Dengue Fever, Nurses and Pink Pajamas? Is this Manistry Month? Part 4

I want share a little bit of something the Lord did this month with me and some of the guys. By his grace the Lord showed me some pretty cool things . They all came to visit me while I was in the hospital. I got a card and a few gifts. I was so blessed by these guys.  I had some pretty cool conversation throughout the month. Christopher he showed me that some dreams aren’t too late to pursue. Noah encouraged me to act a little more mature in serious matters. With Nate, we discussed how vulnerability doesn’t come with a price…instead with vulnerability, it brings freedom.  Clarke and I just had some real conversations which was really encouraging. Challenged me with team stuff, not to dwell on things too much and good strategy playing Chess. 🙂

                                                                                                          Christopher exploring in the pond

With Josh, where do I start? I could write a whole blog about my time with Josh Mendenhall. I spent the whole month with him pretty much. The Lord used him in so many ways. He challenged me, prayed for me and listened to great deal of stuff. Josh is someone I can trust and respect. The Lord has given him a great gift with wisdom and insight in situations and can give great theology on the matter. He raised the bar on so many levels. I think at times he didn’t even realize it.  For example,I feel the Lord has brought me one step closer to what a Godly marriage should look like by Josh sharing about his story how him and Jen first met and his marriage. I told him about a special girl back home and felt my relationship with this person has gone stale. After hearing his story, I don't know what it was that rekindled those butterflys for this person but  I found something fresh in what I thought had gone stale. That is another story in itself. Lets just say I released her up to the Altar for the race.

He showed me what  a true man looks like when I could sense there was something wrong with him and he expressed how much he missed Jen. And that is ok. Most men put on the false act..  He really challenged and encouraged me about this whole community thing after expressing some of my frustrations with in my team that I wrestled with. How it wouldn’t hurt to let them in. Have I been loving and serving them well? Stuff like that got me saying “ Lord have I?”  We had some pretty fun stories too. Josh has great blend of sarcasm and wittiness. The Lord just used him.

One weekend Noah, James and Brant were craving adventure, renting a kayak and doing a beach thing. I love adventure. I put my agenda aside and God put his agenda on my heart. He wanted me to ask Josh “what would you like to do this weekend? I wanted to bless him..  No we didn’t have this adventure living on the beach building a fire, drinking from coconuts, hunting wild pig in our gitch.  I asked him he said, “lets get some pizza”. I was down with that. We went and got some pizza, then had some amazing ice cream at Swensen’s. We topped I off by watching a Schwarzenegger movie.  Finally we had to get home, it was about an hour away. We asked a taxi driver how much to get to the clock tower in Corseray. “$60 bot they said. We both looked at each other and thought that was pretty cheap. SO the driver pulls up with his motorbike. So again we looked at each other…ok we can see why it was so cheap…how bad could it be putting 3 people on a bike?

Off we went, I was on the end and Josh was in the middle. I literally was hanging off this thing and we both did not have helmets. So I screamed out to Josh “is this safe?” I don’t know what it was but Josh knows what to say and how to say it at the right time “Probably NOT!!” I never laughed so hard. It was one of those things the nature and tone in his sarcasm was so funny. Ten minutes later We pull up to this grocery store and we both thought the driver was going right on through this store as some sort of short cut or something. Nope! He stops and says “Corseray.” We looked at each other and said to him “Ummm no this isn’t Corseray?, We want Corseray Clock Tower.  The driver says “ Yeah Corseray” We look up at see that the name of the store is name Corseray. We just paid $60 bot for him to take us a couple of blocks to a grocery store. Since he couldn’t speak English I wasn’t going to go on how there was this miscommunication problem. 

So what did we do?

Josh knew where we were. We walked all the way back to base. It was good, such great time to bond and share awesome God stories. It was the best weekend ever. We got a little mix of everything in there from adventure, pizza, and just sharing what Gods been doing in our lives.  I have learned so much this month. From marriage, vulnerability, making God’s agenda/will a priority for my life, daily surrender, getting out of nasty habits, the list goes on and on. It’s ok to be bummed out but I don’t allow my circumstances to take control of me anymore!

Matthew 26:39
He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, "My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine."

And there is that “ONE THING” that God showed me I will reveal soon enough. Like I said, I didn't really know until Malaysia. I will make sure I post that blog up soon enough well before the end of the race anyway (kidding). I will just say " Its exciting," I can't wait to share the good news with you all and what the Lord has done in my life since. So keep your eyes open.

             your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven