I would like to tell you, that today I am fully funded for this missions trip! Wow, so much went into funding the trip! At first, I was really stressed with all of the things I needed to do for it. But, I knew I could depend on God for the whole thing, because it was something that was too large for me and I had seen Him provide for me with other things I needed and asked Him for. Thank you to all of you that supported me in your giving, and continue to support me in prayer. It means a lot to me!
After having my first week out of country in Ecuador, there are many things that I have seen and learned. It has been weird to me, and it hasn’t struck me yet that I will be gone for 9 months. When I was leaving home and launching in Atlanta, Georgia, it was very hard for me to leave almost everything I knew. It was hard for me to hug my brothers bye and leave them for the longest time. It was very hard to leave my mom and dad after saying bye for about 30 minutes. It was hard to let go of the family I loved. They had filled my life with everything. About 2 weeks before leaving, I began to count down the days that I would be with my family. I wish I spent every day to the fullest with them, even before I knew I would be going on the World Race. I hated leaving my family for the World Race. It seemed like my life was going perfect before I left and I even wanted to not go. But even with this, I felt like the Lord had been leading me to something like this for the longest time. I know that there are things that I will have to give up to follow Jesus, because when Jesus called his disciples they left everything they had and followed Him. I feel reassurance in this, because I know many other people have felt the same way. But with leaving my family, I will welcome a new “family” into my life.
Almost every night I need to take a few minutes of time to look at the city lights. This is a time for me to disconnect with the things around me, and see the stunning things all around me. It is very beautiful. I take this time also to calm the stress I have with being the treasurer for my team of 9 guys. It has been actually pretty hard for me to figure out the basics of the regular flow of a day. or the first 2 ministry days with going to Dunomi, I have had to make a few split receipts for my team, another team, and the squad leaders. This may not seem hard, but with the bus fair being $0.25 per person and the ATM only being able to pull out money in $20 bills (sometimes $10s), it is very hard to not get ripped off by the bus drivers when paying for about 17 people. It is stressful for me because I am dealing with a lot of money and I want to steward the money right, and there are several categories that I need to get money to my team. I hope that after a couple weeks of being the treasurer it will become a routine.
Quiet time with God every morning is very refreshing and I enjoy seeing what God will give me for that day or for the next few days. On Wednesday this week, God led me to think of the words, “I am called to worship”. I am called to worship and give glory to the One who is worthy of worship and praise. After the quiet time of the day, I flipped through the pages of my journal to look back on some of the things that I had written down. On one of the pages it said, “I am what I worship”. That is very true to me. All of the things that I give my time and energy to, will slowly begin to change me because it is what I am surrounded by. So if I am worshiping Jesus, it will change my mindset to grow in Him and learn more about Him. Also during quiet time, I am slowly going through the book of Hebrews, which is encouraging.
When looking over this first week out of country, I don’t want to have the camp-like change when I come back from the Race. I want to take to heart all of the things I learned and apply it to my life and how I can be different. I am going to grow in my understanding of the Lord and who He is. I will never forget the time at training camp when the Lord spoke to me in a vision someone else told me about. If that person didn’t come up to me during worship that one evening, I would not have seen the Lord in that way. This changed my perspective on who God is and that He actually does speak to His people. I want to be all in for Jesus, and give Him my all every day. A wall in the ministry home has several boards on it, with some words on each of them. They say; Choose Joy, Be Here Now, Give 110%, Challenge By Choice, and Love Covers All. I want to live out these 5 things every day over these next 9 months and also when I go home.
Over this first month, all of us have been “disconnected” from our phones. We get them back every evening, and turn them in to our leaders in the morning. This has helped me focus on the things around me and not waste time away, which is so easy to do on my phone. We also don’t have internet here at the ministry home, so every weekend we have to get go to a coffee shop to get Wifi. Even with this little change, it makes a big change to my day.
Here are some pictures that I have that shows a little bit of what it is like here.
