Highlights from my year:
Swamp fights with the boys at the orphanage in Mozambique
Understanding for the first time what it means to pray boldly and to pray in faith in Swaziland
Almost losing a camper in South Africa because I was smart and letting her “walk off” her frustration.
Alternating between laughing and crying nonstop in India because that’s all you can do when your living conditions aren’t exactly ideal.
Getting a shower and doing laundry at the same time in Nepal by showering fully clothed under the outdoor water pump.
Sleeping on a coffee table in the kitchen to avoid the chihuahua-sized rats in Chiang-Mai
Lying on my back on the deck staring up at the stars in our village in Cambodia
Ministering to fellow backpackers traveling through Vietnam
Walking house to house sharing the gospel and praying with the local Indian families in Malaysia
Being loved on by the local grandmas “BaBas” in Moldova when our mission was to love on them
Making dinner (and learning new recipes) with my squad mates in Romania
Experiencing miraculous answered prayer on a regular basis (examples: receiving our Indian visas days before we left for the country, being refreshed in Vietnam, and a successful women’s conference in Romania).
Lessons learned:
The importance and value of relational ministry
Strength through vulnerability
God is a jealous god and wants my complete dependence. He takes what is His.
How to serve in uncomfortable circumstances
God answers prayer
You will find God when you seek Him with your whole heart
God wants me to share the things He lays on my heart to share
The intricacy and detailed-nature of God
Value of strong community and allowing others to pour into me
God wants me to be happy
Ministry doesn’t only mean serving non-believers
How to truly love people and push them toward greatness
Rest
People need who I am and I need people for who they are
God ALWAYS provides and knows how to meet my needs
Scriptures that have impacted me the past three months:
Ecclesiastes 4:6 “Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.”
1 Chronicles 17:2 “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”
Lamentations 3:24,25 “‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore, I will hope in him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.”
Hosea 6:1 Come, let us return to the Lord, for he has torn us, that he may heal us.”
Hebrews 10:35,37-39 “Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For, yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”
A big thank you to everyone who has prayed for me, cried with me, rejoiced with me, and supported me along the way. Thank you, Lord, for bringing me on this incredible journey; I look forward to 2014 with You. Thank you to all my awesome squad mates and teammates who stuck with me through thick and thin. I love you all dearly.
jenny
