It says:
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
The jungle IS good, but the jungle was hard.
The jungle life is abundant.
On the farm we met cows, we swam in the (almost) Amazon River, we played cards, and we spent a lot of time with only the 10 of us (Aly+Abundance).
In our room alone we killed 2 tarantulas and a bat, but in our room we also worshipped joyfully and encouraged each other prayerfully. Prayer is my favorite thing that our team does together, and our intimacy with God is only spurring on our intimacy with one another.
Our team sits for hours in a circle of chairs after we eat meals in our ministry host’s house and we talk about anything and everything. The phase of ‘awkward get to know you and are we friends yet?’ has passed and the phase of ‘checking bare-butt mosquito bites and laughing uncontrollably about sweat puddles’ has arrived.
At ministry, our team has come face to face with a boa constrictor and a sloth. We’ve successfully become the walls of Jericho or the mean and grizzly Goliath or the climactic winds of the raging sea. We sing songs in Spanish like native speakers but we play (a jungly version of Duck, Duck, Goose) Boa, Boa, Anaconda like the clunky-booted white girls we are. But let me tell ya, I play a mean game of Cross the Ocean, and Aidyn is the only one who can outrun a kid on a soccer field.
I love this team, and I’m sad to say goodbye to this place.
The jungle life is good, but the jungle life WAS hard.
On the Race there are a lot of things that you get to experience, but there are also a lot of things you have to miss. I’m missing a close friend’s wedding, Christmas with my family, Waffle House Wednesdays, and morning coffee dates with my best friend. It’s really hard.
Not being able to be there for the people who have always been there for me. Is. HARD.
It’s easy to worry about what’s going on in the States. It’s easy to sink into, “if only I could be there, if only I could call them, if only I could meet them face to face”.
I want to be present with my team but my mind is often captivated by things that are going on at home.
BUT the Lord is teaching me what staying present and staying healthy looks like.
It doesn’t look like shoving my feelings aside and forcing my mind to remain on things in front of me. And it doesn’t look like completely checking out of my team and my ministry because I wish I was somewhere else.
The Lord calls me into hard things. He shows me that life doesn’t stop at home just because life is happening here. He asks me to sit in the valley, to process what I’m feeling, and bring my stress to the foot of the cross. I have to acknowledge my broken-heartedness for home, and I have to experience every feeling that comes with that. With that, the Lord is faithful to keep my head up and my eyes fixed on him. He asks me to trust him with everything out of my control, and when I let it go he fills that desire for control with an overwhelming peace.
He has taught me that we can invite him into chaotic headspaces. That when we are torn between what we want and where we are he doesn’t stop existing. That wanting to be present where your feet are is healthy, but without abiding, pushing yourself to stay checked in is not.
He’s shown me that when we ask the Spirit of the Lord for his presence, he is faithful to provide freedom.
Freedom from chaotic headspaces.
Freedom from carrying the salvation and righteousness of others.
Freedom from everything that Jesus took on the cross to the pits of hell.
Freedom from sin, shame, worry, doubt, death, and the grip of Satan.
For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM.
