the rainbow of emotions I have felt the last 2 weeks that is. I am now in the LA airport for a 7 hour layover before we continue to head to the Philippines and wanted to get this blog out before actually leavin America. The last two weeks leading up to this point have been amazing and amazingly hard as well. If there is one thing I have realized it is how blessed I am. Blessed by my family, blessed by my friends, blessed by this opportunity, blessed blessed blessed!! I have been overwhelmed with humbleness and a deep deep intimate thanks to God for the amazing relationships He has placed in my life. You all have shaped me into the man I am today; and have stuck with me through the good and the bad. I came to the conclusion that having people you love speak truth and prayer over you is what creates this deeper appreciation, humbleness, and love for those you care about. I encourage all of you to have someone pray over you, it can be awkward at first, but is something that is life changing once it begins. Pray is such a powerful tool that God has given us and in America we so often rely on self rather than God, such ignorance. We, I, you, are not strong enough. You aren’t strong enough for anything. We should approach our Savior at every opportunity for guidance and strength. It is something so precious and valuable, and in reality what Christ died for. He died so that we could re-establish a communication and relationship that was before dead because of sin. I plead with you to try, no to DO, exercise it more.
This all happened before leaving for Atlanta. In Atlanta the surreal reality of leaving and traveling for 11 months set in. It was AWESOME, God has given me a determined peace to shake the world to the core, AND He has given me the power to do it. Just as He gives us all the power to spread His glory if we are willing to step into that realm of uncomfortable unknowing and trust Him. Some doubts did begin to arise, or at least a little nervousness. Am I capable of handling this much responsibility? Why me? As usual God came in with His faithfulness and had many people who knew nothing of how I felt speak into me. Proclaiming to me, “ God is your rock and you lean on Him for EVERYTHING.” and encouraging me saying, “People look to you as a rock, and put their burdens on you, but you HAVE to turn to God.” along with many other things about leadership and joy. I think while writing this I have realized the theme for these past two weeks is blessed. Blessed in sadness, blessed in nervousness, blessed in sacrificing. Scripture tells us to be blessed by our ability to suffer for Christ, and I am slowly learning what that means.
Side note- I am learning slowly that spiritual leadership is much more than what I have initially been taught about leadership. Vulnerability and transparency are key to gaining the trust and respect of your team. The world teaches us that leaders are “hard” chiseled, and sometimes expected to be perfect, but what does Christ teach us? What does He show us?
The last thing I wanna leave everyone with is how unbelievably, from the bottom of my soul thankful I am for every single one of you. Words cannot describe how prepared I felt from the sending off I got from everyone. I only hope I can repay that to you at some point. The next blog I write will be from the Phillipines!!! Love and miss you all.
