….or at least pause.
and i don’t say that because I don’t want to go home. Of course, I want to see my family, my friends, my church. I want to see alabama in general and Huntsville. And of course, I want chic-fil-a, sweet tea, taco bell, my mom’s lasagna, ICE!, milk, couches (random…but i really miss just being able to sit on a couch…i mean we’ve had a few here and there…but i can count them on one hand). Moving on…it is just getting to that point of “I do not want to waste a single day.”
I am writing this blog with no format, I have no idea where it will go, but I haven’t blogged in a LONG time and I don’t know what to blog about…so here goes.
We are staying in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and I love it. I love the city noises (except while sleeping), the motorbikes, the people, the air…and right now I’m sitting in my room (which PRAISE THE LORD has AC most of the time) enjoying alone time. It is one of the few things that you experience on the race.
Last night was the second night on the entire race I have slept alone in a room. So while I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed it, I started thinking about Martha Ellen Lemke, Jennifer Mitchell, and Lindsay Nelson. This month I am in a room with two of these girls but they have left for the weekend so its just me. And I think I want to blog about community. Oddly enough.
I am so blessed. I mean I’m already blessed with beautiful wonderful friends, an amazing family whom I love dearly, a church family that rocks my world and the fact that Jesus loves me all the time. But then I come on the race, and I don’t know what I expected, I think I expected to get mad at people a lot or get really frustrated all the time, and I do get frustrated sometimes…but really. God blessed me so incredibly much by the people He has put on my team. (both teams, I definitely do not exclude goodness gracious from this either. 🙂 )
I am blessed to call these ladies my friends and my sisters. We have laughed together, cried together, dreamed together, worshipped together, and well, slept in the same room for basically 5 months straight. And I could not have handpicked 3 better girls to spend most of this year with. One of the hardest things for me, when I think about going home, is not seeing these girls everyday. I mean there have been days when I wake up, and I don’t want to get out of bed, or when I miss my family so much, or when I realize what a lousy sinner I am and I am trapped in guilt….and in those days and moments these girls come alongside of me and pour encouragement into my soul.
I see Jesus in them so much it hurts sometimes. They are not afraid to be bold, to call me out, to love me all the while, to dance outside in the rain, to sing out loud in the middle of a street, to delight in the Lord, to heal the sick, to love the unloveable, to take on the dark spritual environments we have been in, head first with overnight prayers, prayer everyday, worship…and still wake up in the morning smiling and loving Jesus with everything in them.
I could write a lot more, and maybe I will soon, but it would make this blog ridiculously long.
I love you girls so much. And I can’t wait to see you in 2 days. 🙂
but now for some fun (and funny) pictures. of us.
(one of the hospital visits…stricken with malaria, typhoid and the likes)
