Q & A: Sarah Yardley
Missionary Shares about Creation Fest, Adventure, Singleness, and God in it All
By Sarah Komisky
Miss Yardley is an explorer. Embarking on adventures in missions, publishing and distribution, teaching, counseling, and hospitality, Yardley is now adding Creation Fest Coordinator to the list. Thrilled to be apart of the 14th annual British Christian Music Festival and Bible Week held August 1-7th at the Royal Cornwall Events Centre (Royal Cornwall Showground), Yardley is also enjoying life as a single woman. This is her story.
Share a little bit about your testimony coming to Christ?
I grew up in a home where Jesus was known and loved. My earliest memories are of going to church with my family and the adventures of serving in ministry with them. When I was 9, I had my first intellectual crisis of faith, and my dad lovingly spoke truth into my life. When I was 16, I experienced my first real personal, sacrificial commitment to Christ. When I was 25, I fell in love with Jesus. I love Him more and more each day.
Define what it means to walk in purity?
I believe that the more we love Jesus, the more we desire to walk in purity. His love awakens our hearts to want to have a greater holiness and guard in our physical, emotional, and spiritual lives.
How do you do this as a single woman?
Personally, I have found that the best things I can do is keep every thought captive to Christ. Would Jesus be glad to sit with me as I think this thought, read this page, or do this action?
What do you think are the most common misconceptions about singleness and why?
Most common misconception: every single woman just wants to get married – as quickly as possible. I might get married someday – I’d be really happy to enjoy the beauty of that relationship. But it’s not my first or last thought.
How have you found intimacy with Jesus in this season?
I love how precious God’s Word has been to me. It’s alive. I’m reading Ezekiel right now and in it are interesting prophecies, beautiful stories, and the challenge and heartbreak when our heart wonders from Christ. I’ve found that as I read His word, it speaks truth, beauty, and hope into the everyday situations of my life.
Share some of the struggles and how you were able to overcome them?
At times, I have certainly wrestled with loneliness. Especially when I moved to England, the first few months of isolation from my family and close friends stretched me deeply. I have discovered that the presence of Christ is even more beautiful and far greater than my own culture – Which is exciting EVERY DAY.
What would you say to women who say, “There are no good guys?”
I want a good guy. Actually, I want a heart-stopping, earth-shaking, life-stretching, world-shaping romance. That’s not something I’m ready to compromise about….and if God has placed those kinds of desires in my heart, He’s probably writing the same story in a man somewhere as well. Just think how much fun it will be when He lets us meet!
In what ways do you cultivate a heart and mind of purity as a single woman?
Walk with Jesus. Breathe in His presence in the calm and ask for His peace in the madness. Our purity is not our job to maintain. It’s a gift of His grace by the power of the Holy Spirit.
What do you want young women to know about purity, especially in the area of being single?
Our hearts guard idols. We guard the idols of selfishness and expectation and lust even if our lives look pure, it’s our hearts that can hold every sin. Keep a short account with Jesus. Ask Him to examine and reveal His love to you and know that purity is not a one-step price-point package. It’s a life of sacrificial love by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, in response to the sacrificial love of Jesus for us.
Any other good resources you would like to share with readers who need encouragement in this area?
I loved the book Passion and Purity by Elizabeth Elliot, Idols of the Heart by Elyse Fitzpatrick, and the book of Ezekiel. Also, I highly recommend the Bible. All of it.
Find out more about Creation Fest at: http://www.creationfest.org.uk and watch the festival live at: live.calvarychapel.com
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