Hello! Long time no read(?) I am currently sitting on our porch in Palo, Philippines looking across the street at the beach surrounded by palm trees. We’ve been here for 8 days and I’m deeply in love with everything here. I am currently with 3 other teams here and our ministry is different almost everyday. We go out into other villages/ cities and we serve food to the kids and their families, we’re building a church, working along side teachers with the 3 & 4 year olds, and also cleaning the area which all 28 of us live in.
I have so many stories already and I’m trying (emphasis on trying) to journal every day. But I am already 4 days behind… Maybe journaling isn’t my thing. But Since the moment I stepped foot off the plane I felt at home. I felt safe and my relationship with God feels brand new, I suddenly have the urge to read my bible and actually study it. (and for someone who hates reading this is kinda a big deal)
The last two days spent in Albania were spent in Lezhe with the entire squad. During our time we had set aside around 2 hours devoted to prayer and our own personal devotions.
Little backstory: when I was in Lushnje I felt really far from God, especially the last 2 weeks; I wasn’t reading my bible, I was physically tired (but tired because we had a lot more free time than expected), emotionally drained and mentally checked out ready to go to our next country.
(Back to Lezhe) During these quiet times I really wanted to get back into the word and the only person stopping me was me. I started Joshua a while back and decided to jump back in, so I read my chapter and something lead me to look in the back of my bible. My bible (like most) has a glossary and I was feeling pretty anxious about being with three other teams, going to a new country, and not having wifi. I wouldn’t be able to talk to my parents and in Albania my team and I were blessed to have decent wifi in our apartment. I (admittedly) talked to my mom almost every single day. My mom and dad know me the best and if I had a problem I would immediately go to them. So naturally having wifi 24/7 I went to them. I was talking to a friend and told them, “my mom is my rock, I don’t know how i’m going to get through this without her.”
I was an emotional mess.
Okay now back to the main story again… I turned to the back and along side the word anxiety was Psalm 62:2, “ He alone is my rock and my salvation, He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” I sat there and cried. I never realized that I wasn’t actually trusting God. I always said I did “okay God I trust you” “Everything will be fine because Gods got me”. And this Is all true but I feel like sometimes we get lost in all the talk. I would talk to God about what was going on then right after I would go to my parents. I listened to a sermon from Bethel and it talked about how if you truly trusted God you wouldn’t be up late at night tossing and turing awake with anxiety.
I had a vision during this time after reading Psalm 62:2: It was a very large well only I couldn’t see the bottom, there was a net in it but the net was pretty far down. I was standing at the edge looking in. Then I jumped and I knew I was going to be okay because of the net. I realized that this well was the unknown and the net was my parents. I had already taken the jump into the unknown (aka this trip) but I knew my parents would always be there to catch me. But as I was jumping the net disappeared. (scary right) But It made sense. I was depending to much on my parents and needed to trust God whole heartily because he knows exactly where this unknown will take me.
I sat there and cried even more because it was all true. This first week being here has been so great and God has shown himself in different ways. Like Palm trees. In February at WAKE (copper pointe church young adult ministry) they talked about how to be like a palm tree. Fun Facts about palm trees first. 1. Did you know that its roots go so deep into the ground its almost as long as it is going up. 2. Palm trees store almost all of its water. 3. Palm trees will never break only bend. (they can bend almost in a full U shape). We need to be like a Palm tree, be deeply rooted in God, soak up all of his love and knowledge and when a storm comes we will never break only bend. Psalm 92:12-15 “ The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon, planted in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green proclaiming, “ The Lord is upright, He is my rock, and there is no sickness in him.”” See how awesome God is. (he is my rock, the lord is my rock.) God was clearly trying to say something.
Last Saturday the 12th I got to help out with AWANA which for those of you who don’t know is kinda like a VBS (vacation bible school) but more like a regular Sunday service for church. (well at least thats what I think it is, beside the point) I got to teach 5-7 year olds a bible story and then showed them a very cool dance that went with it. I hadn’t done this type of ministry since last April when I was still at Sagebrush. Almost 7 months ago. I hadn’t used this gift from God in so long and had forgotten what it felt like to be this passionate about ministry. I cried a little bit later that night because I was so overwhelmed with Gods timing. Maybe I was made for such a time as this.
If you’re still reading this wow thanks. Thank you for all of your support, love and prayers! We only get internet once a week so I’ll try to be better about blogs and or Vlogs. I cant wait to see how God uses all of us in the next 4 weeks.
