Hello, my friends! At the end of July, my whole squad traveled to Bucharest, Romania for debrief. Debrief is a process intended to “debrief” our first month in Albania and refresh ourselves for what is next. During debrief, we had amazing worship, and we had space to process all that happened during our first month in Albania.
The biggest thing I feel like God taught me during debrief was that He actually likes me. He doesn’t just love me, he likes me too. I have spent so much time striving to be liked by others and even to be liked by myself. I can’t seem to reach what I am striving for and don’t know what I need. One night during worship, one of my squad mates came up to me and said she felt like God said (to me), “You are a daughter. You are hand chosen and I designed every detail about you.” I cried because I realized that God actually likes me. I’m on a mission trip, and I thought I knew that God loved me, but did I really?
I feel like the Lord reminded me of the Bible verse that says, “Love others as you love yourself.” I feel like God said, “If you don’t love yourself, how can you share love with others?” The most uncomfortable lesson I am learning on the World Race is that God likes me. There is nothing I need to do to earn it. There is no activity that I can do that would make Him like me more or less. I thought this trip would be about me sharing God’s love. It turns out I have a lot to learn as well.
Thank you for helping me to get here. I can’t believe that I am entering my second month of the World Race in Romania. My entire squad will be together this month. We will be working with Hope Church Ministries based in Draganesti, Romania. My next blog will be more specific about the ministry and the wonderful people we are connecting with in Romania.
