just has been convicting my heart about just dying dying to whatever I felt like I needed to do or I felt like was important for God to use me and just completely dying to all that and asking God Lord I’m dying I’m falling into the ground and I’m dying but I know that this death is going to bring forth fruit and so I’m just so thankful for the Lord teaching me so many of these lessons and I could go on and on about that but I’m just so humbled by him just graciously reminding me of scripture as I sit in in unbelief and doubtful thoughts and just his grace has been so so sufficient for me and I’m so thankful for this trial that he’s been teaching me things that I need to learn and I’m sure I’ll continue to learn in many other circumstances but it’s been just a great blessing his word and just going through this so all right next question in light of our theme for this year so I’m focusing on just fears and faith over fear are there any fears that you charity have experienced being over here in Fiji and what verses and truth has helped you

Charity Shoultz: overcome those fears? Well, there definitely are fears we’ve experienced and I’ve experienced while I’m here. I think one of the biggest fears I had preparing to come here and thinking about, you know, what is Fiji going to be like is just the unknown of going to a different country. Every country is different. And specifically for me, I was scared for relationships. Sometimes building relationships is kind of hard for me. I don’t like to talk a ton. and so I was kind of scared like obviously on the mission field that’s a key part is the relationship because you’re there to be with other people and so I was scared to be with a lot of people I didn’t know in a place I didn’t know and with only one other person I knew but a verse in Isaiah 49 I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me and that verse preparing to come here and then being here has been so helpful for me and I just want to say after being here for five weeks, I think the biggest blessing so far to me on this trip has been all the different relationships. The pastor’s family and pastor’s wife, we call her Auntie Chris, and then her kids, Lydia and Zachy, everybody in the family has been such a blessing to me. And then at the church, they’re all so friendly and welcoming. And I think it’s so neat to go to different countries and minister with believers. And there’s still the kindred of spirit because were all the body of Christ. And I think in any country I’ve been to, that’s been one of the biggest blessings for me is just to talk to other believers and worship with them. So I think that’s just been, that was one of my biggest fears and one of my biggest blessings. And it’s so neat to see how God can take your fears and do so much more with them than you think is ever possible.

Anna Faith Fuller: Yeah. I wanted to comment too about that. I remember when we were talking about going to, on a big trip last year going to P&G and my dad was like kids like you may be thinking about all these things what are you gonna pack when you know just think about the whole trip all the fears you may have what are we gonna you know eat what are we gonna where are we gonna sleep um what about all the rats and bugs and everything all these different things you can be thinking about but um my dad was saying the biggest thing you’re gonna take away and you’re gonna love and that’s gonna keep you going when you’re there are the relationships that you’re gonna build with the people there and um that is so true like everywhere that I’ve gone has just been so so special yeah and like you were saying charity that you can literally go all over the world and find like-minded kindred spirits that are close friends and yes we’ve been so blessed to be with the pastor’s family here and just spending so much time with them and I remember when we leaving we were telling charity you’re gonna love the the pastor’s family there auntie chris lydia’s aki and yeah she definitely has so it’s been a great blessing to be here and we are so thankful for their just opening their home welcome this in and we’re thankful to have a fudian family over here so i also wanted to share yes so for me the fear that i have experienced probably the most with the weakness and sickness was that I was missing something that I should be doing for the Lord. And I’m just so, it’s just been so good. Every time I’ve feared that, that God’s word has just been exactly what I needed. So many different verses, but just realizing it’s not of me. It’s not of me. It’s all of him. And whatever he’s doing here, he can use through my weakness. And that’s actually the pathway that he chooses so much so many times because he wants us to fully rely and depend on him so um maybe if there’s if you’re thinking in your own life and um you want to be used of god if you’re asking him if you’re seeking him you’re not going to miss it and that’s just been such a such a blessing and such a comforting thought in those times when i had to leave and not be teaching and when we just couldn’t keep going both of us have experienced moments of weakness even physically and those are hard moments but um just knowing that that you can trust god in those moments and that he he’s working it all together for good and if you want to be used of him he’s going to use you um and so we’re just uh we’ve been so blessed and just thankful for the lord teaching us so many lessons through the fears and I’m sure we could go through more but we’ll just stop there for now so let’s just wrap things up here are there any words of application or truths that you want to just focus on that you already shared and just leave that with the listeners

Charity Shoultz: well I think the main thing I’ve taken away just from this whole missions trip is that if you’re ready God will take you I mean we’re not anything special here we’re just to young girls halfway across the world without our families. Like, yeah, I miss my family, but God saw that I was willing to come and I feel so inadequate. I feel like I have nothing to give here, but he just needed a channel. And so it’s been a blessing for him to just work through me. I’m just here and he’s working through me. So for all of you out there listening, you know, if you feel, no, I could never do that or whatever like that. God has something for each of you that he wants you to do. And if you just let him know, you know, I’m willing, maybe there’s a mission trip coming up that you can go on or even just some way in your church that you can serve in a specific area. Just as long as you’re willing, God definitely has a specific mission for each of you. And it doesn’t matter if, you know, you say, well, I’m too young or I don’t have all of my life figured out yet. No, he’s not looking for a perfect person set up with everything they need. He just wants a vessel that he can work through and he’ll use you.

Anna Faith Fuller: That’s really good. Yes, missions and going overseas and wherever God wants you to go. It’s not just surrender and sacrifice. Yes, there are moments of hardship that maybe you don’t normally experience and things that are new, unknowns. So many of those things. Yes, those are reality. But I think the greater reality and the greater focus in our minds should be that we’re on mission for the Lord. And if we’re on mission for him, we are in the greatest place of blessing. The greatest privilege of our lives is to go. And I have been just so overwhelmed. Just like every trip that I’ve gone on has just been such a blessing in my life and probably some of the most special moments of my life. And like we were just thinking and talking like we are so spoiled here. Like it’s not hard. It’s so fun. And missions is that way. And yes, there’s hard things. Yes, there’s sacrifice. And we’ve heard so many stories of people that I’ve had to go through great trials on the mission field. But I think realizing that it’s such a privilege to be used to the Lord. And obviously, yes, it’s nothing of us, but just to be here has been such a great blessing and privilege. So we just wanted to share that with you and just say that being on mission for the Lord on the mission field is such a blessing. And if God’s leading you down that path, I would just like be so excited because it’s going to be so amazing. And you’re going to learn some great lessons, but just be so blessed by being with the Lord on mission for him in a place that may not be easy, but it’s going to be a place of great blessing. I wanted to share it. Charity just brought this to my mind, but the Lord can only use, the Lord has chosen, he can do whatever he wants, but he’s chosen to use us as the channel. And he needs mouthpieces that can be the channel of his word to this world. And that’s the means that he’s chosen to use. And Mark 1, 3 has been a blessing to me, talking about John the Baptist, that he was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And just realizing, I think I’ve shared this in past podcasts, but that we’re just simply here to be voices, mouthpieces for God to be used of him in whatever way he chooses. And yes, sometimes our voices feel pretty weak and feel pretty, we don’t even know how to put things together. But God has chosen to use us. And if you will just surrender your life to the Lord, say, God, I want to be used of you. I want to be your mouthpiece. I want to be a voice for you. Lord, show me where you want me to go. If it’s on the mission field, I want to go. And God wants to use you. And we’ve kind of focused a little bit on some of the lessons we’ve learned. We’ve felt so weak at many times. But in that weakness, we’ve been made strong by God and his strength and his power and his grace in our lives. And we just encourage you in whatever weakness you may feel, in whatever fears you may think you have, God is going to be made strong through your life and people are going to see him in you. And that is the greatest. That’s what God created us to be, to be used of him in that way, to glorify him in our lives, but for people to see him through us. So we just encourage you in whatever way God’s working in your life by hearing these these last couple of minutes, this podcast, we just encourage you to get before the Lord, surrender, whatever it is to him and just say, Lord, I want to, if you want me to go, I want to go. And if I go, I know it’s going to be the greatest privilege, the greatest blessing of my life. And if it’s weak, if I’m weak, Lord, you’re going to be made strong. And I’m thanking you for that. So we’re just so thankful for the opportunity that the Lord has opened up for us to be here. and we’re excited about the next five weeks. Please pray for us that the Lord would just continue to give us the strength and continue to teach us whatever He would see fit that we need to learn in our lives and just pray for much fruit from the rest of these weeks here in Fiji. And just remember as you go about your days, faith doesn’t just talk, faith walks.

Charity Shoultz: Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Degeneration Podcast. If you’re serious about living a life of total surrender and total dependence, please consider signing the Thee Generation Pledge. It’s not a promise of perfection, but a declaration of direction. To join hundreds of others who have signed the commitment, please visit thegeneration.org slash pledge. That’s T-H-E-E generation.org slash pledge.