Being Intentional

There are no words to describe what I feel for Indonesia. It has been by far the best country that I’ve been to in Asia. The culture, the food, THE PEOPLE are all just AMAZING!! We had the opportunity to continue hosting people at our apartment. All it took was one text invitation and we had people over. We had movie nights, game nights, dinners and even a potluck! Let’s take a moment to appreciate the beauty in potlucks. You love food, I love food, we all love food. The potluck night we got to try SOOOO many Indonesian dishes and desserts! They were soooo good!

Doing life with the 9 guys from my squad has been one of my favorite parts of this journey. Each one of them brings their gifts to the team. Reece carries his leadership. Hunter and his passion for business. Josh with his wisdom. Tanner with his biblical knowledge. Matt and his patience. Travis and his cooking skills. Daniel in his boldness for healing. And Jacob with his sense of humor. That’s only one of their many many gifts! These men are incredible. I am truly honored that I got to do life with them for an entire month.

Throughout our hosting nights, I could see the guys having some incredible conversations all over the room. I know for a fact that God stirred many hearts. Our group started with 4, 7, 14 and all of a sudden 21 people were in our apartment! Each one of them have their own unique stories with different journeys. I wanted to talk to all of them but then I got really overwhelmed…. I told my squad leader Reece and he told me, “As much as you’d like the reality is you won’t have a relationship with all of them when you leave.” That’s when it all clicked in my brain and I asked the Lord who was on His heart. He put 2 people on my heart so I began being intentional with Tomo and Nadiah.

The first night that we hung out our conversation was fun. There was so much honesty and vulnerability from all of us. We shared our beliefs and why we think the way we do. We spoke about the Koran and the Bible. Soon they started calling me their brother and best friend. My heart was about to explode! How could they love me so much? I continued to hang out with them and the more we spent time with each other the deeper our conversations got. I can say for a fact that if I ever go back to Indonesia I have a family to go too. My goal was to create beautiful friendships that would allow me to share Jesus and I got to do both! What an incredible month!