I find it hard to believe that we are fast approaching the end of 2017.
It seems like yesterday I was standing on the sidewalk of a packed main street of our quaint little downtown at midnight. My dad and I had slipped out of the building where we were having worship overnight, from 2016 to 2017, to see what they would do at midnight.
The big tradition is to drop a large ball in the street. It’s quite lame. Nonetheless, the crowd around us seemed very, very excited, and strangely hedonistic.
At exactly midnight, the ball dropped, everybody screamed, and fireworks fired off.
Turns out, there was a bit of an accident regarding these fireworks. Next thing I know, there’s a bright green coal that drops on my foot from up above. It’s followed by a flaming coal near my head.
At this point, my dad and I ran out of the area, followed by most of the sidewalk.
This is how 2017, an amazing year packed with many, many burning testimonies, started off in our lives.
At the beginning of the year, our Brazilian friends Germano and Dani and their toddler daughter were living with us here in Georgia. We were all doing worship and ministry around the area. It was truly an amazing season, and one in which we met many new friends and fellow ministers of the Gospel.
We got to meet the Weeks family, who are behind the Jasper Georgia Prayer Meeting, and everyone who goes there every Thursday night, like the Williford family. They all have become so dear to us since we met them a bit over a year ago.
Three weeks and two days after our little incident at the beginning of the year (eleven months and a day ago, in fact), we set out from our house at four o’clock in the morning toward the airport. This was the start of our itinerant ministry.
For the next ten weeks in Nicaragua, we had many amazing mountains and some sad valleys.
People were saved, they experienced His Presence, and they were delivered of bondage. Drug addicts were delivered; gang members were saved; divine connections were made all around the country of Nicaragua; and so many relationships were built, strengthened, and developed. And we were definitely strengthened in our own faith!
On the other hand, attacks at our health occurred quite frequently (and we’re overall healthy people), consisting of travelers’ diarrhea, fevers, colds, and strange tropical viruses like dengue (which my mom had) and chikungunya (which I had). And of course, we were sad to say goodbye to Dani and Germano at the third week.
But the setbacks were so worth it when the amazing harvest over three months is taken into account!
We went from there back to Georgia come the beginning of April, where I did a lot of worship ministry and we were reunited with great friends that we hadn’t seen in three months.
So many more people were touched there, but our main setback was my mom’s battle with Lyme disease. She was having so many brutal symptoms that she was laid up in bed for the majority of our time in Georgia. She was given antibiotics, but, as usual, the symptoms were awful as Lyme died off.
The Lord also gave us a divine plan – we have so much stuff from my grandparents that we don’t use for anything in our basement, and we have a somewhat limited budget… So my dad began to sell stuff on eBay here.
Somewhere in the middle of this demonic Lyme onslaught, the Lord told us to go to our place in South Dakota – Lyme or no Lyme. So we packed up, my mom still bedridden most of the time, in obedience to His call.
We set out on June 1st, to be exact, and arrived to a beautiful South Dakota in early summer. We enjoyed the landscape, and meeting wonderful like-minded people. We got to do ministry among the Native Americans, and my mom slowly recuperated, though for the first part of our time there, she remained bedridden.
The Lord began to work on all of us that we should go to Alaska. The Lord had spoken that to my dad as early as January, but it obviously wasn’t a direction meant for then, so there was no urgency related to that leading for right then.
But then the Lord told us all it was time, so on July 10th, we set off toward Alaska. We passed through gorgeous scenery most of the way up there, and when we arrived, we experienced so many gorgeous things.
We met so many precious people from all over the States and the world. Of course, there were setbacks there, too, but the amazing miracles far outweighed the setbacks.
People were delivered, friends were made, and people were saved and touched everywhere.
We left Alaska on August 13th after an amazing time there.
On the way back, we found some amazing ministry in British Columbia with a dear sister on a First Nations reserve (Native American reservation) there. After our time in British Columbia, we continued down to South Dakota, where we made it just in time for the eclipse.
In South Dakota, we had the privilege of doing a lot of deliverance ministry, as well as worship. We met new people, and, as usual, strengthened previous relationships. We tried our hand at a hospitality network, and I published a lot of fuego on my blog, if I remember right.
Then, in late October, we headed back down to Georgia.
In Georgia, which is where we currently are, we have experienced many great and mighty things. Once again, there’s been a lot of worship, and a lot of meeting new people and re-meeting old friends. But there have been a ton of attacks, particularly health-related.
For review, the doctors say I have mono, they think I might have Lyme, they say I had a sinus infection and that I was dehydrated, and they maintain that I’m having occasional SVT from all these things. I maintain that I am healed by the blood of the Lamb. 😉 My dad’s blood sugar has been dangerously high, among other things, and my mom hasn’t been feeling too swift, either.
This section of my post continues even to when I write this post, so, naturally, it will be the last section.
Overall, this has been an amazingly fast, exceedingly power-packed, and very, very interesting year. And I daresay it was a milestone in our lives, being the first year (of many, I hope!) we’ve done itinerant ministry this way.
Thank you all so much for your prayers through this year, and we look forward to another year packed with ministry and miracles.
We love you all,
The Lovetts
Elle's Everyday 
That’s a nice hammock you got there. 😉
Here’s to another year of craziness (though hopefully less of the sickness kind, and more of the awesome kind)!
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Why, thank you – I enjoy it quite a lot 🙂
A year of signs, miracles, and wonders – and awesomeness!
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