Let’s start off with this… I’m half way funded for The World Race Gap Year!!! It still honestly doesn’t feel real. We had my graduation party a few weeks back and so many people gave that it brought me $5,000 closer to being fully funded. I was blown away by the generosity of the people at the party and for the people who still gave me cards and money that couldn’t make it that night. It’s so cool knowing that so many people are a part of me being able to go on this trip.
These past few weeks I’ve been really working on getting better with having quiet time every day with God. I have my two devotionals and read some of whatever chapter I’m currently working on in my Bible. I’m going to be honest, I get distracted pretty easy and it’s been a working progress trying to stay focused and take in whatever the Lord is trying to show me that day, but I’m getting better and it gets easier once you make it a part of your routine. The last chapter I read was Matthew and my goal is to read through all of the gospel before I go to training camp (which is a month away holy moly). To me this chapter talks a lot about our obedience and faith in Jesus and those are two things I believe are so important to focus on before going on a mission trip, especially one for nine whole months. It’s funny because I was just reading my devotional called “Make Every Day Count” and at the end of the second day it says to go and do something that you’ve been pushing off, and for me that was writing a blog post hahaha. So here I am and it actually feels great to be getting it done.
Being obedient to God is something that I’ve learned is not always easy. Faith, trust, and obedience I believe go hand and hand. We have to have faith and trust that whatever the Holy Spirit is telling us to do is the right thing no matter what anyone else says, and being obedient is actually doing whatever it is that He tells us to do. One of my dear friends Abbie gave me a devotional book called “Streams in the Desert” and I’m just starting to really fall in love with it. One of the very first quotes that stuck out to me was, “The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety,” -George Mueller. I read this and it made perfect sense to me. It’s so simple and I’ve never seen it that way before. As soon as we start to worry and stress about where God is leading us, to Him I would think it was kind of like a gut punch. He knows ALL things and He is always good. There is no reason for us to not trust Him with everything.
This nine month mission trip is me being obedient to what God put in front of me and having faith that whatever comes next is all a part of His plan. I know that as a Christ follower I am called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. I have to GO and not look back.
We were given our first squad wars challenge last week and it was a nine second intro video of who we are and it was so cool finally getting to see some of the personalities I’ll be getting to go on this trip with. Everyone on our route is so different!!! I’m a part of M-Squad. Our color is green (my favorite color). Training camp is so close I can feel it. Our second challenge is to have as many people on our squad to meet the first fundraising deadline and it’s so exciting knowing that most of our people have already exceeded that amount!
If you have gotten this far I just wanted to thank you for being here. Thank you to everyone who has helped me with everything for this mission trip I’m truly grateful.
Much love,
-Jess
