Today is my birthday!! Well only in this time zone for the next few minutes, but since I am 13 hours ahead of my time zone I am still claiming it is my birthday. The last three days have been just so full of blessing and joy and gladness. I attribute much of that to some junk I was able to process through and overcome in the last two weeks. I have a new freedom, but I will save that for another blog. Let me just give you a rundown of the last three days.
Thursday: I taught English. One of my squad leaders, who used to be a teammate asked me if we could go for a dinner date and catch up. I was so excited to catch up with him since we haven’t REALLY had a good conversation since month 6 in Kenya before our men left for South Sudan. So we went to dinner, shared in some excitement, then we went and got ice cream. After ice cream we came back to the center. I was confused because I thought people we teaching English that night, but all the lights were off. As we came into the main classroom everyone surprised me. The lights came on and 14 of my best friends were singing happy birthday to me. There was silly string and balloons and signs on the wall. It was overwhelming and amazing. As I came into the big part of the room I saw that my party was themed!! I am a Twilight Fanatic and they threw me a Twilight themed birthday party!! I could not stop smiling and I almost cried a little bit. They ordered me a cake and on the cake there was orange flowers… because orange is my favorite. I felt known and loved and cherished so much in that moment.
Friday: I just hung out with my team all day. Then we went over Spiritual Gifts last night. In a way that explains all the gifts and then you go around the group and everyone tells you what gifts they receive from you as part of the body of Christ. It was really sweet.
Today: Woke up and finished the Spiritual Gifts stuff. Came to the center and had my birthday lunch of Ramen noodles, cheezuls, and a box of milk. After that I helped to make some videos for English classes and got some good laughter in. For dinner our wonderful contacts took us out and treated us to an amazing Indian dinner. It was heavenly. When dinner was finished everyone came back to the center for a sleepover and Twilight marathon!! Since the new Breaking Dawn movie doesn’t come out in Malaysia until next week we are having our marathon now. We are already making plans to see the new one at final debrief. I am so thrilled and blessed to have been able to spend my birthday weekend with my amazing team and my squad leaders. I love these people so much it is ridiculous. I also got to call my mom on skype and talk to her for a little while. That was awesome.
As for our ministry this much, there isn’t much to say if I’m honest. I could tell you that it is epic and I’m loving it. But it’s not and I’m not. I am teaching English… again. It is frustrating to me because some teams have gone without teaching any English. And that is all we do. Last month and Thailand we at least got to get out and do more ministry… Here we live 100 meters from where we do ministry. The 7-11 is about 75 meters in the other direction. That is pretty much as far as we go. Our contacts are amazing so that pretty much makes up for it.
We have about one more week of classes then we have a few days of debrief. Then it is all over. I’m coming home. I am really REALLY excited for the next season of my life and the freedom for the people at home who love me to be who God has called me to be and to continue walking in my Kingdom Journey as my race continues even after I am home. 15 days. It’s a long time coming. I can’t even fathom what has happened in the last year. It is crazy and awesome.
Much love,
-A
