I got to spend this past week in the middle of nowhere Nebraska with a bunch of middle school students at Maranatha bible camp and it was awesome. God has a funny way of revealing himself in the midst of chaos, there were over 600 students there and each of them were there for a reason. For some reason, God chose them to be there during this week this summer to hear about Him and my prayer for the week was that he would reveal that reason to them.
This week I learned a few things:
-I learned that sometimes you don’t need to have all of the answers, and that sometimes “no” is an answer, and that’s ok.
-Carelessness has consequences, and to not be careless with my soul (or anyone else’s)
-We are saved by faith, through the works of Jesus. This seems like a “duh” point to make, but it’s a good reminder that if it weren’t for Jesus, then what’s the point?
-I learned to ask myself “how then shall I live if God’s grace has transformed me?”
-Nothing else in life will matter that isn’t eternal, this goes along with the point above…
-Knowledge does not equal understanding, we may know a lot about Jesus without understanding how deep and wide His love for us truly is.
-Jesus suffers, He has been there before, He gets it. Luke 11:35 “Jesus wept”, He wept… He feels what we feel and things of this world hurt Him.
-A battle is never over until you think it is, don’t give up, persevere and in the end nothing else matters that isn’t eternal.
It’s cool to me that God can use a camp in the middle of Nebraska and a bunch of middle school students to reveal things about Him I have either forgotten and needed to be reminded of or that I needed to see with a new perspective. When you have been changed by God’s grace, your perspective changes, and when your perspective changes your life changes and cool things start to happen. I leave for training camp in two weeks and I am coming to the realization that my world is about to change drastically. That this time next year, I won’t be at camp with the middle schoolers, that when I come back the people I love will be in very different places in life, I don’t know what to expect. I do know, and was reminded this past week, that God has a purpose for our lives and for where we are at any given point in time and that we can’t be careless with that time.
I am grateful for the next months I have left to spend with my friends and family and I pray that every moment is cherished. I was also recently reminded that you never know what tomorrow holds. Make the most of every opportunity and don’t forget to tell the one’s you love how much you love them, you never know if it’ll be your last.
I am still only 25% funded for my trip and would love any financial support, any small bit helps. I am also selling shirts to raise money, they are pretty sweet! $20 and they should be in within the next 2 weeks! Let me know if you’d like one! Thank you for all your continued love and support, it’s encouraging to know that there are people on your side, cheering you along the race of life. Please continue to pray for me and my squad as we are preparing for training camp and the next few months leading up to launch, and then next 11 months on the race. God is good, keep on persevering, it’s not the end of the battle just yet. Loves.
