HI EVERYONE!!! My name is Ellie Zeller, I’m just your average grocery store clerk from Colorado, and I could not be more excited to take this journey. SOOO a little bit about me– My faith journey started about two years ago when I went on my first mission trip to Honduras. Before then, I knew of God, but I did not KNOW God. Upon returning from my week long trip in Honduras, I became very curious about the Christian faith and I spent the next year dipping my toes in the water. However, Jesus radically changed my heart in March of 2019 when I was in the depths of Thailand. There I was baptized and opened my heart to the calling that Jesus put on my heart for missions. After these two life changing weeks in Thailand and Burma, I began going to church and building my relationship with Christ. Which leads us to now, where I sit here in my bed, on the last monday night of my high school career, writing a blog that begins a series of adventures that I cannot possibly fathom until I document each one of them right here on this website.
We are in scary and unprecedented times right now. I mean, I’m experiencing my last week of high school through a computer screen in my bed, all thanks to our dear friend COVID-19. Of course this situation brings up many momentary doubts for me about the race, but part of the reason i’m writing this blog post so late is because I wanted to be sure I had spent enough time praying over this situation before I took this big step. So that leads me to what I am going to be talking about today, the Lord’s deliverance. Upon receiving email after email about COVID-19 updates and possible cancellations, I found myself in a distraught place. About a week ago, I drove into the mountains by myself, found a serene area, and dropped onto my knees before the Lord. I was angry. I found myself looking to the world around me and witnessing so much pain, fear, angst, and confusion, then once again looking into my own heart and finding the same things. So there I was, on my knees, begging the Lord for answers or clarity of some sort. All I could hear over and over again was “Jeremiah”, and for those of you who know me, you know that the old testament and I got off on the wrong foot as some may say, so this was truly not of my own doing. I said “alright Lord, let’s see what Jeremiah has to offer me right now”, and OH BOY did Jeremiah have a lot to offer. For the next 2 hours I had my eyes glued to this book. Jeremiah is packed full of verses about the Lord delivering the Isrealites from sickness to health, from chaos to peace, from mourning to dancing!! That’s when it hit me. As a global unit right now, we are the Israelites, and just as God did in Jeremiah, He WILL deliver us through this. The Lord restored the land of Israel to better conditions than it had been before. His hand guided them. This is what the Lord wanted to assure me of– He is a deliverer. Now, yes this moment was specifically regarding the crisis that all nations are facing right now, coronavirus, but it got me thinking on how consistent our God is. So bear with me, God delivered the Israelites, God will deliver us through this pandemic, and therefore God will deliver us through all valleys we may fall into. This was not only the confidence I needed for my worries about whether or not the race is going to happen, but this is the confidence I need to carry with me through the 9-month journey that I am blindly embarking on rather soon. By this I mean, any struggles me or my team may face– He will deliver us through them. These 9-months of devoting our lives to Christ, without a doubt, He will deliver us through every moment. And for that, I could not be more grateful and excited to begin this journey.
Honestly, I’m pretty sure that this was not at all what I was supposed to write about for my first post, but I just really felt that I should share my heart with you guys right off the bat, and well here we are. Also, if you’re reading this, thank you, I love you. Giving me a whole blog to myself is probably a dangerous idea, I just really don’t even know how to act right now. Like should I give some fun facts for the fans?? Here’s a few: I could eat taco bell until the day I die, my favorite books in the Bible are Ecclesiates and John but some honorable mentions are Isaiah and Hebrews, I’m a HUGE dog enthusiast, I LOVE the grinch (weirdo, i know), and I think Moana is the most superior Disney movie to ever exist. Anywho, I should probably wrap this up, but I just wanted to share how wonderfully excited I am for 9-months of discipleship, it gives my heart little butterflies :))
I’m gonna leave you this– Jeremiah 33:6-7 “Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before.”
stay groovy, ciao,
Ellie Zeller xoxo
