August 23rd a day in the life of Rachel: I woke up, ate some breakfast, hand washed all my laundry for a good hour and half. (Most people do a little bit everyday, but anyone who knows me knows that my room is always messy and I’m not the best organizer. So I procrastinated and then finally spent a very long time washing almost every piece of clothing I brought.) Then I went out to eat with the other team leaders, squad leaders, and squad mentor. We ate some bomb pizza, I almost ate an entire pizza, but Tyler(my new world race bud) ate two pieces, along with his whole pizza. Side note: Americans eat A LOT. I am starving 23/7. (Is that a thing? 23/7? Idk it is now. Cause I’m starving most of the time but not all the time.) And then I got some wi-fi for a little while to send a couple emails to our next ministry host. Then about an hour walk back to our home where we are living. I then walked in and greeted my squad mates who a few,on their day off, went and got butt tattoos. (I didn’t get one today but watch out mom and dad 😉 lol Next I was sitting playing some card games and one of my teammates Gale came up and asked if she could have some water, then proceeded to drink most of my water, no big deal. Before I say this next part I want to remind everyone who knows me, knows I drink out of anyone’s cup, bottle, jar, anything, it’s a bad habit. Oops. So next I went back to my room and was talking with my other teammate Maggie and got kinda thirsty and I saw Gale’s water bottle in the room and was thinking “Oh hey she drank most of my water, no big deal I’ll drink some of her’s, she wouldn’t care.” So I grabbed it and started chugging away after a good 10 big gulps, I thought “hey this tasted kinda funny…..” So I stopped drinking, looked down, and thought. “What is all this white stuff floating around in this water?” So I went slightly running out of the room to find Gale. I did and asked her why her water bottle has white stuff floating all in it. I come to find out the water has been turned off all day and she decided to shave her armpits in her water bottle.
So…..today I drank armpit water.
This story is mostly just a funny story to make you all chuckle back home that are missing me and my natural craziness. 😉
But in reality today actually showed me how much I have grown as a person. When my team found out and we were all laughing and dying I didn’t feel mad that Gale washed her armpits in her water bottle. Or mad that Gale didn’t tell me, or mad at the situation at all. I wasn’t embarrassed, I wasn’t freaking out. I was chill, like wow that just happened but what’s the point of freaking out? It already happened lol.
If this would have happened even a year ago I would have been so royally mad I would have been yelling and so angry at Gale even though it wasn’t her fault. Today I saw the growth in myself.
Even though some of you are probably reading this and can’t understand what I’m saying cause your still sitting there going “ew ew ew ew!!!” with your mouth hanging open. It’s okay, read this again in about an hour after your over the grossness. Hahahhhahahahha
But the Lord has truly changed me and today unlike any other I saw it. On my way walking back home with Tyler he was telling me how he see’s qualities in me of loving others, working hard, being unafraid, leadership, and other things and I couldn’t believe that those were true about me. The fact is by me belittling myself thinking I don’t have any good qualities and I’m useless, is not honoring to God. Because the truth is God is changing me and shaping me into the person he wants me to be and when I choose to think lowly of myself, I’m stealing the glory from God. God tells me I’m beautifully and wonderfully made, then why can’t I believe it? God is glorified in me when I recognize the way he is truly growing me instead of thinking I’m useless. So from today on I will strive to never again believe that God doesn’t love me enough to make me more like him or make me a better vessel to be used by him. Today I will not hide or look down on the gifts God has given me, but today with humility I will enjoy myself the way God enjoys me. And I will strive to never again believe the lies that God hasn’t blessed me with gifts to glorify him. But instead delight in the way he uses me and gives me the ability to glorify him.
I don’t know if anyone else understands how I made this connection, but as long as you get the message of how God is working in my life that’s all we need. 🙂
? Also I saw a real life example of what happens when you live in community. Sometimes things like this happen. When the water isn’t working and you walked an hour to the center of town and back, you’re gonna be thirsty, and sometimes you just might drink armpit water.
