Month 10 has already proved to be such an amazing month!
Month 9 in Thailand finished with a week with my dad. He came to visit me during a trip called PVT, Parent Vision Trip, where parents can come and visit their not so little kids anymore and join them in ministry. I was really sick that week, but still, it taught me a lot, and am now very excited to be living with my dad in the fall.
The same day we said goodbye to our parents, we hopped on an overnight bus, to arrive at the Awakening the next day. 3 World Race squads were to meet in Cambodia for a few days of worship and sessions, which has only happened 1 other time in World Race history. It was exciting and exhausting all at the same time.
S squad was going from month 4 to 5, O squad just entered month 8, and I squad (us), we were entering month 10. It was really an honor to be the old grandmas of the group, to be able to see those in earlier stages of their race so eager to do God’s work, and working through some of the same things I did. Just by being with the other racers, I saw a lot of hope, eagerness, and a desire to know the Lord above anything else. Something I see in my own squad as well, but seeing it outside of my family of 41 is a very refreshing thing.
The last night of the Awakening, we were praying and giving up things to the Lord that are out of our control. I personally struggle not being in control of things that directly affect my life, as I know most of us do, so this was a big deal. But when Jesus asks you to lay something at His feet, generally I try to listen. So I did. I laid something down at His feet that I thought I could fix on my own, but in reality it wasn’t my burden to bear. The burden was too big for me, but never too big for God. So at His feet it went.
After all the tears of relief and joy, the feeling of an actual weight lifted from my body, there was an invitation to get baptized. I felt like God was telling me to seal this new surrender with baptism, so baptized I got. To clarify- I was baptized as a baby, a tiny little infant in a beautiful white dress. But that wasn’t my choice. It wasn’t my decision and my declaration that I belong to Christ and Christ alone. This was.
I asked Nicole to baptize me, because she’s been more than a teammate or even a friend. She’s cried with me, prayed for me, prayed over me, listened, vented, and everything in between. She’s become my sister. To have her baptize me felt like an extra perk of the beautiful night.
I was baptized in the pool at Overflow Guesthouse. I cried like a baby and cheered on as others sealed their lives and their faith in Christ as well. The next morning someone asked me how I felt. My response? “Light and fluffy, like pink cotton candy.” How cool that when Jesus asks us to lay a burden at his feet, we can literally transform from heavy and burdened, to light and fluffy, like pink cotton candy. I love cotton candy. I pray I’m always this light and fluffy, and I pray you are too.
